The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-03
THE OTHER GREAT STRIKE.

The cause of the great railroad strike of
March. 1886. was the boycott of the Knights
of Labor, then in the zenith OF their rapid
growth. on the cars of the Texas & Pa
cific, a portion of the Missouri Pacific sys-
tenn. which in the hands of receivers
and the Missouri Pacific agreed to it. This
did not save the latter. as soon after the
strike was extended over the whole Mis-
souri, system. The employees who
Knights went out. including the shop me-
the freight business and all suburban pas
senger trains which did not carry mails
to a standstill. except on the Texas Pa
cihc. where all transportation was tied up
opinion was with the strikers, largely be-
cause the public was hostile to the late
Jay Gould. who controlled the Missouri
Pacific The general manager of the road,
Mr.. Hoxie. understood this and made no
real effort to trains, starting just
enough to show that a large and organized
force was opposing him. He temporarily
discharged all of the engineers conductors.
freight hands. agents. clerks and telegra-
piers for whom there was no work until
such time as the running of trains could be
safely resumed. This act led thousands
of men who had part in the strike to
realize the full force of what the strike
meant to them. Immediately the mer-
chants in large cities found that their bust
ness was falling off. fuel and even some
kinds of food became scarce and high in
all the small towns Two weeks after the
strike began meetings were held in many
towns which protested against the con-
tinuance of the strike. The newspapers
in st. Louis. Kansas City and elsewhere
which, at the outset assailed Jay Gould.
began TO turn against the strikers. who
had become reckless. March 90 after
freight traffic had been suspended two
weeks the Governors of Kansas and Mis-
souri, urged Manager Hoxie to yield. but
he declared that he would take back no
| men who had been guilty of violence and
would discharge none whom he had hired
| since the strike began. March IS and "A
| the Governors of Missouri, Kansas, Ar
| kansas and Texas issued proclamations di-
rectlng the company to resume traffic and
| forbidding interference with the movement
| of trains. Seeing that public opinion. for
| which he had waited, was on his SIDE Mr.
| Hoxie started a freight train from St.
Louis March "a and one each on the two
| succeeding days. Thus was the blockade
| broken, and by the middle of April the
| strike was over. Not over one-fifth of the
| men who struck were taken back, and
| no man was employed who held allegiance
| TO the knights of Labor. No man known
| ever been re-employed by that company.
| Thus a strike, in which the strikers had the
advantage at the outset, failed when the
public which it caused to suffer great loss,
| came to a realizing sense OF the injury
which it was infiicting upon ALL The lead
| ers of the Knights of Labor attempted %
organize and control all of the employees
OF railroads Independent of the organiza-
tions of groups like those of the engineers.
firemen, etc. and failed. AIR. Debs is en-
| gagged in a similar attempt and in time will
| meet a similar defeat