THE STRIKE AT HARRISVILLE
Labor strikes are terribly disagreeable things to encounter whether in
the daily routine of steel mills and railways, or in the kitchen before
breakfast on blue Monday. Especially inconvenient are strikes in steel
mills when the order books are full as were those of the Harrisville Iron
& Steel Co. That the company had large orders could not possibly be
concealed. Vast quantities of ore, limestone, and coke were being
delivered daily at the mills. Never were more men on the pay-roll, and
all the machinery of the gigantic plant was crowded to its utmost night
and day. That business had improved was evident to everybody.
In love and war all things are fair, and the same principle, or lack of
it, seems to control most modern strikes. No doubt what young Alfonso
Harris told his mother on the steamer was true, that the labor agitators
were advised of Reuben Harris's plan to sell the steel plant to an
English syndicate. Souls of corporations decrease as the distance between
labor and capital increases, and naturally American employees oppose
foreign control of every kind.
For more than a year the employees had accepted reduced wages with the
understanding that the old scale should be restored by the company as
soon as times improved and the business warranted. That the employees had
timed their strike at an opportune moment was apparent even to stubborn
Reuben Harris. It was galling indeed to his sensitive nature and proud
spirit that his project of selling the steel plant for millions should
have failed.
As he kissed his wife good-bye on the steamer in New York, her last
words were, "Reuben, stand up for your rights." Her avaricious spirit
had always dominated him.
Before Reuben Harris left his city office for his home he had arranged,
in addition to the precaution taken by the mayor, to dispatch to the
mills and homes of his employees twenty-five special detectives in
citizens' clothes, who were to keep him fully advised as to the doings
of his employees about the mills and in their public and private
meetings. He had given his men no concessions in a previous strike which
lasted for months. He would neither recognize their unions nor their
demand for shorter hours.
It was true he had risen to be a millionaire from the humble position of
a blacksmith, but he was always severe in his own shop. Every horse must
be shod, and every tire set in his own way. He heated, hammered, and
tempered steel just as he liked, and if anybody objected he replied, "Go
elsewhere then." To have one's own way in life is often an expensive
luxury. In his first great mill strike Colonel Harris lost most of his
skilled labor and the profits of half a year. His own hands and those of
James Ingram became callous in breaking in new employees.
Gertrude had arrived on the evening of the third day of the strike, and
had busied herself in unpacking her trunk. She knew her father too well
to talk much to him about the strike. While waiting in the drawing-room
for her father, knowing that George was too busy to come to her, she had
written to her lover as follows:--
At Home
_My Darling George_,--
I wish you were here safe by my side. How I hate strikes, they are so
like a family quarrel on the front porch. Everybody looks on in pity,
husband and wife calling each other names, and breaking the furniture,
and innocent little children fleeing to the neighbors for protection.
Strikes are simply horrid. Can't you stop it? Labor and capital are
like bears in a pit with sharpened teeth tearing each other's flesh. Of
what use is our so-called civilization if it permits such brutal
scenes? George, the lion in father is again aroused. There is no
telling what he will do this time.
It was cruel of the employees to stop his sale to the English
syndicate. Something terrible is going to happen. I feel it. I dreamed
about it last night before I left Niagara. You must counsel moderation.
I am so glad mother is not here to counsel severity. In the morning I
shall put my hand on father's arm, and say, "Father, I have been
praying for God to help you."
I read in the _Evening Dispatch_ that the employees claimed an increase
of their pay because promised by the company when times improved; that
the company now flatly refused to restore the old wages; that the mayor
of the city had sent fifty policemen to guard the mills, and that the
4000 employees in an enthusiastic public meeting had resolved to
continue the strike.
George, you are in a very trying position. The company of course
depends on your loyalty, and the employees also have great confidence
in your fairness. What can you do? If disloyal to the Company, you lose
your position. What more can I do, except to pray!
Above all, my dear, be loyal to your conscience and do right. Be just.
Come and see me at your earliest possible moment.
Your own loving
Gertrude.
Gertrude's brave letter reached George before ten o'clock the next
morning, and greatly cheered him. He was never more occupied, but he
snatched a moment to say in reply:
Office of The Harrisville Iron & Steel Co.
_Dearest Peacemaker_,--
Glad for your heroic letter. It sings the peace-song of the angels.
I shall be guarded in my words and actions. Good things, I hope, will
result from all this terrible commotion. I confess I see only darkness
ahead, save as it is pierced by the light of your love.
