Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-03
CLEVELAND LECTURES
TELLS HOW CHICAGO RIOTS OF
1894 WE'RE SUPPRESSED.
Dispatched Federal Troops When Riot
ers Blocked Mails and Inter-
state Commerce.


Before one of the largest audiences ever
assembled in Alexander Hall, former Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland delivered the Stat
ford Little lecture last night on 1.-The Gov
eminent in the Chicago Strike of 1894.
Mr. Cleveland was greeted with enthu-
siastic applause when President Woodrow
Wilson introduced him, saying: Mr.
Cleveland stands today as the most prom
inent man in the United States, and needs
no introduction, especially to a Princeton
audience"
The balcony was packed with undergrad
yates and towns people, while the seats on
the lower floor were reserved for pro1eS-
sors and their wives, together with prom
inent visitors. Every word of the lecture
was followed with the closest attention and
appreciation by those present, and at lts
conclusion the Princeton students rose ana
gave a hearty locomotive" cheer for the
lecturer.
Mr. Cleveland's subject was THE Govern
ment in the Chicago Strikes.
He opened his address by briefly refer
ring to some of the serious problems when
faced his administration during the year
1894, then taking up his subject IN detali
he spoke in part as follows:
I'm the last days Of June, 1894, very
determined and ugly labor assurance
broke out in Chicago. Almost in night
1t grew to full proportions of malevolence
and danger. Rioting and violence were
it's early Accomplishments: and 1t spread
so swiftly that within few days 1t mao
reached nearly the entire western ana
southwestern sections of the country. Rail-
road transportation were especially involv-
ed in It's attacks. The carriage OF onitea
States mail was interrupted interstate
commerce was INSTRUCTED ana rallrood
property was riotously destroyed.
Attorney General Olney, in his oficiai
report, correctly defined the purpose ana
design of this outbreak in these WORDS: 10
flo, ant ~
Pullman company and portion oil us
employees, nothing else was medltated or
aimed at than a complete stoppage of all
the railroad transportation of the country,
state and interstate, and freight as well
as passenger.
THE speaker explained that the vide
spread trouble had it's inception in 2 str Ike
by the employees of the Pullman Pallee Car
Company, which began May IL, 1S9i ana
was provoked by a reduction OF wages.
The cause of the Pullman STRIKERS was
taken up by the American Railway t'l4on.
Members of the A. r. L. refused to handle
Pullman cars or trains bearing them. At
that time three-fourths of the ral!road
mileage of the country was under contract
to use Pullman cars.
The officers of the Railway Union estab-
lished headquarters in the city of Chicago,
and from there gave directions for the
maintenance and management OF the strike.
Reports came from various quarters
that the mails were completely INSTRUCTED,
trains were seized and destroyed and other
violent disorders committed. Thereupon
the Attorney General Immediately sent
dispatch to the United States district at
torneys instructfng them to see that the
passage of regular trains, carrying United
States mails in the usual and ordinary
way, be not INSTRUCTED.
Wherever there interference with
the malls or restraint of commerce the
United States courts were appealed to for
relief
Mr. Cleveland then described the repeat
hl,f inn ant att orortC nv nj tod
States court injunctions and the of
deputy marshals to prevent riots and the
obstruction of commerce and mails.
1.-The desperate and far-rea ching charac-
ter of this disturbance not in the
least underestimated by executive officials
at Washington" Mr.. Cleveland said, and
it must be borne in mind that, while men,
acing conditions were moving swiftly and
accommodating at Chicago, like conditions
inspired and supported from that central
point existed in many other places within
the area of the strikes contagion
1.-The strike situation grew rapidly worse.
Utter defiance of court orders, lawlessness
and rioting eliminated in the formal re-
quest of the United States marshal, sup
ported by the judge and the attorneys of
the federal court, for federal troops. This
request was at once met by orders to the
War Department, and soldiers from Fort
Sheridan were soon on the scene.
AN executive proclamation issued by
the President calling upon all to refrain
from unlawful obstruction, con. binations
and assemblages, together with the wise
use of the federal troops and the enforce
ment of the processes of the federal
courts, resulting in the arrest of the Off
GERS Of the A. r. u, stopped the rioting
the strike ended and commerce and the
mails proceeded unobStructed"
In concluding his explanation of the
events leading up to the accomplishment
of all the purposes of the governments
interference, Mr.. Cleveland said:
Il hope l have been thus far successful
in my effort to satisfactorily exhibit the
extensive reach and perilous tendency of
the CONFUSION under consideration the
careful promptneSs which characterized
the interference of the government the
constant desire of the national admins
tration to avoid extreme measures the
careful limitations of it's interference to
purposes which clearly seemed to be with
in it's constitutional competency and duty.
and the gratifying and important results
of Its conservative but stern activity"
Then followed a most Interesting part
of the address, the reading of the CORE
spondence which passed between Presi-
dent Cleveland and Gov. John p AltgeId
of Illinois.
In closing Mr.. Cleveland concluded with
a brief reference to the legal proceedings
which grew out of this disturbance and
finally led to the adjudication by the
highest court in our land establishing in
an absolutely authoritative manner and
for all time the power of the national gov
eminent to protect itself in the exercise
of its functions"