Soldiers and Strikers—Fears Realized—From Baltimore to Chicago—Pittsburgh Affected—The Pennsylvania Railway Embargoed—Intense Excitement Throughout the Country—Successful Emissaries—Immense Extent of the Labor Movement.
The apprehensions entertained by those who had carefully fully watched the progress of the uprising among the working classes, were verified by the developments of the 19th of July. Martinsburg, West Virginia, was still the center of interest on the morning of that day, but before the close of the day so many events had occurred; so many movements had been commenced; so widespread had become the disaffection among the workingmen in every department of industrial enterprise, that it was impossible to foretell with any degree of certainty in what direction to look for the next startling denouement.
General French had arrived at Martinsburg in command of a considerable body of regular troops at six o’clock in the morning, and had established his headquarters in a Pullman palace car on the track in front of the Berkeley House. About fifty men of the Matthews Guard had come up the road from Cumberland, and were quartered in one of the machine shops of the Railroad Company, awaiting the arrival of the regulars from Washington. The night trip of the special train, bearing General French and his command, was accomplished without any attempt to interfere with its progress. Great caution, however, was observed, and the time required to complete the journey was greatly extended. The mass of strikers and their friends at that place received the regulars without demonstrations of any kind. The soldiers were drawn up in line. The order was given to open cartridge boxes. This movement created something of a sensation among the sullen, ragged assemblage of negroes and strikers, and the mass shrank back at the revelation of leaden balls contained in those boxes. The battalion was then marched to one of the railway machine shops, which they occupied as barracks. Seventy-three locomotives with their trains were at this time held at Martinsburg. The strikers manifested no disposition to resist the military forces of the United States. The Railroad Company undertook to send out a number of the embargoed trains after the arrival of the military, but experienced great difficulty in finding men to run them, notwithstanding the protecting presence of the soldiery. As many as five men were engaged to fire on one train, and each in succession deserted before the train had proceeded to the outer limits of the town. The Railway Company found itself in a position which justified offering any terms which might be demanded, to men willing to run their trains. But no men were to be obtained.
About ten o’clock an attempt was made to start a freight train from Martinsburg toward Baltimore. A locomotive was fired up, while guarded by the military; a large company of strikers had assembled; the Sheriff was present with a posse; an engineer named Bedford was found willing to go, and he mounted to the cab. But he did not run the train out. The strikers did not menace or threaten, and yet he failed to remain at the post of duty he had assumed. Just as the train was about to move away Bedford’s wife rushed from the crowd, mounted the engine, and with agonizing cries besought him to leave the position. The engineer heeded the entreaties, and departed from the engine, followed by the fireman, which conduct elicited prolonged cheers from the strikers and their sympathizers. Another engineer was found, but he too was entreated to give up the undertaking and yielded. William M. Clements, General Agent of the Company at Locust Point, then boarded the engine and proceeded on the road to Baltimore without interruption, probably due to the fact that twenty regulars were on board. During the day two other trains, one bound East, and the other West, were despatched, after much difficulty experienced in finding men willing to serve as engineers and firemen. But the blockade was not raised. The Railway Company had all the military protection that could be desired, but men could not be procured to operate the trains, for any consideration. Money was powerless to accomplish the wishes of the managers, at least for the present. It was easy to guard property; easy to prevent violence by a show of force; easy to assure protection to willing hands, but there was no law to compel men to work if they did not choose to do so. Here military force was a failure.
Early in the day General French caused to be printed a large number of copies of the President’s proclamation for distribution among the people. The police and constabulary were entrusted with the duty of distributing them. But this work seems to have been unproductive of results.
At two o’clock in the afternoon orders were given to clear the tracks of the railway at Martinsburg, and a squad of about twenty regulars under Lieutenant Lewis, proceeded to execute the order. No resistance was offered. The strikers quietly retired to the high grounds overlooking the yards and tracks, and good naturedly watched the movements of the soldiers. During the day a meeting of the strikers was held, at which it was decided to demand two dollars per day for firemen and brakemen, and no reduction of the salaries of engineers and conductors. A committee was appointed consisting of a fireman, brakeman, engineer and conductor, to confer with similar committees of all other sections.
