THE TROUBLE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Beginning of the Strikes—The Cause Assigned—The System of “Double
Headers”—Formidable Character of the Movement—Freight Transportation
Suspended—No Concessions—Measures of Repression Taken—Dangerous
Indications in Pittsburgh.
Thursday morning, July 19th, 1877, the trainmen of the Pennsylvania
Central Railroad, apparently without previous agreement, refused to take
out any freight trains from Pittsburgh. The strike was fairly
inaugurated at that place. Not a freight train left the station that
day. At night great strings of cars occupied the track between the city
and the Stock Yards at East Liberty. The cause assigned by the men for
their action was the determination of the Company to introduce what is
known among railroad men as “double headers.” The effect of this system
is to enable the Company to dispense with a number of employes, and
impose the duties performed by them on those allowed to remain. The
employes claim, that by a “double header,” which is two trains attached,
with an engine to draw and one to push, that two trains were taken to
Altoona, a distance of one hundred and sixteen miles from Pittsburgh,
instead of one to Derry, which is forty-eight miles, which was formerly
the run of a freight train crew, and regarded as a day’s work. Under the
new system of “double heading,” two trains were required to be taken the
whole distance to Altoona by one crew, of brakemen and that for a day’s
work. This was regarded as a very great hardship by the trainmen,
especially as they had been compelled to submit to a reduction of wages,
amounting to ten per cent. which went into effect June first.
The action of the Company in reducing the wages and then immediately
afterward attempting to impose double service on the men, aroused
popular indignation outside of the ranks of the railroad men. Indeed the
masses of the citizens of Western Pennsylvania believed that the
Railroad Company was guilty of a flagrant act of oppression, and
deserved the severest reprobation of every one possessing any conception
of justice or sense of humanity. This wide spread sentiment among the
people, gave to the strikers at once an immense moral strength, and went
far to extenuate and excuse any acts of violence which they might commit
in their efforts to obtain redress of wrongs which the public believed
they endured. There is no evidence that the strike which commenced at
the Pittsburgh freight yards had been pre-arranged by the trainmen.
The commencement of the troubles appear to have been the action of
Conductor Ryan’s crew which was to have taken out an early freight train
that morning. These men sent a message to the train despatcher,
informing him that they would not take out their train. The despatcher
then ordered two yard crews to take out the cars. The yard men declared
“that the service required was not according to their engagement,” and
declined to obey the order, when they were immediately dismissed from
the service of the Company. Subsequently, Conductor Gordon sent two men
to take out an engine, but by this time the two yard crews which had
been dismissed, and Conductor Ryan’s crew which had struck were at the
yard and positively refused to allow the men to run the engine out.
Again an attempt was made by Gordon to send out an engine, but this time
the strikers having been re-enforced drove the men away from the
locomotive by stoning them.
After the trouble had once commenced at the outer depot, a party of the
strikers at once proceeded to the East Liberty Stock Yards to have a
conference with the train and yard men there, which resulted in the
whole number of them joining in the strike. The trains were all run on
sidings and left standing. The strikers then took complete possession of
the main track, and stopped all freight trains whether bound east or
west. In all cases the crews, of arrested trains, joined with the
strikers. Before noon the striking trainmen had gained so rapidly in
numbers that they could enforce any demand they might choose to make. A
party of them proceeded to Brinton, the same evening, and stopped a west
bound freight train at that point. Not a freight engine on the
Pennsylvania Railway was suffered to be moved during the day in the
vicinity of Pittsburgh.
That evening, at Phœnix Hall, on Eleventh street, a meeting of trainmen
was held at which the following ultimatum, to be presented to the
Company, was agreed upon, and a committee appointed to present it:
“1. The undersigned, a committee appointed by the employes of the of the
Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railway, hereby demand from said
Company, through its proper officers, the wages, as per departments, of
engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen, received prior to June 1,
1877.
2. That each and every employe that has been dismissed for taking part
or parts in the present strike, or meetings held prior to or during said
strike, be restored to their positions held prior to the strike.
