Huntsville gazette., 1894-07-07
THE CRUCIAL POINT
In the Great Railroad Boycott and Strike
Believed to be Very Near at Hand-An
Parties Apparently Agreed Upon This,
But Widely at Variance in Their Opin-
ions as to the Means to The End.

Believed to be Very Near at Hand-A1l
Parties Apparently Agreed Upon This,
But Widely at Variance in Their Opin-
ions as to the Means to The End.
CHICAGO, July 2.-The crucial point
In the railroad strike will be reached
within twenty-four hours from mid
night. This is the opinion confidently
expressed at headquarters of the rail-
road managers at late hour. 1t is
likewise the first expression emanating
from the managers end since the COM
mencement of hotilities, with which
the representatives are in complete ac-
cord. Both elements are sanguine that
the beginning of the end will be in
sight before sundown Tuesday.
AS to the means by which this desira-
bic consummation is to be attained,
however, there is radical difference of
opinion. The general managers pro-
fess to believe that the extraordinary
injunction issued to-day by Judges
Wood and Grosscup will prove to be
worthy of the terse yet ephigrammat-
ical designation given it by the first
named members of the federal judi
ciary of "a gatling gun on paper;"
a veritable dragnet of verbage; one
of those peculiar instruments that
Furnishes an individual for doing GER
tain thing and is equally merciless if
he doesn't do tit is difficult to under
stand how the strikers can maintain
their present policy and at the same
time evade its operation or escape. its
influence Even personal service is not
an absolute necessity to its legal en-
forcement. According to the law as
expounded by United States District
Attorney Milchrist tonight, the pub
lication of the degree in a widely-cir
culated paper, its posting in a public
place where it is certain to be read
and its contents disseminated; or the
formal reading to a demonstrative
crowd by deputy marshal, may be re-
lied upon as constituting sufficient
service to place those guilty Of a breach
of its provisions under the ban of the
law. Under this construction thou
sands of strikers might be arrested
day after day and summarily dealt
with. for contempt of court. If it is
carried out there will be no need, so it
is believed, for the employment either
of state militia or federal troops. A
goodly force of deputy marshals armed
with power to make arbitrary arrests.
and with the knowledge on the part
of the strikers that. once within the
clutches of the law, peremptory SEN
tence to prison for contempt, instead of
a preliminary hearing, bail, and a final
trial months hence, when the echoes of
the strike may have died away-will be
their portion, should the managers
create such a combine of circumstance
as to cause the strikers to pause and
reason before acting.
But the strikers themselves reason
differently. At their headquarters
this evening the interference of the
federal court was denounced in vigor-
Gus language by one and all of the
hundreds if not thousands of railroad
men that passed in and out, and the
most intelligent of the number
voiced the general sentiment in the
declaration that the far-reaching
and dragnet character of the injunc-
ton would tend toward defeating the
very ends to which it was directed.
Instead of inducing men to return to
work, so it was contended, it would re-
suit in driving out the thousands of
members of railroad organizations af-
filiated with the union or apparently in
sympathy with its present operators,
simply because these men would not
tolerate the cracking over the shoul-
ders of their fellows the lash which,
some day or other, under similar cir
cumstances, might he used as lash
for their own shoulders.
The opinion was confidently ex-
pressed in the camp tonight that the
engineers and firemen of every road
that attempted toresume operations by
virtue of the injunction would
Immediately leave their posts,
and that consequently the last
state of such roads would be worse
than the first. Not only this, but it
was asserted that it needed simply the
formal request of the officers of the
union to bring out every man, woman
and child in Chicago identified with
organized labor in accordance with the
formal resolution adopted yesterday.
The federal and county officers con-
tinue to swear in deputies, and an
army of over 1000 of the toughest look
ing citizens that Cook county can pro
duce, armed to the teeth and wearing
the insignia of state or national dig
nifty, is subject to orders tonight, and
will, doubtless, be brought into service
tomorrow. Lights were burning in
the windows Of the government and
county buildings alike at midnight,
and the authorities were preparing for
any emergency.
rur pIuIMnN R0vc0rT