sive strike that had yet occurred in this
country was that of 1877, by the employees of the principal railway
trunk lines, the Baltimore and Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the New
York Central, and their western prolongations. At a preconcerted time
junctions and other main points were seized. Freight traffic on the
roads named was entirely suspended, and the passenger and mail service
greatly impeded. When new employees sought to work, militia and United
States troops had to be called out to preserve order. Baltimore and
Pittsburgh were each the scene of a bloody riot. At the latter place,
where the mob was immense and most furious, the militia were overcome
and besieged in a roundhouse, which it was then attempted to burn by
lighting oil cars and pushing them against it. Fortunately the soldiers
escaped across the river. The torch was applied freely and with dreadful
effect. Machine-shops, warehouses, and 2,000 freight-cars were pillaged
or burnt. The loss of property was estimated at $10,000,000. In
disturbances at Chicago nineteen were killed, at Baltimore nine, at
Reading thirteen, and thrice as many wounded. One hundred thousand
laborers were believed to have taken part in the movement, and at one
time or another 6,000 or 7,000 miles of road were in their power. The
agitation began on July 14th and was serious till the 27th, but had
mostly died away by the end of the month, the laborers nearly all
returning to their work.

Hosts of Pennsylvania miners went out along with the railroad men. The
railway strike itself was largely sympathetic, the ten per cent.
reduction in wages assigned as its cause applying to comparatively few.
The next decade witnessed continual troubles of this sort, though rarely
if in any case so serious, between wage-workers and their employers in
nearly all industries. The worst ones befell the manufacturing portions
of the country. Strikes and lock-outs were part of the news almost every
day. The causes were various. One lay in the vast numbers of immigrants
hither and the low, ignorant character of many of them--clay for the
hand of the first unscrupulous demagogue.

Another cause was the wide and sedulous inculcation in this country of
the communist and anarchist doctrines long prevalent in Europe.
Influences concurrent with both these were the actual injustice and the
proud, overbearing manner of many employers. Capital had been mismanaged
and wasted. The war had brought unearned fort