The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 3

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast. And I can't give you many names,
and joy a blunder. Look, I'm Raisling, I'm got the

(00:24):
ba A long struggle for freedom. It then he is
a revolution. In our last episode, inspired by the actions
of workers for the Biino Railroad in West Virginia and Maryland,
workers for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Pittsburgh went on strike,

(00:47):
following the leader there, Bino Fellows by stopping all free
trains from leaving the city. The railroad then responded by
having National Guardsmen shipped in from Philadelphia, explicitly because the
one of a force of soldiers who would be willing
to shoot into a crowd, which is exactly what happened
on the twenty first of July, killing twenty and wounding
another twenty nine. The crowd then responded to these murderous

(01:09):
acts by first driving these Saudiers into a nearby roundhouse
and ultimately pursuing them out of the city, while also
setting fire to and destroying all the Pennsylvania Railroads property
in the yard, from their buildings to their locomotives and
train cars. Newspapers around the country would then respond, as
you might expect, they were horrified by these events. However,

(01:29):
they were not horrified by the actions of the guardsmen
or by the deaths of the people in the crowd,
But instead they were horrified by the actions of the crowd.
As apparently, nothing terrifies in the media more than destruction
of property and the masses actually realizing their power. Indeed,
the New York Times would cry out, quote, God help
us if these are the rewards of freedom, while the

(01:50):
Washington National Republican would raise the alarm by proclaiming, quote,
we are now in the presence of a great danger
which threatens to overthrow all law and social order, and,
if not checked, to destroy our civilization itself and plunge
the country into barbarism. As again, these papers were not
worried about the soldiers shooting at people, about the response
to the people who were getting shot and killed by

(02:11):
the state. The Nations coverage further proves this, as they
wrote that quote, the time has never been more proprietous
for a rising of the worst elements. As you see,
they were worried about these quote unquote worst elements, not
the agents of the state killing people. Now keep in
mind that almost all the killing had been done by
the soldiers, and all the property damage which had happened

(02:33):
after the soldiers started killing people had been restrained to
property owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. These were wild and
chaotic acts then, but revenge, they're writed at a very
specific target. This then was an anarchy, as another paper,
the Missouri Republican, would claim, but self defense. In fact,
after that night of reprisals and a day of general
rightiness in Pittsburgh, things calmed down in the city as

(02:56):
the people more or less restored order themselves, as he
striking workers and citizen volunteers took control these situation. Indeed,
while sure there had been some looting during the course
of these events, the vast majority on the things that
were looted came from the railcars that were going to
be destroyed by the spreading flames. Anyway, the response by
the press, though, was not the least bit shocking. As

(03:18):
the Iron Molders Journal had written a month before this quote,
it is not surprising that the press of the country
is against trade unions. It could hardly be expected that
the newspapers of an enemy in any conflict would do
justice to both sides. It was patley obvious then to
any paying attention whose side the media was on. Indeed,
the Iron Molders Journal would call the press the quote

(03:40):
worst enemy we have just one week before the labor
uprising get started. Meanwhile, the events of the twenty first
only seemed to make the people of Pittsburgh more defiant,
as employees of the National Tube Works would respond by
walking off the job and joining the striking railroad workers.
And they weren't alone either, as when they walked past
neighboring mills, workers inside were inspired by the tomb workers

(04:02):
and also walked off the job, shutting down those bills
as well, meaning that in Pittsburgh alone, thousands of railroad workers,
coal miners, and iron and steel workers had all joined
forces in a massive, unified strike. As they did so,
the workers made it clear that despite what the newspapers
around the country would have their readers believe, the violence
and instruction was not the fount of the workers, but

(04:24):
was instead completely due to the actions of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company and the men who ran it. As he
issued a statement that read quote, we wish the public
to distinctly understand that before and since the destruction of
property and loss of life. We have done our part
seeking a conference to settle the differences between us and
the company, but we have not been deemed worthy of

(04:45):
an answer in this The Pittsburgh Post, unlike many other
publications around the country, was on the side of the workers,
as it would publish an editorial entitled quote why not
Arbitration that encouraged the company to come to the marketing
table in the name of restoring the peace in order
that everyone seemed so worried about. However, Thomas A. Scott,
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had no interest in compromising,

(05:09):
as he wanted the military to settle this issue. Meanwhile,
in spite of the worries of the nation's newspapers, many
around the country, even after the events of the twenty
first in Pittsburgh, still sympathized with the striking railroad workers. Indeed,
among those unexpectedly signing with the workers were businessmen in
Cincinnati who reportedly stated that they were willing to pay
higher freight rates in order to give the many decent wage.

(05:32):
Now one of the main reasons why support for the
workers remained so strong even in the face of the
dreaded destruction of property that so often causes many to
clush their pearls was because people in those days had
a healthy, fearly growing power of corporations and railroads were
some of the most prominent examples of this relatively new
phenomenon in the United States. However, before I go any

(05:54):
further into the unfolding events of the Great Strike of
eighteen seventy seven, first, like always, I want to give
credit to my sources for this series, which include Philip A.
S Phoner's The Great Labor Uprising of eighteen seventy seven,
David O. Stalwast The Great Strikes of eighteen seventy seven,
and Robert V. Bruce's eighteen seventy seven euro Violence. And
like always these in any additional sources like websites that

(06:16):
I used, will be available on this podcast Bluesky and
KOFE pages plaus for anyone who doesn't want to be
bothered skipping through commercials. There is always an add free
feed available to subscribers at patreon dot com slash Distorted History.
And with all that being said, let's begin the last
time that we saw Robert Ammon, the young man who
had unexpectedly risen to the role of the chief organizer

(06:38):
of the attempted trainman's union. He had been fired from
his job with the railroad for said union organizing activities,
and which point he had taken a job in the
oil fields and left Pittsburgh a day before the strikes
started there. When the news broke, though, Aman would return home,
at which point was called upon to assist. Not the
men of the Pennsylvania Railroad in town bought the workers

(06:58):
for the Fort Wayne in Chicago line in Alleghany, Amn
would accept the request and head out to Alleghany City,
another railroad hub, to take the lead in guiding their
strike efforts there. The workers in Alleghany then accepted AMA's
advice to not use violence in preventing the trains from moving,
even going so far as to agree to let the
freight trains go through if the company could actually get

(07:19):
enough men to run them, something they were betting they
wouldn't be able to do, and indeed it seems that
they were right now. It has to be said that
the strike in Alleghany under Aman's leadership was seemingly quite
well organized, as the men worked in chiffs so as
to guard the ten miles of freight trains that they
had brought to a halt. In doing so, a moan
for their assured the mayor of the city that he

(07:40):
and the workers would protect the railroad's property, which earned
them a promise in return for the mayor that he
would not call for troops. A mon would prove to
be so cooperative, in fact, that the mayor even dispatched
twenty five constables to aid these strikers in their efforts
to guard the captured freight cars. This cozy relationship, though,
looked about the fracture when words are circulating around town

