Primary tabs
ills
Pictures and Illustrations.
The Strikers' Relief Headquarters at Kensington.
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Dedication.
TO MY BELOVED FATHER-IN-LAW
REV. JOHN WILLIAMS
WHO WAS
FOR THIRTY YEARS IN HIS EARLY LIFE CONNECTED WITH THE
DAILY PRESS OF NEW YORK CITY, AND WHO DID
LOYAL SERVICE AT THE TIME IN AROUSING
PUBLIC SENTIMENT TO THE NEEDS OF
THE TOILING MASSES.
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Introduction.
This book is packed with facts. For these facts the author is not responsible. It is true, his soul was stirred, but cruel facts stirred the soul of even the Son of God. If sometimes the author's spirit flames with indignation, let it be remembered that it is against heartless tyranny, and in defense of long silent and outraged innocence.
He speaks with authority. He is a resident of Pullman, and is familiar with almost every face and fireside in the town. Like his Master, he has gone about doing good, among the rich and poor alike. He knows Pullman and his lieutenants. He knows Debs and his most trusted followers. He knows what both sides have done, when, and how, and why, and with what results. In a sense, therefore, he knows more about the whole conflict than either Debs or Pullman. Each knows his own side only. The author of this volume knows both sides.
The book is reliable. The author means to neither minify or magnify. He would be a mere photographer. Assuredly he has not fallen into the error of exaggeration. No student, lecturer, preacher or
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reformer need hesitate in using the statements herein made. They can all be verified again and again.With all my heart, I bid this book God-speed! May it be read in a million of homes, from the White House to the dug-out, and from the palaces of millionaires down to the hovels of the humble poor. May its plain, honest facts banish the flagrant misinformation with which the secular and even the religious press has been teeming for weeks, and may it be the mission of this book to stir the heart of this whole nation until the "white slaves" of industrial tyranny be emancipated and receive the treatment becoming the sons and daughters of the Most High.
John Merritte Driver.
Marion, Ind., July 30th, 1984.
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Chapter I. — Introductory.
The Pullman strike is the greatest and most far-reaching of any strike on record in this country. It is the most unique strike ever known. When we take into account the intelligence of the employees, always the boast of the Pullman Company; the widespread advertisement of the town as a "model town," established as a solution of the industrial problem upon the basis of "mutual recognition;" it is no wonder that the world was amazed, when, under such apparently favorable conditions, in the midst of a season of great financial depression, the employees laid down their tools, and, on the 11th of May, walked out of the great shops to face an unequal and apparently hopeless conflict.
After seven weeks of patient waiting, the American Railway Union, having espoused the cause of the Pullman employees, declares a boycott on the Pullman Palace Cars. This action is repulsed by the
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Railroad Managers' Association. The conflict is transferred at once to the arena of public commerce; organized labor and organized capital are pitted against each other; stagnation of all business interests results; the highways of trade are blocked; the great unoffending public is the innocent sufferer, riots ensue, the military are ordered out, the foundations of government are threatened; the strong arm of the law is put forth, the public demand for peace is heard, and the crisis reached.Now the public mind reverts to the original cause. What made these intelligent employees at Pullman strike? Were they rash and inconsiderate, or were they driven to their course by certain conditions over which they had no control, and which justified them in their action?
These and a hundred other questions are coming to me by every mail from all parts of our country. Ten days after the employees struck, I delivered a sermon from my pulpit, which created profound interest in Pullman and Chicago, and which has since been copied broadcast in newspapers all over the United States. Owing to this fact, I am accosted on all sides for information concerning the true condition of things in this model town.
For two years I have been the pastor of the Pullman M. E. Church, and closely related to the moral and social life of the town. During that time I have been a silent spectator of the life and character of
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the town. I have studied carefully and with much interest the Pullman system. I have had abundant opportunity to observe the town from the standpoint of a student of the industrial problem.I wish to be fair and impartial. I have seen many things to admire as well as many to condemn. My sympathies have gone out to the striking employees. Never did men have a cause more just — never did corporation with equal pretenses grind men more unmercifully. I contend that I have a right to publicly criticise a public man or a public institution, so long as I do not depart from the path of truth or make false imputations, willfully knowing them to be such. No one has deplored this strike more than myself. I wish that it might have been averted. But so long as the employees saw fit to take this action I believe that it is the duty of all concerned to look the issue squarely in the face, without equivocation or evasion, consider the matter in its true light, and endeavor to bring about a settlement of the difficulty as speedily as possible.
I make no apology as a clergyman for discussing this theme. As ministers of the gospel we have a right to occasionally turn from the beaten path of biblical truth and consider these great questions of social, moral and economic interest. He who denies the right of the clergy to discuss these matters of great public concern has either been brought up under a government totally foreign to the free atmosphere of
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American institutions, or else he has failed utterly to comprehend the spirit of the age in which he lives.Sometimes we preachers are told to mind our own business and "preach the gospel." All right; I have preached the gospel of Christ, and souls have been redeemed to a better life under the preaching of that gospel. I contend now that in the discussing of this theme I am preaching the gospel of applied Christianity — applied to humanity — the gospel of mutual recognition, of co-operation, of the "brotherhood of humanity." The relation existing between a man's body and his soul are such that you can make very little headway appealing to the soul of a thoroughly live and healthy man if he be starving for food. Christ not only preached to the multitude, but he gave them to eat. And I verily believe that if he came to Chicago to-day, as indicated by the erratic yet noble Stead, he would apply the whip of cords to the backs of some of us preachers for not performing our full share of duty to "his poor."
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor."
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Chapter II. — The Town of Pullman.
"The Pullman car solved the problem of long, continuous railway journeys, and the town of Pullman, along new lines, gives a hope of bettering the relations of capital and labor. The issue of this last is a question of the future, but it is at least a legitimate subject of speculation, whether what the car wrought in one direction, with all its attendant and lasting benefits to humanity, may not in some sort, on a broader scale, and with benefits to humanity even more far-reaching and enduring, be repeated in the great field where the town of Pullman now stands as the advance guard of a new departure and a new idea."
"In brief, the Pullman enterprise is a vast object-lesson. It has demonstrated man's capacity to improve and to appreciate improvements. It has shown that success may result from corporate action which is alike free from default, foreclosure or wreckage of any sort. It has illustrated the helpful combination of capital and labor, without strife or stultification, upon lines of mutual recognition."
The above is taken from a work entitled "The Story of Pullman," referred to in another place and written in the interest of Pullman. In view of the above, it may be well to say a few words concerning the town of Pullman itself. The story as told in
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1894 is a far different one. There is strife, mutual suspicion and discord. There are strikes, lockouts and the inevitable violence, riots, arson and murder resulting therefrom, which certainly indicates that there must be something wrong in Pullman. I believe that the town itself was established in the hope of bettering the condition of the laboring classes, but it has failed sadly of its original purpose. As seen from the railway by the passing tourist, it presents a beautiful picture. In fact it appears to be a veritable paradise. Beautiful trees and flowers, pretty fountains, glimpses here and there of artistic sweeps of landscape, gardens, rows of pretty little brick houses, church in the distance, public buildings of different description, all present a beautiful picture to the passing traveler.Mr. Pullman and his lieutenants love to show this beautiful picture to the world. Pullman, the town, is Mr. Pullman's idol, and in many respects he may well be proud of it, but there is another side to the town of Pullman. Like the stage, there is something behind the scenes, and that which is behind the scenes does not harmonize with the effect produced before the curtain. Let us take a short tour around the town. We will enter the Arcade. In this building is the post office, stores of different descriptions, the Opera House, offices of the town agent and his clerical force, and on the second story, library and rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association and
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Kindergarten. Also one or two rooms devoted to the use of churches, one room of which the Baptist church occupied up to within a few weeks ago, when under the active administration of the noble pastor, Rev. Fred Berry, they have succeeded in building a church on the outskirts of Pullman, in Roseland. Another room is rented by the Episcopal church.Note for a few moments the library. It is a gem. It is one of the most complete of its kind in the United States. It is small and cozy, but very convenient for those who have the privilege of using it. It was the gift of Mr. Pullman to his town. The library is presided over by Mrs. Charles B. Smith, librarian, a lady who is intimately related to Mr. Pullman, entirely in sympathy with all his ideas and one who is regarded with the highest estimation by the people of the entire town. As president of the Woman's Relief Society, she, together with other ladies, has endeared herself to the poor and the suffering in Pullman. The library rooms are luxurious and are regarded by all visitors as the handsomest in this country. It has 8,000 volumes, covering every practical department of knowledge. The whole number of books used in 1893 was 20,900. I note in an enumerated table, the number taken from each department, as printed in the Pullman Journal of last year. Of reference books there were used 5,479; of books for juveniles, 2,343; books of fiction, 3,161. History, 1,406; biography, 1,057; of science, 2,245;
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travels, 1,245, and of poetry 2,073. Judging from the last, it is evident that the artistic effect and influence of Pullman upon the inhabitants causes them to indulge in much poetry.While we admire the library and believe that it is doing good work, still it is not producing the practical results demanded of such an institution. The complaint of employees is that they are expected to pay 25 cents a month or three dollars a year for the use of books, and one dollar per year for every child. This is all right, but with the immense wealth of the Pullman Company they feel that they ought to have an absolutely free library and reading room. The reading room is an adjunct of the library, is very small, and very few of the men, comparatively speaking, use it. It is too luxurious for the average working man. It has a tendency to create a spirit of caste in the little town. I should much prefer something on the principle of the Public Library in Chicago or any other large city, and above all an institution similar to the Peter Cooper Institute of New York, where everything is plain but neat and clean and where everything is offered free, in the way of library, instruction, lectures, art school and scientific classes.
I believe such a building as this would accomplish great good, and I believe in connection with an institution of this character there ought to be a room where men may congregate and chat with each other,
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and where, for the benefit of young men, there should be games such as checkers, chess, etc. Many a young man here would be saved from the influence of the Kensington saloons. Pullman is a prohibition town, and this is a commendable feature, but lying on the outskirts of the town, within a few moments' walk of the Arcade, are to be found thirty or thirty-five saloons.Before we leave the Arcade we might call on Col. Doty, whose office is on the second story. Col. Duane Doty is the editor of the Pullman Journal and the historian and statistician of the Pullman Company. He has a profound admiration for the system upon which the town is based. He brings to bear his time and talents in the dissemination of literature complimentary to the Pullman Company; all friends visiting the town, sent by Mr. Pullman, are taken on their tour of inspection by Mr. Doty. Charming as a conversationalist and better acquainted with all the details of the business than any other man in the community, he invariably sends the visitor away with most delightful impressions of the town. "A town," in a word, "from which all that is ugly, discordant and demoralizing is eliminated, and which was built as a solution of the industrial problem based upon the idea of mutual recognition." Passing out of the Arcade building, we move east, along "Arcade Row," composed of a block of very pretty nine room cottages, at the extreme east end of which is the home of Mayor Hopkins. On our right is a beautiful
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little park, tastefully decorated with flowers and shrubbery; in the center of which is the band stand, where the Pullman band on summer evenings discourses sweet music, while in the distance can be seen the Florence Hotel, where, we are told by the Evening Post, "The aristocracy of Pullman hold forth." Standing on the corner of Arcade Row, looking east, is the "Green Stone Church," so named on account of the color of the stone out of which the structure is built. As a piece of ecclesiastical architecture it is perfection from the outside, but for practical church purposes it is useless, being composed of one large room, the auditorium, and three small rooms at the rear. It has no separate Sunday School room, parlors, class room or any of the modern conveniences now found in churches. A little story is told in regard to this church which is interesting. In the early history of the town the church stood idle because of the enormous rent. The Methodists, under the pastorate of F. W. Warne, now in India, waited on Mr. Pullman with the Rev. Dr. Luke Hitchcock and Bishop X. Ninde, to rent the church. Their object was to get the church at a less rental than was asked at that time, which was $300.00 a month. After presenting all their arguments, Mr. Pullman absolutely refused, and furthermore said that "when that church was built it was not intended so much for the moral and spiritual welfare of the people as it was for the completion of the artistic effect of the scene." When Mr. Pullman21
built the church, it was his idea that there should be one church in the town and that all should worship there, but that was impossible. The Roman Catholics received the right by a lease of ninety-nine years to build a church across the tracks on a large open prairie, the property of the Pullman Company. The Swedish Lutherans were permitted to do the same. The Green Stone Church was finally rented to the Presbyterians for $100.00 per month; water, steam, and gas extra. Next to the church and a part of it is a handsome parsonage, but no minister has ever been able to live in it, on account of the high rent of $65 per month. They have had a varied experience and are now without a settled pastor. It was in this church that the Rev. Doctor Oggel, then supplying the church, delivered a sermon eulogistic of Mr. Pullman's great service to his age, his country, and his town from the text: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor;" concluding with a quotation from a St. Louis paper, that Mr. Pullman is worthy of the nomination to the Presidency of the United States. Dr. Oggel delivered his last sermon on the Sunday after the strike, in which he declared to the men that "a half loaf was better than no loaf," and that in his judgment they were receiving "two-thirds of a loaf."The M. E. church worships in a large room in what is known as the Casino building. It is comfortable,
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seated with 326 opera chairs. In the rear are two small rooms, one of which is used for the pastor's study. For these accommodations we pay the Company $300 in rent, $60 in steam, and gas sufficient to bring the amount up to $480.00; to this janitor's services may be added, making the yearly expenditures over $500. The churches could not afford to pay these enormous rents if the people of Pullman were not generous in their support of them.Leaving the Green Stone Church, going eastward, we come to the Market Hall, a building set apart for such stores as general merchandise. All the stores in the town are rented by individuals who are supposed to be independent of the Company. You are not compelled to purchase at these stores.
As we pass through the Market Hall we go toward Fulton Street. The streets are named after the great inventors, Fulton, Stephenson, Watt, Morse, and Pullman. On Fulton Street are the great tenement blocks, lettered from A to J, three stories, where from 300 to 500 persons live under one roof. These blocks are divided into tenements of two rooms, three rooms and four rooms apiece. These tenements are mostly occupied by foreigners. They are comparatively clean, having air and light; but abundance of water they have not, there being but one faucet for each group of five families, and in some cases the water is in the same apartment devoted to the closets.
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There are no yards except a great barren space in common.Away toward the south of town is the eyesore of the place, known as the brick yards, four rows of little wooden shanties. They are sixteen by twenty feet, ceiling seven feet, a sitting room and two bedrooms, and a kitchen in a lean-to. These cabins could be built easily for $100.00 apiece, and they rent for $8.00 per month or $96.00 a year. The average population of Pullman is about 12,000. It has reached as high as 14,000. The shops are in the center of the town, a large part of the resident portion extending north of the shops. At this end of town are the Rolling Mills, Freight Shops and the Foundry. The whole impression of the town, outside of the central part, is that it is crowded and unwholesome. The houses are all built in solid brick rows. The monotony and regularity of the buildings give one the impression that he is living in soldiers' barracks. There is no such thing as a home in the American sense of the word. Owing to the high rents, hundreds of families having two or three room apartments keep boarders and roomers, striving in this way to add to the earnings of the head of the family, to make both ends meet.
