The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 4

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I can't give you Mary
Dames and Joy a blunder. Look, I'm raveling, I'm got

(00:23):
the ba A long struggle for freedom, it really is
a revolution. The Green String of eighteen seventy seven, which
have started in a little railroad junction town of Martinsburg,
West Virginia, has spread not only to neighboring Maryland, but

(00:46):
also north up the states like Pennsylvania and New York,
as well as west in the states like Ohio and
Indie Napolis. As it did, the railroads typically, rather than
even consider negotiating with their workers, demanded a from the
government in the form of National guardsmen and federal troops
who would be dispatched to break the deadline created by
their striking workers who were preventing freight trains from operating. Now,

(01:08):
to be clear, prior to these military forces being sent in,
these strikes, while preventing freight trains from operating, had not
been violent or criminal in nature. However, these agents of
the government would employ violence against these strikers and their allies,
who were often the rest of the working class population.
In their communities. Despite this, William Kaiser, one of the
B and O Raverends vice presidents, when blame is striking

(01:29):
workers for all of the violence, telling them, quote, you
have seen the results of the Chaibo rids of Pittsburgh
and the enormous destruction of property to be paid for
by the already overburdened taxpayers. You have seen innocent men
and women shot down in our streets. You have seen
writing bloodshed in Chicago and Cincinnati, writing in other prominent
cities of our lands. Is not this sufficient to cause

(01:51):
you to pause and reflect before you go still further
in this reckless career. In doing so, Kaiser was putting
the blame for everything on the workers and on the
corporations and men like himself who had forced the workers
into such a desperate state, not to mention the fact
that it was corporations like his precious B and O
who had sent the troops and who were actually the
ones responsible for all the quote and said men and

(02:14):
women shut down in our streets that he claimed to
be so concerned about. Indeed, the Martinsburg Statesmen, in response
to these comments, would proclaim that Kaisers and the others
who ran the quote heartless and selfish railway corporations should
be taking the lesson from these events that there is
quote a point in oppression beyond which it is not
safe to go. Few, though it seemed more willing to

(02:35):
actually learn this lesson, much less a mean with the
true cause of this strike was. For example, Richard W. Thompson,
the Secretary of the Navy, viewed the strike as quote
nothing more than French communism, which was likely a reference
to the events of the Paris Commune six years earlier,
when a working class revolution had seized power in the city,
an event that terrified the established powers in both Europe

(02:56):
and the US. As such, from that point on, any unrest,
social tens or strikeths were blamed on foreign influences, meaning
that these events, in Thompson's opinion, were quote so entirely
at war with the spirit of our institutions that it
must be overcome. Indeed, the longer these strike went on,
and the more widespread it became, the more common this

(03:16):
narrative refrain became in the pages of the nation's newspapers
as those in power and the press that supported them
became increasingly terrified that communism was about to be established
in the US. As they did so, the tendency to
ignore the plight of the workers and the true cause
of these events became more and more prevalent. As a result,
defense of the workers like those once found in the

(03:36):
pages of the Missouri Republican, which had written quote, if
the laboring men of this country must choose between revolution
and abjects suffering to the heartless demand of capital, they
will certainly not be condemned by this journal if they
prefer war to starvation, were then increasingly replaced by statements
like those found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which wrote
that quote, it is not pleasant to think of men

(03:57):
being mowed down by soldiers, but it will be a
much worse respect to go for a country to have
a mob triumph in any state like West Virginia, as
according to this paper, workers going on strike to demand
a living wage was actually worse than civilians being shot
and killed by soldiers. The Daily Eagle, though, would look
to justify this position by declaring that quote, this is
the nearest approach we have yet had the communism in America,

(04:20):
and if we are to be safe from the darkest
towers of that system, our authorities must act with unmistakable
vigor in the present emergency. And just so we're clear here,
there have always been those in this country who will
be absolutely okay with fascism. Now, this refrain of communism
became especially common following the events in Pittsburgh, as to
people who had been shot and killed by the soldiers

(04:41):
were now portrayed as communistic elements bent don't overthrown the country. Now,
you may be wondering what evidence did the press have
to back up these claims that there was a communist
conspiracy at work and that the workers in Pittsburgh were communists. Well,
according to the New York Tribune, that was a fact.
That quote does not need demonstration in all the words.
You're just going to have to take our word for it. Basically,

(05:03):
then the attitude of the press was their communists, because
we say they're communists. Indeed, the National Republicans simply declared
that quote. The fact is clearly manifested. Communistic ideas are
very widely entertained in America by the workmen employed in
minds and factories and by railroads. You might note, however,
that the papers still offered no proof on this other
than their word and even if that was true, that

(05:26):
did not in any way prove that those participating in
these strikes, much less the people being shot down in
the streets held such beliefs, nor might i add, would
that justify their killing in any way. Regardless, in the
same vein, the Pittsburgh Leader would provide just as much
evidence when they declared that, quote, the workingman in Pittsburgh
is really a communist, and there is no doubt that

(05:46):
communistic ideas have widely spread. As to the source of
these communist ideas among American workers, while it couldn't be
the cruel and heartless economic system they currently labored under. Instead,
they had a much easier escapegoat immigrants. The National Report
I'm looking for example, would proclaim that, quote, this poison
was introduced into our social system by European laborers. Now,

(06:07):
to be fair, the National Republican would admit that there
were problems in the country, and one of the major
ones was a way that wealth was being accumulated through
quote unscrupulous means. Indeed, they would even admit that the
men acquiring this vast wealth were often committing crimes in
doing so, and yet they went unpunished. However, the publication
was insistent that this strike was quote unquote anti American

(06:31):
because it was quote a lawful and revolutionary because apparently
one of the core tenants of the American mythos is
not being revolutionary. Now, other papers would choose to push
a slightly different narrative, as it was not a mass
communistic movement, but instead there was a secret caball who
were pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Indeed, according

(06:51):
to these papers, those who were trying to take advantage
of this unrest weren't even workers. Instead, they were just
outside agitators. Ah that a classical refrain. Again, how I
haven't missed you. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Knights
of Labor, the Molly mcguires, internationalists, and members of the
Paris Commune were all accused of being behind the strikes,
although the favorite target of many a paper was the

(07:13):
working Men's Party of the United States, the leaders of
which were compared to quote Rosepierre and his brace of
fellow conspirators. They set in darkness and plot against the
life of the nation, a narrative that would be supported
by none other than Alan Pegerton, who claimed to have
reports from his army of private detectives that placed agents
of the Working Men's Party as being behind every strike,

(07:35):
as Piggerton would declare, quote, if its members did not
actually inaugurate the strikes. These strikes were the direct result
of the communistic spirits spread through the ranks of railroad
employees by communistic leaders and their teachings. The problem was,
while the Working Men's Party did very much exist when
the strikes of eighteen seventy seven were breaking out, they
were too busy arguing and fighting amongst themselves about whether

(07:57):
they should focus more on organizing the working class and
the trains, or should they focus on political actions like
running for office, and whether or not their focus should
be purely on the United States or should they have
a larger international focus, Which is to say that these
weren't puppet masters who were pulling the strengths of workers
around the country causing them to go on strike, as
they were too busy arguing about tactics to actually do

(08:19):
something like organizing nationwide strike. Indeed, instead of having members
embedded among the workers at every place where a strike
was happening, it seems that Machinis Harry Eastman out of
East Saint Louis was the only striking railroad worker who
was a member of the Working Men's Party when these
events kicked off, which is on to say these strike
was spreading on its own without any health in the

(08:39):
working Men's Party. In fact, the party's first official response
would not come until the twenty second of July, a
week after the strike had begun and started to spread
on its own. Indeed, the extent of this official response
consisted of a letter that was sent out to the
party's various headquarters around the country urging members to aid
the striking workers in quote the warfare which they are

(09:00):
now waging in defense of justice and equal rights. In
doing so, the party laid out suggestions for some court
emanci striking workers could make, like the nationalizational railroads and
telegraphs and the eight hour workday for all industries. Basically, then,
what we're seeing here is that after a week of
strikes and resistance, the Working Men's Party was offering some
assistance and guidance to these efforts, something they would not

(09:22):
have to do if they were the ones who had
been behind these events from the very beginning. You also
might know that their suggestions were not really all that radical.
And nor were they calling for a violent rebellion like
the press claimed they were. Indeed, as we will see
throughout this episode, whenever the Party had a chance to
exert any kind of influence over these events, they and
their representatives time and again counseled against militant actions. Also,

(09:46):
unlike what the press would have its readers believe, by
the point that the party tried to get involved, things
were already too far gone and their members were not
large enough in most places to really do all that much.
The party, you see, had like forty five hundred members,
and since many were immigrants with limited English, their ability
to influence large swaths of the American workforce was equally limited.

(10:07):
As such, the Workingmen's Party had no role whatsoever in
the events in West Virginia, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. Now, the
party would organize several meetings in Philadelphia. However, since the
mayor illegally outlawed all public gatherings, the police would break
up these peaceful meetings and arrest Workingmen's Party leader Joseph
Steinner on charges of inciting a riot. Then, when the

(10:28):
party attempted to hold another meeting, the police would break
that one up as well, which ultimately resulted in the
comps shooting and killing eighteen year old William McBride, actions
which notably, only one paper in the city actually condemned
the mayor for while at the same time all of
the Philadelphia press failed to mention how the city's mayor
was also the largest stockholder in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,

(10:50):
meaning he was actively having people arrested, denying them their
First Amendment rights, and even outright having people killed, all
in the name of protecting the company that he had
a major interest in. Meanwhile, events weren't quite as dramatic
in New York City. We're only twenty fifth of July.
The party would organize a pair of meetings which would
impressively be attended by some twenty thousand people. Little would

(11:11):
come of these efforts, though not because of police intervention,
but because the two sections of the party could not
come together to present a unified message, as some wanted
to call for more unionism in the creation of a
powerful nationwide federation of trade unions, while others wanted to
call for immediate political actions. As such, nothing would happen
in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia involving the working Men's Party in

(11:33):
other places, though they would be more successful involving themselves
with these spreading strike efforts. However, before I get into
that aspect of our story, first, like always, I wanted
to give credit to my sources for this series, which
include Philip S. Phoner's The Great Labor Uprising of eighteen
seventy seven, David O. Stillwell's The Great Strengths of eighteen
seventy seven, and Robert V. Bruce's eighteen seventy seven Year

(11:56):
of Violence. And like always, these in any additional sources
like websites that I used, will be available on this podcast,
Bloesguy and Covie pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't want
to be bothered skipping through commercials, there is always an
ad free feed available to subscribers at patreon dot COM's
Last Distorted History. And with all that being said, let's begin.
Events in Louisville would prove typical on the way they

(12:18):
press to do these strikes and the Workingmen's Party involvement
in them, or the lack thereof up until this point,
as while the Party did have a presence in Louisville,
the ultimately would play no real part in the events.
Then unfolded as you see. The strike of eighteen seventy
seven spread to Louisville when the Louisville Nashville Railroad, along
with the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad, also known as