(08:01):
that the National Guard were coming to Alleghany. This wasn't
just idle chatter either, as all around the state some
eight hundred and seventy officers and nine thousand men were
being called to actions. So it was to deal with
the various strikes taking place. In response to the strikers started
digging trenches and building barricades in preparation, as he also
armed themselves with bricks and guns. These soldiers, though, never

(08:23):
came to Alleghany, as one company of National guardsmen find out,
rejected the call to arms, effectively mutinying, while the other
companies that actually answered their call were hampered by the
fact that they were using trains for transportation. Eleving companies,
for example, would be stranded on their way to their
various destinations when railroad workers, some of whom weren't even
on strike, removed the engines from their trains. Meanwhile, in

(08:45):
cities all across the state, from Harrisburg to Altuna to
Philadelphia itself, workers went on strike and were supported by
crowds of people who often contributed a layer of chaos
to events. In Philadelphia. For example, brakman and firemen would
walk off the job, knowing as they did the engineers
had also opted to not signing no strike pledge. Seeing
workers in his own backyard go on strike, Thomas A. Scott,

(09:07):
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, then opted to halt
all freight traffic for the time being. That being said,
tensions in Philadelphia would be nowhere near as bad as
those in Pittsburgh as well. The people of Pittsburgh saw
the Pennsylvania as their enemy. The people of Philadelphia tended
to see the railroad as their own since it was
headquartered in their city, so there is not the same

(09:28):
widespread resentment for the railroad as that which existed at
the other end of the state. Further tipping the skills
in the favor of the railroad was the city's mayor,
William S. Stukeley, who was reportedly one of the railroad's
largest stockholders. As such, he was not just going to
sit back and allow the city to venice frustrations against
the railroad he was so heavily invested in, especially since

(09:50):
he had a history of assisting and breaking strikes using
his police force. As such, when a crowd of five
hundred or so people stopped an oil train, Stokely responded
by the disperse in the crowd with a charge from
his police force. With that dun the mayor then courted
off the railroads depot to prevent any further interference. Yet,
even as he was unleashing his police force, Stuckley was

(10:12):
also wiring Washington to ask for assistance, to which Secretary
of Ward George McCrae, who himself had deep ties to
the railroads, would respond quote, troops will be immediately placed
in Philadelphia under command of General Hancock to meet any emergency,
and the President will exert every constitutional power to restore
order and protect property. As a result, while some six

(10:33):
railcars would be set up blazed the following day, the
combined military and police forces in the city ensured that
no others would suffer a similar fate quote unquote. Peace
was then kept in Philadelphia through the use of fourteen
hundred armed police, two thousand special police, seven hundred Federal troops,
five hundred men from the Veteran's Corps, and one hundred
and twenty five marines. Meanwhile, running Pennsylvania was the headquarters

(10:56):
of the Philadelphia Reading Coal and Iron Company, and the
filled in Reading Railroad now was mentioned back in episode one.
Gown was a union buster extordinaire who had helped to
take down the mythical Molly Maguire's and had also defeated
the engineer's brotherhood back in April. As you might expect, then,
the mood here between the workers and management was not
what you would call good. Indeed, a song was spreading

(11:18):
among the people reading, which included the lyrics quote there's
an army of strikers determined, you'll see, who will fight
corporations till the country is free. Meanwhile, the cities leading paper,
The Daily Eagle, would write that everything that was happening
was due to the cruelty and greed of the railroad
corporations as they cut wages to the point where their
workers could not survive. Writing that quote, the last turn

(11:40):
of this grew cut into the live flesh, and they
rebelled against the extortions and tyranny other corporations which used
their enormous capital for their own ends, regardless all the
rights and suffering of the working people. In the paper's opinion,
then the workers had been left with little choice but
to react the way they had over the course of
these events, because they really had no other recourse. Since

(12:01):
the corporation's quote, have they law on their side, the
only legislatures they retained the ablest lawyers they can shall
most of the newspapers and manufacture public opinion, and that
the labour's protesting the only way that has left to
them to assert their manhooding attend for the rights of
human nature and American citizenship. They are branded as writers,
met by force of arms, provoked to violence, and then

(12:22):
shot dead. It's almost like they listened to this entire
series already suffices to say, then that the mood in
reading was not good, and nor was it helped out
by the fact that even those who still worked for
Gowan's companies had not been paid since May. Gowan, though,
was similarly not worried, what with all the success he'd
had in breaking up union efforts in the past. Yet

(12:43):
despite these efforts see chain men's unions organizing had been
quite successful in reading, which meant basically all Gowan had
accomplished was to create a powder cake of angry workers
just waiting for a spark. These angry men then only
grew more enraged when they read the news coming out
of Pittsburgh. Indeed, there had already been talk of following
the example that b and ol workers in Marnsburg, so

(13:05):
the news of the National guardsmen shooting into crowds of
people and killing at least twenty in Pittsburgh at the
behest of the railroads seemed to push some over the edge.
We see this when the day following the events in Pittsburgh,
something like twenty five to fifty men, with their faces
black with coal dust and armed with suchhammers, crowbars, picks,
and coil, proceeded to jam switches by hammering rocks and

(13:25):
wooden blocks into the sidding rails, while also tearing up
the rails themselves in some spots as he threw both
the timber and rails aside, then whither added. These men
also derailed a coal car and set a pair of
cabooses on fire. Doing so, a wide crowd of some
two thousand people watched on and prevented firefighters from intervening. Meanwhile,
as this was going on, twenty or so members of

(13:46):
the crowd, with the help of some members of the
Engineered Brotherhood, headed down to the Lebanon Valley Bridge, which
spanned the Schoolkill River, where, using bottles of cotton waste
and a big can of coil, they set fire to
the wooden parts of the structure, leaving behind its stone
piers and five brick arches. Now you may be wondering
what the local police were doing as all of this
was happening, while, as it turns out, they had no

(14:08):
interest in interfering, especially since wimmers were swirling that sure
Fife had been murdered due to his actions against these
striking workers in Pittsburgh, rumors which actually weren't true, as
Fife was fine, although his neighbors and the people of
Pittsburgh in general had made it clear that it would
probably be best for him and his family to leave. So,
with the police not intervening, the local National Guard, the

(14:29):
Reading Rifles were called to arms. However, they responded to
this call by saying that while they would report for
duty if they were ordered to fire upon the crowd,
they would not do so because they were working men
and they had no desire to kill other working men. So,
with the local National Guard force being unwilling to kill
their neighbors, at the insistence of Franklin Gowen, several companies

(14:50):
of the fourth National Guard Regiment were sent in. Now,
when I say it was done upon the insistence of Gowan,
the head of the Reading Railroad, I mean it was
his request and his request alone that saw the soldiers
sent in, as apparently none of the local civil authorities,
including the head of the police, were consulted, much less
informed of their coming. The company then had simply requested

