Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
History
Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
A. I talked with some few of the men I knew.
Q. Did you admonish them that it was wrong to be assembled in such
large numbers there?
A. No.
Q. Was anything said about that?
A. Not that I know of. I was not in a very good humor just as I got up
there. I had been insulted just before I reached Twenty-eighth street.
Q. By whom?
A. By Mr. Watt. When I reached there there were only a few of those
parties that I knew.
Q. The Trainmen's Union, at that time, was not in existence?
A. They had not had a meeting for some time previous.
Q. Did they have any meetings after that?
A. Not that I know of.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Was the organization formally disbanded?
A. It just died out. They had no meetings called of the order.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. When did this union start, to your knowledge?
A. It was about the latter part of May, I think, or the 1st of June.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. As a member of the organization, what action would your organization
have taken in reference to that unlawful assemblage there?
A. My idea is that they would have discountenanced anything of the
kind--any burning, or pillaging, or anything of that kind.
Q. Or any interference with trains?
A. That is more than I can tell. I cannot tell anything about what men
will do after getting started.
Q. Would your organization have any means of disciplining the members
of it who interfered with the movements of the trains?
A. Most certainly. Our order had a head.
By Mr. Means:
Q. You mean to say, in your organization, according to the rules and
regulations of it, if they struck, they passed resolutions that no
trains should go out?
A. I didn't say anything of the kind.
Q. Was it the intention of the men to interfere with the movement of
the trains?
A. Not to the best of my knowledge. I never heard any such resolution,
and I never heard any person speak of it that way.
Q. Do you know any of the men that did interfere with the movement of
the trains who belonged to the union?
[Witness did not answer.]
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. In that arrangement to strike on the 27th of June--how extensive was
that strike to be--how far was it to extend--what roads was it to
include?
A. It included the roads running out of Pittsburgh, so far as I know.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. What roads are they?
A. The Pennsylvania railroad, the Pan-Handle, the Fort Wayne and
Chicago, the Allegheny Valley, and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Q. Was the Baltimore and Ohio not included?
A. I cannot say particularly.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Was your organization notified of this strike that took place on
Thursday, the 19th?
A. No, sir; no more than what I told you, that I was met on the corner
of Eleventh street, near the Rush house, and told of it, in the
neighborhood of eleven o'clock.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. You said you were discharged on account of being a union man?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account