(12:39):
the Short Line, both cut their workers wages by ten percent.
The workers, then, inspired by the events taking place elsewhere
in the country, on the twenty second of July, responded
to these counts by holding meetings to discuss this situation.
The workers for the Short Line then simply demanded that
the wage cuts be rescinded, while the Louisville and Nashville
workers demanded not only a restoration of all ways, but

(13:00):
also a dollar fifty minimum wage for all workers, demands
which they made clear, if not meant by the companies,
would result in their workers quitting in mass. The railroads
responded by promising to restore all their wages, a significant
victory in one that inspired the rest of Louisville's workers,
including black sewer workers, who decided they should go on
strike to demand wages of a dollar fifty a day

(13:23):
instead of the dollar they were currently receiving. Indeed, as
this movement began getting steam, these African American sewer workers
went from one word to work sewer project to the next,
making a circuit around the city, in forming the men
at each side other demands and recruiting them to their cause.
That nine, then two thousand people, including these striking sewer workers,
gathered together in front of the Cities Courthouse. As they

(13:44):
did so, there really was no plan, no organizing force,
and no one leading them. They had just started gathering,
but while they were there, they decided to call upon
the mayor to address them and their concerns. The mayor
then seemingly looked to placate this crowd of angry workers
by proclaiming himself a quote friend of the workingman. Other
than its empty gesture, however, all the mayor really did

(14:05):
was to just kind of generally lecture those in attendants
as he called for order and moderation in their demands
before finally asking them to disperse and return to their homes.
The mayor statement, though which we don't really know what
it was word for word, apparently did not satisfy the crowd. Indeed,
if anything, whatever he said seemed to turn those who
had gathered at the courthouse against him, as they started

(14:26):
hooting and shouting down the politician. Some among the crowd
even started calling for a marcher protest, and soon six
hundred of those gathered at the courthouse responded by marching
down to the Realm depot. Along the way, the group
ledloose their frustrations as they started chattering street lamps and
breaking the windows in the homes of these cities wealthy residents.
This included the residents of the city's mayor and that

(14:48):
of the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, who
was apparently also the president of the Great Southern Railroad. Indeed,
it seems that the crowd, as they progressed, actually initially
passed by the railroad president's home without incident. However, upon
realizing whose home that was, the crowd wheeled around and
made directly for the railroad baron's residence, at which point
they began chucking stones through every window. With that done,

(15:12):
they continued their journey down to the Louisville Nashville Railroads
freight depot, whose windows they also smashed. Upon reaching the
short Lines depot, however, the crowd was met by force
of fifty armed cumps who opened fire, dispersing the crowd. This, however,
did not stop the striking sewer workers and others from
marching through the city the following day, an action which
caused business throughout the city to be canceled to be

(15:34):
clear that the Workingmen's Party of Louisville had not been
involved in any of these activities. Indeed, they had even
gone so far as to condemn the lawlessness that had
taken place. The Party, in fact, would officially state that
they quote deprecated the spirit of violence which had manifested
itself all over the country, and instead they encouraged quote
moderation and peace and resistance to the oppression of capital. Yet,

(15:57):
despite such clear and unequivocal statements, which the Louisville Career
Journal would actually reprint somehow, the paper was still insistent
that the party was the quote enemies of organized society,
while also blaming the events of the past few days
on the quote spirit of communism. Now, the Workingmen's Party
would be much more proactive in Cincinnati, as they fully

(16:17):
seemed to anticipate that the strike would spread to their city,
as the railroads had also cut the wages for the
workers there by ten percent as well. The party then
held a rally, which drew a purported crowd of thousands,
during which representatives for the party promised to support the strike,
while also making a public offer to city officials that
if they promised to not call off the National Guard,

(16:38):
they in return would pledge to quote support them in
efforts to protect property and preserve law and order, while
another speaker would redict that such strikes as they were
seeing breaking out across the country were destined to become
more and more common as long as the current relationship
between labor and capital persisted. That being said, the key
speech of the day was given by a black man

(16:58):
named Peter H. Carr Ark, who condemned the railroad companies
for having their workers thought by federal troops and National guardsmen.
For Clark, the only way to prevent strikes in such
violence from occurring again in the future was through an
embrace of socialism, which he saw as a remedy for
all of society's ills, a speech which would be reprinted
in full by the Cincinnati Commercial, making it possibly the

(17:20):
first time that a black American's argument for socialism was
widely publicized. Yet despite giving room for such remarks, the
paper still sided with the railroads. As they insisted that
they had every right to appeal for protection from their
employee's attempts to dictate what they should and should not do.
According to the paper, then employers had the right to
appeal for protection against their unlawful workers. Clark, notably, would

(17:44):
respond to these comments by the papers first by asserting
that he did not support violence or destructive acts by
the workers, but at the same time he could not
condemn them either. For Clark, the calculus was simple. It
was the workers whose labor actually generated the money that
paid for the exorbitant salaries given to the various railroad
presidents and other officers, not to mention the railroad's precious

(18:06):
stock payouts. As such, it made no sense that their
wages were the things being sacrificed. Furthermore, not only was
this unfair, but the workers were also not afforded any
means of expressing their frustrations outside of the actions that
were taking place across the country. As Clark would stay, quote,
when they complain, they are told that they are at
liberty to quit and take their services elsewhere, which was

(18:28):
equivalent to quote telling them they are at liberty to
go and starve the whole dynamic, Clark asserted, was unfair
as the deck was stacked against the workers because quote,
they have no representation, only board of directors. Every state
is laws punishing conspiracy, punishing riot and unlawful assemblages, but
no state has laws providing for the examination and redress

(18:49):
of the agrievances of which these men complain. The whole
force of the state and national government may be invoked
by the railroad managers, but the labor has nothing. It
was and amidst this back and forth worth between Peter H. Clarke,
a member of the working Men's Party, and the newspapers,
that the great strike arrived in Cincinnati only twenty third
of July. Things would start when workers for the Cincinnati,

(19:10):
Hamilton and Dayton Railroad threatened to go and strike in
response to yet another ten percent wage cut, a cont
that the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton's management decided was not
worth it, as after meeting they simply canceled the CONTs.
The Ohio and Mississippi Road, on the other hand, would
refuse to cancel their planned wage cunts, insisting as they
did that any rumors of unrest about town were simply

(19:32):
the product of men who had been fired for going
on strike the previous year, a statement which would prove
to be quite wrong, as when the implemented their wage cuts,
their workers immediately went on strike, doing so by following
the example of their Eastern rethren by stopping all freight traffic. Meanwhile,
a group consisting of anywhere from three hundred to three
thousand Opset citizens started heading for the Ohio and Mississippi

(19:53):
Roal depot, which is admittedly a pretty huge range and
as such no one can really say how many actual
wor workers to the railroad were involved. However, what is
seemingly clear is that a number of rowdy teenage boys
were present. This crowd of anywhere from three hundred to
three thousand individuals would then arrive at the depot around
ten thirty at night, at which points some among them

(20:14):
began covering the bridge in oil that they then set alight.
When firemen arrived at the scene, though to put out
the burning bridge, their efforts would be hindered by the
angry crowd, which included having their hoses cut. Yet somehow,
despite this, the fireman would manage to save the bridge
from utter destruction. In response to such scenes, the mayor
of Cincinnati would dispatch one hundred and twenty five constables

(20:35):
down to the railyard, where they drove out these striking
workers and arrested those that they claimed were the leaders. Meanwhile,
the mayor also ordered all saloons in the city closed,
while also swearing in a special police force, in addition
to organizing a citizen vigilante committee, from which he stationed
armed guards around the rail yard with orders to shoot
anyone who attempted to stop the trains from moving. Meanwhile,

(20:57):
over in Zanesville, Ohio, we see further proof that while
the railroad workers were the main group participating in these strikes,
they were far from alone, as in that city, some
three hundred unemployed men brought construction of the Clarendon Hotel
to a halt before working their way through town, shutting
down every factory and foundry that lay in their path,
an action which resulted in a meeting of the cities

(21:18):
working class, where they drew up a list of wages
that were acceptable for their various jobs. This action, however,
was met by a curfew from the mayor which allowed
the police, who were assisted by so called White Ribbon Brigade,
which I think means there were veterans to make arrest
that helped to force the city's workers to return to
their jobs. In this again, we see no force behind

(21:39):
the scenes, not even the Workingmen's Party pulling the strings
of the workers. In contrast, though, we see time and
again government in business combining forces to crush the workers
with the violence that they claimed to be so against,
unless they are the ones unleashing it. Yet, while the
working Men's Party had not played a particularly huge role
in these events so far, despite what the press, in

(22:00):
cities like Chicago and Saint Louis, their influence would definitely
be felt. Chicago was probably the most important city in

(22:26):
the Midwest, a title they might have been at risk
of losing following the Great Fire of eighteen seventy one,
and if you want more information on that event, check
out my series on the Great Chicago Fire. But the
fact of the matter was by this point the city
had recovered from that disaster. That event, though, was still
very much influencing events in the city. As you see,

(22:47):
thousands of workers had been drawn to Chicago in the
wake of the fire to take advantage of the mass
rebuilding effort. Notably among those who came to the city
looking for work. Were a large number of German speaking
immigrants individuals and were likely steeped in socialist thought and
experienced in labored disputes from their homeland. Now everything seemed
fine for a time, but just two years after this

(23:08):
mass rebuilding efforts started, the depression struck, leaving many would
come to the city looking for work straighted and hopeless. Furthermore,
the feeling in the city's working class were not improved
by the way the fire had been handled, because, as
we saw my series on said disaster, city officials immediately
unleashed a military on their own people, while also restricting
aid in the aftermath to only those who were deemed

(23:30):
deserving of it, which is all to say that the
wealthy had all their needs taken care of, while the
poor were left destitute. Further proof of how bad things
were in Chicago prior to the events of the eighteen
seventy seven strike can be seen by the fact that
over five thousand of Chicago's children, boys and girls between
ten and fifteen years of age were officially listened on
these census as wage journers. These children sowed closed and

(23:52):
worked in dry goods stores, print shops, packing houses, and
furniture factories, and these were supposedly the lucky ones, as
they were the ones would survived long enough to risk
loss of life and limit these dangerous conditions. As half
of these cities children died before they were age five,
Which is all to say that poverty and suffering was
common in the city, conditions which fostered anger and which
in turn brought on strikes, events which had become increasingly common,

(24:16):
with at least one happening yearly through the eighteen seventies,
being wle the cities sizable immigrant population, especially the German
and Eastern European immigrants, ensured that Marxism had become a
popular answer to their woes. Indeed, in the absence of
strong multi ethnic labor unions, a culture grew up around
these various socialist groups, a culture which included having their

(24:36):
own press, parades and picnics, not to mention a yearly
celebration of the Paris Commune, all of which served to
knit them together as a community. It was then this
community of immigrants that formed the core of the Chicago
Workingmen's Party, being while Chicago was also importantly a helm
for a number of railroads as the Baltimore and Ohio,
the Pittsburgh Fort Wayne in Chicago, the Chicago and Northwestern,

