HALF-WAY TO WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 75, 31 March 1910, Page 2

HALF-WAY TO WAR.

THE PHILADELPHIA STRIKE. FIGHT NEAR BAJ.BWIN'S FACTORY, THE MILITARY BEATEN. Details received by a late American mail show "that the tram strike raging in Philadelphia was at one (rime -boot half-way to a civil war. At 1 p.m. on 19th February tho cara were deeected. By 24th February there were twelve victims dead or dying, ninety-one seriously wounded, and one bhousa_d injured. At on* crisis w tho figjbfei-]f tha ctfey police — on the third day of the strikewere so insufficient that the authorities had to reassure the pabric by swearing in for riot duty tho ''Pencibies" — a body of militia that fought in the SpanishAmerican war. Also the commanders of the three regiments of National Guards met to arrange plans for mobilisation at a moment's notice. The Fencibles, if called out, would have their uniforms on, and rifles and bayonets. With all these soldiers at their back the public might rest safe, even if the poHco failed. THE FENCIBLES. The next dpy the Fehcibles were called out. They were marched into the quarter where the feeling was hottest. Their rifles were loade*. In the first skirmish they were badly beaten by the mob. No one paid the least attention to the drawn bayonets. The crowd snatched • muskets from the hands of the militiamen. The Mayor of the place said afterwards that the Fencibles acted as if they were on a picnic. They allowed the factory girls to wear their helmets, and to cut the brass buttons off their uniforms for ornaments. A. part of the crowd caught one of tho Fenriblo*, stripped- him of his coat, hat. cartridge belt, and rifle, and pitched him into a sewer. After that the authorities went back to the police. Th^y sent for 200 of the country police. Meanwhile the city police were sent to tho quarter which had been guarded by the Fencibles the day before. Whenever a group formed anywhere along the tram line detectives in motor-cars rushed it, followed the Bcattored members of it oven into houses, and captured the ringleaders. So, many car windows wore smashed that clay that the trams had sheet iron put into them instead of glass panes. But the trams ran that day. The police were not so diffident as tho soldiers. The labourers at» Baldwin's locomotive works, when they came out for their lunch hour, took side with the strikers. The police fired about 50 shots at them, ami they took refuge in the upper floors of buildings round about. From there they flung bolts ond nut* at the policemen. The policemen, in return, whenever they saw a head appear at a window, let fire nt it. This was nob Constantinople during &n Armenian masaacro. It was in the park city of America — lact month. They fought like that till 1 p.m., wfc.Mi the whistle blew in the works. THE MEN KILLED. The first man was killed on the third day of tho strike. The skull of. a policeman was fractured the same day The next day, in nlttacks on tram-cars, three boys were shot. On© of them, john Heugh, died the day after. A policeman shot' him in the neck. Heugh ruado a statement to the coroner before b« died. He said he was one of an organised gang of 150 workers from tarpet mills who had agreed to attack 'the cars. HIGH SCHOOL BOYS JOIN STMKERS. A grealt part of the rioters we'.'e boya. The city high schools began to boiat>_r.l the cars with bolts. Tho Board of Kducation, in order not to endanger the lives of tho pupils, decided to close for the time being the two schools for girls. A great part of the crowd in the streets, those days, had come out, as it would in Australia, simply to see the fun. 'It did not prevent the fun from being serious. < FIGHTING WITH LAMP BULBS. Early in tho strike an extraordinary scene took place. Ah a car \vs« passing quite close to the Central Police Statiqn, a small boy ie-rked the trolley-pole from the wire. A line of cars immediately became blocked there. A pile of material that was being used lor building happened to be almost opposite the cars. A rowdy company in the crowd took theft position there, and kept up a regular bombardment on the cars. Most of the crowd was not taking part, it had come there to look on. Almost ai this moment three electric patrols filled with police rolled up. The crowd was at the moment scrambling into a wagon belonging to an electric company which happened to be near. They obtained a rupply of incandescent lamp globes fiom this wagon, and atarted a bombardment with these. Whenever a lamp broke it- exploded with the report of a pistol. Explosion after explo»ion, here, there, everywhere, gave some of the crowd the idea that the track was being dynamited. There was a wild rush. Workmen were still bombarding -the cars from the roofs around. After a fight of an hour tho polico drove bark the rioters, and battered, scratched, with scarcely a whole window-pane in tho whole line of them, ihe long series of earn trailed off to the terminus. Within four days 750 cars were demolished. The reckoning came later. Ellwood Carr, said to have been a ringleader in one riot, was sentenced on the fifth day of the strike to six years in the county gaol. John Elme — who could scarcely understand English — got two year*. Boyß were sent off to the reformatory for anything from two to thirteen months. By the sixth divy a fair portion of the ear* were running, nnd the streets were comparatively quiet.