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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W. F. Burns
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pullman Boycott
+       A Complete History of the R.R. Strike
+
+Author: W. F. Burns
+
+Release Date: May 1, 2011 [EBook #36004]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PULLMAN BOYCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Kosker, Odessa Paige Turner and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+(This book was produced from scanned images of public
+domain material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  The Pullman Boycott
+
+
+  A Complete History
+          of
+  The Great R. R. Strike.
+
+
+  BY W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+  1894:
+  THE McGILL PRINTING CO.
+  ST. PAUL.
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHTED 1894
+
+  by
+
+  W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER.                                               PAGE.
+
+       I--The American Railway Union,                       7
+
+      II--The Boycott,                                     15
+
+     III--First Day of the Strike,                         26
+
+      IV--An Appeal from Debs,                             32
+
+       V--The Federal Government Sides with the
+          Managers,                                        40
+
+      VI--Troops at Blue Island,                           51
+
+     VII--A Protest from Gov. Altgeld,                     55
+
+    VIII--Incendiarism and Bloodshed,                      66
+
+      IX--Slaughter of Citizens,                           81
+
+       X--Business Men's Protest,                          92
+
+      XI--Indictment of President Debs,                   100
+
+     XII--A Protest by the Peoples Party,                 108
+
+    XIII--An Offer of Settlement,                         115
+
+     XIV--Debs in Jail,                                   124
+
+      XV--Blacklisting Begins,                            139
+
+     XVI--Trial of Debs,                                  147
+
+    XVII--A Convention of the American Railway Union
+          Called to Take Action on the Strike,            159
+
+   XVIII--The Strike Lost,                                167
+
+     XIX--The Commission,                                 176
+
+      XX--Altgeld Investigates Pullman,                   288
+
+     XXI--Conclusion,                                     310
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+In presenting this work to the public, I beg leave to say that I lay no
+claim whatever to literary ability, and will ask the reader to kindly
+overlook the crudeness of this my first effort.
+
+My line of work since boyhood has been confined principally to railway
+service; in short I am a switchman, and in that branch of the service,
+have been frequently confronted with the differences that arise between
+the management of the various railroad corporations and their employees.
+
+While I disclaim any credit for ability as a writer, by years of
+experience and careful study of the condition of affairs as they have in
+the past and do in the present exist, I profess to be able to fairly
+present the facts of the Pullman strike. This strike was a matter of
+unusual interest to me, not alone because my individual interests were
+involved, but because the independence of every man in America who earns
+his bread by the sweat of his brow, was in the balance.
+
+The right to organize for mutual protection was questioned, nay more,
+the right to be heard, a right granted to the greatest criminal in any
+part of the civilized world, was refused by the power representing the
+capital of this country. This power fortified by the Federal troops, by
+the mandate of the Federal courts, instigated by the chief executive,
+the president of the United States, the account of this strike as
+presented to the public by the Associated Press, was George M. Pullman's
+and the General Managers' side of the question, distorted and colored to
+suit their purposes.
+
+My aim in presenting this book, is to disabuse the minds of the people
+as far as possible, from the misleading statements given out by the
+General Managers' Association through their mouth piece, the Associated
+Press.
+
+To this end I have carefully collected facts from the best and most
+reliable sources, aside from what personal knowledge I had of this
+strike.
+
+I obtained information from telegrams received in our Central Committee
+rooms, from all parts of the country, also from committees appointed to
+investigate the authenticity of reports received from different parts of
+the country where the strike extended.
+
+The general accounts I quote largely from the "Chicago Times," a paper
+whose honorable and manly stand throughout that great struggle, gained
+for it a world wide reputation for honesty and fairness.
+
+The accounts herein contained are truths pure and simple, and upon these
+truths I base the merits of this book.
+
+  Very respectfully,
+
+  W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION.
+
+
+In order to give a clear conception of the greatest strike in the
+history of railroad organizations, it will be necessary to go back to
+the birth of the American Railway Union.
+
+This organization was instituted on the 17th day of August, 1893, in the
+city of Chicago, and owes its existence to its present leader Eugene V.
+Debs.
+
+Mr. Debs' connection with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen dates
+back to the early seventies, and be the credit due to that organization
+for introducing to the laboring people of America, a leader who stands
+absolutely without a peer in the labor world to-day, possessed of the
+collective traits of some of the greatest men of the past.
+
+I know no better description of Debs than that of Wm. C. Pomeroy in the
+Eight Hour Herald, as follows: "I am sitting on the stage of a great
+meeting of people, my eyes are closed in dreamy reverie, I hear a voice
+whose resonant tones are familiar to my ears, the voice, the words bear
+me in imagination back to the days of Rome, and Caius Gracchus is
+proclaiming the coming liberty of the people. The words of flaming
+eloquence suddenly change into the rugged tones of Cola di Rienzi,
+crying: 'Arouse, ye Romans; arouse, ye slaves.' The words are sweet to
+the ears, and stir my soul to extacy. Soft, I am no longer in the
+Eternal City, but wander among the hills and dales of Judea, and the
+voice has changed again. This time 'tis the compassionate tones of Him
+of Galilee, beseeching to 'love ye one another,' now swift changing in
+its mellifluous harmony, I hear Pandora whisper 'the dawn approaches,
+take heart of hope,' and Prometheus answers with the echoed groans of
+the suffering, sighing souls. The air is now filled with stirring
+martial music, and above its changing cadences pours forth in passionate
+appeal the stentor voice of Peter, the Hermit, raising in the bosom of
+men, the lethargic love of duty. Aye; on the German hilltops, pulpited
+he speaks, and Hermanic in deep-toned thunder hurdles back, 'I come.'
+Now there is a silence for a space, and the changing draperies of
+imagination disclose a newer scene. I am in the meeting of the Virginian
+Burgesses, and the voice has taken on the tones of Patrick Henry. It
+says: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and, 'he who would be
+free himself must strike the blow.' Now 'tis Thomas Jefferson giving
+utterance to, 'we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are
+born free and equal.' And lo! even as the soft tones of the 'chosen son'
+die into the distance, the voice of Andrew Jackson hurls forth the edict
+'each man and every man in this country, by the eternal, must and shall
+be free.'
+
+"The echoing ages take up the dictum and it becomes mingled with the
+tones of him who at Gettysburg spoke the immortal flaming words: 'This
+nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and the government
+of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from
+the earth.' Scarce had the utterance of the martyr ceased to fill the
+air when Lowell softly says:
+
+  "'He's true to God, who's true to men, whenever wrong is done.
+  To the humblest and the weakest of all the beholding sun;
+  That wrong is also done to us, and they are slaves most base,
+  Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all the race.'
+
+"My brain is puzzled. How comes it, I ask myself, that these heroes dead
+and gone are near me here to-day?
+
+"What power permits them to quit their abiding places within the crusty
+bosom of mother earth, and visiting again the haunts of mortal man, pour
+forth their immortal utterances? My rummaging mind takes on a newer
+consciousness. Reverie lifts her leaden hand from off my brow, my eyes
+open and gaze upon a vast multitude of people--men, women and children.
+Men are standing on the seats and hurling their hats in the air; women
+are weeping in joy and waving handkerchiefs, all, all shout in clamorous
+accord. Their eyes are riveted upon the stage, and upon a man who is
+gracefully bowing acknowledgement to the thunders of applause. I am near
+him, I gaze in his face. 'Tis the face of Eugene V. Debs."