(15:10):
troops as if they were the only authority that existed
or mattered, and it seemed as if they were right now.
Among this force of National guardsmen was a group known
as the Eastern Grays, who wouldn't be sent to clear
a train car that was obstructing the tracks along Seventh
street in the heart of a poor neighborhood. Predictably, the
Eastern Grays were then met, upon arriving at their destination

(15:30):
by a sizeable crowd of individuals, many of whom were
jobless and pissed off. Indeed, this was primarily a crowd
of people who had gathered there to harass the trains
as they went by. As such, this group had a
ready supply of Breck's rocks and reportedly even some boulders
piled up along the tracks as these soldiers arrived. However,
these projectiles, which had been meant for passing trains, were

(15:51):
aimed instead at the National Guardsmen. When the Guardsmen pressed
four and then in tunnel moving the train car as
it had been ordered, brex Stone's chamber pots and their
contents were all launched at the troops. Now to their credit,
the officers in charge, despite foolishly ordering their men forward,
still made sure to repeat the order their men not
to fire, although they had ordered them to load their

(16:12):
weapons before proceeding forward, as if in anticipation of giving
them the order to shoot civilians. Twenty soldiers would then
be wounded due to the various rocks and even the
occasional pistol shot fired in the direction, yet still the
officers ordered them to press on, all the while also
ordering them not to shoot. Despite this, one of the
guardsmen still fired his rifle, and in doing so others

(16:33):
joined in following his lead. While this gunfire successfully dispersed
the crowd for a time, another soon formed, and when
it did, bricks and the various other projectiles began flying
through the air at the troops once again, at which
point these soldiers responded by firing yet another volley, killing
many who stood in their way. In all, six were
killed and another twenty more were wounded by these actions.

(16:55):
To be clear, though, few of those shot by these
soldiers had been active participants in these events. For example,
one man had been two bucks away simply walking up
town when he was shot, while five cops who had
been standing nearby guarding a crossing were also among the wounded,
and one was even among those killed. After this second
volley of gunfire, people then fled the area, trampling the

(17:15):
bodies of the dead and wounded as they went. It
was then during this break in the action that the
soldiers asked some nearby cops to open fireplugs so they
could get some murder. The police, however, who had seen
what happened and may have even been the victims of
some of their panicky bullets, had no interest in assisting
these men, and some of these soldiers returned to the
depot from whence they had come. Now to be clear

(17:36):
the crowd who had been shot at, and not just
run and hide. Instead, they responded to getting shot at
by breaking into a nearby armory and seizing some sixty
or so rifles, likely intending to arm themselves so as
to do battle with the National guardsmen. That being said,
some other targets might have been considered, as one angry
local would declare, quote, now that the strike has begun,

(17:57):
the workingmen in every fair minded man ought to turn
in and burn the company shops and depots. The best
thing to do first would be to go to the
dispatcher's office and kill every damn reading official there. No
such large scale campaigns of retribution were launched, however, likely
in part because they were unable to find any ammunition
for the guns they had seized, so no more blood

(18:19):
would be shed that night. The following morning, though, the
Eastern Grays would again be sent out this time along
with seven other companies of National guardsmen. Their duty this
morning was to escort a train alone the seven street
rails where the violence had occurred the late before. As
the guardsmen proceeded on this morning, though they were generally
greeted relatively respectfully, the lone exception for this treatment where

(18:41):
the Eastern Grays were met with more rocks. However, when
the Eastern Grays turned in a threatening manner towards the
hostile crowd of civilians, the men from the other National
Guard companies shouted at the Grays quote, if you fire
at the mob, will fire at you, a declaration that
was met by cheers from the crowd as the Eastern
Grays quickly backed down from their hostile posturing. Indeed, as

(19:02):
the various companies eventually started marching back, the Eastern Gris
continued to suffer more harassment, to which the other soldiers
openly told the crowd that not only did they have
no intentions of firing at them for their actions, but
one of the soldiers even proclaimed that he would quote
rather put a bullet through Frank Gowan. Some of these
guardsmen even further proved where their allegiances actually lay by

(19:22):
giving ammunition to the crowd. The railroad, then, since they
clearly could not rely upon the guardsmen, often instead to
deploy their own private police force known as the Coal
and Iron Police. It was then these hired guns who
oversaw the repairs of the tracks and conducted arrest of
suspected riders and arsonists. Meanwhile, as all this was going on,
a mon was still coordinating the strike efforts in Alleghany. Indeed,

(19:46):
he was at this point effectively coordinating the railroad itself,
as he basically saw to it that the passenger trains
continued to run on schedule. Now, all this had been
happening in Pennsylvania, Wild's Governor John hart Ramft had been
off gallivanting in the West, doing so with Tom Scott,
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, apparently paying for his vacation. However,

(20:06):
in the wake of the events in Pittsburgh, heart Raft,
who was at the time in Utah, began rushing back
to his home state, aided and doing so by multiple
special trains provided by the railroads that carried him on
his journey. Heart Raft, the governor Pennsylvania, then finally returned
to the state, arriving in Alleghany on the twenty fourth
of July. With the governor now back, Aman inexplicably then

(20:29):
told the strikers to return the frenight cars and end
the strike, a stance that was not welcomed at all
by the striking workers, who fled out refused to obey
his instructions, and so Aman resigned as the leader of
the strike effort in Alleghany and returned home. Meanwhile, in
further defiance of Aman, workers from machine and carpenter shops
in allent Ghaney City also went on strike, joining the

(20:49):
trainman and assisting them as he continued guarding the captured
frenk cars. Meanwhile, he recently returned. Governor heart Raft we
sted no time in wiring the President to declare that
the disturbances, which he hadn't been there for and had
made no attempt himself to deal with, had quote assumed
the character of a general insurrection. Therefore, he urged the
President to begin calling for volunteers to suppress the so

(21:12):
called insurrection. In doing so, the governor was joining the
chorus of various railroad officials in the state who were
encouraging the President to treat these strike as a war
being waged upon the United States itself. Now. President Hayes
would initially push back against such a request, as he
insisted that the governor actually had to follow the constitutional
requirements to do so. The thing was someone apparently more

(21:35):
powerful than the governor. Pennsylvania was also making this request,
as Thomas A. Scott, the president of the monopoly that
was the Pennsylvania Railroad, was also asking for federal intervention.
Scott ucy seemed to want to make war against labor
in America, and he wanted to use the force of
the federal government to do it. Scott then argued that
it was the federal government's responsibility to keep interstate commerce going,

(21:59):
which meant they had the responsibility to make sure the
trains kept running. It was then, seemingly due to the
request of Scott, that Hayes would agree to send in
troops just to find the move by saying they were
there to keep the peace with this assistance. On the
twenty six of July, as rail traffic continued to be
paralyzed by striking workers throughout the state, heart Raft proposed

