The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-01-15


Workman CoNNELLy is the Inspiring
I. nius. The leaders say that they expect
sympathetic strike OH the part OF the
levatcd railroad employees. AT all
vents the strike fever is at its height
-verywhere in the City Of Churches.
The strike opened in the usual way.
ne cars and stables being abandoned
nd the strikers then assembling with II
view to preventing the cars from being
run by anyone else but them
selves. There is not yet
much asssistsn nee available to the
car managers, hut few cars were
run through with substitute motormen
md conductors, despite the desper-
ate opposition of the strikers, the
union men and their sympathizers
quickly developing into riotous mob.
as is usually the case. How successfully
he companies will be able to conduct
their business, how much property
will be destroyed. how many
persons will be killed and wounded be-
fore the strike is declared off" depends
on the relative strength and activity Of
he forces of law and order and OF
a lawless mob which is no different
from any other lawless mob, but which
will, despite the lessons Of experience,
doubtless be temporizedD with for a
time
Indeed the police which, so we were
Informed, We're on Sunday making
ample preparation to meet the con-
tingency of an expected strike, have
proved. as they do in many
cases of this oort, inefficient IL not help
less. One, Captain MURPHY, who had
charge of district in the thick OF the
strike, has had the sublime impu-
dence to advise the superintendent
of the road not to try to conduct his
business lest "trouble might result y
And all over the city the mob seemed TO
have free swing TO smash the
windows of the cars and the heads Of
the men who tried to run them while
the police department contented itself
with advising the road officials
not to make trouble by trying
to maintain their service. During the
day the police managed to make a truce
but the best guarantee that property and
life will be safe in Brooklyn during the
strike lies in the fact that because the
cars carry United States mail the
troops from Fort Hamilton and Cover
nors Island may be called upon if these
should be interfered with.
Meanwhile the old familiar items OF
news associated with strikes are be-
ginning to bob up. Master Workman
CoNYEL LY is telling what he thinks and
is satisfied as to the outlook" Grand
Master Workman SovER EIGN has tele.
graphed that he is on his way
to Brooklyn. The State Board of Ar
bitration allows that it is going to try
to "effect settlement" And so forth
and so on, ad nauseam. What the
strike is all about, as it almost
invariably does, is become mat
ter of minor consequence. Originally,
we believe, the men wanted 10 make
fewer trips ana not SO fast ones--a very
healthful sort of wish il all that is
said about the scandalously ard fatally
fast running Of the Brooklyn trolley
service Is trne But the grievances have
dropped out of sight since A o'clock yes
terday morning. The contest now is
simply for the supremacy Of an arrogant
district assembly and the exposition Of
the imperial power of bumptlous
labor agitator. The public convenience,
property and life will of course suffer
while the test is being made and how
much it will suffer will depend on how
slow the authorities of Brooklyn are in
pulling themselves together to meet the
IL