+
+To my mind the above beautiful comparisons are not overdrawn.
+
+In 1874 he was admitted to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and in
+1877 his brother members of the local lodge, recognizing his superior
+ability, sent him to the Indianapolis convention to represent them. The
+next year he was a delegate to the Buffalo convention. Here he was
+chosen associate editor of the Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, and three
+years later he was elected editor, and assumed full control.
+
+In September, 1880, he was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer in
+Chicago, and to prove the confidence placed in him by this organization,
+he was unanimously elected to that office for thirteen consecutive years
+without a dissenting vote, and at the last convention, held in San
+Francisco, he was again nominated after making a speech, courteously but
+firmly declining, and was finally forced to refuse the nomination before
+his declinature would be accepted.
+
+When Mr. Debs assumed control of this office, the Brotherhood was on the
+verge of disruption.
+
+From this condition he, by his untiring devotion and wonderful executive
+abilities, elevated the Brotherhood to one of the most powerful
+organizations of the age, and thus it was through the instrumentality of
+the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen he was brought before the
+laboring people. Some few years ago he saw that class organization would
+not be successful, owing to the petty jealousy existing between the
+different orders, and that in every instance where one organization had
+a grievance with a railroad corporation, the management would use one or
+all the others to crush the one having the grievance.
+
+In order to remedy this, he promulgated a plan of federation whereby all
+the different organizations, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen
+and switchmen would stand as a unit in case of a grievance.
+
+This federation was accomplished, but owing to the treachery of some of
+the chiefs, proved unsatisfactory and was finally dissolved.
+
+But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more
+determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of
+railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American
+Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the
+trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently
+became such a power, was by no means the offspring of a premature
+conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully
+considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages
+and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union,
+before taking active steps to organize.
+
+He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true
+principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his
+associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and,
+Kelliher, this union was founded.
+
+The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was
+that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in
+wages in all departments on that system.
+
+This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of
+eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents
+in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the
+grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was
+settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway
+Union.
+
+Then it was that the true principles of this organization were
+recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came
+pouring in from all parts of the country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE BOYCOTT.
+
+
+The American Railway Union is in every sense an American Institution,
+whose aims and objects as previously stated are to protect and shield
+its members from the grinding power of railroad corporations. Its motto
+is unity: "One for all and all for one."
+
+The Pullman employes were admitted to this organization and consequently
+entitled to the protection guaranteed to all members, therefore when
+they walked out, after every honorable means to avert a strike was
+exhausted, the American Railway Union was in duty bound to sustain them.
+
+The strike was ordered on the 11th day of May, after an all night
+session by a committee of forty-six members representing every
+department in the Pullman works. When the word was given four thousand
+employes responded to the call, and this proved to be the beginning of
+the most gigantic strike in the history of organized labor.
+
+The wrongs of the Pullman people were not generally known to the public,
+the cruel and inhuman treatment they were subjected to, was kept
+strictly from the public ears.
+
+They were reduced to a condition of slavery beneath that of the black
+slave of the South prior to the civil war, for while the black slave was
+clothed, housed and fed, the white slave of Pullman was forced to work
+for wages entirely inadequate to furnish a sufficient amount of food to
+keep body and soul together. In this condition, on the verge of
+starvation, with all hope of justice from the hands of George M. Pullman
+gone, they revolted. Whether the grievance of these men was a just one,
+or their resistance to further encroachments on their rights was right
+or wrong, after reading the report of the committee appointed to
+investigate and report to the American Railway Union Annual Convention,
+at that time in session in the city of Chicago, it will be for the
+reader to decide.
+
+The report, as condensed, in one of the Chicago daily papers, copied and
+commented on by the St. Paul Branch of the American Railway Union, was
+as follows:
+
+After showing by way of contrast, that $30,000,000 worth of Pullman
+stock paid its holders 9-1/2 per cent in dividends last year, the report
+goes statistically into a comparison of wages in the past year, with the
+wages received by the Pullman employees when the strike was inaugurated.
+A fair example of the general reduction is given in a comparison in the
+price of labor involved in the construction of a freight car in 1888 and
+1893.
+
+    Lot 1526.             Oct. 1888.     Nov. 1893.
+
+  Car carpenter             $13.00          $7.00
+  Truck builder                .90            .60
+  Truck labor                  .31            .09
+  Hanging brakes              1.20            .65
+  Delivering, forging
+    and casting               1.05            .35
+  Delivering lumber            .88            .21
+  Framing                      .40            .12
+                            ------          -----
+          Total             $17.74          $9.02
+
+Other comparisons in the same department show that the wages of men
+employed in building freight cars, have been reduced 49, 57-1/2 and 47
+per cent on contract work since 1888 and 89, and a long list of figures
+from the account of men in the upholstering department, show that cuts
+have been made in the prices paid for piece work during the last twelve
+months ranging from 33-1/3 to 50 per cent. The painters, according to
+the figures given, have been cut 20 per cent since 1893 and were
+receiving, when the strike went into effect, only 23 cents per hour,
+while the union men employed by the boss painters in Chicago were all
+busy under the scale, whereby they are paid 35 cents per hour until June
+15th, and 32-1/2 cents during the summer months.
+
+The machinists, sheet iron and tin workers, foundrymen and blacksmiths
+had all been reduced from 30 to 50 per cent during the last year, and
+even heavier reductions, according to the report, have been made in
+other departments. Although wages had been previously reduced, the
+greatest cut went into effect last fall in the higher grades of labor.
+
+The reduction then made was from 80 to 20 per cent and in the lower
+grades 30 per cent. For example, the price paid for the decorating
+finish on the outside of a Pullman sleeper before the reduction, was
+$40.00, and now it is $18.00.
+
+By working hard for ten hours a decorator may earn $1.90.
+
+This sweeping reduction included all classes, and the laborers were
+compelled to work for from 70 cents to $1.00 per day, all this in the
+face of the fact that when a reduction was made three years ago, the men
+were told that as long as the shops stood there would never be another
+cut in the wages of those who worked upon the Pullman sleepers.
+
+A committee of girls, from those who were barely keeping body and soul
+together by working piece work for $2.50 and $3.00 per week, asked the
+foreman for an increase to enable them to live, and his answer was: If
+you cannot live upon the pay you are getting, go out and hustle for
+more. Why should we wonder that houses of prostitution find no
+difficulty in procuring inmates?
+
+Think of young women having to board and clothe themselves, and in many
+instances supporting an invalid mother or young brothers and sisters on
+such meager wages.
+
+The cold blooded avarice of the Pullman company is not even satisfied in
+requiring its employes to work for starvation wages, for in what he
+exacts from his tenant employes he is even more grasping.
+
+That model town of Pullman is owned by the Pullman company and
+everything about it is made to pay toll to this grasping monopoly.
+
+All employes must rent their houses from this slave driving corporation.
+There is now in the city of St. Paul a gentleman who formerly worked in
+Pullman, and growing tired of paying so much rent for such poor
+accommodations, moved to the adjoining hamlet, and rented a better house
+for $8.00 per month. He was at once informed that if he wished to retain
+his situation he would have to move back, and he did so. The house was
+of the average kind and was called a cottage, consisting of two rooms
+down stairs, each 10 × 14 feet, and three rooms up stairs, one of which,
+the front room, was 10 × 12 and the two rear rooms each 8 × 10 feet,
+lighted front and back, with no bath room or other convenience, and the
+whole, a part of a solid row or block. For this abode there was exacted
+a monthly rental of $17.00 although the cost would not exceed $1,000. A
+four room flat rents for $14.50 per month, and if you should want one of
+these cheap cottages with inside blinds for the front window, you must
+pay 50 cents per month for that much style. Some tenants have paid 50
+cents per month for this luxury for more than thirteen years, which is
+pretty good interest on the cost of those blinds.
