The situation at Hammond, Ind., would compare favorably with Chicago in so far as the wanton shooting of innocent citizens was concerned. The town had become infested with a gang of toughs from Chicago, who overturned a number of box cars and blocked the passage of trains. About noon of July 8th, the U. S. troops arrived, and their appearance attracted large crowds of citizens on the streets, in the vicinity of the railroad tracks. The troops who were ensconced in passenger cars were being hauled up and down the track, when a gang of toughs attempted to overturn a Pullman coach. The soldiers, who could easily have left the coaches and placed the lawbreakers under arrest opened fire, but strange to say these sharpshooters, under instructions to shoot to kill, did not wound even one of the lawless rioters. Not so, however, with the citizens who were walking along the street and had no connectionwhatever with the mob. Charles Fleischer, who lived near with his wife and five children, walked down the street in search of his little son, when without a moment's warning he fell to the ground a corpse pierced with a law and order bullet. This man had no connection whatever with the riot nor even with the strike.
Miss Flemming, of Chicago, who was visiting friends in Hammond was on the street when the shooting occurred and was seriously injured by a shot in the knee. Wm. Campbell, Victor Dizuttner and an unknown man were also shot and seriously injured by the regulars without the slightest provocation.
These people had no connection with the rioters, were citizens of Hammond, and not on railroad property.
Bullets crashed through frame walls, and I was told by a man whose head was grazed by a bullet while in his room, that nothing short of a miracle saved many persons from being shot down in their own dwellings.
Mayor Reily whose anger knew no bounds, after the killing rushed to the telegraph office and wired Governor Matthews, asking if martial law had been proclaimed. I should like toknow, he said, by what authority the U. S. troops come to our city and shoot down our citizens without the slightest warning.
Immediately after the fatal occurrence, A. Shields and Dr. F. E. Bell, representing the citizens of Hammond, wired Governor Matthews the following message: "Federal troops shooting down citizens promiscuously and without provocation. Cannot something be done to protect citizens? Act quickly."
The governor replied that he had sent troops to restore order, enforce law, and protect lives of law abiding citizens. Lawlessness and rioting must be suppressed. Citizens obeying law had nothing to fear.
Was ever military despotism more thoroughly demonstrated? What further proof was necessary than the reply of the chief executive of the state, to the citizens, that they were at the mercy of, and subject to the arrogant brutality of military despotism? The governor in his reply said: "Citizens obeying law have nothing to fear, that lawlessness must be suppressed." According to that we can only arrive at one conclusion; that the persons overturning cars and destroying property were obeying the law, as they werenot shot down nor were they arrested, but on the other hand peaceable citizens who were in no way connected with the rioting, were shot and maimed by the troops.
The people were beginning to regard the law with suspicion, they no longer felt that sense of security, the implicit confidence, they were wont to place in the constitution. The law of to-day, if the interests of the railroad corporations so required, would be reversed to-morrow. Under those circumstances could it be wondered that the people were beginning to lose the respect that had been accorded the law, and to which it was entitled? Could it be wondered that they became restless and exhibited signs of revolting against such damnable brutality, and the indignities to which they were subjected under the guise of the law?
Cleveland was now beginning to fear, that in his eagerness to assist the railroads in crushing the strikers he had overreached himself and the wanton murder of citizens, he feared, might have a damaging effect on his future political plans. His uneasiness was quite apparent, while on the other hand his co-conspirator, Olney, was in a happy state of mind. He claimed to beable with the anti-trust bill, to break up every labor union in America.
The general managers, finding out that the city would not be held responsible for the loss of and damage to railroad property, were now in favor of removing the troops from the city of Chicago—but knowing the effect of such action after making an appeal for their assistance—did not ask for their removal.
The situation throughout the country had not materially changed, and the prospects for a final victory for the strikers looked very favorably.
General Miles circulated a story that ninety per cent of the citizens of Chicago were in sympathy with the Pullman company and the railroads.
