My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office ... - Monoskop

THE STRIKE OF 1883 161
known as the leader of the women members of the Brotherhood of Telegraphers.
Swan clearly captivated the reporters for the New York World; they described
her as a “pretty brunette” with “large black eyes, which sparkle like
the diamonds in her ears.” She had given up her $80 a month position with
a brokerage firm to lead the striking women operators “and share their fortunes,
whatever they might be.” Evidently a charismatic figure, Swan initiated
the walkout of the female employees of Western Union by simply
walking into the operating rooms of the city department on the day of the
strike; all but twenty-one of the one hundred women working there got up
and followed her out of the building. Swan put her ability to give forceful
speeches to work for the Brotherhood; at a meeting in Caledonia Hall on
July 22, 1883, she was called to the platform to receive a bunch of lilies on
behalf of the striking women operators and responded, “These lilies are
symbolical of the purity of our motives; and though they may fade and
wither, our purity of motive and the bands that connect us will not wither.
Our Brotherhood will never die.” 25
On the evening of August 8, 1883, a benefit concert and ball were held
for the striking telegraphers in Madison Square Garden. Local regimental
bands volunteered to play for the event, which was attended by more than
three thousand people. At ten o’clock, as the ball began, a procession of
eight hundred telegraphers was led into the ballroom by master workman
John Mitchell, a New York strike leader, and Minnie Swan. A romance had
already begun between the two strike leaders; the following year they would
marry. 26
By August, though, it was clear to the telegraphers that their cause was
lost. Western Union was still in business, despite their best efforts, and was
doing a reasonable job of getting messages out on time using nonunion
telegraphers. As in 1870, Western Union employed strikebreakers, both
men and women. Some were unemployed telegraphers or graduates of the
telegraphy colleges who had been unable to find work; others were students.
Finally, on August 17, 1883, John Campbell declared the strike at an
end. 27
The editor of the Wadesboro, North Carolina, Anson Times tersely
summarized the entire labor action in a single sentence: “The great telegraphic
strike has ended, as far as the South is concerned, and the operators
have returned to work without having carried a single point.” The strike of