+
+About 100 acres of land is covered with dwellings and the rent derived
+is about $500,000 annually, which is over 8 per cent per annum on the
+investment.
+
+In many of these houses families are crowded into attics in order to
+reduce expenses to enable them to procure the necessaries of life.
+
+Recently a new church was erected in Pullman, known as the Green church
+and parsonage, for which is demanded a monthly rental of $60.00 and for
+a good sized audience room, and two smaller ones attached Mr. Pullman
+charges the Methodist Episcopal society $500 per year. These rents must
+be paid in advance and are deducted from the wages of the men, and
+notwithstanding that the wages have been reduced no reductions have as
+yet been made in the rent.
+
+The manner in which these men have been bled in the matter of rent, is
+fully equaled in the manner in which money for water and gas has been
+extorted from them. When the town was built a contract was made with
+the Village of Hyde Park, to furnish water at the rate of four cents per
+thousand gallons, and incredible as it may appear, this water was
+furnished to the Pullman tenants at ten cents per thousand gallons. In
+other words he charged $3,000 per month for the water which cost him but
+$1,200. This represents an annual profit on this one item of $21,000.
+
+Could cold blooded heartless avarice go further? Yes; in the matter of
+gas which was manufactured and furnished to the people by the Pullman
+company itself, and although the cost is but 33 cents per thousand cubic
+feet, the tenants pay $2.25 per thousand while the same gas is furnished
+the residents of Hyde Park for 75 cents per thousand.
+
+This adds from three to four dollars per month to living expenses in the
+average house at Pullman.
+
+Another source of income which is wrung from the unfortunate victim is
+for heat, for which the company charges for six months in the year
+$10.80 per month.
+
+It might be well to state also, that no person is allowed to keep a
+horse, unless the animal is kept at the company stables for which $3.00
+per week is charged.
+
+Such were the conditions of affairs discovered by the investigating
+committee in this model town, nor was this all. Miss Curtis, a delegate
+to the convention representing a ladies' lodge of the American Railway
+Union at Pullman, and whose father died in September, '93, was obliged
+to work fourteen hours per day in order to earn fifty cents at the same
+work for which she received prior to the first reduction $2.25 per day,
+and not satisfied with reducing her wages to this starvation point, the
+company insisted on the payment of a debt of $60.00 contracted during
+her father's illness. This is but a sample of the devilish cruelties
+perpetrated on the employes by the Pullman Company to satisfy their
+hellish greed for gold.
+
+This corporation cannot plead poverty for thus treating its employes, as
+its capital stock is $30,000,000 and carries an enormous surplus of
+$18,000,000 which is termed a reserve fund. Mr. Pullman's personal
+wealth is estimated at about $25,000,000. Quarterly dividends of not
+less than two per cent have been paid regularly on the capital stock,
+and the stockholders receive every three months $600,000 as their share
+of the earnings. It is to enable them to pay this immense sum every
+three months, that the wages of its employes have been reduced. Can it
+be wondered that the American Railway Union took the matter in hand and
+declared a boycott on Pullman cars. When the report was received every
+brother present was deeply moved, and it was the unanimous sentiment of
+the convention to declare a boycott, but before taking action, apprised
+the various local unions of the state of affairs then existing, and
+received the sanction of the local bodies. They then decided that if the
+Pullman Company would not submit the difficulty to arbitration on or
+before the 26th day of June, to cut off the Pullman cars and refuse to
+handle them until the matter was settled. This action was taken June 22,
+and decided action held off until June 26, in hope that committees
+appointed to wait on Mr. Pullman would be successful in gaining some
+concessions whereby a peaceable settlement could be arrived at before
+resorting to the boycott, and, although several committees were sent to
+the management and every honorable means resorted to in order to bring
+about an amicable settlement, it was of no avail and there was nothing
+for the American Railway Union to do but enforce the boycott.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FIRST DAY OF THE STRIKE.
+
+
+The 26th day of June was awaited with more than ordinary interest by the
+people of Chicago on account of the proposed boycott.
+
+The first train to leave Chicago handling Pullman cars was the Chicago
+and Erie Buffalo Express, and hundreds of men gathered to witness the
+departure at 2:55 P. M.
+
+It started out on time with several Pullmans attached and several
+Pinkerton detectives on board. This was owing to the fact that it had
+been made up before the time set for the boycott to go into effect, but
+drawbars had been chained together and fastened with padlocks as a
+safeguard against cutting out the Pullman cars. Everyone was anxious to
+see if the engineer would pull it out. All doubt was soon set at rest
+however, as the engine backed onto the train and started out on time as
+usual. The crowd then waited to see if the next train, the Limited
+Express, on the Grand Trunk, due to leave at 3:10 P. M., would
+meet with the same success, and after seeing this train also pull out on
+time, the crowd dispersed.
+
+The trains on the Monon Route, Santa Fe, and Eastern Illinois also
+departed with their accustomed regularity and without interference, and
+at 6.00 o'clock, as every train was running on time, Mr. Pullman and the
+railway officials were quite jubilant at what they considered a complete
+failure of the American Railway Union to perform the task it had
+undertaken. But inside of three hours they were doomed to
+disappointment, for at that time not a wheel was turning on the Illinois
+Central with the exception of express trains that had been started
+before the strike was ordered.
+
+The strikers might have stopped the Diamond Special which leaves at 9:00
+P. M., but through consideration for the passengers who had
+already purchased berth tickets, and adhering strictly to the
+instructions of their leaders to do nothing to discommode the travelers
+who in all probability were not acquainted with the existing state of
+affairs, this train was allowed to proceed. The strike that paralyzed
+the traffic of the entire country was started in this manner. Early in
+the afternoon a committee of five switchmen, employed on the Illinois
+Central, made their appearance at the headquarters of the American
+Railway Union in the Ashland block, to learn authoritatively the nature
+and purpose of the order issued requiring them to refuse to switch the
+cars of the Pullman Company, as the instructions received by them
+through Organizer Meyers of the union, were not sufficiently definite,
+so they claimed, to warrant their resisting the railroad company, and
+forfeiting their positions by such action. The switchmen, they said were
+willing to help the Pullman strikers, but they wished to know to a
+certainty what was expected of them. The directors of the union
+immediately held a conference with the delegates the result of which was
+an order to strike if the company insisted on them switching the Pullman
+cars. Those who were not members of the American Railway Union were
+guaranteed equal protection if they joined the strike, and the result
+was a complete tie up of the Illinois Central R. R.
+
+The Chicago Times, in an article next morning, said that for rapidity of
+conception and execution this strike which probably involves five
+thousand men, beats anything of the kind on record, and in the same
+article says: the efforts to sidetrack the cars of the Pullman company
+yesterday was carried on with strict conformity to law and order.
+
+With the exception of a crowd attracted out of a curiosity to see what
+might happen, there was nothing unusual about the depot, there was no
+boisterous talking, no threats were made, and the few squads of police
+officers sent there to preserve order, had nothing to do.
