DEMONSTRATIONS IN ST. LOUIS.
The Strike in the West—East St. Louis sends Emissaries Across the
Great Bridge—The Workingmen Aroused—The Valley Metropolis Shaken by
a Mighty Wave of Excitement—Marching Mobs—The Internationalists—Vox
et Præterea Nihil—Black Bummers—Disgraceful Scenes—The Mob—Demand of
the Pacific Railroad Employes—Oliver Garrison, General Manager—How
he Broke the Back-bone of the Strike—Measures for Protection.
The strikes at Martinsburg and Cumberland, furnished some interesting
news to the daily papers, which was read without exciting any particular
public interest in Western cities. But the startling character of the
events, which quickly succeeded the Martinsburg strikes, in Baltimore,
created a profound sensation in the city of St. Louis. The strike, it
was seen, had already become formidable. The boldness which
characterized the movements of the strikers along the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad; the persistence and dangerous disposition of the mob in the
streets of Baltimore, which, regardless of consequences, attacked armed
regiments of men, were sufficient to not only enlist the attention, but
to impress upon the people of St. Louis, a sense of insecurity and
unrest. The public mind was not at rest, on Saturday evening, August
21st, St. Louis was already affected. But if the incidents in
Martinsburg and Baltimore were startling in sensational interest, what
must have been the feelings with which the people received intelligence
of the appalling catastrophe at Pittsburgh. The news created not only a
sensation, but a profound feeling of alarm. It was evident now that it
was not alone the railroadmen who were engaged in the movement, it was
equally apparent that the trouble was not confined to a few localities
in the East, but that it was no longer a probability that it would move
West, perhaps involve every section of the country, and assume
proportions threatening to the existence of the Government itself.
It would not be an easy task to describe the intensity of the excitement
which pervaded all classes of the citizens of St. Louis, on Sunday, July
22d. In that city, the only organized militia force was a company of
colored men. Two companies of volunteer militia had disbanded only a
short time before. The police force of the city, so far as numbers go,
was always weak to maintain order in so large a city. In the whole State
of Missouri, there were not so many as three hundred men in military
organizations. A city with almost half a million of inhabitants was
dependent on a well organized and efficient, but numerically weak body
of police of less than five hundred men. In a population so large, it
was but reasonable to suppose that there were a large mass of persons
unemployed, poor, disspirited, hopeless, ready to seize upon any
occasion to improve their really deplorable condition. Then there were
the Pariahs, the men who never perform useful labor, and never intend
to, the idle, vicious, thieves and tramps, present in all large
populations, and whose existence could not be ignored in a time of
trouble. Perhaps there were not less than fifteen thousand men idle, not
because of an indisposition to labor, but because they could not procure
it; then there were “the always idle,” who perhaps number in St. Louis
not less than three thousand; then the first note of coming trouble
brought to the city a vast horde of peripatetic vagrants, who had been
operating in the country. Such were the social elements to be considered
in the event of trouble in the city. Here then were, perhaps twenty to
twenty-five thousand people, who had no individual interest in the
maintenance of law and order. But these were not all the elements. There
was another class of persons, perhaps as numerous as any other class of
St. Louis, who were removed from immediate want, tradesmen and artisans,
with here and there a man of thought and culture, who believed that back
of the movement there was a justifying cause; men who believed, with the
earnestness of martyr-confessors, that labor under existing conditions
did not receive its due reward, but who, nevertheless, were upholders of
law and friends of order, yet who were not inclined to be precipitate in
assisting to crush workingmen, when they believed in the depths of their
hearts that the laborers were contending for that which was their due.
Until mobs sought to apply the torch and wield the bloody knife, no help
could be expected from them. Then came the capitalists, and their
retainers. These beheld the westward course of the mighty wave of
popular passion with consternation and profound dread. But, be it said,
that there were among the men who control large capital and employ many
men, some who could realize the situation, and offer a genuine sympathy,
and were prepared to extend a helping hand to those who toiled for them.
To these men St. Louis owes a debt of gratitude, for to them is due, in
a large measure, the peaceable solution of the difficulty between labor
and capital in St. Louis. Neither the police force nor the
citizen-soldiery, so quickly organized, separate nor combined would have
been able, with great loss of life, and perhaps immense destruction of
property, to have suppressed disorders, had there been a general and
determined strike among the workingmen of St. Louis. But there was no
such thing as a united and enthusiastic labor strike in the city.
