But the term capitalist is sort of synonymous and it will do."Įverywhere, local militia proved ineffective and unreliable. "We're in the same boat.I won't call the employers despots. "We're with you," cried one mill worker at a strike meeting. In Pittsburgh, where the strike broke out on July 18, the trainmen were joined by rolling mill workers. Louis, New York Central, Vandalia and the Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mississippi lines.Įverywhere, similar scenes were repeated, with thousands of workers-both railroad workers and others-uncoupling trains and refusing to allow them to be run out of the roundhouses. Four days later, it ripped through the Erie, Delaware, Chicago & St. The strike spread like a brush fire along the 2,700 miles of the B&O line, then onto the Pennsylvania railroad two days later. The force is too formidable for me to cope with." "Most of them are railroad men, and they will not respond. "It is impossible for me to do anything further with my company," he wrote West Virginia Gov. Faulkner, threw up his hands and dismissed the militia. After the scabs abandoned the train, none could be found to run any trains out. The next morning, when a local militia (most of them railroad workers!) was sent in, one worker was shot to death while attempting to stop a scab cattle train pulling out. There, workers abandoned the trains, uncoupled them, ran them into the roadhouse and set up a guard to ward off scabs. The tone of the strike was set that day in Martinsburg, W.Va. It began on July 16 when B&O firemen in Camden, Md.-two miles outside Baltimore-walked away from their trains in disgust after the company announced the 10 percent pay cut. After two weeks of apparent calm, the strike broke out with a suddenness that surprised everyone. After all, one business paper noted, "labor is under control for the first time since the war."īut for anyone taking notice, it was clear that some railroad workers were prepared to act. They fully expected that workers would accept the cut. THE EMPLOYERS were confident-on July 1, most of the rail lines announced a 10 percent reduction in wages. While some unions did exist, they had declined considerably, so that by 1877 only nine national unions existed with only 50,000 members. Massive unemployment weakened the union movement. "Many of them declare they might as well starve without work as starve and work," wrote one Baltimore newspaper referring to the workers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O).īut there was very little organization to counter the attack on wages and conditions. Increased workloads, petty tyranny, making workers pay their won train fares home, and the absence of any safety precautions embittered the railroad workers. Since 1873, rail workers' wages had dropped by 40 to 50 percent. The burnt remains of Pennsylvania Railroad's 28th Street roundhouse in Pittsburgh Wages and conditions were terrible throughout the economy-workers had been hit hard by the depression of the early 1870s-but nowhere were they as unbearable as on the railroads. If there were great fortunes being amassed, then there was a corresponding misery among those who created them. Scott, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hayes, it was said, owed his election victory in 1876 to the intervention of Thomas A. They presided over the first mass industry, controlled the destiny of thousands and wielded immense political influence. "Robber barons" such as Jay Gould, Jim Fisk and William Vanderbilt had built enormous fortunes on railroad construction and speculation. Heading several dozen railroad corporation stood some of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the nations. by far the most extensive rail system in the world. By 1877, over 79,000 miles of track were in use, giving the U.S. In 1850, barely more than 2,000 miles of track had been laid. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the fantastic growth of rail transport and its supporting industries. THE CIVIL War gave a massive boost to industry in the U.S.
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