Pullman Strike

“ Mr. Pullman: "I don't see why we should take the money from the stockholders to pay a set of men higher wages because the manufacturing business paid well, to pay this money to men working at Pullman when the employes at Ludlow, Wilmington and St. Louis had no complaint to make. The efforts of the American Railway Union to call a strike there was a failure."
[Pg 268] Mr. Worthington: "Has the Pullman Company ever voluntarily raised wages?"
Mr. Pullman: "No; but it always has paid fair wages." ”

“ The hope of the skilled striker is in that the scabs are less skilled, or less capable of becoming skilled; yet each strike attests to the efficiency that lurks beneath. After the Pullman strike, a few thousand railroad men were chagrined to find the work they had flung down taken up by men as good as themselves. ”

“ Labor must stand by labor. The corporations have now forced a fight upon us by combining to help the Pullman company; they have forced us to combine and use the only weapon which the workingman possesses, the strike and the boycott. The railroads have never done anything for labor that the latter should hesitate to use these weapons. ”

“ As a prominent railroad man said when asked about the strike situation: "It is my opinion that the railroads will drop the fight just as soon as the American Railway Union can demonstrate the fact that Pullman cars can not be hauled without a long and expensive fight with their own employes. I know that this view of the case was taken by some of the managers at a meeting to-day, and Mr. Pullman will be notified that he must make a settlement with his men at once, otherwise the effected roads will drop his cars and resume business." ”

“ Several times Mr. Eagan telephoned that trouble was occurring at some point. When officers would investigate they would find no trouble at all. There are 2,100 miles of railway in the city limits; there are 1,360 trains daily, 160 railroad crossings, and 3,000 surface railroad crossings. The police force for this year is scheduled at 1,928 patrolmen. There are 186 square miles of territory in the city and you can readily see that every point could not be covered at once. The amount of violence was not very great. In Pullman not one pane of glass was broken in the three months of the strike. ”

“ The industrial claim is so difficult; the ties are so intangible that we are constantly ignoring them and shirking the duties which they impose. It will probably be easier to treat of the tragedy of the Pullman strike as if it were already long past when we compare it to the family tragedy of Lear which has already become historic to our minds and which we discuss without personal feeling. ”

“ In the early days of the Pullman strike, as I was coming down in the elevator of the Auditorium hotel from one of the futile meetings of the Arbitration Committee, I met an acquaintance, who angrily said "that the strikers ought all to be shot." ”

“ In response to a piteous appeal for help from a committee of Pullman strikers, John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois, came in person to the town of Pullman and made an investigation of the condition of the people in order to satisfy himself regarding their complaints of suffering and destitution. After only a partial investigation the governor returned to his hotel satisfied with the correctness of the reports.
He said the starvation at Pullman was as bad if not worse than had been reported by the Times that 1,600 families in Pullman and vicinity were starving. ”

“ Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, Michigan, and Erskine M. Phelps conferred with Mr. Wickes, and Mrs. Brown and Runnell of the Pullman Company at the request of some fifty mayors, representing about one-third of the population of the United States—and urged arbitration as a means of settling the strike. The efforts of these gentlemen were in vain. The imperious Pullman company through its representative, though not saying so in as many words, intimated that the company would not establish a precedent whereby workmen could interfere in its business. ”

“ The Chicago Great Western, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago and Northern Pacific and Wisconsin Central were next to fall in line and refuse to handle Pullman cars.
President Debs, after reviewing the situation, asked the men as individuals to consider the problem involved, saying, that if the Pullman Company was right, then the strikers must be wrong, but if you feel assured that those men are only striking to gain that which is every man's right—living wages, then we ask your moral support. There is but one hope for the laborer. ”

“ It will thus be seen that the railway companies virtually joined forces with the Pullman company, went into partnership with them so to speak, to reduce and defeat their half starved employes. In this way the trouble was extended from line to [Pg 75] line, and from system to system until a crisis has been reached. The business of the country is demoralized to an extent that defies exaggeration.
"To say that the situation is alarming is entirely within the bounds of prudent statement. Every good citizen must view the outlook with grave concern. ”

“ By your acts, insofar as you have supplanted civil and state authorities with the federal military power, the spirit of unrest and distrust has so far been augmented that a deep seated conviction is fast becoming prevalent that this government is soon to become a military despotism. The transmission of the United States mails is not interrupted by the striking employes of any railway company, but by the railway companies themselves, who refused to haul the mail on trains to which Pullman cars were not attached. ”

“ Some days ago I was advised that the business of one of our railroads was obstructed at two railroad centers, that there was a condition bordering on anarchy there—and I was asked to furnish protection so as to enable the employees of the road to operate the trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both points. Then it transpired that the company had not sufficient men on its line to operate one train. All the old hands [Pg 61] were orderly but refused to go. The company had large shops in which worked a number of men who did not belong to the railway union and who could run an engine. ”

“ They agree to return to work in a body at once, provided they shall be restored to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases, if any there be, where they have been convicted of crime. This proposition looking to an immediate settlement of the existing strike on all lines of railway is inspired by a purpose to subserve public good. ”

“ In the spring of 1893, just before the opening of the World's Fair, the general managers of the various roads centering in Chicago, were very apprehensive lest there should be a general strike among all classes of railroad employes for an increase of wages. The officers of the organizations appealed to the men not to strike, arguing that it was their patriotic duty to bear with patience their grievances until the fair was over. ”