In East St. Louis there was a large force of striking railroad employes,
and their propinquity to St. Louis, exercised some influence on a
certain class of workingmen. There were discontented laborers in various
employments, but the mass of the workingmen of St. Louis were not
enthusiastic strikers. And the fact that there were some persons in the
city, who employed large numbers of men, who possessed a clear judgment
as to the nature of the trouble, and humane feelings as regards the
persons who labored, in part explains the freedom from actual collisions
which St. Louis enjoyed. No life was lost. If Colonel Thomas A. Scott
had been guided by the reason, and actuated by the humanity which marked
the course pursued by Mr. Oliver Garrison, manager of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad, there is room to believe that the loss of life and
destruction of property which attended the strikes there, would not have
occurred. Indeed, the conduct of all the railway managers of lines
running west from St. Louis, during those days of doubts and fears, was
commendable. Hon. Thomas Allen, President of the St. Louis Iron Mountain
and Southern Railroad, had not reduced the wages of his employes, and on
that account the men had no ground for complaint. Mr. Allen on account
of litigation, had been unable to meet promptly the payment of wages due
his men, and as a consequence, that Company was behind with their wages
account. This was the only cause for apprehension of a strike among the
employes. And the reasons for the delay in payment was generally
understood, and the President and his officers had in no small measure
the sympathy of every employee on the road.
On the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway, there was no
pretence of a general strike. On the Missouri Pacific Railroad there was
dissatisfaction. The wages had been reduced to a figure that the men
declared insufficient for the support of themselves and families. When,
therefore, the tide had reached St. Louis, and the whole community was
filled with apprehension, the employes of the Pacific Railway held a
meeting, and appointed a committee to wait upon Mr. Talmage, and demand
a restoration of the wages paid before the January reduction. A meeting
of the local directors was called, the President of the road, Commodore
C. K. Garrison, not being in the city to consider the demand, Mr. Oliver
Garrison, the Vice President and General Manager of the Company,
considering the situation of the city, and the safety of millions of
dollars worth of property of more importance than to play the dictator
and tyrant, readily assented to the restoration of wages paid employes
to a sum satisfactory to them. This action of Mr. Garrison, who was in a
position to dictate the policy of the Company, was of the very highest
moment to the whole people of St. Louis. He might have refused; the men
might have gone on a strike, to the number of a thousand or so; they
might have become exasperated during a period of unwonted excitement;
they might have enlisted thousands of their friends; they might have
given at any rate a moral support to the lawless elements, and remained
at least passive while the torch was lighted to spread wide around the
fires of ruin—all these things might have occurred, had Oliver Garrison
proved as false in judgment, and as soulless in disposition as some
other railroad managers proved themselves to be during those days of
alarm. Mr. Garrison’s judgment dictated the policy of concession, and
his impulses sanctioned not only the expediency, but the justness of the
conclusion, and as for the employes of the road, he manages, when the
general turmoil was so great as to force them to quit, they became the
guardians of the property of the Company in whose service they were
engaged. And the concession made to the employes of the Pacific Railway
was of incalculable value to St. Louis.
By the course pursued by Mr. Garrison, some six or eight hundred
men—honest, hardworking persons, having a _status_ and influence with
people of their own class, were withdrawn from active participation in
the movement, and became at once the upholders of law and friends of
order. In truth, there were no strikes among the railroadmen west of the
river in the vicinity of St. Louis. Nor were there strikes among the
operatives in a large number of the largest manufacturing establishments
in the city. It is true, indeed, that business was suspended, that at
one time nearly all the shops, mills, and factories in the city were
closed. But this was not because of dissatisfaction among the employes.
There was, indeed, a strike among the longshoremen and roustabouts, but
that only continued a few hours, for as soon as the packet companies and
levee contractors had acceded to their demands, they resumed work, and
there was no more trouble on their account. The employes of a few
founderies and shops also struck, but these of themselves were
unimportant, and only derived importance from the general situation of
the country. In most instances, shops, factories, mills, and founderies
were closed by a disreputable rabble, in the ranks of which very few
members of the operative and industrial classes were to be found—a
rabble composed principally of chronic idlers and vicious characters,
that ought to have been suppressed on their first appearance on the
streets. Had not the situation of the country been just such as it was,
doubtless the idle mob would have been speedily dispersed by the police.
