Annals of the great strikes in the United States

Condition of the Country—The Duty of Patriotic Citizens—The Mistakes of Capitalists—The Faults of the Workingmen—The Poor Man’s Hopes the Rich Man’s Protection—The Conditions of Social Order.

Republican government in this country, has just been subjected to a strain greater than any which our system has been before required to sustain. It is true, that great armies were not organized to meet in the shock of battle as in the civil war between the North and South. Nor were powerful sections arrayed against each other. But the phases assumed by the recent conflicts are far more threatening to social organization and political stability, than was the terrible contest waged between sections from 1861 to 1865. In that collision, the North represented the idea of the organic unity of the several States of the Federal Government, the South the idea of State Sovereignty, but both represented the principles of social order, and contended for the reign of law. But we have witnessed an uprising of no mean magnitude, which represented nothing in common with the fundamental principles of Republican institutions. The history of the Great Strikes of 1877, affords materials for thought, a basis for the most profound reflections.

The causes which produced the results, so startling to the friends of liberal institutions, have not ceased to operate, and as a consequence the records of the events connected with the inception, progress and culmination of the disorders, must prove to be an interesting study to all thinking minds. The very foundations of American society have been disturbed; the whole political structure has been made to sway to and fro, as if about to be overthrown.

The strength, the fearful power, which stopped the wheels of commerce, closed the marts of trade, and threatened to engulf all wealth, institutions, social organization,—everything in the vortex of ruin, was not the offspring of a conspiracy, was not generated by elaborate planning, and did not result from mature deliberation. And in this very fact, the man of calm reflection discovers, not far ahead, the rocks on which the ship of State is likely to be driven—on which every hope of mankind may be wrecked. If it had been a deliberately planned and concerted movement; if those engaged in it had exhibited evidence of organization, then its failure would have given a better promise of enduring peace and order. But the spontaneity of the movement shows the existence of a wide spread discontent, a disposition to subvert the existing social order, to modify or overturn the political institutions, under which such unfavorable conditions were developed. Somewhere, there must be something radically defective either in the system, or in the manner of its control. Such spontaneous demonstrations by large masses of the people, as have been witnessed in the United States in the year 1877, do not take place without a sufficient cause. To discover that cause and take measures for its removal, is one of the first and most important duties required of the patriotic citizen.

Theories in abundance have been advanced; oracular assertions that this or that measure of the general government is responsible for the existing unrest, have been made; the convenient talk about shrinkage in values; the failure of the government to furnish the people with a sufficient supply of legal tender treasury notes; the payment of the interest on the National debt; the protective tariff; the demonetizing of silver, all these have been assigned as the cause of “hard times,” and to the “hard times,” as the immediate cause, the scenes described in this work are attributed. But are these sufficient to furnish an explanation satisfactory to the student of social science? Never before in this country—perhaps in no other country in the world—have so vast a number of men taken part in riots and strikes for increased wages. It was an impulsive, perhaps an imprudent outburst, and certainly it was characterized by violence and lawlessness, that cannot be palliated or excused. The supremacy of the law is an essential condition of social order, and without social order, the right to private property, the right to personal security cannot be assured. Social disorganization means political death. With the reign of anarchy commence the miseries of the people without distinction of class. In the throes of expiring society, all alike become victims.

But social disorders cannot take place in the midst of a prosperous community. The alarming movements of the present year are the logical results of the condition of society. They are but evidences of deep sufferings among a large class of the people of this country. Somewhere great wrongs have been committed, and society must pay the penalty for crimes. The study of the natural causes that govern the rate of wages, is a study of the causes that distribute wealth to the mass of mankind. Capitalists cannot afford to oppress laborers, because such oppression endangers their own security. It is a fact that in those countries where the highest wages are paid we find the highest type of civilization, and a more equal distribution of wealth. Where a large majority of the people are poor, the few who are rich cannot be assured of protection. It is in the power of those above to lift up those below; but it requires time for the operation of moral and natural causes, while it is but the work of a day for the lowest to drag down the highest. The first ripple of disturbance to the industry of the country is felt soonest by those nearest to destitution, and the problem is how to remove that small number from want, and thus ensure social security. This cannot be done except as wealth is more bountifully distributed to them through higher wages. The part of wisdom, it seems, should dictate such a policy by the owners of capital. The American people are not yet ripe for anarchy, because perhaps a majority of the adult population either have homes, or cherish the hope that they will have homes, and because of this interest in the government, they are the staunch friends of order, and the upholders of law. But neither government nor social order can be maintained when the majority of the people are homeless and hopeless. The poor man’s hopes are the rich man’s protection. The condition of Mexico may be cited as an illustration of the position here taken. A country containing a population of upwards of nine millions of souls is owned by less than a hundred thousand proprietors. What has been the result of this ill-distribution of wealth? The answer is, fifty years of anarchy. The poverty of the masses is fatal to the security of the wealthy proprietors. In Mexico wages are at least fifty per cent. less than the average in the United States. That country has sunk beneath, even the contempt of the most enlightened nations.