“ Labor, in unifying its forces, simply follows their example. [Pg 78] The corporations established a precedent. If the proceeding is vicious and indefensible let them first abolish it.
"In this contest labor will stand by labor. Other organizations of workingmen have themselves felt the oppressive hand of corporate capital. They will not be called out, but will go out. And the spectacle of Mr. Pullman, fanned by the breezes of the seashore while his employes are starving, is not calculated to prevent their fellow wageworkers from going to their rescue by their only means at their command. ”

“ Wickes said that neither the Pullman company or the railway manager's association created the situation of to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then, some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this, you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be conducted. ”

“ The result was that the troops were there over twelve hours before a single train was moved although there was no attempt at interference by anyone. It is true that in several instances a road made an effort to work a few green men and a crowd [Pg 62] standing around insulted them and tried to drive them away, and in a few other instances they cut off Pullman sleepers from trains. But all these troubles were local in character and could easily be handled by the state authorities. Illinois has more railroad men than any state in the Union, but as a rule they are orderly and well behaved. ”

“ Thus the Pullman boycott, sympathetic in its incipience, swiftly became a gigantic trial of issues between the associated railroad corporations and the union.
For a week law and order were preserved. On July 2d the Federal Court in Chicago issued an injunction forbidding A. R. U. men, among other things, to “induce” employees to strike. Next day federal troops appeared upon the scene. Thereupon, in contempt of the injunction, railroad laborers continued by fair means and foul to be persuaded from their work. ”

“ Debs: "It depends on circumstances. I believe with Admiral Porter, that a pin is worth fighting for if a principle is involved. To resist degradation is justifiable no matter what the result. If there were no resistance, things would be, if possible, worse than they are and without resistance degradation is inevitable. If the railroads treated their men fairly there would be no labor organizations. Every organization of railroad men is traceable to oppression. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers was born of the tyranny of the Michigan Central road. ”

“ This strike has proven beyond doubt that the protective features in railroad organizations, and other organizations as well, is a dead letter as long as the federal courts are controlled by capital. [Pg 317] Unless this is remedied, all labor organizations might just as well send in their charters and cease to exist.
I cannot believe that the American people will allow this state of affairs to continue. There are many men in public life to-day whose motives are pure and unselfish. Such men as Governors Altgeld, Waite, Penoyer ”

“ I have seen men faint by [Pg 208] the side of cars on which they were working because they had not had enough to eat. After the cuts, while working as hard as I could to earn enough to support my family, I have been obliged to sit down in the middle of the forenoon to rest because I had not had enough food to enable me to do such hard work and there were hundreds worse off than I. If rents had been reduced I believe there would have been no strike. We wanted to submit the question of rent and wages to a board of arbitration, we to choose one, the Pullman company one, and the two a third. ”

“ Paul and Minneapolis and employes from three hundred to [Pg 44] five hundred men according to the volume of business. This is a freight yard exclusively, and therefore had nothing to do with the handling of Pullman equipment. But this little technicality did not prevent this body of men from coming to the assistance of their brothers, and as each road was brought under the ban of the boycott they refused to handle cars or in any way assist them to operate their line. ”

“ The speeches at all these meetings were against violence and in favor of observing the law as the only means of winning the strike.
B. H. Atwell, a reporter for the Daily News, was the next witness. He testified that he was at Blue Island during the trouble. He said the deputy marshalls had drawn revolvers without any reason. Most of the men who made trouble there were not railroad men. Railroad officials had said to him that the strikers were not making the trouble. At the stock yards also, such [Pg 254] violence as was done was not by railroad strikers but by toughs. ”

“ More than a thousand families in the neighborhood of 6,000 people, are utterly destitute. Nearly four-fifths of them are women and children. The men have endeavored to get work but were unable to do so. I have made a personal examination of the case and learn from the officials of the Pullman company that prior to the strike they had 3,260 names on the pay roll; yesterday they had 2,220 people at work, but [Pg 298] over 600 of these were new men, so that they have only about 1,600 of their old employes at work, leaving about 1,660 that have not been taken back. ”

“ Excitement invited the presence of the tough and lawless element, which was exactly what the railroad magnates were striving for, as the strikers had no intention of interfering with their trains, and they knew that it was necessary to incite rioting in order to have an excuse for not operating their roads.
Their devilish schemes succeeded only too well. A mob composed of the tough and hoodlum element congregated at the Rock Island yards and from Nineteenth to Fortieth Street, overturned box cars and destroyed everything that came in their way. ”

“ The state troops fired and killed one man, two others dying afterward. There was no trouble after that, so far as I know."
Mayor Hopkins then read a number of communications from railway officials expressing satisfaction in regard to the perfect protection afforded by the police during the strike. Among these were letters from President Marvin Hughitt of the Northwestern, General Superintendent Sullivan of the Illinois Central, President Thomas of the Chicago & Western Indiana, and others. ”

“ Thirteen Pan Handle switchmen brought to Chicago from Pittsburg through misrepresentation, when informed of the true state of affairs, refused to go to work, and demanded transportation back to Pittsburg. They were given orders for the necessary transportation, but on presentation the companies refused to honor them. This was also true in the case of half a dozen men brought in by the Ft. Wayne road.
The scabs on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, through ignorance and incompetency burned up five engines and wrecked as many more. ”