During the past winter it took the earnings of both host and boarder to pay the rent and keep above the plain of destitution. In no community in the world, probably, is there such a small proportion of families
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which really live in family privacy. In the north end of town there are rows of houses where there is no front door for the family living upstairs. They are required to pass through the alley into the yard, up a back stair to reach their homes. In some parts of the town, there are houses where, if you desire to reach the family living upstairs, you are compelled, night or day, to pass through the apartments of the family on the lower floor. This destroys the sanctity of the home and is not conducive to the morality of the town. Indeed, as I know to be a fact, the morals of Pullman are not up to the standard that they might be.An unpleasant feature of the town is that you are made to feel at every turn the presence of the corporation. As Peter Quinon, of the Pittsburg Times, well says: "The corporation is everything and everywhere. The corporation trims your lawn and attends to your trees; the corporation sweeps your street, and sends a man around to pick up every cigar stump, every bit of paper, every straw or leaf; the corporation puts two barrels in your back yard, one for ashes and one for refuse of the kitchen; the corporation has the ashes and refuse hauled away; the corporation provides you new barrels when the others are worn out; the corporation does practically everything but sweep your room and make your bed, and the corporation expects you to enjoy it and hold your tongue." This is a corporation made and a corporation
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governed town, and is utterly un-American in its tendencies.The great trouble with this whole Pullman system is that it is not what it pretends to be. No one can but admire many of the beautiful features of this town. To the casual visitor it is a veritable paradise — to the passing student of the industrial problem, it has a fascinating appearance; but like the play, there is a good deal of tinsel and show about it. It is a sort of hollow mockery, sham, an institution girdled with red tape, and as a solution of the labor problem a very unsatisfactory one. The great trouble with the town, viewed from the standpoint of an industrial experiment, is that while it possesses some excellent features, still its deficiencies overbalance all its beauties. It belongs to the map of Europe. It is a civilized relic of European serfdom. We all enjoy living here because there is an equality of interest, and we have a common enemy, the Company, but our daily prayer is, "Lord, keep us from dying here." An eminent writer in Harper's Monthly, in 1884 on "Pullman," declared that at that time, ten years ago, its great faults were: "Bad administration in respect to the employment, retention and promotion of employees. Change is constant in men and officers, and each new superior appears to have his own friends, whom he appoints to desirable positions. Favoritism and nepotism exist; natural dissatisfaction, a powerful prevalence of petty jealousies,
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discouragements of superior excellence, frequent change of residents, and an all-pervading feeling of insecurity." The writer further declares that it is not an American idea. It is a species of benevolent feudalism, and as to its morals, the writer says: "The prevailing tendency at that day was, ‘The desire to beat the company.’"It seems to me that the town has not changed. What a commentary on the present state of affairs! To-day we behold the lamentable and logical outcome of the whole system. If this town was established with the hope of bettering the relations of Capital and Labor, then I believe it has partially failed in its mission, and will never succeed until some of its conditions are changed.
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Chapter III. — Pullman and Debs.
Suffer a word regarding Mr. Pullman himself. I would like to pay my respects to him. I have nothing to say of him that savors of fulsome eulogy or nauseating praise. When I consider him as a man, and hold him up to the youth of our land as an example, I find many things worthy of consideration. All honor to Mr. Pullman for the magnificent business sagacity in the development of the Pullman palace car idea. Few men are capable of bringing to a successful issue such marvelous results. It is no small thing for one man to be able to create a vast productive industry, which is one of the century's civilizing strides, and which, from a small beginning, has reached a market value of $50,000,000. It takes brains to do that sort of thing, and Mr. Pullman as a financier is one of the brainiest men of his day.
In this age of rapidly increasing fortunes, when men become rich in a day by speculation, weaving a fabric of success upon the ruin of others, I am willing to accord honor to a man who has become rich as the result of the establishment of a great manufacturing industry. As a man of industry, possessed of a
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great idea and tenaciously clinging to that idea until he has wrought it out to completion, rising as a poor boy in an obscure village, to a great position as a business man, possessed no doubt with a desire to better his fellow-man, retaining a personal character which, we have every reason to believe, is honest and pure, he is an example in these things that we can hold up before the youth of our land, and bid them imitate.But when Mr. Pullman, as a public man, stands before the world and demands of us that we regard him as a benefactor to his race, as a true philanthropist, as one who respects his fellow-men, who regards his employees with the love of a father for his children, and would have us associate him with such men as George Peabody, Peter Cooper and George W. Childs, I confess as a clergyman, delivering this message under the shadow of these deserted shops, I fail utterly to see the point. The facts are not in harmony with the requirements, demanded.
No man craves Mr. Pullman's position before the American people to-day. He stands in an unenviable light before the world, an example to others of his kind to beware lest they make the same sad mistake. The very qualities that made him successful in life, have, untempered with nobler elements, placed him in his present predicament before the American public. Determination and resolution have turned into arrogance and obstinacy. The same disposition that has
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kept him aloof in all these months and years of the past from the active life of his town and estranged him from the heart of his employees, is indicated in the cold and arrogant language of his ultimatum when appealed to by President and Mayor and public in general — "Nothing to arbitrate." What a golden opportunity this gentleman has had in the past years of his life to immortalize himself in the hearts of his countrymen, to work out some problem in the solution of the industrial question, to advance the true interest of his city and his country, and yet how utterly has he failed!As all the facts come to light, it is plain that Mr. Pullman could have prevented the great strike, with its attendant consequences, without sacrificing either his dignity or his money. Appealed to by the city, state, and federal government, while thousands of dollars' worth of property was being destroyed, and the trade of half the country was paralyzed, human lives were being sacrificed, and bloody riot hung like a pall over the city and country, nevertheless this gentleman, having fled from the scene of action, in his secure and comfortable retreat by the seashore, absolutely refused to make even a formal concession.
The odium of his position will never leave Mr. Pullman. So utterly wrong was his attitude that it is no wonder that he has reaped the censure and universal condemnation of the press and public opinion of the country. He can never recover from the
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moral effects of his untenable and unpatriotic action. That the reader may thoroughly understand this matter I quote from the New York World of July 14th, 1894"On Monday a committee of Mr. Pullman's working men, accompanied by members of the city council, and with the approval of Mayor Hopkins, waited upon his representative and offered to submit the question of whether or not there was anything to arbitrate to a committee composed of two members chosen by himself (Mr. Pullman), two selected by the circuit judges of Cook County, and one to be chosen by these four. Laboring men were to have no representative on the committee, yet they pledged themselves to abide by its decision. This offer, which was practically a surrender by the men, was peremptorily rejected by Mr. Pullman's telegraphic order on the ground that ‘he will not permit outsiders to run his business.’
"Alderman McGillen's criticism upon this arrogant and unpatriotic attitude is perfectly sound. He reminds Mr. Pullman that the Company and other corporations of the land are quasi-public corporations which have enjoyed public benefits from the community. He points out that the principal asset of the Pullman Company is its list of patents, and that that asset has been conferred by the nation. He argues logically that a corporation enjoying millions as the fruit of such public benefit owes something to the public, especially where the preservation of peace is involved."
As the champion of labor, standing in direct contrast to Mr. Pullman, is Mr. Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union. Mr. Debs is an American of French parentage, thirty-nine years
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of age, born in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is a man of great executive ability and a wonderful organizer. He possesses a rare gift of oratory, good voice and presence, magnetic and earnest. Educated in the public schools of Terre Haute, he has ever retained his love of study and is a great reader. When sixteen years old, he began life as a painter in the Vandalia Railroad shops. Later he was fireman upon the same road. Entering public life, he was elected to the office of city clerk of Terre Haute, and later served two terms as member of the state legislature. For fourteen consecutive years he filled the office of grand secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Always an earnest advocate of a federation of railway men, he conceived the idea of the American Railway Union, which came into existence in this city, June 20th, 1893. I have heard Mr. Debs speak several times, have conversed with him, watched him preside over the deliberations of the late convention of the A. R. U. I believe he is thoroughly sincere in the cause he advocates, a born leader, deliberate and self-possessed, somewhat of an enthusiast, a man of more than ordinary ability. I make no apology for his attitude in the matter of the "boycott," except that he was forced by the logic of his position into his fight with the Railroad Managers. Mr. Debs needs no word from me. He is fully capable of taking care of himself. Mistaken he may have been as to his methods, but sincere he is as to the32
cause of labor. Mr. Pullman was obstinate, Mr. Debs determined. I know that Debs has always counseled moderation, and positively demanded of his followers to commit no violence. Had all the strikers been of like mind, and had the mob elements, the rabble, and cheap foreign labor imported to this country by such gentlemen as the Railroad Managers, not taken advantage of the situation to commit violence, the condition of things would have been different. Until the American people will recognize the true merits of the laboring man's position and demands, until corporations shall cease to be tyrannical and millionaires arrogant, until there shall be more of the love of God and love for fellow-man in the hearts of rich and poor alike, then, and not till then, will society be rid of such men as Pullman and the mission of such as Mr. Debs will cease.After the smoke of battle shall have rolled away, and the public mind regains its equanimity, I believe the calm verdict of the American people concerning this man will be very different from that engendered by a rabid and capitalistic press.
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Chapter IV. — History of The Strike.
Let us review briefly the history of the strike. From August, 1892, to August, 1893, was a season of unwonted prosperity and activity in the Pullman shops. It is safe to say that four hundred new Pullman cars were added to the service. During the winter of 1893 the magnificent train of Pullman cars exhibited at the World's Fair was built. Work was abundant, wages fair, and the force of employees in creased to between five and six thousand. Then came the reaction and depression of trade. The force was gradually reduced until late in the summer, not over 900 men were employed. About November of 1893, Mr. Pullman began to secure contracts for new work, and the cars which had been out on the road in the World's Fair traffic were rapidly brought into the shops for repairs. The force was enlarged until, during the winter, from three to four thousand employees were on the pay roll. Then commenced the cutting of wages, and consequent abuse on the part of the local administration complained of so bitterly by the men. Mutterings of dissatisfaction, discontent and continual resentings of petty abuses were heard on all
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sides during the long and bitter winter. "There will be trouble in the spring," was an expression which I heard on all sides. Destitution prevailed to a great extent. Want and suffering was no uncommon picture. As a pastor I came in contact directly with much suffering. Repeated cutting of the wages with no corresponding reduction of rent exasperated the employees. I was aware that the men were being organized into local unions. Hearing of the success of the American Railway Union, and casting about for some one to champion their cause, these unions appealed to Messrs. Debs and Howard of the American Railway Union.Meetings were held at Kensington. Messrs. Debs and Howard repeatedly counseled the men not to strike, but to wait until the American Railway Union had acquired strength, and agreed in due season to assist the men in their effort to obtain redress from their wrongs. At this juncture, a committee waited on Manager Middleton. Meeting with no favorable response, they appointed a committee and waited on Vice-President Wickes at the city offices. Mr. Wickes received the committee very kindly, listened to their grievances and promised that Mr. Pullman would give them a final answer the following week. On the day appointed, the committee again appeared at the city office, where Mr. Pullman delivered to them his first statement, with which the public is familiar. In that statement, he refused to accede to the demand of the
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employees for a restoration of the scale of wages for 1893, on the ground that he had taken contracts for new work at a loss. As proof thereof he agreed to permit an inspection of his books. He stated further that he could not reduce the rents of his houses. He agreed that none of the committee waiting on him should be discharged, and also stated that their grievances should be investigated. So far, so good. But the employees were disappointed and chagrined. I well remember that we who were residents of the town, not in the employ of the company, and anxious to see the threatened strike averted, breathed easier that night, but still were apprehensive. Anxiously we awaited the morrow. What caused the disappointment and chagrin of the employees? It was this. Mr. Pullman had given out that he had taken contracts for new work at a loss, because out of love for his employees he desired to keep the shops open. Unfortunately, the men had never seen any evidences of paternal love on the part of Mr. Pullman in his previous dealings with them, and they could not disabuse their minds of the thought that perhaps he was keeping the shops open, and taking work at a loss in order to get his returns in rent. Also they felt that his refusal to reduce their rents was unjust. They were suspicious and in no condition to be trifled with. I am sure Mr. Pullman had no idea of the true state of affairs and did not fully realize how unjustly his employees had been dealt with, and the magnitude36
of the petty annoyances to which they had been subjected.On the morrow, three men who were members of the committee were "laid off." While it was no uncommon thing in the shops for men to be "laid off," still it had come to be looked upon as amounting in many cases to a virtual discharge.
Cases have been cited to me of employees, who, having incurred the displeasure of those in authority, were "laid off," and returning again and again for work found that they were really discharged. What made the matter worse in this case was that the men laid off discovered that it was the direct action of the acting superintendent's retaliations upon them for complaints uttered by them against him the day previous at the city meeting. The discharge of these men was resented by the whole committee as a violation of Mr. Pullman's agreement with them.
Furthermore, the grievances were investigated during the day, but were investigated on an ex parte basis. The committee of investigation was composed, among others, of Vice-President Wickes, General Manager Brown, Manager Middleton, Chief Accountant Wilde, Mr. Campbell of the Repair department and Mr. Runnells, leading counsel for the company. No one appeared as a committee of defense for the men, to see that their side was duly represented. The grievances were made light of and treated as trivial and inconsequential. Three men stated to me
37
personally that as they each came out of the Manager's office they respectively felt, to use their own language, like a "set of fools."In this condition of things, the employees met that night (Thursday) in a secret all-night session composed of about forty-six men representing the different local unions. They voted unanimously, in view of the unsatisfactory treatment they had received at the hands of the Company, to strike the following Saturday. It seems that in their midst was a spy; their deliberations and decision reached the ears of the company early Friday morning. They went to work at 7 A. M. About 9 A. M., intelligence was conveyed to the leaders that their action was known to the company and that the company had decided to lock up the shops at the noon hour. It is claimed by the men (whether true or not I do not know) that a telegram from the city to lock up, was intercepted by an operator in sympathy with the employees and thus the word was given to them. Rather than have a "lock-out" the men passed the word from one to another to "walk out," which they did orderly and deliberately. About six hundred remained until the noon hour, a few returned until the evening, when notices were posted on the shop gates to the effect that the shops would be closed indefinitely and the works closed down. Thus began the great Pullman strike.
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Chapter V. — Character and Incidents of the Strike.
From the 11th of May, 1894, until the present writing (July 23rd, 1894) the Pullman strike has been a remarkable exhibition of orderliness and correct deportment. It has been a "model strike" so far as Pullman is concerned. Up to the evening of July 5th, in the seventh week of the Strike, not the slightest unusual infringement of law had taken place. The universal comment was complimentary to the decorum of the strikers. For seven weeks the town was quieter than at any other time in its history, less drinking, less roystering, less noise, not even an occasional fisticuffs encounter to enliven the monotony of events. Even the patrol forgot to tear madly through our streets of old.
No wonder, for the strike leaders gave out repeatedy at their nightly meetings that order would be positively enforced, and warning was given to keep clear of the saloons in Kensington and Roseland. So determined were the men that the property of the Company should not be molested, that they offered to place a cordon of men around the shops to protect them. On the evening of the 5th of July, when the
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"Boycott" of the American Railway Union against the Pullman cars was at its height, the Illinois Central railway, having decided to run the mail train known as the "Diamond Special," some difficulty occurred at the Kensington depot, which resulted in the stopping of the train. Later in the evening (about midnight) a mob of hoodlums and fellows of the "baser sort" arriving from South Chicago, set fire to a number of Illinois Central freight cars about a mile north of Pullman. The next morning a mob of the same character gathered at Kensington, marched past Pullman on the railroad track and overturned box cars. A United States deputy by the name of Stark fired wildly into the crowd. William Anslyn, an innocent spectator about 250 feet from the scene, was shot. Falling upon his face, he endeavored to rise, when Stark, according to the deposition of eye witnesses, advanced and deliberately fired a shot into the back of the prostrate man. Two days thereafter, Anslyn died as the result of the brutal deed. The deputy is still at large.Infuriated by this deed, the mob endeavored to lay hands on the deputy marshal, but he was saved by the interposition of the police. Great excitement prevailed. Threatenings of every description filled the air; rumors of various kinds floated all day through the town. In the afternoon more cars near Burnside were set on fire. In the evening the militia arrived in Pullman and have remained to date. The
40
presence of the militia was salutary at the time, but their long continued presence and the martial law to which the town has been subjected, I believe, has had a demoralizing effect upon the community. With all due respect to the noble boys in blue, I yet believe that order could have been sustained by the local authorities, and the moral conservatism of the best elements among the strikers and citizens.An interesting feature of the strike has been the regular daily public meeting. For the first two weeks, these public gatherings were held afternoon and evening. The afternoon meetings were dispensed with, the meetings confined to the evening. The proprietors of the Turner Hall, capable of accommodating an audience of 800 to 1,000 persons, generously donated the use of the room free of charge. As the weather became warmer, the meetings were held in the open air on an adjoining lot, a rude platform having been improvised out of some old dry goods boxes. Here, night after night, immense audiences have gathered to listen to addresses from speakers good, bad and indifferent. It was an open platform, free for all, and many splendid addresses have been delivered to the assembled strikers. All classes of speakers were allowed to address the multitude, among them several clergymen. The chairman, Mr. Heathcote, endeavored as far as possible to curb the utterances of those who became too radical in their fiery denunciation of the wrongs perpetrated upon
41
the laborer by grinding corporations and monopolistic combinations of wealth.Early in the strike, the conduct of affairs was vested in a committee known as the Central Strike Committee, composed of members of each of the local unions. Mr. Heathcote is the chairman of the committee, Mr. R.W. Brown, Vice-President, and Mr. John Berry, Secretary. As chairman of this committee and as the representative spokesman of the strikers, it is no more than fair to bespeak the highest praise for Mr. Heathcote, for the calm and careful manner in which he has performed the onerous duties of his office. He and his associates have all earned the good will of the general public of this and the surrounding community, in endeavoring to preserve order and decorum in the ranks of their followers.
