Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1896 — MILWAUKEE STRIKE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MILWAUKEE STRIKE.

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ON RECORD. Street Cars Are Rnnnlng oti echedule Time, but People Refuse to Ride, Out of Sympathy for the Strikers or Fear of thb Boycott. Business Tied Up.

NE cannot help being impressed with a condition of affairs thpt will lead almost an entire community to voluntarily undergo the disi-om forts of stage coach days for the purpose of helping workingmen win a strike, yet that has been the situatibn in Milwaukee for more than a

week.—Thff-employes—of-tire Tfilwn-tikc-e-Electric Railway Company are at variance with the corporation and' quit work two weeks ago. The company secured men to run the cars and the strikers offered no interference in the running of them. The cars ate going ,ofi schedule time, but they are empty, for the people sympathize with Ute strikers and »refuse to ride. The street railroad syste®/ of Milwaukee is one of the best in the country. The employes in the past have been picked men. If a conductor or motorman was found to be a drinker, "or wanting in qualities essential to satisfy the public, he was discharged and a courteous, sober man took liis place.—The force eame to be recognized as a body of gentlemen. In their tidy uniform, thoroughly disciplined, always courteous and accommodating to patrons, it is not strange that they made the people their friojids—men, women and children, in all ranks. When, therefore, the 1,000 employes went on strike, on account of a reduction in wages’ and for other causes, men and women manifested their sympathy 'in etery way. Several picnics have been field and* enough money realized so give the strikers the necessities of life. But the refusal to ride in the cars is the most remarkable feature. As before said, the company is operating all its lines on regular time, but the cars carry no passengers. The strikers brought several hundred busses from Chicago and ate carrying on a regular line of traffic. In spite of the fact that it takes a bus from two to three times as long to make a given distance as the street cars, the busses will go along with h«avy loads, while the_car going in the same direction will not have to exceed a half dozen passengers, and more likely will not have two.

To some extent this failure on the part of citizens to patronize the more rapid mode of transit is due to fear, but the percentage of loss from this cause is very small when comparefi-with those who do not ride on account of sympathy with the strikers and a desire to help them “down the company.” Three-fourths of the citizens of Milwaukee are working people, and every one of them is on the side of the strikers. Even those who are not working people, the business men in the outlying wards, have to affect a feeling of sympathy for the strikers, whether they feel it or not, lest the boycott be extended to their business,. To run counter tp, the prevailing sentiment in their section would mean to ruin them and therefore they are even more strong in their utterances than the working class., Nor is their fear without reason. The boycott is being vigorously prosecuted, and any one who. through necessity or otherwise, takes a street car is a marked man. Women and even children will urge anyone taking a car to wait and take a bus. ’ A“ReHnirßable“Boycott. The boycott is even extended to those merchants that sell anything to the company or wfio do business with it in ’My. way. In the neighborhood of the barns

noLa particle of food can be purchased, as it would be as much as a merchant’s business is worth to sell to the company. The wife of a baker in the northwest -part of the city was so jndiscreet as to ride down town in one of the cars, and since that -time the bakeshop has been free of customers. Some of the sympathizers with the strikers go to a great deal of personal discomfort. Workmen who have work to do several miles out of the city will walk out in the morning and back in the evening rather than patronize the street cars and their connections. If the thing keeps up much longer any one seen speaking to one of the members of the Board of Directors of the street car company will be liable to have the boycott placed on him. No one who has not come in conflict with it can have any idea of the strength of the grip which the strikers and their sympathizers have on the business of the city. .Within a day or two several manufacturers were notified that some of their employes had been seen riding on the street cars, and if this was repeated a boycott would be placed on their goods. They heeded the warning and now see that their men either walk or patronize the busses. Not a thing can the company buy* in the city for the subsistence or comfort of the new men whom they have to feed in the’ barns. Wholesale grocery firms do not dare sell them any supplies. The new men wanted some washing done. The company gathered up the soiled clothing and sent it to five different laundries and in each instance it was refused. Finally it had to be sent to ChrcagoT Tlie Idea of the strikcrsAffd their sympathizers is to isolate the street cars until the company comes to terms and takes the old men back. The Prince of'Wales gave a dinner party at which were present all of the ambassadors of foreign powers in Loadon, the ministers of the government, many exministers, the archbishop of Canterbury, Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley and other prominent personages. Will Derby, of Knoxville, Tenn., who killed his chum, Elija Cross, and threw him in a well, confessed the crime and was given a twenty-year sentence. They quarfeled about a drink of water, and the murder was a mystery for weeks. One kind of the medusae baa, ft is said, eighty ears. • -J i

EXPRESSMEN REAP A HARVEST.