ARMED WIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 187, 11 September 1909, Page 4

ARMED WIVES.

PITCHED BATTtES IN STRIKE RIOTS. THIRTY PEOPLE KILLED. . , New York, July 17. berious noting, in which thirty men and women were killed and scores wounded, has occurred „at Mackces o-™' s ', x milcs ' ffom Kttsburg, where «000 employees of the -Pressed Steel Car Company yesterday went on strike. to-day three Troops of State Mounted Constabulary arrived on the scene. They were welcomed with a shower of bricks, and immediately charged the strikers, galloping through them and striking right and left with their heavy clubs. The mills, which cover 130 acres of ground, are now abundautlv guarded, each of the seven gates being protected by a solid wall of Winchester rifles. An amazing feature of the strike is the participation of the wives of the strikers, who, armed with the deadly "slungshot" stockings weighted with stones—as well as revolvers, waylaid tramway-cars and seized all whom they suspected to be strike-breakers, beating and scratching them. With their "slungshots" the women broke practically every window in the forty buildings owned by the company, while their hus- |! amis rowed up the river in boats filled with stones, with which they bombarded some five hundred ion-strikers. Altogether yesterday there were three pitched battles. The' most serious occurred when the steamship Steel Queen tried to enter the water-gates with several hundred strike-brealters. As soon as she hove in sight w elf directed shots greeted her from men in ambush on the banks. The firing was vigorously answered from The steamship, which, however, alter heavy losses, retired. Many strikers are known to have received bullet wounds, but they were dragged quickly to their homes' by jtlieiy friends and concealed. ' ,

On the land side of the mills over one thousand men assembled, carrying what looked like luncheon bundles. The bundles contained bricks, which were hurled into the mill yards. Throughout the day encounters with the police were numerous and furious. Mr. Farrell, the chief of police, was shot in the arm and felled with a dozea stabs in the back after one of his assistants had been mortally wounded by a striker, whom lie shot in the body."

To-day's charge of mounted police has Tor the moment terrorised the strikers, but the situation is critical. The strike is the result of a wages dispute, the company paying the men in groups instead of individually, as the men demand.