By far the most important feature of the strike has been that of the Relief Committee, organized immediately after the strike commenced. It has been in active service ever since, and is the center of attraction to the vast army of strikers and their families. Of this committee, Mr. Frank Pollans is the obliging and effective chairman; Mr. J. J. Maguire the thoroughly competent assistant; Miss May Woods has proved herself to be an untiring and accomplished secretary, and Mr. David V. Gladman, the trusted and efficient treasurer. Associated with these friends has been a well equipped and devoted corps of workers of every
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description, whose energies have been taxed to their utmost to meet the demands of their hungry and necessitous fellows.When the committee was organized, a call was sent forth for food and money. The firm of Second and Hopkins of Kensington, of which Mayor Hopkins is a partner, was the first to respond with the magnificent gift of 25,000 pounds of flour, 25,000 pounds of meat, and the use for the benefit of the strikers of a room above their store free of rent for the committee on care of the sick so long as the strike lasted. At the same time a committee of ladies interested in the cause of labor, led on by Mrs. Fanny Clarke Kavanagh and Mrs. Dr. Charles D. Bradley of Chicago opened a store donated by the proprietors of the Chicago Daily News, as the city headquarters for the Pullman Strikers' Relief Fund.
From that day to this, from Chicago and all the country, have come daily contributions of relief in cash and provisions. The response of the public to this fund has been remarkable, and has indicated the widespread practical sympathy aroused through the country on behalf of the suffering employees. Among the cash contributions will be found amounts from twenty-five cents to a thousand dollars. Among the larger cash contributions may be noted: Typographical Union No. 16, $1,000; the A. A. of I. & S. Workers, Lakeside Lodge No. 9, $686; Painters and Decorators Union No. 147, $500; Carpenters'
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Union No. 23, $100; Carpenter's Union No. 1, $100; Thirty-fourth Ward Republican Club, $101; the people of Hammond, Indiana, $500; Carpenters' Union of Englewood, $100; United Turner Societies of Pullman, Kensington, and Roseland, $400; Western Avenue Sewer Men, $77.50; Chicago Ticket Brokers' Association, $78; Chicago Typographical Union, $200; Grand Crossing Police, $46; Hyde Park Water Department, $29; Wood's Circus, $30; Picnic at Gardener's Park, $15.38; Milk Dealer's Union, $85; Hyde Park Liquor Dealers, $25; Fourteenth Precinct Police Station, $43; Spiegel's Home Furnishing Company, $20; "The Leader," Chicago, $100; "The Hub," Chicago, $200. The most princely gift among the down-town establishments was that of Siegel, Cooper & Co., who gave 200 barrels of flour. Brewers and Maltsters' Union No. 18, $50; Swedish Concert, $50; Local Union 553, Fernwood, $78.25; Chicago Fire Department, $909.75; German Singing Society, $140; cheque from Anaconda, Mont., $250.The donations of provisions have been legion; everything imaginable, from a bottle of ink to a car load of flour. No delicacies or luxuries, but the substantials of life were given in abundance. Among the articles donated may be mentioned innumerable sacks of flour, hams, potatoes, coffee, peas, soap, milk, meat, one caddy of chewing tobacco and seven pounds of smoking tobacco to solace the minds of
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anxious strikers. From two firms came boxes of shirts, and one Oppenheimer, realizing that strikers must not go hatless, donated a box of hats.To these gifts of cash and provisions must be added the care of the sick. Three hundred dollars has already been spent for the care of the sick. In case of death the burial expenses are paid if necessary. Certain physicians of Pullman and surrounding towns have kindly given their services free of charge, and most of the druggists have given donations of medicine. To summarize, the total amount of money (not including provisions) given to the Relief Fund up to July 21st, 1894, was $15,000.00, the total expenses to same date, $14,000.00, leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,000,00. Besides this, Mr. S. Keliher, Secretary of the A. R. U., has another $1,000 subject to the order of the local Central Committee. In the distribution of provisions, the greatest care has been taken to see that justice is equally dispensed to all. At this writing, 2,700 families are being provided for, counting six to a family.
Some minor features of the strike may be noted. It has naturally caused endless discussions pro and con among the residents of the "model town." Class distinctions have always been a marked feature of the little community, and the influence of the strike has only served to intensify these distinctions. Outside of the great mass of the employees and their families there is a little coterie of individuals termed
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in a late edition of the Chicago Evening Post, the aristocratic element of the town, whose headquarters may be called the beautiful little hostelry known as the Florence Hotel. Here the officials and the elite of the community assemble and discuss the situation. Soon after the white ribbons were donned by the striking employees and their sympathizers as suggested by Mr. Debs, those who were opposed to the strike wore a miniature American flag. Does this mean that they who wore the flag indicate thereby that the striking employees are un-American endorsers of lawlessness and anarchy? Does it mean that the Pullman strikers are treasonable in their attitude of a quiet and determined demand for justice and a fair wage? Let it be remembered that no corresponding town of its size in the country can boast of more well organized, active, patriotic societies than the town of Pullman, — the G. A. R., the P. O. S. of A., the P. O. D. of A., the Sons of Veterans, etc. There is as much, if not more, patriotic fervor for the old flag and American institutions to the square inch in Pullman than in any other town in the country. And who is it that compose these organizations? It is these very men and their wives and daughters who are known as the Pullman strikers. As for me, I would rather wear the white ribbon with the American flag over it — American labor protected by the stars and stripes in its demand for justice from the inhumanity of grasping corporations. My friend Rev. F. Atchison,46
pastor of the Hyde Park M. E. Church of Chicago, spoke truly at a late mass meeting when he said, referring to this subject, "The American flag ought to be the best guaranty that an honest day's work should receive an honest day's pay. If any one class more than another was entitled to wear and carry the American flag, it was the workingman. The men who had borne the flag to victory in the late war were American workingmen. They won freedom for all." The speaker said that if ever he went on a strike he would wear both the white ribbon and the American flag. At Pullman, he had seen the white ribbon and the G. A. R. button on the same breast, and both emblems were in good company. These are true words, and it may be well to add that there are thirty-seven old soldiers among the Pullman strikers who wear the Grand Army button.47
Chapter VI. — Fallacies in Pullman's Statement.
So peculiar are the relations of the Pullman Company to the town of Pullman and its employees that it is not an easy task to one unfamiliar with the situation to point out the sophistries and misleading points in Mr. Pullman's statements to the public. A Chicago man, who is a well known writer for the press, remarked to me after carefully looking over the ground, that it would be a very easy matter to write up a strong argument in favor of the Pullman Company; and on the other hand, an easy matter to make out a strong case in favor of the employees. But to give a fair and impartial statement, showing wherein the Company had dealt wrongly with its employees, required a thorough knowledge of the situation.
This is true. There are three statements before the public from the Pullman Company's standpoint. The first was given on May 9th by Mr. Pullman to his employees, in answer to their committee, who waited on him two days before the strike.
The second was given to the public on June 12th by the Company, just previous to the putting into
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effect of the boycott on the Pullman cars by the American Railway Union, and the third statement was given on July 13th by Mr. Pullman himself under date of New York, in defense of his attitude in refusing to arbitrate. These statements are all so plausible upon their face that I am not at all surprised that so many have been inclined to criticise the action of the employees and endorse the apparently magnanimous position of the Company.Furthermore, the attitude of the Chicago press has been such as to completely bewilder the thoughtful and intelligent citizen who desires to know the truth, and to poison the minds of that element in our midst whose sympathies naturally gravitate to the side of wealth.
I presume that if I had lived in Chicago instead of Pullman, and knew nothing about the Pullman strike except what I read in three of the leading Chicago newspapers, I would have raised my hand in holy horror against these wicked Pullman strikers and all belonging to their side, and would have sustained Mr. Pullman and his company.
But living as I do in Pullman, having studied the situation carefully for two years, and being absolutely independent of the company and employees, I know enough to enable me to read between the lines of these beautiful Pullman statements and note the fallacies of their position.
I hold Mr. Pullman responsible for the whole situation
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by virtue of his presidency of the company, and the marvelous influence he exercises over the whole Pullman system. He is the King, and he demands to the full measure of his capacity all that belongs to the insignia of royalty. It is about as difficult for an ordinary man, one of his employees, to see Mr. Pullman as for a subject of Russia to see the Czar. Every official of his company is absolutely subject to his authority. He expects it. He will have it. I have been surprised to hear those who have sat in his presence describe the lordly manner in which he treats even those who are nearest to the throne. Sometimes he meets with gentlemen among his officials who object to this subserviency. Instances have been related to me of gentlemen who have rebelled against Mr. Pullman's absolutism and resigned rather than endure it. Of course, this is Mr. Pullman's right, but it seems to me that imperialism on the part of a gentleman so powerful in influence as Mr. Pullman is unpleasant to say the least, and capable of producing harm whether intentional or not toward those in authority under him. It is unfortunate to work for a corporation realizing that if you once dispute the will of the king, off goes your head. Imperialism on the part of the king breeds imperialism in the court. Even subordinates become infected with the disease, and great harm is thereby produced among the subjects. If the public will reflect upon this they will see how, under a system like that upon50
which Pullman is founded, great dissatisfaction can easily be produced among the employees. Upon careful examination, I find in conversation with the employees that one half the trouble in the shops has been produced by unfair and tyrannical dealing on the part of certain foremen and others in the local administration. Mr. Pullman certainly must be aware of these things, and, if so, why did he not see that they were remedied long ago? If he did not hear of or know these things, then somebody has either willfully misrepresented the true state of affairs to him, or colored the statements to suit themselves. I am in a position to know that information of everything going on in the town of Pullman, social, political, shop talk, town talk of any importance, and so on, is conveyed by letter every week to headquarters from the town proper. I have no objection to that; but still, I don't like it. I accept it as a peculiarity of the system upon which the town is established. For instance, during my first year as pastor, a certain unfortunate occurrence took place in connection with a gentleman, a member of my church and an employee. Before the week was out, I was roused from my sleep one night by a gentleman in the employ of the Company, who, in the presence of my wife and myself, took a stenographic report of the affair. The gentleman informed me that it was necessary to have a correct report so that he could embody it in his regular weekly letter to the president. That was51
an eye-opener to me. I dislike espionage, but as long as it is a part of the system, it's all right, and I will not complain. But it produces unpleasant reflections.From this standpoint, I hold Mr. Pullman responsible for the situation. But while I do so, I am ready to allow that perhaps he was not cognizant of the true state of affairs from the reason assigned above. I do not hesitate, however, to place a large measure of responsibility upon the general and local management. The authority vested in officials of such a large corporation as this, gives opportunity for the exercise of great power. When a few officials are given the right to employ or discharge men, to set the prices of labor and to decide a thousand questions concerning the details of a vast business indissolubly connected with the welfare and financial prospects of 3,000 men, I contend that such officials should be absolutely free from favoritism, tyrannical dealing, or unfairness. While I make all allowance for motives of jealousy and anger, still I submit it to the public and to the directors and president of the Company, if it be not reasonable to believe that favoritism, tyranny and unfairness do exist in the local management, when 2,000 men universally declare such to be the case.
Let us note some points in Mr. Pullman's statements. Point 1. — He says
"A little more than a year ago the shops at Pullman
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were in a prosperous condition; work was plenty, wages were high, and the condition of the employees was indicated by the fact that the local savings bank had of savings deposits nearly $700,000, of which nearly all was the property of the employees."
"A little more than a year ago" would take us back to June, 1893. According to the Report of the Pullman Loan & Savings Bank for July 25, 1893, as published in the Pullman Journal, the official organ of the Pullman Company, there was in liabilities, the following:
| Capital stock paid in | $100,000.00 |
| Surplus fund | 75,000.00 |
| Undivided profits | 27,252.83 |
| Savings deposits subject to notice | 631,354.25 |
| Individual deposits subject to check | 368,365.76 |
| Demand certificates of deposit | 2,538.26 |
| Certified checks | 40.00 |
| Cashier's checks outstanding | 2,972.94 |
| Total | $1,207,524.04 |
According to the above, there is a slight difference between Mr. Pullman's $700,000 and the bank statement on "Savings deposits." Merely a matter of $68,645.75. Now the question arises, was the $631,354.25 entirely the amount deposited by the employees, mechanics, and laborers? It is a well known fact that some of the officials are depositors in the local bank. The salaries of these gentlemen are large, many of the heads of departments draw good pay, and these naturally deposit in this bank. Furthermore, the local storekeepers are depositors also.
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Many storekeepers in Roseland, Kensington and Gano deposit therein, also treasurers of lodges. One gentleman in the employ of the company is said to have $30,000.00 deposited. I am acquainted with one employee, who informed me that he sold his farm in an adjacent state before coming here, and deposited $3,000.00 therein. If all or any of this was counted as the savings of employees, then it would be comparatively easy to make such a glowing statement. While I presume that part of the above enumerated items were credited as "individual deposits subject to check," still I hold that some of them were credited to "savings" deposits. And further, there are many working people not employed by the Pullman Company who place "savings deposits" in the Pullman Bank because of its reliability.If, for illustration, I deposit $10.00 to-day on my own account as savings, and to-morrow deposit $200.00 on my own account, money entrusted to me by my church to meet future expenses, it would not be fair to reckon my account as "savings deposits" of the employees, and base a statement thereon for the general public. As a matter of information, and an interesting fact connected with the subject under discussion, I am informed by a gentleman well qualified to speak, that among the employees, the class who save the most money out of their wages are the common laborers. The foreign element in our midst are far more saving than our native American
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mechanics. They live, many of them, as an American mechanic would not wish to live, and consequently save more money out of their scant earnings than our mechanics.Again, if $700,000 indicated the amount actually belonging to the employees in 1893, then how is it that they were in arrears, as the Company elsewhere affirm, $70,000 on rent at the time of the strike, May 1894? If the employees were worth $700,000 in August 1893, and in May 1894 had not only drawn it all out of the bank, but were $70,000 in arrears on rent besides, it certainly proves that their wages were so small that they were gradually moving toward the "starvation wage" point, as affirmed so often by the employees. I make no pretenses as a financier, but I know right from wrong. This statement, thoughtfully pondered by the public, from my point of view looks serious, when we remember the vast wealth of this company, the great surplus at its command (for one year only, 1892, $3,250,389.07), its two per cent quarterly dividend ($600,000) over and above all expenses, and then think of its cruel cutting of the wages of its employees.
A visitor came to this town last summer, made his home at the luxurious Florence Hotel, and forthwith sat down and wrote a little pamphlet entitled, "The Story of Pullman," in which, after eulogizing it as a "town that is bordered with bright beds of flowers and green velvety stretches of lawn, shaded with
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trees, and dotted with parks and pretty water vistas, and glimpses here and there of artistic sweeps of landscape gardening; a town, in a word, where all that is ugly and discordant and demoralizing is eliminated, and all that inspires to self-respect is generously provided," he closes his book stating that the town of Pullman "has illustrated the helpful combination of Capital and Labor without strife or stultification, upon the lines of mutual recognition." This book is endorsed by the company and is handed to every visitor to Pullman who desires a copy. Now, if the times are so depressing as to compel the employees who have been long faithful to the company to eat up their little savings, why, if this company believes in "mutual recognition," do they not themselves bear a little of this burden of "depressing times?" Why does not Mr. Pullman stand before his board of directors, who represent the 3,246 stockholders of the Pullman Company, of which 1,800 control the funds of educational and charitable institutions, and of which 1,494 are women, among them, as we are told, Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, and demand of them upon the basis of morality and right that instead of declaring a quarterly dividend of 2 per cent in these terribly depressed times, they declare a dividend of one and one-half per cent, and place the $114,000, representing the other one-half percent, to the credit of the pay roll?This may not be "business," but it would be "mutual
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recognition." While the Pullman Company claims on the one hand that its whole system is purely financial, with not one ounce of real philanthropic blood flowing through its veins (which is certainly true of its non-arbitrating President), still it has caused thousands of dollars' worth of complimentary literature to be scattered abroad for these many years throughout the country, like the above pamphlet, giving a quasi-endorsement to the alleged fact that the town is established as a solution of the industrial problem upon the basis of "mutual recognition." In support of my position on this matter, I quote entire an editorial taken from the columns of the Daily Republican, of Springfield, Mass., under date of Wednesday, July 11. It hits the nail on the head. It is gratifying to learn that my position is not altogether Utopian, and is supported by one of the most reliable journals of the country:PULLMAN PROFITS AND WAGES.