The railway managers took advantage of this report and spread and distorted it in order to discourage the strikers.
Now for facts: The trades unions of Chicago alone represent 750,000 people, adding to this the membership of the railway unions you have a total of 900,000 or ninety per cent of the citizens, who were in direct sympathy with the strikers. And it was not confined tomembers of Unions alone; such men as Bishop Fallaws, Rev. Dr. Henson, Prof. E. W. Bennis, Rev. G. P. Brushingham, Rev. W. H. Carvardine, Mayor Hopkins and hosts of other men prominent in the affairs of the city endorsed the men and denounced the railroad corporations.
Resolutions by the score were passed by business men, by the Typographical Unions and other organizations endorsing the American Railway Union, and denouncing Pullman and the railroads, also condemning the action of Grover Cleveland in upholding the corporations against the workingmen.
Resolutions were passed requesting all sympathizers to wear a white ribbon, the badge adopted by the American Railway Union, and the sea of white ribbons to be seen in Chicago would not bear out the statement of Gen. Miles.
The labor unions now signified their willingness to strike in support of the movement if called upon by the American Railway Union.
Grover Cleveland at this time issued a proclamation which—to all intents and purposes—declared martial law in the city of Chicago. This was what Gen. Miles desired, as itvirtually gave him full power to rule with despotic sway over the citizens and civil authorities.
The following protest was wired the President of the United States by President Debs, of the American Railway Union and Grand Master Sovereign of the Knights of Labor.
"To the Hon. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C.
"Dear Sir:—Through a long period of depression, enforced idleness and low wages, resulting in wide spread poverty, and in many cases actual starvation, the working people have been patient, patriotic and law abiding, and not until the iron heel of corporate tyranny was applied with the intention to subjugate the working people to the will of arrogant monopolies, did they make any effort to stay their oppressors.
"The Pullman strike was not declared until the employes of the Pullman company were driven to the verge of starvation, their entreaties spurned with contempt, and their grievances denied a hearing. No refusal to handle Pullman cars was declared by any railway employe until all propositions looking towards arbitration and conciliation were rejected by the Pullmancompany. Notwithstanding the truths set forth above were known to the public and the national authorities, you have seen fit under guise of protecting the mails and federal property to invoke the services of the United States army, whose very presence is used to coerce and intimidate peaceable working people into a humiliating obedience to the will of their oppressors.
"By your acts, insofar as you have supplanted civil and state authorities with the federal military power, the spirit of unrest and distrust has so far been augmented that a deep seated conviction is fast becoming prevalent that this government is soon to become a military despotism. The transmission of the United States mails is not interrupted by the striking employes of any railway company, but by the railway companies themselves, who refused to haul the mail on trains to which Pullman cars were not attached. If it is a criminal interference with the United States mails for the employes of a railway company to detach from a mail train a Pullman palace car, contrary to the will of the company then it holds true that it is the same criminal interference whenever a Pullman palace car is detached from a mail train in accordance with thewill of a railroad company while said mail train is in transit. The line of criminality in such a case should not be drawn at the willingness or unwillingness of railway employes, but at the act itself, and inasmuch as it has been the common practice of railway corporations to attach and detach from mail trains Pullman palace cars at will while said trains are in transit and carrying the mails of the United States, it would seem an act of discrimination against the employes of the railway corporations to declare such acts unlawful interference with the transmission of the mails when done by employes with or without the consent of their employers.
"In view of these facts we look upon the far-fetched decision of Attorney General Olney, the sweeping un-American injunctions against railway employes, and the movements of the regular army as employing the powers of the general government for the support and protection of the railway corporations in their determination to degrade and oppress their employes.
