Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-08-13
THE GREAT RAILROAD srRIKE.
ITS OUTCOME THE RUIN WHICH IT WROUGHT
N. ~ 80.

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ONE PICTURE OUT OF MANY.
Heartrending stories OF destitution and
wretchedness come from those western cities
in which the power of the Knights of Labor
was measured against the resources of Jay
Gould in the great railroad strike OF last
spring The results of the strike az sum-
married. in the New York Sun are as follows
First. OF the $4,000 skilled and unskilled
workmen in the employ OF the Missouri Pa.
cifc system when Martin Irons ordered the
strike less than POO have been taken back,
while the places left vacant by the strikers
have nearly all been filled by competent men
who have been called from all parts OF the
country by this opportunity for employment.
Second. The suffering entRled by the
strike upon the late employee is not yet actu-
al extremity for food and shelter-though in
many cases this danger impends-but it is due
to anxiety, despair, modification humiliation,
the certainty that families must be, temporari-
ly at least, broken up while the heads Of them
go forth to seek employment the loss Of lit
tie homes that had been bought and partly
paid for with the savings from the wages re-
ceived the giving up Of good school priv
ileges, which the children have Djoyed 10 all
these railway towns, and the necessity Of &C.
cepting employment wherever it is offered at
a much less rate of wages than the Missouri
Pacific corporation had been paying. These
things are staring the late strikers in the face
in all these towns.
Third. Martin Irons, who is looked upon
as the author of all this misery is practically
a wanderer, penniless, almost an outcast, and
could hardly venture with safety in some
places where few weeks ago he ruled men
like the commander Of an army. The impre-
cations with which he denounced the pres-
deut OF the railway system Jay Gould, have
reacted upon himself, and the men whom he
ruled now speak OF him as he urged them to
speak OF Mr.. Gould
Fourth. The Knights OF Labor organiza-
ton has practically ceased to exist among the
employees OF the Missouri Pacific system.
The New York suns staff correspondent
gives this ~ one picture out Of many of the
disasters which the strike brought upon the
employees;
Across the muddy Arkansas river from Lit
tie Rock there is fiat and fertile plain,
where the Missouri Pacific company has
built large shops, and where quite flourish.
ing railway village has grown up. Very
many Of the employees have been able to buy
and partly pay for iece of land and a neat
little cottage on it. There are several streets,
on each side OF which is a row Of such cot
tages and comfortable, homelike places they
are, with little kitchen gardens, and some of
them with flower beds and trailing plants,
sadly neglected though they are this year
II the case of one of the owners of a cottage
il told, ii will be illustrative OF almost all, 80
that there is no need OF repeating illustra-
tions. The wife of one OF the best workmeu
in these shops told to one Of the officers OF
Little Rock this story
I'VE were married seven years ago. she
said, Tin St. Louis, where my husband had
learned his trade of car builder, and we came
here. He did not come here asking work.
They sent him here from the Carondelet
shops. Five years ago he had saved enough
to buy this place. We paid $500 and once
since then have paid $500 more, and the in.
terest on the mortgage In five years more
We should have the house paid for, and when
a mechanic has a home of his own and owes
nothing he needn't worry much about the fu.
ture. We have three children, and the two
oldest go TO school. My husband was happy,
and we were doing well. My heart sank
when he came home last winter and said that
they had been ordered to strike. l cautioned
him, but he was sure they would win. l
asked him IL he hadn't always got his wages
and all that he asked for, and he said he
wasn't striking for himself, but for other
workmen who were being wronged, and that
if the strike wasn't begun and won now it
might be his turn next. | was fearful, but |
when the strike was over we never dreamed
that the men wouldn't be taken back. When
we found that 1t was to be so, do believe
that for u week we neither slept nor ate.
Our home that we worked 30 hard to get and
felt 80 sure of owning before very long, we
knew we never should own, but though we
were thinking Of that all the time, we neither
OF I'd had the courage to speak of it to the
other. Finally my husband said to me one
day, You will have to look after the children
a bit. must go to Texas to see If | can get
place, and said, That means we have got
to give this up, doesn't it2' He never said
word, but simply nodded Now he has gone,
and be has found something to do. l sup
pose he will send for us by and by. Perhaps
we shall get back some of the money we have
paid, but may be not We must take our
chances of getting any of that, but if we do
we have lost our home"
That tells the whole story. In one form
or another the same tale may be heard in
every one of these railway towns, and these
people seem TO think not 30 much of the
chance of realizing upon any equity they
may have in this property as of the bitter
disappointment and sacrifice that the loss of
a home owned entails, 1t surely seems no
wonder that these men, when they think of
all that their action has cost them, feel bit
terly Inundated aud distressed, nor that they
sometimes break out in vehement impreca-
tions against those who led them into taking
this step.