"After the smoke of the present battle has cleared away, the merits of the original controversy between Mr. Pullman and his employees will remain as a subject of some public inquiry and discussion. Closely bearing on this point is the financial condition of the Pullman Company. Its operations for the last two full fiscal years, ending July 31, resulted as follows: —
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| 1892. | 1893. | |
| Earnings | $8,061,081 | $9,200,685 |
| Royalties, profits, etc. | 1,941,275 | 2,189,211 |
| Total revenue, | $10,002,356 | $11,389,896 |
| Operating expenses | $3,438,863 | $3,825,940 |
| Other expenses | 1,013,104 | 1,037,508 |
| Dividends on stock | 2,300,000 | 2,520,000 |
| Surplus | $3,250,389 | $4,006,448 |
"Thus, after declaring a dividend on the stock of 8 per cent, the company had left a surplus in 1893 large enough to have warranted an extra dividend of over 10 per cent, and in 1892 it could have declared an extra dividend of 8 per cent, above the 8 per cent actually divided. Ever since 1876 this company has paid dividends of from 8 to 9 1-2 per cent, and rare has been the year in which it has not carried a large sum to the surplus account, which in the main has not been invested in the plant of the company, and is presumably available in large part for division among the stockholders — an aggregate sum to date of some $24,000,000, or within $12,000,000 of the entire amount of capital invested from the stock. Mr. Pullman personally is a very wealthy man, said, to be worth some $25,000,000.
"This is a very remarkable showing of profits from manufacturing industry. Its parallel for richness is hardly to be found in the country, outside of the sugar trust and one or two other combinations. It cannot be found among the railroads or among any of the ordinary manufacturing or mercantile enterprises. It is the biggest gold mine probably uncovered in the country before the advent of the ‘trust’ idea.
"When the great strike and riots of 1877 were precipitated by a reduction of 10 per cent in the
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wages of the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio and other roads, Mr. Garrett's company was paying 10 per cent on its stock; and The Republican held at the time that the company should have put at least a part of the reduction upon capital, reducing the dividend rate to, say, 9 per cent, after which wages might be brought into consideration. And at that time 10 per cent on money was far less above the general average of rates than it is to-day.
"It maybe a question, therefore, for philanthropists and labor reformers to consider whether Mr. Pullman, in view of the extraordinary profits he and his company were accumulating, was or was not morally bound to share more generously with his men in the effects of the hard times. He believes in paternalistic methods, and has put them in operation at his works to a degree not equaled anywhere else in America. What could be more in consonance with this policy than at such a time to dip back into the surplus of $4,000,000 made in the single previous year and keep up the wages of employees who are so carefully housed and otherwise looked after as so many dependents at Pullman? It may not be true in other cases, but it is certainly true of such a system of paternalism, that wage reductions can not be justified in the face of such profits as the Pullman Company exhibits."
Point 2. Take another item in Mr. Pullman's statement. He says: "Our pay rolls for that year (1893) show an average earning of over $600 per annum for every person, man, woman or youth, on the roll."
Following the reasoning adopted above, it might be asked, Was this estimate based upon the earnings of mechanics and laborers alone? The local
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Pullman pay roll is said to include all except the manager and assistant manager. The pay roll includes the large clerical force, heads of departments, all monthly hands, foremen, etc. Then, again, let the general public remember that included in the earnings of these men for 1893 was the immense amount of money earned for over-time. The winter of 1893 was one of the busiest in the history of the company. The employees labored day and night. For weeks at a time, I did not see the men connected with my church, except on the Sabbath. The employees, of course, were allowed extra pay for the over-time, and this naturally swelled the amount of the pay-roll. This, of course, would make it easy to estimate the above.Point 3. Mr. Pullman also says in his statement that he took certain contracts for building cars at a loss and that he did so simply to keep his men employed.
There is no doubt and never has been in the minds of his employees that he took certain contracts at a loss. Behind this statement, which has gone forth all over the country, Mr. Pullman has maintained an apparently impregnable position; and the public, naturally says: "How can Mr. Pullman pay the wages of 1893, while at the same time he is losing money on certain contracts for building cars?"
But it must be borne in mind that the great bulk of work done in the Pullman shops was the repairing
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of old cars shipped in from all over the country; cars that had been doing service for the World's Fair traffic. It is safe to say that sixty per cent of the work done in the shops at the time of the strike was repair work, and not new work. The repair work was Mr. Pullman's own work, done by him under contract with the railroad corporations running his cars. When their employees were cut 33 1-3 per cent, in some cases 40 per cent and in others 50 per cent, it was for work done not only on the comparatively small amount of new contracts in the shops, but principally on the repairing of old cars. Furthermore, I understand that a certain amount of this repair work is done at the expense of the railroads running the cars. Of course the company, while it cuts wages, does not repair cars for the roads at a less figure than heretofore on account of "hard times."Let the public also bear in mind that while the girls employed in the laundry department of the great shops (no small part of the business) were cut in their wages, nevertheless the price of berths on the Pullman Palace cars was not reduced to the general public. If you ate your dinner in a Pullman Palace Car, and wiped your mustache upon a Pullman napkin, laundered by these girls, you did not have to pay less for your dinner as a result of their reduction in wages!
It seems that there is another side of this loss of money on contracts. An interview with one of the
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brightest men ever in the employ of the Pullman Company, indicates to me that while money has been lost on a few contracts, and wages thereby cut, still thousands of dollars were squandered in the shops last year by mismanagement. For instance, suppose there was a loss per car of a certain amount. It is thought that the system of keeping tally on all lumber used in car construction is faulty. Word comes to change the whole system. That change does not remedy the evil, is, on the contrary, productive of a lot of useless red-tape, and the result is that there is a change that involves a practical loss of $9 to $10 per car. My informant further states that during the winter of 1893, when the shops were running night and day in certain departments, machinery would run for hours without any actual work, merely because of some notion from headquarters. Changes in machinery and constructions of machinery were made, regardless of cost and, in the estimation of my practical informant, unnecessarily. Further, he declares that the engineer's office, departments of estimate and figures on construction of cars, is a useless expense (as, it was then run), entailing a drain of $2,000 per month at least on the Company's exchequer. Probably these losses may have had something to do with the reduction of wages. If so, it would have been more just to have laid the responsibility where it belonged and cut gentlemen with high salaries rather than take it out of the "wage-earners."62
So peculiar are the methods of the Pullman Company in transacting its business, that the attention of Congress was not long ago called to it by no less a personage than Senator Sherman, of Ohio. To quote the language of a Washington correspondent of the Inter Ocean, it seems that the movement was "initiated in the Senate before the strike began, and it had been a subject of serious consideration by Mr. Sherman for many years. He proposes, in short, that the Pullman Company shall be brought within the provisions of the interstate commerce act, and that Congress shall enact a law requiring that corporation to give the public better accommodations at lower rates. He would require the Pullman Company to keep the upper berths up if not sold, and would reduce rates one half. The subject is one as to which there is very likely to be a unanimity of sentiment in Congress. The Pullman Company has so widely advertised its disposition to charge extortionate rates and to refuse to accommodate the public, that if Mr. Sherman shall press his measure, that corporation will find that it will not have a state legislature to deal with."
Senator Sherman said to this correspondent
"I regard these rates as simply infamous. It is outrageous for us to be compelled to pay such high prices for such poor accommodations as we receive in our trips to and fro about the country. They give you a short, narrow berth, so close and uncomfortable that in many cases one would rather sit up
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all night than submit to the inconveniences of the compartment. If you get a lower berth and no one has the upper, the porter insists upon putting down the lid and so increasing your misery rather than giving you the benefit of the air. I do not know why this is so, unless it is an effort on the part of the company to make their prestige all the greater and the more unendurable.
"I regard the Pullman Company and the sugar trust as the most outrageous monopolies of the day. They make enormous profits, and give their patrons little or nothing in return in proportion. It is perfectly clear to me that there is a way to reach the sleeping-car problem with ease through government action. States have, in many instances, adopted regulations intended to reduce the evil of extortionate charges on the railroads, but there are few, if any, railroads that run sleepers through but one state, and thus these laws are of no avail, for no state can regulate any corporations beyond its own limits.
"The United States can easily control the charges for sleepers, just as the railway fares have been regulated by means of the interstate commerce law. I believe that that act has been amply enforced without very much trouble, and I can see no reason why a similar act should not be passed with reference to the sleeping-car problem. A bill of a dozen lines would suffice, fixing the rate per mile to be charged by these companies and providing a penalty for overcharging. I think the rates should be reduced one-half. The Pullman Company, for instance, is very rich, made so by the enormous and disproportionate profits on its cars. With half that profit the company could make a great deal of money and give the public better service.
"Perhaps you do not know, but it is nevertheless a fact, that the Pullman Company charges each
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railroad running its cars a cent a mile for every car, and this goes into the pockets of Pullman in addition to the rates paid by the passenger. For instance, between New York and Chicago the railroad pays about $10 for each sleeper run, and the Pullman Company gets several times that sum in addition from the public. That $10 paid by the railroad is counted into the running expenses of the road, and is eventually paid by the passenger in the fare he gives for his ride. So the traveler pays twice, in reality, for his questionable accommodations on board a sleeper. I feel these heavy rates myself frequently, for when we go out to our home in Ohio we have to pay, for my wife, my daughter and myself, as much for sleeper rates as for the entire railroad fares. The berths are so close and uncomfortable that we have to spread out over a good deal of space in order to avoid being made ill by the journey."
The Senator also referred to the question of tipping as a species of petty extortion. He continued: —
"It is a small matter in the individual case, but it is an extortion to pay the porter for each trip you take. The trouble is that these men are not paid enough by the company. If they were paid adequate salaries the passengers would not be obliged to come forward to help them out. I really think the men need the money in most cases, and I always give, because I do not want to feel or to appear mean about the matter. There is a sort of compulsion about it, though, that is very disagreeable, and it could all be avoided."
Another matter referred to by the Senator is interesting reading
"There is one matter that should not be overlooked in this consideration. The main patents on these
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sleepers have expired, and there is no reason why the railroads should not begin now to make and run their own cars. I was acquainted with the original inventor of the sleeping car, who is now dead. He was obliged to sell out to the Pullman Company and they have held the monopoly with great care. The first patents have now, I believe, run out, and although the Pullmans have taken out letters for some improvements, I think it would be perfectly easy for the monopoly to be broken. I think that this abuse can be reached, and I propose to press this matter to some sort of conclusion. It seems to me that the American people have suffered uncomplainingly long enough, especially as there is a remedy at hand."
I may be regarded as presumptuous in quoting as freely from Senator Sherman's interview. The same sentiments have been expressed by the Pullman strikers individually and upon the public platform. But when uttered by a United States Senator they carry with them a weight of influence far beyond that given to them by the poor wage-earner. It is pleasant to have a United States Senator on your side. And, moreover, it is good to quote that powerful journal the Inter Ocean, as uttering sentiments in harmony with those entertained by the Pullman strikers. So cruel and fearfully unjust has been the attitude of this newspaper to the labor man and the Pullman employees in particular, during the past nine weeks, that it is like an oasis in the desert to quote it against this grinding and "nothing to arbitrate" corporation.
It seems to me that even if Mr. Pullman did take contracts for new work at a loss, this did not, in
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view of the foregoing facts, form a valid excuse for the continual cutting of wages. Money was lost, I have no doubt, in prosperous times not on the net labor and material, but "because afterward a snug sum of ‘general expense’ — of a fancy plant, salaries of clerks, superintendents, and all attaches of the general office — were thrown into the bill of contract," to say nothing about the immense losses and waste in experimenting. But the company can take contracts — "lose money" — and make it back in money through rental.Point 4. Mr. Pullman offered to allow the employees the privilege of inspecting his books.
This is true, but the employees had no need to consult his books. There may have been a few who did not believe he lost money on certain contracts, but the majority of them accepted his statement as correct. There were those, however, who believed that in some way or other the books were "doctored" to suit the Company's side of the question, and still others that there was a double set of books kept by the company which would make it impossible to get at the facts in the case. While this may not be true, still it indicates the suspicious condition of mind engendered by the Company's past treatment of its employees. And further, with such a complicated and intricate system of bookkeeping as that of the Pullman Company, how could working-men be expected to arrive at conclusions therefrom?
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Point 5. In his final statement Mr. Pullman refers to the question of arbitration, and very ingeniously evades the whole question at issue.
He says
"How could I, as president of the Pullman company, consent to agree that if any body of men not concerned with the interests of the company's shareholders should, as arbitrators, for any reasons seeming good to them, so decree, I would open the shops, employ workmen at wages greater than their work could be sold for and continue this ruinous policy indefinitely or be accused of a breach of faith? Who will deny that such a question is plainly not a subject of arbitration? Is it not, then, unreasonable that the company should be asked to arbitrate whether or not it should submit such a question to arbitration?"
Now, it was never asked of Mr. Pullman that he consent to arbitration with the condition attached that he open his shops and employ his men at wages greater than their work could be sold for. Nor was he asked to continue his ruinous policy indefinitely. When approached by the Committee of the Common Council, all that was asked of him was arbitration on the question as to whether or not there was anything to arbitrate. If his position was right, then he had nothing to fear. It is absurd to attempt to treat the relation between a giant corporation and its army of organized workmen quite on the old simple footing of one employer and his one hired man. Arbitration alone can settle these difficulties. I submit if here is not a basis of arbitration: 1. Less cut in wages. 2. Reduction of rents. 3. Equalization of wages. 4. Reform of abuses practiced in the shops.
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Chapter VII. — Cutting Wages.
Let the general public remember one thing which has caused the Pullman employees to stand in a wrong light before the world. They are quoted as wanting the wages of '93 for work done at a loss. When the employees agreed to ask for the wages of '93 they did what a great many people do, they intended to ask for a certain thing and failing in that to compromise on what they really did want. They felt their cause was just and if they failed to get the restoration of the scale of 1893, they expected that the Company would agree to lessen the severity of the cut in wages (say to make it about 25 per cent, instead of 33 1-2 per cent), and then to reduce their rents, equalize their wages, and change the innumerable petty abuses to which they were being subjected in the shops. Mr. Pullman, however, was too sharp for them, and instead of generously and openly deciding to do what every just person agrees ought to have been done, he found it very convenient to take the men at their word and, without any compromise, evade the main issue under the specious plea of not being able to
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pay wages of '93 on the basis of losing contracts.It is generally agreed that the maximum average wage paid at the time of the strike was $1.85. As to the lowest wages, it is difficult to average. The wages are paid every two weeks. Two checks are given to each employee — one a rent check, the other a pay check. Wages are paid at the bank. When they go to the bank to receive their two weeks' pay, the half month's rent is taken out, and the pay check cashed. The scenes enacted at the bank during last winter were pitiable. Not only was the current rent urgently demanded, but back rent was asked for under circumstances in many cases entirely uncalled for. After deducting rent, the men invariably had only from one to six dollars or so on which to live for two weeks. One man has a pay check in his possession of two cents after paying rent. He has never cashed it, preferring to keep it as a memento. He has it framed. Another I saw the other day, for seven cents. It was dated September, '93. The man had worked as a skilled mechanic at ten hours a day for twelve days, and earned $9.07. He keeps a widowed mother, and pays the rent, the house being in his name. His half month's rent amounted to $9.00. The seven cents was his, but he has never claimed it. Another employee had 47 cents coming to him on his pay check, and then was asked if he would not apply that on his back rent. He was indignant. He replied: "If Mr. Pullman needs that 47 cents worse than I do, let him have it." He left it.
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Many employees took advantage of the present law governing wages, and retained a part and sometimes all their rent money to sustain their families. Thus it was that the employees fell in arrears in rent to the extent of $70,000.