But the evil results of low-paid labor should be anticipated in good season, before it inundates and overwhelms the nation, and destroys every hope of a successful republic.

It is cheap labor, more than any other fact, that most endangers our institutions—cheap labor serving corporate wealth, intent upon nothing but more wealth. Here is where capitalists make the gravest mistake, and the great strikes of the present year should be taken as a wholesome warning. Capitalists consider their direct interest in the cheap labor they hire, and not their indirect interest in the dearer labor that buys what wealth wishes to sell.

The number of laborers who can buy, must be large, or many of those who produce to sell will have little or nothing to do. Buyers are as important, in order to have prosperity, as sellers; and those who buy are those who have something with which to pay. Poverty demoralizes, destroys self respect, and in time will make the honest laborer a dangerous member of society, by lowering his opinions. And this lowering of the opinions of the laboring class with respect to the mode in which they should live, is perhaps the most serious of all evils that can befall them. Let them once accept the alternative presented by Henry Ward Beecher, and undertake to exist upon “bread and water,” and become contented with such a condition, and they may bid a long adieu to anything better. It does not require a very profound observer to arrive at the conclusion that the best interests of society, the interest of the capitalists themselves, require that the rate of wages should be elevated as high as possible,—that a taste for comforts and enjoyments, should be widely diffused, and if possible, interwoven with national habits and prejudices.

But justice compels to the declaration that such has not been the policy of the managers of the great corporations in this country. They have persistently sought to reduce wages of the laborers, while at the same time there has been a gradual increase in salaries paid to the managers and their assistants. Thomas A. Scott while receiving one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars in salaries per annum, for managing property interests which in part belongs to himself, cannot very consistently insist upon a sum less than four hundred dollars per annum, as the proper compensation for the services of a man whose peculiar employment requires that he must be vigilant, prompt, and constantly exposed to danger. Then again, the system of watering stocks of railroads and other corporations, debars the managers from the privilege of pleading a failure to earn interest as an excuse for cutting down the wages of labor. Perhaps Wm. H. Vanderbilt is not able to secure ten per cent. interest on the stocks of the New York Central Railroad. But it must be remembered that the par value of the stocks of the New York Central Railroad, exceeds eighty-two thousand dollars per mile, or upwards of fifty-five thousand dollars per mile more than the cost of the road—more than the actual cash investment. It is quite possible that Mr. Vanderbilt would have no difficulty in earning a dividend of fifteen per cent. on the actual amount of money invested, and have enough earnings left to make a handsome dividend to every employe of the road.

And here we find the immediate, potent cause of the Great Strikes. Depression in business, but more important still, depression in transportation rates brought about by the jealousies and hostility to each other of Thomas A. Scott, John W. Garrett, and William H. Vanderbilt, rendering it necessary to reduce operating expenses in order to “make something,”—that is ten per cent. on their largely increased amount of stock. The lower order of laborers were first to feel the weight of this curtailment of income. Meanwhile the higher grades of employes were still receiving salaries not much less than were obtained ten years ago, when the whole country was enjoying unparalleled prosperity. The higher officers of companies received higher salaries in 1876 than they obtained in 1866, notwithstanding the immense change in values which had taken place.

The reduction of ten per cent. in the wages of laborers, which was made by a majority of the railway companies throughout the country during the first half of the year 1877, was sufficient to evoke the earnest protests of the men affected by the curtailment of their income. Had the reduction on all the roads which have cut the wages of their employes, taken effect at the same time, it is probable that a general strike would have taken place earlier in the season. But the date of reduction was not the same on any considerable number of the roads. Petitions and remonstrances from employes of railroad companies were received by their employers, but were wholly disregarded. A feeling of discontent was engendered, while the burden of “hard times” weighed more heavily upon workingmen.

The mine was already prepared, a spark only was necessary to cause an explosion. That was supplied by the action of the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The pressure put upon their employes elicited the spark, and the explosion followed. Commencing at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in less than three hours the strike was fully inaugurated, and had already reached Baltimore. The line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was completely invested by the strikers in less than twenty hours. From the Baltimore and Ohio Railway the strikes extended first to the Connellsville branch, then to the Pennsylvania system, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne, and other railways. In an incredibly short space of time, strikes had taken place in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. Fifteen thousand men were engaged in the strikes.

