The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-21

+, We shall not be able to reach u just
conception of the ardor and wisdom oi
| the farmers movement of the period
| without bringing into partial view al
least, the extraordinary intensity of dis
turbance of the labor classes, with whom
the farmers were in openly confessed
sympathy.
The fraudulent seating of Hayes in the
presidency, coupled with the eight years
of debasement of the office under Gen
eral Grant, now came home ITO plague
the inventors"
Hayes had Just recalled the last troops
from the southern capitols The train
hands on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
struck, July IA, 1877, less than six months
after the inauguration of the defeated
President.
The strike ragged almost instantly over
all the roads of the various corporations
east of the Mississippi and north of the
Ohio and Potomac to the Atlantic coast.
The Pennsylvania militia was ordered
out. Ever and anon some militia men
refused to assist in suppressing the strik-
ing hands.
United States troops were put on the
service. Encounters were rife between
city police, armed bands of citizens mill
tia and strikers, when hundreds We're
killed, other hundreds manned and riot
ruled supreme. Six to seven thousand
strikers at the same time, and 100000
strikers held possession of tracks, depots
and rolling stock.
The labor union had not reached the
tenacity of purpose and the arbitrary
law of conduct which later the organiza-
tion attained to. Nevertheless, the strike
of 1877 was pre-arranged. The question at
, issue was, who shall determine wages?
A large proportion of the laborers of the
north had nj n " m Sff vc
four years struggle to free the negroes OF
the cotton plantations. The freedmen
they left behind were now all employed
in peace and prosperity. The discharged
! soldiers had returned home to be met by
/ the unrestricted control of their wages
! by corporations. rapiu4y built up on the
war tariff, the war banking methods. the
war internal taxation. Parts of the army
they had left now stood ready to protect
corporation i'll gotten wealth.
Some committeeman, laborers on the
/ New York and Erie road had lost their
places when they carried to Receiver
| Jewett certain complaints of reduced
! wages Rates We're reduced on the Penn
| sylvania road and demand was made fol
restoration of the old The old rates
were s1.90 to $2.1o the day; the new, sl.7l
| to $1.9O.
The railroad strike touched chord oi
sympathy universally felt. Miners and
factory hands responded. The socialist o.
communicate clement. the trade unions
, labor combinations of all kinds. VIII
hoped for the general benefit that might
follow so gigantic disturbance of the com
mon carrier took heart.
There was widespread actual suffering
A leading striker in the coal mines ex-
claimed I'VE have learned to suffer
For a year we have had two meals OF
mush day. with bit of dry bread al
one of them. We will come to grass be-
fore we will consent to less than we de-
mand."
At Pittsburg, on July 20 and II, 1871
1000 freight cars were burned by the mob
Most of these weiN loaded with valuable
combustible freights. The railroad lost
perhaps s10.tos,e00 destroyed The express
company's office the Pullman car offices
the union depot hotel and other property
perished in the coniia grafton.
Corruption in. Washington was accom-
panied by the assassination of President
Garfield. Prepared money panic not oniy
aroused the wage classes to resentment.
The same cause led to greater energ.
among farmers in organizing themselves
for protection.
With the circumstances Of the times
here described, came the tramp. Too
often ne was an honest man. In vain
search for work, who had left an unfed
and scantily clothed family at home
for foreign arrivals The coke ovens
about Birmingham became popular
warming places for nights sleep. The
police learned to discriminate nicely in
their interference.
JOHN wTTHERsPOoN DUBosE.