Thereafter, the strike rapidly collapsed, although martial law had to be proclaimed and, before quiet was restored, some sharp conflicts still took place between federal troops and mobs at Sacramento and other points in California.

On the 3rd of August, the American Railway Union acknowledged its defeat and called off the strike.

Meanwhile, Debs and other leaders had been under arrest for disobedience to injunctions issued by the federal courts.
Eventually, Debs was sentenced to jail for six months,* and the others for three months.

The cases were the occasion of much litigation in which the authority of the courts to intervene in labor disputes by issuing injunctions was on the whole sustained.

The failure and collapse of the American Railway Union appears to have ended the career of Debs as a labor organizer, but he has since been active and prominent as a Socialist party leader.
* Under Section IV of the Anti-Trust Law of 1890.
Public approval of the energy and decision which President Cleveland displayed in handling the situation was so strong and general that it momentarily quelled the factional spirit in Congress.