Such was the situation of affairs in St. Louis during the first few days
of the so-called reign of the strikers. It would be difficult to find a
sufficient reason for the unaccountable panic, we might almost say
paralysis of public opinion, which supervened on the first appearance of
a formidable strike among the railroad employes at East St. Louis, on
any other ground than the contagion of sympathy, and the fear of a
repetition of the scenes at Pittsburgh. If the difference in the social,
industrial, and moral characteristics of the people of St. Louis and
Pittsburgh had been considered, there need not have been any fear of a
re-enactment of similar scenes in St. Louis, even with precisely the
same provocations to lawlessness.
But fortunately no such provocation existed. In most cases the working
people of St. Louis, though none of them were overpaid, were contented
with the wages they received, and in other cases employers, actuated by
correct reason, and humane impulses, acceded to the demands of their
employes on their first presentation. There was left, then, no class in
so bad a condition as to evoke the sympathy of every humane person. In
this respect the social conditions at St. Louis were very unlike those
which obtained at Pittsburgh. There a multitude of hard working men had
had their wages repeatedly reduced, and in addition to the low pay, were
compelled to perform services double the amount formerly required to be
rendered, thus being oppressed in a degree that extorted the universal
sympathy of the whole population in their behalf. It was difficult for
men actuated by the ordinary impulses of humanity to assist in crushing
men so deeply wronged. And they would not do it. The result was the
rabble of Pittsburgh taking advantage of the known sympathy of the
people for the railroadmen in their contest, proceeded step by step in
lawlessness, growing hour by hour in numbers, became in no very long
time a mighty force, wholly uncontrolled by the popular sentiment or
civil forces of society. But in St. Louis the case was different. There
was at no time danger of such a catastrophe as befell Pittsburgh, being
repeated in St. Louis, because in St. Louis were only the ordinary
“swell mobs” in lawless rebellion, while in Pittsburgh the majority of
the people, until after the revelations made by the tremendous
disasters, which blighted that city, were unquestionably in earnest
sympathy with the strikers, among whom all the rioters were first
classed. When the discovery was made that the sympathy of the people had
been wasted on the rabble, and that the strikers were not benefitted,
there was a revulsion, and the people rose, and the mob was speedily
suppressed. What Pearson and Brinton, and Hartranft and Hancock could
not do by the use of all the paraphernalia of war-like demonstrations,
and aroused public sentiment speedily accomplished. That public
sentiment did not need an awakening in St. Louis. It was law-abiding all
the while, and none were more staunch in their devotion to law and order
than the mass of the workingmen. If there had been a general strike of
laborers, and they had been actuated by the lawless spirit imputed to
them by some journals, they might easily have taken possession of St.
Louis, and sacked it at their leisure. But it is a falsehood, it matters
not who gives it utterance, to say that the workingmen of St. Louis, as
a class, are more lawless than the merchants or the manufacturers, the
brokers and bankers as classes in society. But hunger teaches many
things,[2] and the toiler may learn the ways of dishonesty under the
guidance of such a teacher, the _Credit Mobilier_ class of gentlemen,
the corruptionists in official position, the men who appoint other men
to official stations with fat salaries annexed, whose chief
recommendation is their having handled the funds of corrupters of
legislation, needs no such instructor in the ways of the dishonest and
the shameless. They have the innate disposition; with such, dishonesty
is intuitive. But in this age, there is a materialism in politics, based
on a social organization, wholly selfish in the formulæ of which we find
as one of the propositions that “Money makes the man complete. God
makes, and apparel shapes, but money makes the man.”[3] Hence, the chief
object must be the acquisition of money; it makes no difference how,
only if the law be not so flagrantly violated as to call for an
infliction of its penalties. Moral obligations must be disregarded. But
when this is accomplished, what then? Some will have, and some will have
not, and then will come a time when famishing cannot, and will not
listen to reason.[4] Then will come the day of retribution. And the men
whose hands have been defiled by the goodly Babylonish garments, and the
golden wedges of the corrupters will cry unto the mountains to fall upon
them, and the rocks to hide them. Some one is wronged when the idle reap
the fruits of toil without returning any equivalent. Dishonest men will
then not be furnished with the best offices, as has been done in the
National and in the State government, not in the long ago, but in the
recent past.
