LABOR-STRIKES. 



423 



LABOR-STRIKES. The most grievous con- 

 flict between employers and the employed, and 

 the most extensive if not the most disastrous 

 riots which the country has witnessed, occurred 

 during the months of July and August, 1877, 

 in consequence of the dissatisfaction of the 

 railroad employe's on several of the lines with 

 the reduction of 10 per cent, in their wages, 

 which had been made generally throughout 

 the country in June and July. The com- 

 mencement of the troubles was the strike of 

 the train-hands on the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 

 road, begun on the 14th of July. It spread 

 rapidly over almost all of the Northern roads 

 between the Mississippi and New England. 

 The strikers took forcible possession of the 

 tracks at all the principal junctions and pre- 

 vented the forwarding of any goods, and in 

 many cases forbade the passing of passen- 

 ger-trains. For several days the whole inter- 

 nal commerce of the country was interrupted. 

 It was not until the last of the month that the 

 transportation - lines could generally resume 

 their business. To rescue the railways from 

 the lawless usurpation of the striking hands, 

 the militia forces were called out, and, in States 

 where these were unable or unwilling to con- 

 front the law-breakers, United States troops 

 were sent to their assistance. In the large 

 cities and manufacturing towns of the West, 

 riotous demonstrations and uprisings of the 

 laboring classes occurred, and a number of un- 

 fortunate encounters took place between the 

 mob and the militia, police, and armed bands 

 of citizens, in which hundreds were injured or 

 killed. In the height of the strike there were 

 at least 100,000 men out, and six or seven 

 thousands of miles of railroad were from first 

 to last in the hands of the strikers, including 

 the four great trunk lines, the New York Cen- 

 tral and its connections, controlled by Mr. W. 

 H. Vanderbilt, the Erie system, managed by 

 Receiver Jewett, the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 and continuations, managed by Mr. Thomas A. 

 Scott, and the Baltimore & Ohio and connec- 

 tions, under the control of Mr. Garrett. The 

 strike extended, first and last, over the Balti- 

 more & Ohio road, branches and leased lines, 

 which connects the ocean traffic of Baltimore 

 with the two points, Wheeling and Parkers- 

 burg, on the Ohio River, with extensions from 

 both termini to Chicago, and branches running 

 to Washington and to Staunton in Virginia; 

 the Pennsylvania Central, whose tide-water 

 termini are Philadelphia and New York, ex- 

 tending from New York to Philadelphia, thence 

 via Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, with branches 

 running to Water Gap, on the Delaware, Cape 

 May, N. J., Canandaigua, N. Y., Erie, Pa., 

 Frederick, Md., and Washington and its West- 

 ern connections, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne 



& Chicago ; the New York & Erie, running 

 from Jersey City via Paterson, Port Jervis, 

 Binghampton, Corning, and Hornellsville, to 

 Buffalo, whose Western ally, the Atlantic & 

 Great Western, joins it at Hornellsville; the 

 New York Central & Hudson River road and 

 connections the New York Central, running 

 from Albany to Buffalo, and the Hudson River 

 road, running between Albany and New York, 

 participated but feebly in the strike ; but the 

 Western subsidiary lines, the Lake Shore, run- 

 ning through Dunkirk, Erie, and Cleveland, to 

 Toledo, and the Michigan Southern, running 

 thence to Chicago, were seized by the strikers. 

 The strike extended also over the coal-roads 

 the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, con- 

 necting the northeastern Pennsylvania coal- 

 fields with Syracuse, and through the Central 

 New Jersey with New York, and the Phila- 

 delphia & Reading road, with termini at Phila- 

 delphia and Harrisburg; also over the Canada 

 Southern, in Canada, and the Michigan Cen- 

 tral, running between Chicago and Detroit, 

 and the Chicago and Canada roads; also 

 over the Cleveland & Pittsburgh, and the 

 Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland; and in 

 the West over the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & 

 St. Louis, and the Vandalia line, running 

 via Terre Haute from St. Louis to Indianapo- 

 lis, the Ohio & Mississippi, running between 

 Cincinnati and St. Louis, via Vincennes, Ind. ; 

 over the Chicago & Alton, joining Chicago 

 with St. Louis, via Springfield and Blooming- 

 ton; over the lines running from St. Louis to 

 Toledo and Detroit, through Decatur, Lafay- 

 ette, and Fort Wayne, from Bloomington to 

 Cincinnati, through Indianapolis, and from St. 

 Louis to Indianapolis, through Mattoon ; and 

 from Bloomington to St. Louis, west of the 

 Chicago & Alton ; and beyond the Mississippi 

 the roads involved were the Missouri Pacific, 

 from St. Louis as far as Leavenworth, Kan., and 

 the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern, with a 

 branch running up into Iowa. These Western 

 roads are all feeders to the great trunk lines, 

 and many of them directly subsidiary to one or 

 another of the four great combinations. The 

 railway strike was the occasion for laborer! 

 in many other industries to show their dissatis- 

 faction with the present rates of wages by 

 strikes, or public demonstrations of discontent. 

 The coal-miners in particular united in a gen- 

 eral strike, which was more determined and 

 prolonged than the railway strike, and in which 

 as great a num"ber of laborers were involved. 



This strike was undoubtedly a preconcerted 

 action, which had been talked over among rail- 

 road operatives far and wide for some time be- 

 fore the outbreak. There was no organized 

 combination, but yet an understanding as to 

 the means and methods to be employed, and a 



