The engineer's calling is a very hard one; in some branches the men are forced to work around boilers and furnaces where the heat is stifling. They feel that eight hours' labor a day is as much as they should be required to give, and that, if their employers want them to toil longer than their regular hours, they should be willing to pay them liberally for so doing.
The men do not like to work overtime. When their day's work is done they want to be able to go home and rest, and they declare that many of the masters force the men to work after hours without reason.
The contracts for making and building in large enterprises are nearly always what are called time contracts. This means that the contractor agrees to have the work finished by a certain time, and if he fails to keep his part of the bargain he has to pay a heavy forfeit for each day that he is behind time.
When the time for a contract is nearly up, it is often necessary for the men to work overtime to save the master his forfeit.
The men contend that the masters ought to be willing to pay extra for such service. To save them money they are asking the men to toil for them after their full day's work is done, and when they are so tired that it requires an extra effort to do the work.
The leaders of the strike think that overtime is unnecessary if the work is properly handled from the beginning, and they are anxious to make the rate so high that masters will not ask it of their men, unless under very unusual circumstances.
Of late both sides have shown a disposition to settle the strike, because many of the big contracts for work have had to be given out in foreign countries, owing to the duration and strength of the strike; but as neither side seems willing to give in, matters are at a standstill.
The Prince of Wales and Mr. Gladstone have both been asked to arbitrate the strike, but both of these great men have declined to interfere in the matter.
The engineers, however, realize that something must be done, so they are trying to bring the matter to an end by calling out such a number of other workmen that the trade of the country will be brought to a standstill.
There was a rumor that the engineers who work on the steamships would be called out and forced to go on strike. If this should prove true, every kind of business would be interfered with, for no steamers could leave the English ports without properly certificated engineers to run them, and no foreign mail of any sort could be sent out or brought into the country.