Reconstruction, Expansion, and the Triumph of Industrial Capitalism 41so too did the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 that followed. The
Great Southwest Railroad Strike began when a K of L member in Marshall,
Texas was fired from his job for attending a union meeting during working
hours. After he was fired in March 1886, the Knights called a strike against
the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads owned by industrialist Jay
Gould. The strike involved more than 200,000 workers in Arkansas, Illinois,
Kansas, Missouri, and Texas who began to demand better wages, safer working
conditions, and an 8-hour workday. Gould responded by hiring men to
replace the strikers. Pinkerton agents [detectives and thugs hired by the
bosses, see below] infiltrated the union. Gould demanded military interven-
tion from governors of the states involved in the strike. Claims of union
violence were exaggerated to further discredit the workers. For instance,
railway executives told stories of mobs seizing control of trains and burning
rail yards. The governors of Missouri and Texas mobilized state militias, dem-
onstrating state support for the railroad Capitalists rather than the workers.
Energy behind the strike eventually weakened as thousands of workers
returned to their jobs on the railroads. The strike, which ended completely
by September 1886, proved to be a major defeat for the K of L and damaged
the strength of the union.
Congress helped to diminish to power of the K of L even more with a
report that stressed the alleged violence and disorder caused by the strikers
rather than the poor wages and working conditions that prompted 200,000
people to strike in the first place. The House of Representatives committee
that investigated the Great Southwest Railroad Strike condemned strike
leader Martin Irons as a “dangerous if not poisonous man.” The House report
also emphasized the necessity of protecting communities from damage caused
by allegedly unruly and vicious strikers. So, with condemnation from the
railroad owners and Congress, the K of L faced its first major defeat. Any
momentum gained from the Strikes of 1877 for the K of L diminished after
the Great Southwest Railroad Strike, and what was left disappeared com-
pletely after the Haymarket riot in May 1886.
The Capitalists Strike Back
What influence that was left in the K of L disappeared completely in May
1886, the year of The Great Upheaval. With the national 8-hour movement
taking shape—“Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest; Eight hours for