The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-05-07
FREDERICK w. BAKER, Editor.
B f. l. A I r., M {
The Labor Troubles.


The most notable and stirring news of this
week is the general movement of workingmen
all over the land to make eight hours con-
stitute legal days work The movement
was inaugurated at Chicago last Saturday,
where 1000 men struck for shorter time
The day passed without serious disorder, but
nearly all business was suspended. The de-
mands made by the strikers were not uni
form. In some cases ten hours pay was de-
manded for eight hours work. In others
the men consented to a corresponding re-.
duction in pay, and elsewhere shorter hours
and increased pay were asked for
By Monday the ranks of the strikers had
been increased by thousands. The account
of events reads like page from the history
of the French revolution. An immense mass
meeting was addressed by socialistic agita-
tors, who seem to have taken the lead. One
speaker urged his hearers to quit the knights
of Labor, whose methods, it is well known,
are peaceful arbitration of differences An
archy, said he, is your only way to freedom.
With revolver in one hand, your knife in
the other and bombs in your pockets, march
on to revolution and freedom. Inhamed by
his words the crowd began to hurl stones at
the adjoining buildings and in few minutes
the windows were demolished. The mob
then made break for the Mccormick reaper
works and began to stone the buildings
The sash in the first three stories were de-
molished and just as the mob was about to
burst into the building the police began TO
arrive. Twelve of them, with revolvers in
hand, kept the furious crowd at bay awhile
Finding that they were becoming hard
pressed they fired their revolvers over the
heads OF the crowd. The mob only jeered at
this and pelted them with stones and clubs
Pistols and guns were fired at the police, but
they kept their ground. At last the officers fell
upon the mob with pistols and clubs and
drove them back. More policemen began to
arrive and soon 200 of them were massed in
line, each with glittering revolver leveled
before him. They made a charge, firing as
they went and the streets were cleared Five
strikers were shot, two fatally, four officers
were slightly injured and the superintendent
of the works was hit with a stone in the face
and badly hurt. The men who were at work
in the Mccormick shops who were the OBJ
jects of the fury of the mob because they had
taken the places OF strikers, were escorted
to their homes by the police, in state of
deadly terror.
Miles of lumber-yards, planning mills and
factories are idle in Chicago
On Monday the eight hour movement be-
came general. In Baltimore there was
parade of workingmen, in which it is estimat-
ed that 10, 900 took part. 1t was the largest
demonstration of the kind ever witnessed in
that city. 1t was under the direction of the
Can Makers Protective Union. One of the
features was the presence of nearly 1900 col
ored brick makers and the helpers in brick
yards. They were about in the centre of the
line. There included also house carpenters,
who struck because the employers would not
allow eight hours for days work, iron
moulders, varnishers, box makers, furniture
workers. bakers, tailors, piano makers, So
clalistic labor party, shoemakers, butch
ers, terra Gotta workers, press feeders, tin
roofers, railroad Car woodworkers and Others
Bands of music and drum corps were scat
tered through the entire length of the line
Thousands of people filled the sidewalks or
the streets through which the procession pass
ed, and good order was preserved. After
frou ha oIcfr nst
march was made to Schuetzen Park, at the
northeast suburb OF the city, where addresses
were made by several of the officers of the
knights Of Labor.
The demand of the house carpenters was
for 1928 for eight hours work, rather than
$3.50 for nine hours, as offered by the en-
ployers. Sixteen hundred of them struck
Some of the master builders who had con.
tracts to complete, yielded to the strikers, but
the majority refused and building in Balti-
more is consequently almost at a stand-stil.
The master builders decline to make any
contracts, in the unsettled state of affairs, and
the same condition exists in other trades.
The scene in Baltimore was repeated in
many other cities The effect has been to
paralyze business. No contracts of any mag
nitude for building or manufacturing will be
undertaken, and the revival of prosperity
Which had begun has been retarded for an in.
definite period.
New York, Pittsburg, st. Louis and other
points had touch of the eight-hour fever,
but it was insignificant compared to the de-
velopments at Chicago. No disorders were
reported from any other point