(24:58):
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and the Lakeshore in Michigan
Southern Railroads, among others, all had major lines ending in
the city, meaning there were a significant number of railroad
workers in Chicago who were paying attention to what was
taking place in the East. Then, on top of these
railroad workers, there was also some fifteen thousand unemployed individuals
in the city, a population and was seen as being

(25:19):
particularly dangerous should labor unrest break out, something which was
worrying for both the Chicago Times and for railroad officials. Indeed,
one local railroad manager would write that quote, there is
much excitement here over the riots and the sympathies with
the strikers. It's being talked of on streetcars and in
streets as a bread ride. Sentiment in Chicago then, like
it was in many places, was vocally with these striking

(25:42):
workers even before the events spread to their community. Indeed,
the talk of it being a bread riot suggests that
the feeling was these people were simply fighting for their
right to survive. In addition to those factors, Chicago was
notably also the home of the national headquarters of the
Workingmen's Party, who by this point and most assuredly taken
note of the events in the East and were now
actively looking to mobilize and work with these cities workers

(26:05):
in similar efforts. In such an atmosphere, then, the appearance
of Albert Parson and the Workingmen's Party at a meeting
of Pittsburgh for wayne Chicago railroad workers was especially worrying
for those who feared these strikes spreading to Chicago. Indeed, Parson,
who was recognized as one of the party's best speakers
in the city, was reportedly met by loud cheers as
he encouraged the workers to go on strike and support

(26:26):
of their Eastern brethren. Parson didn't stop there, either, as
he was also cheered as he blamed the city's massive
unemployment problem on the introduction of new machinery by capitalist
who did not care about how many livelihoods they were
taking away in the pursuit of maximum profits. In contrast,
according to Parson, a responsible introduction of machinery could have
kept everyone employed had the hours they needed to work

(26:48):
simply been reduced. Another statement that would be cheered by
these simple railroad men. Was when Parsons called out the
nation's newspapers for being the spokespersons for quote monopolies and tyrants. Indeed,
the newspapers were actively in the process of justifying parsons statements,
as they ignored their own earlier explanations for why workers
had genuine reasons to be aggrieved, and were now declaring

(27:10):
frantically that quote Chicago must not fall into the hands
of the mob, a statement that echoed the concerns of
city officials and major monopolistic businesses like the railroads, who
were girding themselves for what they feared was to come,
especially following the events into Pittsburgh. Indeed, fearing the spread
of the strike to the Windy City, railroads began actively
moving as many of their cars and locomotives out of

(27:30):
Chicago as was practical. Meanwhile, factories in town were increasing
their security forces, while retail stores were arming their employees.
Four hundred additional policemen were also mobilized, while Mayor Heath
held secret meetings with National Guard commanders, which resulted in
two regiments being quietly prepped to go into action. Additionally,
the Secretary of more also diverted the travel six companies

(27:51):
of the twenty second Infantry who were returning east after
fighting with the Lakota, making it so their train would
stop in Chicago. Meanwhile, as He's business concerned and the
government allies were preparing a military response to something that
hadn't even happened, there were calls for the Workingmen's Party
to hold a meeting and so in leaflets would be
distributed throughout the city. Leaflets, which among other things, called

(28:12):
attention to how Chicago's vagrancy laws were criminalizing laborers would
been put out of work through no fault of their own. Additionally,
the flyers pointed out other efforts by city officials to
criminalize any kind of joint action among workers to demand
better pay and conditions. These things, the leaflets declared, were
evidence of the quote money lords working to steal the
rights and manhood of the workers. For this reason, then

(28:34):
the document closed by declaring, quote for the sake of
our wives and children and our self respect, let us
wait no longer. Organized at once mass meeting on Market
Street near Medicine tonight, let us act while there's still time.
So on the evening on the twenty third, of July,
roughly about the same time as unbeknownst to the people
of Chicago, the Eastern Grays were unleashed upon the workers

(28:56):
in running Pennsylvania. It purported fifteen thousand ants of the
parties call a number which varies from source to source,
although they generally placed a number ten to thirty thousand,
with one putting the number at fifteen. Regardless of the
actual number, though all the sources seem to agree that
this was one of the largest gatherings the city had
ever seen, with workers converging on Marcus Street after marching

(29:17):
it from all over the city, carrying placards bearing slogans
written in German, English or French, slogans like why does
overproduction cost starvation? And life by labor or death by fight?
And united we stand, Divided we fall. Various speakers representing
the Workingmen's Party would address this gathered crowd from the
back of four wagons. Among them, of course, was Albert Parson,

(29:39):
who would call those who assembled that night in the
streets of Chicago the quote Grand Army of Starvation, a
likely reference to the Grand Army of the Republic, the
largest veterans organization at the time, which consisted of many
would fund in the Union during the Civil War. Parson
would then praise those striking the East for demanding of quote,
those who have possession of the means of production, that

(30:00):
they be permitted to live again, placing this as a
matter of survival for the workers, while at the same
time expressing regret for the violence and destruction that had
resulted from their actions. However, he recognized the quote fact
that they were driven to what they had done. It
is for this reason that he again call up the
press for never going quote to the factories and workshops

(30:20):
to see how the toiling millions give away their lives
to the rich bosses of the country. As of course,
the press couldn't understand these actions if they go about
blindly ignoring the lives of the people who had been
forced to that point. His speech then became a rallying
cry to action, as he called upon those there to quote,
let us fight for our wives and children. For with
us it is a question of bread and meat. Let

(30:42):
the grand Army of labor say who shall fill the
legislative halls of this country. In doing so, he was
not simply calling for a strike, but for the workers
to use the ballot to replace all those whose loyalty
was only to money and the corporations who paid them.
As after all, Parsons reminded those gathered there that they
had the power because quote, let us not forget the

(31:02):
fact that all wealth and civilization comes from labor alone. Therefore, quote,
it rests with you to say whether we shall allow
the capitalists to go on exploiting us, or whether we
shall organize ourselves. Parson then called upon the thousands gathered
there that night to organize and do quote enroll your
names in the grand Army of labor. And if the
capitalist engages in warfare against our rights, then we shall

(31:25):
resist him with all the means that God has given us,
a statement in which was met by loud cheers of support.
It has to be said, though, that while the statement
was fairly militant in nature, Parson, like all the other
speakers that night, was careful to counsel militant but moderate,
ie non violent action. That is, all the speakers, with
the exception of John mcaufley, who declared that the guardsmen

(31:45):
would be wise not to fire upon the people of
Chicago like they had their brethren in Pittsburgh, and elsewhere
because quote, if they shoot us, will shoot them, a
declaration which, even though was met by loud cheers, another
speaker was quick to rise up and immediately encourage caution
and moderation. Ultimately, though, it has to be said that
this was a holy, peaceful rally that ended without incident,

(32:07):
a fact which seemly gave the authorities in Chicago the
impression that the crisis had come and gone in their
city without incident. They were quickly proven wrong, however, when
early the following day, forty switchmen employed by the Michigan
Central Railroad went on strike, demanding better pay. Now, forty
switchmen may not sound like much, and indeed they recognized
that they wouldn't get anything accomplished by themselves. As a result,

(32:30):
they sent to work, getting the other workers in the
Michigan Central's machine shops and freight yarns to join in.
And they didn't stop there either, as the striking Michigan
Central workers started moving onto the shops and yards of
the other railroads, calling upon the workers there to join
them as well. Trusting as they did, the conditions were
just as bad across the board. Indeed, when they met
with workers in the Illinois Central and Baltimore, Ohio rail yards.

(32:52):
They would jointly announce their intentions to stop railroad traffic
without violence, so that they could quote gain our rights,
bread for ours, our families, and a decent living for ourselves.
With their intentions now clear, the workers from these three
railroads then split up, heading in different directions, intent on
recruiting others from the neighboring rail yards as they were
far from none. They would go from one machine shop

(33:14):
and one rail yard to another, stopping at each to
send and representatives who speak with those inside and in
effort to convince them to join, which in most cases
they did. On and on they went, until eventually they
found themselves marching through the streets, chanting quote monopolies, all
the while being cheered on by the onlookers in the
working class neighborhoods they passed through. As the strikers spread

(33:37):
beyond the confines of the rail yards, they then visited
places like the Excelsior Iron Works, the National Boiler Works,
Green Bombs Iron and Nail Works, and the Chicago Dye
and Machine Works. They also paid a visit to the
city sizeable and numerous lumber yards, brickyards and packing houses,
and in each place the workers decided that they two
would join in the strike. By nightfall, then all freight

(33:58):
traffic out of the city had been brought to a halt,
while many other shops and factories had also been shut down.
Chants of we want labor and justice and down with
the wages of slavery were soon echoing through the streets
of Chicago, while the headlines of the city's newspapers blared
quote the strike General in Chicago. Workingmen were then joined
by women and children as they marched through the streets

(34:19):
intent on spreading the grand strike even further, crowds which,
by the way, were generally peaceful, as while there were
some reports and rumors of looting, they were few and
far between. Now, the working Men's Party did have a
hand in encouraging these strikers in their activities on that day,
although again they were far from the puppet masters that
some wanted to claim they were, as once again they

(34:41):
had no actual hand in the initial strike that had
sparked this whole thing. At most, you could argue that they,
through their meeting the previous night, had helped to inspire
these actions. Their influence over these strikers then, was to
be clear very much limited, as while they would embrace
the parties call for higher wages and shorter hours, these
strikes wind declaring their demands never included anything about nationalizing

(35:03):
the railroads, which was very much a goal of the
Workingmen's Party. Still, the party would see to assist a
workers as on the first under the strike, party leaders
would meet with fifty representatives of the various striking tradesmen,
during which time they recommended they draw demands for all
the workers in the city, demands which would ultimately include
the eight hour workday and a twenty percent wage increase.