An attempt was made during the day to arrest ten of the ringleaders of the strikers, on a charge of inciting to riot. Warrants for their apprehension were issued and placed in the hands of Sheriff Naderbusch for service. That officer summoned a posse and procured the services of a person named Engelrecht to act as a guide, and point out the persons accused. Going into the throng of strikers, they were quickly surrounded and Engelrecht, being menaced, refused to designate the men, and the attempt failed. No personal violence was offered the Sheriff or his men.
Later in the day, the arrest of Richard Zepp, supposed to be the master spirit among the strikers, was effected by the Sheriff. Zepp was committed to jail and a strong guard placed about it. He is a native of Martinsburg, is about twenty-five years old, is regarded as a man of undoubted courage and determination, and has served as a brakeman on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for the last five years. In person, he is rather below the medium height; is decidedly prepossessing in appearance, and is a man of more than average intelligence. He is not addicted to strong drink; is fond of amusement; generally quiet in demeanor, and is exceedingly popular among his acquaintances. He has a wife and one child, who reside at Martinsburg. Before night Zepp was released from confinement by giving bail. He is said to be a man of no small executive ability, and is reputed to have furnished the intelligence for the Martinsburg strikers.
An important meeting of unemployed workingmen, was held at Cumberland, at which more than five hundred persons were present. The proceedings were quiet and orderly, notwithstanding efforts made by some of the speakers to arouse the men by inflammatory appeals.
The most noteworthy of these addresses was made by John D. Jones, who declared that the masses of the people had been plundered and robbed by the knaves and scoundrels who had grown rich by stealing from the poor men the produce of their labor. He thought it was time the down-trodden masses should rise in their majesty and execute vengeance. The ill-timed speech was not received with favor. Another speech not much less inflammatory was delivered by Bernard O’Donnell. It was announced that about twenty families of persons out of employment through no fault of their own, were actually in a condition verging on starvation. Information to the effect that citizens of Cumberland had contributed in money and provisions about one hundred and ten dollars for the relief of the destitute was laid before the meeting.
The animus of the speeches at this meeting is the feature which renders a notice of it important in this place. It was a wide spread belief among a large class of people in the lower ranks of society, who were reduced almost to starvation, that they had been wronged and oppressed beyond all endurance, that made the scenes witnessed in so many of the great cities of the country possible. It was an out-cropping of the dreadful doctrines of the Commune which subsequently played so important a part in the great popular commotion accompanying the labor strikes.
At Parkersburg the feeling among the employes had become very bitter against the Railway Company. They claimed that the Company was in arrears with the men, and it was unpardonable to cut their wages under such circumstances. The shops of the Company were closed at that point, and more than two hundred men connected with the road were thrown out of employment.
During the day about two hundred canal-boatmen, the most turbulent strikers who had yet appeared, proceeded from Cumberland to Martinsburg, and afterward proceeded to Sir John’s Run, twelve miles east of the last named point, and there established themselves, and proclaimed their purpose to either stop or wreck all trains that attempted to pass.
At Grafton the number of the strikers was constantly increasing. No freight trains were allowed to pass East or West. The strikers established headquarters in Brinkman’s Hall, where an important council was held between committees representing all the sections of the road.
The firemen and brakemen employed on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Newark, Ohio, numbering one hundred and fifty, struck on account of the 10 per cent. reduction, and proceeded to lay an embargo on all freight transportation. Officers of the road immediately applied to Governor Young for protection and assistance. The strikers at this point assumed an equally determined attitude with their brethren of West Virginia and Maryland. M. L. Dougherty, master of traffic on the Ohio division, had a conference with the Newark strikers, and offered to pay the old rates to such of the men as would volunteer to go out with trains. The offer was declined.
Governor Matthews having called for volunteers to suppress the rioters, twelve men who had responded to the call, were sent to Martinsburg with a militia company. Arrived there they refused to serve against the strikers, and in disgust returned to their homes.
