N&W in 1907 -- Telegraphers

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 4, 1907

IN CITY AND COAL FIELD
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RAILROAD TELEGRAPHERS
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    Vice President and General Manager N. D. Maher, Superintendent W. S. Becker, C. E. Layman and Henry Calloway returned last night from a trip over the Clinch Valley.  The trip was a business one and was taken for the purpose of correcting some misunderstanding which has existed among some of the new telegraph operators regarding the acceptance of commercial messages.  It seems that some new operators, who do not understand the agreement between the railroads and the Western Union Telegraph Company, have been refusing to accept commercial messages at joint offices.  This is of course contrary to the contracts that exist between the operators, the railroad and the Western Union.  The contracts say that railroad operators at joint offices shall send commercial as well as railroad messages.  Joint offices are offices where the railroad operator handles commercial as well as railroad business, there being no other Western Union office.  At such offices railroad operators are supposed to handle all business.
    The complaints that the operators were refusing to accept commercial business at these joint offices were investigated and the real situation was explained to them.  In the future there will be no more trouble, as the men now understand what is expected of them.
    The Telegraph said yesterday that these men were accepting commercial messages contrary to the existing agreements.  It should have said that the men were refusing to accept commercial messages contrary to the agreements that exist between the railroads, the operators and the Western Union [ This is why some newspaper articles are not trustworthy, or at least, require looking for the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say.].

Gordon Hamilton
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