The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-03
Mr. Cleveland Speaks to Large
 Princeton Audience
DEFINES FEDERAL ATTITUDE
Explains That United States Troops Were Sent to Quell the Disturb ance Only When Mails Were
 In Jeopardy.

In Jeopardy.
 Princeton. N. J., May 2.-Before one of the largest audiences ever assembled in Alexander hall, former President Cleve- tonight on "The Government in the Chi cago Strike of 1894"
 MT. Cleveland was greeted with en- thnsiastic applause when President Wood row Wilson introduced him. saying:
 MT. Cleveland stands today as the most prominent man in the United States. and needs no introduction, especially to Princeton audience"
 The balcony was packed with under graduates and townspeople. while the seats on the lower floor were reserved for professors and their wives, together with prominent visitors. Every word of the lecture was followed with tho closest attention, and at it's conclusion the Princeton students rose and gave a hearty Locomotive" cheer for the lec- turer.
 Mir. Cleveland opened his address by
 
 problems which faced his administration during the year 1894, then taking up his subject in detail he spoke in part as fol- lows:
 Labor Disturbance Broke Out.
 'In the last days of June. lS9l a very determined and ugly labor disturbance broke out in the city of Chicago. AL most in a night 1t grew to full proportions of malevolenee and danger. Rioungk and violence were it's early accompanlmens~; and 1t spread SO swiftly that within {. few days 1t had reached nearly the en- tire western and southwestern sections of the country. Railroad transpartations were especially involved in It's attacks. The carriage of United States mail was interrupted, interstate commerce was ob- structed and railroad property was riot ously destroyed. Attorney General Ol- ney. In his official report, correctly de, fined the purpose and design of this out break in these words:
 '"ro compel settlement of disputes be- tween the Pullman company and a DOT tion of It's employees. nothing else was meditated or aimed at than a complete stoppage of All the railroad transporta- ton of the country. state and interstate. and freight as well as passenger"
 The speaker explained that the wide spread trouble had its inception in a strike by the employees of the Pullman Palace Car company which began on the 11th day of May, 1894. and was provoked by a reduction of wages The cause of tho Pullman strikers was taken up by the American Railway union. Members of the A. R. U refused to handle Pull man cars or trains bearing them. At that time three-fourths of the railroad mile- age of the country was under contract to use Pullman cars.
 Pullman Cars Were Attacked.
 "The same railroad companies which had. contracted to us these Pullman cars upon their lines, said MT. Cleve- iand, had contracts tn the United States government for The carriage of mails, and were. of course, also largely aged in interstate commerce. It need hardly be said that of necessity. the trains on which the mails were carried and which served the purpose of inter state commerce were, as a general rule, those to which the Pullman cars were also attached
 "The officers of the Railway union es- headquarters in the city of Chi cago, and from there gave directions for the maintenance and management of the strike Reports soon came from various quarters that the mails were completely obstructed, trains were seized and de- stroyed and other violent disorders com mitted. Therenpon the attorney general sent a dispatch to the unr- ed States district attorneys instructing them to see that the passage of regular trains. carrying United States malls in the usual and ordinary way, be not ob- structed.
 "Wherever there was interference with the mails or restraint of commerce the United States courts were appealed to for relief In Chicago the United States mar shal was authorized to employ special deputies and special counsel for the gov ernment. In letter to this special eoun- sel. the attorney general In making sus- gestions concerning legal proceedings wrote: It has seemed 10 me that if the rights of the United States were vlgor- ously asserted in Chicago. the origin and center of the demonstration. the result would be to make 1t failure everywhere else and to prevent its spread over the entire country" and in that connection, he indicated tnat it miGf' be advisable instead of relying en',-iy upon warrants issued upon criminal statutes against persons actually guilty of the offcnse Of United States mails. that the courts should be asked to grant iniunc- tions which would restrain and prevent any attempt to commit such offense
 Attempts Were Intellectual.
 ' peated but intellectual attempts by United States court injunctions and the use or deputy marshals to prevent riots and the of commerce and mails.
 "The desperate and far-reaching char acter of this disturbance was not in the least underestimated by executive off, clals at Washington" Mir Cleveland said. "and it must be borne in mind that, while menaelng conditions were moving swiftly and aecumulat.ng at Chicago, Ike conditions inspired and supported from that central point existed in many other places within the area of the strikes 
 Of course. 1t was hoped by those charged with the responsibility of dealing with the situation. that direct assertion cf authority by the marshal or resort to the restraining power of the courts would prove sufficient for the emergency however, an anxious desire to avoid measures more radical, the fact had not been overlooked that might occur which would compel Ja resort to military force.
 "Th9 key to dispatches to the federal officeH at Chicago from the attorney