(22:20):
at the open the rail line to Pittsburgh by sending
a large military force down the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line.
This force of two thousand Federal troops and six thousand
National Guardsmen, all backed up by gatling guns, would proceed
down the rail line, clearing it and breaking the strike
as they went. So it was and with the military
force of both the state and the federal government, that

(22:41):
the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Running Railroad were able to
overcome their workers and resume normal operations. They notably weren't
done here either, as after breaking the railroad strikes, these
same troops were then sent to break coal minor strikes
in the state as well, doing so despite the fact
that the argument seemed to have been the the railroads
held such a special and unique place and thus warranted

(23:03):
federal intervention regardless at the governor's request, the troops would
basically occupy Pennsylvania's coal region, where they had to remain
until October due to the fierce determination of the defiant
coal miners, before their strikes were eventually broken as well. Still,
even though the strike might have been broken in Pennsylvania,
the same spirit of resistance had already spread to other

(23:25):
railroads in other states and regions. The Labor Uprising of
eighteen seventy seven, then was far from done. Now, he
briefly touched upon the Erie Railroad and how the great

(23:46):
strike of eighteen seventy seven spread there in the previous episode.
For a quick refresher, though, things started when the Erie Railroad,
which had gone bankrupt was put in receivership due to mismanagement,
decided to, under the guidance of its newly appointed and
highly paid president, Hugh J. Jewett, to have the workers
bare the burden of his predecessor's mismanagement. Now, when rumors

(24:07):
began to circulate that the EARA was intending to cut
their pay by ten percent, the workers formed a fifty
man delegation to meet with Jewett, the recipient of the
highest salary ever paid to a railroad executive. The fifty
man delegation had then met with Jewett in the final
week of June, days before the cuts were set to
take effect. These representatives for the workers then tried to
tell the highly paid executive that such a cut would

(24:30):
mean they could no longer support themselves or their families. Jewett, however,
would claim that the order could not be rescented. Although
he attempted to appease the workers by promising that if
the economic conditions changed, their wages would be restored. Now
the workers had initially accepted this response and agreed to
not go on strike, Jewett and the rest of the
Erie management, though, still decided to punish the fifty man

(24:52):
committee by firing every last one of them, likely feeling
confident that they would face no repercussions for such an action,
as apparently the workers had never truly contemplated going on strike,
and indeed there would be no immediate repercussions for these actions. However,
as their fellow railroad workers in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania
and beyond started to go on strike, the workers on

(25:14):
the Erie could not help but be inspired. So the
workers presented their bosses with a list of eight demands,
including a restoration or increase of wages, the rehiring of
all fifty men from the committee, and then something be
done about the exorbitant branch they were being charged by
the railroad for the oftentimes shoddy and poor excuses for
apartments they lived in. Then, when the railroad's management rejected

(25:35):
all these demands, the workers, on the nineteenth of July,
as they promised they would, went on strike. With the
most important side for this action being in Hornellsville, New York,
as Hornellsville, much like Martinsburg, was an important junction town
for the railroad, as Hornellsville, you see, was the western
terminus of the Susquehanna Division, the eastern terminus of the
Allegany Division, and the southern terminus of the Muffalo Division,

(25:59):
further increasing the towns importance to the Erie. Though whilst
a fact that it was the home of the railroad's
locomotive shops, meaning that it was basically the place where
the Erie sent its engines to get repaired in addition
to being a core location for multiple rail lines. It
was in Harnellsville, then, where Barney J. Donahue, who had
been fired for serving on the agreements committee and who
was described as a half crippled brickman, spoke with the

(26:21):
workers and helped to convince them to go on strike. Now,
the Erie strike was a bit different than the ones
we've talked about for the B and O and the
Pennsylvania Railroads, as the Erie men did not limit themselves
to just stopping free trains. Instead, they stopped passenger trains
as well. However, they were careful do not to drop
mail cars, as they hoped to avoid federal intervention for
interfering with the mail. That being said, when the railroad

(26:44):
tried to be clever body putting mail cars and passenger
cars on the same train, the workers didn't let this
flys instead stop the trains and detach the passenger cars
before sending the mail cars on their way. Now, despite
not having a single report of an act of violence
being committed by the striking railroad men, the Governor of
New York, Lucius Robinson, who due to the railroad being

(27:05):
in receivership, was also the ERIES director, called out six
hundred members of the National Guard. The minute these men
arrived in Hornellsville. However, these strikers closed in on them
and began shaking hands and catching up with old friends
that they had not seen some time. Given these cozy relationships,
when the guardsmen took a position around the ERIES raillyard
with orders to keep everyone but railroad employees out, they

(27:28):
seemed to have this strange habit of looking the other
way whenever strikers had to go in to ensure that
no trains actually left the roundhouse. Which is to say
that this intervention by the guardsmen wasn't super effective. That
being said, when multiple detachments of guardsmen were placed at
the crossing leaving the yard, a train with a mail car,
several passenger cars, and a baggage car actually managed to

(27:49):
depart from Hornellsville without any apparent interference from these striking workers,
or so it seemed. As you see, when the train
in question started ascending these steep soap of the nearby
tip Top Mountain, its crew of Scots behaved as you
would expect. They shoveled extra amounts of coal into the
engine to make sure it had the power to make
this steep climb, while also pulling a lever so that

(28:11):
sand poured through a pipe down onto the tracks so
as to increase the grip of its wheels. Yet, despite
these standard precautions, the train's wheels started to slip. The
crew then did everything they could. They shoved even more
coal into the fire and dumped even more sand onto
the tracks, but stone the wheels continued to slip. Indeed,
they even started losing progress. This was because the striking

(28:33):
workers knew what the railroad had planned and had been prepared. Namely,
their wives had come up here the night before and
lathered a quarter mile the rails and soft soap. In fact,
something like five hundred strikers were actually standing on a
nearby hillside watching the show, letting out a cheer as
he trained. Despite all the efforts of its scab crew,
started signing back down the rails. The workers and their

(28:54):
wives then even threw more soap onto the rails, as
if challenging the train to try again. Finally admitting the feet,
the train came to a stop, and which point the
strikers rushed forward, pushing their way past the guardsmen, who
did not put up any fight. The workers then forced
the passengers to get off the train, at which point
they detached the now empty passenger cars and disabled their

(29:15):
branks so they could send them back down the mountain
from whence they came. It was then and only then,
that they let the locomotive and the mail cars continue
on their way unimpeded. Twice more after this, the Eriie
would attempt to send passenger trains out from Hornellsville, and
twice more they would be stopped by the striking workers,
doing so with no one being killed or injured, and

(29:36):
with no shots being fired at all, despite the presence
of the National Guardsmen. Indeed, the troops had been ordered
to only use the butts of their guns, and order that,
on one hand, probably did not need to be given
considering the close relationship between these strikers and the Guardsmen.
At the same time, though, it was also something their
commanders likely had to say, because had they actually attempted