The whole country was profoundly agitated. The uprising had assumed a dangerous aspect. A feeling of alarm and dread quickly succeeded the first impulsive feeling of sympathy entertained by the masses for the strikers. The vast numbers engaged in the strikes against the railroads, their apparent determination, the general belief that they were well organized and prepared, produced a dangerous effect upon the idle and vicious classes in all the large cities. Labor unions were suddenly aroused into unwonted activity, and displayed alarming vigor. “The Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” which is but another name for the “International Association of Workingmen,” which has caused so much anxiety to the governments of Europe, came forth from its shadowy coverts, and what had been regarded as a phantom party, assumed a realistic attitude that caused a thrill of astonishment and terror to fall upon the urban populations of the country. Nothing to compare with the demonstrations of the Internationalists in all the larger cities, by day and by night, had, at any time, been witnessed in this country.

In less than four days after the commencement of the strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, no inconsiderable portion of the territory of the United States was in the hands of the strikers; transportation was embargoed; shops closed, factories deserted, and the great marts which but a few days before had been so noisy, had became silent as “banquet halls deserted.” Men remembered France, and the scenes of 1789–93, and trembled as they heard the tumult increase, and saw the mighty masses of strange, grimy men, excited by passions, dark and fearful, surging along the streets.

Then was flashed abroad over the land news of the fusilade at Martinsburg, and the conflict in the streets of Baltimore. Blood had been shed! Men wondered what would be the final outcome. The prevalent alarm was intensified. In many cases State and municipal authorities seemed to have been stricken by a paralysis of dread. Meanwhile, the strikes were increasing. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, and numerous other places began to feel the effects of the mighty wave of human passion which threatened to engulf all in a common ruin.

Pittsburgh was doomed to feel the most terrible blow from the mob or the Internationals. The news of the conflict between the militia and the rabble; the temporary success of the latter, and the immense destruction of property which followed, was received by the whole country with amazement and grief. The sympathies of the masses of the people, which had unquestionably been with the railroad strikers, was now withdrawn in a measure. Even the strikers themselves felt constrained to disown the elements who had made an opportunity of their necessity, to create a reign of terror throughout the land. The reaction against the strikers, and those who claimed to be their allies, was positive and practical. Men sprung to arms with a feeling that it was necessary to protect the sanctity of their own homes. The spirit of turbulence evoked by the strikers must be crushed.

Such were the sentiments which actuated the men, who hastily banded themselves together in companies, battalions and regiments, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri. Within less than six days, an army of citizen-soldiers had been created in the states named, which in the aggregate numbered more than sixty thousand men, armed and equipped, ready for service.

Meanwhile the Internationalists were not idle. The railroad men’s strikes was made their opportunity. The atmosphere of social disorder favored their designs. M. K. Goldsmith, Secretary of the National Board of Supervisors of the American branch of the order, from his headquarters in Hartford, placed himself in immediate communication with the local Sections, all over the country for the purpose of advising and encouraging them. Citizens P. Van Patten and Geo. Schilling, of Chicago, who are prominent members of the organization, were also warmly enlisted in the cause of the “Party;” while in St. Louis, Curlin, Curtis, Cardell, Ratz, Porter, Cope and Sykora, held daily and nightly meetings, to induce the proper degree of enthusiasm among the masses of workingmen. In New York, Justus Schwab, John Swinton, Michael Doyle, Paul Kaiser, Frank Coufal and Frank Bartosek, organized a great mass meeting in Tompkins Square, where the principles of the Internationalists were elaborately discussed.

Indeed, the three hundred and sixty-five sections of American, German, French, Bohemian and Scandinavian Internationalists, located in twelve states of the Union, were all active.

The appearance of this organization as allies of the strikers, had much to do in alienating public sympathy from that class of the workingmen, who it was believed, had a just cause to strike. It is also certain that the bold utterances, and audacious demands of the Internationalists, stimulated the organization of military forces adequate to the work of suppressing all disorders.

The history of the movements alluded to in these introductory pages must prove deeply interesting to the student of American social institutions. It is well to preserve it. Perhaps there may be other and even greater strikes, but it is improbable that this country will ever be visited again by a movement so spontaneous, yet so vigorous and threatening. A great danger has apparently passed. As a nation, we should profit by the warning it affords.