The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-06
Not One Striker Injured, Owing to the
Great FOrbearance of the Re ulars,
Who Refrained from Firing.
WARNING FROM GEN. MILES
Rioters Do Not Realize How Close
to Death They Are.
Proclamation by Mayor Hopkins-State-
ment from President Debs-Inci-
dents of the Day-POlice Work.

CHICAGO, July 5.-The sun went down
on by far the most turbulent and critical
day thus far in the unparalleled railroad
strike and boycott. When it opened there
was a general feeling that it's passage
would go far toward clearing the atmos-
phere, if. indeed. ii did not practically
lift the embargo on commerce, which has
held this city in its grip for the past week
That expectation was chiefly based on the
presence of federal troops i'm the most
dangerous districts. Looking at the situ-
alton at the close of the day. however
1t must be confessed that the hope in
dulged at the opening in this regard has
not been justified. The troops were few
in numbers at best, and when they were
divided into squads and distributed at
points separated by very considerable dis .
tances it soon became evident that their
prestige, as overawing bodies, had been
dissipated at the same time. Instead of
fleeing in fear before the face of the veter-
ans, as was expected they would do the
turbulent thousands Surged about the lit
tie band of soldiers jeered and hooted at
them, cast vile epithets at them and liter
ally played hide and seek with them. stop
ping trains at will and generally render
ing the embargo in the military district
more effective, if possible, than before
The throngs of strikers did not resist
Uncle Sans police. Again and again
when there were thousands of them about
a train which it was>sought to move and
on the track i'm front of it they gave way
like water before the leveled bayonets of
a single company of infantry or the tramp
ling of single squad of cavalry. Like wa
ter, too, they closed in again at a point
just beyond. They turned switches, de-
rallied freight cars in front of the slow
moving trains and played all sorts of rail-
readers tricks with which the soldiers
were unacquainted. Thus it was that the
troops at the stock yards, in perseverance
and patience, spent the entire day in vain
endeavor to get one trainload of dressed
beef out of the sight Of the starting point.
Another and pleasanter thing this expert
ence showed. and that was the admirable
GOODNESS, self poise and discipline OF the
troops. Not a shot was fired not a man
was pricked by bayonet, which argues that.
with force enough, the soldiers would have
done'the work which was expected of them.
The quality was there; merely the quan-
tity was lacking.
Aside from the immediate naighborhood
where the troops were operating there was
plenty of excitement and disorder. Great
mobs gathered on the Lake Shore the
Rock Island, the Alton and the Western
Indiana tracks and proceeded to obstruct
them by overturning box cars, breaking
switches and the like. At one point thev
set fire to a switch tower, though the
flames were extinguished before serious
damage was done.
In two instances there was bloodshed
On the Western Indiana tracks a hard
pressed special policeman fired at his pur-
suers, wounding a striker in the leg On
the Lake Shore road an official of that
company. in charge of train which he
was endeavoring to force through. emptied
his revolver point blank into the massed
strikers about him. wounding two or three
ii is believed. He was saved from the
fury of the mob by his engineer. who put
on steam and ran back to the point of
starting.
Shortly after noon a mob numbering
two thousand started north on the Lake
Shore tracks at Thirty-seventh street
overturning cars and obstructing the line
in every possible way. They were not
checked until they reached Twenty-second
street, where a heavy force of police was
massed and succeeded in turning them
back. During the afternoon Mayor Hop-
kins and Chief of Police Brennan went
down to the Lake Shore road with an Off
cial of that road, intending TO go to the
stock yards. Their passage was obstructed
and they were compelled TO finish the Jour
ney on foot
OF the strike in general II may be said
that it has broadened during the day The
Big Four, on which it was understood
traffic was TO be resumed by agreement.
is practically tied up. At Joliet everything
is at a standstill. because the yardmen
have gone out and the city water works
have shut down for lack OF coal. Kansas
City is again tied up pretty completely
The federal troops quickly put an end TO
that trouble at Ration, n. NJ, arresting
lot of strikers and starting them for Den
ver though they may be hung up on the
way.
Paralysis continues on the Pacific coast.
There are federal troops at Los Angeles,
but none have been sent TO Sacramento or
Oakland pending a decision OF the question
whether or not the State troops and United
States marshals can cope with the situa-