CHAPTER IX.
The Trouble in Pennsylvania.
Beginning of the Strikes—The Cause Assigned—The System of “Double Headers”—Formidable Character of the Movement—Freight Transportation Suspended—No Concessions—Measures of Repression Taken—Dangerous Indications in Pittsburgh.
Thursday morning, July 19th, 1877, the trainmen of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, apparently without previous agreement, refused to take out any freight trains from Pittsburgh. The strike was fairly inaugurated at that place. Not a freight train left the station that day. At night great strings of cars occupied the track between the city and the Stock Yards at East Liberty. The cause assigned by the men for their action was the determination of the Company to introduce what is known among railroad men as “double headers.” The effect of this system is to enable the Company to dispense with a number of employes, and impose the duties performed by them on those allowed to remain. The employes claim, that by a “double header,” which is two trains attached, with an engine to draw and one to push, that two trains were taken to Altoona, a distance of one hundred and sixteen miles from Pittsburgh, instead of one to Derry, which is forty-eight miles, which was formerly the run of a freight train crew, and regarded as a day’s work. Under the new system of “double heading,” two trains were required to be taken the whole distance to Altoona by one crew, of brakemen and that for a day’s work. This was regarded as a very great hardship by the trainmen, especially as they had been compelled to submit to a reduction of wages, amounting to ten per cent. which went into effect June first.
The action of the Company in reducing the wages and then immediately afterward attempting to impose double service on the men, aroused popular indignation outside of the ranks of the railroad men. Indeed the masses of the citizens of Western Pennsylvania believed that the Railroad Company was guilty of a flagrant act of oppression, and deserved the severest reprobation of every one possessing any conception of justice or sense of humanity. This wide spread sentiment among the people, gave to the strikers at once an immense moral strength, and went far to extenuate and excuse any acts of violence which they might commit in their efforts to obtain redress of wrongs which the public believed they endured. There is no evidence that the strike which commenced at the Pittsburgh freight yards had been pre-arranged by the trainmen.
The commencement of the troubles appear to have been the action of Conductor Ryan’s crew which was to have taken out an early freight train that morning. These men sent a message to the train despatcher, informing him that they would not take out their train. The despatcher then ordered two yard crews to take out the cars. The yard men declared “that the service required was not according to their engagement,” and declined to obey the order, when they were immediately dismissed from the service of the Company. Subsequently, Conductor Gordon sent two men to take out an engine, but by this time the two yard crews which had been dismissed, and Conductor Ryan’s crew which had struck were at the yard and positively refused to allow the men to run the engine out. Again an attempt was made by Gordon to send out an engine, but this time the strikers having been re-enforced drove the men away from the locomotive by stoning them.
After the trouble had once commenced at the outer depot, a party of the strikers at once proceeded to the East Liberty Stock Yards to have a conference with the train and yard men there, which resulted in the whole number of them joining in the strike. The trains were all run on sidings and left standing. The strikers then took complete possession of the main track, and stopped all freight trains whether bound east or west. In all cases the crews, of arrested trains, joined with the strikers. Before noon the striking trainmen had gained so rapidly in numbers that they could enforce any demand they might choose to make. A party of them proceeded to Brinton, the same evening, and stopped a west bound freight train at that point. Not a freight engine on the Pennsylvania Railway was suffered to be moved during the day in the vicinity of Pittsburgh.
That evening, at Phœnix Hall, on Eleventh street, a meeting of trainmen was held at which the following ultimatum, to be presented to the Company, was agreed upon, and a committee appointed to present it:
“1. The undersigned, a committee appointed by the employes of the of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railway, hereby demand from said Company, through its proper officers, the wages, as per departments, of engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen, received prior to June 1, 1877.
2. That each and every employe that has been dismissed for taking part or parts in the present strike, or meetings held prior to or during said strike, be restored to their positions held prior to the strike.
3. That the classification of each of said department be abolished now and forever hereafter; that engineers and conductors receive the same wages received by engineers and conductors of the highest class prior to June 1, 1877.
4. That the running of double trains be abolished, excepting coal trains.
5. That each and every engine, whether road or shifting, shall have its own fireman.”
The excitement had become intense along the line of the road. A brakeman named McCall had made an assault on one of the officials of the road, for which he was arrested. The strikers took sides with him and threatened to release him by force.
A meeting of all the workingmen of Pittsburgh was called to assemble on Friday evening. To this mass convention it was expected that representatives of every trade would come. The different trades-union of the city had already signified their hearty sympathy, and had made offers of moral and material support to the railroad strikers. Although the strike only commenced a few hours before, yet it had become formidable for mischief.