We have a thousand men this morning building a fence eight feet high
around our works. It looks like war to the knife under the present
policy. Of course I can't say much till my opportunity comes, if it
ever does.
Believe me, darling Gertrude,
Wholly yours,
George.
The note was dispatched by special messenger. Its receipt and contents
gave comfort to Gertrude.
Colonel Harris left his breakfast table almost abruptly. One egg, a piece
of toast, and a cup of coffee were all he ate. It was an earlier meal
than usual which the Swiss cook had prepared, and by half past six
Colonel Harris started from home to his office, Gertrude from her chamber
window kissing her hand to him, saying, "Keep cool, father!"
By seven o'clock he and his capable manager were busily using the two
office telephones. Before nine o'clock, all the teams of several lumber
firms were engaged in hauling fence posts, two by four scantling, and
sufficient sixteen foot boards to construct a fence eight feet high about
the entire premises of the Harrisville Iron & Steel Co.'s plant.
This early action of the company for a time confused the strike managers,
as they could not divine whether Colonel Harris in a fit of despair
planned to fence in and close down his mills, or, perhaps, once getting
his plant enclosed, purposed to eject all members of labor organizations,
and again as in a former strike, attempt to start his plant with
non-union labor.
The leader of the strike was a brawny man with full beard, unkempt hair,
and a face far from attractive. "Captain O'Connor," as the labor lodges
knew him, was the recognized leader of the strike. He was not an employee
at the steel mills, but an expert manager of strikes, receiving a good
salary, and employed by the officers of the central union. At 2:30
o'clock a secret meeting of the officers of the several labor lodges and
Captain O'Connor was held behind closed doors. All were silent, when
suddenly O'Connor rose and began to denounce capital, charging it with
the robbery of honest labor.
"Behold labor," he said, "stripped to the waist, perspiring at every pore
in the blinding heat of molten iron, shooting out hissing sparks.
Pleasures for you laborers are banished; your wives and children are
dressed in cheap calicoes; no linen or good food on your tables, and most
of you are in debt."
This and more Captain O'Connor said in excited language. Finally he
shouted, "Slaves, will you tamely submit to all this indignity and not
resent it? The managers of the Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. are tyrants
of the worst sort. They are fencing you out to-day from the only field on
which you can gain bread for your starving wives and children.
"Reuben Harris cares more for his gold than for your souls. Since you
refuse him your labor on his own terms, he purposes by aid of the high
fence and bayonets to forbid every one of you union men from earning an
honest living."
The strike committee decided to call a public meeting of all the
employees of the steel works on the base-ball grounds at 7 o'clock
the next morning. All the saloons that night were crowded, and loud
denunciation of capital was indulged in by the strike leaders. Early the
next morning a band of music marched up and down the streets where the
employees resided, and by 7 o'clock nearly four thousand men had
gathered.
The chief spokesman was Captain O'Connor whose words evoked great
cheering. He said, "Friends, we meet this morning to strike for our
freedom. How do you like being fenced out from your work? What will your
families do for a roof when the snows come and you have no bread for your
children? We are assembled here not for talk, but for action. I hold in
my hand a resolution which we must pass. Let me read it: 'Resolved, that
we, the employees of The Harrisville Iron & Steel Co., having been driven
out of our positions by a soulless corporation which promised a return to
former wages when the times improved, will not re-engage our services to
the Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. till the promised restoration of wages
is granted." This resolution was unanimously carried, with hurrahs and
beating of the drums.
"Bravo men! Here is another resolution for your action," and Captain
O'Connor read it as follows: "American citizens! In the spirit of
brotherly love we appeal to you citizens and taxpayers of Harrisville
for fair play. Four years ago the employees of the Harrisville Iron &
Steel Co. bowed before the law, and we should continue to do so had we
not discovered that the law, the judges, and the government seem to be
for the rich alone. But we prefer liberty to slavery, and war to
starvation. Again we lay down our tools and seek to arouse public
sympathy in our behalf. Again we plead the righteousness of our cause,
and may the God of the poor help us."
This resolution was carried with shouts and the throwing up of hats. The
band began playing, and the procession headed by Captain O'Connor and his
assistants moved forward.
A third of the sober-minded of the employees soon dropped out of the
procession, while three thousand or more, many of them foreigners, were
only too glad to escape the everyday serfdom of a steel plant. All were
armed with clubs and stones. When O'Connor from the hill-top looked back
upon the mob that filled the street down into the valley and far up the
opposite hill, his courage for a moment failed him.