+
+Train No. 7, due to leave at 9 o'clock, hauling two Pullman coaches
+filled with passengers, did not leave on time there being a delay of 30
+minutes before it finally pulled out of the depot. After running within
+one hundred yards of Grand Crossing it stopped, there being a crowd of
+about five thousand people at this point of whom there was not to exceed
+one hundred and twenty-five railroad men. The engineer refused to start,
+and although Supt. Collins expostulated with him it was of no avail, and
+any further attempt to move the train was abandoned for the time being.
+
+At 11:30 P. M. tower man Cable, who controls the switches at
+Forty-third street, left his post, and two south-bound suburban trains
+were whistling for the switches. They were soon joined by three
+north-bound trains, a freight train, Michigan Central Fast Mail, and
+Illinois Central Limited, and all were tied up until one o'clock in the
+morning when the superintendent of terminals threw the switches. The
+Chicago Great Western, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago and Northern Pacific
+and Wisconsin Central were next to fall in line and refuse to handle
+Pullman cars.
+
+President Debs, after reviewing the situation, asked the men as
+individuals to consider the problem involved, saying, that if the
+Pullman Company was right, then the strikers must be wrong, but if you
+feel assured that those men are only striking to gain that which is
+every man's right--living wages, then we ask your moral support. There
+is but one hope for the laborer. Labor must stand by labor. The
+corporations have now forced a fight upon us by combining to help the
+Pullman company; they have forced us to combine and use the only weapon
+which the workingman possesses, the strike and the boycott. The
+railroads have never done anything for labor that the latter should
+hesitate to use these weapons.
+
+It is a battle between allied monopoly against the rights of working
+people, it is a matter of broad humanity. I want to see the switchmen,
+the car inspectors and other employes wait upon the officials in a manly
+way, and refuse to handle these boycotted cars.
+
+I want to appeal only to your reason, and not to influence your passion,
+but I ask you to take a manly stand in the aid of men, women and
+children who have been ground down by the iron heel of the oppressor.
+
+I would rather be a manly pauper than an unmanly millionaire.
+
+I ask every man, as an individual to think for himself and to do what he
+thinks to be right.
+
+President Debs appealed to the men to commit no acts of violence but act
+in strict accordance with the law.
+
+The strike had now reached St. Paul, Omaha, Denver, Trinidad, Cal.;
+Raton, N. M.; Cincinnati, St. Louis and Duluth, and no intimidation, no
+threats, no violence of any kind whatever was resorted to. When the men
+were asked to handle the Pullman cars, they simply stepped down and
+out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AN APPEAL FROM DEBS.
+
+
+As the light of dawn proclaimed the birth of a new day so the events
+that this day would bring forth was the all absorbing thought and theme
+of a great number of the American people.
+
+All were anxious to learn the situation, whether interested in the
+boycott or otherwise, as by this time the whole western part of the
+United States had begun to feel the heavy hand of the American Railway
+Union boycott, and every railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific
+coast, from Manitoba to Mexico, and all centers of importance in the
+West, Southwest and Northwest were tied up, because the American Railway
+Union men, in the cause of humanity and right, would not operate them
+with Pullman sleepers attached, and the railroad managers, in the cause
+of oppression, would not allow them to run otherwise.
+
+Thirteen roads centering in Chicago were now completely tied up, the
+Santa Fe, Chicago & Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, Chicago &
+Western Indiana, Pan Handle, Monon Route, Chicago & Grand Trunk, Chicago
+& Erie, Illinois Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago & Great Western,
+Wisconsin Central and Cincinnati Southern, and the General Managers had
+begun to realize the futility of carrying on the fight, and if they had
+not received encouragement and aid from outside sources, would have in
+all probability ended the strike at once by dropping the Pullman cars.
+
+As a prominent railroad man said when asked about the strike situation:
+"It is my opinion that the railroads will drop the fight just as soon as
+the American Railway Union can demonstrate the fact that Pullman cars
+can not be hauled without a long and expensive fight with their own
+employes. I know that this view of the case was taken by some of the
+managers at a meeting to-day, and Mr. Pullman will be notified that he
+must make a settlement with his men at once, otherwise the effected
+roads will drop his cars and resume business."
+
+The Union now felt confident of success. President Debs said: "We are
+sure to win as our cause is just, there will be no disturbances as the
+men have orders that there must be no rioting and no interference
+whatever with the roads, other than to refuse to assist to operate them.
+
+"Whatever the officials can do for themselves with the few men at their
+command let them do; we propose to be fair and square in this fight, and
+if within my power to prevent, not one spike belonging to any road will
+be damaged."
+
+And thus the second day of the great strike came to an end.
+
+June 28th added nine more roads to those already tied up.
+
+The Chicago & Northwestern; Chicago & Alton; Union Pacific; Denver & Rio
+Grande; Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago;
+Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the
+Stock Yard Terminals, making in all twenty-two roads out and twenty
+thousand men on strike in the city of Chicago, and not one act of
+violence committed that could be charged to a striker.
+
+The Mobile & Ohio at this time succumbed to the boycott and sidetracked
+its Pullman cars promising not to haul them again until the strike was
+settled. This rail road is a large corporation, and its surrender to
+the American Railway Union was considered a great victory, and the
+directors at once ordered the boycott raised as far as this line was
+concerned.
+
+Minneapolis and St. Paul was now beginning to feel the effect of the
+boycott.
+
+The Northern Pacific was the first in the fight, and the same plan of
+action outlined at Chicago was followed at these points when the time
+came to make up passenger trains. The switchmen refused to couple on the
+Pullman's and were discharged.
+
+The mediation committee at once took up the matter with the manager,
+asking him to re-instate the discharged men, which he refused to do, and
+as a result the entire system from the Pacific coast to Minneapolis and
+St. Paul was called out.
+
+This plan was adopted and carried out on all the rail roads entering the
+Twin cities.
+
+The boycott was no longer a fight in the interest of the Pullman
+employes alone but had resolved itself into a gigantic contest between
+organized labor on the one side, and organized capital on the other, and
+although up to this time there had been no violence, no loud
+demonstrations, no threats of any kind, the Illinois Central demanded
+troops to protect their property, and the militia was ordered out. On
+the Pan Handle the Cincinnati Express had the cars of Mr. Pullman
+detached, and the officials cried "riot" and asked from Sheriff Gilbert
+of Chicago a posse to protect the U. S. mail. This was furnished, and
+although the mail cars were not molested in any way, the officials
+refused to allow the mail to go forward without the Pullman sleepers
+attached.
+
+Seven more railroads had now come under the ban of the boycott making in
+all twenty-nine at the close of the fourth day.
+
+On June 29th President Debs issued the following appeal to railway
+employes of the country.
+
+"The struggle with the Pullman company has developed into a contest
+between the producing classes and the money power of the country.
+
+"This is what Lincoln predicted at the close of the civil war, and it
+was this reflection that gave the great emancipator his gloomiest
+forebodings. We stand upon the ground that the workingmen are entitled
+to a just proportion of the proceeds of their labor. This the Pullman
+company denied them. Reductions have been made from time to time until
+the employes earned barely sufficient wages to live, not enough to
+prevent them from sinking deeper and deeper into Pullman's debt, thereby
+mortgaging their bodies and souls, as well as their children's, to that
+heartless corporation.
