Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1893-06-15
THE CANAL RIOTS.

L
Illinois state Troops Ready to Proven,
Further Trouble at Lemont-G0v. Att
| geld Visits the Scene, and After an In.
vestlgati0n Declares That the SHOOTING
Of strikers Was Unwarranted.
LEMoNr, ILL.,, June 12.-Nearly 1000
! state militiamen are scattered along the
route between this town and Lockport.
in command of Col. Judd, of Chicago,
and Col. Bennett, of Joliet. It is not
likely their services will be needed.
The soldiers are patroNing the right Of
way of the canal
Gov. Altgeld arrived here at 1880
o'clock Saturday afternoon from
Springfield and at once began per-
sonal inquiry into labor troubles exist
ing along the drainage canal and which
resulted in Fridays flow of blood.
The governor listened attentively
to the stories of twenty or more
persons who were either witnesses to
Fridays battle or were among those
who were wounded. The investigation
lasted nearly three hours, and at its
conclusion the governor made'the fol-
lowing statement:
II received o message late Friday night
signed by the sheriff Of viii county, the sheriff
| OF Du Page county and by Mr. Gilbert, the
| sheriff OF Cook county, evidently sent from
Gilberts ONCE in Chicago, stating that there
| was u riot here, that a number OF men had been
| killed, that sherirs deputies were nat
able to maintain peace and order ana
protect life and property, and that
0 mob Of about 5000 strikers was threatening
| violence, and that they called on me to order
| ortth m ia tD ~
! telegraphed to the sheriff Of WIN county and
| to GILBERT asking how many deputies theai
| had sworn In and whether any one had been
hurt other than the strikers. The sherih
of VIII county replied that he had about 1al
I got no response from Mr. Gilbert untA,
! Saturday. Believing the telegram signed bIl
the three sheriffs stated the facts correctly 3
ordered out the SECOND and Third regimentS:
and one company froIn another, and at the same
| time Adjt Gen. Orendorf, with an aide, started
| for Joliet This was about midnight aud by z
O'Clock Saturday most OF the troops We're on
| the ground, and I will say responded with re.
markabe promptnesS.
II arrived here about $3.50 Saturday afternoon
| and have been making inquiries. learned
from the deputy sheriff of Cook county that in
| fact up to the time the telegram was sent there
were no deputies for Cook county and that the
sheriff sent down twelve special and eleven
regular deputies. have talked with men,who
claimed to represent the contractors and sent
word to each that would like to meet him and
get his version went dawn to the seela ut
| the shooting and talked with a number Of men
pot interested and especially some railroad
men working on the tracks Of the SAINT Fe
railroad, who saw what took place ana gave me
. full account Of the affair. One of their NUM-
Der was sh9t.
"The Information get thus far tends to show
that there has been no rioting or serious dis
| turbance here for a week until Friday, andt the
| only VIOLENCE used was by . number OF men,
both colored aud white, who had been brought
| here by one OF the contractors fIom
the south and who were armed by
him with rifles and who opened fire upon
some strikers who were walking along the tow.
| path Of the old canal, and were not making any
! demons traton, and were not going in the direc
| ton in which the new work is being done. The
moment the firing began the men on the tow
path began to run northward and were
followed by these men with rifles for the
distance of about mile, and they
kept shooting the entire distance, kill
ing and woundng from fifteen TO
| twenty men, as is claimed. These men were
shot all the way along this distance Of mile.
Among others mortally wounded was laborer
on the Santa Fe railroad, who was quietly eat
| ing his dinner when he was shot by the side OF
tine track nearly q mile north Of and away from
! the point where the shooting first began.
In short, the only men who seem to have
violated the law Friday. and that in cold BLOOD
were the men who had been armed by this con-
tractor and who did the SHOOTING: haye been
told by some gentlemen claiming to give the
other side Of the story, that the con=
| tractors claim that some OF the strikers
| had fred over at them, This is mot
IN harmony with the statement made
| by the railroad people, and as am
now advised. that no contractor claims there
was any necessity OF following the men who
| md oh ham Ptar
they had run a mile expect to make further
| inquiry, and will do what think the law re-
quires at my hand II, after looking more fully
into the situation, conclude that the law re-
Quires me to keep troops here I shall do so; if
not they will be taken off,"
Gov. Altgeld went to Joliet, where he
summoned the various contractors, and
a conference was held on Sunday with
a view to getting at the bottom of the
trouble. A committee of the strikers
was also present The contractors all
| said that their men had made no de-
mand for an increase in wages
and were willing to work If the
| quarry strikers could be kept away.
The strikers asserted that the contract
ors Disseminated against local men in
giving employment. This the contract
ors all denied and said they had favored
the local men.
| Four men are reported dead and three
others will probably die. Gregor Kilka,
married man who came to this place a
week ago, died at a. m. at his home on
Stevens street. Kilka had done no work
here. Friday he was forced to accom-
pany the strikers against his will. A
bullet of large caliber struck him in the
head and he was brought to Lemont in
dying condition.
1t was learned at noon that another
body had been found near McCormick's
camp. The party of Poles who found
the corpse say that it is the body of Ig=
natz Asst, aged 80. and a resident of Lee
mont Asst was shot through the head.
The uofficials are positive that the
body of an unknown man Is lying in
the canal near Romeo. This man,
with Kil1a, Asst and the unknown man
killed near Romeo Friday, completed
the list of those known to he dead.
Supervisor Weimer has made prep
arations to send three fof the badly
wounded men to the Cook county hos
pital, where they can receive better at
tention than here. These three men
are: Michael Boyer, shot through the
liver; Michael Jaslaski, shot in left
lung, and Thomas Mereleski. shot in
lungs. Aside from the dangerously
wounded men above mentioned the in
jnred are resting easily and the doctors
fear 10 more fatalities among the list
Base Ball.
The following table shows the stand
ing of National league baseball clubs
in the struggle for the championship:
Per
Clubs. Won. Lost. cent.
Pittsburgh ...................22 IA 81 1
Rrnoklvn IA 6fl