The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-03
CLEVELAND LECTURES
PRINCETON AUDIENCE HEARS
 THE Ex-PRESIDENT.
Takes As His Theme "The Govern. mcnt In the Chicago Strike
 of 1So4"-He is Wildly Cheered,

cago Strike of 1S94.''
 Mir. Cleveland was greeted with en-
 thusiastic applause when President Woodrow Wilson introduced him, say
 ing: "Mr. Cleveland stands today as the | most prominent man in the United States
 and needs no introduction. especially to | n 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 l lecture was followed with the closest at-
 tention and at its conclusion the Prince | comotive" cheer for tlfe lecturer. MT. Clevelands subject was The | Government in the Chicago Strikes" He opened his address by briefly re- | ferring to some of the serious prob l lems which faced his administration | during the year 1894, then taking up 1 his subject in detail. he spoke In part | as follows:
 Tn the last days of June, 1894, a very determined and ugly labor dis
 tubance broke out in the. city of Chi 1 cago. Almost In a 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 a few days it
 had reached nearly the entire Western and Southwestern sections of the coun- try. Railroad transportation were es- pecially involved in its attacks. The carriage of United States mail was in- terrupted. interstate commerce was ob- | structed. and railroad property was
 riotously destroyed. Attorney General olney, in his official report. correctly defined the purpose and design of this
 outbreak in these words: ITO compel settlement of disputes between the Pullman Company and a portion of it's employees. nothing else was meditated 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
 widespread trouble had its inception in strike by the employees of the Pull man Palace Car Company which be- gan on the 11th day of May. 1894. and was provoked by reduction of wages. The cause of the Pullman strikers was taken up by the American Railway Union. Members of the A. R. U. refus- ed to handle Pullman cars or trains bearing them. At that time three fourths of the railroad mileage of the country was under contract to use Pullman cars.
 ''rhe same railroad companies which had contracted to use these Pullman cars upon their lines" said Mir. Cleve- land. had contracts with the United States government for the carriage of mails, and were, of course, also large ly engaged in Interstate commerce. It need hardly be said that of necessity, the trains on which the malls were carried. and which served the purpose of interstate commerce were. as a gem fhnGa n yyh q n cars were also attached.
 ''The officers of the Railway Union established headquarters in the city of Chicago; and from there gave direc- tions for the maintenance and manage ment of the strike. Reports soon came from various quarters that the mails were completely obstructed, trains were seized and destroyed and other violent disorders committed. Thereup- on the Attorney General immediately sent a dispatch to tho United States district attorneys instructing them to see that the passage of regular trains, carrying United States mails in the usual and ordinary way, be not ob- structed.
 wherever there was interference with the mails or restraint of com merce the United States Courts were appealed to for relief. In Chicago the AAlLGu 0LdNCS hdS to employ special deputies and special counsel for the government In let ter to this special counsel the Attor- ney General in making suggestions concerning legal proceedings. wrote It has seemed to me that if the rights of the United States were vigorously asserted in Chicago, the origin and center of the demonstration. the result would be to make 1t a failure every L AI- tkn over the entire country and in that connection. he indicated that 1t might be advisable. instead of reIyinG entire ly upon warrants. issued upon crimi- nal statutes against persons actually guilty of the offense of obstructing United States malls. that the courts should be asked to grant in1unctions which would restrain and prevent any attempt to commit such offense.'"
 MT. Cleveland then described the re- peated. but intellectual attempts by United States court injunctions and the use of deputy marshals to prevent riots and the obstruction of commerce and mails.
 '"rhe desperate and far-reaching character of this disturbance was not in the least underestimated by execu- tive officials at Washington" Mir. Cleve- land said, and 1t must be borne In mind that while menacing conditions were moving swiftly and accumulat- ing at Chicago. like conditions inspir- ed and supported from that central point existed In many other places within the area of the strikes conta- zion.
 "Of course. 1t was hoped by those charged with the responsibility of deal ing with the situation, that a direct assertion of authority by the marshal or a resort to the restraining power of the courts would prove sufficient for the emergency. Notwithstanding. how ] ever, an anxious desire to avoid meas ures more radical the fact had not | been overlooked that a contingency | might occur which would compel a re- sort to military force. The key to dis | patches to the Federal officers at Chi cago from the Attorney General may | be found in the self-defensive author ity of our nation to directly overcome resistance to the exercise Of | it's legitimate and constitutional | functions as related to the transporta- tion of mails. the operation of inter- state commerce. and the preservation of the property of the United States. and in certain constitutional and stat utory provisions. It was the intention of the Attorney General to suggest in these dispatches that immediate and information should be given to the Washington authorities if a time should arrive when. under the sanction of general executive author ity or the constitutional provisions, a | military force would be necessary at | the sense of disturbance.
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