Footnote 2:
_Multa docet fames._ Tacitus uses this proverb in describing the mode
of life practised by the Britons.
Footnote 3:
_El dinero haze al hombre entero._ Garciliso de Vega, employs the
expression in describing the effects of the sudden influx of gold and
silver on the conquest of Mexico and Peru, when returning Peasant
Conquistadors were hailed as persons of superior quality. It was the
prelude to the decay of Spain.
Footnote 4:
_El vientre ayuno no oye a ninguno._ “The empty belly hears no one,”
said by Contreras, of the famishing and mutinous garrison of
Pampeluna.
Such were some of the minor facts which had a direct bearing on the
situation at St. Louis. Men who, though not perhaps to be classed among
the workingmen, were yet so deeply imbued with principles of honor, and
a sense of justice, that they could not refuse to consider the demands
of honest labor for a just compensation. But these men were neither
Communists, nor incendiaries, and any assertion that such men were
enemies to the individual rights of property, can emanate only from the
brain of a knave or a fool. There is, there can be no conflict between
labor and capital; there is, and must ever be a conflict between honesty
and dishonesty. It is an irrepressible conflict.
Little knots of men gathered on sidewalks, on Sunday, and discussed the
situation. There was everywhere manifested a sentiment hostile to
lawless outbreaks, such as had characterized the mob at Pittsburgh, but
the weight of public sympathy, was with the strikers, so far as their
alleged grievances were concerned. On Sunday night, an immense mass
meeting of railroad men, and their sympathizers, was held in East St.
Louis. In that meeting were a large delegation from “The Workingmen’s
Party of the United States,” in other words, of the St. Louis
Communists, who went over to strengthen the courage of the railroadmen.
The strike, as we have already related, was inaugurated in East St.
Louis, on Sunday evening. In St. Louis, there was a certain fear, and
looking for the wrath to come, but Sunday and Monday came, and passed
away without any startling incidents. Business was dull, on account of
the interruption of trains, _en-route_ East, there was considerable
excited discussion on street corners, but otherwise, until in the
evening of Monday, there was no demonstrations of sufficient magnitude,
as to attract public attention. The Sunday meeting of “The Workingmen’s
Party,” at Turner Hall, was a regular weekly meeting, and excited no
considerable amount of interest. Their march through the streets to East
St. Louis, in the evening, possessed more significance. The number of
men in the procession, was a surprise. That was all.
At Carondelet, the seat of immense blast furnaces and rolling mills,
employing large numbers of men, the excitement was very great, although,
no act of violence, nor even a strike had as yet been inaugurated. There
was considerable discussion in relation to the general disturbance in
the country, there was none of the incendiary talk which characterized
the rabble in all cities.
On the 23rd of July, a committee, which had been appointed by a meeting
of employes of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, waited upon the officers
of that road, and demanded the restoration of wages, to the amount
received prior to the reduction of January 1st, 1877. The Company
proposed to return to the wages paid prior to May 15th of the present
year. This was declined by the men, and after further conference, the
Company agreed to the terms demanded by the employes and peace was
assured between the officials, and the men they employed, and St. Louis,
was saved from the annoyance and possible danger which the presence of
many hundred exasperated men might have caused.
The employes of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad, were
generally indisposed to take any part in the strike. They were paid
better wages than the employes of most of the roads running out of St.
Louis, and did not care to jeopardise their position by inconsiderate
haste in action.
The Iron Mountain Railroad employes were not disposed to complain at the
wages received. The only ground of complaint was the delay experienced
in getting their wages after having earned them. Between the officers
and the men, relations were pleasant. Past misfortunes and recent
litigation were assigned as the cause for the delay in payment of the
wages of employes.
The employes of that road demanded, that the Company should establish
and observe a regular pay day between the first and fifteenth days of
each month. The committee appointed by employes of that road had a
pleasant conference with Col. W. R. Arthur, Superintendent of the road,
and an amicable understanding was arrived at. The men returned to their
work, and but for the interruption caused by outside interference,
trains would have run regularly on that road during the whole time while
the strike continued.