(35:26):
During this time, they also set up an executive committee
whose job it would be to oversee the strike in
the city. This new executive committee then called for a
meeting the following day so they could have the opportunity
to meet with representatives from all the various shops, factories,
and trade units involved, so as to get a more
complete understanding of what they were dealing with and how
to proceed. Yet, even as the workers of Chicago and

(35:48):
the Workingmen's Party were trying to organize this massive, unplanted,
unexpected strike, the forces of government and business were already
preparing their response. For example, Albert Parson would be identified
and play for causing the strike. As a result, he
would be fired and blackball from his job as a
printer at the Chicago Times, following which Combson escorted him
to City Hall, where he was questioned by the Aldermen,

(36:11):
a board of thirty businessmen, and the Superintendent of Police,
who all blamed Parson for insting the workers to quote
unquote insurrection. Parson, though, would try to explain to his
interrogators that he had simply been a speaker at a
meeting and nothing more. He was not the reason the
workers of Chicago had gone on strike past the true
causes of unrest were beyond his control, a statement that

(36:33):
was meant by some of the gathered businessmen and politicians
barking out things like quote lock him up, or hang
him and lynch him, all of which was coming from
the men who were actually responsible for the conditions that
caused this unrest. They, however, would not follow through on
their threats because others in the room that day recognized
that shouldn't they actually lock up or murder this man,

(36:55):
the risk making a martyr of him and inspiring greater
violence in response STI Although the Superintendent of Police as
he released Parson, made clear that quote your life is
in danger, I advise you to leave the city at once.
Beware everything you say or do is being known to me.
I am met on your track to shadow you. Do
you know you were liable to be assassinated at any

(37:16):
moment on the street. Meanwhile, even as the Superintendent of
Police and various businessmen were threatening life of Albert Parson,
Chicago's mayor was putting together a force to combat the
city striking workers, as he called out not just the
National Guard and veteran clubs, but he also actively recruited
several thousand quote men of ice standing to serve as
a special police aka vigilante force, which was all in

(37:40):
addition to the twelve companies of federal infantry and two
companies of artillery that were being dispatched to the city.
At the same time, the cities wealthier residents also began
making preparations to go to more so as to suppress
the quote unquote rebellion they believe was taking place. The rich,
you see, were clearly terrified by this mass movement of
the working class began stocking up on guns, as the

(38:02):
city's gun stores reported blooming business even as they restricted
their sales only to the wealthy. The thing was, the
working Men's Party was actively seeking to conduct this strike
as peacefully as possible, Yet those in power seemingly had
no interest in such tactics, because for as much as
they liked to talk about law and order, they don't
actually care if you're breaking the law or not if

(38:22):
you're saying things they don't like. The first major clash
between these striking workers, their supporters, and the cops would
then occur on the evening of the twenty fifth of July.
As you see, several thousand workers and their sympathizers had
gathered at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy sweatyards, likely in
doing so just to make sure there were no attempts
to sneak trains out. Once they were satisfied, then this

(38:44):
crowd had begun heading back home. In other words, not
only were they not doing anything illegal or destructive, but
this crowd was even returning to their homes peacefully when
an omnibus think a horse drawn version of a bus,
suddenly pulled up upon them. Eighteen robs and pored out
of the omnibus revolvers in hand, which they used as
they charged to crowd, firing their weapons without provocation. Now

(39:07):
things did not go super well for these cops because
even as they matched to scatter the initial group that
they charged at, thousands of other workers and their supporters
were nearby and were drawn by the sound of the gunfire.
It was, and the actions of these cops had set
off the crowd, who had up until that point been
peaceful and not destructive. Now those stones were soon flying

(39:27):
through the air, aimed at buildings owned by the hated railroads. Meanwhile,
gun stores would be broken into as the workers thought
to arm and defend themselves in the police, who had
again shot first. The police who had started all of this,
then began rapidly pulling back, desperate not to be surrounded
by the crowd. Multiple car loads of police, though, would
soon arrive on the scene to support their fellows, and

(39:48):
just like the first batch of cops, these new ones
also just started opening fire on the crowd as soon
as they arrived. In the end, then, not a single
cop was killed in the skirmish, while at least eight
members of the crowd were wounded by the cops, while
another three were killed. Meanwhile, just two miles to the
north and market in Medicine, the Working Men's Party was
holding another mess meeting. Presiding over this meeting was the

(40:10):
National Secretary of the Working Men's Party, Philip Van Pennen, who,
unlike many members of the party living in Chicago, was
actually American born, meaning unlike some he would have an
easier job of addressing the English speaking parts of the crowd. Yet,
just as he started addressing the people, a squad of
cops whooped in, attacking the crowd from behind with their clubs.
This cost a stampede that rolled over Van Pennen and

(40:33):
the others who had been preparing to address the gathered workers.
Now as this was happening, another group of a thousand
or so workers carrying torches, banners, and batting a drum
arrived on the scene, expecting to attend a meeting. There
were then surprised when instead they were met by cops
who fired their guns into the air as a threatened
to shoot into the crowd if they didn't disperse, which
the crowd did without further incident. The story, however, wouldn't

(40:56):
be quite the same the following day, as its events
would come to be known as the Battle of Chicago.
Now again, it has to be emphasized that prior to
these attacks by the cops, things had been quiet. Indeed,
according to the Chicago Tribune, there had been a quote
unquote holiday spirit to the crowds of striking workers in
the city. Things then had been fairly light hearted. They

(41:16):
hadn't been all that angry, and they certainly hadn't been violent. However,
things would take on a different tone now that the
so called forces of law and order had shown their
real faces and unleashed violence upon them. As in addition
to the actions by the cops the previous night, there
were also reports of incidence elsewhere in the city where
so called special beliefs, which were just armed vigilante groups,

(41:38):
had been quick to beat and shoot people for little
to no reason. This then had added a new layer
of palpable anger to these striking workers. Things first got
started on the morning of the twentieth of July at
a vine dock near Hosted in sixteenth Streets, an area
that was a bit of a powder keg, as the
bridge here not only spanned the tracks of several round lines,
but was also close to the Lumbered District, an area

(41:59):
that had been at the heart of a bloody strike
just a year prior. Meanwhile, Hasted straighted self straddleed to
working class communities. This included a Czech community, many of
whom were recently alienated from the Catholic Church and had
strong sympathies for socialism. Then there was the Irish neighborhood,
who saw the Irish cops as traders. These groups then
rolled up over the news of the events of the

(42:21):
previous night, proceeded to stop street cars and cut down
telegraph wires. This morning, cops were dispatched to the scene,
and much like they had the previous day, they managed
to disperse the crowd with force. Things, however, would be
different this morning, as this time the crowd reformed and
came back looking for revenge. As more cops were sent
to the scene, a pitched battle soon broke out, with

(42:41):
participants wielding sticks, stones and clubs. Yet, just as the
cops looked to be gaining the upper hand again, as
they drove the crowd over the vinduct and down on
to sixteenth, they encountered yet another massive workers and their supporters,
numbering around five thousand This new force then drove the
police back across the vinduct, at which which point the
cops puwned the revolvers and started firing into the crowd.

(43:03):
Six men would go down from this opening volley, but
this time the crowd did not disperse or even back up. Instead,
they pressed forward. The cops at this point then had
no choice bunt to flee for their lives, as they
had already exhausted most of their ammunition. Yet, even as
they started to flee, more reinforcements arrived in the form
of cops and he mounted militia force. The cops and

(43:25):
charged forward, clubbing and shooting anyone in their way, while
a regiment of Federal troops and a pair of two
pound artillery pieces were also brought in. Not wanting to
contend with such overwhelming might, the crowd began to flee
down Halsted Street and onto Archer Avenue. Now some who
had fled down Hall Street eventually reached Twelfth Street, where
they to join with a small crowd that had formed
outside of Turner Hall, a group that were waiting to

(43:48):
see what these several hundred German socialist cabinetmakers who had
gathered inside a discussy strike were going to do. It
was then just as these German cabinetmakers were leaving the
hall to join with the people outside, that his squad
of cops and a vigilianti force arrived and just began
attacking the people without posing to ask any questions or
give any kind of order to disperse. Then, as the

(44:09):
cops came crashing through the doors of Turner Hall, the
building's proprietor protested this destruction, which earned him a beating
by a police sergeant who proceeded to split his head open.
The cops, then in this clash, would kill one and
wound several others as they just beate and shot people
at random. This included a man who was pinned to
a table as the cops took turns beating him. This

(44:30):
kind of violence would continue throughout the morning. As it did,
a bit of a theme began to form as smaller
groups of workers and supporters would form out of the
larger crowds that the cops had broken up. These smaller
groups would then fight in a kind of guerrilla style
as he struck at the cops and other forces of
so called ball and order before splitting up and running

(44:51):
The individuals in these groups would then take advantage of
the alley streets and buildings that they knew so well.
This included sheltering in the nearby homes of supporters and
sympathy pfizers and waiting for the cops to pass by. Meanwhile,
the government's forces received no such assistance. Indeed, when they
asked for what are from the residents of the neighborhoods
they were fighting in, they were not granted any. In

(45:12):
the end, though, the arrival of eight companies of federal infantry,
two companies of artillery men, and an additional two thousand
special policemen who had been sworn in for this occasion
finally brought the events of the day to a close.
Four hundred demonstrators would be arrested when all was said
and done, while thirty men and boys would be killed
during the fighting, a number of whom were teens, who,

(45:32):
keep in mind, likely weren't just there looking to stir
up trouble, as some accounts would try to claim. Instead,
more than likely these teens were workers themselves, considering the
large amount of literal children in the city who weren't. Meanwhile,
another two hundred or so individuals would be wounded during
these clashes, all of whom were workers, as not a

(45:52):
single cop was killed, and indeed only eighteen were wounded,
none of which seriously so numbers would suggest that the
actions of them the cops were a major overreaction, especially
considering that all the violence that took place had been
initiated by the cops against peaceful protesters. Of course, you
would not know that from the coverage in the press,
as the Chicago Tribune would try to justify things with

(46:15):
an editorial penned by one Joseph Metal titled quote the
dangerous classes a group who he would describe, Quote they
are governed by their passions, their course and taste, and
vicious in habits. They are ignorant and revengeful. They are
readily influenced by the war's class of demagogues and revolutionists,
and are easily maddened by liquor. In Metal's opinion, then,

(46:36):
quote a little powder used to teach the dangerous classes
a needful lesson is well burned provided there are bullets
in front of it. Metal and by extension, the Chicago Tribune, then,
were so disdainful of the working class that they were
absolutely fine with them being shot and killed in the streets.
Such folks were dangerous, and thus any kind of governmental

(46:56):
oppression and violence was justifiable. The great in Chicago then
came to an Enna's police, vigilante groups and federal troops
proceeded to put an end to any and all attempted
gatherings by the working class. They even took to patrol
on these streets of working class neighborhoods, where the residents
remained bitter and resentful. Meanwhile, the city's papers, in addition

(47:17):
to justifying the violence against the working class, all joined
forces in blaming the working Men's Party for the violence,
despite the fact that they had consistently encouraged restraint and
peaceful tactics. Indeed, the vast majority of the violence and
instruction that happened in the city came at the hands
of the so called forces of law and order, as
the police's time and again seemly provoked these fights jo

(47:38):
so they would have an excuse to crack down on
the workers and break the strike. As we will see, though,
Chicago was not the only city that would be paralyzed
by the strike of eighteen seventy seven. These strike in

(48:02):
Chicago had nearly been general, but it came up short
as it had not included all the cities workers, likely
at least in part because the events there were largely spontaneous,
as while the working Men's Party might have provided inspiration
for those events, there were not a true guiding force.
In contrast, the railroad workers in Kansas City actively looked

(48:22):
to start a general strike after a mass meeting on
the twenty third of July, with their main goal being
having wages across the bordery store to the point they
had been at in January eighteen seventy four. These efforts, though,
would be shut down before they ever really got started.
In contrast, a general strike would actually occur Untiledo, Ohio
for a few days, as the people there called for

