The Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911 was a labor action in the United States of a number of railroad workers unions against the Illinois Central Railroad, beginning on September 30, 1911. The strike was marked by its violence in numerous locations. At least 12 men were killed in shootings across the country, and in March 1912, some 30 men were killed when a locomotive boiler exploded in San Antonio, Texas. The strike was judged a failure within months, long before its formal ending on June 28, 1915. The railroads hired strikebreakers, often from African-American and immigrant minorities, which added to the social and economic tensions associated with the strikes. Causes The Illinois Central and the eight affiliated Harriman lines had recognized and successfully negotiated with individual shopcraft unions for some time. But in June 1911, these unions sought additional leverage by negotiating together as the "System Federation". The railroad simply refused and replaced the strikers. The first day of the strike was relatively peaceful, with a reported 30,000 strikers walking out at 10:00 a.m. in at least 24 cities. Most were in the South and Midwest in the main areas served by the railroad, but men struck as far west as Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. Conflict Because of its geography, the state of Mississippi was dependent on Illinois Central lines. Violence flared there first, on October 3. When a train carrying strikebreakers pulled in to McComb, Mississippi, a railroad center, it was met by an armed and waiting crowd of 100 strikers. The crowd and passengers exchanged gunfire and thrown bricks, then the badly shot-up train fled. Reports of high casualties were not accurate. A striker named Hugh Montgomery was reported as killed by a brick, but he was documented as later testifying for an investigating committee, and nobody on the train was killed. But as many persons were wounded by the hundreds of shots exchanged in the space of 20 minutes, the incident was serious enough for Governor Edmond Noel to call out the state guard. Also on October 3, a striking switchman named Robert Mitchell was killed by a strikebreaker in Cairo, Illinois. In Denison, Texas an angry mob chased 35 strikebreakers out of town. The same day, a "special guard" named J.J. Pipes was killed at the Southern Pacific yards in Houston, perhaps from the friendly fire of other strikebreakers, and