The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-05
TWAS THE FAMOUS HANDCAR LIMITED
When All Other Railroad Resources Failed The Standard
Ran Primitive Trains While the Strike Was On
and so Montana Patrons Got the News,

With all the rest the Standards ca
reer includes an experience in railroad
management and operation That
eventful era was about four weeks long.
1t was severely realistic while it lasted
it was vexing, expensive, nerve-test-
ing. In the retrospect it is unique;
there never was anything just like it.
During four weeks in the summer of
1894. owing to circumstances over which
they had no cotrol, the managers of the
Northern Pacific. of the Union Pacific
and of the Montana Union railways
were not operating their lines. Solemn
silence pervaded yards and shops and
division headquarters. Every engine
was dead, not wheel was turning any
where on the thousands of miles in the
region which these roads traverse. The
A. r. U. strike was on. AS the result
of an arrangement into which the par
ties to the contention entered, it was
made possible for the Standard to cp-
crate, in primitive way, hundreds of
miles of these roads. Before the strike
was many hours old. the service that
became celebrated as the standards
Handcar Limited" was successfully in
augurated. 1t wasn't the swiftest serv-
ice in the world, but 1t was immeasur-
ably swifter than nothing. 1t served
its useful purpose; it developed the pos
sibilities there are in railway veloci-
pedes and primitive handcars; the
event proved that, after all, it paid.
How 1t Came About.
On the merits of the case, Montana
famous agitation, in the summer of
1894, which, under the leadership of
Eugene v. Debs, was known as the
A. r. U. strike. The storm-center of
this unprecedented railway disturbance
was at Chicago. The Pullman Palace
Car company was the alleged offender
The managers of the strike realized
that. however tight they might tie up
the roads leading into Chicago, there
was need of the moral support" of the
employees On outlying railroad lines, If
the crusade against the Pullman con-
Germ was to be success. The theory
was that the offending concern could
be brought to book if important lines
operating the Pullman coaches could be
forced to halt. Yielding to the pres
sure that was brought to bear from
headquarters at Chicago, the employees
on the Union Pacific and on the North
ern Pacific consented at length to pro-
claim sympathetic strike" Think of
the vast area, absolutely dependent on
these two transcontinental lines, that
was thus shut out from the worlds
just for Good will.
At noon on June 26, 1894, the men on
what then was known as the Montana
division of the Northern Pacific, were
ordered to quit; the order was prompt
ly obeyed. Never was a newspaper
left in worse plight. 1t was the duty
of the Standard, by hook or crook, to
reach with its daily editions Its patrons
IN the towns along the line of the
Northern Pacific from Billings in the
eastern part of the state, to Missoula,
the metropolis of Western Montana.
Yet, over this region, distance, as
the Northern Pacific line runs. of near
ly 400 miles not a car was moving, IT
was still possible to get to Butte-tbe
Butte, Anaconda & Pacific line, oper-
ating in connection with the Great
Northern, was not in any way related
to the Pullman service. That was re-
lief, however scant. 1t made II possible
for the Standard to reach Butte as
distributing point for Eastern Montana |
aud for points south. The emergency |
came suddenly; no newspaper could |
meet 1t in a minute and. as none of the |