The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-25
THE BROADWAY "TIE-UP."
AVN Crinkle's Look at New York's Great
Artery in the Hands OF Mob.
Effects of the Strike on the Labor Problem
Rev. Lyman Abbott's Views on Organ
lied Lab0r--An Old-TiEe Editor.
Correspondence of the India napolis Journal.
A Look at the "Tie-Up."

Correspondence of the India napols Journal
Look at the "Tie-Up."
NEW YORK, April 23-The Knights of Labor
had entire possession of this city for forty
hours. They stopped all surface travel by horse
railroad on Monday, and if you stop to think
moment how utterly dependent this Longitude
nal metropolis is on horse-car travel you can i'm
agine the effect of this on every branch of bust
ness. Broadway and Fifth avenue and other of
the great tributary streets, like Fourteenth and
Twenty third, wore Sunday aspect. The grand
crowds of women and children that are usually
seen around the big bazaars in Fourteenth
street had disappeared.
All commerce, all the retail trades, artisans,
merchants, skilled labor of every kind suffered,
because the least skilled of all labor had got its
grip on the means of transit. came down
broadway. stopped in at half score of the
big shops. They were deserted at what is usu-
ally the busiest hour. / talked with the
merchants. They had but one opinion.
They were suffering, but one and all hoped
the railroads would hold out and settle this
question of trade tyranny and law and order
once and for all l do not remember ever hav-
ing seen so complete reyulsion Of public opin-
ion as these strikers have brought about within
week. At first public sympathy was heartily
with them in what it believed was fight against
heartless corporations; but now they have sue
ceeded in placing the railroads the side of
law and order, and with one voice the intelligent
community is backing the corporations. simply
because the corporations do not insist on inter
fering with the rights Of everybody else, and in
making threats of violence
saw the fight on Third avenue yesterday. It
was small riot In it were all the deadly ele-
ments of the Commune; all the incipient flames
I'D ft,rxv ~ Daric Iax1 Nnth,
saved that great thoroughfare from massacre
but the rromptitude with which the police fell
upon the mob and drove it back. When the
FIRST brick was aimed at the poor conductor that
there went up wild howl from
thousands of cruel, demoniac throats, and
in an instant the air was black with missiles.
The ear windows were smashed, the light panels
splintered. The wrecked vehicle was surrounded
in a twinkling with maddened men and women.
A horrible sound of yells, screams and groans
filed the air. There seemed to be but one i'm
pulse animating this mob it was to get hold of
the two men who were on that car and tear them
limb from limb. 1t was noble sight, this brave
endeavor of thousand men TO clutch two fellow
beings and rain blows upon them and trample
them into masses of undistinguishable flesh be-
meath their hoofs. AS saw brawny arms in the
air, caught sight OF the distorted faces and glar-
ing eyes and heard the fearful din of sckening
oaths and imprecations, | asked myself if this
was the advance guard Of the army Of knights
that was going TO regulate labor.
1t only lasted five minutes, thanks to organized
power, to which, alas, in these days of arbitra-
ton and moral suasion, we must come at last
for dread adjudication in the streets. The clubs
were coming. One double platoon came down
Third avenue, another came suddenly out of
Fifty ninth street as if it had been shot up
trap. Then commenced that most fearful of all
sights police attack upon street crowd. Su-
perintendent Murrays orders to his men were to
''strike hard" | turned my head away with
- e. l. 49, I-c-
You can have no possible conception of the terri
bile nature Of such scene unless you have
tcOuntered It, ! have witnessed charge of cav.
airy that rode down gunners and tramped in
ifantry into the earth, but there was mild re-
deeming swirl to it. and then there were no
women and children there. as there always will
be in mob.
The one duty of the police in such crisis is
to break and scatter the solid mass. 1t must go
through it, and when the onslaught is made with
those dreadful clubs it is too late, in the
paroxysm of purpose, to pick the innocent from
the guilty.
II ever you have heard the sound of those
clubs as they fall crushingly upon heads and
faces you will never forget it. AS if by magic,
the scene changes A few stalwart men stand
up dehantly moment in opposition Then they
fall under the blows. But panic seizes the great
mixed throng of men and women. The air is
suddenly hlled with screams. The character of
the tumult is sharpened into dismay. mad
chaos of desperation ensues; women entau-
gled by their skirts and thrown down and trod-
den upon: you-cau hear hear tho pitiful cries of
the children above the din; it is the meeting of
organized force with disorganized violence.
1t does not last long In fifteen minutes the
street is cleared But it is bloody. And then
that dismantled car is dragged back to the depot
and score of miserable wretches are behind the
police bars This is the first tussle But there
ION Fifty ninth street are the reserves drawn up
freshly. They seem to say Here we are quite
ready to go on. If this question of labor is to be
question of mere brute force, that's what we
here for" And in it and over it all there is
a sad reminder that the men who had rights and
public sympathy have thrown away the most
precious part of their contest in undertaking to
shift their fight from the corporation to the
community. NYM CRINKLE.
tstrikes and Their Effect ON Labor.