242 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
ing experienced a steady decline. As the evil effects of the de- 
pression of 1873 wore away, however, a new prosperity de- 
veloped. ‘The propaganda of labor unions began to influence 
employees everywhere, and demands were made to better the 
conditions of work and the schedule of wages. 
When the elevated railway had built up its position as the 
most important factor in the transportation of the city’s mil- 
lions, the employees realized the essential part which they 
played in municipal economics. In particular, the trained 
and skilled engineers deemed themselves a vital element in 
New York’s daily drama of the streets. They went on strike, 
and troubles loomed. Field met a deputation of the men and 
effected a quick agreement, so that the public would not be 
inconvenienced by lack of its customary service. Later, he in- 
vited some of the employees to a dinner at his Gramercy Park 
residence, where they listened with interest to a speech by 
the aged Peter Cooper, who told them of the city as it had 
been in 1800, when he was a boy nine years of age. 
Years later, one of the men involved in the strike negotia- 
tions, William McDowell, wrote of Field’s treatment of these 
employees in an article in Harper’s Magazine shortly after 
Field’s death. This account is interesting as showing early 
social conditions in New York. The article said in part: “At 
the time of the strike of the engineers on the elevated road in 
New York I had a part in bringing the representatives of the 
engineers and the late Cyrus W. Field, a director in the ele- 
vated company, to a meeting that resulted in a quick under- 
standing between the conflicting interests and an ending of 
the strike. Mr. Field was so pleased with the fairness of the 
committee representing the engineers with whom he had to 
deal that he invited them at once to dine with him at Del- 
monico’s, an invitation which their representatives declined 
for them, fearing that its acceptance might be misunderstood. 
Mr. Field, however, continued to feel that he wished to ex- 
tend some social courtesy to the employees of the elevated 
