SLAUGHTER OF CITIZENS.
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 connection
whatever 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 to know, 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 were not 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 be able 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 to members 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 it virtually 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 Pullman company. 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 the will 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 subservient to 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 use every 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.
By EUGENE V. DEBS,
President.
"Order of Knights of Labor,
By J. R. SOVEREIGN,
Grand Master Workman."