It was a noticeable fact that the strikers remained remarkably sober
throughout the troubles. There was no indulgence in debaucheries, and
drunkenness among the railroad strikers was almost unknown.
On Monday evening, July 23rd, was held the first of a series of open air
meetings, under the auspices of the “Workingmen’s Party,” otherwise
known as the Internationalists, or Communists, which were remarkable on
many accounts. No such demonstrations had ever before taken place in the
city. The appearance of new organizers, and hitherto unheard orators, as
leaders of the masses, created no little sensation among all classes. It
may be too, that the vastness of the audience which greeted these
preachers of a new political gospel, had anything but a soothing effect
on the timid minds of some of the wealthiest, and therefore regarded as
leading citizens of St. Louis. The radicalism of the doctrines
enunciated, the boldness which characterized the leaders, the number of
people who went to hear them, were all circumstances that conspired to
create a general feeling of uneasiness among the “propertied classes,”
as the anti-Communists were termed by the orators of the Workingmen’s
Party. It was a new revelation to some, that in the midst of St. Louis,
communism had not only found a congenial element, but had grown really
strong, while people quietly allowed events to take their course.
The Lucas Market meeting of Monday night was preliminary to others which
were to follow. But it gave the public some idea of the grounds of
complaint upon which the workingmen stood and contended, and it revealed
the existence in the community of a body of men who held the most
radical principles of communism, and holding such opinions, were
nevertheless able to command the presence of immense audiences of the
sturdy workingmen of the city to listen to the rabid radicalism taught
by their orators. But the leaders of the Commune in St. Louis made a
mistake when they supposed that they had engaged all the thousands who
attended their open air meetings as converts to their doctrines, or
adherents of their cause. It was probably this mistake which caused that
undeniably remarkable, and somewhat mysterious body, celebrated in the
history of the strikes in every city as “The Executive Committee,” to
fulminate those wonderful proclamations, which, in the light of
subsequent events, appear so much like grim humor, uttered at the
expense of a panic stricken population. The same sort of mistake was
made by the citizens and the municipal authorities, and fear fell upon
the people and upon their rulers. The speeches of Lofgreen, McCarty,
Goodhue, and Currlin, were listened to because men felt they had a right
to hear what was said, and intelligence enough to believe so much as it
might please them to accept as correct. But the daily and nightly
meetings, the processions and speeches, and above all, the unparalleled
boldness and audacity of tone displayed in those unique productions, the
orders, diplomatic correspondence, and ultimatums of “The Executive
Committee,” unquestionably had no small influence in creating a feeling
of dread in the public mind, and enforcing a belief on the part of the
municipal authorities that they were helpless, with the means at command
to suppress the disorders.
Tuesday, July 24th, showed a marked increase in the number of the crowds
gathered on the streets, and also manifestations of turbulence, which
were unpleasant to contemplate. The most important incident of the day
in connection with the movements of the strikers, was the visit made by
a large delegation of the East St. Louis strikers to the city. They went
to the car shops of the Missouri Pacific Railway, and had a conference
with the men employed there. The leader of the strikers, Mr. Easton,
made a speech, in which he repelled the charge that he and his fellows
were thieves, tramps or lawless marauders, but declared that they were
honest men who were seeking a means by which their honest labor could be
made to yield them a reasonable amount of food to sustain themselves and
families. Although the Pacific Railroad Company had acceded to the
demands of its employes, and they therefore had no further cause for
complaint, nevertheless, in deference to the wishes of the East St.
Louis strikers, they concluded to quit work during the existence of the
strike, and so the shops were closed. On the same day, the same company
of strikers visited the Harrison Wire Works, where a large number of men
were employed, and advised the men to quit, with which advice the
employes in that establishment readily complied. About eleven o’clock
the same morning, twenty-five railroad men from East St. Louis marched
to the Union Depot, and took possession of an engine and freight train
belonging to the Missouri Pacific Railroad, ordering the trainmen to
stop work. “Why should we do that”, inquired the men, “the Company has
given us our price, and we are perfectly satisfied.” The men replied
that “that made no difference, as the boys over here must help their
brethren elsewhere.” They then forced the men to stop work and
side-tracked the train.
