boycott of all Pullman cars. Eugene V. Debs was the president of the
Union, and his sweeping order forbade all engineers, brakemen, and
switchmen to handle the Pullman cars on every road that used them. This
was far-reaching, since the Pullman cars are used on almost every line
in the country.

A demand was made upon the Pullman Company to submit the question to
arbitration, but the directors refused on the ground that there was
nothing to arbitrate, the question being whether or not they were to be
permitted to operate their own works for themselves. A boycott was
declared on all roads running out of Chicago, beginning on the Illinois
Central. Warning was given to every road handling the Pullman cars that
its employes would be called out, and, if that did not prove effective,
every trade in the country would be ordered to strike.

[Illustration: ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILWAY.]

The railroad companies were under heavy bonds to draw the Pullman cars,
and it would have cost large sums of money to break their contracts.
They refused to boycott, and, on June 26th, President Debs declared a
boycott on twenty-two roads running out of Chicago, and ordered the
committees representing the employes to call out the workmen without an
hour's unnecessary delay.

The strike rapidly spread. Debs urged the employes to refrain from
injuring the property of their employers, but such advice is always
thrown away. Very soon rioting broke out, trains were derailed, and men
who attempted to take the strikers' places were savagely maltreated.
There was such a general block of freight that prices of the necessaries
of life rose in Chicago and actual suffering impended. So much property
was destroyed that the companies called on the city and county
authorities for protection. The men sent to cope with the strikers were
too few, and when Governor Altgeld forwarded troops to the scenes of the
outbreaks, they also were too weak, and many of the militia openly
showed their sympathy with the mob.

Growing bolder, the strikers checked the mails and postal service and
resisted deputy marshals. This brought the national government into the
quarrel, since it is bound to provide for the safe transmission of the
mails. On July 2d a Federal writ was issued covering the judicial
district of northern Illinois, forbidding all interference with the
United States mails and with interstate railway commerce. Several
leaders of the strike were arrested,