(48:44):
wages of two fifty to three dollars for skilled workers
and a dollar fifty for unskilled labor. Surprisingly, the workers
would even have the support of city officials. In fact,
Aledo's police commissioner would tell the striking workers quote, you
were not slaves, gentlemen, and I'm glad to see you
as search your manhood. Meanwhile, the head of the local
National Guard, one Major General James Steadman, also spoke at

(49:07):
a worker's rally, encouraging them in their efforts. Then, when
businesses in the city predictably pleaded with the mayor to
do something to stop the strike, he instead voiced his
support for the workers and even ordered the police to
make no arrests. However, after several days of Toledo being
shot down, the mayor apparently had a change of heart,
as he swore in an additional four hundred cops that

(49:29):
he then used to have the leaders of the strike arrested.
The events in Toledo, however, would pale in comparison to
what happened in Saint Louis, if for no other reason
then Toledo was significantly smaller than Saint Louis, which was
a major industrial city. Indeed, Saint Louis in those days
was actually quite similar to Chicago. For example, it was

(49:50):
a major railroad hub that was second only to Chicago
in the West. Indeed, while Saint Louis was a bit
smaller than Chicago, its working class had suffered many of
the same mode so when the strikes spread the Chicago,
it was really only a matter of time before to
round in Saint Louis as well. However, the first time
a large meeting was sold by the cities railroad workers

(50:10):
only twenty first of July. They only ended up expressing
their support for those striking in the East. The following day,
though railmen in East Saint Louis also met. Now things
would start out here quite enough, bought about a half
an hour in members of the Brotherhood of Firemen arrived, loudly,
proclaiming as they did that the Brotherhood had decided to

(50:30):
go on strike. The energy and enthusiasm of these newcomers
was infectious, and this attitude only seemed to spread when
a messenger brought word that they not only had the
support of the Workingmen's Party, but that representatives from the
group were on their way to join the meeting. Meanwhile,
rail workers in Saint Louis, upon learning that their brothers
in East Saint Louis were considering going on strike, crossed

(50:52):
the river as well to show their support. Workers from
most cities in came together to listen to speeches. Among
the speakers who had press them that day was Peter
Lofgreen of the working Men's Party, who told those gathered
there that quote, all you have to do, for you
have the numbers, is to unite on one idea that
the workingman shall rule the country. What man makes belongs

(51:14):
to him, and the workingman made this country. As he continued,
Lofgreen would also condemn the US government for taking the
quote side of capital by sending troops into West Virginia,
a reference to their decision to break up the beano
strike that head started at Marnsburg, which had provided the
inspiration for all these other uprisings. In contrast to the

(51:35):
US government, though, Lofgreen promised the gathered workers that if
they did go on strength, the working Men's Party would
support them. Also addressing the crowd that day was a
house painter who brought up the specter the molly McGuire
hangings by recalling the story of the quote poor Pennsylvania minus,
who talled in the bowels of the earth, only making
enough to keep body and soul together. They never received

(51:57):
a cent of money, only ortis for crosses and house rents.
And when they betted together for the protection of their interest,
the railroad company called them molly mcguires, hounded them and
hung the lived of them like so many in dogs,
with the implication being that if they continued to allow
the railroads and other corporations to walk all over them.
It was likely only a matter of time before they

(52:19):
too met the same fate. It was then, after these
and many other similarly minded speeches, that the East Saint
Louis railroad workers took a vote. When they did, the engineers,
the trackmen, the platform men, the brakemen, the firemen, and
anyone else who worked the freight trains all agreed to
go on strike. They declared then that no freight trains
would be run out of East Saint Louis until their

(52:41):
wages were restored to where they had been before the
panic of eighteen seventy three. The workers then took control
of the railway depot, turning it into their headquarters. As
they said, guards around the depot to ensure that not
only would no freight cars leave, but to also ensure
that they were not harmed or plundered. As again, like
we have seen time and again, they were willing to

(53:01):
be reasonable and work with the railroads, which men keeping
their properties safe and maintaining order during the strike. To
that end, the workers saw to it that all saloons
within seven blocks of the depot were shut down. Meanwhile,
as word was starting to spread about their decision to
go on strike. Men from the car works and the
stockyards also decided to join in as well. Then, as

(53:23):
word reached the Mayor of East Saint Louis, since he
had only a dozen police at his beck and call,
and because he was relying upon the votes of the
men who were now striking, he readily agreed to appoint
some of these striking workers as special police, who were
then given the responsibility of officially guarding the rail yard. Meanwhile,
over in Saint Louis Proper, on the evening of the
twenty third, the Working Men's Party called for a mess

(53:45):
meaning to take place in Lucas Market. In doing so,
they didn't have any advertisements aimed at alerting the general populace.
They put up no banners to catch the attention of
passers by, and they had no marching bands with which
to draw a crowd. And yet, according to the Globe
Democrat quote, no political meeting in the Great Centennial campaign
was by any means so large or so enthusiastic. It

(54:09):
seemed then that the Workingmen's Party was onto something, capturing
the attention of the people by echoing and giving voice
of their feelings In that moment. Speakers from several different
nationalities speaking in different languages would then address the crowd
of five thousand people, with the first speaker proclaiming, quote,
I believe that a rare monopolis today have no other
object in view than to take the government in their position,

(54:32):
and will it for the next fifty years to come
to the injury of our free institutions. And while we
have some knowledge of their scheme, we propose to prevent it.
A declaration which was met by loud cheers, indicating this
was not some random or isolated belief. People clearly recognized
a cozy relationship between big business and the government and

(54:52):
the dangers inherent in such a union. These speeches delivered
in Saint Louis also tended to be more militant in
nature than these speeches that had been delivered in Chicago.
For example, one German speaker would tell the crowd that
should the government send in the military to quote stop
the laboring man from obtaining his rights, then they would
have no other choice but to fight back. And unless

(55:13):
you think such a comment slipped through because the speaker
delivered such remarks in another language. Harry Allen, a member
of the working Men's Party would tell the crowd an
English quote, we must fight or die. There was then
no mistaking his words or his meaning. Indeed, Alan would
expand upon this idea as he further proclaimed quote, we
workingmen can present such a force, and even the government

(55:35):
itself must and will comply with our demands. We will
take such steps at the old and the young, the
sick and the healthy will be provided for. Also notable
among these speakers was a black man who was not
only allowed to address the crowd, but was also subsequently
chosen to be one of the five individuals who met
with the mayor. Now, to be clear, this rally wasn't

(55:55):
so much designed as to organize a strike effort in
Saint Louis, but instead to give vent to their feelings
and to express their support of those who had gone
on striking other cities. Indeed, the reason for the meeting
with the mayor was to inform him of their sympathy
for these striking workers in other communities and to request
any not some in troops to their city. What these
representatives for the working people Saint Louis did not know

(56:18):
was that even as they were meeting with the mayor,
troops are already on their way. Indeed, the very same
day that this meeting took place, six companies of infantry
at company by two gatling guns would arrive in the city.
The general commanding these troops, though, would announce that they
were just there to quote protect government and public property,
and not to crush these striking workers or forced trains

(56:38):
to run. This declaration, though, did not please James H. Wilson,
the court appointed head of the bankrupt Saint Louis and
Southeastern Railroad Company, an individual who would write in the
private letter, even before there is any kind of strike
involving his railroad that quote, I shall certainly not permit
my employees to fix their own rate to wages, nor
dictate to me in any manner what my policy shall be.

(57:02):
As in Wilson's twisted little mind, if he weren't to
make any concessions to striking workers quote, there would be
no end to their demands, and the railroads would have
to submit to being controlled by their employees. Wilson then
very much wanted to cross to the strike that had
started in East Saint Louis, but it seemed that the
government wasn't particularly interested in helping him at that moment. Meanwhile,

(57:23):
workers from various shops around Saint Louis were reaching out
to the Workingmen's Party with ideas about going on strike,
as they echoed the kind of militant talk that they
had heard during the earlier mass meeting. Among the first
to go on strike in Saint Louis that were not
railroad workers but Cooper's i e. Barrel makers, who notably
left their shops in a particularly dramatic fashion as they
were led by men playing fives and drums as they

(57:46):
shouted to all the Coopers and nearby shops quote, come out,
come out, no barrels less than ten cents. Boatmen in
the city also went on strike, as in molders, men
who made molds to cast metalin and mechanics, and even
the new boys got in on the act as they
too went on strike. Together, these various groups of striking
laborers started marching through the streets of Saint Louis, calling

(58:08):
upon others to join their cause. Estimates would later put
the number who participated in this march at around ten thousand,
which made this an even larger gathering than the Working
Men's Party mass meeting. Recognizing this opportunity. The working Men's
Party then looked to hold another meeting for the workers
of Saint Louis, and again, when the speakers addressed the crowd,
the tone here in Saint Louis was more militant in

(58:30):
character than what we have encountered in other cities. That
being said, though none who addressed the crowd suggested that
they should be the first to fire. They were laborers
and workers, after all, not soldiers. However, as one speaker
would proclaim, quote, if the authorities and the monopoly shooted us,
we will shoot at them in return. We are determined
to have our rights, even though the heavens fall upon us.

(58:53):
This meeting, also, much like the previous one, offer the
tenalizing promise of racial equality in this movement, because when
someone asked if blacks were to be included in this effort,
apparently the crowd quite vocally insisted that yes, they would be. Furthermore,
when a black man addressed the crowd, relating to them
the situation among his people, he asked, quote, will you
stand to us regardless of color? And again the crowd

(59:16):
responded that they would. The meeting this day that would
end with a resolution that called for a quote general
strike of all branches of industry for eight hours as
a day's work, and we call the legislature for the
immediate enactment of an eight hour law and the enforcement
and severe penalty for his vile nation, and that the
employment of all children under fourteen years of age be prohibited. Basically, then,

(59:38):
what they were asking for was the ensrinment of the
eight hour work day and the end of child labor
for those under fourteen, requests which don't seem all that radical,
but they were apparently enough to terrify the city's political
and business leaders. As the mayor, in a secret meeting
with these cities prominent businessmen, would worry about a force
of quote thirty thousand fully armed socialists who he and

(01:00:00):
the businessmen were convinced were looking to overthrow the city government.
To combat this imagined thread Sheriff John Finn would raise
a posse of five thousand individuals that he then looked
to arm by requesting ten thousand rifles, two thousand revolvers,
any battery of artillery from the state arsenal. In contrast,
instead of stockpiling weapons, the Workingmen's Party would have an

(01:00:22):
announcement printed up in English and German, calling on others
in the city to join the general strike effort, a
statement which notably emphasized the need to avoid violence and
to commit themselves to only peaceful and lawful acts. In
response to this announcement, workers at a beef cannery would
go on strike, while laborers on riverboats, many of for
more African American, would actually get their demands quickly met,

(01:00:45):
thus sparing that industry from extended strike effort. Few were
so mucky, however, and as a result, the people of
Saint Louis again took to the streams as now. Workers
from bagging companies, chemical plants, founderies, steel and iron works,
flour mills, and bakeries all went on strike. Indeed, as
the workers marched through the street this day, they would
close shop after shop as they went, bringing more and

