Part 63 (1/2)

Secretary of State under Harrison's administration.]

PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S CHANGE OF POLICY.

Such was the status when President Cleveland came into office on the 4th of March, 1893. His views were the very opposite of his predecessor's, and he took steps to enforce them. He maintained there would have been no revolution in Hawaii had not the force of marines landed from the _Boston_. He withdrew the proposed treaty from the Senate, and sent James H. Blount, of Georgia, to Hawaii as special commissioner to make an investigation of all that had occurred, and to act in harmony with the views of the President. On the 1st of April, Blount caused the American flag to be hauled down, and formally dissolved the protectorate. Minister Stevens was recalled and succeeded by Mr. Blount as minister plenipotentiary. Steps were taken to restore Liliuokalani, and her own brutal stubbornness was all that prevented. She was determined to have the lives of the leaders who had deposed her, and to banish their families. This could not be permitted, and the Dole government refused the request to yield its authority to the queen.

The situation brought President Cleveland to a standstill, for he had first to obtain the authority of Congress in order to use force, and that body was so opposed to his course that it would never consent to aid him. The provisional government grew stronger, and speedily suppressed a rebellion that was set on foot by the queen. It won the respect of its enemies by showing clemency to the plotters, when it would have been legally justified in putting the leaders to death. The queen was arrested, whereupon she solemnly renounced for herself and heirs all claim to the throne, urged her subjects to do the same, and declared her allegiance to the republic.

ANNEXATION OF HAWAII.

Let us antic.i.p.ate a few events. In May, 1898, Representative Newlands introduced into the House a resolution providing for the annexation of Hawaii. Considerable opposition developed in the Senate, but the final vote was carried, July 6th, by 42 to 21. The President appointed as members of the commission, Senators Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Representative Robert R. Hitt, of Illinois; and President Dole and Chief Justice Judd, of the Hawaiian Republic. All the congressmen named were members of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs.

The news of the admission of Hawaii to the Union was received in the islands with great rejoicing. A salute of one hundred guns was fired on the Executive Building grounds at Honolulu, and the formal transfer, August 12th, was attended with appropriate ceremonies. A full description of these interesting islands, their history and their products, will be found in Chapter XXVI. of this volume.

THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1894.

One of the greatest railroad strikes in this country occurred in the summer of 1894. Early in the spring of that year, the Pullman Car Company, whose works are near Chicago, notified their employes that they had to choose between accepting a reduction in their wages or having the works closed. They accepted the cut, although the reduction was from twenty-five to fifty per cent. of what they had been receiving.

When May came, the distressed workmen declared it impossible for them and their families to live on their meagre pay. They demanded a restoration of the old rates; but the company refused, affirming that they were running the business at a loss and solely with a view of keeping the men at work. On the 11th of May, 3,000 workmen, a majority of the whole number, quit labor and the company closed their works.

The American Railway Union a.s.sumed charge of the strike and ordered a boycott of all Pullman cars. Eugene V. Debs was the president of the Union, and his sweeping order forbade all engineers, brakemen, and switchmen to handle the Pullman cars on every road that used them. This was far-reaching, since the Pullman cars are used on almost every line in the country.

A demand was made upon the Pullman Company to submit the question to arbitration, but the directors refused on the ground that there was nothing to arbitrate, the question being whether or not they were to be permitted to operate their own works for themselves. A boycott was declared on all roads running out of Chicago, beginning on the Illinois Central. Warning was given to every road handling the Pullman cars that its employes would be called out, and, if that did not prove effective, every trade in the country would be ordered to strike.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILWAY.]

The railroad companies were under heavy bonds to draw the Pullman cars, and it would have cost large sums of money to break their contracts.

They refused to boycott, and, on June 26th, President Debs declared a boycott on twenty-two roads running out of Chicago, and ordered the committees representing the employes to call out the workmen without an hour's unnecessary delay.

The strike rapidly spread. Debs urged the employes to refrain from injuring the property of their employers, but such advice is always thrown away. Very soon rioting broke out, trains were derailed, and men who attempted to take the strikers' places were savagely maltreated.

There was such a general block of freight that prices of the necessaries of life rose in Chicago and actual suffering impended. So much property was destroyed that the companies called on the city and county authorities for protection. The men sent to cope with the strikers were too few, and when Governor Altgeld forwarded troops to the scenes of the outbreaks, they also were too weak, and many of the militia openly showed their sympathy with the mob.

Growing bolder, the strikers checked the mails and postal service and resisted deputy marshals. This brought the national government into the quarrel, since it is bound to provide for the safe transmission of the mails. On July 2d a Federal writ was issued covering the judicial district of northern Illinois, forbidding all interference with the United States mails and with interstate railway commerce. Several leaders of the strike were arrested, whereat the mob became more threatening than ever. The government having been notified that Federal troops were necessary to enforce the orders of the courts in Chicago, a strong force of cavalry, artillery, and infantry was sent thither.

Governor Altgeld protested, and President Cleveland told him in effect to attend to his own business and sent more troops to the Lake City.

There were several collisions between the mob and military, in which a number of the former were killed. Buildings were fired, trains ditched, and the violence increased, whereupon the President dispatched more troops thither, with the warning that if necessary he would call out the whole United States army to put down the law-breakers.

The strike, which was pressed almost wholly by foreigners, was not confined to Chicago. A strong antipathy is felt toward railroads in California, owing to what some believe have been the wrongful means employed by such corporations on the Pacific coast.

There were ugly outbreaks in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento, the difficulty being intensified by the refusal of the militia to act against the strikers. A force of regular soldiers, while hurrying over the railroad to the scene of the disturbance, was ditched by the strikers and several killed and badly hurt. The incensed soldiers were eager for a chance to reach the strikers, but they were under fine discipline and their officers showed great self-restraint.

END OF THE STRIKE.

The course of all violent strikes is short. The savage acts repel whatever sympathy may have been felt for the workingmen at first. Few of the real sufferers took part in the turbulent acts. It was the foreigners and the desperate men who used the grievances as a pretext for their outlawry, in which they were afraid to indulge at other times.

Then, too, the stern, repressive measures of President Cleveland had a salutary effect. Many labor organizations when called upon to strike replied with expressions of sympathy, but decided to keep at work.

President Debs, Vice-President Howard, and other prominent members of the American Railway Union were arrested, July 10th, on the charge of obstructing the United States mails and interfering with the execution of the laws of the United States. A number--forty-three in all--was indicted by the Federal grand jury, July 19th, and the bonds were fixed at $10,000 each. Bail was offered, but they declined to accept it and went to jail. On December 14th, Debs was sentenced to six months'