Railroad Strike Leaves Workers Battered in Handcar Collision
When strikers were stranded by the Great Northern shutdown, a risky attempt to travel by handcar near Monroe ended in a violent crash, sending workers to an emergency hospital.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Two handcars loaded with ten men who were stranded by the strike on the Great Northern road started from near Snohomish yesterday morning. When about a mile between the starting place and Monroe, a wheel on the front car broke, and before the second car could be stopped, it went bang into the disabled car, knocking the occupants right and left, injuring everyone and several seriously. The first car derailed and the second was laid up against it in regulation railroad smash-up style. The men on the second car fortunately escaped with only a shaking up. As soon as possible, the uninjured men got the handcar that had played the battering ram in working order and drove as fast as their arms could work to Monroe, where a physician and other assistance was obtained, especially from the members of the American Railway Union. The injured men were taken to Monroe, where a vacant store was turned into an emergency hospital.
“The men on the second car had fortunately escaped with injuries otherwise than a general shake-up, and as soon as they collected their scattered senses they started to pick up the remains of their companions.”
This incident highlights the extreme lengths workers went to during the 1894 Pullman-related strikes. While the transit network in the Pacific Northwest has evolved into modern light rail and interstate highways, the tension between corporate rail interests and the livelihoods of organized labor remains a foundational part of the regional identity.
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