Читать книгу The Pullman Boycott - W. F. Burns - Страница 15

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The Fourth of July dawned upon a scene that would start the blood of the signers of the Declaration of Independence leaping in flames of fire through their veins, if they could but reappear upon this land in the vigorous manhood of their youth; those heroes whose blood baptized the battlefields of Yorktown and Bunker Hill for the glorious cause of liberty and equal rights; and behold the spectacle of this day, they would think that they had fought, bled and died in vain, that victory after all was but defeat.

Military despotism reigned supreme. The great masses of the liberty loving people who were wont to celebrate this National holiday of Independence in a manner befitting the occasion, began to think. Their thoughts took them back to the days of English tyranny, and they ask themselves, must this fight be fought again? The thoughts were contagious, and when the American people began to think, their thoughts are dangerous. The battle must and will be fought again, but not with the weapons of '76, but with the weapon the old man can wield as well as the young; the ballot.

Wholesale arrests followed the arrival of the federal troops at Blue Island, free speech was eliminated, any man who passed along, who had the appearance of striker or sympathizer was promptly arrested, and that too without a warrant. The remark "that fellow is a scab," was sufficient to send a man to the guard house. A fireman was asked by his landlord, "where have you been lately?" That was enough, he was placed with other shackled prisoners in the guard house, but was released later on. In the morning there was a parade, but the old time patriotism was noticeably wanting, a fireman arrested for refusing to go to work, having a depressing effect. Patriotic speeches were prominent by their absence, and people began to wonder what day was being celebrated.

The bloodcurdling lawlessness and rioting by the strikers at Blue Island, as depicted by the corporation press; when simmered down to facts proved to be as false as other similar reports sent out by the plutocratic press. The so-called rioting amounted to nothing more or less than expression of thought, and I believe if the General Managers, corporation courts, Cleveland & Co., could conceive and put into execution some plan whereby they could put a restraining order on the minds of the striker and deny him the right to think, it would be done. The gist of the rioting as I said before was simply expression of thought. A man as he watched a train pass by remarked: "There are d——d few Pullmans anyway." He was promptly arrested. Another remarked that some fellow was a scab, and was also taken in. This and other like remarks were samples of the Blue Island rioting at Chicago.

Upon the arrival of the federal troops, the General Managers Association shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of Uncle Sam, and the eager willingness that the representatives of the people exhibited to assist Sir Duke Pullman and the railroad corporation to subjugate and reduce the working people to a condition of serfdom, was sufficient evidence that the managers knew what they were about. They felt secure in the knowledge that their interest would be well taken care of by the administration, and sought the much needed rest that these weary sessions of plotting and scheming had earned for them.