The average cut in wages was 33 1-3 per cent; in some cases it was as much as 40 per-cent, and in many was fifty per cent. These cuts in wages without corresponding reduction in rents were very severe, and largely produced the dissatisfaction which resulted in the strike.
As for those who had always earned good wages and were living in the better class of houses, these cuts bore down upon them with increasing severity. One man, an expert in certain kinds of work, not necessary to mention, as it might injure him, was cut from thirty-five cents an hour to twenty-three cents, and was about to be cut lower. These wages, even when cut, were not so bad, but the great trouble in so many cases was they could not put in full time. This man, all through the winter, earned just barely enough each pay day to meet his rent. His wife, taking in boarders and roomers, was thus able to keep the wolf from the door. A first-class mechanic worked ten hours a day for two weeks and then only earned $9.90. Laborers in the fall and winter earned nine cents an hour shifting lumber.
In this whole question of wages the public must bear in mind that the wage difficulty was not the
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whole trouble. Other things being equal, the men could have borne with more grace the reduction of wages. But there was personal abuse and tyrannical dealing in the shops, no reduction of rents, the loss of time, and a hundred minor abuses inherent in the system, that make the question of wages in Pullman different to that found in any other place. There is but one town of Pullman in America, and that is sui generis.While all the employees were cut in wages, many were still able to live, gentlemen as they are, who on principle were willing to bear almost anything rather than complain. A goodly number had no particular complaint at all, but while opposed to the strike, they were in hearty sympathy with those upon whom the burden of the cut was most severe. The cuts seemed to fall unequally on different classes of employees, the scale was changed so often that the men were in a constant condition of wonderment as to what would be the next move. The worst feature was that while the most of the work was done by piece work rather than time work, they did not have the opportunity to put in full time. For two or three months in the winter the hours of labor were seven hours a day. Later, as work increased, the time increased to ten hours per day. The employees complained bitterly of their loss of time, all through the winter. I heard it on every side. In a large establishment like the Pullman Shops there must necessarily
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be a large force of foremen, under foremen, sub-bosses, as well as heads of departments and higher officials. Instead of decreasing these foremen and under bosses, while cutting wages, these sub-bosses and inspectors were increased to such an extent as to make it positively unbearable in certain departments.The employees were cut on an average of 33 1-2 per cent in their wages, many of them 40 per cent and not a few 50 per cent. Trimmers were compelled to work on a car by contract so low, that after the wages was worked out, it would take three to five days to finish the car, and not one cent allowed to them thereon. First-class mechanics would work ten hours a day for two weeks and receive $9.90. Laborers were known to labor for nine cents an hour for ten hours' work, and earn the glorious sum of ninety cents per day. Inspectors or sub-bosses were placed over little gangs of men, to see that the same quality of work was squeezed out of the already cruelly reduced employees, as they had always been doing. It was, therefore, not surprising in many cases that the wages were so low that with the high rents they could not live.
Let me illustrate by the case of a mechanic employed in the iron department. He works on a certain machine.
He earned $1.40 per day. If he has full time (which he has not) he earns $36.40 in one month.
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We will say that he is a married man and occupies a flat of five rooms, for which he pays $14.50 per month. This leaves him $21.90 to clothe, feed and otherwise provide for his family, or about eighty-four cents per day. He can get another flat for $12.50, in a house having four flats to the building, on another street. He can live in the tenement blocks for $9.00 or $7.00, but what man who desires to bring up his family aright desires to live there?You can make the same calculation upon the basis of $1.85, which all agree was the average wages paid at the time of the strike. Out of that $1.85 per day you must deduct rent and water rate, on the basis of $18.50 plus 71 cents, $17.00 plus 71 cents, $14.50 plus 50 cents, $12.50 plus 50 cents, $6.50 plus 50 cents, $8.60 plus 50 cents, brick yards $8.00. Before drawing conclusions, read chapter on rents, and see what your intelligent American mechanic gets in return for the above rents, and which kind of rent he will be most likely to come under.
One man, a common laborer with a family to support, said he received for the days he was given work forty-nine cents a day. His rent for the month, including water rates, was $8.21. There was left out of his pay check less than $3 with which to support his family two weeks.
One of the blacksmiths who was at the works for years says he, when at work, earned forty-five cents in six hours. When the Pullman Company's ultimatum
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was given that the strikers must go to work at the reduced rates or leave Pullman, he declared that he would leave, because if he had to starve he wouldn't starve and wear out his clothes at the same time at Pullman's anvil. He and his companions, he said, were among the first to get out.Another man, a few days before the strike, got a pay check for his month's labor which came forty-five cents short of balancing his rent account. A bill for its balance was made out and the collector was sent with it to his house for payment. What this man was going to live on until his next pay check and next month's rent were due, he didn't know, and he did not require much persuasion to quit.
The blacksmiths, who formerly made from $4 a day upwards, say that at the time they went on strike, after three cuts in their wages within six weeks, they could not average more than $1 a day. One of them, a man who is counted one of the best operators in the shop, was only able to make $1.03 in three days.
Carvers, who are a very high grade of skilled artisans and who generally receive high wages, had been, at the time of the strike, cut down until they received only twenty-five cents an hour.
Stripers, another high grade of workmen, got twenty cents an hour, while painters got only nineteen cents. A part of the winter they were only permitted to work seven hours.
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It seems that these cuts were worse in some departments than in others; and even in the same departments there would be a strange lack of equalization.
I will quote here a letter written by Miss Jennie Curtiss, an employee of the Company, which will give, in her own language, a description of the Company's treatment of the employees in the women's department. I have read this letter to a young woman, an employee in the "New Work" department, who is very conservative and reliable, and well qualified to testify on these points. She corroborates everything written herein
"Being an employee of the Pullman Company for the past five years, I can truthfully state the following. There are two sewing rooms in the Pullman works; one is where all the new work is done, such as new carpets, window curtains, silk, satin, velvet, and plush draperies made for parlor, dining and chair cars only. We also sew the plush and tapestry with which the seats and backs of the sleepers are upholstered, and make all the sheets, pillow-slips, table-cloths, towels, napkins and linen of all descriptions used in the dining cars and sleepers. We also make all kinds of berth curtains.
"Then there is the Repair shop sewing room, where all of the repairing is done. I have worked in both departments, three years and a half in the new sewing room, and one year and a half in the Repair shop sewing rooms. The work in these sewing rooms is made mostly piece work and some day work. I will state some of our prices.
1893; carpet, 90 cents a section.
1894; carpet, 20 cents a section.
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"It is true we were making these carpets (under the reduction) by machine, that is about half of them, and the other half of them had to be finished by hand, and the machine sewing did not save ten per cent of the work, and I have known girls that made these carpets by machine at twenty cents a section, to only make five cents an hour. These carpets are cut and made in sections. The carpet is all in one, but it is cut in such odd shapes and slashes made to fit the cars that from one cut to the other we call a section. These carpets are large and small, they run from four to nine sections; therefore a nine section carpet that we received ninety cents a section for in 1893, would be $8.10; in 1894, at twenty cents a section, only $1.80. There have been a great many mistakes made about the prices of these carpets in the statements of papers, and that is why I have tried to explain as much as possible in regard to them.
1893; A three window drapery, $1.50.
1894; A three window drapery, $.80.
1893; A two window drapery, $1.25.
1894; A two window drapery, $.48.
1893; A one window drapery, $1.00.
1894; A one window drapery, $.45.
1893; 1 enclosed section curtain, $.35.
1894; 1 enclosed section curtain, $.15.
1893; 1 mattress tick, folding (37 1-2), $.40.
1894; 1 mattress tick, folding (37 1-2), $ .18.
1893; 1 mattress tick, single (27), $.25.
1894; 1 mattress tick, single (27), $.10
"These prices are in the Repair shop sewing room, in which place I worked last. They get the same price for the same work in the new room, but the prices on the linen and several other things I can not give. There are numerous other kinds of work we make for the cars, which would take too much time and space to mention, which has all been cut from
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time to time to the very lowest standard. For four years we were allowed to make $2.25 a day at the prices of 1893, which was very good wages for a girl, but which we well earned, as it was very tedious and confining, and long hours. At the time the shops closed on account of the strike, I was earning on an average eighty cents a day, at the prices of 1894. It was very hard to have to work for such small wages as that, which would afford a person a mere existence. But the tyrannical and abusive treatment we received from our forewoman made our daily cares so much harder to bear. She was a woman who had sewed and lived among us for years, one, you would think, who would have some compassion on us when she was put in a position to do so. When she was put over us by the superintendent as our forewoman, she seemed to delight in showing her power in hurting the girls in every possible way. At times her conduct was almost unbearable. She was so abusive to certain girls that she disliked, that they could not stand it, and would take their time and leave, who would otherwise have been working there to-day. If she could make you do a piece of work for twenty-five cents less than the regular price, she would do so every time. In fact she cut a great deal of work down herself. I have had many a dispute with her myself about cutting down our prices just to get the work done cheaper, thinking she would stand in better with the Company. She was getting $2.25 a day and she did not care how much we girls made, whether we made enough to live on or not, just so long as she could figure to save a few dollars for the Company. When a girl was sick and asked to go home during the day, she would tell them to their face they were not sick, the cars had to be got out, and they could not go home. She also had a few favorites in the room, to whom she gave all the best work, that they
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could make the most money on. We would complain of her to the foreman and general foreman, but they all upheld her, and if you were not willing to take her abuse you could go. There is now lying in Mr. Wickes' office in Chicago a petition signed by fifteen girls in the sewing room, requesting her removal. There are only eighteen girls working under her. No doubt she will remain in the employ of the Pullman Company, as that is just the kind of people they want at the heads of their departments — one who will help grind down their laborers. My father worked for the Pullman Company for ten years. Last summer he was sick for three months, and in September he died. At the time of his death, we owed the Pullman Company about sixty dollars for rent. I was working at the time and they told me I would have to pay that rent, give what I could every pay-day, until it was paid. I did not say I would not pay, but thought rather than be thrown out of work I would pay it. Many a time I have drawn nine and ten dollars for two weeks' work, paid seven dollars for my board and given the Company the remaining two or three dollars on the rent, and I still owe them fifteen dollars. Sometimes when I could not possibly give them anything I would receive slurs and insults from the clerks in the bank, because Mr. Pullman would not give me enough in return for my hard labor to pay the rent for one of his houses and live.
JENNIE CURTISS."
Here is another letter, written by an employee in the freight department. Some pitiable tales are told by the freight-car builders, concerning their hardships during the past winter. I have the man's name and address, but will not use it, for fear of retaliation:
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"Pullman, Ill., July 22, '94.
REV. W. H. CARWARDINE.
DEAR SIR: — I will try and give you a few facts. I am a freight-car builder, have worked for the Pullman Co. since the 10th of January, 1892, and I don't think we asked too much when we asked our wages restored to what they were in 1893, as we did not make any more than a fair living at that time. The highest pay that I made for two weeks in 1893 was $34.72, and I can truly say that my wages for the year did not exceed $1.80 per pay. Up to the beginning of the strike, I had run in debt about one hundred dollars; one half of this for rent, the rest for groceries and meat. I have reported for work every day that the shops were open for work, up till the strike began, and never missed even one hour, except when I moved my family here. I have a wife and four children, and it was for them that I struck, as I think that when a man is sober and steady, and has a saving wife, one who is willing to help along, and after working two and a half years for a company he finds himself in debt for a common living, something must be wrong. Some folks have said that we should have been satisfied. So we would have been, if we had been assured that this cut of fifty per cent was only temporary, and the Company had done the fair thing on the rent at the same time. But no! I was told just before the strike by one of the foremen that the Company had work for six months, and if we had kept on the Company would have owned us by that time. So with a prospect of working an indefinite length of time at these prices and under an overbearing and profane foreman, we struck and will stay out until the battle is fairly won, or we have to step out for good, and I believe if we do have to move out, the Pullman Company will rue the day, because I never saw a better class of mechanics than there are
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in Pullman to-day, and I never lived in a more orderly town in my life, and I don't believe there would have been one single dollar's worth of property destroyed in this town if the Company hadn't gone to the expense that they have, as well as the city and state. I don't think that George M. Pullman is as well acquainted with his children as he pretends to be, or he would have known that there was not one single anarchist in his whole family. Leaving you to use any part of this, or all if you wish, I remain,
Very respectfully yours."
"P. S. I was born in the United States, as were my parents before me and as were their parents before them."
The following statement will give some definite idea to the general reader as to the reduction of wages in the Freight Department:
"Pullman, July 23, 1894.
REV. W. H. CARWARDINE.
DEAR SIR: — I have been employed as car-builder in the freight department of the Pullman Palace Car Company for the past twelve years. The best wages that I ever averaged as car-builder was $2.10 per day, and when the strike began my wages averaged seventy cents per day. I have paid $11.57 per month rent for the past eight years. The treatment we have received from the foreman of the Company has been worse than the slaves ever received in the south.
"I shall give you some prices paid. These figures I take from a ledger secured from the general timekeeper from the freight shops.
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| Lot 1515 | Oct., 1888 |
| Car-builder | $13.00 |
| Truck builder | .90 |
| Truck labor | .31 |
| Hanging brakes | 1.20 |
| Delivery forgings | 1.05 |
| Delivery lumber | .88 |
| Framing | .40 |
| Total | $17.74 |
"The same car with latest improvements, in November, 1893.
| Car-builder | $7.00 |
| Truck builder | .60 |
| Truck labor | .09 |
| Hanging brakes | .65 |
| Delivery forgings | .35 |
| Delivery lumber | .21 |
| Framing | .12 |
| Total | $9.02 |
| Average wages in 1888 | $2.26 |
| Average wages in 1893 | $1.03 |
"I shall show figures of the car that we struck on, the Wickes Refrigerator, in 1889.
| Car-builders | $36.00 |
| Truck builders | .90 |
| Truck labor | .32 |
| Hanging brakes | 1.20 |
| Delivery forgings | 1.31 |
| Delivery lumber | 1.46 |
| Framing | .85 |
| Total | $42.04 |
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"The same car, 1894, with the latest improvements.
| Car builder | $19.50 |
| Truck builder | .60 |
| Truck labor | .10 |
| Hanging brakes | .60 |
| Delivery forgings | .56 |
| Delivery lumber | .64 |
| Framing | .26 |
| Total | $22.26 |
| Reduction of | $19.78 |
| Average of wages 1889 | $2.00 per day |
| Average of wages 1894 | 91 per day |
Respectfully."