"What shall I do with this vast army?" he said to himself. Just then
the employees made a rush for the company's furnaces by the riverside,
filling the yards and approaches, shouting "Bank the fires! Down with
capital!"
The big engines were stopped and the furnaces were left to cool.
Frightened faces of women and children filled the door-ways and windows
of the many little brown houses on the hillside. Success emboldened the
strikers whose numbers were now greatly augmented. Again the band played
and the strike managers shouted, "Forward!"
The route taken was along an aristocratic avenue where the wealthy
resided. Windows and doors were suddenly closed, and the terrified
occupants forgot their riches, their diamonds, and their fine dress,
and thought only of safety. Vulcans of the steel works, each armed with
a club, occupied the avenue for two miles. Evidences of hunger and
vengeance were in their faces and sadly worn garments were on their
backs.
Prominent citizens now hurried to the mayor's office, where the chief
executive was found in conference with some of the labor leaders. The
mayor was told that unless he acted promptly in restoring peace and
protecting property, a citizens' committee of safety would be organized,
that he would be placed under arrest, and the mob driven back. At once
the mayor sent one hundred policemen in patrol wagons in pursuit of the
rioters. The latter had already battered down the great doors of the
screw-works, and hundreds of employees, men, women, and children, were
driven out of the factory. The president of the company was beaten into
insensibility. Adjacent nail works were ordered to close and all
employees were driven into the streets. Finally, near night, the strikers
were subdued by platoons of police and forced to return to their homes.
The mayor issued his riot act, which was printed in all the evening
papers and read as follows:
TO THE CITIZENS OF HARRISVILLE AND THE PUBLIC GENERALLY.
In the name of the people of the State of Ohio, I, David A. Duty, Mayor
of the City of Harrisville, do hereby require all persons within the
limits of the City to refrain from unnecessary assemblies in the
streets, squares, or in public places of the City during its present
disturbed condition, and until quiet is restored, and I hereby give
notice that the police have been ordered, and the militia requested to
disperse any unlawful assemblies. I exhort all persons to assist in the
observance of this request.
David A. Duty.
_Mayor._
The mayor telegraphed to the governor for troops. The governor responded
promptly, and ordered the First Brigade to be in readiness, and to report
at 5 A.M. next morning in Harrisville, with rifles, cannon, Gatling and
Hotchkiss guns and ammunition. Orderlies went flying through the city
with summons that must be obeyed. The signal corps flashed their green
and red lights from the tower to distant armories. Ambulance corps
hastened their preparation, packing saws, knives, lint, and bandages.
Imperative orders from general to colonels, to majors, to captains, to
corporals tracked the militia men to their homes, and to their places
of amusement. By midnight every military organization in Harrisville was
under arms. The general with his staff was at his headquarters and ready
for action.
Before sunset Colonel Harris had his steel mills enclosed by a high
fortress-fence; many agents were dispatched to other cities to advertise
for, and contract with, skilled labor for his mills. On his way home, he
called again on the mayor, also at brigade headquarters, and satisfied
himself that his property would be protected. In forty-eight hours five
hundred new workmen had arrived, and in squads of from twenty-five to
fifty they were coming in on every train.
Colonel Harris, experienced in strikes, knew just what to do. A great
warehouse in the board enclosure was converted into barracks and supplied
with beds, and kitchens, and an old army quartermaster was placed in
charge. The new men on arrival were taken under escort of the soldiers
to the barracks, and were rapidly set to work under loyal foremen.
In a single week Colonel Harris had secured over fifteen hundred new men.
Smoke-stacks were again pouring forth huge volumes of smoke. The renewed
and familiar hum of machinery was audible beyond the high board fence.
This activity in the mills was to the old employees like a red flag
flaunted before an enraged bull. Inflammatory speeches were the order
of the hour. It was three o'clock on the eighth day of the strike, when
three thousand of the old employees left their halls and marched directly
to the steel mills. Hundreds of women and children joined the long
procession.
The strike leaders in advance carried the American flag, and their band
played the "Star Spangled Banner." Most of the men, and some of the
women, carried clubs and stones. Radicals concealed red flags and pistols
within their coats. Detectives reported by telephone the threatening
attitude of the strikers to Colonel Harris at his home, to Manager Thomas
at the mills, and to the mayor who ordered more police in patrol wagons
to proceed immediately to the steel works. Following the police rode the
Harrisville Troop, one hundred strong. Gertrude would not let her father
go to the steel plant, so he sat by the telephone in his own house.
