Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-06-03
McKinIey's Political Manager
and His War on Organized Labor.

Ii took time and money, and crime
and blood. and took bread from men
mouths, and left want and wrong a.
many a poor decent door; but Hanna
was victor He is, as a result, the great
fresh water padrone of the day; and his
sailor people as helpless as Mexican
poems in his grasp.
1t will be a good illustration of Hanna
the story of his war on lake labor.
Ii may give the work folk some encour-
agement in ballot casting next Novem-
Der when Mckinley, so they say, will
put his chance to the anal touch.
In 1881 the Seaman's Union was a
strong organization on the great lakes.
Wages for men forward of the mast
were 50 and $3.50 per day during the
summer months: while in November
and December, months of storms and
sleet and ice. when vessels in those
narrow seas went crashing TO the bot
tom like ships of glass, and lives were
lost TO such limit that the two ocean
coasts could not and cannot furnish
parallel list of loss and death, the lake
sailor men had $3.50 per day.
This seemed enormous 10 Hanna,
who. not being enriched half fast
enough, or rather feeling. himself pos
j sessed Of the cruel power TO cut them
down, ordered a reduction.
Then was the war between Hanna
and the Seaman's Union on at once;
/ and with the seamen fighting for bread
/ and life, and Hanna. as indomitable
and no more TO be bafTled or put at bay
than Hannibal, it was war to the
death.
Hanna. with Selah Chamberlain. the
/ Minches and the Alvah Bradley estate,
I made up the four great vessel owners
/ of the lakes. Hanna organized these
enormous interests into line of battle
/ against the tarry sailor folk.
Hanna demanded that they take 81
| per day in summer and 1925 during
/ the stormy months when it was almost
| an even chance that he sailed TO his
death who sailed at all. Against the
Seaman's Union he organized a Nom
Seaman's Union. He gave orders to
ship no sailors on his craft or the yes
sells OF the Big Marine 4 who belonged
to the Seaman's Union. And beyond
| that he arranged for bitter battle
What he did in his home city of
| Cleveland, he did in Chicago, Detroit,
Buhalo-in fact. in every port from Du-
luth to the Thousand Islands.
In Cleveland he after q fashion
brought the local police to his elbow.
In a city ridden of politics it should
not be hard for a Quartette Of billion
aires to call the constabulary to even
a black cause against horde OF poor
| sailor people who, helpless, moneyless
| and in most cases the merest timer
ants. had never so much as the poor
| 0uckler of a vote once a year where
with to protect themselves.
On the local police force at that time
/ was a water thug named AL Rumsey.
/ Aforetime he had been first mate of the
/ propeller Selah Chamberlain manned for
/ its owner), and in command OF Captain
Bradley. Rumsey left the Chamberlain
/ to become a policeman, and then TO be
/ finally Of use in Hanna's war Of exter-
mination against the Seaman's Union.
/ Rumsey was as remarkable in his
/ breed and bent as Hanna himself. He
was a professional athlete and boxer.
/ He would have been a prize fighter, but
was shy-to use the colloquil OF the ring
/ on sand. I've seen this tool of Han
| mas nut up a dumbbell weighing 1913
! pounds above his head with his one I'M
aided arm. and lost money betting It
| didn't scale 1913 pounds.
Rumsey has. by the way grown to
/ wealth himself since those days in 1881
| by inventing the rubber punching bag
seen in many gymnasiums, and which
wears his name. He is to-day, however,
/ az he has been since 1851. thlg Of Han
/ ma and his combine, using his strength
/ to batter, maui and all but murder union
/ sailors who would not take half wages
/ and leave their unions at the beck Of
| Hanna.
Rumsey was hired as an agent" Of
| the Hanna, Chamberlain, Minch, Alvah
/ Bradley combine He hired under
/ thugs. whose mission it was to bully
| and beat union sailors. Rumsey and
/ his myrmidonS, working the tyrannical
/ viii of Hanna and under his eye and
word, through 1882, 1888 and 1884, the
/ years of fiercest war. seldom allowed a
! day to pass without sending dozen
wagon loads of manned and beaten sail
or men to the police prison. In almost
every instance Updegsaff, the Judge,
| and those who followed him, made the
victims free. as the evidence constantly
disclosed Rumsey and his undertakings
/ as the aggressors.
Now and then Rumsey and his brutes
were themselves arrested on a warrant,
but Hanna's millions wired them loose.
In the courts it was practically stand
off: Hanna, while unable 70 convict the
sailors whom Rumsey assaulted, still
had power equal to protecting his brutes
from the reward due their crimes.
But the struggle ended in favor of Hanna
and his clique; this money war on perish
ing flesh and blood. The Seaman's Union
was at last beaten and broken down. and
four years ago died outright. It's members,
poor always to the point of bitter want.
couldn't cope with the millions of Hanna.
At last the sailors union. with Peter Lynch
at the head of the Cleveland branch. gave
up the struggle, and Hanna won his cruel
fight.
All through the years of the real marine
war Hanna paid the wages of Rumsey and
his fellow hounds. Now he has had time
to Elk it." the vessel interests generally
pay him. They are, too, in most instances,
on the regular police list for river duty.
Hanna has often boasted that since this
crusade against poor sailors rights he and
his allies have cleared up over $1,000 O0o
the aggregate reduction in the wages OF
Z saarnan which they brOught about