CHAPTER III.
FIRST DAY OF THE STRIKE.
The 26th day of June was awaited with more than ordinary interest by the people of Chicago on account of the proposed boycott.
The first train to leave Chicago handling Pullman cars was the Chicago and Erie Buffalo Express, and hundreds of men gathered to witness the departure at 2:55 P. M.
It started out on time with several Pullmans attached and several Pinkerton detectives on board. This was owing to the fact that it had been made up before the time set for the boycott to go into effect, but drawbars had been chained together and fastened with padlocks as a safeguard against cutting out the Pullman cars. Everyone was anxious to see if the engineer would pull it out. All doubt was soon set at rest however, as the engine backed onto the train and started out on time as usual. The crowd then waited to see if the next train, the Limited Express, on the Grand Trunk, due to leave at 3:10 P. M., would meet with the same success, and after seeing this train also pull out on time, the crowd dispersed.
The trains on the Monon Route, Santa Fe, and Eastern Illinois also departed with their accustomed regularity and without interference, and at 6.00 o'clock, as every train was running on time, Mr. Pullman and the railway officials were quite jubilant at what they considered a complete failure of the American Railway Union to perform the task it had undertaken. But inside of three hours they were doomed to disappointment, for at that time not a wheel was turning on the Illinois Central with the exception of express trains that had been started before the strike was ordered.
The strikers might have stopped the Diamond Special which leaves at 9:00 P. M., but through consideration for the passengers who had already purchased berth tickets, and adhering strictly to the instructions of their leaders to do nothing to discommode the travelers who in all probability were not acquainted with the existing state of affairs, this train was allowed to proceed. The strike that paralyzed the traffic of the entire country was started in this manner. Early in the afternoon a committee of five switchmen, employed on the Illinois Central, made their appearance at the headquarters of the American Railway Union in the Ashland block, to learn authoritatively the nature and purpose of the order issued requiring them to refuse to switch the cars of the Pullman Company, as the instructions received by them through Organizer Meyers of the union, were not sufficiently definite, so they claimed, to warrant their resisting the railroad company, and forfeiting their positions by such action. The switchmen, they said were willing to help the Pullman strikers, but they wished to know to a certainty what was expected of them. The directors of the union immediately held a conference with the delegates the result of which was an order to strike if the company insisted on them switching the Pullman cars. Those who were not members of the American Railway Union were guaranteed equal protection if they joined the strike, and the result was a complete tie up of the Illinois Central R. R.
The Chicago Times, in an article next morning, said that for rapidity of conception and execution this strike which probably involves five thousand men, beats anything of the kind on record, and in the same article says: the efforts to sidetrack the cars of the Pullman company yesterday was carried on with strict conformity to law and order.