The 1894 Railroad Strike Reaches Seattle—and the Militia Digs In
As the great Pullman-era railroad strike collapses in Washington, saboteurs burn trestles on the Northern Pacific, federal troops and the revenue cutter Grant move in, and Seattle's Civil War veterans pledge themselves to 'law and order.'
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.
That the great railroad strike, so far as this state is concerned, is nearing an end is becoming the conviction of a great many people, who are led to this conclusion by the bitterness with which the fight is being waged against the Northern Pacific road, now that the tie-up is broken. It is reported that a long and high trestle near Stampede tunnel has been destroyed, another bridge near Kittitas burned, and the bridge across the Nisqually prepared for destruction.
The wrecking of the Portland passenger train near Tacoma on Monday evening by strikers or their sympathizers is denied by the American Railway Union, who say that it resulted from the incompetence of the green men employed to take the strikers' places. On the other hand, the testimony of those early on the scene of the wreck goes far to show that it was the work of vandals.
Locally there is an entire absence of excitement, disorder, or even of incident worthy of extended notice. The strikers are orderly and none of them are to be found about the railway yards. The Lake Shore road is now fully equipped in all departments with non-union men, and the strikers have appealed to Judge Hanford against Superintendent Kline's summary treatment of them, the occasion being taken advantage of by Judge Hanford to give the men some judicious advice, while he promised not to blacklist them.
The members of the state militia in this city are still under arms, ready for service at a moment's notice, and the United States revenue cutter Grant has returned and will stay here until the trouble has ended. The company of United States regulars which came up from Fort Canby on Monday evening has been dispatched to points along the Northern Pacific. The loyalty of the veterans of the G. A. R. has been voiced in stirring resolutions adopted at meetings of the various posts last evening.
“The strikers are orderly and none of them are to be found about the railway yards. The Lake Shore road is now fully equipped in all departments with non-union men.”
The 1894 strike pitted organized labor against the railroads, with the governor's militia and federal troops called out on the side of the companies—an alignment that echoes in every modern fight over union drives, 'right-to-work' laws and the power of courts to rein in workers. Then, as now, the flashpoints were who controlled the rails and who bore the risk of standing up to an employer.
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