(01:01:06):
more workers out to join the cause, a situation that
led the Daily Market Reporter to declare the following day
that quote the strike in its effect, permitted every branch
of trade in Saint Louis. Indeed, by the end of
the day, a total of sixty factories would be shut down,
while the railroad workers were basically left to run the
trains by themselves, as while no freight trains would go anywhere,

(01:01:28):
they made sure that the mail and passenger trains kept
running with the workers, even going so far as to
personally collect the affairs from the riders as the work
as a Saint Louis gathered for yet another meeting on
this day, they set their sights on an even higher
goal than just better wages or an eight hour work day,
as now their stated goal was for the workers to
gain control the government and cleaned out again, though this

(01:01:50):
was not to be done through force of arms, but
through the ballot box, as they talked of finally sending
fellow laborers to Washington instead of the lawyer types they
had been sending. The following day then would seem much
of the same as the strike continued to grow and
become more general, as yet another parade of workers saw
to it that even more factories in the city were
shut down, although a flour mill was allowed to stay

(01:02:12):
open so as to ensure that bread could still be
produced in the city, while a sugar refoery was also
allowed to continue functioning for another forty eight hours as
its owner had pleaded with the executive committee that had
been formed for the ranks of the striking workers to
try and give their movements some more organization. The owner
of this sugar mili cy had requested this temporary exemption
because a significant amount of sugar would spoil if it

(01:02:35):
was not refined in the next two days. This agreement
to allow the refinery to continue to function on a
temporary basis effectively demonstrated that not only were the workers
willing to be reasonable, but more importantly, that the Executive
Committee was, in that moment, the true power in the
city thanks to the twenty two thousand workers they now represented.
The problem was this was all so unexpected that it

(01:02:58):
seems that the Executive Committee didn't know what to do
with this power, and some among them apparently weren't even
sure that they wanted it now. Exactly who made off
this committee and how they were given this power is
not really known, having been lost to history. Yet, whoever
was a part of this committee, it does not seem
like they had any kind of clear vision or intention,
as they seemed reluctant to do anything, and when they

(01:03:20):
did do something, it was often confusing and contradictory. For example,
in a single handbill, they would demand justice or death,
while at the same time insisting on only peaceful actions.
Now only twenty six, they would declare that the mayor
and the business concerns in the city should take on
the responsibility of ensuring that these striking workers are fed,
so as to quote avoid plunder, arson or violence by

(01:03:43):
persons made desperate by destitution. Then, seemingly as if to
further this relationship with the government and to present themselves
as being reasonable and responsible, the Executive Committee promised that
they would not hold any more large scale demonstrations, doing
so to prevent some kind of outbreak of violence and
discs struction as a committee feared that they could no
longer control the crowd. In doing so, though, the committee

(01:04:05):
was effectively surrendering their own claim to power and influence,
as these large scale demonstrations and meetings were the thing
that had galvanized the workers of Saint Louis in the
first place. So without such demonstrations and meetings, the spirit
of strength and nudity that had been conjured among the
workers of Saint Louis began to fade, as did any
claim to power and influence that the Executive Committee might

(01:04:26):
have had. It was then their own fear that they
weren't up to the task, the fact that they didn't
really seem to have anything resembling a plan, and potentially
some good own fashioned racism that undermined whatever chance of
success the people Saint Louis might have had. As you see,
unlike the crowns earlier that had vocalized or support for
the black workers in their midst and least some on
the executive committee were worried about the presence of such

(01:04:48):
individuals in their movement. The racist belief slash fears of
these individuals were likely further fueled by newspaper coverage that
claimed that quote unquote, notorious negroes were taking over the movement,
something which the press further asserted meant that female factory
workers wouldn't join the strike, and a fear of black
men being a part of the movement. Indeed, at least

(01:05:08):
one member of the executive Committee, when interviewed after the fact,
would mention how they were bothered by the presence of
the n words attending their meetings, which means that their
decision to not hold any more meetings was potentially one
way of not having to deal with that particular element
of the working class regardless of the reason, though, the
general strike in Saint Louis would effectively be undermine thanks

(01:05:29):
to the Executive Committee effectively abandoning their responsibilities. As even
though a number of workers continued to on their own
travel about town enforcing these strike and closing various factories
and businesses, without the galvanizing force of those mass gatherings
that helped to bring out the larger massive people in
the city and met them together in a common cause,
things would start to fall apart as basically after a

(01:05:51):
certain point, all the Executive Committee did was print up
handbills promoting peaceful activities. Indeed, once this weakness and splintering
among the workers was known this by city officials and businessmen,
they decided that they would not make any more concessions. Meanwhile,
asse workers Executive Committee was content to sit on these
sidelines doing nothing. The city's merchants were pulling together some

(01:06:11):
twenty thousand dollars to arm their militia force, an effort
which they were aided in by the Saint Louis Gun
Club and the Saint Louis Arsenal, which provided them with
some fifteen hundred rifles. Likely recognizing the danger they were facing,
if for no other reason, because they knew what had
taken place in other cities. By the twenty seventh of July,
the workers of Saint Louis were growing impatient with the

(01:06:32):
Executive Committee. They wanted to do something to organize and
prepare in some way because they knew that the authorities
were surely not idly waiting. Yet despite this, the Executive
Committee still did nothing other than urging the workers to wait.
That weight edited at three that afternoon, not because the
Executive Committee decided to do something, but because were that

(01:06:53):
these soldiers were coming spread through those who had gathered
in the streets. Indeed, police cavalry were advancing down Fifth Street,
followed by more on foot carrying baynet and muskets. And
that was not all, as there was also a column
of soldiers marching through these streets with a cannon in
tow all of whom were headed for the hall where
the Executive Committee was currently meeting, and where a crowd
of workers gathered outside waiting to hear anything from them.

(01:07:16):
It was then into this crowd that the police on
horseback plunged into without any provocation, as they laid about
themselves with their clubs striking workers in their heads, while
their captain cried out, quote, they have no business here,
cut them down if they don't go. The crowd then,
both inside and outside the hall fled, with some even
jumping out of windows in their haste. Seventy three who

(01:07:37):
did not flee in time, however, would be beaten and arrested. Now,
none of the members of the Executive Committee were among
those arrested at the time. However, within a couple of days,
reportedly all the members of the Committee, as well as
a number of members of the Workingmen's Party, would be
arrested and jailed. The general striking Saint Louis then effectively
ended that day. Meanwhile, federal troops would arrive in East

(01:07:58):
Saint Louis the following day, where they swiftly took control
of the railroad depot without any resistance. Now, the train
workers there would make an attempt to keep the freight
trains from running the following day, but the federal troops
put a stop to these actions as he assistant in
the arrest of scores of striking workers, and with that
use of force against peaceful workers was a great strike

(01:08:18):
added in East Saint Louis as well. The strike would

(01:08:49):
arrive in Galveston, Texas on the twenty eighth of July,
when hundreds of black and a few Irish laborers came
together to go on strike in response to having their
wages cut from two dollars a day to a fifty
As they did like we saw elsewhere, these striking workers
then proceeded to march through the city, stopping periodically as
he went to encourage others to join them, telling these

(01:09:10):
other workers that they knew they weren't being paid what
they were worth, and thus they laid down their tools
and joined them and standing up for their rights. These
strikers in Galveston would then craft a statement that read,
in part quote, the reduction of wages paid to the
laboring classes without any corresponding reduction in the cost of
living we believe to be a wrong that should not
be tamely and quietly submitted to. At the same time, though,

(01:09:33):
they made a point of asking for sivil authorities to
cooperate with them and achieving their goals, as they wanted
to make it clear that quote, it is not the
intention or desire of the workingmen of Galveistan to do
violence to either the persons or property of its people.
Galiston city officials, however, were like those in pretty much
all the other cities we've done with, more interested in
breaking these strike through force than trying to find some

(01:09:54):
kind of common ground and cooperating with their own citizens. However,
despite the threat of seven hundred trains soldiers and a
thousand additional men who had been recruited in armed for
buddy work, the workers managed to hold their ground long
enough for many of these cities employers to sign an
agreement to pay their workers two dollars a day, or,
to be more precise, they forged an agreement with these
cities male workforce, thereby leaving the cities washer women, who

(01:10:18):
were all colored women, to conduct their own strike, a
strike which followed the form of the others re seen
in this series, as they traveled from laundry to laundry
and calling upon the women working there to go on
strike if they were not paid a dollar fifty eight
day for their labor. Now, Galison's Chinese owned laundries promptly
agreed to pay such wages, and thus remained open even
as others were closed as their washer women went on strike.

(01:10:41):
Chinese immigrants would also be featured prominently when the Great
Strike of eighteen seventy seven reached San Francisco. Now, times
had been tough in California, as he had been suffering
through the worst drought in a quarter of a century,
which had led to crop failures and cattle deaths, being
while just a few years before these events, they had
experienced a quick and sudden boom and mining stocks, which

(01:11:01):
was followed by an equally sudden collapse that left the
select few getting rich and everyone else being basically impoverished.
Furthering this divide between the rech and poor even more
was to effect that these handful of rich men effectively
monopolized the land in the region. Yet, while these were
potentially potent raisons, further to be a hatred for the
rich in California, Wages on the West Coast in general

(01:11:22):
during the depression were some twenty to forty percent higher
than those in the East. As a result, the hatred
among the working class for their bosses wasn't as potent,
and there was also less solidarity between them and those
who were left out in the cold by the economic conditions,
meaning they weren't all that sympathetic for the fifth of
the labor force left unemployed due to the depression. Meanwhile,

(01:11:43):
those still employed in San Francisco had the additional fear
that farm workers driven out by drug conditions might start
coming to the city to take their jobs. Not helping
matters than were the Democrats who were in power in California,
as they time and again ignored requests to take emergency
measures to help those suffering. It was unlikely, at least
partially as a result of the effecklessness of the Democrats,

(01:12:05):
that the Working Men's Party had a presence in San Francisco,
members of which would meet on the twenty second of
July to express their solidarity and support for the striking
workers in the East. Indeed, they even decided to call
for a mass meeting like those seen in Chicago and
Saint Louis, to take place the following night in the
sandlots by City Hall. Seven to eight thousand people would

(01:12:26):
then answer this call, people who were at this point
especially wound up thanks to the reports coming out of Pittsburgh,
reports that were notably accompanied by rumors that made the
already bad situation sound even worse. Although it has to
be said that the Crown was fairly orderly as the
chief organizer of the local Working Men's Party chapter, James Darcy,
addressed them. Darcy then would start things off by calling

(01:12:48):
out both the Democrats and the Republicans for being allies
with the monopolists, following which you would then go on
to call for a law limiting the work day to
eight hours, all the while counseling those gathered there against
violence in on the words nothing all that inflammatory or radical.
The other speeches at night would strike a similar tone
as they called out those in power, while at the