The following table will indicate the reductions in the upholsterers' department. The list of reductions here used throughout the chapter, are taken from the statement of the Strikers' Central Committee in their report to the A. R. U. Convention. They claim that they are taken from the official books of the Company. I have submitted them for corroboration to a gentleman who has been for many years a trusted employee of the Company, who is an entirely disinterested party and is in a position to know, and he says that they are correct:
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| 1893. | 1894. | |
| Tufted head rests, with springs | .85 | .41 |
| Tufted head rests, without springs | .65 | .41 |
| Spring-edge backs | .67 | .48 1/2 |
| Spring-edge seats, tufted | 1.10 | .79 |
| Spring-edge seats, plain | .90 | .65 |
| Aisle ends | .70 | .47 |
| Wall ends | .65 | .47 |
| Scroll ends | 1.25 | .70 |
| Mann boudoir seat, tufted | 3.00 | 1.70 |
| Mann boudoir seat, plain | 2.75 | 1.51 |
| Mann boudoir back | 4.00 | 2.85 |
| Dining car plush seats | .37 | .34 |
| Dining car leather seats | .43 1/4 | .34 |
| Dining car plush back | .85 | .54 |
| Dining car leather back | .95 | .54 |
| Drawing-room sofa seats | 3.50 | 2.40 |
| Smoking room sofa seats | 3.50 | 2.75 |
| Extra long sofa seats | 4.00 | 2.75 |
| Round-end sofa seats | 2.75 | 2.10 |
| Drawing-room sofa backs, plain | .60 | .39 |
| Drawing-room sofa backs, tufted | 2.00 | 1.23 |
| Smoking-room sofa backs, double | 4.00 | 2.88 |
| Smoking-room sofa backs, single | 2.00 | 1.28 |
| Sofa panels, tufted | .60 | .42 |
| Sofa panels, with arms | .75 | .42 |
| Plush panels, per car | 1.02 | .79 |
| Sofa rolls | 1.40 | .90 |
| Large car chairs | 5.75 | 4.00 |
| Detroit chairs | 5.50 | 3.60 |
| Wicker chair, square | 4.50 | 3.20 |
| Wicker chair, round | 4.50 | 2.90 |
| Wicker chair, No. 369 | 3.00 | 1.75 |
| Wicker chair, No. 1,036 | 1.00 | .70 |
| Wicker sofa | 10.00 | 5.00 |
| Cutting carpets, dining car | 2.00 | .90 |
| Cutting carpets, sleeping car | 2.00 | 1.10 |
| Cutting carpets, Wilton | 2.50 | 1.50 |
| Laying carpet and oil cloth | 1.25 | .80 |
| Mattresses, new folding | .30 | .20 |
| Mattresses, double | .25 | .15 |
| Mattresses, smoking-room | .40 | .22 |
| Mattresses, old single | .20 | .15 |
| Mattresses, tourist | .23 | .15 |
| Loose cushions | .25 | .20 |
| Spring-edge seats, day coaches | .79 | .62 |
| Hard-edge seats, day coaches | .43 | .35 |
| Backs, day coaches | .30 | .27 |
| Day work | 2.75 | 1.90 |
| Day work | 2.50 | 1.90 |
| Day work | 2.25 | 1.80 |
| Day work | 2.00 | 1.50 |
| Day work, laborers | 1.50 | 1.30 |
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Among the painters the following table will give some idea as to their reductions:
| 1893. | 1894. | |
| Ornamental painters | $2.75 | $2.30 |
| Ornamental painters | 2.50 | 2.30 |
| Hardwood finishers | 2.35 | 2.00 |
| Hardwood finishers | 2.30 | 1.75 |
| Rubbers | 2.20 | 1.50 |
Piece work prices have been so reduced that the men can with the utmost difficulty make their day rate. The ornamentation of a Pullman sleeper was reduced from $40 to $25.30, rubbing rough stuff from $22 to $15, and all other work in the same proportion. It must be borne in mind that the painters in Chicago have, by their recent strike, secured for themselves thirty-five cents an hour for eight hours' work until June 15, and 32 1-2 cents an hour thereafter. The men in Pullman have extraordinary skill, but are paid at the rate of twenty-three cents an hour, a difference to-day of twelve cents. In other words, the Chicago brotherhood men are getting nearly fifty-two per cent more than the members of the American Railway Union. If it be asked why the men do not leave Pullman, it can only be answered that many of them have already, and that more will follow. But they demand justice where they are.
The machinists (Bolt Headers' Dept.) are asking for the same scale of wages as paid by the Chicago Forge and Bolt Company for precisely the same work. The differences are startling, the Pullman men since the cutting, for example, getting only six and one-fourth cents a hundred for three-quarter bolts, while the Chicago concern is paying eleven and three-fourth cents. The reduction in this department amounts to nearly fifty per cent. The threaders, millwrights, punch handlers, drill hands, and tool-makers ask for the wages of 1893. These last, who make tools, are cut
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in some cases to $1.75 a day, from $2.75 paid last December. In addition, the superintendent of this department is a bookkeeper, merely, and has frequently admitted that he knows nothing whatever about machinery or the requirements of the work.Among the Foundrymen, the brass molders have been cut from twenty to twenty-five cents a day, and the laborers and furnace men twenty cents. The brass finishers lost from twenty-five to fifty cents a day. The molders in the wheel shop were cut five cents a wheel, amounting to $1 and $1.20 a day, while the helpers have fifty cents a day less and the laborers ten to thirty-five cents. In the last year the men in this department have only been given twenty-eight days' actual employment. The machine department men were reduced twenty-five cents a day. The iron foundrymen who do piece work were reduced from forty to seventy-five cents for ten hours' work, the day workmen forty cents, coremakers from twenty to eighty cents, men in the chipping room twenty to seventy-five cents, and the yardmen twenty cents.
The blacksmiths suffered a cut between thirty and fifty per cent. Smiths making from $3.50 to $4.00 a day were cut down to between $1.50 and $2.50, the helpers suffering accordingly.
Among the employees of the Pullman Company there are a number of young women working in the carpet department, the new linen-room, the linen repair room, the glass-embossing department, and the laundry. Before May, 1893, the various departments were all paid at the rate of twenty-two and one-half cents an hour. The cut reduced this to ten cents an hour, a scaling down of sixty-eight per cent.
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Many girls providing for invalid mothers or small sisters or brothers have been able to make but six cents an hour. The Illinois statutes compel an eight-hour day for women.The special grievance of the wood-machine hands seemed to lie in their opposition to piece work. They have suffered in some instances a cut of forty per cent, and in no case has it fallen below thirty-three and one-third per cent. Some reductions are appalling. Work on parlor cars formerly worth $35 went down to $5, and on day coaches from $6 to $1.75.
The following are the reductions made in the Street Cars department since May 1st, 1893: —
Body Builders, Inside Finishers and Trimmers, from $3 per day to $2 per day. Cabinet makers were cut fifty per cent, Wood machinists from $2.75 and $2.25 per day to$2.40 and $1.60 per day. Blacksmiths were cut sixty per cent. Iron Machinists were cut eighty-five per cent. In this shop if a man made a complaint the foreman discharged him, telling him that he would bring one of his own countrymen over, who would do as much work as any six Americans. The shop laborers were cut from $1.50 to $1.30 per day. Painters were cut from $3.00 per day to $2.10. Stripers and ornamenters cut about sixty per cent. This is a sample of prices for a standard closed car
| 1892. | 1893. | 1894. | |
| Body | $41.00 | $33.50 | $25.00 |
| Inside finish | 30.00 | 27.00 | 22.00 |
| Trimming | — | 17.00 | 12.00 |
In view of these extensive and repeated cuttings of wages, it is no wonder that sometimes pay checks showed laborers, rated at $1.35 per day, often getting
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but ninety-one cents for seven hours' work, and finishers or trimmers making but $13.70 or even $6.57 for two weeks' work, out of which, by the terms of the leases, the rents had to be deducted. As I have said before, there were any number of cases continually, where the pay check amounted to less than five dollars, and in some instances but a few cents left after paying the rent.Imagine how a workman must feel after laboring two weeks, to step up to the bank, and have either two cents, seven cents, eight cents, or forty-seven cents handed to him to keep his family on for the following two weeks. Not much "mutual recognition" in that!
In connection with the cutting of wages it must be remembered that the failure to equalize wages produced great injustice and many hardships among the employees. I have it on good authority that after the Annual Meeting of last year the Company decided upon a general policy of reorganization throughout the whole shops. In view of this, work was slackened in all departments, no new work was taken, the employees were laid off until, along in September, I was told by the manager that there were not more than 900 to 1,200 men on the list. I understand that the "general policy" adopted was to take advantage of the "hard times," and open up later with a view to cutting wages. It was supposed that the employees, being in debt to the Company in rent, would be glad of
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work, and accept "cuts" with better grace than if the shops had not been practically shut down for two or three months. I believe Mr. Pullman and Mr. Wickes were desirous of putting this policy into force gradually and evenly, and I have reason to know that Mr. Pullman did not wish the men to be crowded more than they were willing to endure. His orders were, "Go slow." His managers "drove fast." Driven to desperation by repeated slashings and cuttings of the managerial whips, the employees took the bit in their teeth, and upset the coach in the ditch. Mr. Pullman, absent half of his time from the city, scarcely coming to the town more than five or six times during the winter, knew nothing about the true state of affairs. Statements from every department, weekly and so forth, were sent to him, but before reaching him there is no doubt that they were colored with such a roseate hue that he naturally believed all was well. What an easy thing for him to drop down unexpectedly, post himself on the real state of affairs, and act accordingly! For failure to do that, I hold that he is responsible for the present state of affairs.A word as to equalization. First of all, when the wages of the employees were cut, why did he not cut the salaries of the officials, the clerical force, the heads of departments, the foremen, inspectors, etc.? True, some of the foremen, when they were taken back to work last fall, did so at less pay than when they went out, but they were the only ones, and that was not
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a "cut" similar to that received by the employees later on.Then, again, here is what I mean by equalization. Blacksmith laborers, required to do the hardest kind of work, were reduced from $1.50 to $1.30 per day. Now, on the Passenger Car department, a laborer whose work was comparatively light and easy was cut just the same, $1.50 to $1.30. I contend, in justice, that the blacksmith's laborer ought to have been cut less than the other laborer.
Again, cabinet-makers and upholsterers were cut about the same, say from $2.75 to $1.85; some as low as $1.55 to $1.50 day rate. Now, a cabinet-maker should not be cut as low as an upholsterer, for the cabinet-maker has to provide himself with a kit of tools valued from $75.00 to$100.00, with the danger of loss by breakage, etc., besides years of preparation for his special work. While the upholsterer's work is important and requires skilled labor, yet it is not as high grade work as the cabinet-maker's. Yet they are cut the same, without regard to skill, etc. Even if they are on piece work, they are not allowed to make more than day rate. In some cases they were both cut so low that they could not even make day rate. Then, again, it must be remembered that in all departments through the shops the scale of wages paid, even in 1893, was below the Union scale in vogue throughout Chicago and elsewhere. During the past year in Pullman, skilled mechanics could not
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make as much as day laborers made in 1893, with a few exceptions.Another case in point. A fireman employed in heating the great boilers of the Corliss engine, hard and laborious employment, works the first two weeks of the month for eighty-six hours per week, and the next two weeks for one hundred and twenty-six hours per week, seven days in the week. He thus labors 428 hours per month or about sixteen hours per day, and receives therefrom $40.00 per month pay.
Or again, an employee in the iron machine shop is given a job consisting of fifty pieces of iron, each with four holes, which are to be squared and trimmed. It takes him just one hour to finish one piece, and according to the scale given to him by the under-foreman, he will receive four and one-halt cents per piece; four and one-half cents for one hour's work, and he a good mechanic, capable of earning $3.00 per day. He appeals to the superintendent, a good man, a practical man; he sees the injustice of the case, agrees to have it remedied, and when the man was paid, he found he had been allowed twenty cents for them instead of four and one-half cents. Now, this man was fortunate in getting justice, but all over the shops men were imposed upon and mistreated in this way, who got no redress.
Mr. Pullman says "nothing to arbitrate." I appeal to the public if there was not "something to arbitrate"
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here — less reductions, and equalization of wages.In concluding this chapter, I would add that two-thirds of the abuses practiced in the shops arose over this unmerciful cutting of wages. It seemed to be the policy from high official down to sub-boss, to see how often and how much they could "cut" their men. Employees who occupied positions of influence were seemingly discharged because they did not "cut" to suit those over them; the imported gentlemen who took the places of those vacated, in order to sustain their reputation for reducing expenses, must necessarily "cut" and grind those beneath them. Apparently when gentlemen who had been in the employ of the Company seven, eleven and twenty years, all capable and practical men of irreproachable character, had pressure brought to bear on them to resign and their places filled with men, not practical, some not as irreproachable in character as they might be, but whose sole claim to position was that they would not hesitate to put the screws on the already reduced employees, then it seems to me that the Pullman Company has forgotten about its "mutual recognition" theory, and prefers to have just such as these latter at the head of the affairs. And these are the gentlemen who at the first alarm of violence cry to the government for military protection, fill the town on the slightest provocation with the police, and who themselves are so afraid of their mortal existence
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that they move about armed to the teeth, and in quick communication with the militia. O tempora! O mores!Let the reader place beside this sad picture that other one that men love so well to contemplate, the Pullman Palace Car Company, $27,000,000 surplus. Capitalization of $30,000,000. Two per cent quarterly dividend of $600,000 in three months!
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Chapter VIII. — Rents, Water, Gas, Etc.
When Mr. Pullman said that he had "nothing to arbitrate" he evidently must have forgotten for the time being the high rents and exorbitant prices demanded for water and gas in his "model town." Mr. Pullman in his final statement says
"A few words are pertinent as to some industriously spread charges against the Company. One of these charges is that rents are exorbitant, and it is implied that the Pullman employees have no choice but to submit. The answer is simple: The average rental of tenements at Pullman is at the rate of $3 per room per month, and the renting of houses at Pullman has no relation to the work in the shops. Employees may, and very many do, own or rent their houses outside of the town, and the buildings and business places in the town are rented to employees or to others, in competition with the neighboring properties. In short, the renting business of the Pullman Company is governed by the same conditions which govern any other large owner of real estate, except that the company itself does directly some things which in Chicago are assumed by the city. If, therefore, it is not admitted that the rents of any landlord are to be fixed by arbitration and that those of the adjoining towns of Kensington and Roseland should also be so fixed, it can hardly be
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asked that the Pullman Company alone should abandon the ordinary rules which govern persons in that relation."
Let us examine this carefully. He says that $3.00 per room is the average rental. According to page fifty-one of Mr. Duane Doty's book on the Town of Pullman, there are 1,855 tenements in Pullman. A few have been added, however, since the publication of Mr. Doty's book. Averaging five rooms to a house, that would make it $3.71 per room. But it must be remembered that at least one-half the tenements are now empty, and about one-third of them have always been empty. Last year, on account of the World's Fair, was about the only year in the history of the town when the houses were all practically occupied. If we should base an average on the actual rents paid and the actual number of houses occupied, we would find a much higher rental than $3.00 per room. But look at facts, not averages. I occupied a flat of four rooms on Watt Ave., and paid $14.50 rent; at $3.00 per room, I lost $2.50 per month. I next rented a five room cottage on Morse Ave., for $17.50; at $3.00 per room, lost $2.50 per month. I am now renting a five room cottage on same street, but a better location, for $18.50; at $3.00 per room, I am losing $3.50 per month.
In Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, published in New York, July 26, '94, Mr. John T. Bramhall truthfully says:
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"I had read that the rents of houses here range from $5 to $50 per month, the average being $14; but there are hundreds of tenements ranging from $6 to $9 per month. These rents are considerably less than for similar tenements anywhere else in Chicago.
"The above was written several years ago, when rents were higher than they are now. Briefly this is what I found, as verified by the rent receipts, the odd cents standing for the water rate: Flat, seven rooms and bath, $28.96; the same in other Chicago suburbs, $18 to $20. Flat, five rooms, $15.60; flat, four rooms, $14.71; apartments in "block," a three story tenement building in the middle of a square, containing from seventeen to fifty-four families — three rooms, $9.10; two rooms, $7.60."
I quote from Mr. Doty's book, written in the interest of the company: "Single five room cottages rent from $16 to $19 per month, while single houses of from six to nine rooms vary from $22 to $10 per month." While these are cottages, it must be remembered that they are not detached, but are built side by side with other brick houses in rows. I pay $18.50 for a five room cottage and seventy-one cents for water, with the use of only one faucet, and no bath-room. Four and five room apartments in two-story flats rent from $14 to $15 per month, plus the water at 60 to 71 cents per month. Four room apartments on the first, second and third floors of three-story flats rent from $11 to $13.50 per month, plus the water at sixty cents per month.
In the large tenement blocks, where from 300 to 500 people live under one roof, you can get two rooms
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on third floor in the rear for $6.50 plus sixty cents for water, or four rooms for $8.50 plus sixty cents for water. On the second floor of same building, you pay $8.50 plus sixty cents for three rooms. In the brick yards, a place not fit for any decent human being to live in, you can rent a three room cottage for $8.00. The water is free; one outdoor faucet for every four houses. There are some very high-priced houses in town. Taking all cottages, tenements and flats together, I should judge that the average rental would be more likely to be $18.00 than $14.00.The town of Pullman is estimated to be worth $10,000,000. Everything pays rent. The "Greenstone Church," as I have already intimated, pays $1,200, the Methodist Church, in the Casino building, pays nearly $500. The Y. M. C. A. pays $180 per year. The 1,800 dwellings pay $325,000 or more. The market, the arcade, and the stores bring in a good rental besides.