Captain Crager in charge of the fifty police on guard in and around the
steel plant at once concentrated his force at the great gateway leading
into the fenced enclosure. His men were formed in three platoons, the
reserve platoon being stationed fifty feet in the rear. Captain Crager
himself took position in the center of the first line. He had time only
for a few words to his men. "The city expects each policeman to do his
duty. No one is to use his revolver till he sees me use mine. Stand
shoulder to shoulder, use your clubs, and defend the gateway."
Probably not one of his fifty men had ever read of the 300 Spartan heroes
at Thermopylæ, who for three days held at bay the Persian army of five
millions. To pit fifty policemen against three thousand enraged strikers
was too great odds. Captain Crager's orders were "to defend the
property of the steel company." The reserve police force and troops en
route might or might not reach him in time. The strikers purposed driving
out of the mills all the non-union men, and taking possession. Nearer
came the mob, determined to rule or ruin, O'Connor in the lead holding
the Stars and Stripes. The last fifty feet of approach to the gateway,
the mob planned to cover by a rush. On they came swinging their clubs
and filling the air with stones.
Captain Crager and his platoons used their short iron-wood clubs
vigorously. The strikers' flag was captured. O'Connor fell bleeding.
Right and left, heads and limbs were broken. Women screamed and strong
men turned pale. The whole mob was soon stampeded and the rioters fled
like animals before a prairie fire. Those strikers who looked back saw
the approach of more patrol wagons loaded with police, heard the clatter
of horses' hoofs, and the heavy rumbling of artillery, and they knew that
the city's reserve forces had arrived. A battery of Gatling guns at once
wheeled into a strategic position. The police and troop occupied points
of advantage, and soon the victory was complete.
Within thirty days over four thousand employees, mostly new men, were at
work in the steel mills. Policemen and detectives, however, were still
kept on duty. Colonel Harris was frequently congratulated on his second
triumph, and orders for steel rails were again being rapidly filled.
Most of the strike leaders left the city, some threatening dire revenge.
Many of the employees, who had lost their situations, were already
searching for work elsewhere. All who were behind in their payments of
rents due the company, were served with notices of evictment, as the
tenements were needed for the new employees. Wives and children were
crying for bread. In sixty days labor had lost by the strike over two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and capital even more.
* * * * *
It was in August. The moon had set beyond the blue lake, and the myriad
lights of heaven were hung out, as George and Gertrude alighted from
their carriage in front of Colonel Harris's residence. They had been to
the Grand Opera House, where they had witnessed Shakespeare's "Midsummer
Night's Dream," beautifully played by Julia Marlowe and her company.
Between the acts, George and Gertrude talked much of the strike, of labor
troubles in general, and earnestly discussed the possible remedies.
Reuben Harris, who had awaited their return, hearing the carriage drive
up, extended a cordial welcome. His hand was on the knob of the front
door, which stood half open, when the sky above the steel mills suddenly
became illuminated and deafening reports of explosions followed. The
door, held by Harris, was slammed by the concussion against the wall, the
glass in the windows rattled on the floor, the ground trembled, Harris
seized George's arm for support, and Gertrude's face was blanched with
fear. Fire and smoke in great volumes were now seen rising above the
steel plant.
George ran to the telephone, but before he could shout "Exchange," a call
came for Colonel Harris from his night superintendent, who announced that
the engines and batteries of boilers had been blown up, and that all the
mills were on fire. The chief of police telephoned that he had sent one
hundred more police to the mills; the chief of the fire department
telephoned that ten steamers had been dispatched. George dropped the
telephone, kissed Gertrude, and on the back of her Kentucky saddle horse
flew into the darkness to direct matters at the mills as best he could.
The next morning's _Dispatch_ contained two full pages, headed,
"The Deadly Dynamite!
Frightful Loss of Life,
and
Destruction of Property
at
The Harrisville Iron & Steel Plant.
"One hundred employees were killed outright, and hundreds more were
wounded. All the mills were either burned or wrecked. Many women and
children were also injured. Five hundred tenement houses were damaged,
and the windows of most of the buildings within a half mile of the
mills were badly broken."
Next morning the citizens of Harrisville were wild with excitement.
Ringing editorials appeared in all the morning and evening journals
declaring that "Lawlessness is anarchy," and that "Law and order must
prevail."