How The Southern Pacific Scabs Were Herded, Voice of the People (Article, November 1913)
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How the Southern Pacific Scabs Were Herded
Capitalist Press Lied About Examinations and Conditions.
The strike on the Southern Pacific has been called off but nevertheless it will do no harm to look into conditions as they really were and see what the S.P. was preparing to do in event that the strike continued.
The capitalist press printed long accounts about the stringent examinations that the scabs were put [through] before [the company] accepted accepted them to run train loads of human beings over the road. According to the daily papers every man hired by the company was an experienced railroader. This is lie number one. The strike reporter of THE VOICE in order to get the strike news from the inside hired out the S.P. on the pretense of being a strike-breaker. The following is the report of conditions as he found them.
"At the employment office in Natches Alley there were gathered some forty or fifty scabs waiting in the hall way. From their conservation and general appearance I would judge that all except three or four were either pimps, degenerates, ex-policemen, ex-pugs, race track hoodlums or drunkards. I waited nearly three hours before being admitted into the office and in all that time the conversation of the herd gravitated between prostitution, [homosexuality] and degeneracy.
"The so called examination was a farce. There was about twenty applicants in the room at the time and for every question asked there was as many different answers. A blue signal meant start, stop, slow down, increase the speed, apply the brakes, release the brakes, etc. Yellow and green meant about the same. The only difference that I could note was that the different applicants took a chance on something different than they had answered before.
"When asked how to protect the rear end of a train when the train was stopped on the main line there were many amusing theories advanced. Some thought the proper procedure would be to go back and look at the last block passed, others would ring the engine bell, another would blow the whistle, torpedoes were to be placed on the tracks, red fuses were to be thrown out, and, taking it all together, a real old fashioned Fourth of July celebration was to be begun. One of the applicants, thinking that the rear end was to be protected from the strikers, announced that he would shoot the first person that appeared on the scene.
"After about half an hour of this comedy the "Examiner" announced that all the applicants had passed the examination. The stringent examination for color blindness consisted in the "examiner" holding a pencil in his hand and asking the crowd in general its color. Someone answered and all was well.
"The complete force of men that the S.P. had gathered to move its trains consisted of about thirty of these scabs quartered in the old paint shop in the Algiers yards. I suppose they had about the same number in the other division points.
"The Algiers yard was overrun with thugs and gunmen each armed with a thirty-eight caliber Colt and in addition to this some also [carried] thirty-thirty Winchesters. On Sunday afternoon two cases of [shotguns] and [ammunition] were brought into the stockade.
"Sunday morning and afternoon there were several engines that were run up and down the yards. They made much smoke and some noise but there was little if any freight shifted. From the actions of the train crews and their talk after coming back into the paint shop, which served as sleeping quarters, dining room and kitchen, it was easy to see that most of them had had their first experience in operating trains.
"If these hoodlums were ever allowed to take a train on the road it would mean sure murder, but the S.P. would not stop at murder to break the strike as was already seen by their preparations in the Algiers yard.