The officers of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway Company
did not even wait for their trainmen to petition them for an increase of
wages. No petition was ever presented. But when the managers learned
that the Missouri Pacific Railway Company had agreed to an increase of
present wages, they also rescinded the reduction of July 1, and restored
to each man the pay he had received prior to that date. This very
handsome action on the part of the road management undoubtedly had its
effect upon Kansas City and Northern Railway employes. Late in the
afternoon the same delegation of strikers that visited the Missouri
Pacific yards, called at the Kansas City and Northern depots on Biddle
street, and with about a similar result. It is believed that brakemen
and firemen of the road did not participate in the strike, and only quit
work because compelled to do so by superior numbers. There were only two
days in which the road had any trouble in running freight trains.
A strike among the coal haulers and pilers, at the St. Louis Gas-works,
was inaugurated on Tuesday. There were about sixty-five men engaged in
the movement. Their wages had been reduced from one dollar and
seventy-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents per day by the
Receiver, Socrates Newman. The men demanded a return to the old standard
of $1.75 per day, which demand was acceded to and the men resumed work.
The pilers, who had never been paid more than $1.50, also demanded $1.75
per day. But the demand was refused, and they quit work. There was no
strike at the water-works.
The Coopers Union struck for higher wages on Tuesday, and marched
through the streets.
During the day a committee appointed by the Lucas Market meeting of
Internationals, called at the City Hall to present their wishes to Mayor
Overstolz. That functionary delivered a brief address, stating that he
fully sympathized with the workingmen in the conditions which led them
to the uprising, and that he would do all in his power to afford
employment to all laboring men who might call at the City Hall and ask
for it. He could not, however, in his official capacity, send such a
message when he had no means of knowing what the result might be. As to
the United States troops, he had ordered none here, and it was probable
that, should any be sent, they would only be for the purpose of
protecting Government property. The President would use his own
discretion in determining whether or not to send troops for that
purpose, and a message of the kind proposed would be of no effect. His
honor, however, went on to say that if the petitioners desired, he
would, as a private citizen, furnish them the necessaries for mailing
the resolutions and request, but could not in his official capacity do
anything in that direction.
The committee, consisting of four white men and one colored man, went
away apparently satisfied.
At night, on the 24th, the Internationals again held a meeting at Lucas
Market, attended by perhaps eight or ten thousand persons. A procession
moved through the streets, which numbered from fifteen hundred to two
thousand men. It was headed by a fife and drum, and a single torch. The
men who marched in the procession were moulders and mechanics. Some of
the men carried laths or clubs on their shoulders, but no flag or banner
was visible. As the single torch, with its fifteen grim hundred
followers, came down street, it presented an awfully suggestive
spectacle, the suggestiveness being occasionally strengthened by a
tremendous yell, which began at the head, and gained volume as it rolled
back to the rear of the line.
The day closed without any startling incident. But preparations had been
made for a grander display of the power of the proletariat the next day.
Wednesday, July 25th, 1877, will forever be memorable in the annals of
St. Louis, as a day of excitement and alarm only paralleled by those
dreadful days of April, 1861, when Camp Jackson was taken, and St. Louis
saw her citizens shot down in the streets by the volunteer soldiers. It
was a day of intense excitement. The condition of the public mind cannot
be easily described. In the early morning, knots of strikers and crowds
of the rabble began to collect at various points, and declared their
purpose to go on a mission to close up all manufacturing business in the
city.
Early in the day the strikers from the various zinc furnaces, and from
the Vulcan Iron Works in Carondelet, formed in column, and headed by a
fife and drum started on a march to every manufacturing establishment in
Carondelet, which was still in operation. This company was very
boisterous on the march, and the people were in actual dread for their
personal safety. But they marched on, with a firm determination to
execute their purpose, and when they had completed their round there was
not a single manufactory in operation, nor a single workingman pursuing
his ordinary avocation in Carondelet. Beyond this no violence was
committed.
