Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-10
HARRISON AND LABOR TROUBLES

The universal qualification expressed
by Republicans throughout the country
at the selection of General Harrison by
the Chicago convention as the party S
candidate for president caused not only
sore disappointment to the Democracy,
who hoped the nominee would be some
one whose selection would produce dis
cord and discussions in the Republican
ranks and lead to large assertions there
from, but the greatest alarm since they
have discovered after most scrutlEz-
ing search that there is nothing in his
tory, public or private, that they can at
tack with the hope of compromising him
in any way or of obtaining any advan-
tage. Their only hope is in classifying
the records, and this policy has already
been adopted, first in relation to the
Chinese question:; but whatever that
NAV have been land the record shows it
TO be straight and ciean) the entire salts
faction Herewith, as expressed by the
Pacific coast people who 1T was
hoped might be alienated from him, be-
ing more directly interested III that ques-
ton than any Others. disappointed his
antagonists and forces them to try some
thing else.
In 1877, during the great labor troubles
throughout the country, especially on the
railroads in the eastern and central states,
when millions of dollars worth of prop
erty was destroyed and many lives lost,
indianapolis, the capital of Indiana and
home of General Harrison, was the scene
of the greatest commotion, and for a
time the destruction Of the city seemed
imminent. To preserve the peace and
dignity of the state and protect the prop
erty and lives of citizens, the governor
called out the militia and General Harri-
son and Judge Gresham were placed in
immediate command of the local forces.
Being in this position with his
command guarding the armory and
war munitions to prevent the rioters,
who seemed bent upon their work of de-
struction, from arming themselves pre-
paratory to carrying their threats into
execution, General Harrison was APP
pealed to to order his troops to open fire
upon the mob that was engaged in
riotous demonstrations. His reply to
those who implicated him to shoot the
rioters was: Il don't propose to go out
and shoot down my neighbors unless it
is positively necessary to do SO in order
| to uphold the law" Instead of doing so
he went among them and made personal
appeals to them in behalf of law and
| order, with the promise of using his best
efforts to adjust the difficulties being
the question of wages) between the
striking employees and their employers,
which he afterwards did with satisfac-
| tory results to all concerned.
1t was largely through the efforts and
personal influence of General Harrison
that a disastrous conflict at that
| time was averted and the scenes that oc-
CURED at Pittsourg contemporaneously
prevented at indianapolis. But General
| Harrison's efforts in behalf of peace, as
well as in the interest of the laborers
who had participated in the disturbances
| of the time, did not cease. with the dis
persion of the threatening mob and the
restoration of order in the community
! Two hundred of the strikers had been
arrested by order of Judge Drummond.
| of the United States court. for interior
ing with the operations OF the Ohio &
/ Mississippi railroad. then in the hapds of