The railway strike is fizzling out. The latest telegrams allow
that the trains to and from Chicago and in the rest of the area of Anarchy are being moved more freely. Long trains of cars loaded with dead meat have started from the stockyards for New York, for shipment to Liverpool, and the stockyard labourers are asking for reinstatement. The trains are, however, "all preceded and surrounded by mounted and foot soldiers." Riotous assemblies have since Wednesday been dispersed, and meetings have been resolutely suppressed. It was feared that Sacramento, in California, would have been the scene of a pitched battle, a large body of strikers having entrenched themselves there ; but on the ap- pearance of the Federal troops with Gatling-guns and artillery, the rioters gave way. In a word, the dark-blue uniforms have as usual acted like a charm, and resistance has melted away before them. As usual, too, the remedy of Federal force has not been employed till too late,—that is, till after a week of virtual Anarchy. One of the worst features of the whole business has been the resistance to Federal intervention in the interests of law and order, offered by the Governor of Illinois, Mr. Altgeld. He abetted at first the Mayor of Chicago, who did his best to stop the use of Federal troops, telegraphed protests to Washington, invoked the d)ctrine of State rights, and instead of co-operating with the President, wrangled over constitutional subtleties. The Governor of Oregon took a similar line, and talked about Charles I. losing his bead for illegal acts. Mr. Altgeld is stated to have Anarchist sympathies. It will be remembered that he amnestied the Anarchists who had received life-sentences in connection with the former Chicago Riots,—those in which several policemen were killed by dynamite bombs.
