Kansas adjutant general Colonel A. B. Campbell writes to Kansas governor John Martin concerning striking railroad workers. The state militia had been called into service as a result of disruption of train service and alleged threats to public safety. Campbell explains that the "statements in the telegrams of the Mayor and Sheriff are not overdrawn. The sheriff was slapped in the face and spit upon. The mob undertook to drag Kimball from the engine and but for the timely arrival of the train of passengers and mail, there would have been a furious assault." Railroad strikers refused to allow freight trains to run following information received from Texas where several striking workers had not been rehired in that state, thus violating conditions of the strike. Federal and state law prohibited interruption of passenger and mail cars leaving freight cars vulnerable during the strike.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Colonel A. B. Campbell to Governor John Martin - 3