LABOR-STRIKES. 



425 



wages then paid and those of the year 1861, in 

 which it appeared that the rates demanded 

 would exceed those of that year by 33 per 

 cent., while the company was receiving only 

 half the prices for freight which were then 

 paid. He called their attention to the policy 

 followed by the management, of keeping more 

 men employed than the business of the road 

 required, and distributing the wages among as 

 great a number of men as possible, so as not to 

 bring hardship on the families of a part of them 

 by depriving them entirely of work. The com- 

 parative rates of wages he gave as follows : 



Wages had been cut down three times in 

 three years on this road. Men complained 

 that they often had to wait three or four days 

 at the end of the trip for their turn to go back, 

 and had thus to consume seventy -five cents a 

 day for board. 



A list of the wages paid per day to firemen 

 and brakemen on the principal roads, before 

 the reduction, is here given: 



This takes no account of the time lost in 

 lying off, which is different on different roads 

 and different divisions of roads, and in differ- 

 ent days on the same road. 



The strike on the New York & Erie Rail- 

 road was primarily instituted on account of 



some discharged committeemen. The leader, 

 Donohue, gave an account of the origin of the 

 action, to wit: He received letters from brake- 

 men and firemen on the Eastern division of the 

 road, complaining that committeemen who had 

 presented grievances to Receiver Jewett had 

 been discharged. He called a meeting of the 

 brotherhoods of firemen, engineers, and brake- 

 men, and they voted to make a formal demand 

 for the restoration of the discharged, and to 

 quit work in the event of a refusal. The 

 grievances subsequently submitted by the strik- 

 ers embraced the charge that firemen were 

 promoted to engineers' places by favor, and 

 not on account of merit and length of service. 

 Their new demands for wages were for brake- 

 men to receive $2 a day, the switchmen $2, 

 the head switchman $2.25, truckmen in yard 

 $1.50, truckmen on sections $1.40, and to pay 

 no rentals on company's grounds except as by 

 agreement ; the firemen to have the same pay, 

 or rates of pay, as they received prior to July 

 1, 1877, and monthly passes to be continued as 

 before, and passes to be issued to brakemen 

 and switchmen. 



On the Pennsylvania road the men struck 

 for a general restitution of the old rates $1.90 

 and $2.10 per day, instead of $1.70 and $1.90. 

 They complained that formerly they were paid 

 by the month, and for the time in which they 

 were kept idle they still received pay, whereas 

 now every hour when there is no work to do is 

 docked from their wages. On the New Jersey 

 Central the brakemen demanded their old pay 

 of $3.16 for a round trip, instead of $2.00, 

 while the firemen asked for no increase. The 

 following averages of monthly wages are from 

 a schedule presented by Receiver Lathrop of 

 this road : Engineers, $104 ; firemen, $61 ; 

 brakemen, $45.26 (on passenger-trains) ; and 

 engineers, $110; firemen, $66; brakemen, 

 $45.98 (on freight and coal trains). On the 

 Delaware, Lackawanna & "Western Railroad, 

 the firemen struck for their old pay of about 

 $50 a month on the average, instead of $45. 

 On the New York Central, firemen's wages 

 were $40 to $45 a month ; brakemen's, $36. 



The following schedule shows the wages 

 actually paid at the time the strike broke out 

 on some of the leading lines for daily runs 

 usually about 100 miles and the average of 

 monthly pay made for full work : 



These rates are generally a third or more pay for an engineer was $60, and for a fire- 

 above what was paid in 1860, when the usual man $30. 



