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As reported in the New York Tribune, Tuesday,
August 19, 1919.
Traction Strike Ends; Trains Start at
Midnight; Men Get 25 Per Cent Increase, Possibly More Later,
Gov. Smith and Lewis Nixon Effect Compromise.
______________
Mayor Hylan Barred From Conference at
P. S. Commission Office on Strikers' Demand
______________
Conspiracy Charges
To Go to Grand Jury
To Go to Grand Jury
______________
City Suffers Worst Day of Street
Congestion in Its History and Business Men Lose Heavily
______________
New York's transportation strike
is over. The Interborough has agreed to a 25 per cent increase
in wages and the strikers were ordered back upon subway and
elevated trains at midnight. The remainder of the 50 per cent
increase deman-ded will be arbitrated.
It was expected normal service on both
systems would be given by 4 o'clock this morning. Before early
morning workers for the downtown district to-day the most
peaceful car strike the city ever has seen will have passed
into history.
A three-car elevated train bound
for South Ferry, was the first to leave the Bronx Park
terminal since the strike was settled. It got underway. At 12:
20 a. m. at 149th Street the cars were well filled. Cheers
greeted the train at every station.The first train in the
Lexington Avenue subway reached 125th Street at 12:12 this
morning.
All trains had to start from the
northern terminals, having been laid up there when the strike
was called.
INTERBOROUGH TO
TAKE 8-CENT FARE PLEA
TO LEGISLATURE
______________
In discussing the settlement of the
strike last night, J. L. Quackenbush, chief counsel for the
Interborough who with Frank Hedley, general manager,
represented the company in the final negotiations, declared
that they intended "to try every means to secure an
increased fare."
"We will try to put a bill
through the Legislature," said Mr. Quackenbush,
"giving the Public service Commission the authority to act
in cases such as ours. We expect to con- tinue to use sweet
reasonableness with the city officials."
Asserting that the Interborough
would not have to go into the hands of a receiver before
January 1, despite the $4,800,000 added to the fixed charges by
the twenty-five per cent increase in wages, and that then he
hoped the bondholders would advance the amount necessary to
cover the deficit, he further said in re- gard to the effect of
the settlement on the finances of the company.-
"The report of the examining
engineers who investigated the condition of the company shows
that with a continuation of present conditions, or, I should
say conditions as they were before the strike, at the end of
the five years the company would be $5,000,000 behind. Now
comes an added yearly expense, under the strike settlement, of
nearly $5,000,000, which means $25,000,000 must be add- ed to
that $15,000,000, increasing our deficit at the end of the next
five years to $40,000,000. The meeting of this deficit is the
problem which the Interborough is facing now for which it must
find a solution if it is to escape a receivership.”
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©2003 The Composing Stack Inc.
©2003 Gregory J. Christiano
Updated January 20 , 2003