7
The strike of 1894 was as memorable a one as this country
has had. As it on, the engines were idle and no
one to make the regular runs. The master mechanic took it
upon himself to convert Dad into a strikebraker. He
ordered Dad to take an engine out on a run. The crew was
on strike and Dad and the master mechanic knew that the
strikers hated and despised strikebreakers. The master
mechanic may also have suspected where Dad's sympathies
lay.
"All right,” Dad said, "I'll take her out, on one condition:
that you fire the engine. You're asking me to be a
strikebreaker and that's all right if you'll fire the engine
and be one too. Then they can shoot at both of us."
As Dad knew, the master mechanic was not about to risk
his own life and limb. He backed down and, instead,
reported to the company that Dad had refused to take orders.
Fired for sympathizing with the strikers, Dad afterward
joined the Machinists Union and became a stanch fighter
for workingman's rights through the rest of his active
Years.
Coincidentally, the strike of 1894 changed the other man
who has influenced me most, Clarence Darrow, from a
corporation lawyer to a defender of unions and labor leaders.
Darrow was general attorney for the Chicago and
Northwestern Railway Company and found himself in a
dilemma, feeling both a duty to the road and sympathy
with the union. At first the strike was quiet and orderly.
Nevertheless, the railroad telegraphed President Grover
Cleveland for Federal troops, which were sent, although