Scranton general strike

The Scranton general strike was a widespread work stoppage in 1877 by workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which took place as part of the Great Railroad Strike, and was the last in a number of violent outbreaks across Pennsylvania. The strike began on July 23 when railroad workers walked off the job in protest of recent wage cuts, and within three days it grew to include perhaps thousands of workers from a variety of industries.

Many had returned to work when violence erupted on August 1 after a mob attacked the town's mayor, and then clashed with local militia, leaving four dead and many more wounded. State and federal troops were called to the town, and imposed martial law. Minor acts of violence continued until the last of the strikers returned to work on October 17, having won no concessions. More than a score of those involved in the shooting were arrested for murder, and later tried and found not-guilty of the crime of manslaughter. Two were tried and one convicted in libel suits related to published criticism of the militia. The militia would go on to be reformed into a battalion of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

Opinions differ on the root causes of the strike and ensuing violence.

The Long Depression, sparked in the US by the Panic of 1873, had far reaching implications for US industry, shuttering more than a hundred railroads in the first year and cutting construction of new rail lines from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to 1,600 miles in 1875. Approximately 18,000 businesses failed between 1873, and in 1875, production in iron and steel alone dropped as much as 45%, and a million or more lost their jobs. In 1876 alone, 76 railroad companies went bankrupt or entered receivership.

The resulting public dissatisfaction erupted July 14, 1877 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and spread to Maryland, New York, Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Violence broke out in Pittsburgh, and between July 21 and 22, 40 were killed and more than 1,000 rail cars and 100 engines were destroyed. Another 16 were killed in an uprising in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and strikers set fire to much of central Philadelphia in disturbances there.

In 1874 mine owners reduced workers' wages by ten percent. Efforts to rouse a strike in response were fruitless. The next two years saw the mines run on two-thirds time, and another wage reduction of fifteen percent was made in 1876. Again, efforts to organize a strike were ineffective.

By the summer of 1877 tensions were high as news spread of the violence in industrial centers across Pennsylvania and the nation. Making matters worse, the local mining companies had again reduced wages, and railroad and industry owners imposed similar cuts for rail and manufacturing workers. As one observer stated "the great trouble here in Scranton is our population, an excess of miners for the work to be done."

On July 23, the workers of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in Scranton proposed that their wages be restored to that prior to the recently imposed 10% reduction. On July 24 at 12:00 P.M., 1,000 employees of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, unaffiliated with the railroad, peacefully walked out due to their own wage reduction. The railroad workers struck at 6:00 P.M. that same day.