The Pittsburgh railroad strike of 1877 occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It was one of many incidents of strikes, labor unrest and violence in cities across the United States, including several in Pennsylvania. Other cities dealing with similar unrest included Philadelphia, Reading, Shamokin and Scranton. The incidents followed repeated reductions in wages and sometimes increases in workload by railroad companies, during a period of economic recession following the Panic of 1873.
Between July 21 and 22 in Pittsburgh, a major center of the Pennsylvania Railroad, an estimated 61 people (including women and children) were killed in the ensuing riots; strikers burned the Union Depot and 38 other buildings at the Pennsylvania Railroad yards. In addition, more than 120 locomotives and more than 1,200 rail cars were destroyed. Due to track damage, trains did not run for a week following the cessation of violence. Estimates of losses ranged from $2 to $5 million ($ to $ million in ), according to the railroad company and an 1878 report by a state legislative investigative committee. Pittsburgh was the site of the most violence and physical damage of any city in the country during the Great Strike. Fresh troops arrived in the city on July 28, and within two days peace had been restored and the trains resumed.
Commentators would later place blame for the incident on a range of actors, from the railroad, to reluctant or even sympathetic members of the police and militia, to tramps and vagrants who travelled to the city to take part of the growing public unrest. In the immediate aftermath, the events in Pittsburgh and elsewhere helped to solidify support for various labor groups, which had struggled during the years of the economic downturn.
A number of historical markers have since been erected at points throughout the city of Pittsburgh to commemorate events that took place during the strikes.
The Long Depression and the Great Strikes
+ Growth rates of industrial production (1850s–1913) 1850s–1873 1873–1890 1890–1913 Germany 4.3 2.9 4.1 United Kingdom 3.0 1.7 2.0 United States 6.2 4.7 5.3 France 1.7 1.3 2.5 Italy 0.9 3.0 Sweden 3.1 3.5 The Long Depression, sparked in the United States by the Panic of 1873, had far-reaching implications for US industry, closing more than a hundred railroads in the first year and cutting construction of new rail lines from of track in 1872, to in 1875.
Approximately 18,000 businesses failed nationwide between 1873 and 1875, production in iron and steel dropped as much as 45 percent, and a million or more lost their jobs. In 1876, 76 railroad companies went bankrupt or entered receivership in the US alone, and the economic impacts rippled through many economic sectors throughout the industrialized world.
During the summer of 1877, tensions erupted across the nation in what would become known as the Great Railroad Strike, or simply the Great Strikes. Work stoppage was followed by civil unrest across the nation. Violence began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and spread along the rail lines through Baltimore, and on to several major cities and transportation hubs of the time, including Reading, Scranton and Shamokin, Pennsylvania; a bloodless general strike in St. Louis, Missouri; and a short lived uprising in Chicago, Illinois.
What began as the peaceful actions of organized labor attracted the masses of working discontent and unemployed of the depression, along with others who took opportunistic advantage of the chaos. In total, an estimated 100,000 workers participated nationwide. State and federal troops followed the unrest as it spread along the rail lines from city to city.
Pittsburgh
In 1877, there was a prevailing feeling in Pittsburgh that the city was suffering from the unfair pricing of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad was blamed for costing the city its preeminence in oil refining, and privileging Philadelphia at their expense. Indeed, at this time it cost 20% more to ship freight to San Francisco from Pittsburgh, than from New York, and freight rates from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia were identical to that for the route from Oil City to Philadelphia.
On June 1, 1877, the Pennsylvania Railroad announced a wage reduction of 10% for all employees and officers making more than a dollar a day, and including a number of other railroads controlled by the company. This caused a small unsuccessful strike north of Pittsburgh in Allegheny, but was otherwise accepted without disturbance.
The company announced that on July 19, it would implement the practice of double heading (joining two trains' worth of cars into one train with two locomotives) for all trains moving through Pittsburgh. This would reduce the number of jobs that were available, require more work, and increase the likelihood of accidents.
The same day double heading was to go into effect, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh issued an order that, according to strikers, effectively doubled the mileage of what was considered a day's work, increasing it from to , without increasing the size of the crews. In total, the company would be able to discharge fully half of their workforce.
The Trainmen's Union was actively organizing on the news. Around the same time, the workers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which also had a significant presence in Pittsburgh, received a pay cut of their own.
July 19
On Thursday July 19, one crew, led by Conductor Ryan, sent word that they would not take out their train. The company called for replacements, and when 25 conductors and brakemen refused to act, they were immediately fired. Yet a third group attempted to take the train but were attacked by the strikers, who moved to the stock yards at East Liberty Street, and convinced the men there to join. Together, at 8:45am, they captured the main track, took control of the switches, and brought rail traffic to a halt.