3. That the classification of each of said department be abolished now
and forever hereafter; that engineers and conductors receive the same
wages received by engineers and conductors of the highest class prior to
June 1, 1877.
4. That the running of double trains be abolished, excepting coal
trains.
5. That each and every engine, whether road or shifting, shall have its
own fireman.”
The excitement had become intense along the line of the road. A brakeman
named McCall had made an assault on one of the officials of the road,
for which he was arrested. The strikers took sides with him and
threatened to release him by force.
A meeting of all the workingmen of Pittsburgh was called to assemble on
Friday evening. To this mass convention it was expected that
representatives of every trade would come. The different trades-union of
the city had already signified their hearty sympathy, and had made
offers of moral and material support to the railroad strikers. Although
the strike only commenced a few hours before, yet it had become
formidable for mischief.
The Sheriff of Alleghany County, at the request of the railroad
officials, about twelve o’clock at night visited the headquarters of the
strikers at Twenty-eighth street, and ordered them to disperse. This
they refused to do. Sheriff Fife remained there until after three
o’clock in the morning, but his authority was defied. He was frankly
informed that trains should not go out if they could prevent it, and
they did not care for any posse he could muster, or any troops that
could be brought against them. Finding the strikers were determined not
to yield to the civil authorities, the Sheriff resolved upon appealing
to the State Government for aid. Accordingly he sent a despatch to the
Governor at Harrisburg, in which he recited that: A tumult, riot and mob
existed on the Pennsylvania Railroad at East Liberty, and in the Twelfth
Ward of Pittsburgh. Large assemblages of people were upon the Railroad,
and the movement of freight trains either east or west was prevented by
intimidation and violence, molesting and obstructing the engineers and
other employes of the Railroad Company in the discharge of their duties.
As the Sheriff of the county, he had endeavored to suppress the riot and
had not adequate means at his command to do so, and he therefore
requested the Governor to exercise his authority in calling out the
military to suppress the same.
At 3:17 o’clock in the morning, Friday, Sheriff Fife received a despatch
from Adjutant General James W. Latta, announcing that he had ordered
Major-General Pearson to place a regiment of militia at his disposition
to enforce compliance with the law.
About half-past three o’clock A. M., General Pearson was found, and
having received the proper authorization from the Governor, he ordered
“the Eighteenth Regiment to assemble at the Central Armory fully
uniformed, armed and equipped for duty, at 6:30 A. M. Colonel P. N.
Guthrie was ordered to report for duty with his command at the Union
Depot, at seven o’clock sharp.”
At this time Governor Hartranft was absent from the State, he having
gone to the West. The Lieutenant Governor, Hon. John Latta, acting
Governor, declined to issue any proclamation on the ground that he had
no constitutional right to do so. Notwithstanding this fact, some
persons, presuming very largely on the ignorance of the strikers, hoping
for good effects, prepared and had posted up everywhere along the road
and about the yards, a bogus proclamation purporting to have been issued
by Governor Hartranft. The strikers knowing that the Governor was not in
the State, and that Secretary of State Quay, whose name appeared signed
to the proclamation, was at Beaver, forty miles west of Pittsburgh, and
knowing that the militia had no right to fire upon them, hailed the
appearance of the bogus poster at seven o’clock Friday morning, with
jeers and derision. Of course no respect to the injunction of the pseudo
document was paid.
At noon, Friday, July 20th, the strikers, and other workingmen held a
meeting in the yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which was
attended by a vast throng of people. One of the railroad men mounted a
box and read a despatch from Hornellsville, N. Y., signed by B. J.
Donahue, announcing that the firemen and brakemen on the New York and
Erie Road had quit work that morning. This piece of intelligence was
received with the wildest demonstrations of satisfaction by the strikers
and their friends.