"The present railway strike was precipitated by the uneasy desire of the railway corporations to destroy the organizations of their employes and make the working people more subservientto the will of their employers; and as all students of government agree that free institutions depend for their perpetuity upon the freedom and prosperity of the common people, it would seem more in consonance with the spirit of democratic government if federal authority was exercised in deference of the rights of the toiling masses to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But on the contrary there is not an instance on record where in any conflict between corporations and the people the strong arm of the military power has been employed to protect the working people and the industrial masses from the ravage and persecution of corporate greed. But the measure of character has been in the line of declaring the corporations always good and in the right, and the working people always bad and in the wrong.
"Now, sir, we pledge to you the power of our respective organizations, individually and collectively, for the maintenance of peace and good order and the preservation of life and property, and will aid in the arrest and punishment of all violators of the civil and criminal laws of the state or nation. In the present contest between labor and railway corporations we shall useevery peaceable and honorable means at our command consistent with the law and our constitutional rights, to secure for the working people just compensation for labor done and respectable consideration in accordance with the inherent rights of all men and the spirit of republican government. In doing so we appeal to all the liberty loving people of the nation to aid and support us in this most just and righteous cause.
ByEugene V. Debs,President.
"Order of Knights of Labor,ByJ. R. Sovereign,Grand Master Workman."
The town of Danville, Ill., was now visited by martial law with the result that two women were killed and two men fatally wounded. A non-union brakeman fired three shots into a crowd that was jeering him, whereupon some one in the crowd returned the fire hitting him in the neck. The militia then opened fire, killing a Mrs. Glennon who was standing in her own yard and Miss James seated at the organ in her own house. This was the effect of federal troops in Danville, and so it was in every town and city where Grover's minions were stationed. The damnable outrages perpetrated on the people of the commonweal by the federal troops under the guise of law and order was goading the citizens to a state of open rebellion. The business men of Chicago fearing a general outbreak determined on sending a committee to the Pullman company with a view to reaching a settlement whereby this dire calamity would beaverted. A committee was formed composed of representative business men, members of the city council, and members of the various trades of the city. The committee met with no success.
Mr. Wickes, who represented the Pullman company, informed them that the company had nothing to arbitrate and wished to see no committee. The proposition they wished to submit to Mr. Wickes as the representative of the Pullman company was this: That Mr. Pullman had said there was nothing to arbitrate while the men contended that there was. Let the Pullman company appoint two men and the circuit court two men. Let these four select a fifth, if necessary, to determine if there was anything to arbitrate and in case there was, that would take care of itself later. If not, the strike would end just as soon as the decision was reached. Surely this proposition was fair and manly but speaking for the Pullman company Mr. Wickes flatly refused to entertain it for an instant. Alderman McGillen, who acted as spokesman, then made an eloquent plea for the Pullman company to take steps, which he considered would go far toward settling the strike. Hesaid: "Mr. Wickes we received a request from the trades-unions—their representatives who are now here you have already met—to see if some means to settle this strike peaceably could not be found.
"It has been demonstrated that your company had no subject for arbitration, that the request of the employes for arbitration could not be acceded to?"
Mr. Wickes: "Yes, sir."
Ald. McGillen: "We are here to suggest that it might be possible to obviate all differences between the company and the men—strikers, ex-employes, or whatever you wish to call them. We would suggest a committee to ascertain whether there is any matter needing arbitration as you are a quasi public."
Mr. Wickes, interrupting: "Do you come as representatives of the city instructed by the mayor? We have nothing to arbitrate, the Pullman company cannot recede from its position."
Ald. O'Brien: "There must be some trouble?"
Mr. Wickes: "Our men made complaint, we promised to investigate, but before we had time to do so they struck."
Ald. O'Brien: "But that will not settle the matter."
Mr. Wickes: "Unfortunately not."
Ald. McGillen: "We suggest that this committee be made up of representative men, the best men in Chicago, men who occupy positions of honor."
Here attorney John S. Runnell appeared and was closeted with Mr. Wickes for a quarter of an hour.
On his return to the room Mr. Wickes said that neither the Pullman company or the railway manager's association created the situation of to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then, some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this, you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be conducted.
