"The Cruel Striker War" - NIU Digital Projects

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An "excited and prodigious crowd" of "anxious and curious citizens" as well as strikers gathered at the depot. Finding "the freight-train men, almost without exception" loyal to the strike, the company abandoned plans to move freight and ran its passenger trains, often hours behind schedule. The crowd, meanwhile, pelted a crew of strikebreakers with rotten eggs when it tried to take a train to Peoria. Despite local successes, the strikers heard ominous news from those trains that did reach Galesburg. CB&Q railroaders had returned to work at Aurora, Council Bluffs, Chicago, and Burlington. Federal troops had occupied St. Louis, and the Emmett Guards had ended the strike at Peoria. Long concerned about the movements of National Guard units at Altona, Wataga, Oneida, Galva "and other points" nearby, local strikers heard rumors that troops used against striking miners at Braidwood were moving on Galesburg. Indeed, the early morning hours on Tuesday brought a detachment of over forty soldiers from Peoria. Detraining on the outskirts of town, the troops "silently marched" along the tracks to the depot. There, dutiful municipal officers met them, and the mayor "informed the Captain that the services of his company were not required." Significantly, they had entered town "under the guidance of a railroad official" and stayed despite the judgment of local officeholders. This "decidedly martial appearance" made Galesburg seem "the seat of war." An "unpleasant feeling" swept "the strikers and their sympathizers," making the crowd "much less numerous" near the yards. As the CB&Q prepared to resume its freight operations, "a largely attended meeting" of workers assembled at the Opera House, discharged the strike committee, and left individual participants free "to go to work or not as the spirit moves them." Noting that the CB&Q had already discharged its workers, the Republican Register urged the railroad to "exercise lenity" and reported with relief that "the cruel striker war is over." 23 The strike's termination left the community in general confused as well as relieved. The strikers had avoided any hint of illegality and had carefully maintained the good will of the 92
community and its officers. Steeped in republican civic values, the town had exacted no sacrifice of status or livelihood on such prominent antimonopolists as Hinckley, the old settler, or even Roberts, the supervisor of its public schools. To them, strikers in St. Louis or Peoria may have seemed to be "communists" and "looters," but the local militants were their neighbors and fellow citizens seeking a redress of their grievances. 24 The occupation of Galesburg railyards by patrols of strikers may have conjured images of the 1871 Paris Commune for railroad officials in Chicago but, in the face-to-face republican world of small town America, such might well appear to be an act of civic virtue. Regionally, a widespread shock at the government's armed repression of the 1877 strike provoked a massive political revolt. Coalitions of labor and farmers' associations forged a Greenback- Labor alliance the following year, electing scores of candidates, including fourteen Congressmen. The Socialistic Labor Party elected officials in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and elsewhere, establishing branches in at least four places along the CB&Q. Despite their later reputation for conservatism, Illinois Swedes participated fully in this insurgency, a few joining the "Scandinavian" branches of the SLP while in communities like Victoria they remained Greenbackers for years. 25 In Knox County and Galesburg, the local Republican officials had not cooperated with the railroad or the military, leaving a small but persistent third party movement with little encouragement. In September 1886, after twelve years of such efforts, a county convention of the "National Labor voters" seriously debated their alternatives. While some insisted on a doctrinaire Greenbackism, a large faction cited the successes of pragmatic alliances with the weaker and more accessible of the major parties. Still others advocated a broad alliance of all forces opposed to the corporate parties, particularly embracing the "six labor organizations in the district." 26 Those half a dozen unions of 1886 had taken their place alongside the Main street businesses near the square. Although the 93
Page 1 and 2: "The Cruel Striker War" Rail Labor
Page 3 and 4: prairie. With money "little known a
Page 5 and 6: Traveling lecturers like Ralph Wald
Page 7 and 8: at 3500. Swedes in Galesburg oversh
Page 9 and 10: made little more than common labore
Page 11: planned "excursion party" by rail t
Page 15 and 16: CB&Q stood for "Come, Boys & Quit R
Page 17 and 18: were there in full force," wrote on
Page 19 and 20: Similar methods uncovered and docum
Page 21 and 22: entered a nolle prosequi in Novembe
Page 23 and 24: Knights of Labor, represented a wor
Page 25 and 26: discussed in this paper. It is the
Page 27 and 28: County, 11-12, 13-14, 17-21, 35. Th
Page 29 and 30: 23, 1886. Returns are also given in
Page 31 and 32: 40. Salmon, The Burlington Strike,

"The Cruel Striker War" - NIU Digital Projects

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