(29:57):
to order their men to shoot these striking workers, the
guardsmen likely would a mutin need. Such restraint, however, did
nothing to satisfy the New York Times, as the paper
record would declare, quote, we sincerely hope that when the
next movement is made at Hornellsville, it will be with
sufficient force and managed with sufficient energy and judgment to
save our stay from such disgraceful scenes as have taken

(30:19):
place in Pittsburgh, a statement that was clearly not a
reference to the murder on our men, women and children,
but instead a reference that the working class in that
city had rebuild and even forced the guardsmen to retreat.
And if you had any doubt about how the writers
at the Times viewed these striking workers who just wanted
to be able to support their families, the paper would
describe the eerie strikers as quote des affected elements, roff's hoodlums, writers, mob,

(30:44):
suspicious looking individuals, bad characters, thieves, black legs, looters, communists,
rabble label reform agitators, dangerous class of people, gangs, tramps,
drunken section men, lawbreakers, threatening crowd, bombers, ruffians, loafers, bullies, vagabonds,
cowardly mob, bands of worthless fellows, incendiaries, enemies of society,

(31:07):
reckless crowd, malcontents, rigid people, loudmouth oar, raiders, rap scallions, riggans, robbers,
bob riff, raff, terrible fellows, felons, and idiots, which is
actually funny considering that just a week before generating that list,
the New York Times itself had written that quote, A
very credible feature of the strike at Hornersville is the

(31:29):
entire absence of drunkenness on the streets, which was true
as when the strike had begun, the committee representing the
workers had informed the saloons in town that they were
not to sell any alcohol to any of the railroad
men until the strike was over, a move that was
apparently supported by all these striking workers who basically swore
not to drink and totally strike was done yet somehow,

(31:50):
within a week's time, these same men who made such
sober decisions were reduced to a derogatory list of names
by the New York Times. Meanwhile, the Governor of New
York would declare more law on Hornosville, as he insisted
that quote, which is no longer a question of wages,
but the supremacy of law, again doing so despite there
being no actual violence or crimes being committed in the town. Regardless,

(32:13):
to enforce this declaration, the governor now sending guardsmen from Brooklyn,
as they were unlikely to have any personal ties with
these striking workers and thus would be you know less
inclined to treat them like people. Now, the soldiers would
not have an easy time of getting the Hornsville as
he trained they were on had to stop repeatedly to
deal with tracks that had been torn off by the
striking workers. When they eventually arrived, though, it quickly became

(32:36):
apparent to the residents of the town that these new
guardsmen weren't like the ones they knew and had been
dealing with, as when some of the men attempted to
enter the rail yard, what they had basically been a
lot to do by the other guardsmen. One of these
new soldiers not only ordered them to stop, but also
fired a bullet over their heads as a warning, an
incident that represented the first time that a weapon had

(32:56):
been fired in Horneosville as a part of this strike. Meanwhile,
Barney Donahue, or half crippled brickman turned strike leader, along
with a pair of lawyers representing these striking workers, was
invited to meet with representatives from the Erie so as
to try and settle the strike. Now, Barney and the
lawyers were apparently quite willing to compromise, as they offered
to accept the wage cuts in exchange for a ten

(33:18):
hour workday, a reduction in their rent, and a new
policy where they would be paid for the time they
had to spend waiting for their trains to make the
return trip on long halls. In addition to all fifty
members of the original committee that spoke with management being rehired.
Unlike the workers, however, management did not seem the least
bit interested in negotiating and compromising. Indeed, Eries management would

(33:39):
state that while they appreciated that the workers were willing
to talk compromise, they insisted that the railroad was going
to be run as you j. Jewett decided it was
to be run. And furthermore, any men who had been
fired would not be rehired, which makes you wonder why
they even called for this meeting in the first place. Basically, then,
the railroad did not seem to have any interest in budging.

(34:01):
Despite this, though, the workers still come to the hope
that the fact that they had been willing to meet
with their representatives at all was a good sign. Indeed,
this was not something we have seen in really any
of the other strikes. However, as soon as Barney returned
to Hornellsville following his meeting with Eerie management, he was
met by private detectives bearing a warrant signed by a
Jewett as Barney was arrested on the charge of contempt

(34:23):
of court. As you see the railroad officials claiming that
since the railroad had been put in receivership by the
courts by interfering with its operations, the workers were defying
the court's orders. The thing was jailling. Barney and four
other strikers really did nothing to calm the situation, much
less to suade the workers from their chosen cores. Instead,
if anything, had just pissed them off and effectively put

(34:46):
an end to any interest they had in compromising with
the railroad. It was at this point then, with their
town occupied by hostile National guardsmen, with several other leaders
being arrested, a number of these striking workers moved into
the hills outside of it town, where they set up
a series of camps, as here they would be sheltered
by the woods, while still being able to keep watch

(35:06):
on the tracks through field glasses for any sign of activity. Indeed,
if they saw anything, these men had a system of
flashing lights that they could use the signal camps on
the other hills about what was happening. These men, they
were constantly vigilant as they subsisted on raw pork, cracks,
bread and water. And they were also armed, as reportedly
every man had a revolver, and they also had some

(35:28):
two hundred rifles or muskets and a pair of small
cannons with which to defend themselves. These very much then
seemed to have resembled military camps as such as can't
help but wonder how many of these men had served
in the Union Army a little over a decade earlier.
These men, then, even though they had been driven from
their homes still made it so it was effectively impossible

(35:48):
for the railroad to get any trains out of town,
and so the eerie railroad management again asked to be
with the representatives from the strikers and their attorneys. This
time around, it seemed that the company was actually interest
in making a deal, as they offered to only cut
the firemen and brakeman's wages by ten percent, while also
promising that no one would be fired for participating in

(36:08):
the strike unless they were known to have destroyed property. Furthermore,
they agreed not to press for Barney's prosecution, while also
promising that Jewett and his aids would consider rehiring the
fifty men from the original committee. This offer was then
taken back to the workers, who, after a heated debate
involving the workers, their attorneys, and the people of the town,
it was decided to continue the strike as they saw

(36:32):
that the company had already begun to give in. The
smart move then, as far as they were concerned, was
to keep the pressure up until they gave into all
of their demands. However, before the vote could be taken
to prolong the strike, several prominent local business men offered
to financially support the fifty members of the committee until
they could find other jobs. This ultimately led to an

(36:52):
acceptance of the Eeries terms, at which point the railroad
then extended the same offer to their Uni Pacific line,
a move which likely prevented they strike from happening there
as well. And so the strike on the Eerie Railroad
and enough through bloodshed, but through negotiations, something which the
newspapers did not like at all. The Omira Daily Advertiser's response,
for example, seems to have been fairly representative as to

(37:15):
declared that the deal between the railroad and the workers
quote looks to us like a surrender. True, the trains
are again put in motion, but not through the supremacy
of the laws certing itself against the will of the mob.
The Advertiser had one of the workers crushed because now
quote Lee Road is running, but it runs at the
mercy of its employees and not at the command of
its officers. As it seems that these people actually preferred