Ald. McGillen then said: "You require protection from us. You call on the police, on the county, on the state, and on the nation for protection. Your only valued assets are the patents which the nation gives you in recognition of the genius which built the Pullman car.Remove that asset and you are ruined. You utterly ignore our request. It is not dishonorable men we ask to investigate your affairs. Think of the sickness, starvation, want, disaster and bloodshed which is coming if the strike assumes larger proportions. The climax is fast approaching and who will be to blame. I am here for the common weal, and I hope and beg of you not to refuse."
Mr. Wickes: "There is a principle involved. Every business should have the right to dictate to its own labor, we will brook no interference, national, state, county or municipal."
Ald. McGillen: "Compulsory arbitration is not a law but it will be if this strike does not stop."
Mr. Wickes: "We have nothing to arbitrate."
Ald. Warreinner: "We are not asking for arbitration, we want a committee appointed to see if there is need of it. Will you consent to that?"
Mr. Wickes: "No."
Ald. McGillen: "In the name of humanity let me beseech you to reconsider your negation."
Mr. Wickes: "Gentlemen, the Pullman company has nothing to arbitrate, we want to seeno committee, the Pullman company cannot recede from its position. This is final."
When the committee met again at 4:30 to make its final report, it was completely discouraged. Mr. Elderkin stated the proposition that had been made to the Pullman company and its direct refusal. The alderman begged the labor representatives not to strike and cause widespread suffering.
The general manager's and Pullman's position was so clearly defined that it would be impossible for the public to fail to see it in any but its true light.
The companies were losing millions of dollars but the general managers had determined if necessary to bankrupt every system in the United States in order to crush labor organizations out of existence. The Pullman matter was something of the past, with them they were after the labor organizations, and they were after them with a vengeance.
The government was backing them. The attorney general of the United states,—a corporation attorney as well,—had pledged himself to disrupt every labor organization in the country. President Cleveland, another railroadattorney, had encouraged and abetted them to the same end.
With the subsidized press, the bankers unions, the moneycrat manufacturers and the federal courts arrayed against them, what in the name of justice could they expect?
Surely the martyred president and savior of mankind, the immortal Lincoln, must have anticipated the present deplorable condition when in his message to the second session of the thirty-seventh congress,—to be found in the appendix to the Congressional Globe of the thirty-seventh congress, second section, page 4—when he said: "Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point with its connections not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection withcapital, that nobody labors unless somebody else owning capital somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. * * * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. * * * No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of liberty shall be lost."
The railroad managers and federal courts were leaving no stone unturned to secure the indictment and incarceration of Eugene V. Debs. If successful, it was their intention to dispose of all the officers and directors of the American Railway Union in the same manner.
Attorney General Olney, acting for the railroads, was hatching a scheme to incarcerate the officers of the union and refuse them bail. Attorneys Walker and Milchrist were ready to prove that Debs ordered the boycott, that he conspired against the lives and liberty of the people, that he conspired to overthrow the government, in short, they were ready to prove anything that would further the ends of the corporations which they represented.
These diabolical plotters never doubted for one instant that the officers of the American Railway Union were innocent of the charges preferred against them. They knew very well thatthey (the officers) had no authority to order a boycott or strike, and that it was ordered by a majority vote of the men employed on each system. They also knew that from the inauguration of the strike, not one word or act of Eugene V. Debs could be construed into an offense and make him amenable to the law.
That he counseled moderation and appealed to the men to refrain from acts of violence from the start, was a well known fact. This was very clear to them, but the powerful magnetism of his presence in restraining the men from acts of violence would also have a tendency to keep their ranks firm and intact. This was also known to them and they must devise some scheme to shackle him or get him out of the way. With consummate skill they proceeded with the avowed effort to accomplish this end.
