Among those indicted was the president
of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron
Workers. Most of the defendants were sentenced to various terms
in the penitentiary.
The records of this industrial warfare are replete with lesser
battles where thuggery joined hands with desperation in the
struggle for wages. Evidence is not wanting that local leaders
have frequently incited their men to commit acts of violence in
order to impress the public with their earnestness. It is not an
inviting picture, this matching of the sullen violence of the mob
against the sullen vigilance of the corporation. Yet such methods
have not always been used, for the union has done much to
systematize this guerrilla warfare. It has matched the ingenuity
and the resolution of the employer, backed by his detectives and
professional strike-breakers; it has perfected its organization
so that the blow of a whistle or the mere uplifting of a hand can
silence a great mill. Some of the notable strikes have been
managed with rare skill and diplomacy. Some careful observers,
indeed, are inclined to the opinion that the amount of violence
that takes place in the average strike has been grossly
exaggerated. They maintain that, considering the great number of
strikes, the earnestness with which they are fought, the
opportunity they offer to the lawless, and the vast range of
territory they cover, the amount of damage to property and person
is unusually small and that the public, through sensational
newspaper reports of one or two acts of violence, is led to an
exaggerated opinion of its prevalence.
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