(37:38):
bloodshed over the working class having the barest amount of dignity. Indeed,
the Amira Daily Advertiser proudly stated that they much prefer
the approach taken by the New York Central and Hudson
Railroad under the direction of its president William Vanderbilt, who,
despite being a recent beneficiary of a ninety million dollar inheritance,
insisted that since his railroad was losing money, he was suffering,

(37:59):
and so the workers had to suffer as well, and
thus he was cutting their wages, a choice that ultimately
led to the deaths of eight striking workers at the
hands of National guardsmen, as Vanderbilt opted for a path
that the Amaha Daily Advertiser found much more appealing than negotiating.
Things got started when employees of the Central Railroad and Buffalo,
inspired by their fellows on the Erie and elsewhere, decided

(38:21):
to go on strike and were then joined by local
factory workers as well. The es Central workers, though when
they went on strike made clear their intentions were to
put a stop to freight train traffic and freight train
traffic alone, thereby leaving passenger and mail trains to continue
on throughout the course of these strike unaffected. Meanwhile, in Albany,
you get a glimpse of just how disorganized this whole
process was, as again, there was no plan. This was

(38:43):
just people being inspired by other people to stand up
for themselves and being supported by others who understood and
could sympathize with their plight. In Albany in particular, you
get a clear picture of how hawpasted This whole thing was.
As one machinist would describe the scene after these strike
was called, where they all kind of just came together
and be aandered around the park with no purpose because
they had quote, no leaders, no head, and no concerted action.

(39:08):
It was from this disorganized mess, though, that some frustrated
by the inaction, formed a group and headed over to
the roundhouse and the various railroad machinery repair shops. These
five hundred or so galvanized men then made their way
through these locations, kicking out anyone who remained on the job. Meanwhile,
the central Railroads management, much like the Erie had done,
looked to get around the striking workers and their ban

(39:29):
own freight trains by intermixing passenger, mail and freight cars
onto one train. In doing so, they hoped to force
the striker's hand, as it would either have to allow
the trains to pass, thereby allowing freight traffic to continue
and making their efforts weaken pointless, or they would have
to stop these trains and draw the attention of the
federal government for interfering with the mail. There was, however,

(39:50):
a third option that the railroad management hadn't been counting on,
and it was the same one that the eerie workers
had chosen, meaning that these Central workers simply stopped the
trains long enough to they moved the freight cards before
allowing the rest to continue on their way. Central management
responded to having their OsO cover plans undone by acting
like petulant children and stopping their mail trains altogether, a

(40:12):
move that initially looked like it would backfire on central management,
as the workers contacted the Postmaster General to make it
clear that they were not actually stopping the mail trains,
that was being done purely on the decision of central management.
At this the Postmaster General contacted the railroad demanding an
explanation for why they were choosing to interfere with the mail,
to which management responded petulantly that they would not run

(40:35):
any passenger or mail trains and totally strike in. The
blockade of freight trains was ended, an explanation that inexplicably
satisfied the Postmaster General, as instead of punishing the railroad,
the forces of quote unquote law and order were leashed
against these striking workers. The Governor of New York, for example,
dispatched the sixty fifth Regiment of the New York National
Guard to Buffalo, while the cities mayor declared that anyone

(40:57):
in the street after ten would be arrested. As he
also swore in two hundred additional special policemen and the
local sheriff swore in another three hundred deputies. Meanwhile, eighteen
hundred veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic also
volunteered their services. These vigilante forces, however, were still not
apparently enough, as several more National Guard regiments were also dispatched,
bringing their tunnel to sixteen hundred. As these military forces

(41:20):
were dispatched to break the strike, the state legislature also
passed a law where any who destroyed railroad property or
even just simply obstructed a train could face eight thousand
dollars fine or ten years in prison. Then, to ensure
that people would be arrested for these quote unquote crimes,
the governor further offered a five hundred dollar reward for
people offering information that would lead to the arrest and

(41:42):
conviction of any such individuals. Yet, in spite of all this,
these strikes still spread to other cities. Still, though, Vanderbilt
and his ninety million dollar inheritance had no interest in
nod slashing the pay of his workers, and so as
the strikers resources were stretched to the breaking point, the
company declared that if the workers did not report for
work only thirtieth of July, they would be treated as

(42:02):
if they had quit. The realmen were then left with
no other choice but to return to work and hope
that Vanderbilt, who had declared that he would not even
consider their demands until a regular service was resumed, would
see the righteousness of their cause and thus restore their wages. He,
of course, did not do so. Instead, Vanderbilt rewarded his
employees by gifting to them one hundred thousand dollars that

(42:24):
would be split amongst them, money that, when divided up
for the roughly twelve thousand employees, came out to a
little more than eight bucks each, which even at that
time wasn't all that much and has certainly did not
make up for the ten percent wage cut. This supposed
act of in neevolence though, was a part of Vanderbilt's
attempt to portray the end of the strike not as
him using the power of the state to crush his

(42:45):
workers through violence and oppression, but as a sign that
they were, in the end loyal to him and the company,
which is why he rewarded them for coming back to work. Yet,
for as much as men like Vanderbilt and some of
the press wanted to pretend that the anchor and frustration
the workers wasn't really justified, it very much was, which
is why over and over again these strikes broke out

(43:05):
independent of one another, all across the country. While so
far my coverage of these events is focused primarily on
Eastern states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, by this
point these track had already spread beyond the East Coast. Indeed,

(43:29):
these strike it already spread in Newark, Ohio, where on
the twentieth of July, the same day they would end
in violence in Baltimore, and one day before the violence
in Pittsburgh, a sheriff Scholfield would arrive in town of
Borne a strike breaking freight train whin this trainer whereved
in Newark. Though these triking workers showed no hesitation as
they block the track and borded the locomotive to bring
the train to a hant. Now, Shriff Schofield tried to

(43:50):
put a stop to these actions by calling out, quote,
I now command you, one and all, to disperse to
your business and to your homes, and to cease to
interfere with peaceable citizens. If for their party, workers would
acknowledge his statement. Yet, while they could not fault the
sheriff for doing his job, they also couldn't obey him.
As one of these striking workers declared, quote, we can't
stand this. I've got a wife and two children now

(44:13):
suffering for victuals. It was then either do this or
allow his family to starve, a statement that was echoed
by others who declared matter of factly that they were
prepared to die as a part of this fight. Meanwhile,
in defiance of the Sheriff's orders to stop what they
were doing and disperse, the men who had boarded the
engine cab were now proceeding to carry the strike breaking
engineer off the train, with the engineer in question reportedly

(44:35):
grunting broadly as he was carried off. Unlike this engineer,
though Sheriff Schofield apparently did not like having his orders ignored,
so he called upon the Governor of Ohio decent in
the National Guard. Four companies of guardsmen were then dispatched
in Newark so as to protect the railroad's property, a
move that did Schofield no favors locally, as the people
of the town overwhelmingly supported the strikers. Other local officials

(44:59):
weren't exactly welcome either, as when the one hundred and
seventy guardsmen arrived on the twenty first of July, the
day after the violence in Baltimore County, officials refused to
pay for the troops rations. These strikers, though, who had
no organization or leadership, showed no fear of the guardsmen,
and even went so far as to volunteer to help
in feeding these soldiers with the aid of some local businessmen.

