Street Railway Strike (Part 4) - 1892

As would be expected, all three Hamilton daily newspapers weighed into the street railway matter in the editions following the mass meeting on the Gore in support of the motormen and conductors in their dispute with their employers.

          The editorial appearing in the Hamilton Spectator was particularly long as an attempt was made to put a perspective on the events of the previous day:

          “The company has just put it electric lines into operation; it gives the people an excellent service, leaving little, if anything, to be desired. The trips are frequent from every quarter of the town, the cars are neat, clean and well-lighted; the time is quite as fast as is consistent with safety; the conductors and motormen are intelligent, civil and careful; no accident has taken place; and the sums which the company will pay into the city treasury will make a considerable item in the city’s revenue.

          “Indeed, the people of Hamilton were congratulating themselves upon the fact that they had a model system of city travel. And then came the unpleasant of yesterday. That event was more unfortunate in that it was, we believe, wholly unnecessary.”¹

¹ “The Street Railway Company and Its Employees” Hamilton Spectator. September 8, 1892.

          The Spectator editorial writer went on to gently criticize the management of the street railway company for attempting to require its men to sign an agreement that they would not demand compensation for overtime in contravention of the city bylaw. It was also argued forcibly that men should not be required to work for so many as fourteen hours in any one day.

Finally, the editorial criticized the company for refusing to listen to the legitimate grievances of its employees. Not only were the men not given a hearing, they were summarily discharged:

“Such arbitrary conduct is altogether inconsistent with the spirit of the age. The time has gone by when the workingman must come humbly with bared head and bended knee, begging his brother of the earth to give him leave to toil. The man who has labor to sell has a perfect right to stand as an equal before the man who desires to buy that labor, and to bargain on equal terms. Workingmen are not chattel. They are citizens of Canada, having the same rights under the law that their more fortunate employers enjoy.”¹

The Hamilton Herald editorial contained some particularly harsh criticism of the street railway company’s decision to pull its trolleys off the street during the evening:

“The stopping of the cars was annoying and inconvenient, and while the stopping may have been advisable from the company’s point of view, it must be remembered that the people of Hamilton cannot be expected to suffer through the Street Car Company’s inability to get along amicably with its employees. If the company feared that its cars would be damaged if they were allowed to run last night, it should have taken other means to protect them than by inconveniencing a whole city.”²

² “ The Street Railway Troubles” Hamilton Herald. September 8, 1892.

On Thursday, September 8, 1892, the street railway company service in Hamilton was almost back to normal, except for three or four cars which were not sent out because there were not enough passengers. Many Hamiltonians had taken the view that there should be a boycott of Hamilton street railway service until the controversy between management and employees had been settled.

A Spectator reporter managed to see President B. E. Charlton of the Hamilton Street Railway Company. Charlton spoke frankly about the situation that had disrupted service the previous day:

“ ‘For some days,’ said Mr. Charlton, “the directors have had under consideration a new time-table by which the hours are better equalized. Under the system which has recently been in operation, the motormen and conductors have worked fourteen and a half hours for two days and four hours for the third day. This was the second time-table that was tested as an experiment. We will now try a third time-table; it comes into operation this morning. Under this new system, there are six men for every two cars. If we had four men for each car,  as some have advised who do not understand street railway business, it would mean only eight and a half hours a day of work for the men – and in the interests of the men themselves, we would not like to adopt a system which would considerably decrease their pay; I don’t think such a change would be popular among them. Under this new time-table, the men will work ten and a half hours one day, and eleven and one half hours the next day, with sufficient period for rest intervening. One week the men will begin at 6:30 a.m., and be finally relieved from duty at the usual hour at night; the next week, they will be finally relieved at 7:30 p.m. Anyone who understands anything about the running of cars according to a regular time-table must know that it is impossible to fix the hours of work at exactly ten hours; it is a question of arithmetic, and the best we can do is to equalize the hours as best we can.’

“Mr. Charlton was asked whether the company would reinstate the men who had been discharged.

“ ‘I believe,’ said Mr. Charlton, ‘that some of these men were deceived by the leaders of the movement. If they were, and if they declare that in joining the so-called association they did so, not out of hostility to the company, but merely because they thought it was established as a sort of mutual benefit society, I have no doubt that the company will take them back. We have reason to know that the real object of the association was to furnish material for designing demagogues by which they could further their own interests. The company has determined that its employees are not going to be made the tools of self-seeking agitators, and we thought it wise, not only in our interests, but also in the interests of the men themselves, and the public as well, to show our determination now, when prompt action would be effective, rather than wait until the organization had time to grow and strengthen. We hold that such an association among our employees is unnecessary and would be a continual menace to the company. I have no doubt that many of men went into it thinking that it was harmless, but they were deceived.”³

³ “A New Time-Table in Force : Easier for the Motormen and Conductors”

Hamilton Spectator. September 8, 1892.