+
+"Up to this point the fight was between the American Railway Union and
+the Pullman company. The American Railway Union resolved that its
+members would refuse to handle Pullman cars and equipment. Then the
+railway corporations through the General Manager's association, came to
+the rescue, and in a series of whereases declared to the world that they
+would go into partnership with Pullman, so to speak, and stand by him in
+his devilish work of starving his employes to death. The American
+Railway Union accepted his gauge of war, and thus the contest is now on
+between the railway corporations arrayed solidly on the one hand, and
+the labor forces upon the other. Every railroad employe of the country
+should take his stand against the corporations in this fight, for if it
+should be lost corporations will have despotic sway and all employes
+will be reduced to a condition scarcely removed above chattel slavery;
+but the fight will not be lost. The great principle of American manhood
+and independence is involved. Corporate power, drunk with its own
+excesses, has presumed too far upon the forbearance of the American
+people, and, notwithstanding a subsidized press (to which there are many
+notable and noble exceptions), public sympathy is with the striking
+employes, who are merely contending for the right of their fellow
+toilers to receive living wages for their work.
+
+"I appeal to strikers everywhere to refrain from any act of violence.
+Let there be no interference with the affairs of the companies involved
+and above all let there be no act of depredation. A man who will destroy
+property or violate law is an enemy, not a friend to the cause of labor.
+The great public is with us and we need only to maintain a dignified,
+honest, straight forward policy to achieve victory. Let it be understood
+that this strike is not ordered by myself nor by any other individual;
+nor is the strike inaugurated anywhere except by consent and authority
+from a majority of the employes themselves.
+
+"Neither is this a fight simply of the American Railway Union. The
+question of organization ought not be raised, but every man who
+believes in organized railroad labor should take his stand on the side
+of labor, and its battles for his rights and those of his fellowmen. I
+have faith in the great body of railroad employes of the country and am
+confident they will maintain an unbroken front in spite of any
+opposition that may be brought to bear against them.
+
+"I am perfectly confident of success. We cannot fail.
+
+  E. V. DEBS."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIDES WITH THE MANAGERS.
+
+
+The fifth day of the great strike showed no cessation of hostilities,
+the entire Northwestern and Southwestern portion of the United States
+was practically at a standstill. Every road entering Chicago was
+partially, if not completely tied up, and the General Managers
+Association, under the leadership of John M. Egan was at sea.
+
+They now realized that they had taken a contract that it would be
+difficult to fulfill, and without the co-operation of some greater power
+they would be defeated. A lack of confidence in their ability to subdue
+the strikers and compel them to work, was well illustrated in a meeting
+between Sir George Pullman and Vice-President Harahan of the Illinois
+Central. W. M. Daley, of New Orleans, was the only witness to the
+meeting and his presence undoubtedly saved Sir George from a masterly
+drubbing at the hands of Mr. Harahan. Mr. Pullman entered the office of
+Vice-President Harahan, and in the course of time his conversation
+turned to the strike and its effect on the Illinois Central.
+
+This was the opening round.
+
+It aroused all the ire in the portly form of Mr. Harahan, and with
+blazing eyes he turned on Sir George.
+
+"You are not fit to govern men," he said; "instead of visiting your own
+works, you have a number of superintendents who furnish you with
+reports, and when they are colored to suit you take them as facts, and a
+result is business is embargoed, poverty stalks all over your grounds,
+you are alone responsible for the present condition of affairs on the
+railroads. Why don't you go among your employes and see things for
+yourself? If you did there would be no such trouble." Then followed a
+number of epithets such as thick head, incompetent, over-rated, and the
+official shook his fist under the stubby nose of Sir George in a very
+threatening manner. Mr. Pullman tried to speak, but the Vice-President
+broke in on him again. "You think you have a contract with this road
+that you can rub it in on us, but you can't, never will we submit to
+it, the railroads are losing $250,000 a day owing to your obstinacy. You
+are unfit to act as president of any company, and if you were to visit
+your much boasted town to-day, the chances are that you would be dealt
+with severely. Why, you are nothing but a figure head, you are not the
+actual president of the company, for if you were you would know
+something about it. You know nothing in regard to the actual state of
+affairs." It did not take long for the story to reach the different
+railroad centers about the city.
+
+It came to the knowledge of the American Railway Union that J. M. Egan
+and Manager St. John of the Rock Island road had employed two thousand
+men in Canada to fill the places of the strikers, and steps were taken
+immediately to stop their importation, but with what success it was
+impossible to determine.
+
+All this time the strike was spreading and the membership of the
+American Railway Union was increasing rapidly. The sensational reports
+of rioting and bloodshed in various yards proved upon investigation to
+be false, and beyond doubt circulated by the General Managers and
+eagerly seized by the subsidized press to win the sympathy of the
+public in the interest of the corporations.
+
+The police when questioned positively denied the stories saying there
+were no grounds for the reports.
+
+Marching orders were received at the headquarters of the Missouri U. S.
+troops, for the 15th infantry and though it was not known at the time
+the orders were received from Washington, it was soon learned that they
+were to go to Chicago and assist the General Managers to run their
+trains.
+
+At this time occurred the tie-up at Minnesota Transfer, which was the
+most complete and effectual blockade of any in the strike district. The
+Minnesota Transfer represents nine different roads. The Chicago,
+Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha; Great
+Northern; Northern Pacific; Minneapolis & St. Louis; Chicago Great
+Western; Wisconsin Central; Chicago, Burlington & Northern and Belt Line
+Ry.
+
+All freight through the Twin Cities handled by these roads, is
+interchanged at this point. It is situated midway between St. Paul and
+Minneapolis and employes from three hundred to five hundred men
+according to the volume of business. This is a freight yard exclusively,
+and therefore had nothing to do with the handling of Pullman equipment.
+But this little technicality did not prevent this body of men from
+coming to the assistance of their brothers, and as each road was brought
+under the ban of the boycott they refused to handle cars or in any way
+assist them to operate their line.
+
+On the night of the 1st day of July, the Milwaukee road now under
+boycott brought in five cars of beer for delivery to the Great Northern.
+
+The men including the yardmaster refused to deliver the cars, and were
+sent home. A meeting was called for the night of July 2nd, and a
+committee appointed to wait upon the superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan,
+and ascertain if the men were discharged. Mr. Sullivan answered in the
+affirmative, and an unanimous vote to strike was then taken, over three
+hundred men, the entire force with three exceptions quit work, and not a
+wheel was turned except by the superintendent himself, for ten days.
+
+The general Managers now got in their fine work by utilizing the
+government. A Washington special to the Chicago Times says:
+
+Our wretched administration is in the hands of the railroads, there is
+no doubt about it, Cleveland, Lamont, Olney and Bissel are at the beck
+and call of the corporations, from the White House down it has been
+determined to put forth every effort even to Gatling guns, to employ
+every arm of the government even to its Supreme Judges to destroy this
+strike and the laboring people concerned in it. The case is decided
+against the strikers in advance, the wired words of the General Managers
+are accepted as settled facts; what they ask for they will get, what
+they suggest will be adopted. The workingmen are to be ground beneath
+the heel of the military, and if necessary, to force them into
+submission they are to be sabered, bayoneted, shot down or taken
+prisoners or whatever is deemed sternly necessary to compel them to
+submit to such terms as their moneycrat owner sees fit to impose.
