R.B. Hayes—The Telephone—Railway Strikes—Elevated Railroads—War with the Nez Perce Indians—Remonetization of Silver—Resumption of Specie Payments—A Strange Fishery Award—The Yellow Fever Scourge—Presidential Election of 1878—James A. Garfield—Civil Service Reform—Assassination of President Garfield—Chester A. Arthur—The Star Route Frauds—The Brooklyn Bridge—The Chinese Question—The Mormons—Alaska Exploration—The Yorktown Centennial—Attempts to Reach the North Pole by Americans—History of the Greely Expedition.
THE NINETEENTH PRESIDENT.
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES (1823-1893)
One term, 1877-1881.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware County, Ohio, October 4, 1822, and was graduated from Kenyon College at the age of twenty years. In 1845 he completed his legal studies at Harvard University, and practiced law, first at Marietta, in his native State, then at Fremont, and finally in Cincinnati. He entered the military service, at the beginning of the war, as major, and rose to the rank of brevet major-general. His career as a soldier was creditable. While still in the service, in 1864, he was elected to Congress, and was governor of Ohio in 1867, 1869, and again in 1875. His popularity as chief magistrate of one of the leading States led to his nomination to the presidency, to which, however, it must be conceded, he had not a clear title. He died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.
President Hayes proved his desire to strengthen the fraternal feeling between the North and South by appointing as a member of his cabinet David McKey, his postmaster-general. Mr. McKey was from Tennessee, and had served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Hayes' administration on the whole was uneventful, though marked by a number of incidents which deserve mention. It was in 1877 that the first telephone for business purposes was put into use. It connected the residence of Charles Williams, in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his business office in Boston, three miles distant. Alexander Bell, of the latter city, was the inventor of the instrument, which is now in general use throughout the country, and serves to connect points more than a thousand miles apart.
RAILWAY STRIKES.
In the summer of 1877 occurred one of the most violent outbreaks among labor men that has ever been known in this country. There was unrest in the mining districts over the question of wages, and the dissatisfaction spread to the principal manufacturing points. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made a reduction of 10 per cent. in the pay of its employees it was followed, July 14th, by a partial strike on their line. The men had the sympathy of workmen throughout the country, and the strike spread to the Pennsylvania, Erie, New York Central, and their western connections, including the Missouri and Pacific, and a number of less important lines west of the Mississippi.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is one of the most intelligent and conservative labor organizations in the country. It has won the respect of corporations as well as of the community-at-large by its fairness and its refusal to engage in strikes, except as a last resort against grievances. Its members are located in all parts of the country, and include a good many thousands. In the strike named the Brotherhood took the lead, and the firemen, brakemen, and other railroad employees joined them. The result was the stoppage of the wheels of commerce and the ruin of vast amounts of perishable freight, to say nothing of the expensive delays of all kinds. The railroad companies called upon the various State authorities for protection in operating their lines, but, as is generally the case, the militia were either in sympathy with the strikers or were afraid of them. As a final resort, an appeal was made to the United States government, whose soldiers understand only one duty, that of obeying orders.