Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1905-12-30
is POLITICAL STRIKE
ST. PETERSBURG AUTHORITIES
ARE BEWILDERED.
strikers Show Strength at Russian
Capital--Must Win Fight Quickly
or II Will Be Lost-HaVe Only Linn
tied Funds and Weather Is Cold
Gar Is Heavily Guarded.

st. Petersburg, Dec. 24.-It is diff
cult to Judge whether the political
strike can be ranked as a success
or failure. The authorities are
dewoldered by the strength of the
strikers and the strike has reached
formidable proportions in st. Peters.
burg, where, even according to the
officials over third of the workmen
|obeyed the order of the workmen's
council. The strike leaders are
confidently asserting that the others
Will be brought into line Immediately.
Inc government, however, has sue
.ceeded in keeping railroad traffic out
OF st. Petersburg moving with reason
able regularity.
The scanty dispatches received from
the interior do not indicate whether
the order to strike is meeting with a
general response which will be neces-
sary to prevent it flashing in the pan
like the November strike.
The proletariat organizations are
marshaling all their forces. The pre-
vailing impression is that with the
limited funds at the disposition of the
unions the strike must spread rapidly
and enter a new and more violent
phase or the game will be lost by the
,revolutionaries. General December"
and General Hunger" are powerful
allies on the side of the emperor at the
present time, just as they were in the
fight against Napoleon, and it Is
thought that the leaders will not be
able to hold their men in line unless
an immense victory is scored or a con-
flict forced and blood shed.
In Moscow the striking railroad men
and the lower classes like the cab
drivers, who see the bread taken from
their mouths by the strike, are already
at each others threats.
The railroad mems strike committee
made heroic efforts to stop trains from
being run out of st. Petersburg, and
succeeded in inducing practically all
the station and roundhouse men and
many of the trainmen who remained
on duty yesterday to join in the strike.
Nevertheless, the government has been
ispatching trains under military guard
over all the lines, although regular
schedules have not been maintained.
Soldiers with flags on their bayonets
have been doing duty as switchmen.
The strikers are intensely enraged
at their failure to suspend traffic. They
stopped a train from Berlin last night,
and ordered the engineer out, but the
soldiers drove off the strikers, and the
train proceeded. The engineer of a
Kursk train was shot dead in the cab
of his engine while taking his train
into st. Petersburg.
There is a persistent rumor in cir
culation here, a we'll known revolu-
tionary leader being authority for the
same, that the car has been warned
to leave Russia. This communication
was sent to the ruler in three differ
ent ways in order to guarantee it
reaching him. The car was advised
for his own sake, as well as for his
familys sake, to leave the country at
once.
The communication to the car Is
also to have stated:
I'VE do not want to harm any mem
Der of the imperial family, but we will
not be responsible for their safety in
the present critical time"
1t is stated on high authority that
one copy of the warning was taken
to the cars private apartments at
Tsarskoe-Selo.
The car is heavily guarded in the
palace, which is surrounded by for
midable array of troops, while dozens
of Maxims and large supplies of am
munition are stored away Few OF
the officials have access to the car.
The emperor, who has been I'M
nerved over the events of the last
weeks, had looked to Count Witte as
the one man able to keep the people
loyal. Now that White has failed to
prevent the strike the czar is inclined
to blame him.