At 3:00P. M., July 10, the special grand jury summoned by Judges Wood and Grosscup set the machinery of federal law in motion, and after one hour and seven minutes—most of which time was occupied in waiting for advice from the Western Union Telegraph Co., in New York, to its manager in Chicago—returned indictments against E. V. Debs, G. W. Howard, L. W. Rogersand Sylvester Kelliher. No sooner were the four officers of the American Railway Union indicted than they were arrested and the private papers as well as the documents of the union were seized.
The four men were admitted to bail and the joint bond of $10,000 was signed by J. W. Fitzgerald and Wm. Skakel.
The special grand jurors selected by the court for the express purpose of indicting the officers of the American Railway Union were well chosen. An elaborate charge from his honor, the judge, a pretense of examining a lone witness, just a farcical formality, and Debs, Howard, Rogers and Kelliher were indicted. These men were virtually indicted before the grand jury went into session. This is a fact that defies contradiction, Z. E. Holbrook, one of the jurors, was a man who two years ago went to Homestead, Pa., at the request of H. C. Frick, manager of the Carnegie Company, and after obtaining a supply of alleged facts from Mr. Frick, returned to Chicago and made a speech before the Sunset Club, in which he charged the Homestead strikers with being conspirators, anarchists and murderers, and he denounced and abused in nomeasured terms all labor unions and sympathizers. So bitterly did he attack labor that he was roundly hissed by members of his own club.
The city directory sets him down as a capitalist, and he is known throughout the city as a bitter enemy to labor unions. Such is the character of one of the men who was chosen to indict Eugene V. Debs. Was ever court of justice so utterly debauched?
What has become of our boasted liberty? Are we freemen? No! in the burning words of Rienzi, the Roman, we are slaves, the bright sun rises to its course and sets on a race of slaves. Slaves, not such as conqueror led to crimson glory and undying fame, but base, ignoble slaves, slaves to a horde of petty tyrants, feudal despots.
The same conditions that emanated these immortal utterances from the ancient Roman is absolutely the condition of the working people of America to-day.
The federal courts had now accomplished a master stroke; they had indicted the president of the American Railway Union for conspiracy.
When the wires flashed the news to the various local unions throughout the country, theexcitement was intense. The illegal proceeding was condemned by every good citizen, regardless of vocation or station in life. Millions of men in every branch of labor threatened to strike, but were held in check by the assurance of their leaders that all would be well in the end.
Mr. Debs, fearing the bad effect his arrest would have on the working people, sent out the following appeal for order:
"To all striking employes and sympathizers:
"In view of the serious phases which the strike has assumed, I deem it my duty to again admonish you to not only refrain from acts of violence but to aid in every way in your power to maintain law and order. We have everything to lose and nothing to gain by participating, even by our presence in demonstrative gatherings. Almost universal unrest prevails. Men are excitable and inflammable. The distance from anger to vengeance is not great. Every precaution against still further aggravating conditions should be taken. In this supreme hour let workingmen show themselves to be orderly and law abiding by freely co-operating with the authorities in suppressing turbulence and preserving the peace. Our position is secure andthe people are with us. We have made every effort that reason and justice could suggest to obtain redress for our grievances.
"Our advances have been repelled. The responsibility for the grave situation that confronts the country is not with us. The indications now are that the stoppage of work will become general. This in itself will be a calamity, but if order be maintained it may yet prove to be a blessing to the country. I appeal to every workingman to entirely keep away from places where trouble would be likely to occur. What, under normal conditions, would probably be a peaceable gathering may now become a demonstrative mob. All good citizens deprecate the loss of life and the destruction of property. Grave as these complications are, our civilization is far enough advanced to find and apply a remedy without resort to violence. We are merely contending for justice for our fellow workingmen, who have been reduced to want by a power that now defies public opinion. Strong in the faith that our position is correct, that our grievances are just, we can afford to await the final verdict, with patience. The great public may be slow to act, but in the fullness of time it will act. Then thewrong, wherever found will be rebuked and cloven down, and the right will be enthroned. However serious the situation may become, let it not be intensified by lawlessness or violence.