The Sheriff of Alleghany County, at the request of the railroad officials, about twelve o’clock at night visited the headquarters of the strikers at Twenty-eighth street, and ordered them to disperse. This they refused to do. Sheriff Fife remained there until after three o’clock in the morning, but his authority was defied. He was frankly informed that trains should not go out if they could prevent it, and they did not care for any posse he could muster, or any troops that could be brought against them. Finding the strikers were determined not to yield to the civil authorities, the Sheriff resolved upon appealing to the State Government for aid. Accordingly he sent a despatch to the Governor at Harrisburg, in which he recited that: A tumult, riot and mob existed on the Pennsylvania Railroad at East Liberty, and in the Twelfth Ward of Pittsburgh. Large assemblages of people were upon the Railroad, and the movement of freight trains either east or west was prevented by intimidation and violence, molesting and obstructing the engineers and other employes of the Railroad Company in the discharge of their duties. As the Sheriff of the county, he had endeavored to suppress the riot and had not adequate means at his command to do so, and he therefore requested the Governor to exercise his authority in calling out the military to suppress the same.
At 3:17 o’clock in the morning, Friday, Sheriff Fife received a despatch from Adjutant General James W. Latta, announcing that he had ordered Major-General Pearson to place a regiment of militia at his disposition to enforce compliance with the law.
About half-past three o’clock A. M., General Pearson was found, and having received the proper authorization from the Governor, he ordered “the Eighteenth Regiment to assemble at the Central Armory fully uniformed, armed and equipped for duty, at 6:30 A. M. Colonel P. N. Guthrie was ordered to report for duty with his command at the Union Depot, at seven o’clock sharp.”
At this time Governor Hartranft was absent from the State, he having gone to the West. The Lieutenant Governor, Hon. John Latta, acting Governor, declined to issue any proclamation on the ground that he had no constitutional right to do so. Notwithstanding this fact, some persons, presuming very largely on the ignorance of the strikers, hoping for good effects, prepared and had posted up everywhere along the road and about the yards, a bogus proclamation purporting to have been issued by Governor Hartranft. The strikers knowing that the Governor was not in the State, and that Secretary of State Quay, whose name appeared signed to the proclamation, was at Beaver, forty miles west of Pittsburgh, and knowing that the militia had no right to fire upon them, hailed the appearance of the bogus poster at seven o’clock Friday morning, with jeers and derision. Of course no respect to the injunction of the pseudo document was paid.
At noon, Friday, July 20th, the strikers, and other workingmen held a meeting in the yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which was attended by a vast throng of people. One of the railroad men mounted a box and read a despatch from Hornellsville, N. Y., signed by B. J. Donahue, announcing that the firemen and brakemen on the New York and Erie Road had quit work that morning. This piece of intelligence was received with the wildest demonstrations of satisfaction by the strikers and their friends.
Soon after, the Fourteenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Regiments of State Guards arrived and were stationed along the tracks. The strikers were nothing daunted by these military preparations. The crowd had grown into an immense multitude. On the engine which had drawn a train load of soldiers were General Pearson, Sheriff Fife and Superintendent Pitcairn of the Pennsylvania Company. The Sheriff immediately mounted the tender and read the Governor’s Proclamation, amid the hoots and cries of the spectators. He counselled peace, and assured them the law would be enforced, cost what it might. The crowd jeered at him, and when he descended General Pearson got on the tender, and addressing the crowd said there appeared to be a disposition to treat the matter lightly. He warned them that the affair was a very serious one. No man had more sympathy for them than he had; but he was under orders from the Governor, and those who knew him, knew that he would obey. He assured them that it was useless to attempt to further stop the working of the road; that the trains must go through. While he was speaking he was interrupted with cries of “Who are you?” “Give us bread,” and similar cries. When speaking of the trains, one man yelled out, “What trains? Passenger trains? Certainly we allow them to go through.”
“Yes,” said General Pearson, “and all other trains; even if they have nothing but pig metal in them, must be permitted to go.”
Another striker asked to be heard, and said he did not see why the military were there. The men had done no act of violence, he said, nor did they intend to do any. “Will you allow trains to go through?” asked the General. “No,” shouted half a dozen voices. One man said: “They might get through to Torrens; but God help the men on the trains after passing that point.”
The determined tone of the strikers in presence of the military forces, was well calculated to produce feelings of uneasiness in the minds of the railroad officials, and the civil and military authorities manifested much hesitation as to the course which should be pursued.
About one hundred and fifty men of the Eighteenth Regiment, under Colonel Guthrie, were sent to the East Liberty Stock Yards. Soldiers were also quartered at Torrens Station. At 2:30 o’clock that afternoon a multitude of strikers from the outer depot had collected at that point. They mingled freely with the soldiers, and gave them to understand that they would make short work with them if they attempted to interfere with their purposes respecting the running of trains. They energetically denounced General Pearson, and the military, and declared that if Pearson attempted to execute his threat to carry a train through, he would be shot. The disposition of the strikers at the Stock Yards was dangerous to the peace and safety of the community. They boldly declared their purpose to resist the military, in order to accomplish their object by keeping the road blockaded.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, a freight train arrived at Torrens, from the East, bearing some five hundred rough men, who immediately joined the multitude of strikers which had assembled at that place. A large number of tramps and vagrants had also collected at that point, and by six o’clock in the evening the strikers and their friends numbered not less than three thousand men, divided off into squads, acting with no little show of military discipline, under the direction of leaders, who evidently possessed good organizing capacity.