(01:13:08):
same time warning against the use of violent tactics. Among
these speakers was a miss to Laura Kendrick, who urged
the men in attendance to share their earnings with their wives,
as she reminded them that this depression was hurting women
and children just as much as it was the men,
something that you would think did not need to be said,
but here we are. Things continued onlike this, fairly typical

(01:13:29):
of the other mass meetings involving the Workingmen's Party, until
that is, as a night wore on, someone from the
crowd called out that the Central pacifics Chinese workforce should
be fired, using what I could only assume was a
racial slur as he did. So, it was this aspect,
ju see, this anti Chinese racism, that would make the
events in San Francisco wholly different than the events in

(01:13:50):
pretty much all the other cities affected by the Great Strike.
As you see, some fifty thousand Chinese workers had helped
to build the nation's transcontinental railroad, but once that was done,
the needed to find other work, at which point these
Chinese immigrants became an easy scapegoat which you could use
to blame for everyone's economic woes, as it is apparently
easier to be racist and blame people different than you

(01:14:12):
than it is to grapple with the idea that the
system itself might pick corumpt and that the real problem
is the rich hoarding all the money and land for themselves. Basically, then,
instead of blaming the businesses who were lowering wages to
such a point that only desperate Chinese immigrants with no
other options would take the job, people instead blame the
desperate Chinese immigrants misplaced anger, which was then mixed with

(01:14:33):
fears of polluting the nation's bloodstream with quote unquote asiatic germs.
That all being said, though, None of this was what
Darcy and the Workingmen's Party was about, and nor was
this the point of their meeting. This was not some
anti Chinese rally, but a rally to discuss the conflict
between labor and capital, a fact which Darcy asserted before
moving on, unwilling to discuss such anti Chinese sentiments. Following

(01:14:56):
this brief out person, several more speakers would address the crowd,
all following the same basic script as we've seen elsewhere,
at which point they drafted a resolution denouncing economic and
social injustice, while also demanding the eight hour workday. It
was at this point then that Darcy called for the
meeting to end, and in doing so, he urged all
those gathered there to peacefully return to their homes. Yet,

(01:15:19):
unbeknownst to Darcy and the Workingmen's Party, things by this
point and already started to turn ugly, as just a
little ways away, on the corner of McAllister and Levensworth,
a young tough had knocked down a Chinese man. Now,
the ruffian responsible for this act was properly arrested for
his deeds by a cop who happened to be nearby
and who saw the whole thing However, a gang of
his fellows were also nearby, and they were apparently enough

(01:15:42):
to liberate the tough from police custody. Things then started
spiraling out of control when this fight between the Ruffians
and the cops caught the attention of those on the
fringes of the meeting in these sandlots. It was then
to this crowd of hundreds that someone called out that
they should go to Chinatown now. While those who participated
in these actions of mine about to go into were
typically described as teenage Ruffians, is suspected that many who

(01:16:04):
took part in this violence and destruction were older men.
Regardless of their identities, Some two hundred or so quote
unquote Ruffians peeled off from the crowd at the Workingmen's
Party meeting. They then took off, fronting and shouting like
a madman in answer to the call to go to Chinatown,
where they started smashing up Chinese laundries while also rating
a liquor store. As it started, the residents of this

(01:16:25):
section of Chinatown extinguished their lamps and fled inside, barring
the doors behind them. Unfortunately, they missed at least one lamp,
as when a rock was thrown into one Chinese laundry,
it happened to strike a kerosene lamp, which, as it
fell over, started a fire that not only destroyed that structure,
but a nearby two story home as well. Then, when
firefighters arrived to attempt to put the flames out, the

(01:16:46):
Ruffians cut their houses without such aid. A woman who
lived in the neighboring house was forced to leap in
the second story of the structure, injuring herself in the process.
When news of these events became known the following day,
the Workingmen's Party reached out to the mayor, promising that
they would hold no more meetings, hoping to avoid the
previous night's events by doing so. However, despite the Workumen's

(01:17:08):
Party providing no more opportunities to inadvertiently store up the
public's emotions, Chinatown would once again be invaded that night,
not once, but twice. As first a band of teenage
huddlums showed up, repeating the same vandalism as was seen
the previous night. This group was then followed by a
gang of grown men who proceeded to attack a laundry
and a bunk house. This included ransacking the place and

(01:17:30):
stealing anything valuable before douncing the structure in kerosene and
setting it on fire. Now, mostly residents on this structure
would manage to escape. However, one did not, as their
charred remains were discovered later. Still apparently not satisfied, and
anti Chinese meeting was held the following night under what
I can only assume was a more racist name, and

(01:17:50):
again Chinese own laundries would be attacked. However, this time
a force of special police arrived and broke up this
latest round of violence, arresting several of those responsible. Mean
While down on the docks of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
which was a part of the larger Central Pacific Monopoly,
a fire was started any lumber pile on the Beal
Street wharf. Now it's unclear if this fire was started

(01:18:12):
on purpose or if it was just happenstance. Either way, though,
as the fire grew, it spread to several adjacent warehouses
that contained stuff like oil, shingles, and lumber, stuff that
you know is incredibly flammable. As a result, this fire
quickly became a major emergency. The warf firemen did what
they could, which included rolling barrels that were already on
fire into the bay so as to stop the flames

(01:18:34):
from spreading. Yet even as they were fighting these flames,
some young tufts started barring the entrance of the wharf
as they sought to impede the firemen in their actions.
It was at this point, then that the vigilante force
that had been organized in the wig of the previous
two nights events arrived and quickly dispersed the miscreants. These
events in San Francisco would lead to the formation of
the Workingmen's Party of California, which was distinct from the

(01:18:57):
Workingmen's Party of the United States that we have otherwise
been talking about, as this new party was primarily concerned
with anti Chinese racism. Indeed, under the leadership of Dennis Kearney,
they would fashion a new constitution for California that was
designed to limit the rights of Chinese people prevent further immigration,
which made it the first and a long line of
racist immigration laws in this country, and one that quickly

(01:19:19):
spread outside of California, as the nation's politicians were far
more interested in appeasing the masses by passing racist legislation
than doing anything that might actually improve the lives of
actual people, especially if that might come at the cost
of corporations. The Great Strike of eighteen seventy seven. It

(01:20:00):
started on the eighteenth of July in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
On the twenty fourth of that same month, it had
already spread to Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Iowa, and by the following day only main rail
lines in the nation were affected. Everything, though, would more
or less come to an end by the fifth of August,

(01:20:20):
nineteen days after the strike had first begun. Now, this strike,
at least when talking about the railroad workers in particular,
was first and foremost about the ten percent wage reduction
that was being implemented all across the country. Had the
railroad simply repealed these pay cuts, then things would have
likely been resolved without any further issue in bloodshed. However,

(01:20:41):
tom and again they refused to do so, preferring to
spill the blood of their workers and of ordinary civilians
actions in which they were supported by local, state, and
federal governments. Tom and again, as police and military forces
were dispatched against regular working people across the country, all
at the request of railroad corporations. And other business interests. Indeed,

(01:21:01):
over the course of one week in particular, nine governors
would respond to the pleas of the railroads and other
business interests so as to declare the strike and insurrection,
doing so for the purpose of calling in federal troops.
And while the federal troops themselves were only responsible for
a singular death, they were still crucial in breaking these
strike as they opened up rare lines and guarded these
scab crews running the trains until the end of August.

(01:21:24):
In all, over one hundred lives would be lost, all
thanks of the bullets of police, National guardsmen or federal troops. Furthermore,
a not insignificant amount of those killed were innocent bystanders
who just happened to be in the area when these
military forces decided to open fire, deadly actions which were
often cheered on by the major newspapers across the country.

(01:21:45):
As in addition to these statements I've already read illustrating
the coverage of these events, you also had stuff like
religious weekly publications like The Independent, which wrote, in response
to the demonstrating workmen, quote, if the club of the
policemen knocking out the brains of the rioter will end
are then well and good. But if it does not,
the publication then suggests the use of quote bullets and bayonets,

(01:22:07):
canister and grape, with the last two being types of
ammunition that, when loaded into cannons, essentially turns them into
giant shotguns. Basically, then the paper was encouraging the use
of artillery designed to maim and kill large masses of
human beings. And if their purpose here was not clear
enough already, the Independent would note that quote Napoleon was
right when he said that the way to deal with

(01:22:28):
a mob is to exterminate it. Meanwhile, as the railroads
in many of the nation's newspapers were celebrating their defeat,
most of the laborers who had gone on strike were
forced to return to work for what can only truly
be described as starvation wages. Others, though, found themselves blacklisted
for their actions, and still others were straight up jailed. Few, though,
actually faced serious legal punishment, despite many a major newspaper

(01:22:51):
calling for such retribution, which was likely because judges in
general feared exacerbating the situation and reawakening the spirit that
had unleashed these strikes in the first place. Indeed, labor
a weekly journal printed in Pittsburgh, would present this warning
for any who sought to further punish those who had
taken part in these strikes. As he rode, quote, Pittsburgh
has taught the monopolisty listen. They will never forget. And

(01:23:13):
the more they arrest, punish in prison, and persecute the
men engaged in the late strikes, the worse it will
be for them. In the end. Every man that is
unjustly punished for these offenses as a thousand outside of
prison laws pledged to avenge the outrages, so judges were
hesitant to dola more punishment, fearing potential reprisals. Meanwhile, when
such workers had their fates placed in the hands of juries,

(01:23:36):
they were even less likely to be punished, which again
demonstrates the widespread sympathy for their cause, with few actually
being jailled for these events that had swept over and
affected so much of the country. Some to put the
blame for what happened on someone. Temperance organizations, for example,
blame the events of these strikes on quote, idle and
vicious young men who had been corrupted by alcohol, as

(01:23:58):
that was obviously the narrative they wanted to push, as
in their mind alcohol was the cause of and not
the solution to, all of life's problems. In the same vein,
the nation's major newspapers looked to places to blame for
these events on trade unionism and communism, which in their
minds were inherently linked together, because again, that was a
narrative they wanted to push, as they were effectively the

(01:24:21):
mouthpieces for the rich and the establishment, and thus were
eager to blame anything that threatened that power structure. The
problem was, while there had been some communists and socialist
influence in some of the strikes, the reality was those
who had participated in these strikes did not really need
a large political goal motivating their actions, nor had they
needed someone to tell them that the wealthy and their

(01:24:42):
corporations were the enemies. The wage cuts, the way they
had been treated by the corporations and life in general
had been all the inspiration that they needed for their actions.
The workers and weren't being united by some mysterious mastermind
pulling the strings, but by their grievances and the reality
of the world and their country. As a result, the
threat remained that this could happen again, which is why

(01:25:04):
there was an increased push in some circles for the
country to have a large standing army, explicitly to deal
with any future incidents like this one. For example, Thomas Scott,
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, would call for more
federal aid and assistance in combating future strikes, as he
wrote Any North American review that quote. Now for the
first time in American history, as an organized mob learned

(01:25:27):
its power to terroristy law abiding citizens of great communities. Similarly,
businesses around the country started raising money so as to
build armories to supply National guardsmen for the same purpose,
while still others sought to make former Union General Ulysses
s Grant, the Republican nominee for president, for a third term,
as he were convinced that the country needed a military

