Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike

AFTER a six weeks' struggle, one of the most important railroad strikes inaugurated since 1876 in this country has practically ended. The engineers and firemen of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy system (which reaches out through eight States, from Chicago to the Rocky Mountains, over 5500 miles of track, and touches 1500 cities, towns, and villages) left their engines, at the command of Chief ARTHUR of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and refused to return to work unless certain demands were acceded to, among the most reasonable of which was an increase of pay. The railroad officials were willing to pay larger salaries on the main line than on the branches, but this did not satisfy the strikers, and some 15,000 men put on their coats on the 25th of February, and for six weeks did everything in their power to cripple the corporations for which they had previously worked. Harper’s Weekly April 21, 1888.