The Pittsburg Strike.

Manawatu Herald, 12 July 1892, Page 2

The Pittsburg Strike.

Strikes in the United States assume the appearance of a civil war, more than a determined protest on^ the part of the employed against their employers. The news we publish below seems but a horrible repetition of the past, as in 1877 there was a general strike of railway servants on the Baltimore and Ohio railways, owing to reduced pay, when the rioters held Pittsburg and used cannon, and where many lives were lost. General Sheridan had to be despatched to secure order, and at the close of the movement it was estimated that damage to property to the extent of eight millions had been done. Then there occurred the Chicago socialistic agitation in 1886, in which the mob used dynamite and killed the police, and ended in four of the anarchists being executed. It is strange that these tumults break out at Pittsburg, as under its old name of Fort Pitt the French and Indians surprised the British general Brad cock, and killed him and routed his army in 1755. The present news is as follows :— A body of 800 police tried to protect the non-Unionists at Pittsburg but the strikers opened fire on them with revolvers. The police replied with volleys from their Winchester rifles. The strikers then hastily erected a fort of steel bars, and garrisoned it with a thousand men. .'

They also procured cannon, with which fire was opened on the. police, who tried to land from the river. After a brisk fight the police were ultimately obliged to surrender, and were then allowed to depart. Thirty-eight men were killed, but the loss was mostly on the side of the strikers, only a few polioemen being included. Hundreds of strikers are still concealed, ready to shoot the police if they attempt to land again. The police oame into collision with the strikers at Carnegie's homestead, in Pennsylvania. Five i persons were killed and many wounded. . Carnegie's strikers, brutally assaulted Pinkerton's private police, and, after the latter surrendered burned their barges. , Six of the strikers in Pittsburg were killed and 18 wounded, 6 mortally. Nine of the Pinkertons were killed, and 21 wounded in the conflict. The mob seriously injured 100 of the Pinkertons after they had surrendered. n The police of Pittsburg on finding themselves outmatched displayed a flag of truce, which was riddled with bullets. They afterwards accepted an escort from the strikers, but were compelled to salute ; th© Union banner.

The mob attacked and injured more than] 100 persons. The cause of the strike was a sweeping reduction of wages, by a company who flouted tha Union. An oil tank was fired duringVjthe fight at Pittsburg by the strikers, many of whom were drowned in trying to escape.