President John W. Garrett, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company, forwarded to President Hayes a rather singular document. In this he has “the honor to urge” the President to comply with the formal request of the Governor of West Virginia. The document is sufficiently remarkable to justify the transfer of a copious extract from it to these pages. The Railway King wrote to the President of the United States:
“I am informed that Governor Matthews, of West Virginia, has telegraphed your excellency that, owing to unlawful combinations and domestic violence now existing at Martinsburg and at other points along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it is impossible for any force at his command to execute the laws of the State, and has therefore called upon the government for the assistance of the United States military in this great and serious emergency. I have the honor to urge that the application of Governor Matthews be immediately granted. It is impossible for the Company to move any freight train because of the open intimidation of the strikers, and the attacks that they have made upon the men in the service of the Company who are willing to work. Unless this difficulty is immediately stopped I apprehend the gravest consequences, not only upon our line, but upon all lines in the country, which, like ourselves, have been obliged to introduce measures of economy in these trying times, for the preservation of the effectiveness of railway property. May I ask your excellency, if the application of Governor Matthews be granted, to have me immediately advised, through the Secretary of War, of the points from which troops will be sent, in order that no delay may occur in their transportation. If I may be permitted to suggest, Fort McHenry and Washington are the points nearest to the scenes of disturbance, and from which a movement can be made with the greatest promptness and rapidity. It is proper to add that from full information on the subject, I am aware that the Governor of West Virginia has exerted all means at his command to suppress this insurrection, and that this great national highway can only be restored for public use by the interposition of United States forces. From an imperative sense of duty I am impelled to join in asking immediate action in order to prevent the rapid increase of difficulties in the use of the lines between Washington city and Baltimore and the Ohio river.”
A meeting of miners in the Piedmont district was held on the 19th, at which strong resolutions of sympathy with the railroad strikers were adopted. The miners promised support and substantial assistance to the railroad men.
At Baltimore, no important demonstration took place. The strikers were comparatively quiet, apparently awaiting the turn of events in other parts of the country.
July 19th, 1877, will long be remembered by the students of American history as being the day in which the opening events in a tragic episode of destruction and death took place at Pittsburgh. During the day not a train of freight cars was moved on the line of the Pennsylvania Central Railway. The strike had extended to the employes of that great thoroughfare. But the story of events connected with it must be reserved for a future chapter of these annals.
The Great Strike at the close of the fourth day of its existence extended from Baltimore to Chicago, and the general alarm was becoming more intense with the flight of every hour.
The situation was becoming extremely critical. It was now evident that other elements than railroad employes were destined to take part in the conflict. Mechanics, artisans and laborers in every department of human industry began to show symptoms of restlessness and discontent that boded no good to the country. All day, the 19th, committees and representatives of workingmen’s associations and unions, and societies, were holding meetings for conference at Baltimore, at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Reading, Scranton, Grafton, Wheeling, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, in fact in every center of population and seat of commerce from the Atlantic shores to the base of the Rocky Mountains. What did these semi-mysterious conferences mean? There is not in existence a particle of evidence that there was concert of action between the different branches of the wage-receiving classes, previous to the strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. It appears then, that the careful preparations going on to engage in general strikes was a spontaneous movement, generated of wide spread and deep seated discontent among the entire laboring classes of the United States.
To complicate matters still further, the speeches and addresses made at meetings and conferences held during this day, fore-shadowed the appearance on the scene of an element of all others, the most to be dreaded—the Internationalists, and Communistic Societies. It was evident before the close of the fourth day of the strike, that the mobs in every large city in the land were preparing for action; that they were desperate, and that they would not hesitate to inaugurate a reign of terror more dreadful than that which appalled the civilized world in France. There had been no conflict of arms during the day, but the smouldering volcano gave token of an eruption. It was the quiet that precedes the devastation of the tornado. Before another day closed the storm had burst in all its fury, and the American people entered upon their eight days experience of a reign of terror.