The Pullman Strike Paralyses Washington’s Rails
Striking workers at the Northern Pacific Railroad refuse to handle Pullman cars, trapping Eastern Washington militia in Ellensburg and halting traffic across the state.
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.
The whole of the Northern Pacific system was tied up by the boycott on Pullman cars, as employees refused to handle them and officials declared they would not run trains without them. The movement hit Seattle last night, where a meeting of railroad employees at Red Men's Hall voted unanimously in favor of the boycott. The federal government, through Judge Hanford, has ordered the receivers of the railroad to operate the trains and authorized the U.S. Marshal to protect them. Meanwhile, the Second Regiment of the National Guard, en route to an encampment, is stranded in Ellensburg, waiting for a resolution to the labor struggle.
“The men assert that they are not fighting the United States, but simply aiding their eastern co-workers.”
This 1894 strike was a major flashpoint of the national Pullman Strike, which saw federal troops intervene in labor disputes—a historical precursor to the often tense relationship between Seattle's labor movements and federal oversight of infrastructure.
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