Elevated and Subway Lines Idle in
Manhattan and Bronx
Interborough Makes No Effort to Run
Cars, Loyal men Sent Home
_________
_________
Mayor Calls Strikers Eight-Cent Fare
Tools
_________
_________
City Operates 300 ’Buses and
Prepares to Put 900 More on Regular Routes To-day.
__________
__________
Not a single passenger was carried over
the subway, and elevated lines of the Interborough after
4 o'clock yesterday morning. When the strike order of the
Brotherhood of Interborough Employes became effective the roads
shut down completely.
No attempt was made by the Interborough
management to resume service.
Loyal motorman and conductors who
reported for duty were told by officials to go back home.
District Attorney Swann, who has been
investigating the charge of conspiracy between Interborough
officials and employes to get an 8-cents fare, said last night
that the men his office had
interrogated seemed to have been
"coached and drilled thoroughly for several months."
Of the twenty men interviewed not one he said, had attended a
meeting of the Brotherhood at which the strike was discussed.
He also announced he had received information that, the men had
been promised one-third of the fare increase.
District Attorney Martin, of
Bronx County has come upon similar information, and will start
an investigation to-day. So will Lewis-Nixon, Public Service
Commissioner.
Governor Smith arrived in town
last night, for what purpose could not be learned.
The city suffered little
inconvenience during the first day of the strike. A few more
surface cars were operated than is usual on Sunday and these
appeared able to take care of all passengers. The B.R.T.
Broadway subway carried thousands.
Taxicab companies and 'bus lines
reported small increase in business. There was no confusion and
no disorder.
Beyond an appeal by Mayor Hylan, made
over the heads of leaders of the Brother- hood to the striking
men themselves, no move toward mediation or arbitration was
attempted.
The city prepared to cope with the
business rush to-day by means of 1,200 'buses, boats plying on
the Hudson and East rivers, and augmented suburban service on
the
New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad. By these agencies it is hoped to handle traffic until
the strike breaks from sheer inertia.
Mayor Hylan in his appeal to the
Interborough employes, told them they were merely being used as
tools by the Interborough management, which hoped to realize
8-cent fares through the strike. He asked the men to meet in
Madison Square Garden at any hour of the day or night and
permit him to talk to them.
Three hundred 'buses were operated over
five routes by the city yesterday. Nine hundred more 'buses
will be run to-day and six more routes will be opened.
The end of the
Great War saw massive inflation and a spate of strikes. One in
particular was the one day transit strike August 18-19, 1919 in
New York City. This strike was notable because of the
solidarity of the IRT workers. The fare was almost raised to
eight cents, but was held at a nickel. The employees got
twenty-five percent wage increase without raising the fare.
All the major dailies carried the story:
The New York
Tribune, Monday, August 18,
1919…
____________
What Granting Strike Demands
Would mean
____________
Would mean
____________
What I.R.T. employes get
*62 ½ c an hour
What I.R.T. employes ask
93 ¾ c. an hour
What I.R.T. offers
68 ¾ c. an hour
What granting employes’ demand would
cost
$10,000,000 a year
Number of additional passengers the I.R.T.
would have to carry with same equipment and personnel at five
cents each to pay what men ask
200,000,000 a year
___
*Approximate average.
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©2003 The Composing Stack Inc.
©2003 Gregory J. Christiano
Updated January 20 , 2003