430 



LABOR-STRIKES. 



ing the 10 per cent, redaction, provided that 

 discharged committeemen should be restored 

 to their places, and that the switchmen should 

 have their garden-plots, where they had built 

 their cottages along the track, rent-free, as for- 

 merly, and that all hands should be paid for 

 extra work, and firemen should be promoted 

 according to merit and seniority. Mr. Jewett, 

 however, refused to listen to any terms. In 

 the West, strikes commenced to break out in 

 various trades entirely disconnected with 

 transportation, at many points ; and in many 

 towns lawless bands of men drove willingwork- 

 men away from their labor. At Columbus, a 

 mob of miners, tramps, and ruffians closed the 

 rolling-mills, machine-shops, and factories; at 

 Zanesville, also, factories and mills were raided 

 and closed up. In Pennsylvania there were 

 strikes in some of the largest mills on Monday. 

 On Tuesday a partial strike took place on the 

 New York Central, the Canada Southern, and 

 the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- 

 roads. In the West, the shorter roads also 

 were nearly all closed by strikers, while all the 

 trunk lines were completely blockaded, and 

 there was no railroad communication with the 

 East. Passenger as well as freight trains 

 were stopped on many of the Western routes, 

 and nearly all the railroad-shops were closed, 

 the mechanics striking or being forced to quit. 

 At St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Chicago, there 

 was a complete embargo on all the roads. The 

 strikers preserved a determined attitude every- 

 where. It is estimated that 100,000 men were 

 on strike. Further collisions between the 

 strikers and the militia took place at Buffalo, 

 and at Reading, Pa., where 13 of the rioters 

 were killed and 43 wounded. Along the East- 

 ern roads, wherever military were posted, or- 

 der was gradually restored, although at the 

 first meetings between the militia and the riot- 

 ers the State Guards showed a culpable lack 

 of discipline, and committed acts of guilty 

 rashness or shameful cowardice. Many of the 

 soldiers, too, sympathized with the strikers ; 

 although the troops had been dispatched from 

 distant points, in order that no feelings of per- 

 sonal or neighborly sympathy should come into 

 play. Along the Baltimore & Ohio line, in Ma- 

 ryland and West Virginia, single trains were run 

 under the protection of the Federal forces, al- 

 though the strikers still maintained a resolute 

 spirit, and the ordinary traffic could not be re- 

 sumed before the last of the month. In New 

 York State, at Hornellsville, Buffalo, and oth- 

 er points, the National Guard restored order. 

 The workmen on all the New Jersey roads 

 were on strike by Wednesday, but no acts of 

 violence took place in that State. In the West, 

 many towns were threatened by bold and law- 

 less mobs, made up of the idle and dangerous 

 classes. In many cities, scenes of anarchy and 

 intimidation occurred. The ^itizess gradually 

 rallied in these cities, enrolling themselves into 

 vigilance committees, in several places the 

 railroad strikers themselves taking an active 



part in the measures to secure safety and order. 

 At Zanesville, Columbus, and other towns, the 

 unruly spirits were quelled by the citizens' 

 guards. At Fort Wayne the strikers took con- 

 trol of the city, but protected all property. 

 But the same kind of disturbances which were 

 being quelled in these places, kept breaking 

 out at other points, while in Chicago, St. Lou- 

 is, Toledo, Louisville, and the larger Western 

 cities, repeated scenes of anarchy and terror- 

 ism took place. On the 26th, a fierce encoun- 

 ter took place between the police and a large 

 mob in Chicago. It began with an attempt of 

 a force of policemen to clear the streets of the 

 riotous crowds which had been roaming the city 

 without much hinderance for days, shutting 

 up factories, and committing all manner of 

 depredations. The squad of 300 police made 

 a determined charge on a crowd thousands in 

 number, and broke them up, and, when they 

 rallied again, made another fierce charge, reen- 

 forced by a company of cavalry; 19 were 

 killed or fatally injured, and many wounded, in 

 the onslaught. Several other skirmishes took 

 place during the day, the police being support- 

 ed by some United States troops and vigilants, 

 and many arrests were made. In St. Louis, 

 the same practice of closing workshops was 

 proceeding, and the same spirit of riot was rife. 

 Business in the city was at a stand-still. On 

 the 26th, a vast crowd marched down in a 

 regular column and surrounded the head- 

 quarters of the police, militia, and vigilants, 

 taunting the militia and daring them to fire. 

 The following day the police broke up a meet- 

 ing composed of delegates from all the trades- 

 unions and workingmen's associations of the 

 city, and arrested all present in the hall, to 

 the number of 70. While mob-law was thus 

 prevailing throughout the central portion of 

 the country, there were outrageous doings in 

 San Francisco also, the " hoodlums," rough 

 characters, and discontented workmen of the 

 city threatening the Chinese quarter with de- 

 struction. The police were active, and vigi- 

 lant committees were rapidly formed among 

 the citizens, who held the reckless rioters in 

 tolerable check, and prevented the terrific mas- 

 sacre and havoc which might have occurred, 

 though in spite of them the ruffians com- 

 mitted ferocious acts, and burned several build- 

 ings occupied by coolies. A bloody encoun- 

 ter between rioters and the vigilants took 

 place on the 26th. 



A large mass meeting of workingmen and 

 socialists, called for the purpose of expressing 

 sympathy for the strikers, under the auspices 

 of the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party, 

 the Independent Laborers, and several trades- 

 unions, took place in Tompkins Square, in New 

 York, on the 25th, in the evening. The con- 

 course was large some 8,000 or 10,000 work- 

 ingmen and several spirited speeches were 

 made by John Swinton, the journalist, Justus 

 Schwab, who was conspicuous in the so-called 

 Tompkins Square riot in 1874, Leander Thomp- 