Eugene V. Debs."
If there is anything tending to conspiracy, any anarchistic sentiment in the above appeal then it is certain that Debs was guilty as indicted, but if there is not, then the railroad managers and federal court were guilty of a greater conspiracy and should be dealt with accordingly. In all the appeals, instructions or advice given verbally or otherwise by E. V. Debs, not a solitary one was of a more inflammatory nature than this, and yet this man was accused of this serious crime.
The Chicago Times in an editorial on the indictment of Debs says in part: "We can perhaps leave to the lawyers who are so eager to indict Mr. Debs, determination of the legal position of this rebel Wickes, declaring that his tottering corporation will brook no interference national, state, county, or municipal. The times has learned many things of late showing the power of corporations over the national government but we still cling to the belief that Uncle Sam is bigger than Duke George, and if either the national,state, county or municipal government determines to interfere with the affairs of the Pullman corporation, Mr. Wickes will have to brook it or take refuge in Canada with his titled chiefs, embezzlers, boodlers, forgers and other harpies of society, who from time to time have fled thither."
The newsboys of Chicago now decided to join the boycott by dropping the papers unfavorable to the American Railway Union, and after a noisy session in which parliamentary rules were freely discussed, and several amusing antics were indulged in, they voted to boycott the Tribune, Herald, Mail, Inter-Ocean, Post and Journal. When the Times was mentioned, they yelled themselves hoarse, and declared that it was the only paper they would sell. Hill, the circulator of the Post, caused the arrest of five of the little fellows and they were locked up.
L. W. Rogers, editor of the Railway Times, the official organ of the American Railway Union finally succeeded in getting the attention of the boys and informed them that the union could not accept any sacrifice from the newsboys of Chicago. He assured them that the men were strong enough to do their own boycotting and requested them to continue the sale of the papers.He said: "We do not want to take one red cent out of your earnings, if things were as they should be, you lads would be at school in the day time and in comfortable homes at night instead of selling papers on the street."
At the conclusion of Mr. Rogers' remarks they all sped away to the Times office, where cheer after cheer was given for the peoples paper. Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Rogers, the Times, Record, Dispatch and News were the only papers to be had on the streets.
The Knights of Labor and Trades Unions as well as business men's unions were holding meetings all over the country, denouncing the action of Cleveland and the courts and endorsing the American Railway Union in its manly fight for rights. The strike situation had not changed to any great extent with the exception of passenger service. Passenger trains were beginning to run with more regularity, but the freight business was to all practical purposes dead. The men whom the companies had succeeded in getting so far to fill the places of strikers were green men, entirely unused to that kind of work, and incompetent men who had previously been discharged for drunkenness and other causes. Theyard service was a failure, and as an illustration—to show the kind of men the different roads had secured to make up trains—I was passing a certain yard and stopped to watch a switching crew, and carefully noted how they performed their work. An engine with one car backed up to couple unto some cars on a lumber track. Two of the would-be switchmen with a long stick were holding up the link, one men on either side of the coupling, but just as the link was about to enter the drawbar one of them jumped away, at the same time stumbling over a pile of lumber, and the way that fellow scrambled about in his frantic endeavor to get out of the way, would lead a person to believe he had fallen upon a hornet's nest.
After several such attempts they finally succeeded in making the coupling. This is the kind of men with which the company proposed to fill the places of the strikers.
The Grand Trunk engineers, who up to this time had refused to work with other than brotherhood firemen decided to work with scabs, and their decision was hailed with delight by the officials. They said that the strike was nowsettled and they could run their trains without difficulty.
The engineers and firemen on the Chicago & Alton road also decided to stand by the company. The firemen, switchmen and other employes of the Grand Trunk called a meeting, and after denouncing the action of the engineers, voted to stand by the American Railway Union to the end.
