The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-25
business OF Milwaukee Suddenly
nation dhd Almost Paralysis.
UNPARALLELED SITUATION
GROWING OUT OF THE STRIKE OF
sTREET-RAILwAY EMPLOYEES.
Every Man Suspicious of His Neighbor
Some LudicrOus Incfdents-What
the Boycott Has Done.

terests of this city are in a deplorable state
A yeritable reign of terror exists and there
seems to be no power sufficiently strong to
end it. king Boycott rules, and the mon
ster has his minions in almost every house
hold. factory and store. He was brought
here by the street-car strikers to punish
the railway company. but he is now like
free lance. and is furnishing whom he wills
The meeting Of business men last night
merely emphasized the power welded by
the King" 1t did nothing practical to
take his power away. The boycott is
marvel. Its like never has been seen before
In this or any other country. The condi-
ton into which 1t has thrown a big, busy
city stands unique in the history of the
world As a phase of disturbance in the
field of labor 1t is in no sense a concom-
liant of the strike, but its offspring In
so far as the transportation facilities of the
town, and correlative1y the town itself,
Were affected, the strike was dead two
weeks ago. Then the boycott was born It
fattened on the blood of it's dying parent
and waxed in size and power until, COM
pared with the proportions of it's ancestors,
1t lowered like Brobdingnagian above
pigmy.
To-day king Boycott Is absolutely mas
ter Of Milwaukee, says a writer in the Chi
cago Times-Herald. The 100000 and more hu-
man beings who live and toll in this city.
OF their own volition, are subjects of his
scepter. He rules alone, and his sway Is as
powerfully effective and as relenteless as
1t Is absolute. The first blow was aimed
at the street railway company, and nobody
cared The sympathetic people walked or
rode in nondescript vehicles called omni-
buses. and suffered inconvenience uncom-
plainingly. The next blow nit officers in the
street-railway company through their pri-
vate enterprises, and only those directly in
terested suffered. Then the ban was placed
on all who might offer aid and comfort to
the enemy by riding on cars, doing busI-
ness with its officers privately or doing bus
mess with people who had ridden on the
street cars. This final blow reached all
walks Of life, all enterprises. all vocations.
and was extended even into the third or
fourth generation and to relatives by mar
riage. Then the whole town groaned-
ALL PEOPLE FEAR HIM.
Nobody knows now, when or by whom this
king has been called to the throne. But he is
there. That is the fact which cannot be de-
MED Men hate him and fear him, yet no
champion has been found bold enough to
rise single handed and defy him. His reign
rests upon and is perpetuated by the motives.
mostly selfish, which control human nature
in the abstract When one is too weak,
physically or morally, to defy his task mas
ter he usually descends to currying favor
Hence, in Milwaukee every man is in the
service OF King Boycott as a spy upon his
neighbor. The result is virtually a reign OF
point of complete strangulation. In looking
backward now the darkest days Of the
panic of 1893 take on the rcseate hue of a
Doom period. Every man, woman ana enid a,,i
boycott, and the feeling of personal security
has fallen to a low ebb. To complicate the
situation. politics in general and personal po-
litical ambitions in particular have become
features of the boycott. Where will ii all
end? No man can tell. Certain it is that the
political effect here in the city, and to a lin
tied extent in the State at large, Will be
marked. On business the effect has been ap-
palling already. and the backset given TO
the city's progress can De measured IN years
only by the extent Of King Boycotts reign
in days.
The causes leading up to this extraordinary
and entirely unique condition lie far back of
the strike which brought the boycott into
existence. They may be said to date from
the time five or six years ago, when Henry
Willard came on earth second time as the
organizer of big investment enterprises. The
three active and one moribund street rail-
May companies then doing business in Mil
Naukee Were purchased and consolidated by
The price paid was $4.500000. much more
than the property was worth. New cars were
bought. new track laid, power houses built
and electricity substituted for horses as mo-
tive power. and the town given first-ciass
transportation service. The old lines used
to sell twenty-five tickets for $1-a four-cent
fare. The new company said 1t could not af-
ford to- do that after spending so much
money, so the fare rate was made cents
fiat but with reasonable transfer privileges
added. The company found justificat tions for
its position later. for 1t was never able to
pay interest charges; to say nothing OF divi-
Of a receiver. But the people who had lost
a four-cent fare, wers angry.
The street railway company used to be
taxed for its property like any ordinary
in Chicago. When Thomas Brown be-
came tax commissioner. a couple of years
ago. he insisted the company should pay
taxes on its franchise privilege as personal
property. The company appealed TO the
courts and lost. At the last session Of the
Legislature a law was enacted permitting
the company to pay tax on its gross earn
ings, in lieu of a tax on its personal property
and the license fee for cars Under the
operation of that law the company's taxes
were reduced several thousand dollars
Again the people got mad An impression
gained ground. from the facility with which
measures favoring the street-railway COM
pany were pushed through the City Council
that the company owned a majority of the
aldermen. This impression steadily famed
the anger of the people. More fuel came
ago to get street-railway franchise foi
Lawrence Z. McCann, of Chicago. Public
meetings were held and there was much
oretory in favor of competition, in favor o1
Accent fares and against monopoly in gen.
eral.
POLITICAL PHASES.
Last spring the street-raLway question
broke into local politics. Democrats and Re
publicans tumbled over one another in then
desire to breathe antagonism to the street.
railway monopoly. Some Of the language
used at that time is reputed to have been OF
the same character that sent Grottkau to tn,
penitentiary after the labor riots of 1856
Both old parties adopted platforms dealing
with monopoly in much the same terms a.
the resolutions annually adopted by the
Socialist Labor party for ten years. The
anti-monopoly agitation perrnsated the whole
campaign. Attacks the Street-raiiway
company were invited by the fact that mos
of its owners were Eastern capitalists. The
Railway and Light Company, is a reorgan.
ization Of the original company and took
the property out of the receivers hands las
February Henry c. Payne, vice presden
and director. and +. q. Bigelow and Charlie:
Pfster. directors. are the only milwaukee,
men interested In Ii. and are not believed K
be heavily interested financially. The othel
w. NJ. Cromwell. president; c. w. Wet
more. Of the North American Company
George r. Sheldon. Of Sheldon & Co., tn,
Spofford.
been thus ploweds seeded and watered wheI