N&W in 1904 -- Southern Express

[NW Mailing List]

SOUTHERN EXPRESS CO. HAS TROUBLES OF ITS OWN
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Telegraph Operators Who Are Depot and Express Agents Will Strike Today
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    At 12 o'clock noon today all telegraph operators at small stations on the Norfolk and Western who handle express matter for the Southern Express company, will go on a strike.  The strike has been ordered by the Order of Railway Telegraphers.  A committee of the order and officials of the Express Company have been conferring some time, and on Thursday, it is learned, reached the point where negotiations were declared off, and the strike was ordered.
    The strike will be confined to the small stations where the telegraph operator is also depot and express agent.  He is paid a commission on the amount of business transacted at the office, and when the business is very small, his commission is trifling.  The order of telegraphers submitted a scale of prices by which the agent who had a small business was to have a fixed compensation if the amount of commission fall below the amount fixed.  The express officials refused to agree to the proposition, and the order for the strike resulted.
    The strike will be similar to the one that took place last year on the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, and lasted several months, and finally resulted in a victory for the strikers.  While the strike was on, people residing at or near the small stations went through great hardships, and the business of the company was paralyzed.
    E. L. Lee, route agent of the Southern Express Company, with headquarters in this city, went to Roanoke yesterday to consult with General Superintendent Needles, of the Norfolk and Western, and other express people are said to be much stirred up over the strike.
    At 12 o'clock today the citizen of a small place who goes into the office at the depot will be unable to get his stuff shipped and will have some trouble in finding out if anything has been shipped to him.

[During World War I Adams Express Company, and its Southern Express Company subsidiary, along with American Express Company and Wells Fargo and Company were consolidated by the USRA into the American Railway Express.  In 1929 it was taken over by 86 railroads and renamed the Railway Express Agency.]

Gordon Hamilton
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