A PROTEST BY THE PEOPLES PARTY.
The newsboys of Chicago now decided to join the boycott by dropping the
papers unfavorable to the American Railway Union, and after a noisy
session in which parliamentary rules were freely discussed, and several
amusing antics were indulged in, they voted to boycott the Tribune,
Herald, Mail, Inter-Ocean, Post and Journal. When the Times was
mentioned, they yelled themselves hoarse, and declared that it was the
only paper they would sell. Hill, the circulator of the Post, caused the
arrest of five of the little fellows and they were locked up.
L. W. Rogers, editor of the Railway Times, the official organ of the
American Railway Union finally succeeded in getting the attention of the
boys and informed them that the union could not accept any sacrifice
from the newsboys of Chicago. He assured them that the men were strong
enough to do their own boycotting and requested them to continue the
sale of the papers. He said: "We do not want to take one red cent out
of your earnings, if things were as they should be, you lads would be at
school in the day time and in comfortable homes at night instead of
selling papers on the street."
At the conclusion of Mr. Rogers' remarks they all sped away to the Times
office, where cheer after cheer was given for the peoples paper.
Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Rogers, the Times, Record, Dispatch
and News were the only papers to be had on the streets.
The Knights of Labor and Trades Unions as well as business men's unions
were holding meetings all over the country, denouncing the action of
Cleveland and the courts and endorsing the American Railway Union in its
manly fight for rights. The strike situation had not changed to any
great extent with the exception of passenger service. Passenger trains
were beginning to run with more regularity, but the freight business was
to all practical purposes dead. The men whom the companies had succeeded
in getting so far to fill the places of strikers were green men,
entirely unused to that kind of work, and incompetent men who had
previously been discharged for drunkenness and other causes. The yard
service was a failure, and as an illustration--to show the kind of men
the different roads had secured to make up trains--I was passing a
certain yard and stopped to watch a switching crew, and carefully noted
how they performed their work. An engine with one car backed up to
couple unto some cars on a lumber track. Two of the would-be switchmen
with a long stick were holding up the link, one men on either side of
the coupling, but just as the link was about to enter the drawbar one of
them jumped away, at the same time stumbling over a pile of lumber, and
the way that fellow scrambled about in his frantic endeavor to get out
of the way, would lead a person to believe he had fallen upon a hornet's
nest.
After several such attempts they finally succeeded in making the
coupling. This is the kind of men with which the company proposed to
fill the places of the strikers.
The Grand Trunk engineers, who up to this time had refused to work with
other than brotherhood firemen decided to work with scabs, and their
decision was hailed with delight by the officials. They said that the
strike was now settled and they could run their trains without
difficulty.
The engineers and firemen on the Chicago & Alton road also decided to
stand by the company. The firemen, switchmen and other employes of the
Grand Trunk called a meeting, and after denouncing the action of the
engineers, voted to stand by the American Railway Union to the end.
One amusing incident that occurred about this time, was the refusal of
the Washington National Guards to ride on a train that was run by scabs.
The entire company of sixty men refused to ride on a Northern Pacific
train for this reason, and they were promptly placed under arrest, put
into box cars and taken to Sprague.
General Master Workman Sovereign had at this time an order drawn up for
a general walk out of members of the Knights of Labor, but it was
withdrawn after a consultation with other labor leaders. Many comments
were made by newspapers throughout the country on this order, of which a
copy was furnished the papers under the impression that it would go into
effect at once.
People who had remained passive up to this time were now aroused to the
gravity of the situation. The pending crisis was near at hand, and a
general uprising of the laboring people to assert their rights was
imminent. The tyrannical and dogged persistency of plutocratic capital
to dominate over the laboring classes with utter disregard for their
constitutional rights, was nothing more or less than an open declaration
of despotic supremacy, and the outcome was looked forward to with the
gravest apprehension.
The following communication addressed to the chairman of the National
Committee of the Peoples Party was sent to Washington, D. C.
"To the Hon. H. E. Taubeneck, chairman National Committee, Peoples
Party:
"Through the gloom of civil war the enemies of human liberty laid the
foundation upon which the giant monopolies of to-day have been built. On
public lands, with public funds they built the railroads which they now
use to plunder the producers of this nation, and with the wealth and
power thus obtained they now usurp the power and functions of government
to reduce the people of this country to a condition of serfdom. The
workmen in the cities, the miners in their isolated communities, and
the railroad men throughout the land have risen in manful protest
against a threatened military government of the railroads and their
associate monopolies.
"In this hour of need the duty of the Peoples Party is clear and plain.
"Quick as the lightning's flash will bear the message, must go forth
that the Peoples Party recognize the gravity of the situation, and by
common impulse aligns itself to the side of the toiler in the shop and
mine, and on the railroads; their battle is our battle, because it is a
struggle for liberty and the right to exist--a peaceable contest on the
part of toil against the combined armies of greed and force.
"The farmer knows the means best calculated to help his brother in this
conflict. The railroads intend to run their trains under military guard
and expect American citizen to patronize public means of traffic,
operated under military despotism. The Peoples Party of Cook county, in
common with organized labor demand immediate arbitration, and urges
immediate action on the part of our national committee to the end that
all organizations in sympathy with labor be united in common cause
against a common enemy.
"Signed: T. O'Brien, Chairman,
I. H. Hawley, Sec'y.
H. S. Taylor,
Henry Vincent,
John Bagley,
D. M. Fielwiler,
John Schwartz,
C. G. Dixon,
J. P. Grimes,
Committee."