Soon after, the Fourteenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Regiments of State
Guards arrived and were stationed along the tracks. The strikers were
nothing daunted by these military preparations. The crowd had grown into
an immense multitude. On the engine which had drawn a train load of
soldiers were General Pearson, Sheriff Fife and Superintendent Pitcairn
of the Pennsylvania Company. The Sheriff immediately mounted the tender
and read the Governor’s Proclamation, amid the hoots and cries of the
spectators. He counselled peace, and assured them the law would be
enforced, cost what it might. The crowd jeered at him, and when he
descended General Pearson got on the tender, and addressing the crowd
said there appeared to be a disposition to treat the matter lightly. He
warned them that the affair was a very serious one. No man had more
sympathy for them than he had; but he was under orders from the
Governor, and those who knew him, knew that he would obey. He assured
them that it was useless to attempt to further stop the working of the
road; that the trains must go through. While he was speaking he was
interrupted with cries of “Who are you?” “Give us bread,” and similar
cries. When speaking of the trains, one man yelled out, “What trains?
Passenger trains? Certainly we allow them to go through.”
“Yes,” said General Pearson, “and all other trains; even if they have
nothing but pig metal in them, must be permitted to go.”
Another striker asked to be heard, and said he did not see why the
military were there. The men had done no act of violence, he said, nor
did they intend to do any. “Will you allow trains to go through?” asked
the General. “No,” shouted half a dozen voices. One man said: “They
might get through to Torrens; but God help the men on the trains after
passing that point.”
The determined tone of the strikers in presence of the military forces,
was well calculated to produce feelings of uneasiness in the minds of
the railroad officials, and the civil and military authorities
manifested much hesitation as to the course which should be pursued.
About one hundred and fifty men of the Eighteenth Regiment, under
Colonel Guthrie, were sent to the East Liberty Stock Yards. Soldiers
were also quartered at Torrens Station. At 2:30 o’clock that afternoon a
multitude of strikers from the outer depot had collected at that point.
They mingled freely with the soldiers, and gave them to understand that
they would make short work with them if they attempted to interfere with
their purposes respecting the running of trains. They energetically
denounced General Pearson, and the military, and declared that if
Pearson attempted to execute his threat to carry a train through, he
would be shot. The disposition of the strikers at the Stock Yards was
dangerous to the peace and safety of the community. They boldly declared
their purpose to resist the military, in order to accomplish their
object by keeping the road blockaded.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, a freight train arrived at Torrens,
from the East, bearing some five hundred rough men, who immediately
joined the multitude of strikers which had assembled at that place. A
large number of tramps and vagrants had also collected at that point,
and by six o’clock in the evening the strikers and their friends
numbered not less than three thousand men, divided off into squads,
acting with no little show of military discipline, under the direction
of leaders, who evidently possessed good organizing capacity.
The scenes presented along the road from Pittsburgh to Torrens Station
the night of the 20th, was sufficiently suggestive. There were some
twenty miles of freight cars occupying the sidings, and at all the
wayside stations were guards of soldiers, and great crowds of strikers
and their friends. Camp fires gleamed in vacant lots, and the glare of
torches, and twinkling lamps revealed the forms of men, moving about in
the dusky darkness, some with murderous guns and glittering bayonets,
and others—hard faced, and tawny men, without other weapons than their
own strong arms. There was a murmur of voices, low and ominous, where
groups of men had gathered to discuss the situation. Then occasionally
the sentinels challenge rang out sharp and clear, above the
multitudinous noises that tortured the night breeze. It was a strange
spectacle in a land of liberty and in a time of peace!
By nine o’clock in the evening a crowd of at least ten thousand persons,
the greater number of whom were sympathizers with the strikers, had
assembled at the head of Twenty-eight street. The officers of the
Railroad Company had expressed an intention to send out a freight train
that night. The crowds threatened, and as it was evident that a
collision could not be avoided, and as there was more than room for
doubt that the military force would not be able to repel an assault, the
design was given up.