David M Watt, acting on behalf of railroad superintendent Robert Pitcairn, who was away, requested assistance from Mayor William C. McCarthy, in clearing the tracks, dispersing the crowd, and resuming operation of the railroad. Due to financial problems, the city's force had been cut in half, and no troops were available as the day force had been entirely disbanded by the city council. The mayor however, allowed the dispatch of some of the previously discharged men so long as they were paid for at the railroad's expense. Between 10 and 17 men were provided.
Watt and his men made their way to the 28th Street crossing to restart traffic. He ordered one man to take control of a switch so that the train could be set on the correct track, and when he refused out of fear for his safety, Watt attempted to do so himself and was struck by one of the strikers, who was arrested over the protests of the crowd.
They then moved to the stock yards at Torrens Station, but at 1:00pm and again at 4:00pm they found yet more crowds of strikers preventing the movement of any trains.
After finding the mayor was now out of town in Castle Shannon, Watt and another from the railroad traveled to the residence of Allegheny County Sheriff R. C. Fife. Fife arrived on the scene at 28th Street and ordered the crowd to disperse. They refused, and, having limited means of his own with which to assemble any force to address the situation, Fife dispatched the following to Lieutenant Governor John Latta, and Governor John F. Hartranft:
A tumult, riot, and mob exist on the Pennsylvania Railroad at East Liberty and in the Twelfth Ward of Pittsburgh. Large assemblages of people are upon the railroad and the movement of freight trains either east or west is prevented by intimidation and violence, molesting and obstructing the engineers and other employés of the railroad company in the discharge of their duties. As the sheriff of the county, I have endeavored to suppress the riot, but have not the adequate means at my command to do so, and I therefore request you to exercise your authority in calling out the military to suppress the same.
By midnight, up to 1,400 strikers had gathered in the Pennsylvania Railroad rail yards, which were located on the flats southeast of the Allegheny River, stopping the movement of some 1,500 cars.
The lieutenant governor, through General Albert Pearson, ordered the 6th Division 18th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard from Philadelphia, to assemble to support the sheriff. According to the later testimony of a railroad official, Pearson commented that he believed he could have retaken the station with these available forces, but that it would have resulted in a great loss of life, and he was therefore reluctant to do so.
July 20
On the morning of Friday the 20th, a large crowd remained at the station near 28th Street, and grew as trains arrived and their crews joined them. The railroad made preparations to move their trains as soon as they might be allowed, and secured sufficient crews to man them, but the locomotives were blocked and could not be moved without injuring members of the crowd, who also maintained control of the switches. Sheriff Fife again commanded those gathered to disperse to no effect.
The men of the 18th and 14th Regiments, Sixth Division were ordered to the scene, where Sheriff Fife again addressed the gathering. He was mocked with jeers of "Bring us a loaf of bread," and "You're creating a riot yourself." Seeing this, General Pearson of the Sixth Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, made his own address. He assured the crowd, through their laughter and cheers, that he had been ordered by the governor to protect the trains from any molestation by the crowd, and ensure that they ran normally:
You that know me know that I will obey orders...I have troops who will obey my orders and I tell you, gentlemen, these trains must go through. My troops will have no blank ammunition, and I give you warning of this in time.
An additional garrison of 180 men of the Duquesne Grays arrived at three o'clock, but were soon joined by a trainload of nearly 1,000 additional strikers. Recognizing that the current force would be insufficient to control the gathering should violence erupt, Pearson sent word to state authorities. The same day, adjutant general and acting governor James W. Latta telegraphed Major General James Beaver:
Situation in Pittsburgh is becoming dangerous. Troops are in sympathy, in some instances, with the strikers. Can you rely on yours?
Workers of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railroads in Allegheny City, also struck and stopped the movement of freight along their lines.
Governor John Hartranft, en route to California at the time, was notified of the situation and turned back toward Pennsylvania. With freight movement stopped, the economy of the entire region was brought nearly to a standstill. Alexander Cassatt, vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had arrived in the city that morning and was given the demands of the strikers: no more double headers, pay reinstated to the rate prior to June, the rehiring of all those who had been laid off, and the abolishment of pay grades for the workers. The reply to his subordinate, Superintendent Pitcairn, was simply: "Have no further talk with them. They've asked for things we can't grant them at all."
July 21
Shooting
By the morning of Saturday the 21st, it had become clear that many of the Pittsburgh police and local militia had sided with the strikers and they refused to take action against them. Many of the troops ordered to muster at the rail yards never arrived. Some had relatives among the crowd, and many held sympathy for the workers. In the words of the militiamen: "We may be militiamen, but we are workmen first."