TROOPS AT BLUE ISLAND.
The Fourth of July dawned upon a scene that would start the blood of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence leaping in flames of fire
through their veins, if they could but reappear upon this land in the
vigorous manhood of their youth; those heroes whose blood baptized the
battlefields of Yorktown and Bunker Hill for the glorious cause of
liberty and equal rights; and behold the spectacle of this day, they
would think that they had fought, bled and died in vain, that victory
after all was but defeat.
Military despotism reigned supreme. The great masses of the liberty
loving people who were wont to celebrate this National holiday of
Independence in a manner befitting the occasion, began to think. Their
thoughts took them back to the days of English tyranny, and they ask
themselves, must this fight be fought again? The thoughts were
contagious, and when the American people began to think, their thoughts
are dangerous. The battle must and will be fought again, but not with
the weapons of '76, but with the weapon the old man can wield as well as
the young; the ballot.
Wholesale arrests followed the arrival of the federal troops at Blue
Island, free speech was eliminated, any man who passed along, who had
the appearance of striker or sympathizer was promptly arrested, and that
too without a warrant. The remark "that fellow is a scab," was
sufficient to send a man to the guard house. A fireman was asked by his
landlord, "where have you been lately?" That was enough, he was placed
with other shackled prisoners in the guard house, but was released later
on. In the morning there was a parade, but the old time patriotism was
noticeably wanting, a fireman arrested for refusing to go to work,
having a depressing effect. Patriotic speeches were prominent by their
absence, and people began to wonder what day was being celebrated.
The bloodcurdling lawlessness and rioting by the strikers at Blue
Island, as depicted by the corporation press; when simmered down to
facts proved to be as false as other similar reports sent out by the
plutocratic press. The so-called rioting amounted to nothing more or
less than expression of thought, and I believe if the General Managers,
corporation courts, Cleveland & Co., could conceive and put into
execution some plan whereby they could put a restraining order on the
minds of the striker and deny him the right to think, it would be done.
The gist of the rioting as I said before was simply expression of
thought. A man as he watched a train pass by remarked: "There are d----d
few Pullmans anyway." He was promptly arrested. Another remarked that
some fellow was a scab, and was also taken in. This and other like
remarks were samples of the Blue Island rioting at Chicago.
Upon the arrival of the federal troops, the General Managers Association
shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of Uncle
Sam, and the eager willingness that the representatives of the people
exhibited to assist Sir Duke Pullman and the railroad corporation to
subjugate and reduce the working people to a condition of serfdom, was
sufficient evidence that the managers knew what they were about. They
felt secure in the knowledge that their interest would be well taken
care of by the administration, and sought the much needed rest that
these weary sessions of plotting and scheming had earned for them.