“Lines Written in Honor of the Street Car Strikers”

Columbus, Ohio, 1890. 7 x 11 inches. Folded with tears at folds, piece missing from center bottom, not intersecting with text. Overall good.. A handbill with a poem written by J.B. O’Reilly celebrating the victory of striking streetcar workers in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. On June 3, workers formed a union and commenced a strike, demanding shorter hours and higher wages. They successfully negotiated for both of these demands, bringing their workdays down from sixteen hours to a mere twelve.[1] O’Reilly writes:

“While God in His nature / Has designed it for us all, / That the birds in the bushes / Can be fed one and all; / But man as a demon / Should crumble to dust, / Who’s a defrauder of wages / Or deprive the poor of a crust.”

We find no other copies in OCLC. Of interest to scholars of labor history, especially the role of art therein.

[1] Streetcar Strike of 1890, COFMDruganSlides_007, Central Ohio Fire Museum, Columbus Library, Columbus, OH. https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/cofm/id/109/.