ABSTRACT
When almost all of Boston’s police officers went on strike in September 1919, they did so for reasons similar to those that motivated other workers before and since to do the same, but with unique consequences for the history of American labor. Although the strikers were concerned with wages, hours, and working conditions, it was immediately and ominously clear that this event would be like no other job action. As the policemen walked off the job they were attacked by a crowd of more than 1,000 volunteer substitute policemen, and for the following three days many denizens of the city engaged in a variety of criminal acts, including assaults, public gambling (with attendant thefts and violence), robbery, and destruction of property. Parts of the city were frighteningly lawless. Rioters in South Boston stoned a group of reserve park police, chanting “Kill them all!” On the second day of the strike, mounted troopers confronted a crowd of around 15,000. The next day’s Boston Herald reported: “All Day Fight With Mob in Scollay Square—Cavalry Useless. … From 7 last night almost complete anarchy reigned … until early in the morning.” State guards finally intervened, firing point-blank into the crowds, killing nine and wounding twenty-three others. Hundreds more were injured during the strike. Property damage was estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Herald explained that the rioting was “suppressed by the rigorous rule of 7,000 patrolling soldiers, their authority backed by loaded rifles, fixed bayonets, [and] mounted machine guns.” Ostensibly to prevent further violence or even a general strike, Governor Calvin Coolidge called out the rest of the state guard and told the federal secretaries of war and navy to be prepared to send troops. With peace finally restored, all 1,147 strikers were fired.
