Interborough Strike of 1919 by G.J. Christiano - The Third Rail - 1/03

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Asserting that the Interborough Rapid Transit Company employes have lived on starvation wages for more than two years and that they can continue to starve until their demands are met, P. J. Connolly, acting president of the Brotherhood of I.R.T. Employes, and a score of other speakers kept the enthusiasm of approximately one thousand strikers who crowded New Star Casino at a high pitch for ten hours yes- terday by speeches in which Mayor Hylan was scored severely.

Forced to dig into their own pockets to hire a hall in which they might meet and maintain a strike headquarters, the striking employes started to crowd into the casino soon after seven o'clock in the morning. They con- tinued to drift in and out in groups of fifty and one hundred until five o'clock in the evening, when they were compelled to leave, as the hall had been rented for Italian grand opera.

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Hylan is so clever," continued Mr. Connolly, "why doesn't he take the conspiracy out of me which he says is in me? Hylan thought I represented a lot of dock rats. Hylan thought I was a liar. Hylan cross- questioned me, but he didn't finger-print me. There is a breaking point to human nature, and when Hylan insinuated that I wasn't on the level I told him he'd never get a chance to do it again."

[an injunction was then served on Mr. Connolly obtained from Justice Richard P. Lydon, which was served upon the various delegates as they appeared]

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STRIKE GOES INTO EFFECT PROMPTLY, FOLLOWING SCHEDULE OF THE STRIKERS
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The Brotherhood of Interborough Employes carried out their threat to strike at four o'clock yesterday morning with perfect order. Without a sign of violence the men finished the runs on which they

were engaged when the strike hour arrived and then quit their jobs. Two hours after the strike was in effect not a train was stirring on the "L" or in the subways of the Interborough system - which means the Second, Third, Sixth and Ninth avenue lines of the "L" system and the Seventh avenue-Broadway and Fourth-Lexington avenue subways and their branches. Only the Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway , running south in Seventh avenue from Broadway and Fifty-seventh street, and the surface car line remained in operation.

As the last trains pulled out of the various stations the sale of tickets stopped. The strike order was carried into effect with precision. The last train to leave the Bronx Park station of the "L" at 197th street left at three minutes to four o'clock. At the subway station at 180th street and Boston road the last train left at five minutes to four. One hundred and fifty policemen were at the latter terminal

LAST DOWNTOWN TRAINS.

In the Lenox avenue subway the last downtown train passed the 125th street station at twenty minutes after four. An Interborough special officer was aboard and announced at various stations through a mega- phone "This is the last train downtown."

The last downtown train on the Lexington avenue line left Jerome avenue station at five minutes of four, and went to Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn. The last train on the west side line passed Times Square northbound at five o'clock. After these trains passed ticket agents stopped work.

Two policemen were on duty at each elevated and subway station after the strike was in effect. At seven o'clock, following the shutting off of the power by the walkouts from the Interborough power houses, the New York Railways Company had to discontinue its service on all lines except Broadway and Columbus avenues and Broadway and Amsterdam avenues.

The real unfortunate were the visitors from out of town. They were to be found in hotel corridors wailing over the fact that they had come to swift New York and found the city speedless.

"Whee! Some greenhorn," remarked the saucy bellboy in one of the big up-town hotels as a man with a grip and raincoat dashed madly toward the subway entrance only to be checked by a "no admittance" sign.

Brooklyn Laughs at Manhattan

Brooklyn laughed in its cheek at the gyrations of Manhattan yesterday. It didn't mean to be nasty about it, but had to grin when it remembered its trib- ulations of a week ago. And, after all, the only accessible place in Greater New York at the moment is Brooklyn, so it can afford to laugh.

But, on the whole, New York kept amiable in spite of its weary stretches of untraversed thoroughfare. It sighed a little that men must strike. It grinned a lot at its own expense. And it longed a whole lot for the familiar roar and rattle and rumble that are seemingly an indispensable part of its daily life.

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From the pages of the New York Herald, Monday, August 18, 1919.

TIE-UP of I. R. T. SUBWAYS AND "L" COMPLETE;

SURFACE CARS AND B. R. T. TUBE KEPT RUNNING

STRIKERS IN TURBULENT MEETING DENOUNCE MAYOR AND UPHOLD THEIR LEADER
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Updated January 20 , 2003