One amusing incident that occurred about this time, was the refusal of the Washington National Guards to ride on a train that was run by scabs. The entire company of sixty men refused to ride on a Northern Pacific train for this reason, and they were promptly placed under arrest, put into box cars and taken to Sprague.
General Master Workman Sovereign had at this time an order drawn up for a general walk out of members of the Knights of Labor, but it was withdrawn after a consultation with other labor leaders. Many comments were made by newspapers throughout the country on this order, of which a copy was furnished the papers under the impression that it would go into effect at once.
People who had remained passive up to thistime were now aroused to the gravity of the situation. The pending crisis was near at hand, and a general uprising of the laboring people to assert their rights was imminent. The tyrannical and dogged persistency of plutocratic capital to dominate over the laboring classes with utter disregard for their constitutional rights, was nothing more or less than an open declaration of despotic supremacy, and the outcome was looked forward to with the gravest apprehension.
The following communication addressed to the chairman of the National Committee of the Peoples Party was sent to Washington, D. C.
"To the Hon. H. E. Taubeneck, chairman National Committee, Peoples Party:
"Through the gloom of civil war the enemies of human liberty laid the foundation upon which the giant monopolies of to-day have been built. On public lands, with public funds they built the railroads which they now use to plunder the producers of this nation, and with the wealth and power thus obtained they now usurp the power and functions of government to reduce the people of this country to a condition of serfdom. The workmen in the cities, the miners intheir isolated communities, and the railroad men throughout the land have risen in manful protest against a threatened military government of the railroads and their associate monopolies.
"In this hour of need the duty of the Peoples Party is clear and plain.
"Quick as the lightning's flash will bear the message, must go forth that the Peoples Party recognize the gravity of the situation, and by common impulse aligns itself to the side of the toiler in the shop and mine, and on the railroads; their battle is our battle, because it is a struggle for liberty and the right to exist—a peaceable contest on the part of toil against the combined armies of greed and force.
"The farmer knows the means best calculated to help his brother in this conflict. The railroads intend to run their trains under military guard and expect American citizen to patronize public means of traffic, operated under military despotism. The Peoples Party of Cook county, in common with organized labor demand immediate arbitration, and urges immediate action on the part of our national committee to the end that all organizations in sympathy withlabor be united in common cause against a common enemy.
Signed:T. O'Brien, Chairman,H. Hawley, Sec'y.H. S. Taylor,Henry Vincent,John Bagley,D. M. Fielwiler,John Schwartz,C. G. Dixon,J. P. Grimes,Committee."
Signed:T. O'Brien, Chairman,H. Hawley, Sec'y.H. S. Taylor,Henry Vincent,John Bagley,D. M. Fielwiler,John Schwartz,C. G. Dixon,J. P. Grimes,Committee."
Senator Pfeffer, of Kansas, arraigned congress for its defence of monopolies, and its stand against the people. Senator Kyle, of Dakota, also charged congress with being in collusion with the railroads, but Senator Davis, of Minnesota, on the other hand, denounced Debs and the strikers. He said the strike grew from a strike to a boycott, from boycott to riot, from riot to insurrection, that the acts, if committed on the high seas, would be piracy and punishable by death. He spoke of the injustice being done the farmers of the United States, and how they were effected by the strike in Chicago. He urged that it was time some action should be taken to put down the rising tide of anarchy. He held that a nuisance should be abated and that Debs was a nuisance.
Senator Gordon, of Georgia, and Senator Daniels, of Virginia, followed in the same kind of demagoguery as Davis.
A great meeting was held in Dubuque, and prominent among the speakers was County Attorney Mathews who insisted on obedience to law, but denounced Judge Grosscup for issuing an injunction which denied the constitutional right of free speech and trial by Jury.
Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, Michigan, and Erskine M. Phelps conferred with Mr. Wickes, and Mrs. Brown and Runnell of the Pullman Company at the request of some fifty mayors, representing about one-third of the population of the United States—and urged arbitration as a means of settling the strike. The efforts of these gentlemen were in vain. The imperious Pullman company through its representative, though not saying so in as many words, intimated that the company would not establish a precedent whereby workmen could interfere in its business. Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, corresponded with almost every mayor of the larger cities of the United States, and received answers favorable to arbitration from all with one exception, that of Mayor Gilroy, of New York City, whose answer to the telegram of Mayor Pingree was an emphatic no.
The wildest excitement now prevailed at Sacramento. The United States troops commanded by Col. Graham and consisting of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and gatling and Hotchkiss guns, presented a most war like aspect. The strikers on learning of this movement on the part of the government armed themselves, and it was feared that a desperate conflict would take place.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in this district called upon Supt. Filmore of the Southern Pacific and stated that they were ready to resume work at once. This weakened the cause of the strikers to some extent and caused a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the railroad managers.
After much persuasion due to the untiring efforts of Congressman McGann, President Cleveland consented to appoint a committee of three to investigate the strike, under section 6 of the arbitration act, prepared some years ago under the eyes of Powderly, McGuire and Hays of the Knights of Labor, offered by Representative Quail, of St. Louis, and made a law on Oct. 1, 1888. This determination on the part of Cleveland was received with satisfaction throughoutthe country. This was just what the American Railway Union wanted. This was what the Trades and Labor Unions of the United States had appealed for, and what the business men and city representatives had so long demanded, begged and entreated of the Pullman company, but without avail.
It looked at this time as if an investigation would be forced on Duke Pullman, and the people were looking forward to a speedy settlement of the trouble. The American Railway Union, having no fear of the final decision of the investigating committee, and viewing the vast amount of destruction of property, loss of life and extreme hardship to which the people were subjected on account of the strike—decided to take the necessary steps to call off the strike, they drew up the following proposition which was given to Mr. Hopkins, mayor of Chicago, to present to the general managers.
"To the Railway Managers:
"Gentlemen:—The existing trouble growing out of the Pullman strike having assumed continental proportions, and there being no indications of relief from the wide spread business demoralization and distress, incident thereto, therailway employes, through the board of directors of the American Railway Union respectfully make the following proposition as a basis of settlement:
"They agree to return to work in a body at once, provided they shall be restored to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases, if any there be, where they have been convicted of crime. This proposition looking to an immediate settlement of the existing strike on all lines of railway is inspired by a purpose to subserve public good. The strike, small and comparatively unimportant in its inception, has extended in every direction until now it involves or threatens not only every public interest, but the peace, security and prosperity of our common country. The contest has waged fiercely, it has extended far beyond the limits of interest originally involved, and has laid hold of a vast number of industries and enterprises in nowise responsible for the difference and disagreements that led to the trouble.
"Factory, mill, mine and shop have been silenced. Widespread demoralization has sway. The interests of multiplied thousands of people are suffering, and the common welfare is seriouslymenaced, The public peace and tranquility are imperiled, and grave apprehension for the future prevails. This being true, and the statement will not be controverted, we conceive it to be our duty as citizens and as men, to make extraordinary efforts to end the existing strife and approaching calamities whose shadows are even now upon us. If ended now, the contest, however serious in some respects, will not have been in vain.
"Sacrifices have been made, but they will have their compensations. Indeed, if lessons shall be taught by experience, the troubles now so widely deplored will prove a blessing of inestimable value in the years to come. The difference that led up to the present complications need not now be discussed, every consideration of duty and patriotism demands that a remedy for existing troubles be found and applied. The employes purpose to do their part by meeting their employers half way. Let it be stated that they do not impose any condition of settlement except that they be returned to their former positions; they do not ask recognition of their organization or any organization.
"Believing this proposition to be fair,reasonable and just it is respectfully submitted with the belief that its acceptance will result in the prompt resumption of traffic, the revival of industry, and the restoration of peace and order.