The most serious labor disturbance in 1907 was the strike of the telegraph operators. The trouble began June 21, when a number of the men employed in the Western Union offices in San Francisco and Oakland, Cal., quit work. This affair ended July 20, when the operators returned to work. Aug. 7 an operator at Los Angeles, Cal.. was discharged because of a dispute he had with a woman telegrapher at Oakland, Cal., who was accused of being unfriendly to the union operators. A walk-out then followed in the Los Angeles office and early on the morning of Aug. 9 the Chicago operators struck on being required to handle Los Angeles business. The strike spread rapidly until practically all the offices in the country both of the Western Union and the Postal Telegraph companies were involved. The following demands

were made by the operators: Fifteen per cent increase in wages; eight hours for day operators and seven and a half hours for night operators; time and a half for overtime; right of promotion to be governed by merit and fitness.

For several weeks the service was badly disorganized, but the companies gradually succeeded in filling the places of the strikers, while the strikers themselves could not agree as to the best policy to be pursued. The president of the union was deposed and a new executive head elected and efforts were made to have the companies agree to arbitration, but without success. The strike came to an end about the middle of November, the operators returning to work without having obtained any concessions.