People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1894 — CAPTURED BY STRIKERS. [ARTICLE]

CAPTURED BY STRIKERS.

National Tube Works -at McKeesport in the Hands of a Mob. McKeesport, Pa., June6.—Never has this city witnessed such scenes of defiance of law and the inability of the authorities to cope with the law breakers as are in progress here. At this hour the strikers are practically in command of the situation. The trouble grew out of the strike at the National tube works, and the strikers have outwitted the police, broken into the mill yards and are making systematic tours of the works and their surroundings. ! The plant resumed in two departments Tuesday and about twenty-five men went to work. The news quickly, spread and by noon a mob of nearly I 10,000 had assembled out-ide the gates, awaiting the appearance of the workmen. Most of the men remained inside, but a few attempted to go to their homes and were caught by the mob and terribly beaten. They were finally rescued, however, by the police and I taken back into the inclosure.

The mob then dispersed in part, but toward evening reassembled, and by 6 o’clock probably 5,000 men were massed on Fourth avenue, and it was said that fully three-fourths of the number were foreigners. They were disappointed. At 6 o’clock the day turn did not come out and the night turn did not go in. There was a great load of provisions taken into the mill by the company. At the mills the mob surged around the entrances until 7 o’clock in the evening, when a rush was made and they broke into the yards. The men inside were panic-stricken, and it was the rule of “every man for himself.” The mob swarmed into the inclosure, looking for the hated non-unionists. Hundreds of the strikers were equipped with clubs or weapons of some description. Then beyan a wild chase and pursuit of the hunted workmen inside. The strikers were in complete possession of the place. They ranged over the grounds, and finally routed out ten hidden workmen. The poor fellows made a dash for freedom, but were cut off and surrounded. The mob set upon these men in swarms and beat them shockingly. In the crush to get at the prostrate men one fellow was badly stabbed. One man was found during the evening, still in hiding in the mill yard, which the strikers were patrolling, in complete mastery of the works. The fellow made a dash for the street and got outside the yards. He was pushed closely by the pursuit and in desperation sprung into an electric car passing on the s reet. The strikers surrounded the car, and the motorman tried to force it through the crowd. The trolley pole was pulled down and the car stalled. Then the fugitive was dragged off the car and beaten and kicked into insensibility. Another stowaway was found, his clothing stripped off, and he was kicked and beaten until he was uncon8' ious. 3 hen the assailants left him for a time, and he managed to crawl into a store on Fifth avenue. He vias unable to help hims If and is still there, where he sought refuge. Terre Haute, Ind., June 6.—Early Tuesday morning the militia in the Sullivan county mining district learned they had been outwitted and that five cars of coal had been stolen from them by strategy. The miners had placed a decoy of twenty-five men on the track and, lured to that apparent scene of trouble, the militiamen massed their forces. Then the striking miners captured the five cars of coal. Early in the morning the captured coal was burned on a branch road to the Alum Cave coal mine. The militia had an accession of 500 to their ranks by daylight and at 10 o’clock they started on a special train down the Alum Cave branch. The militia spent the day in the ravines and arrested perhaps a dozen men, some of whom were strikers and some of whom were not. The miners laughed at the militia. The five cars of coal were burned by the time the troops arrived. There were no strikers in sight for the militia to arrest. Then the soldiers formed a circle to scour the country. They brought in a few men, but none were the ones they hoped for.