(45:20):
By the end of the day, then the troops and
these striking workers were amicably rubbing elbows and sharing a meal,
a scene which did not please the railroad or the
governor of Ohio in the least, and so the governor
sent in even more troops to Newark from Dayton and Cincinnati.
These troops were then due to arrive at six in
the morning of the twenty second. As such, the people
of Newark were ordered to stay away from the rail

(45:40):
yard so as to quote prevent the destruction of human life. However,
with the news coming out of Pittsburgh making headlines, the
governor of Ohio decided not to force the issue. In
return for this active restraint, the striking realmen managed to
hold back. Six hundred minors from Shawnee were heading to
Newark intent on quote unquote cleaning out a militia company there.

(46:01):
As you see, a group of guardsmen who had been
dispatched in Newark had previously been used against the miners
in an earlier strike, and so they were now looking
for revenge. As a result of the restraints shown by
the governor and the workers, there would be no violence
or bloodshed in the city, but still the freight trains
remained where they were. Meanwhile, the spreading labor unrest wasn't
just limited to Newark either, as it would soon enough

(46:24):
also arrive in one of these states major cities, Cleveland,
something that wasn't the least bit surprising considering the industrial
nature of the city. Cleveland, after all, was the home
of factories that produced paper, paint, sheet metal, sewing machines,
railroad cars, and various other products that took advantage of
the region's rich coal and iron deposits, not to mention
the fact that Cleveland was also the home of Standard oil. Notably,

(46:46):
all this industrial production created so much pollution that the
entire city was covered in a thick layer of smoke
and coal dust. Indeed, one woman who visited the city
would comment that, quote clean linen becomes an impossibility here,
and food and drink is impregnated with the coal and
dust smoke. Among the people working in the various aforemagined
factories were immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and Eastern Europe, places

(47:08):
where labor militancy was much more common than it had
been in the US. It was then, thanks to their
influence at Cleveland's working class had become more militant in
recent years. Indeed, strikes had become a regular occurrence in
Cleveland over the previous decade. Strikes, which, while often violent,
were also often disorganized and thus typically undone by stubborn
management and an ample supply of desperate people without jobs.

(47:31):
For example, just a few months earlier in April, standard
Oil had slashed their cooper's pay by fifty six cents
a day. The resulting strike had spread beyond just the
cooper's who also involved bricklayers and gar makers, sore masons,
and many others. As socialists in the city attempted to
organize this into a general strike of every worker in
Cleveland making less than a dollar a day. Yet despite

(47:51):
these grandiose aims, there was no real organization, discipline, or preparation,
which all served to undo this attempt. This history of
labor unrest those served the workers of the Cleveland, Columbus,
Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad well because when the strike arrived
in Cleveland, the president on the railroad, rather than news
force against his workers, potentially risking even worse violence than

(48:13):
what had already been seen in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, considering
the degree of militancy already displayed by the city's working
class population, instead decided to rescind the ten percent in wagecut,
and which point the workers returned to work satisfied. Similarly,
another railroad that passed through Cleveland, the Atlantic and Great
and Western, did not suffer a strike, primarily because they

(48:33):
had not even attempted to slash their workers pay in
the first place. Meanwhile, over in Indiana, the great labor
uprising would first arrive in the state in Fort Wayne,
when labors for the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago lines
truck on the twenty first of July. As they did,
like we've seen in so many other cases, the railroad
men were joined by factory workers. However, their efforts would
be ended a week later when they were informed by

(48:56):
the local sheriff that the US Army was on its way. Yet,
while the striking for Wayne and other railroad communities would
be squashed with the threat of federal intervention, the workers
in Indianapolis stood strong and defiant. Things that started in
Indianapolis on the twenty first, just like they had in
for Wayne. As on this day, a meeting was called
among the cities workers for the quote purpose of sympathizing

(49:18):
and taking action with our starving brothers in the east.
Are now being traveled under the feet of the railroad bomdholders.
As you see, the workers in Saint Louis were well
aware of what was happening elsewhere in the country and
knew that it was likely only a matter of time
before they two were involved. Indeed, just a couple of
days later, workers were several of the rare lines that
ran through the city struck. Yet despite this, things in

(49:39):
a city remained peaceful. Now in number of the railroads
in the region had apparently gone bankrupt and as a
result were currently in receivership to the state, a situation
that made Circuit Court Judge Walter Quinton Gresham responsible for
the various lines that were in receivership. Gresham, then, at
the first and of the strike coming to Indianapolis, which
was even before the workers, how their first meaning to

(50:01):
express sympathy, would wire the federal government begging for assistance.
At the same time, again, even before the strike started,
Gresham moved to swear in a number of his friends,
including future President of the United States Benjamin Harrison, thus
making them U s. Marshals, for the explicit purpose of
combating these strike Then, when something finally did happen, even
though it was just a small group stopping a single train,

(50:23):
Gresham was so wound up that he was apparently absolutely
convinced that all of Indianapolis was at the mercy of
the quote unquote mob, by which he meant the unwashed
masses and not organized crime. Gresham was then baffled that
the sheriff, the mayor, and the governor were not really
doing anything in response to what he saw as a
clear threat to the very fabric of the nation. So

(50:45):
he personally organized one hundred men into a quote committee
of Public Safety that he then proceeded to arm with
gods for the US Arsenal. Meanwhile, the workers were continuing
their not just peaceful but also sober activities, as they,
like others elsewhere, chose to swear off alcohol during the
course of the strike. Basically, then, all these strikers were
doing while stopping the freight trains from running, which was

(51:07):
apparently enough for Judge Gresham to declare to President Hayes
at the situation in the city was quote most critical
and dangerous because quote the mob is the only supreme
authority now. The periodiclousness of Judge Grisham's panic would be
starkly illustrated when a General Spooner of the US Army
went down to the rail yard and actually talked with

(51:27):
the striking workers, doing so without any apparent fear of
the so called mob. Indeed, during this time, Spoonner would
explain to the workers the legal entanglements involved in stopping
trains from railroads that were in receivership, as by doing so,
they were not so much taking on a traditional railroad
company but the state itself. It was and through this

(51:47):
discussion that these strikers, after Spooner departed, decided to put
the trains from the railroads in question back on the rails,
sending them on their way manned by crews who, by
the way, were never paid by the railroads for their work.
Would suggest that these workers were anything butt violent and
a muffel. Meanwhile, in the same vein, the US Signal
Service would inform President Hayes that there was quote not