Mr. Pullman further says that "the renting of houses in Pullman has no relation to the work in the shops." Now, what does he mean? Was not the town built principally to rent to the employees? That is the very theory upon which it is established. The employees are positively expected to live in Pullman. Last winter, when work was slack, the shops picked up, and the men were re-employed. The orders then were as told me by the manager himself first to take on men renting in Pullman, second those who own
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their own homes in adjoining towns, and third those who do not rent in Pullman or own homes elsewhere. That was right. The renters should have first choice. When the shops were filled up, and the houses well taken, then employees could be free to live elsewhere. Sometimes there are certain mechanics whom the Company are compelled to have; they can live where they please. If necessary, I can give names of men who have told me that they were urged and re-urged to move to Pullman, or be "laid off." The employees, as a rule, are expected to rent the Company's houses. There are many exceptions, it is true, but this is the unwritten if not the written law of the Company. I know many men who would prefer not to live here, but are practically expected to. If the employees should all move out of town some fine morning when work is in full blast, the Company would soon testify to its position on that point.Mr. Pullman further states in regard to rent that he charges rents in Pullman in competition with rents in adjoining towns. Here is a letter written by a Kensington real estate dealer to the Chicago Times on this question. I quote
"Kensington, Ill., July 17. — GEORGE M. PULLMAN, ESQ., Long Branch, N. J. — Sir: In the publishment of a recent interview with you it is stated that your renting department charges rents in Pullman in competition with rents in the adjoining towns of Kensington, Roseland, and Gano. If you sincerely believe this to be true, it would be well for you to personally investigate as with my six years' experience
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in the renting business in the said towns of Kensington, Roseland, and Gano. I know it to be a positive fact that flats and cottages containing parlor, dining-room, two bedrooms and kitchen, with use of water and yard, have been and are rented for $10 and $12, for which similar accommodations you charge $16 and $18 at least.
"My statement, undoubtedly, will be verified at any time by the other renting agents of this district.
"Respectfully,
CORNELIUS G. BOON,
Real estate and renting agent."
There is no question whatever but that better flats and cottages, with pretty garden, and bath-rooms, can be hired at the neighboring towns of Roseland and Kensington at fully twenty per cent less.
The water tax has always been a burden upon the people. Bought under contract for four cents per 1,000 gallons, it was retailed to the tenants for ten cents per 1,000 gallons. The rates to the tenants individually are given above. Since Mayor Hopkins took office the price to the town of Pullman has been increased, and now this company is said to be making little if anything on the water. As to the gas, it is a well known fact that we all pay $2.25 per thousand feet, while in Chicago it is sold for $1.25 and $1.00.
A few interesting details might be added concerning the town. A recent table of the nativity of the wage-earners at Pullman shows the following:
| American | 1,796 | Dutch | 753 |
| Scandinavian | 1,422 | Irish | 402 |
| German | 824 | Latin | 170 |
| British and Canadian | 796 | All others | 161 |
| 6,324 |
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The town controls 3, 500 acres of land, formerly swamp land, in its original native state worth probably not over $15.00 per acre. About one hundred acres is covered with dwellings and other buildings, valued at about $5,000,000, and two hundred more given up to factories, foundry, shops, steel mills, etc., equaling no doubt about $11,000,000, all told. It is a fact that has been stated repeatedly without denial that this vast property only brings into the city of Chicago a pittance of $15,000.00 annually by taxes, less than one-tenth of one per cent of its estimated value. It is assessed apparently per acre rather than by lot. What is the matter with the assessor?
Mr. Pullman objects to the arbitration of his rents and compares himself and company to the ordinary real estate dealer. This is not a fair comparison. The Pullman Palace Car Company is so established that all its interests are clearly related one to another. The town of Pullman and the shops are inseparable. They are intimately related to each other. The demand of the men for reduction of rents is reasonable and ought to be heeded; above all, when they are expected to live in his houses, he should be willing, while cutting their income, to reduce their expenses.
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Chapter IX. — Shop Abuses.
In this chapter we deal with one of the vital causes of the Pullman Strike. Shop abuses and mismanagement have had no little to do with the present condition of affairs. Mr. Pullman spent much money in building his ideal city, but laid it out in accordance with the feudal system, everything belonging to the lord of the manor. It was an experiment on American soil. Mr. Pullman thought he would make a success of it, but it has practically failed.
He got the best class of workmen to be found and paid the highest wages. They earned them, for they were experts; his laboring people, owing to a surplus, were poorly paid.
Soon the cutting of wages began, and American foremen and workmen gradually made way for cheaper priced men. These foremen, to curry favor with the manager, have tried every means, honest or dishonest, to lessen the expenses of their departments. Among these foremen were good, bad, and indifferent men. These men do not want American workmen. One foreman was commonly quoted as saying, "I have no
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use for American workmen; they are too d — d independent." Complaints of the brutality of these men were carried to the central office without any redress whatever, the complainant taking the chance of discharge for so doing.A very intelligent communication, evidently written by one in a position to know, appeared in the Inter Ocean about two weeks ago, by one who signed himself "Fair Play." He tells the truth and puts it very clearly. He takes the ground that the principal cause of trouble is the abuses practiced in the shops. He says
"Here are some facts about the treatment of the men that can be easily substantiated:
"1. Certain foremen borrow money from their men, from $5 to $30, and when men complain, discharge them or lay them off.
"2. One foreman near foundry induced his men to buy lots near Burnside, by telling them the owner was a friend of Pullman and would see they were kept at work. Said foreman received commission from real estate man.
"3. One department is notorious for its drinking and profane superintendent and corps of clerks. It is a fact that they are all sometimes too "tired" to do business properly.
"4. Some of the foremen having charge of the foreign laboring classes use the vilest epithets toward them, and even attempt to kick them.
"5. All foremen who attempt to gain the good will of the men by just treatment are discharged as being, in the words of the manager, ‘too good to the men.’"
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In this connection I will give here a letter written to me by an employee whose name I withhold, but can produce it if necessary. He states the case clearly, and is evidently an intelligent and thoughtful man
"REV. W. H. CARWARDINE, DEAR SIR: — In the cabinet shop (construction department), where all except laborers are employed on piece-work, the principal trouble is the reduction of prices of December last averaging thirty-three and a third per cent. Some articles were reduced as much as fifty per cent at that time. 1. Saloon doors. Lots 2040 and 2041. Previous to August '93 prices were gradually reduced as often as a man made over the limit, which at that time was under thirty cents per hour. Cabinet-makers, at this time, were rated at from twenty to twenty-two cents per hour, for a basis to pay on account where jobs were partially completed at close of the half month. At time of resuming work in December, cabinet-makers were rated at seventeen to nineteen cents, and prices for piece work were supposed to be made to enable men to make that rate; wherever a man made over one or two cents per hour above day rate, that particular job was again pruned in price. 2. The writer on seat ends, lot 2040, earned twenty-two cents per hour (March '94); next lot, 2041, were cut twelve and one half per cent. On the other hand, where prices were so low that some men occasionally earned less than one dollar per day, prices were not raised. 3. Mr. — on doors earned less than nine cents per hour.
"The prices paid for work in '93 were lower than the year previous, and the same may be said of each preceding year, so long as the writer can remember the shop, which is upwards of seven years. In support of this may be mentioned vestibule doors, the prices of which have been revised so many times, each in
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the same direction, that they have ranged from $5.00 to $2.40 per pair.
"It should be noted about three fourths of the work done since last fall has been repair work on Pullman Co.'s cars, and the reduction in price has been as great on that as on contract work.
"Besides the reduction in prices, the mismanagement is apparent everywhere. The foreman has been known to set a price on a piece of work before he knew what was needed, before he saw the drawing in fact. New shelves for a folding table (M. O. 21,-176). In one case a price was set at $3.00 each for some partitions; after completion the workman made complaint of the price, which was raised to $5.00, and at this price the job paid under twenty-four cents per hour. This price was May '92, Partition E. lot 1919. Lately the foreman informed the men he no longer set prices for new work, this being done in the manager's office. During the past winter the shop has depended principally on repair work, and on this the foreman's assistants have been entrusted to fix prices. This is the result: one man gets $2.00 for scraping a door, another man receives $1.75 for the same work, and the assistant foreman paying the highest price is reprimanded, after which he endeavors to meet prices of the other petty foreman, and it is easy to see who feels this merry war.
"While in this department, during the past year the number of employees have been reduced about seventy per cent; the number of foremen and assistants remains the same. According to figures given by Mr. Wickes, rather more than one-third of the men in this department averaged for the month of April, '94, twenty cents per hour and upwards; in this one third was included the assistants of the foreman to the number of about seven. This shows how the averages of the workmen are manufactured by the Company.
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"During slack times it seems an injustice some men should be kept continuously at work while others work much less than half time. Truly some are better qualified than others, and probably the Company would make such excuse; but these men who work such short time the Company think sufficient of to keep them on the pay rolls for the sake of paying rent."
Again, I will insert another letter, which tells its own sad story.
"Pullman, July 21, '94.
REV. W. H. CARWARDINE.
DEAR SIR: — I think it my duty to explain my case. My family consists of myself, wife and four children. We live in three small rooms with only a back entrance, for which I pay $9.00 per month, and fifty cents for water. I am considered a first-class car builder, and am a sober and industrious man and have always reported for work, whether day or piece work. I was worse off at the time of the strike by $250.00 than when I came to Pullman. In regard to wages of '93, with strict economy we barely eked out an existence, but the first part of '94 new trouble began. The Company, not satisfied, began the war by reducing our wages to a starvation point. At the time we laid down our tools, we were building a car for $19.50 that we should have got $36 for. After the second cut in our wages the stores refused to give us credit, as they knew we could not pay in full from one pay day to another. More trouble began. The Company would not give us our checks at the shops as usual, but sent us to the Company's bank, where they would have a better chance to squeeze us for the rent it was impossible to pay. I have seen myself and fellow workmen pleading with the rent agent to leave us enough to buy some member of the
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family a pair of shoes or some other necessity. Then when our last cut came, that was the straw that broke the camel's back; we could not stand it any longer. I, like a good many others, had to stop carrying my dinner, as what I had to carry would have run through the basket. I have seen one of my companions on the next car to mine, so weak from the lack of proper food, that he would have to rest on the way going home.
"We could see plainly it was either work and starve, or strike and depend on charity until we could win, which we are bound to do. The good Lord is always on the side of justice, and I am sure he will see justice done us.
Yours Truly."
Much complaint is made in regard to the placing of incapable men in positions of authority. Men are often placed in these positions who have no practical idea of the nature of their work. They may be adepts in something else, but not in the duties entrusted to them. Prof. Ely's criticism of ten years ago on nepotism and favoritism throws much light on these abuses.
One of the most abominable abuses practiced in these shops is that known as "blacklisting." To my own knowledge, I have seen some cruel effects of this vile practice.
One man, whose wife was an esteemed member of my church, and who himself was highly respected by all who knew him, having long held a good position in the service of the Company, was discharged for a trivial offense, and blacklisted. I am acquainted with all the details of the case. A strong temperance
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man, very industrious, and yet "blacklisted!" It was one of the most cruel cases of the kind I have ever known.Fortunately for the strikers, they have a piece of splendid evidence against the Company, to prove this charge. About December, 1893, there was some trouble among the steamfitters, which resulted in the blacklisting of the following forty men. I will copy here the order, as sent out by the local manager.
Pullman, Ill., December 23, 1894.
To ALL FOREMEN: In connection with the recent trouble we have had with steamfitters, both in the construction and repair departments, I give below the names of the men who have left our employ and I hereby instruct that none of these men be employed in these works.
No. 1703 Joseph Cohan.
1705 Frank McKevilt.
1706 William O'Meara.
1707 James H. Matthews.
1711 Edward Sweeney.
1715 John Guthardt.
1721 Martin Tracey.
1720 Tice Mastenbrook.
1722 Charles G. Duffy.
1740 Frank Vincent.
1743 Michael McNulty.
1753 William H. Danaher.
1764 Edward M. Barrett.
4500 Jacob Stockman.
4516 Robert Goebbels.
4563 James A. Brown.
4564 Louis Moss.
4565 Thomas Hamilton.
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These men were hired, but would not go to work when they found the other men had quit.
Daniel J. McCarthy.
John A. Smith.
Frank Pohl.
Ambrose J. Hough.
George Elwell.
No. 6976 Frank Engle, Steam fitter.
6977 B. Jones, Steam fitter.
6978 Thomas Johnston, Steam fitter.
6980 Wm. J. Connell, Steam fitter.
6983 Chas. R. McGinnis, Steam fitter.
6985 C. Patton, Steam fitter.
6985 P. McCaffery, Steam fitter.
6988 Martin Craig, Steam fitter.
6990 J. C. Warburton, Steam fitter.
6995 B. O. Gara, Steam fitter.
7002 Josh Jones, Helper.
7007 William Mack, Helper.
7015 Mike Carroll, Helper.
7016 Frank Oberreich, Helper.
7035 Dave Burrows, Helper.
7024 M. Cunningham, Helper.
7025 James Payne, Helper.
7082 August Berghofer, Helper.
H. MIDDLETON, Manager.
Another case. A blacksmith, said to be one of the very best ever employed by the Company, left his work one afternoon for some good reason. An incipient strike took place in his absence. After the strike was over, applying for work, he found his name among the "blacklisted." Went to headquarters, manager was sorry, but could not reinstate him. Later was ordered out of his house. Still on the blacklist. I have inquired carefully into the case, and from the best authority believe it to be a case of injustice. I have his name.
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This whole matter of blacklisting is worthy of Siberia. It is a disgrace to American labor. It is a boycott on labor. Capital complains of strikes and boycotts. I deprecate strikes, and I believe a boycott to be wrong, and a poor way to win good results for labor, but capital boycotts a man when she "blacklists" him. The "blacklisted" man can not only not get employment in all of the Pullman shops, and Pullman interests; but cannot even get a recommendation of good character to another employer.
A complaint of another nature comes from the Rolling Mill operatives. Why does Mr. Pullman continue the policy of refusing profitable contracts for his rolling mill — contracts for work outside of that done for the car system — and thereby keep in idleness for weeks at a time, to the detriment of their families, the best class of skilled rolling mill operatives to be found in the country? These men are mostly Englishmen, and all are splendid workmen, who make good wages while there is employment, but are idle half the time because of this peculiar policy of the Company.
It has been denied that there is political intimidation.
We all know how futile is that denial. Since the Australian ballot system came into vogue, the employees have voted about as they please, but previous to that and at present in local elections, foremen talk very positively to their men about voting, and give
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them to understand what the consequences will be. I had an experience in this direction myself, in the late aldermanic election, when a certain official of the Company went to a foreman and gave him to understand that he was to withdraw his name as a candidate for a certain office, and "would in all probability be expected to settle it within that day." This roused the independence of the man, he resisted the threat and continued running for the nomination; he lost the nomination, but defeated the chances of the Company's candidate. The candidate opposed by the Company was elected. In a few weeks, the independent foreman was asked to resign. He had been years in the employ of the Company, and was one of its most efficient men. Two other employees interested in his candidacy were also asked to resign. Theoretically the Pullman Company never interferes with the politics of its employees, but practically there have been strong evidences the other way.There is absolutely no recognition of merit in the policy of the Company. Changes are constant. A peculiarity of the town of Pullman is the evanescent character of its life. It seems to be inherent in the system. Many men remain in the employ of the company for years; but no one is safe. There is a constant feeling of insecurity. Men have put in years of hard, laborious work, only to be dismissed without a moment's warning, and then scarcely to receive a word of thanks. This is the strangest thing to me
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in the whole system. I have been surprised to see how quick, and on what slight ground faithful men are discharged.In such a vast system, perfection is impossible, and injustice may be occasionally done without intent. But there is no reason why true merit should not be appreciated and encouraged. Such a Company as this can afford to be generous and sincere in its treatment of its men. Promotion and recognition is reciprocal in its effect. Nothing is lost thereby. And in this connection we might add that the pensioning of its old and tried employees is an unknown factor in the daily life of this Company.
Again, the Company is greatly enriched by inventions of its employees, for which they give the employee neither money nor credit. Many ingenious inventions and devices are scattered throughout the shops that bring in good returns but not to their inventors. Mr. Pullman, said to be one of the greatest inventors of the age, instead of encouraging a spirit of invention among his employees, and giving them the credit thereof, on the contrary, enforces the law upon them, by which, if they do invent anything in his shops, they shall relinquish all title to the same.
