J u m p t o c o n t e n t
M a i n m e n u
M a i n m e n u
N a v i g a t i o n
● M a i n p a g e
● C o n t e n t s
● C u r r e n t e v e n t s
● R a n d o m a r t i c l e
● A b o u t W i k i p e d i a
● C o n t a c t u s
● D o n a t e
C o n t r i b u t e
● H e l p
● L e a r n t o e d i t
● C o m m u n i t y p o r t a l
● R e c e n t c h a n g e s
● U p l o a d f i l e
S e a r c h
Search
A p p e a r a n c e
● C r e a t e a c c o u n t
● L o g i n
P e r s o n a l t o o l s
● C r e a t e a c c o u n t
● L o g i n
P a g e s f o r l o g g e d o u t e d i t o r s l e a r n m o r e
● C o n t r i b u t i o n s
● T a l k
( T o p )
1
T a c t i c s
2
E x a m p l e s
3
F i c t i o n
4
R e f e r e n c e s
5
A r c h i v e s
T o g g l e t h e t a b l e o f c o n t e n t s
S t r e e t c a r s t r i k e s i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
A d d l a n g u a g e s
A d d l i n k s
● A r t i c l e
● T a l k
E n g l i s h
● R e a d
● E d i t
● V i e w h i s t o r y
T o o l s
T o o l s
A c t i o n s
● R e a d
● E d i t
● V i e w h i s t o r y
G e n e r a l
● W h a t l i n k s h e r e
● R e l a t e d c h a n g e s
● U p l o a d f i l e
● S p e c i a l p a g e s
● P e r m a n e n t l i n k
● P a g e i n f o r m a t i o n
● C i t e t h i s p a g e
● G e t s h o r t e n e d U R L
● D o w n l o a d Q R c o d e
● W i k i d a t a i t e m
P r i n t / e x p o r t
● D o w n l o a d a s P D F
● P r i n t a b l e v e r s i o n
I n o t h e r p r o j e c t s
● W i k i m e d i a C o m m o n s
A p p e a r a n c e
F r o m W i k i p e d i a , t h e f r e e e n c y c l o p e d i a
Streetcar strikes in the United States
Boys in
Cleveland ,
Ohio with track obstruction, year unknown; Cleveland's streetcar system had eight strikes in its history.
[1]
Date 1895–1929 Location
United States
Methods Strikes , protest , demonstrations
From 1895 to 1929, streetcar strikes affected almost every major city in the United States . Sometimes lasting only a few days, these strikes were often "marked by almost continuous and often spectacular violent conflict,"[2] at times amounting to prolonged riots and weeks of civil insurrection .
Following the 1929 New Orleans streetcar strike , less violent strikes persisted for decades, such as the Atlanta transit strike of 1950 . The rise of private automobile ownership limited its impact.[3]
Tactics
[ edit ]
Electrified streetcars posed an attractive target for striking unions like the Amalgamated Street Railway Employees of America . Unlike factory buildings, streetcar routes and cars were spread out and difficult to protect. The routes went through the working class neighborhoods of cities; riders tended to be sympathetic to union causes. Their overhead lines and physical tracks were vulnerable to sabotage. And their function as transportation for workers in other industries opened the possibility of leveraging a transit strike into a general strike , as in the Philadelphia trolley strike and riots of 1910 .
Streetcar strikes rank among the deadliest armed conflicts in American labor union history. Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor called the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900 "the fiercest struggle ever waged by the organized toilers"[4] up to that point, with a total casualty count of 14 dead and about 200 wounded, more than the Pullman Strike of 1894. The casualty count for the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907 saw 30 killed and about 1000 injured.[2]
Despite the transit disruption, which sometimes lasted for months, and despite the fact that many of the casualties were passengers and innocent bystanders, "the strikers invariably enjoyed wide public support, which extended beyond the working class."[2]
The owners' tactic was simply to keep the routes running. To counter hostile crowds, the line owners turned to strikebreakers . Foremost among them was James A. Farley (1874-1913), who specialized in streetcar strikes—he claimed to have broken 50—and was said to command an army of forty thousand scabs [5] to be deployed anywhere in the country. Much of the violence of the 1907 San Francisco strike was attributable to Farley, who reportedly cleared $1 million there. He was doing more than $10 million in business by 1914.[6]
Examples
[ edit ]
National Guard soldiers guarding a Kansas City streetcar during a 1918 motorman and conductor strike
Examples of American streetcar strikes include:
1889, Twin Cities, Minnesota
1891, Detroit, Michigan , where strikers had the vocal support of Mayor Hazen S. Pingree , part of his administration's long successful struggle against local traction companies[7]
1892 Indianapolis streetcar strike
1895, Brooklyn , New York City , the first in which Farley was involved
1896, Milwaukee [8]
1899, Cleveland, Ohio
1900, St. Louis , where the dynamiting of streetcars was a "nightly occurrence" [9]
1903, Los Angeles
1907, San Francisco, California , with 31 killed and an estimated 1000 people injured
1908, Pensacola, Florida
1910, Columbus, Ohio
1913, Buffalo, where two regiments of the National Guard were called out to quell a full day of rioting and mob violence, with several wounded by gunfire, and widespread property damage [10] [11]
Striking workers during the San Francisco streetcar strike in 1907 fell tree to obstruct the tracks.
