In what became known as the Bay View Massacre, Wisconsin’s governor had sent militia into the streets of Milwaukee against the advice of local officials during the eight-hour strikes. A Polish militia unit fired on largely Polish crowds, who had escaped the control of the Knights and the Central Labor Union in that city. The militia killed five people, including a child on his way to school and an old man standing in his garden. Authorities reacted by rounding up anarchists, socialists, and the entire district executive board of the Knights of Labor.
