AMERICAN NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XX, Issue 92, 19 April 1886, Page 4

AMERICAN NOTES.

It" has been the custom of 'the" Various railroad., jeomnjinies interested in the roads betwesn.,Nflw York arid San Francisco to agree atnoHjf 'tuSm^elves upon a table of rates for freights and passengers, and also to " pool," or divide,, their earnings to some exter t A few months ago a business meeting, at which Bvery interested company was represented, was held for the purpose of re-adjusting rates and establishing a new basis for the division of profits; but the Convention, after endeavoring for several weeks to agree upon terms satisfactory to all concerned, adjourned without effecting its purpose. Considerable ill-feeling was engendered between the various companies duiing tbe session of the Convention, and upon its adjournment they were at daggers' points. One result of this disagreement was a spirited rivalry between the roads for the lion's ehate of the carrying trade, and in order to obtain it one company reduced its rates 25 percent below the regular rates. Other competing roads * thereupon made heavier reductions, and this process was repeated so frequently that freight and passenger rates between here and the Atlantic are now only about one fourth as high as they were prior to this fight between the railroads. Wnen the railways were working in harmony, first-class passenger tickets from an Francisco to Ciicago were sold for 103dol 50c ; to Boston, 133d015 ; and to New York, 126d015. At present tbe same class of tickets are being sold at tbe ticket offices at the following rates .-—From San Francisco to Chicago, 18dol ; to B iston, 35d01 ; to New York, 35d01. It is probable, too, that rates will be lower than now, as the feeling between the rival roads is more bitter than ever. The passenger traffic between here and the Eastern points has greatly increased since the heavy decrease in fares — many Californians who could not well afford to expend several hundred dollars on the trip having availed themselves of the opportunity to make it for a mere trifle, and large numbers of Eastern excursionists and emigrants having come here, some to simply visit, and others to permanently remain. Owing to this increase in travel the companies are not suffering so heavy- ,a loss as the lowness of rates would lead one to suppose ; for it is safe to say that four persons travel now to every one that did . so during the high rate era. Nevertheless, it is only a matter of time before the instinct of self preservation will induce the warring roads to cease catting each other's throats ; but the general impression is that while rates will be ultimately higher than now, they will never reach former figures. If this be so, then the public has indeed profited by the fight, as the exorbitant transportation rates which formerly prevailed between here and the East have undoubtedly done much to retard the progress of California. The reduction was most opportune also to the ostracised Chinese residents of California, many of whom bought emigrant tickets for the East— which are selling for about 20dol — and betook themselves to the Yankee philapthrophists of Boston and other Puritanical cities where the •• heathen Chinee " is held in high esteem and glorified as a meek and muchwronged martyr. THE EASTEBN STRIKES. At present the relation between capital and labor in the East are an j thing but harmonious, and strikes have been the order of the day in every branch of industry. On the 4th inst, the employees of the Dry Dock street car line, of New York, struck because of the refusal of the Company to increase the wages of cardrivers to 2dol per day. It was provided in the franchise of the Company that it should forfeit its light of franchise upon its failure to run cars over tbe road for a day or more, and In order to comply technically with this requirement the officers of the Company, with the assistance of the police, attempted to run one car over the road. The strikers and their sympathisers, to the number of several thousands, gathered about the car and did their utmost to check its progress. They succeeded in throwing the car from the track and in seriously wounding several officers of the Company who were riding upon it ; but finally, by dint of considerable heavy clubbing, the 500 policemen who had been detailed to protect the car succeeded in dispersing the mob, and the car passed without further molestation to the end of the road. On the following day the Bai'road Company acceded to the demands of the strikers, and they returned to their places. The employes of the Baltimore city street railroads,, numbering It JO, also refuse! to work because the Company declined to reduce their hours from 17 to 12 per day. The men proposed -by! way of compromise that they work 16 hours daily and receive 2£dol a day, instead of 2dol as formerly. The Company accepted these terms, and there the matter en led. But by far the most extensive, and to the public most serious, strike of the rcany that have lately been made is that of the employes of a long railroad known as the Gould SouthWest System. One Hall, a machinist in the employ of tbis road, left his place in the shop and attended a convention of Knights of Labour. Upon returning several days later he was discharged, the alleged reason being absent from duty without leave. Hall claimed that he had applied for and received permission to absent himse'f from the shop, and his fellow workmen demanded his reinStatement, threatening to leave tbe shop in a body if the demand were not complied with. The Company paid no heed to the threat, and thereupon the Executive Board of the Knights of Labour ordered all the machine men in the employment of the Company to discontinue work, which 2,500 men promptly did. But this failed to bring the Company to terms, and many firemen and engineers joined the strike; so that the cars of the Company could not move. The result is that hundreds of car-loads of freight, much of it of a perishable character, are now lying at the various depots of the Company, and the several States through which the Gould system passes are temporarily without freight- carrying facilities. It is singular that thousands of men should make one man's grievance a personal matter of their own. The fact that they have done so shows that the members of the various protective labour organisations are well organised and disciplined, and have their employers completely under their power. The most unfortunate feature of this and similar difficulties between railroad managers and their employes is that the loss falls heaviest upon the" business communities, which rely upon the reals for the transportation of freight. To this class a stoppage of trains for a few days along a long route means the loss of millions ; whereas to both the railroad companies and the men, who lose only a few days' work, the inconvenience and loss is comparatively insignificant.