: Hundreds of railroad cars, some burning.]
Burned cars in the C., B. & Q. yards at Hawthorne, Chicago.
[Illustration: Railroad crossing, houses in the background.]
Overturned box cars at crossing of railroad tracks at 39th street, Chicago.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Hazen S. Pingree.
At this turn of affairs the A. R. U. found itself confronted with a new
antagonist, the Association of General Managers of the twenty-four
railroads centering in Chicago, controlling an aggregate mileage of over
40,000, a capitalization of considerably over $2,000,000,000, and a
total workingmen force of 220,000 or more. The last-named workers had
their own grievances arising from wage cuts and black-listing by the
Managers' Association. Such of them as were union men were the objects
of peculiar hostility, which they reciprocated. Thus the Pullman
boycott, sympathetic in its incipience, swiftly became a gigantic trial
of issues between the associated railroad corporations and the union.
For a week law and order were preserved. On July 2d the Federal Court in
Chicago issued an injunction forbidding A. R. U. men, among other
things, to "induce" employees to strike. Next day federal troops
appeared upon the scene. Thereupon, in contempt of the injunction,
railroad laborers continued by fair means and foul to be persuaded from
their work.
Disregarding the union leaders' appeal and defying regular soldiers,
State troops, deputy marshals, and police, rabble mobs fell to
destroying cars and tracks, burning and looting. The mobs were in large
part composed of Chicago's semi-criminal proletariat, a mass quite
distinct from the body of strikers.
The A. R. U. strike approached its climax about the 10th of July.
Chicago and the Northwest were paralyzed. President Cleveland deemed it
necessary to issue a riot proclamation. A week later Debs and his
fellow-leaders were jailed for contempt of court, and soon after their
following collapsed.
Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, protested against the presence of federal
troops, denying federal authority to send force except upon his
gubernatorial request, inasmuch as maintaining order was a purely State
province, and declaring his official ignorance of disorder warranting
federal intervention.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Gov. John P. Altgeld.
Mr. Cleveland answered, appealing to the Constitution, federal laws, and
the grave nature of the situation. United States power, he said, may a
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