All the chief officers of the Pennsylvania Company, except Colonel
Thomas A. Scott, were now in Pittsburgh. Messrs. Cassatt, Gardiner and
Pitcairn, had a conference with the leaders of the strike during the
evening. It was protracted for some hours. The strikers refused to treat
on any other basis than that presented in the ultimatum agreed upon by
the meeting of strikers held on the 19th. The representatives of the
road positively refused to make any concessions. They demanded from the
employes an unconditional surrender. The result of the consultation was
what might have been expected under these circumstances. Nothing was
accomplished. The strikers returned to those whom they represented, and
reported that all hope of an adjustment must be abandoned. It was then
determined to fight it out on the line they had chosen. The railroad
managers were equally determined. Thus the way was prepared for the
startling events which soon occurred. Colonel Thomas A. Scott did not
make an appearance at Pittsburgh during the continuance of the
disorders. But he was in constant communication with his representatives
in that place, and dictated the policy which was pursued by the Railroad
Company. There are those who believe that Colonel Scott is responsible
for the scenes which followed. He could have arrested the progress of
the strike; he could have ended the conflict; he could have calmed the
rising storm of heated passion; he could have swept away the volumes of
human misery that were rolling on; he could have extinguished the little
flame that threatened to become a conflagration; aye, with a word he
could have stayed the stroke of the Angel of Death, which waited to
descend upon scores of wretched beings, driven by hunger to desperation.
But he would not. The words that would have produced peace then, were
not spoken. The torch was prepared to fire the magazine; and Pittsburgh
was doomed to undergo an ordeal of fire—to endure a reign of terror, and
witness scenes of devastation and death.
Every moment the situation was becoming more critical. The strikers and
their friends now outnumbered the soldiers three to one.
As yet there had been no collisions. The strikers mingled with the
soldiers, and it already appeared that the soldiers were not altogether
without sympathy for the strikers. The Adjutant General having been
notified of the serious nature of the complications at Pittsburgh, and
having received a pressing call for further assistance, ordered out the
Sixth Division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, and at once
departed from Harrisburgh for the scene of action. At Tyrone he was met
by a telegram calling for Gatling guns. An order was at once telegraphed
to Harrisburg for the shipment of two of these death dealing implements
of war, together with thirty-four hundred rounds of ammunition. One of
these guns was despatched from the Capital at eleven o’clock, and the
other was forwarded the next morning.
The First Division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, under command
of Major-General R. M. Brinton, was ordered from Philadelphia. This
Division was composed of the First, Second, Third and Sixth Regiments,
the Keystone Battery, City Troop, Black Hussars, Washington Greys,
Weccacoe Legion, State Fencibles, and Grey Invincibles. These commands
numbered about two thousand men; only about fourteen hundred however,
could be assembled in time to take the train for Pittsburgh. General
Brinton had established his headquarters at the League House, where he
received reports and directed operations. This officer was ordered to
report to General Pearson on his arrival at Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile the excitement in the city was increasing with every passing
hour. Nothing like the intensity of feeling pervading the public mind
had ever before been observed in that place—perhaps at no place and no
time before in this country. The citizens of Pittsburgh, as a mass, were
decided in expressions of sympathy with the strikers. The militia were
everywhere execrated, and treated with derision by the people. Great
masses of people thronged the streets; men and women, old and young,
persons belonging to all classes, and occupying every station in life
came out, and rushed back and forth with a nervous, objectless haste.
The whole population seemed to be afflicted with a sort of inebriation
of excitement.
It was evident that the spirit of the Internationalists was reveling
with fiendish delight amid the scenes of tumult everywhere observable on
the streets. Women taunted soldiers and encouraged the _Canaille_ to
deeds of violence. It was a repetition of the scenes witnessed in Paris
in those terrible days when the Commune rose in 1871, only on a less
scale. It was a new experience to meet with women in mobs. But they were
abroad now, and exerted an influence for evil that can scarcely be
estimated. All night the uproar was continued. Pittsburgh was fast
becoming drunk with passion—dark, unrelenting devilish passion, that
would hesitate to commit no crime, shrink not from any deed of horror.
It was a night such as few had ever before lived through on this
continent, not on account of what actually come to pass, but because of
that which it foreboded as a culmination for such scenes.