The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-07-16
Railroad Strikers Seem to Own the
United States.
RIoT0US ACTIONS IN CHICAGO.
trains Tied Up All Over the Country
Japan and China Seriously Involved,
and War is Imminent - Prender-
CAST Is Declared To Be sane.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7.-Over &
| week ago orders were issued from
Chicago by President Debs of the
American Railway Union t. members
of the organization throughout the
| United States to refuse to handle
trains to which Pullman sleeping cars
were attached. The railroad COM
| panies, without exception, demanded
| that the Pullmans should go out on
| all trains which usually had such ears
| in their makeup; the employees per-
| sistently declared that they would
follow President Deb's order, and a
strike followed, which extends all
over the country, and which has as
sumed proportions whiyh distin-
guishes it as being the greatest strike
which ever occurred.
1t would be difficult to even approx
innate the number of men immediate
ly involved in the tie up, but on the
Southern 2, cifc in the neighborhood
of 1900 men quit work, while many
of the other employees not participant
ing in the strike, such as clerks, me-
chanics and others, whose duties de-
pend upon the operation of the road,
have been laid off until traffic is re-
sumed.
Business in San Francisco and else
where bas been affected to such an
that nIaPQS
did not open last Monday, proprietors
giving their employees vacation un-
til such time as goods could be re-
ceived and orders from interior points
fill d, in consequence of which many
thousands of other empt yees are
added to the ranks of those who will
suffer from the strike. In San Fran
cisco the prices of the necessities of
life have already shown an upward
tendency, and unless n settlement of
the difficulty is soon effected great
hardship will result to the people gen
orally, without reference to their
SympathieS one way or the other. On
the cOntrar the situation becomes
more alarming and it will be a mira
Gle if blOOdshtd is avoided. At last
reports there were no Indications of
al amicable settlement of the troubles
between the railroads and their en-
plOyees.
CHICAGO, July 6.-Events today
have transformed the strike into an
insurrectiOn. BlOodshed, violence and
the torch, the mas sing of troops both
Federal and State, aud an unbridled
spirit on the part of the strikers, have
been the crOwning acts of the day.
Six men killed, two strikers wounded
with bullets, 800 to 400 freight cars
burns d and lot of heads broken was
the record made.
The trouble down in Kensington
was started early by the burning of
forty empty box and loaded coal
cars standing on the Illinois Central
side tracks, just south of Burnside.
Shortly after sunrise a riOtOus and
bowling mob of strikers commenced
to gather about the depot at Kensing-
ton. By 9 O'Clock the crowd num-
bered anywhere from 5000 to 5000 peo
pie. Women formed a good portion of
1T, and they were more demOnstrative
than the men.
Day dawned at the stock yards on
scene which showed what a mob of
outlaws had accomplished under COW
er of darkness. The work of destruc-
tion commenced early iu the previons
evening One hundred and sixty box
cars had been overturned on the |
TRACKS WllD1n fauluS OF one mile |
from the main entrance to the stock |
yards. The charred remains of doz- |
en- switch towers marked the path of |
the incendiary mob, which marched |
west along the Grand Trunk tracks, |
after midnight, from Ha'stead street |
to Ashland avenue, where they fired |
the railroad station Many of the |
overturned cars were also fired
Firemen had been assaulted when
ever they attempted to put out the |
fires, police were OverpOwered their
prisOne S taken away from them. and
the officers had been forced to run
for their lives. The mobs were then
in full possession of the south yards.
They cut electric light wires and con
tinued their work of destruction until
day break, then they skunk away to
sleep through the day and wait for
The mOb's last act of incendiarism,
Just at day break, was the burning of
b huge hay barn at Fourth and Loo
mis- streets. The leaders of the fire
bugs secured hanicar, Ioaied it with
cotton was saturated with signal oil.
They pushed the infiammable stuff
along the tracks and fired everything
in the shape of railroad property as
far west as ElsdOn avenue, and at last
reached the barn. First they plugged
the keyhOles in the fire alarm boxes
and then fired the barn in a dozen
places. The watchman made an at
5empt to save the property, but was
greeted with shower OF bullets,