"The Cruel Striker War" - NIU Digital Projects

election, gunshots startled Alderman Erickson in his home on
Spring and Matthews streets. The deep divisions over the strike
complicated the conflicting testimony over what he found when he
rushed outside. Albert Heburg, a twenty-two year old
strikebreaker, had been on his way to the home of his mother,
Erickson's sister. On his way, Heburg encountered and exchanged
insults with Herbert Newall and another striker. One of them
grabbed Heburg, who drew a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson, opened
fire on both strikers, and continued on to his mother's. Bleeding
from the head and calling for a doctor, one of the wounded strikers
stumbled past onlookers, one of whom later explained that "if he
wasn't a striker I would take him in bandage his head up, but if he
was I wouldn't; I was afraid he might shoot me." Finding Newall
in the gutter near death, Erickson took his own nephew into
custody. 37
The city's investigation of the incident reflected the
pervasive influence of the railroad. The police inquiry, conducted
by the CB&Q's special force, consisted largely of warning
witnesses not to discuss the incident with "the local editor of the
Republican Register." Although Erickson, the marshal, and a
doctor found no weapons in Newall's possession, strikebreakers
later reported finding in the yard "cast iron knuckles" stained with
blood which they dutifully took to the real authorities, the company
officials, one of whom returned the weapon to a strikebreaker "to
take care of it." From a private citizen, such a story would have
been rejected as hearsay or treated as an admission of tampering
with possible evidence and criminal obstruction of justice; from
railroad officials, the hearings accepted such tales as legitimate
evidence. The authorities concluded not only that the strikers had
physically attacked Heburg, but that they had done so with arms
and that his life had been threatened. With no recourse, the strikers
held a large procession through Galesburg for Newall's funeral,
where the Rev. J.W. Bradshaw, a reform-minded clergyman,
provided the only prominent reminder of Gale's original vision for
the community. 38
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