A grievous charge made by the employees against those in authority in the shops is that of personal abuse. Foul and abusive language on the part of a foreman or the head of a department, or even by an official, should not be tolerated for a moment. I do
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not wonder that men whose wages have been reduced to such a low ebb, should retaliate when insult and abuse is added to low wages. I well remember, when an orphan boy in the city of New York, having to work for six years under an abusive foreman in the composing room of the New York Evening Post. Of all the men I have ever met, he was the embodiment of tyranny. A man of considerable ability, but foul in language and despotic in authority, the daily terror of all who were under his influence. He treated men like dogs, swore at them and abused them without stint. In those days there was engendered in my soul a hatred against tyrannical foremen and abusive treatment of men which has never left me, and which during the past months of our long and sad winter made my very blood boil with indignation at what I have seen and heard. Then it was that I declared if ever the opportunity presented itself to defend the true rights of laboring men, and smite those who unmercifully oppressed them, I would lift up my voice and cry aloud, in the name of the God of Israel.One other charge of selfish evasion of duty I would prefer against this great Pullman Palace Car Company is that it does not give damages unless absolutely compelled to, to those who are injured or die in its service.
There are numerous cases in the town of Pullman illustrative of this. A lady whose husband had long
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been in the employ of the Company is now a widow. Her husband died from the effects of the breakage of the machine on which he was working, the name of which I will not mention for fear of injuring her case. She has been making every effort to get a settlement from the Company for many months. But procrastination and evasions have met her at every turn, until now she is heartily discouraged.The public will doubtless remember the case of the colored porter who had been seriously injured in the service of the Company, and applied repeatedly for satisfaction. At last when McPherson, the Company's lawyer, secured a strap from him in the Company's city offices, the best evidence he had, in sheer desperation he turned and fired three shots from a revolver, neither of them producing any serious damage.
Many cases might be enumerated showing how a great and wealthy corporation resorts to every possible method to avoid settling claims of those who have a right to receive help from them.
Pitiful are the stories told of the sick and injured who receive little or no compensation for injuries done. There is an official Doctor and Surgeon, who gives a certain amount of medical service to the injured. It used to be that a sick man was allowed for a certain time $2.00 a day; then gradually it was reduced to $1.00 a day, and that only paid when he could report for work and pick up screws from a heap
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of different sized screws on the floor.I will conclude this point with the quotation of a letter giving a statement of the treatment by the Company of a certain Mrs. Wood, a member of my church, whose husband died as the result of wounds inflicted while in the performance of duty as a watchman. She is responsible for her own statement. The case is a well known one in Pullman and created great interest at the time. The writer says
"Buckley Wood, of 312 Stephenson Street, watchman at the Fulton Street gate, was assaulted July 15, 1886, by a man named Pearson, who tried to take a box of tools through the outer gate without a pass, which was required by the rules of the Company, and which Mr. Wood asked for, when Pearson struck him in the face with a hatchet, knocking out two of his teeth and knocking him down so that he fell striking the back of his head on a stone. He was unable to give an account of the assault for over a week.
"Pearson was arrested by a policeman named Thos. Kane, and was locked up in the Kensington Station until transferred to Hyde Park. When the case was called, Mr. Wood was not able to appear, and policeman Kane prevailed upon Mrs. Wood not to leave her husband to attend the trial, as the police would see to it that justice was done, which they did by letting the defense choose the jury, which brought in a verdict of ‘not guilty.’ They held that Mr. Wood had no right to stop Pearson from taking his own tools from the shops. In which case I think the Pullman Company should have been responsible, inasmuch as they gave him strict orders not to allow any one to take anything from the shops without a pass from their foreman. Police Captain Hunt went with
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Mrs. Wood and witnesses to the city to get an indictment for the man, but when they arrived the grand jury had adjourned for six weeks, and when they returned, Pearson, having been notified of their intentions through some source, had decamped for parts unknown, until it was learned he was arrested and convicted, and sent to state prison for two years in the state of Ohio for assaulting an old man about a year afterward.
"Mr. Wood was employed afterward in the Paint department, not through kindness of the Pullman Company, but rather that of Mr. Thomas Kennedy, who was then superintendent of the paint department, and knew that Mr. Wood was not really able to do any work. He let him put in his time doing any little odd jobs he could do; as the Pullman Company did not consider him as being in good enough health to resume his position as watchman, and the books of the Pullman Company will show how many, many days he was not even able to walk to the shop, as through the kindness of Mr. Kennedy, if he once got to the shop, he was not compelled to do any work as long as the higher officials did not see him doing nothing. In that way he lived until the 30th of May following, when he died as surely from the effect of his injuries of the previous July as if he had died the same day.
"Mrs. Wood, thinking it altogether useless for a poor widow to try and fight a corporation like the Pullman Company, did not act on advice she received from many friends to bring suit against them, but tried to make some arrangement with Mr. Sessions, then manager of the works in Pullman, whereby she could have the use of the house in which she lived, but he said he had no authority to let her have the house without paying rent for it. She wrote several times, once through her minister, pastor of the first
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M. E. church, who registered a letter to Mr. Pullman, but did not receive an answer. She decided to pay the rent and did so, with the exception of six weeks' rent ($26.56) at the time of her husband's death, which they gave her as a free gift in recompense for the life of her husband. At three different times since, when she has been unable to meet the rent bills promptly, she has had notice of eviction, and been compelled to borrow enough money to pay the rent to keep from having her goods put out into the street, once in December, 1893, when she had got behind in the rent, but made arrangements with the town agent to pay the old rent as she could, and let her daughter take the responsibility of the house from January 1, 1894. She did, and paid a rental of $17.71 per month from a salary of $1.00 (one dollar) per day, having the remainder to support herself and mother. The January rent she paid cash and for February, March and April she paid it from her pay checks, paying for the four months rent $70.84 and receiving in payment not over $25.00 above rent for the same four months. On the third of May it seems that after Miss Wood had been out of work over a week they made the startling discovery that they had credited $12.71 (which she had paid in January) to the account of the old bill (with which she had no connection, as she paid her board until January 1), but instead of correcting their mistake, gave her notice to vacate the house on the 3rd of May, for a bill of $12.71 due on January rent, while she held receipts for February, March and April, and when she remonstrated in the Pullman bank the clerk said he had credited it as he saw fit and would not change it, and she would be compelled to pay it over or leave the house.
"Mrs. Wood told the agent she would go to headquarters, when he flew into a passion, and told her if
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she dared go to Mr. Wickes she would be made to suffer for it. She did go to see Mr. Wickes, who told her that something should have been done for her before if he had known of her case, of which he claimed he knew nothing. He told her she should go home and rest contented, that she would not be troubled. Mr. Middleton, the present manager of the works, told her that her daughter would not be troubled for the rent, that she should draw what money was coming to her; after which, on May 21st, ten days after the strike, when she went to draw the money due her, $3.53, she was asked to sign it over for rent, which she refused to do and does not know whether or not she will be compelled to move for non-payment of rent when the strike is over."
Now, in view of these facts, the great true-hearted public, believers in fair play, will see that it is not all sunshine in Pullman. This great undercurrent of dissatisfaction, culminating in the strike of May 11th, had some underlying causes back of it. Some of the things I have mentioned may seem trivial, but like the lesser streams emptying into the greater, and swelling the impetus thereof, so these countless lesser abuses and tyrannies have wrought out their awful and disastrous results. How long will great corporations continue to deal thus inhumanly with employees?
I do not and never have hesitated to place the responsibility of the strike upon the Company. The public must bear in mind that while the action of the employees seemed hasty, still they had great cause for action. To say that it was produced entirely by the
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"labor agitator" is to insult the intelligence of the finest body of mechanics gathered together in any one place in the United States. I contend that when a body of men such as we have here, lay down their tools and leave the work bench, as did these men, that they are actuated by some great underlying motive, and that it will not do to call them idiots and fools.These employees were in a very sensitive and suspicious state of mind. A long winter, with its countless causes for grievance and dissatisfaction, was just behind them. They had been so ground between the upper mill stone of "low wages" and the nether mill stone of "high rents," the continued oppression of the "straw bosses," the smothered but still unsuppressed dislike of the general and local management, which has added to, rather than sought to, alleviate their troubles, and a system of surveillance that seems to be indigenous to the very atmosphere of the place, that they were in no condition to be trifled with by the Company.
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Chapter X. — Personal — Lessons — Remedy.
Suffer a few words of personal allusion. When I delivered my sermon on "The Pullman Strike," ten days after its employees walked out of the shops, I had no idea that it would have created the interest that it has.
It was rather an audacious act to perform because, owing to the peculiarity of the paternalistic government of Pullman, no one feels like openly criticising the Company. The time having arrived, I spoke out, what were my honest, candid convictions, without thought of fear or favor. My position was peculiar. I did not endorse the strike, and never have. I did not endorse the boycott. Repeatedly have I said this. But I stood for justice. If the workingmen believe in strikes and boycotts, all right. They have found that strikes may do, but boycotts will not do. But these working men use the weapons seemingly most useful, as they think, for their purpose. But I look back of all this, and say, "Let us unearth the cause!" Strike at the root. Don't revile and curse these employees! Vituperation of strikers will do no good. Study the situation, and give them in their demand for justice your sympathy and moral support. Stir up one
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half of society to behold the wrongs of the other half. If you have a theory that will solve their problem, bring it forth, and let them see it — don't cry anarchy and run away from them, or leave them to the tender mercies of the militia and the police.Quell the mobs — shoot all law-breakers in time of awful peril. But do not call all "strikers" anarchists.
Holding this position, I was surprised to find how the fear of anarchy and mob rule blinded the eyes of true men and women to the injustice that had wrought all these things. We had better look at the evil calmly, and remedy it; or the evil in the future will break forth again in awful fury, with far more disastrous results. I have found my position has not been altogether a pleasant one. While I am commended on all sides by the better classes, who daily deluge me with letters, interviews, questions, etc., and while I am regarded with infinite kindness by the striking employees, still I find plenty who are ready to chide me.
I must not forget here to acknowledge with grateful appreciation the sympathy and co-operation of my beloved friend and brother pastor, the Rev. Wilbur F. Atchison, pastor of the Hyde Park M. E. Church, and his talented wife, Mrs. Rena-Michaels Atchison, formerly Dean of the Women's College at Evanston, and now Secretary of the State Woman's Suffrage Society of Illinois. In them I have found true sympathy for the cause of the laborer.
We have fallen on serious times.
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The inequalities of life as indicated in the social fabric of modern society are simply fearful. In many respects we are living in the grandest age this old world has ever seen. And yet, with our boasted progress and advancement, I realize that something is radically wrong in a condition of society that permits some to be so poor and others to be so rich. It certainly looks as though the poor were growing poorer and the rich becoming richer.
No person who has ever read Sir Walter Scott's wonderful story of "Ivanhoe" can forget the picture of Gurth, the Swineherd. Describing him, Scott says: "One part of his dress only remains, but it is too remarkable to be suppressed. It was a brass ring, resembling a dog's collar, but without any opening, and soldered fast round his neck, so loose as to form no impediment to his breathing, yet so tight as to be incapable of being removed excepting by the use of the file. On this singular gorget was engraven in Saxon characters an inscription of the following purport: ‘Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood.’"
What a picture!
What a change to-day!
And yet, while we have moved some little distance from the day that lives again in the glowing pages of Sir Walter, nevertheless Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is with us yet.
While he wears not the collar of Cedric of Rotherwood,
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yet he is to all intents and purposes the chattel or "White Slave," of the "corporation," "trust" or "millionaire lords," many of whom it may be said are in these days of growing social inequality, the Cedrics of Rotherwood of modern society.We as a nation are dividing ourselves, like ancient Rome, into two classes, the rich and the poor, the oppressor and the oppressed. And on the side of the oppressor there is power and protection, class legislation and military support. Should this policy continue for a generation or two, there can be no doubt at all that working men who in times of war and invasion are the protectors of our liberties and homes, would refuse to take up arms in their defense. We are following in the tracks of ancient Rome, instead of learning useful lessons from her failures and defeats. No country can prosper, no government long perpetuate itself and its institutions, which does not administer judgment and justice alike to all of its people. Napoleon said God was always on the side of the heaviest battalions, but God Himself has said that He is on the side of righteousness and justice for the poor and needy, and that He will avenge their cause against the oppressor.
The oppressed of to-day are white laborers and mechanics who, evidently, though without a Supreme Court decision, have no rights which millionaires and moneyed corporations are bound to respect. And with the oppressor there is power. But as is
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invariably the case, proven by ancient and modern history, the oppressor is the heaviest loser. Men and nations sometimes oppress to their own hurt. An estimate of the money losses in the present strike up to July 9, '94, puts them at $6,560,500, of which the laborers have lost in wages $1,500,000. And this does not include the loss to the business and commerce of the country, nor the cost to the federal and state governments of the military occupation. And all this grows out of the oppression of one man who was once a poor mechanic. He has gained wealth and risen into power on it so that he can now take advantage of the necessities and poverty of his fellowmen to crush and oppress them.Whatever the fathers who organized this government intended it to be, we, their successors, have evidently drifted very far away from the original intention of the founders. It is no longer a government of equal rights for all. The present strike may be overcome by federal bayonets and bullets, but the trouble will not end here. There is deep unrest in the lowest strata of society, the real burden-bearers of our country, which augurs ill for capitalistic oppression in the future. The United States is to be the theater for the presentation of the best possible results of human government. We are giving an object lesson in government to the world. And these results are to be developed within a very few years, too. I therefore deprecate, though necessary, the use of federal
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troops in this strike as a precedent, pregnant with evil in years to come. Capital seems to be organized to destroy the independence of labor and defeat its efforts at elevation, and labor is organized not only to protect itself, but to retaliate on capital. These conditions can not be perpetuated. One force or other must yield or be destroyed, or a common ground of reconciliation must be found for both.Can there not be found a common ground of agreement between capital and labor? If they are to exist at all, they must live as husband and wife, each the counterpart of the other, each for the other's interests and welfare. My suggestion is that there should be National and State Courts of Arbitration; the former in cases of appeal, receiving the decisions of the latter, and having final jurisdiction in all cases whether of review or original. I say courts, not committees of inquiry. If international disputes can be thus settled, why should not national or local be? The strong arm of the law should compel the autocratic millionaire as well as the dependent mechanic to submit his case and abide by the decision. And where, as in this strike, there is an obstinate refusal to arbitrate, then the federal or state governments should take possession of the railroads, the telegraph, the coal mines, or the manufacturing plants, and run them in the interest of the whole people, and not in the interest of obstinate corporations. The public good and the peace of the country demand this.
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The man or body of men, corporation or labor union which refuses to arbitrate their differences are traitors to their country's best interests, violators of her laws, instigators to riot, and enemies of every principle that is good and pure and holy and peaceable. They should be dealt with to the utmost extent and with utmost rigor of the law.
Among other lessons impressed upon the mind of the American people by the great crisis through which we have narrowly passed, is that of the power and dangers of combined labor, the inhumanity of corporations, the unrest of society, the necessity of some new legislation, and the expediency of independent political action.
I appeal to the great body of the laboring classes, in view of the developments of the past few weeks, hereafter and forever to use your ballot aright. It is the God-given privilege of every American citizen, purchased at the sacrifice of blood, tears and property, and which is the birthright of 4,000 years of slow and painful evolution from degradation, slavery, and tyranny to the liberty of this latter nineteenth century. A ballot unknown in ancient days, in the Mosaic economy, and Roman history; a ballot that first began to make its appearance when the Barons at Runnymede demanded the rights of Magna Charta from King John of England, when Oliver Cromwell rose against the despotism of Charles I, with his Star Chamber, and when Martin Luther blew a blast
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that awoke all Europe to the dawn of the Reformation; a ballot that was not born until the urgent demands of a home government once more created a rebellion and the American Colonies were established, and that masterpiece of human composition, the Declaration of Independence given to the world; a ballot, forsooth, that did not reach its majority until Abraham Lincoln broke the manacles that enslaved 3,000,000 black men, and signed that Magna Charta of human liberty, the Act of Emancipation; a ballot that represents a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, free homes, free schools, free press, a united people, the right of every man unmolested to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; the greatest gift given by God to man outside of his Blessed Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and one that can give us, if we use it right, the grandest type of government under the sun!O, workmen of America, use this gift aright, for principle, not party, for men who are patriots and who are able to represent your best interest! Love your country. There is no better in this world. Love and uphold our constitution, and ever protect the flag for which our fathers, my father, died.
Go forth, little book, like a piece of driftwood tossed out on the watery main of life, and may God's blessing go with you. You have been written in the true spirit of my blessed Master, who scourged when