(01:25:47):
minded president to deal with future labor unrest. That being said,
still others sought a different approach to prevent future unrest.
These individuals blamely strike in the accompanying events on ignorance, drunkeness,
and selfish As such, they looked to create educational programs
in the hope of preventing similar incidents in the future. Meanwhile,
certain politicians also look to prevent future incidents by doing

(01:26:10):
something crazy like proposing bills that were designed to better
the conditions of the working class. However, when such bills
were proposed, they were pilloried by the press, who were
apparently hungered for blood and repression. It also has to
be said, though, that a major unintended consequence of the
Great Strike was that it took the nation's attention even
further away from the reconstruction efforts in the South, and

(01:26:32):
most specifically away from the play of the African Americans
living down there. Mean nor then in general, just kind
of lost interest in protecting and helping Southern African Americans
as the focus shifted towards issues like industrialization, immigration, and
the dangerous workers living in their midst. On the other side,
there were those like Mark Twain who would comment quote
Pittsburgh in the riots, neither suppressed nor disturbed me. For

(01:26:55):
where the government is a sham, one must expect such things.
For those like between, then, these events were less a
commentary on the dangers of the workers living among them,
but a result of the corruption and greed existing at
the top, which makes sense coming from the man who
coined the term gilded age. It also has to be
noted that this great strike was only a part of

(01:27:15):
a much larger pattern of strikes that had been taking
place throughout the course of this economic depression. It would
also be mistake to think that just because some of
these strikes were broken and put down, sometimes brutally, that
others were not successful. For example, as they mentioned along
the way, multiple railroads had capitulated as it repealed the
plan ten percent wage cut. Plus, while there was some

(01:27:36):
backlashing the former, the firing and blacklisting of participants, such
punishments were by and large limited due to the widespread
and all encompassing nature of the strike, by which I
mean so many people had participated in these efforts all
across the country. It was simply not feasible to punish
everyone involved, as at a certain point they would run
out of people who they could still hire. Plus, was

(01:27:58):
hard to ignore that the workers had not been alone
in these efforts, as Tom and again they were supported
by other people in their towns, which included local shop
and tavern keepers who extended the workers credit throughout the
course of their strike. These strikes and the widespread support
was then seen as a signal to businessmen across the country,
and not just those who ran the railroads that they
had pushed things to the breaking point. In fact, a

(01:28:20):
number of railroads in the wakening labor uprising, rather than
punishing those who went on strike, instead paid their quote
unquote loyal employees who returned to work a bit extra,
an amount that oftentimes at the very least covered any
wages that they had missed during the strike, doing so
because they dared not punish their workers lest the whole
thing start all over again. It was also telling that

(01:28:41):
some of the old tactics that were so useful in
dividing workers follow away in the face of the violence
committed by the state, as workers came together in spite
of their differing ethnic origins. In Chicago, for example, on
the twentieth, as cops of the various forces of law
and order were cracking down on the workers, the fight
was notably joined by several of the one thousand Irish
packing house workers, workers who willed the tools of their

(01:29:03):
trade like butcher knives in addition to the more typical
street weapons like bricks and CLOBs. The participation of these
Irish packing house workers on this day was especially notable
because prior to this moment, they had not taken part
in the strike, yet now here they came striding down
the street carrying a better proclaiming working men's rights. As
these Irish butchers arrived at Halsted Street, where much of

(01:29:25):
the VADs was centered, they were met by cheering check workers,
a surprising turn of events given that these two immigrant
groups had not historically gotten along. Now though, they found
themselves fighting for the same cause, as they were brought
together by the spirit of these strike and the demand
for workers' rights, especially in the face of these forces
of oppression. Women also, notably had been active participants in

(01:29:46):
all of these activities, as time and again they wore
a part of the crowd supporting these striking workers. This
was apparently especially drue in Chicago, where the Chicago Tribune
noted that about a fifth of those gathered in the
streets were women, and it was these women who had
been a major voice in quote exciting the men to action.
The Chicago inter Ocean would further describe the scene and

(01:30:06):
the way the women participated in these events, as they
wrote about how when the men in the crowd became
quote thoroughly demoralized, they were replaced by quote hundreds of
these amazons. The paper then wrote about how quote women
with babes and arms, women, some of whom were so
quote young, scarcely women in age and not at all
in appearance, took up the fighting as their quote brownie's

(01:30:29):
sunburnt arms, brandish cobs, naughty hands, held rocks and sticks
and wooden blocks. These women then were clearly ready to fight,
and indeed soon quote female yells shrill as a curfews
cry filled the air, according to the Chicago inter Ocean
than the quote unsexed mob of female incendiaries rushed to
the fence in yards of Ghosts and Phillips Manufacturing Company.

(01:30:50):
To note the unsexed mob comment is the papers weird
declaring that the way these women were acting was unwomanly
and thus effectively ceased to be women. This was, of course,
a common refrain whenever women did something that the men
in power did not approve of. Regardless, as the women
press forward quote the offense are running, the yard gave
way and was carried off by the petticoat plunderers in

(01:31:11):
their unbridled rage, a scene which apparently framed this reporter
and the forces of quote unquote law and order, as
there was a quote fear for a while that the
Amazonian army would continue their depriendations. Yet, while the cops
would ultimately drive these women back with their clubs and guns,
they did not flee entirely. Instead, these women stayed nearby
so as to make threats towards anyone who did not

(01:31:31):
support the strike effort, actions which seemed to further offend
the sensibilities of this reporter, as he wrote that the
men who had been participating in these events had been
quote weak in the strength and forcefulness of their language
compared to these female wretches. Profanity the most foul rolled
easily off their tongues with horrid glibness. Meanwhile, in addition
to these quote unquote unwomanly pursuits of finding it swearing

(01:31:53):
at the forces of oppression, women from different nationalities were
also noted to have come together to care for the
wounded in these fights. In addition to these moments of solidarity,
the strike also represented the first time that many workers
were exposed to ideas of socialism and the way the
capitalist system worked against them. This was also the first
time that many heard others talking openly about how the

(01:32:14):
businesses controlled both the government and the press, something that
they potentially understood on some level, but unlikely never heard
vocalized before, and nor had they heard the ideas that
were presented by these socialists as a way of rectifying
the situation. The strike also proved to be vital for unions,
as while many had been devastated in the years prior
to this, these events served to effectively demonstrate a need

(01:32:37):
for a wider union movement. There was an understanding coming
out of this uprising that they needed unions that were
strong enough in their organizing that they would be able
to stand up not just to the businesses there were
demanding concessions from, but also their allies in the government.
This then marked the beginning of the move away from
the older trade unions were workers organized based upon their
jobs like breakman and engineers, as instead, the focus now

(01:33:00):
became more about organizing by industry, which meant that now,
instead of having their own separate organizations, the brakemen and engineers,
along with others like the conductors and the firemen, would
all be in the same union together in forming these organizations, however,
they often had to do so in secret due to
reprisals from businesses and their labour spies, like punishing and

(01:33:20):
blacklisting anyone who dared to speak about organizing. The Knights
of Labor, for example, would see significant growth following the
strikes of eighteen seventy seven, as in eighteen seventy eight,
they began a drive to organize workers regardless of their sex, race, nationality,
or their jobs, meaning whether they performed skilled or quote
unquote unskilled labor, as they established their first permanent national organization. Meanwhile,

(01:33:43):
former members of the Workingmen's Party established the International Labor
Union with the goal of organizing unskilled workers, especially those
in the textile industry, and then uniting them with skilled workers.
These efforts, alongside the rebirth of national trade unions, then
helped to lay the foundation for the modern labor movement
and the clashes between labor and capital that would characterize
the coming decades of the guilded age. Meanwhile, some saw

(01:34:06):
the necessity in becoming more politically active, especially as there
was talk in some circles about further restricting who could
and could not vote. For example, Missouri Senator George vest
would proclaim that quote universal suffrage is a standing menace
to all stable in good governments. Its twin sister is
the commune with its labor unions. As like always unpopular

(01:34:28):
men with no interest beyond their own power and greed
state to deny the ability of anyone who disagrees with
them to change things. Indeed, Judge Walter Gresham, who had
been such a forcer repression for the workers in Indiana,
would echo these thoughts as he declared that quote democracy
is now the enemy of law and order in society itself,
and as such should be denounced. To that end, he

(01:34:49):
asserted that quote all honest, thoughtful men know that the
ballot must be restricted, and I suppose it can only
be done through blood. Their fears that the people would
no longer see back and allow things to continue on
as they had seemed well founded, as the Workingmen's Party
of Louisville swapped the next election in the city with
the exception of just two wards, as he elected five

(01:35:10):
of these seven candidates they put forth. Indeed, they were
so popular among the people that their votes outnumbered those
of the established Democratic Party. Meanwhile, there is also a
conscious effort by the Workingmen's Party to bridge the race divine,
so as to bring both white and black workers together,
a move which included winning a black man in Cincinnati
to be the state superintendent of schools. Meanwhile, in other

(01:35:31):
cities during this time, socialists joined forces with the Greenback Party,
a political movement that backed the use of Greenback's ie
non goldback paper money in addition to being anti monopolists.
Together they created platforms centered around such radical ideas as
the eight hour workday and end to child labor and
universal compulsory education, among other issues that the Workingmen's Party

(01:35:53):
of Louisville had written to victory on. This green Back
Labor Party would then see even more victories than the
Workingmen's Party in the way of the strikes, as the
greenback issue had the support of farmers, which meant that
this party brought city labors and farmers together any united cause.
This new party then saw a significant optic in votes
in the elections following the eighteen seventy seven strikes than

(01:36:13):
what they had received in the elections prior to that event.
This aligns, though, would eventually fall apart as they were
primarily united by their enemies and not by their ideologies.
For example, farmers who supported the Greenbacks believed that food
prices should be higher while not really caring about the
concerns of urban laborers. While urban laborers, who were barely
scripting by as is, absolutely did not want higher food prices. Still,

(01:36:38):
the factor remained for everything that the businesses and their
allies in the garment had done to crush the workers
and their spirits. These strikes were only just the beginning
of the nation's working class not only realizing that they
had real power, but what they had to do to
fight back. That being said, this is the end of
the tale of the eighteen seventy seven strikes. But join
me next time as we head down to the jars,

(01:37:00):
sure to tell the story of the nineteen sixteen shark
attacks that inspired one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. That, however,
for now, we'll have to remain a story for another time.
Thank you for listening to Distorted History. If you would
like to help out, please rate and review the podcasts

(01:37:20):
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 Distorted 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 it uses an RSS feed. I will continue to
post sources on kofee and Twitter though, as it's just

(01:37:42):
a convenient place to go to access that information regardless.
Once again, thank you for listening and until next time,

(01:38:09):
Inalia

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 4

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

24/7 News: The Latest

All Episodes

The Labor Uprising of 1877 Part 4

Stuff You Should Know