Pinkerton's National Detective Agency the only obstacle in the way of a speedy and satisfactory settlement. The International Association of Machinists finally threatened to call out the mechanics of all the other Harriman railroads, if a settlement was not made.
This threat alarmed E. H. Harriman, who took' the matter into his own hands, and agreed to settle the strike by arbitration, over the head of President Burt. This he did. The settlement was to the effect that no mechanic need work under the piece-work system if he did not wish to. Mr. Burt soon resigned his position as president of the railroad, and we feel safe in stating that he gave up his office because his conduct of the strike had been a failure. We further charge that had
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 187
it not been for the evil counsel of the Agency, the strike would have been settled months earlier at an enormous saving to railroad and unions.
Had Mr. Harriman been as unyielding and uncompromising as President Burt, it is more than probable that the mechanics of all the Harriman lines would have been called out on a sympathetic strike. Such an event would have extended the area of disturbance over a number of States, and would have caused incalculable loss to the railroads and the mechanics.
From the preceding it can be readily seen that the weakness of the mechanics lay in the fact that they stood alone against the united and perfectly organized railroad corporation. Had all other railroad brotherhoods stood by the mechanics. President Burt would have been willing enough to arbitrate. But the other brotherhoods did not support the mechanics, and a two-year struggle was the result.
A resident of San Francisco, George Estes by name, recognized the principle that LABOR, AS ORGANIZED AT THE PRESENT TIME,