The scenes presented along the road from Pittsburgh to Torrens Station the night of the 20th, was sufficiently suggestive. There were some twenty miles of freight cars occupying the sidings, and at all the wayside stations were guards of soldiers, and great crowds of strikers and their friends. Camp fires gleamed in vacant lots, and the glare of torches, and twinkling lamps revealed the forms of men, moving about in the dusky darkness, some with murderous guns and glittering bayonets, and others—hard faced, and tawny men, without other weapons than their own strong arms. There was a murmur of voices, low and ominous, where groups of men had gathered to discuss the situation. Then occasionally the sentinels challenge rang out sharp and clear, above the multitudinous noises that tortured the night breeze. It was a strange spectacle in a land of liberty and in a time of peace!
By nine o’clock in the evening a crowd of at least ten thousand persons, the greater number of whom were sympathizers with the strikers, had assembled at the head of Twenty-eight street. The officers of the Railroad Company had expressed an intention to send out a freight train that night. The crowds threatened, and as it was evident that a collision could not be avoided, and as there was more than room for doubt that the military force would not be able to repel an assault, the design was given up.
All the chief officers of the Pennsylvania Company, except Colonel Thomas A. Scott, were now in Pittsburgh. Messrs. Cassatt, Gardiner and Pitcairn, had a conference with the leaders of the strike during the evening. It was protracted for some hours. The strikers refused to treat on any other basis than that presented in the ultimatum agreed upon by the meeting of strikers held on the 19th. The representatives of the road positively refused to make any concessions. They demanded from the employes an unconditional surrender. The result of the consultation was what might have been expected under these circumstances. Nothing was accomplished. The strikers returned to those whom they represented, and reported that all hope of an adjustment must be abandoned. It was then determined to fight it out on the line they had chosen. The railroad managers were equally determined. Thus the way was prepared for the startling events which soon occurred. Colonel Thomas A. Scott did not make an appearance at Pittsburgh during the continuance of the disorders. But he was in constant communication with his representatives in that place, and dictated the policy which was pursued by the Railroad Company. There are those who believe that Colonel Scott is responsible for the scenes which followed. He could have arrested the progress of the strike; he could have ended the conflict; he could have calmed the rising storm of heated passion; he could have swept away the volumes of human misery that were rolling on; he could have extinguished the little flame that threatened to become a conflagration; aye, with a word he could have stayed the stroke of the Angel of Death, which waited to descend upon scores of wretched beings, driven by hunger to desperation. But he would not. The words that would have produced peace then, were not spoken. The torch was prepared to fire the magazine; and Pittsburgh was doomed to undergo an ordeal of fire—to endure a reign of terror, and witness scenes of devastation and death.
Every moment the situation was becoming more critical. The strikers and their friends now outnumbered the soldiers three to one.
As yet there had been no collisions. The strikers mingled with the soldiers, and it already appeared that the soldiers were not altogether without sympathy for the strikers. The Adjutant General having been notified of the serious nature of the complications at Pittsburgh, and having received a pressing call for further assistance, ordered out the Sixth Division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, and at once departed from Harrisburgh for the scene of action. At Tyrone he was met by a telegram calling for Gatling guns. An order was at once telegraphed to Harrisburg for the shipment of two of these death dealing implements of war, together with thirty-four hundred rounds of ammunition. One of these guns was despatched from the Capital at eleven o’clock, and the other was forwarded the next morning.
The First Division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, under command of Major-General R. M. Brinton, was ordered from Philadelphia. This Division was composed of the First, Second, Third and Sixth Regiments, the Keystone Battery, City Troop, Black Hussars, Washington Greys, Weccacoe Legion, State Fencibles, and Grey Invincibles. These commands numbered about two thousand men; only about fourteen hundred however, could be assembled in time to take the train for Pittsburgh. General Brinton had established his headquarters at the League House, where he received reports and directed operations. This officer was ordered to report to General Pearson on his arrival at Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile the excitement in the city was increasing with every passing hour. Nothing like the intensity of feeling pervading the public mind had ever before been observed in that place—perhaps at no place and no time before in this country. The citizens of Pittsburgh, as a mass, were decided in expressions of sympathy with the strikers. The militia were everywhere execrated, and treated with derision by the people. Great masses of people thronged the streets; men and women, old and young, persons belonging to all classes, and occupying every station in life came out, and rushed back and forth with a nervous, objectless haste. The whole population seemed to be afflicted with a sort of inebriation of excitement.
It was evident that the spirit of the Internationalists was reveling with fiendish delight amid the scenes of tumult everywhere observable on the streets. Women taunted soldiers and encouraged the Canaille to deeds of violence. It was a repetition of the scenes witnessed in Paris in those terrible days when the Commune rose in 1871, only on a less scale. It was a new experience to meet with women in mobs. But they were abroad now, and exerted an influence for evil that can scarcely be estimated. All night the uproar was continued. Pittsburgh was fast becoming drunk with passion—dark, unrelenting devilish passion, that would hesitate to commit no crime, shrink not from any deed of horror. It was a night such as few had ever before lived through on this continent, not on account of what actually come to pass, but because of that which it foreboded as a culmination for such scenes.