Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1903 — SOO AT MOB’S MERCY. [ARTICLE]

SOO AT MOB’S MERCY.

UNPAID WORKMEN CAUSE RIOT AND BLOODSHED. Fallnre of the Conealida’el Lake Superior Hubble Brings Berloua Disturbance—Anarjr Men Wreck Office and Defy Troops. Coincident with the bursting of Francis H. Clergue’s $117,000,000 bubble, the Consolidated Lake Superior Company, there were riots and shooting Monday at the company’s closed plants at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. While the company was being placed in the hands of a receiver in Connecticut 2,000 former employes whose wages were not forthcoming as promised battered down the doors of the magnificent office across the river, smashed everything on the first floor and might have torn down Che building but for firemen with hose and militiamen with load-i ed rifles who threatened to kill the members of the mob unless it withdrew. The mob, hooting and yelling, fought ami overpowered the police, and after the local company of Canadian militia had been called out hurled bricks and stones at the soldiers. Most of the members of the mob were armed, but no one used his weapons except the soldiers, the police and the office employes of the company. Four policemen were badly injured by the mob and two Frenchmen were shot by policemen for attemplkng to release two prisoners. More militiamen and a company of British regulars were ordered out. The employes held a big mass meeting Monday night in the White house. An attempt was made to allay the passions of the men by an offer made by the Brotherhood of Woodsmen, an organization maintained among the lumbermen, to furnish an attorney free of charge to collect all pay checks left in his hand*.' The meeting broke up without any particular confusion or disorder. An effort was made to get a body of the rioters to cross the river to the American side and put the power house and, street railway out of commission, but it was not successful. On account of thl# rumor the local company of Michigan, troops was mobilized at the armory end extra policemen were put on duty. A meeting of the employes of the company was held in Barnes Hall in the; morning and its proceedings were of the most heated character. The particular grievance that inflamed the men to acts of disorder was the promise of pay when the men who made the promises, the employes believed, knew they could not be fulfilled. Immediately after this meeting the men went in a body to the office of the company, determined to get their money or “satisfaction.” The doors of the offices were locked and guarded by police. The men became furious, and despite the efforts of the combined strength of the local police force and the chnpany’e private police stones and other missiles soon filled the air, directed at the windows of the office building, ineide of which could be reen the officials of the company. An assault on the office was made by the mob and a mass of frenzied rioters secured possession of the ground floor of the building, destroying everything movable that came in their path. The office staff, with drawn revolvers, prevented the mob from gaining accees to the upper floors of the building. Every window and door in the building was smasdied in. Someone turned in an alarm of fire with a view to using the fire hose on the mob. The firemen turned several streams on the crowd and drove it back from the building. This reduced the size of the mob. The arrival of the troop* on the grounds, armed withh bull cartridges, about 2 o’clock served to destore some semblance of order. The rioters then contented themselves with throwing stones at the building and hurling invectives at the soldiers, who established a “dead line” and prevented any approach toward the building by any of the rioters.