+
+This is a railway administration. So promptly loyal has Cleveland proven
+himself to be that it is to be believed that should the companies desire
+it, they could have the Executive Mansion for a round house and the
+White House grounds for switching purposes.
+
+The managers wired Olney to name Edwin Walker, who is attorney for the
+Milwaukee road as special solicitor for the government, to take measures
+against the strikers as they had no confidence in Milchrist.
+
+He seemed weak, his term was soon to expire and he seemed inclined to
+avoid harsh measures ablest with the men. They wanted Walker, he was the
+corporation attorney in the country; he had been cradled by, and grown
+up at the knee of corporations; he was their body and soul in the life
+and death struggle with their employes.
+
+They urged Olney to clothe Walker with the special United States
+authority to better protect them and overthrow the strike. By thus
+making the railway attorney Walker solicitor for the United States, the
+control of government power could be placed in the hands of the
+corporations to wield against the men. Walker was appointed by Olney and
+placed in control over Milchrist in the affairs of the strike. Mr.
+Walker was known personally by Olney, and Olney is at the present time
+one of the counsels of the Santa Fe and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,
+and said to be a director of the latter road. He has been for years
+intimate with Mr. Walker, who, by the way, is a hot favorite of Fuller
+of the supreme bench. There was, therefore a dozen good reasons for this
+selection, which addressed themselves to Mr. Olney, who is in this not
+as a cabinet officer, but as a friend and director of railway
+corporations, and he therefore precipitately granted the request of the
+general managers. Bissel, also a railroad director, shows Olney's
+anxiety to come to the back of the roads. (The truth of the above
+correspondence could not be denied.) In this way the entire available
+force of troops at Ft. Sheridan, including infantry, cavalry and
+artillery was ordered out by the President of the United States to
+assist the railroad managers against the people. Such was the attitude
+of this government "of the people, by the people, and for the people"
+against the people. The railway managers having now secured the federal
+troops, proceeds to issue injunctions restraining the strikers from
+using the power of persuasion on those men still in the service, to
+induce them to quit. This order drawn up by Judges Wood and Grosscup was
+a lengthy one, and peculiarly in harmony with the corporation interest.
+
+The Chicago Times, in an editorial says: In this Federal injunction,
+which is in the main eminently just and equally unnecessary, appears a
+claim in which certain persons named, and all other persons whatsoever
+are ordered to refrain from compelling or inducing, or attempting to
+compel or induce, by threats, intimidation, force or violence any of the
+employes of any of the said railroads, to refuse or fail to perform any
+of their duties, as employes of said railroads, in connection with the
+interstate business or commerce of such railroads, or the transportation
+of passenger or property between or among the states; or from compelling
+or inducing or attempting to compel or induce by threats, intimidation,
+persuasion, force or violence, any of the employes of any of said
+railroads, who are employed by said railroads and engaged in its
+service, in the conduct of interstate business or in the operation of
+any of its trains carrying mail of the United States or doing interstate
+business or transportation of passengers or freight, between and among
+the states, to leave the service of such railroad. The Times
+emphatically does not believe that any court whatever has a right to
+order men to refrain from attempting by persuasion to induce others to
+leave the employment they are engaged in. There is a natural law that in
+the end will prevail over the formal law built up by lawyers and courts.
+If as Judge Gary says, the law is common sense, this injunction will not
+stand, for common sense will certainly pronounce an orderly and
+respectful request to a railroad employee to give up his position and
+join the organized strikers, no crime. It is idle to plead that a
+discreet and just court will only enforce this injunction against actual
+law breakers, for there is in it an opportunity for injustice and
+oppression which makes it wholly bad. The injunction is becoming a
+menace to liberty, it is a weapon ever ready for the capitalist, and
+there should be more careful federal legislation limiting its use.
+
+Certainly if the restraining order of Judges Wood and Grosscup be good
+law there is no sense in maintaining organized labor. Childlike trust in
+the benevolence and fairness of the employer must be the workingman's
+future policy if this injunction be made a precedent.
+
+In the meantime the General Manager's association and the subsidized
+press were endeavoring to impress the public with the belief that the
+strikers were a lot of disorderly and riotous law breakers of the worst
+description. To show how much truth there was in these tales, I will
+give the statement of Capt. J. Hartnett as made after dispersing a mob.
+He said: There wasn't a railroad man in the whole outfit, but a lot of
+bums who thought they would have a lot of sport at the expense of the
+railroads. But we soon gave them a hustling, and I want to say this for
+the strikers, and by that I mean the real railroad men, they are orderly
+here and as quiet as possible, I have had no disturbance in any district
+that can be traced to railroad men. It is well known that on occasions
+like these every loafer turns loose and takes advantage of the strike to
+start a row, but the genuine railroad men are too sensible to cause any
+disturbance.
+
+This was true also of all other cities engaged in the strike.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+TROOPS AT BLUE ISLAND.
+
+
+The Fourth of July dawned upon a scene that would start the blood of the
+signers of the Declaration of Independence leaping in flames of fire
+through their veins, if they could but reappear upon this land in the
+vigorous manhood of their youth; those heroes whose blood baptized the
+battlefields of Yorktown and Bunker Hill for the glorious cause of
+liberty and equal rights; and behold the spectacle of this day, they
+would think that they had fought, bled and died in vain, that victory
+after all was but defeat.
+
+Military despotism reigned supreme. The great masses of the liberty
+loving people who were wont to celebrate this National holiday of
+Independence in a manner befitting the occasion, began to think. Their
+thoughts took them back to the days of English tyranny, and they ask
+themselves, must this fight be fought again? The thoughts were
+contagious, and when the American people began to think, their thoughts
+are dangerous. The battle must and will be fought again, but not with
+the weapons of '76, but with the weapon the old man can wield as well as
+the young; the ballot.
+
+Wholesale arrests followed the arrival of the federal troops at Blue
+Island, free speech was eliminated, any man who passed along, who had
+the appearance of striker or sympathizer was promptly arrested, and that
+too without a warrant. The remark "that fellow is a scab," was
+sufficient to send a man to the guard house. A fireman was asked by his
+landlord, "where have you been lately?" That was enough, he was placed
+with other shackled prisoners in the guard house, but was released later
+on. In the morning there was a parade, but the old time patriotism was
+noticeably wanting, a fireman arrested for refusing to go to work,
+having a depressing effect. Patriotic speeches were prominent by their
+absence, and people began to wonder what day was being celebrated.
+
+The bloodcurdling lawlessness and rioting by the strikers at Blue
+Island, as depicted by the corporation press; when simmered down to
+facts proved to be as false as other similar reports sent out by the
+plutocratic press. The so-called rioting amounted to nothing more or
+less than expression of thought, and I believe if the General Managers,
+corporation courts, Cleveland & Co., could conceive and put into
+execution some plan whereby they could put a restraining order on the
+minds of the striker and deny him the right to think, it would be done.
+The gist of the rioting as I said before was simply expression of
+thought. A man as he watched a train pass by remarked: "There are d----d
+few Pullmans anyway." He was promptly arrested. Another remarked that
+some fellow was a scab, and was also taken in. This and other like
+remarks were samples of the Blue Island rioting at Chicago.