In the city, hands of men, many of whom were not unfamiliar with the
geological instruction imparted at the city-work house, and not wholly
unacquainted with the interior of the jails of the city, were early
moving around visiting shops, factories and mills, and compelling the
laborers employed in these places to quit work. In nearly all instances
the demand was complied with. A mob largely composed of negroes, marched
through the central part of the city, and created no little alarm by the
boisterous conduct in which its members indulged. One of the singular
freaks of this unsavory company was the fancy they took to close up
bakeries. Accordingly a most unpromising crowd of tramps and hard-cases
generally, visited an extensive bakery located on the corner of Sixth
and Pine streets, forced open the doors, gave their orders to the
proprietors, and being hungry proceeded to help themselves to pies and
cakes.
The leaders appeared ashamed of the conduct of their followers, and when
the proprietors of the bakery asked permission to bake up the dough
already kneaded, the request was granted without hesitation. This mob
ought to have been promptly dispersed by the police authorities. There
are those who believe, and will continue to believe, that there was a
superabundance of caution displayed on the part of the police
authorities, in their dealings with such mobs as that which operated
through the central part of the city Wednesday afternoon.
At sundown, Wednesday evening, nearly all the manufacturing
establishments in the city had been closed, in many instances, at the
request of a committee of the Internationalists—closed without protest
or resistance. There seemed to be a wonderful want of nerve and
determination among the people, and it will not be denied, that the
municipal police authorities were evidently unduly impressed that the
combinations against lawful authority were exceedingly powerful and
dangerous.
The operations of the committees of the International, and the
irresponsible mob of roughs who seem to have started out on their own
account, and roamed at will, without the least interference, aroused the
people to a sense of the situation of the city, and the danger that
threatened it on account of the untrammelled action of the mob. Grown
bold by indulgence, there was no telling what might not be undertaken by
the roughs.
These movements, therefore, served to quicken the energies, and inspire
the courage of the friends of law and order.
General A. J. Smith, whose military achievements during the War between
the sections were highly honorable to his reputation, and to the cause
he served, offered his services to the Mayor, and at once took up his
quarters in the Four Courts building. General John S. Marmaduke, a
gallant and able commander on the Confederate side, during the war, also
tendered his services, and remained at the Four Courts, during the day,
assisting in organizing the companies that had volunteered their
services, to protect the city from the lawlessness of the irresponsible
mob of roughs, who had shown their capacity for destructiveness in other
cities.
There was but one organized company of militia in the city, and that was
a colored company. The officers of that company early offered the
services of themselves and comrades to the city authorities.
In the evening, Mayor Overstolz issued a call upon merchants and
business men to close temporarily, in order that their employes might
have an opportunity to enroll for the protection of the property of the
city.
The Board of Police Commissioners, now fully aroused, but still doubtful
of their ability to arrest the progress of the rioters—although they had
not ventured upon an attempt—issued an order to Sheriff John Finn,
commanding him to “prepare to summon the _posse comitatus_ to the number
of five thousand men.” In obedience to this mandate Sheriff Finn issued
a proclamation, in which he declared his sympathies with the workingmen,
and expressed his convictions that the incendiary deeds which had been
committed in other cities, had been done by vagrants and tramps.
Nevertheless he called upon them to rise in their honesty and integrity
to put down lawlessness.
The city authorities, and “ruling citizens” now thought it necessary to
raise fifteen thousand armed men—to put down that terrible “Executive
Committee” and its adherents! All over the city were recruiting
stations, and men were hastening to enroll in the great army of
protection. The city was in an uproar. Company A National Guards,
Captain Pearce in command, had reorganized and were on duty in the city.
Other companies had been organized, and before ten o’clock, General A.
J. Smith was in command of the nuclei of three or four regiments and
battalions. True, they were not such soldiers as could endure a well
sustained attack of regulars, but then they were able to assail the
terrible armies of “The Executive Committee,” with a reasonable prospect
of success. Mayor Overstolz had established his headquarters in the Four
Courts building, in order, it was said, to be in close communication
with the Military Commanders. Governor Phelps had been advised of the
precarious condition of affairs, and was announced as on the way from
Jefferson City to St. Louis, to take personal supervision of movements.
The Mayor and the United States officials in the city, had announced to
President Hayes that the situation in St. Louis was critical, and
General John Pope had sent General Jeff. C. Davis from Leavenworth, and
that officer was _en-route_ with six companies of Regulars.