The Union Man in the White Suit Walked Into Jail
After the 1894 railroad strike, Northern Pacific committeeman Charles A. Barnes lost his bondsmen and surrendered in a canvas suit and straw hat, telling the marshal, 'Here is my body.'
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.
TACOMA, Sept. 10.—[Special.]—Charles A. Barnes, before the Debs strike assistant Northern Pacific freight agent under A. O. Canfield, was surrendered today by his bondsmen and placed in the county jail. Mr. Barnes is a very dressy man, and at the time he was placed in jail he was attired in a pure white canvas suit, with a natty straw hat. He made no attempt to secure new bondsmen.
His surrender came about in this wise: Mike Swamp, who was employed in the roundhouse before the strike, was on his bond, together with P. B. Egbert. Engineer Harmon, who was killed in the wreck near Orting, was also on his bond. Mr. Swamp was foreman at the roundhouse, but since the strike has not been employed. He was told that the reason he was not employed was because he was on Barnes' bond, and Barnes had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the local managers of the road as a member of the executive committee of the American Railway Union. He was indicted by the United States grand jury for threatening to damage the company's property by drawing the fires from locomotives. He was also arraigned for contempt of court in trying to induce men not to work, and promising to discharge those who worked in his department when he was restored. Swamp, having grown tired of being out of work, decided to withdraw from Barnes' bond. He notified Egbert, and they went with Barnes before the United States marshal. Egbert was willing to remain on the bond, but the others being off he was not acceptable. Barnes told Chief Deputy Brulgrs that he wished to let the bondsmen off, and he added: "Here is my body; do with it what you wish." A deputy took him to jail.
“Here is my body; do with it what you wish.”
The 1894 Pullman/Debs strike made railroad towns like Tacoma a proving ground for court injunctions against labor. Barnes’s prosecution for contempt and threats to company property echoes modern fights over union busting, protest, and who gets to shut down a workplace.
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