page_title: L. W. Rogers
section_title: American Railway Union activities
hierarchical_section_title: L. W. Rogers / Biography / American Railway Union activities
caption_attribution_description: English: Union leaders Martin J. Elliott and Eugene V. Debs in prison together after their arrest for the Pullman Strike.[1] Elliott was a Director of the American Railway Union and extended the strike to St Louis, drawing in 40,000 workers[2], which was later joined by Eugene Debs. After release Debs became a leader in the Socialist Party, and Elliott and Debs became the first Social Democratic Party Candidates to run for federal office. Elliott later died in surgery for complications from injuries sustained jumping from a runaway train. Photograph was taken at Woodstock Jail. Debs is far right front row. Elliott is center rear.
context_page_description: Louis William Rogers, commonly known as "L.W.," was an American teacher, railway brakeman, trade union functionary, socialist political activist, and newspaper editor. Rogers is best remembered in this context as one of the key officials of the American Railway Union jailed in conjunction with the Pullman Strike of 1894. After more than two decades in and around the labor movement, Rogers shifted his activity to mysticism as a prominent lecturer, writer, and long-time President of the Theosophical Society in America.
context_section_description: As a veteran trade unionist and railway worker, Rogers found the 1894 establishment of the American Railway Union (ARU) by former Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen official Eugene V. Debs to be irresistible — an attempt to create an industrial union joining workers in the myriad of railway crafts into a centralized and therefore powerful organization. Rogers became active in the ARU, was named to the organization's 7 member Executive Board, and was appointed editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Railway Times.
  This position as an ARU executive put Rogers in harm's way, however, as a victim of the process set in motion when the U.S. government sought to end the bitter 1894 Pullman Strike launched by the ARU by means of judicial injunction.
  On July 2, 1894, United States Attorney General Richard Olney and his assistant Edwin Walker instructed Chicago US Attorney Thomas M. Milchrist to file a bill in equity with the combined US District and Circuit Courts summarizing the harm allegedly done to the railroads and to commerce by the ARU strike. District Court Judge Peter S. Grosscup and Circuit Court Judge William A. Woods actively worked with the petitioner to shape and refine the injunction request, which was granted.
  The judges on that same day ordered that 10,000 copies of their newly granted injunction be printed and distributed by federal marshals along the striking railroad lines. The ARU was thereby ordered to cease and desist interfering with or hindering trains on any involved railroad or any train carrying U.S. Mail.
  When the strike was not terminated two weeks after issuance of the injunction, the government returned to court charging that ARU head Gene Debs, Vice President George W. Howard, Secretary Sylvester Keliher, and Editor Rogers were in contempt of court for failing to abide by the injunction. This July 17 hearing did not actually find the four to be in contempt, but nevertheless presiding judge William H. Seaman ordered the defendants to be temporarily held pending another hearing on July 23. Bail was set at $3,000 each.
  Rogers and his three ARU associates surrendered to authorities the same afternoon that the so-called "body attachment order" was issued. To the surprise of contemporary observers, all four ARU officials waived the right to post bail and were immediately jailed. Rogers later recalled that the substantial amount set for bail was not the cause of this decision, declaring, "If it was $2, I'd go to jail. This is a mighty test between labor and capital, and we will fight it to the finish."
  Owing to an indefinite end to the period of incarceration, this decision was quietly reversed on July 25, 1894, when bail was posted and Debs, Rogers and the other ARU leaders freed from the Cook County Jail. Trial was set to begin on September 5.
  On December 14, 1894, fully three months after the trial of the ARU had been held, Judge Woods finally issued a lengthy ruling. Wood found the union and its leaders guilty of having conducted an illegal strike in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
  Debs was sentenced to 6 months in jail as leader of the ARU, while Rogers and the other defendants in the case were sentenced to terms of 3 months. These sentences were not to be served in Chicago's Cook County Jail, but rather in McHenry County Jail in neighboring Woodstock, Illinois. These sentences were served, starting in June 1895, with Rogers and the other 5 members of the ARU Executive Board gaining their release on August 22. Debs was released three months later. Additional civil penalties were assessed against the union.
caption: L.W. Rogers with his fellow officers of the American Railway Union: Elliott, Keliher, Hogan, Burns, Goodwin, and Debs.
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:02:08 11:16:52", "Image ExifOffset": "176", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "314", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8244", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "480", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "410"}