+
+Upon the arrival of the federal troops, the General Managers Association
+shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of Uncle
+Sam, and the eager willingness that the representatives of the people
+exhibited to assist Sir Duke Pullman and the railroad corporation to
+subjugate and reduce the working people to a condition of serfdom, was
+sufficient evidence that the managers knew what they were about. They
+felt secure in the knowledge that their interest would be well taken
+care of by the administration, and sought the much needed rest that
+these weary sessions of plotting and scheming had earned for them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A PROTEST FROM GOV. ALTGELD.
+
+
+It was plain to be seen that the presence of U. S. troops in Chicago had
+a bad effect. The people felt disposed to resent this uncalled for
+interference of the President. His unwarranted and illegal action in
+sending federal troops into the state of Illinois uncalled for by the
+civil authorities (waiving all question of courtesy), was a reflection
+on the efficiency of the civil authorities to maintain order, and a
+direct insult to the intelligence and loyalty to the citizens of the
+state. The governor protested against this high-handed proceeding, and
+in no mild terms insisted that he was amply able and willing to preserve
+order if called upon to do so.
+
+He assured the President that it was not troops the railroads needed but
+men to run their trains, and this was the exact truth, as the strikers
+were not interfering with the running of trains but refused to run them,
+and the companies could not operate their roads without the aid of the
+men who left the service.
+
+But they needed a shield to hide their helplessness, and this they found
+in the federal troops, therefore it requires but little reasoning to
+understand the bad effect on the people, made by the presence of United
+States troops, equipped for war in time of peace. This ill feeling,
+mingled with curiosity produced excitement. Excitement invited the
+presence of the tough and lawless element, which was exactly what the
+railroad magnates were striving for, as the strikers had no intention of
+interfering with their trains, and they knew that it was necessary to
+incite rioting in order to have an excuse for not operating their roads.
+
+Their devilish schemes succeeded only too well. A mob composed of the
+tough and hoodlum element congregated at the Rock Island yards and from
+Nineteenth to Fortieth Street, overturned box cars and destroyed
+everything that came in their way. The mob increased until not less than
+ten thousand people participated in the work of destruction, but be it
+said to the credit of the _impartial_ press of that city, they announced
+that no strikers had taken part in the lawlessness. Mayor Hopkins, who
+went in person to the scene, said that from what he had heard, and what
+he could see for himself, that no railroad men were implicated in the
+depredations, and business men whose veracity could not be questioned
+corroborated his statement.
+
+This occurrence was much to be feared by the strikers, as it was not the
+first time that such means had been employed to turn public sentiment
+from the side of the workingmen.
+
+Realizing this the men did their utmost to prevent it, and by threats
+and entreaties tried to persuade the mob to desist from the work of
+destruction, but were successful only for a short time. One of the
+strikers remarked to an officer at the time: "By Heavens! this won't do,
+there is not a striker in that crowd; this is done to injure us, and
+those fellows are not trying to stop it," meaning the troops.
+
+The strike had now reached Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, and was
+rapidly spreading east, the entire country was in a whirlpool of
+excitement, and the strikers were jubilant. The general managers with
+the combined forces of the federal troops, state militia, and Cleveland
+and his cabinet could not operate the roads. One simple word from the
+general managers to Pullman would have been more effective in starting
+the trains than all the armies and courts in the United States or all
+the scabs from Canada, but rather than speak that one word,
+"arbitration," they would bankrupt every system of railroads in the
+country.
+
+On July 5, President Cleveland received by wire the following protest
+from Gov. Altgeld of Illinois:
+
+"Dear Sir:--I am advised that you have ordered federal troops to go into
+service in the state of Illinois. Surely the facts have not been
+correctly presented to you in this case or you would not have taken this
+step, for it is entirely unnecessary and as it seems to me
+unjustifiable. Waiving all question of courtesy I will say that the
+state of Illinois is not only able to take care of itself, but it stands
+ready to-day to furnish the federal government any assistance it may
+need elsewhere.
+
+"Our military force is ample and consists of as good soldiers as can be
+found in the country. They have been ordered promptly, whenever and
+wherever they were needed. We have stationed in Chicago alone three
+regiments of infantry, one battery and one troop of cavalry, and no
+better soldiers can be found. They have been ready every moment to go
+on duty and have been and are now eager to go into service.
+
+"But they have not been ordered out because nobody in Cook county,
+whether official or private citizen, asked to have their assistance or
+even intimated in any way that their assistance was desired or
+necessary.
+
+"So far as I have been advised the local officials have been able to
+handle the situation, but if any assistance were needed the state stood
+ready to furnish 100 men for every one man required, and stood ready to
+do so at a moment's notice. Notwithstanding these facts the federal
+government has been applied to by men who had political and selfish
+motives for wanting to ignore the state government.
+
+"We have just gone through a long coal strike more extensive here than
+in any other state because our soft coal fields are larger than that of
+any other state. We have now had ten days of the railroad strike, and we
+have promptly furnished military aid wherever the local officials needed
+it. In two instances the United States marshall for the southern
+district of Illinois applied for assistance to enable him to enforce the
+processes of the United States court and troops were promptly furnished
+him, and he was assisted in every way he desired. The law has been
+thoroughly executed and every man guilty of violating it during the
+strike has been brought to justice.
+
+"If the marshall of the northern district of Illinois or the authorities
+of Cook county needed military assistance they had but to ask for it in
+order to get it from the state.
+
+"At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not by reason of
+obstruction but because they cannot get men to operate their trains. For
+some reason they are anxious to keep this fact from the public and for
+this purpose are making an outcry about obstructions in order to avert
+attention. Now, I will cite to you two examples which illustrate the
+situation: Some days ago I was advised that the business of one of our
+railroads was obstructed at two railroad centers, that there was a
+condition bordering on anarchy there--and I was asked to furnish
+protection so as to enable the employees of the road to operate the
+trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both points. Then it transpired
+that the company had not sufficient men on its line to operate one
+train. All the old hands were orderly but refused to go. The company
+had large shops in which worked a number of men who did not belong to
+the railway union and who could run an engine. They were appealed to to
+run the train but flatly refused to do so. We were obliged to hunt up
+soldiers who could run an engine and operate a train.
+
+"Again two days ago appeals which were almost frantic came from
+officials of another road stating that at an important point on their
+line trains were forcibly obstructed and that there was a reign of
+anarchy at that place and they asked for protection so that they could
+move their trains. Troops were put on the ground in a few hours' time,
+when the officer in command telegraphed me that there was no trouble and
+had been none at that point, but the road seemed to have no men to run
+the trains and the sheriff wired that he did not need troops, but would
+himself move every train if the company would only furnish an engineer.
+The result was that the troops were there over twelve hours before a
+single train was moved although there was no attempt at interference by
+anyone. It is true that in several instances a road made an effort to
+work a few green men and a crowd standing around insulted them and
+tried to drive them away, and in a few other instances they cut off
+Pullman sleepers from trains. But all these troubles were local in
+character and could easily be handled by the state authorities. Illinois
+has more railroad men than any state in the Union, but as a rule they
+are orderly and well behaved. This is shown by the fact that so very
+little actual violence has been committed. Only a very small per cent of
+these men have been guilty of any infractions of the law. The newspaper
+accounts have in many cases been pure fabrications and in others wild
+exaggerations.
+
+"I have gone thus into details to show that it is not soldiers that the
+railroads need so much as it is men to operate trains, and that the
+conditions do not exist here which bring the cause within the federal
+statutes, a statute that was passed in 1881, and was in reality a war
+measure. This statute authorizes the use of federal troops in a state
+where ever it is impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States
+within such states by the ordinary judicial proceedings. Such a
+condition does not exist in the state of Illinois. There have been a
+few local disturbances but nothing that seriously interfered with the
+administration of justice or that could not easily be controlled by the
+local or state authorities for the federal troops can do nothing that
+the state troops cannot do.
