STRIKES. 



729 



clauses of the interstate commerce act. On that 

 evening 7 leaders of the strikers were arrested in 

 Chicago on the charge of obstructing trains that 

 carried the United States mails. On July 2 

 Judges Wood and Grosscup, of the United States 

 court in Chicago, issued a sweeping injunction 

 against the strikers. Federal troops were ordered 

 out in Colorado, and State militia went into 

 active service in Illinois to prevent interference 

 by the strikers. At Blue Island, 111., strikers and 

 their sympathizers attacked and disarmed several 

 deputy marshals. State troops went to the scene. 

 On July 3, on the statement of the United States 

 officers that they could not enforce the order of 

 the court, it was decided to call out the United 

 States regulars; and the regiment at Fort 

 Sheridan, after a day of rioting in Chicago, was 

 ordered into that city. July 4 was comparatively 

 quiet in Chicago, but trouble broke out in Sacra- 

 mento, Cal., in consequence of the differences 

 with the Southern Pacific, and a demand was 

 made for the National Guard. Militia was also 

 called out in Iowa. July 5 was a day of rioting 

 in Chicago, and in Oakland, Cal. Federal troops 

 were called out in Utah, and more soldiers were 

 ordered to Chicago, where the existing Federal 

 force was too small to keep the mob in order. 

 The railway managers refused tomeet the strikers. 

 It was decided that the Mayor and the Common 

 Council of Chicago should ask Mr. Pullman to 

 return to Chicago and meet his men with a view 

 to arbitration. Gov. Altgeld asked President 

 Cleveland to withdraw the Federal troops, which 

 demand was refused. On July 6 a mob con- 

 trolled many parts of Chicago, including the 

 towns of Kensington, Burnside, Fordham, and 

 Grand Crossing, on the outskirts of the city, 

 along the Illinois Central tracks, and 225 freight 

 cars, many of them loaded with merchandise, 

 were burned on the tracks of the Panhandle 

 road. Six rioters were shot and killed by the 

 deputy United States marshals. 



In the meantime, on July 4, Eugene V. Debs, 

 Chief of the American Railway Union, had said : 

 " The first shot fired by the regular soldiers at 

 the mobs here will be the signal for a civil war. 

 I believe this as firmly as I believe in the ultimate 

 success of our cause. Bloodshed will follow, 

 and 90 per cent, of the people of the United 

 States will be arrayed against the other 10 per 

 cent. And I would not care to be arrayed 

 against the laboring people in the contest or find 

 myself out of the ranks of labor when the 

 struggle is ended. I do not say this as an 

 alarmist, but calmly and thoughtfully." Samuel 

 Gomphers, President of the American Federation 

 of Labor, had also declared : " I think the call- 

 ing out of the Federal troops was an outrage on 

 the rights of the workingmen. The interstate 

 commerce law was passed to protect the people 

 against the corporations, not to be used by the 

 corporations as an instrument to oppress the 

 people." On the other hand, the Cabinet at 

 Washington had decided to make every effort 

 for a speedy concentration of troops at Chicago. 

 The Cabinet also decided that the militia or- 

 ganizations of one State could be called on to 

 suppress disorder in another State where the 

 local authorities fail to enforce obedience to law ; 

 and the Attorney-General said there was ample 

 constitutional authority for such action. 



On July 7 Gen. Nelson A. Miles, commanding 

 the United States troops, ordered " that if any 

 act of hostility be committed, such as firing upon 

 railroad trains or assaulting trainmen, marshals, 

 or soldiers by throwing at them rocks, pieces of 

 iron, or other missiles, those assaults shall be re- 

 pelled by the use of firearms." Similar orders 

 had been given to the militia of Illinois. In the 

 afternoon, at Forty-ninth Street, Company C of 

 the Second Regiment, Illinois National Guard, 

 fired three volleys into a mob of 15,000 people. 

 One man was killed, and a dozen or more were 

 wounded. The police also fired into the mob in 

 another quarter of the city. Gen. Miles requested 

 Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, to ask Gov. Altgeld 

 to call out additional militia regiments ; and he 

 sent orders to the West for more regular troops. 

 President Debs and James R. Sovereign, Grand 

 Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, held 

 a conference to consider the advisability of or- 

 dering a general strike of the Knights through- 

 out the country. The chairman of the General 

 Managers' Association of the Railroad Com- 

 panies made this statement: ''We stand ex- 

 actly where we have stood since the beginning 

 of the strike, and where we will stand to the 

 end. We are supported in our stand by the rail- 

 road managers all over the United States. It is 

 no time for weakness of policy. We are com- 

 pelled to make this fight by the unreasonable- 

 ness of the strikers. The fight must be won, 

 regardless of its consequences to any single rail- 

 road. There will be no weakening on the part 

 of this association, and all reports to the contrary 

 are misleading." On the following day (Sunday) 

 small riots occurred in several localities in Chi- 

 cago, but the main conflict was at Hammond, 

 Ind., 20 miles distant. Five railroads run through 

 that town, the Erie, the Louisville, New Albany 

 and Chicago (Monon), the Michigan Central, the 

 Nickel Plate, and the Pennsylvania. The mob 

 had already sacked the Western Union Tele- 

 graph office, overturned freight cars, and com- 

 mitted depredations. Five railroad employees 

 were wounded at the hands of the mob, one 

 fatally. The outbound Sunday passenger train 

 from Chicago on the Monon railway was brought 

 to a halt by the mob, the engineer and fireman 

 were made to dismount, and the locomotive was 

 crippled. At nine o'clock in the morning a mob 

 had gathered around the Monon depot. Several 

 freight cars were overturned, and the Michigan 

 Central tracks were blockaded. The sheriff and 

 marshal's deputies were powerless to restrain the 

 mob, and as there was no hope of the Indiana 

 militia arriving before late that evening, an ap- 

 peal was made to the Federal authorities in 

 Chicago. Company B of the Fifteenth Infantry, 

 Major Hartz, 35 men, was sent out at once. The 

 troops were stationed about the Monon depot, as 

 that seemed to be the center of the attack. The 

 blockade on the tracks was finally raised at one 

 o'clock in the afternoon, and several passenger 

 trains were pulled through. This seemed to 

 anger the mob, and with an increase of number 

 its passions grew to frenzy. The regulars were 

 greeted with oaths and snouts of derision, and 

 volleys of sticks and stones were showered upon 

 them. The men stood their ground, however, 

 and kept the mob for several hours from ap- 

 proaching the buildings. By three o'clock fully 



