IN the previous chapters we have treated of the situation and the movements as confined to Sacramento. It is now our purpose to declare an intermission and treat of the situation as represented in other parts of the country as well as in other parts of California, thus bringing the different threads of the same movement to an equal level, before taking up the thread of the narrative again in Sacramento.
The strike involved three-fourths of the United States, and it was not long before it passed the bounds of legality. No unprejudiced person will ever deny to the workingman the right to strike; and, as long as he confines his labor troubles within the strict letter of this right, positive advancement can not fail to attend his efforts; but, when he adds to this acknowledged right the right to indulge in acts of incendiarism, robbery and even murder, then defeat will surely be his goal. Never before, in the history of the country, with the exception of the Civil War, was the United States ever menaced by a movement so fraught with danger and terror as this. It had become something of far greater importance than a mere quarrel between railroad corporations and their employees over a matter of wages; it amounted to an armed rebellion against the laws of the United States. Good men shuddered as they caught glimpses in the struggle of a future condition of affairs in which anarchy would reign supreme, and in which the stability of our government would be shaken to its foundation. Let us hope that this will never be; but rather, that the workingman will see that this form of government, which is essentially for the people and by the people, and his own development depend upon the adaptation of his growth to the growth of the laws. All over the country the lawlessness of the strikers was something fearful. The extent to which desperate men will go and the violent deeds they will resort to when their evil passions are aroused passeth all understanding. They lose all respect for the laws; and the dread consequences which attend their infringement have no terrors for them. They are inspired with a hatred for the troops. A National Guardsman is an object of especial aversion to them. When defeat stares them in the face they will work out their disappointment upon innocent persons, and the torch of incendiarism applied almost indiscriminately to property, with pillage and carnage, illuminate the last scenes of the conflict.
The state of affairs in the other affected cities of the East was but a reflection of the situation in Chicago, and, as it would be utterly impossible to give within the present limits of this work a separate account of the strike and its effects in each of these places, and further, as there is a universal resemblance in the effects of the strike throughout every affected section of the country, it will be sufficient for an intelligent understanding of the situation in the East to give in outline the situation in Chicago.
On the same day that the regulars were ordered to Los Angeles the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sheridan were ordered into Chicago. This force was steadily increased until it amounted to a thousand men under the command of General Miles. Concerning the occupancy of Chicago by the regulars a wordy dispute arose between the Governor of Illinois and the President of the United States. Governor Altgeld, in protesting against the presence of the troops in Chicago, stated that it was an invasion of State rights. Illinois, he said, had enough troops of her own to quell any disturbance that might arise within her borders. President Cleveland, however, maintained in his position, by Attorney General Olney, refused to withdraw the troops, as he deemed their presence necessary for the execution of the laws. The National Guard of Illinois was not really called out until later in the struggle. The regulars found little difficulty in dispersing the strikers; but the dispersions only had a tendency to drive the strikers to other points where they continued their depredations. Beside the regulars there was a small body of militia in the field. But, in spite of this force, the strikers seemed all powerful and masters of the situation; for when the city’s health was threatened by the stench that arose from the dead carcasses remaining uncarted away at the stockyards, the Mayor of Chicago, in order to have them removed by rail, was forced to appeal to Debs for permission to do so. Rioting also went on apparently unchecked. In the suburbs of Chicago numerous fires were seen blazing. The yard of the Panhandle Railroad Company was put to flames and a million dollars’ worth of property destroyed. The situation in Chicago, on July 6th was heralded by the San Francisco Daily Examiner thus:
FIRE AND PILLAGE
Wild Work of Destruction by
Thousands of Rioters
in Chicago
From Daylight to Midnight Mobs Hold
Possession of the Railroad Yards