1913, Indianapolis
1916, Atlanta
1916, Portland, Maine
1916-17, Springfield, Missouri
1917, Twin Cities, Minnesota
1917, Bloomington, Illinois
1917, the San Francisco United Railroads strike
1917, Seattle and Tacoma streetcar employees
1919, Los Angeles
1919, Charlotte, North Carolina [12]
1920, Denver, Colorado , which left 7 dead and 80 wounded
1929, New Orleans, Louisiana
1934, Milwaukee [13]
1944, Philadelphia
Fiction
[ edit ]
Scenes of streetcar strikes, and the friction between owners and workers, appear in contemporary fiction such as Theodore Dreiser 's Sister Carrie of 1900 (based on Dreiser's own experience in a Toledo, Ohio strike), and William Dean Howells ' A Hazard of New Fortunes of 1890.
References
[ edit ]
^ Norwood, Stephen H. Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-century America . p. 69.
^ Motorman and Conductor , June 1900
^ Leslie's Monthly Magazine, Volume 60, May 1905, page 106
^ The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, Immanuel Ness, page 56
^ Robert B., Ross; George B., Catlin (1898). LANDMARKS OF DETROIT A HISTORY OF THE CITY . pp. 547–553. Retrieved October 29, 2018 .
^ John Gurda , The Making of Milwaukee , 198
^ St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 21 June 1900
^ "Troops Out to End Riots in Buffalo" (PDF) . New York Times . April 9, 1913. Retrieved April 19, 2016 .
^ "Woman and Boy Shot in Car Riot" (PDF) . New York Times . April 10, 1913. Retrieved April 19, 2016 .
^ "Street Car Strike in Charlotte" . The Charlotte–Mecklenburg Story . Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. 2017. Archived from the original on April 25, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2017 .
^ Joseph Canfield, Bulletin 112 of the Central Electric Railfans Association (1972), 32-33
Archives
[ edit ]
t
e
19th century
Great Railroad Strike , 1877
Rock Springs massacre , 1885
Bay View massacre , 1886
Haymarket affair , 1886
Thibodaux massacre , 1887
Morewood massacre , 1891
Cotton pickers' strike of 1891
Homestead Strike , 1892
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892
Pullman Strike , 1894
Streetcar strikes in the United States , 1895–1929
Lattimer massacre , 1897
Illinois coal wars , 1898–1899
20th century
Streetcar strikes in the United States , 1895–1929
Colorado Labor Wars , 1903–1904
1905 Chicago teamsters' strike
1907 San Francisco streetcar strike
Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909
Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911
Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912
1913 Ipswich Mills strike
Colorado Coalfield War , including the Ludlow Massacre , 1913–1914
Copper Country strike of 1913–1914
Everett massacre , 1916
1920 Alabama coal strike
Battle of Matewan , 1920
Battle of Blair Mountain , 1921
Herrin massacre , 1922
Hanapepe massacre , 1924
Columbine Mine massacre , 1927
Harlan County War , 1931–1932
West Coast waterfront strike , 1934
Gulf Coast longshoremen's strike , 1935
Memorial Day massacre , 1937
Hilo massacre , 1938
Related articles
Portal:Organized Labour
R e t r i e v e d f r o m " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Streetcar_strikes_in_the_United_States&oldid=1174534942 "
C a t e g o r i e s :
● S t r e e t c a r s t r i k e s i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
● U n i t e d S t a t e s s t r e e t c a r - r e l a t e d l i s t s
● R i o t s a n d c i v i l d i s o r d e r i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
● S t r i k e s i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
● L a b o r h i s t o r y o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
H i d d e n c a t e g o r i e s :
● U s e A m e r i c a n E n g l i s h f r o m M a r c h 2 0 2 3
● A l l W i k i p e d i a a r t i c l e s w r i t t e n i n A m e r i c a n E n g l i s h
● U s e m d y d a t e s f r o m M a r c h 2 0 2 3
● T h i s p a g e w a s l a s t e d i t e d o n 9 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 3 , a t 0 2 : 1 3 ( U T C ) .
● T e x t i s a v a i l a b l e u n d e r t h e C r e a t i v e C o m m o n s A t t r i b u t i o n - S h a r e A l i k e L i c e n s e 4 . 0 ;
a d d i t i o n a l t e r m s m a y a p p l y . B y u s i n g t h i s s i t e , y o u a g r e e t o t h e T e r m s o f U s e a n d P r i v a c y P o l i c y . W i k i p e d i a ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e W i k i m e d i a F o u n d a t i o n , I n c . , a n o n - p r o f i t o r g a n i z a t i o n .
● P r i v a c y p o l i c y
● A b o u t W i k i p e d i a
● D i s c l a i m e r s
● C o n t a c t W i k i p e d i a
● C o d e o f C o n d u c t
● D e v e l o p e r s
● S t a t i s t i c s
● C o o k i e s t a t e m e n t
● M o b i l e v i e w