(52:10):
the least sign of violence involved in the strike in Adianapolis, yet,
likely because Gresham was a judge, the President would dispatch
two hundred US troops to the region. Gresham then not
only had the leaders of these strike in eighty Napolis arrested,
but he also sent troops on too terror Hoe to
open up the rail lines there. In doing so, he
not only ordered the lines that were in receivership opened,

(52:32):
but he also forced the Van Daley A line to
open as well. Even though these strike against that line
should not have concerned him, as it wasn't in receivership.
You see, the Vandalia Line, which was centered in terre Hate,
was the rare important line in the country that wasn't
owned by a larger corporation. The relationship between the workers
and this railroad then was different and less antagonistic, as

(52:53):
a sort of trusted the owner of the line, Riley McKean. Still, though,
in the three years prior to these events, their wages
had been cut to three percent, with an additional ten
percent being cut in just the past year. So as
he strikes were getting started in the East, the Vandalias firemen, brakemen,
and engineers all met to talk about what was going
on nationally and what it meant for them and their

(53:14):
little railroad. The workers then drafted and agreed to three
resolutions to be presented to the Vandalias founder and president,
Riley McKean. The workers then, quote respectfully, requested a fifteen
percent increase for all employee wages. As such, they weren't
even asking for a complete restoration to where they had
been before the depression, just an improvement from where they were. Indeed,

(53:35):
they further declared that no free would be allowed to
move until they were able to quote keep our families
from actual want. All they were asking for them was
to be able to provide for their families, a request
that they believe McKean would understand and sympathize with. In
this same spirit, they then promised to remain sober throughout
the course of the strike, and indication that they had

(53:55):
no intention of letting the situation get out of hand
or turn ugly. McKee though for all the trust's employees
had in him, failed to respond in any way to
their message, and so a day after presenting their resolution,
the workers, in terror hate as they promised they would do,
went on strike as the engineer's fireman and brigman did so,
though they were notably also joined by six hundred machinists

(54:16):
from the railroad's repair shops. It's at this point the
McKeen finally got around to informing his workers that he
had not yet made a decision on their wages, saying
that he preferred to wait and see how the Eastern
strikes were settled before making his own decision, which to
me sounds like a bit of a red flag. However,
he would seemingly in an attempt to avoid conflict, make
no attempts to run trains out of terror hate other

(54:38):
than ones who were simply carrying the mail. The workers
then held on to their trust to McKean and his
quote honor and integrity. Indeed, they were convinced that quote
he will do all he can to comply with our wishes,
as they looked at McKean as an ally of sorts
who was also under the thumb of monopolies like Tom
Scott's Pennsylvania Railroad. Meanwhile, these striking workers also preached solidarity

(55:00):
with the rest of the people of terror hate, as
they argued that the core issue behind these strikes was
the low freight rates, which were simply the result of
corporate kickbacks. Their argument then was of the railroad stated
money so badly that instead of slashing wages, they should
raise the freight rates and charge other corporations rather than
punishing their own workers, a sentiment that found quite a

(55:20):
bit of support. Indeed, adyanas Democratic Senator Daniel W. Vorhees
and the mayor of tera Hat would both endorse the
striker's demands. It also wasn't just politicians either, as the
workers would be further endorsed by a prominent local Protestant
minister who declared that the Strikers had the support of
the community. Yet the chrustee workers fought for Riley McKean,

(55:40):
the head of the Vandalia line, faded when on the
twenty eighth of July, a detachment of U. S Infantry
who had been dispatched by Judge Gresham and who were
led by General Spooner, arrived in terror Hate with orders
to open up the depot there now. The Strikers offered
these Saudiers no resistance. However, they would gather together afterwards
and send a message to McKean making it clear that

(56:01):
they were not only continuing to demand a fifty percent
wage increase, but that they were also insulted that he
had in any way participated in having troops sent against them,
at which point they returned to the depot. McKean, though,
would continue to show his true colors when he, with
the support of other well to do citizens of terror Hat,
wrote to Judge Gresham to inform him that quote engineers

(56:21):
refused to run our trains. I trust you will let
the United States soldiers remain here for a few days.
Gresham then wired General Spooner, ordering him to station his
men in terror hate, declaring, as he did that quote,
if the Vendalia strikers think the troops are to operate
against them, you will not be responsible for their mistake,
a statement which seemly gives the troops free rain. However,

(56:42):
when they returned and ran a mail train out of
the depot, the workers again put up no fight before
ultimately deciding to go back to work without gaining any
concessions other than mckeens promised that he would not retaliate
against any of the strikers. This, however, proved to be
a lie, as no longer did their return to work
than a number of them were suspended, penning an investigation.

(57:02):
Thanks to Gresham and the federal intervention, fifteen strikers in
Indiana would be put on trial on charges of contempt
of court because again the railroads in receivership were technically
owned and run by the court. This, however, clearly wasn't
about law in order, because these workers weren't granted jury trials. Indeed,
they were not even given the presumption of innocence. Instead,
they were asked to prove their innocence when it's supposed

(57:25):
to be up to the state to prove guilt these
cases that were based entirely off the testimony of officials
from the railroads. Indeed, among these fifteen were five strikers
from terror Hoot who would be found guilty, largely thanks
of the testimony of the oh so honorable Riley McKean. Predictably, then,
given the circumstances, thirteen on the fifteen were found guilty
and sentenced to one to six months in jail. As

(57:46):
for the other two, one was somehow acquitted of the charges,
while the other was released on a five thousand dollars bond.
The Green Labor Uprising of eighteen seventy seven then was
spreading beyond its early beginnings on the Eastern seaboard, as
it was now stretching into the Midwest. As it did so,
these strikes, if anything, would become larger in size, as
cities like Chicago and Kansas City, among others, would experience

(58:08):
essentially general strikes as workers in almost all industries throughout
their cities joined in these strike efforts. As this happened,
fears and crists of socialists and communist manipulation began running
rapid among the wealthy and those in authority fears which
were largely not grounded in any reality, because, as they've
stated multiple times, there was no organizing force behind these
strikes or their spread. Instead, these events were just happening

(58:31):
organically as workers across the nation were fed up and
were thus inspired when they saw what it started in Martinsburg,
West Virginia. That being said, a group known as the
Workingman's Party would involve themselves in our next and final
wave of strikes. However, that particular tale will have to
for now remain a story for another time. Thank you

(58:54):
for listening to Distorted History. If you would like to
help out, please rate and review the podcasts and tell
your friends if you think they'll be interested. If you
would like ad free in early episodes, I set up
such a feed over at patreon dot com slash to
started History. By paying ten bucks a month, you will
gain access to the special ad free feed available on
Spotify or likely through your podcast app as long as

(59:15):
it uses an RSS feed. I will continue to post
sources on koffee and Twitter, though, as it's just a
convenient place to go to access that information regardless. Once again,
thank you for listening and until next time

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