+
+"I repeat that you have been imposed upon in this matter, but even if by
+a forced construction it were held that the condition here came within
+the letter of the statute, then I submit that local self government is a
+fundamental principle of our constitution. Each community shall govern
+itself so long as it can and is ready and able to enforce the law, and
+it is in harmony with this fundamental principle that the statute
+authorizing the president to send troops into states must be construed.
+Especially is this so in matters relating to the exercise of the police
+power and the preservation of law and order. To absolutely ignore a
+local government in matters of this kind, when the local government is
+ready to furnish assistance needed and is amply able to enforce the law,
+not only insults the people of this state by imputing to them an
+inability to govern themselves or an unwillingness to enforce the law,
+but is in violation of a basic principle of our institutions.
+
+"The question of federal supremacy is in no way involved; no one
+disputes it for a moment but under our constitution federal supremacy
+and local self government must go hand in hand and to ignore the latter
+is to do violence to the constitution.
+
+"As governor of the state of Illinois I protest against this and ask the
+immediate withdrawal of the federal troops from active duty in this
+state.
+
+"Should the situation at any time get so serious that we cannot control
+it with the state troops we will promptly and freely ask for federal
+assistance, but until such time I protest with all due deference against
+this uncalled for reflection upon our people and again ask the immediate
+withdrawal of the troops. I have the honor to be,
+
+  Yours respectfully
+  JOHN P. ALTGELD,
+  Governor of Illinois."
+
+To the above communication President Cleveland answered as follows:
+
+"To the Hon. John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois. Federal troops were
+sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the constitutions and laws of
+the United States upon the demand of the post office department that
+obstructions of the mails should be removed, and upon the
+representations of the judicial officers of the United States that
+process of law federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary
+means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against
+commerce between the states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly
+within the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops
+in Chicago was deemed not only proper but necessary, and there has been
+no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local
+authorities to preserve the peace of the city.
+
+  GROVER CLEVELAND."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+INCENDIARISM AND BLOODSHED.
+
+
+The 6th day of July was one long to be remembered, as the first act of
+incendiarism was committed. A conflagration was started along the tracks
+of the Pan Handle, Baltimore & Ohio; Chicago & Northern Pacific, and
+Belt Line R. R., which terminated in the burning of whole trains of
+cars, switch houses and tool-houses belonging to these companies. A
+splendid tower house belonging to the Pan Handle was saved through the
+supreme efforts of the strikers, who tore away the burning sidewalks
+which connected the tool-house with the tower-house. This fine structure
+was recently built and cost the company $40,000. Upon the authority of
+the city police and firemen, I can state that the fires were started by
+a crowd of young hoodlums and toughs living in the vicinity, and the
+strikers were in no way responsible for them.
+
+There was only a small crowd of these young toughs around the yards,
+they scattered in different directions and simultaneously fire broke out
+in different places. One boy was seen to set fire to a bunch of waste,
+and throw it into the empty cars as he ran, and the dry woodwork was
+soon a mass of flames. Between eight hundred and sixteen hundred cars
+were destroyed by this conflagration and the loss aggregated over
+$200,000, besides three men killed outright and seven wounded.
+
+The peaceable and law abiding city of Chicago was feeling the effects of
+a reign of terror. Innocent men, women and children were being shot down
+or bayoneted by the tools of railroad corporations in a most cold
+blooded and heartless manner. According to the statements of eye
+witnesses some young fellows under the age of sixteen years, and
+therefore not strikers, threw stones at the soldiers who at once began
+to shoot indiscriminately into a crowd composed of men, women and
+children who had no connection whatever with the affair, then with fixed
+bayonets charged upon the people, and those who were unfortunate enough
+to be caught were severely dealt with. One old man, a Pole, who was
+standing in his own door yard, and seeing the people run took fright
+and started into his house, was pursued by a soldier who saw him run and
+stabbed in the back. The old man fell shrieking to the ground, begging
+for mercy, when the brutal fiend plunged the bayonet twice more into the
+helpless form and left him in a dying condition.
+
+One young lady was shot while standing on the roof of her own house, and
+fell a corpse in her brother's arm.
+
+Still another victim was a man who was shot while standing in the
+doorway of his home and a rioter by the name of Burke was shot and
+killed in the charge.
+
+In an editorial the Chicago Times says: "Let us examine the net results
+of the activity of the troops on Saturday; results of which the amateur
+soldier Brigadier General Wheeler remarked: "I am glad that the troops
+made a stand and that blood was shed." There is some conflict in the
+reports of the day's carnage, but the salient facts seem to be these:
+
+"Three persons in all were shot dead, one of these, an eighteen year old
+girl, was standing on a distant house top watching the fray, when a
+bullet pierced her heart. Of course she was not a striker nor was her
+continued life a menace to American institutions.
+
+"John Burke, identified by the police as a professional crook, was
+another victim and his presence in the mob adds evidence to the claim of
+the Times that the rioting was the work of chronic toughs and criminals
+and not of workingmen. Joseph Warzouski, the third to fall before a
+military bullet, was sitting smoking before his house door when wantonly
+shot down by a regular. He was not a striker, and not within one hundred
+yards of railroad property when murdered.
+
+"Of the wounded five were women, one of whom looses an arm and another a
+leg. Six were boys under nineteen years of age, and one was a baby.
+
+"The points which these facts demonstrate, is that the rioting is not
+the work of members of the American Railway Union, or in fact of
+workingmen of any organization, but the acts of toughs and pluguglies
+and boisterous boys, with whom this city like other large cities,
+abound. Though the crowd looks large and dangerous, the actual number of
+combatants is comparatively small, and the clubs of the police instead
+of the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers, would have been the proper
+weapons to use. Then Chicago would not have been disgraced by shedding
+the blood of women and children and taking innocent lives."
+
+On July 6, Mr. Debs issued the following clear and succinct statement of
+the causes and status of the present condition of affairs:
+
+"To the public:--So many misleading reports have been given currency in
+reference to the great railroad strike now in progress that I am
+prompted, in the interest of justice and fair play, to give the public
+an honest, impartial statement of the issues involved and the facts as
+they actually exist. My purpose in this is to have the great American
+public--the plain people--in every avenue of life conversant with the
+situation as it really is, that they who constitute the highest tribunal
+we know, may pass judgment upon our acts, condemn us if we are wrong,
+and uphold us if we are right.
+
+"First of all let it be said that the Pullman employes who struck May
+6th, last, did so entirely of their own accord."
+
+"Their action in so doing was spontaneous and unanimous. They simply
+revolted against a series of deep-seated wrongs of long standing, and no
+power could stay them. It has been charged, and the charge has been
+widely accepted, that they were induced to strike by their "leaders" and
+labor agitators; that if left alone they would have remained at work.
+The charge is wholly untrue.
+
+"The fact is that the officers of the American Railway Union used all
+their influence to pacify the employes and advised them repeatedly not
+to strike, but to bear patiently their grievances until a peaceable
+settlement could be effected. To the truth of this statement the
+employes themselves will bear willing testimony.
+
+"But the grievances of the employes, men and women, had become so
+aggravated, so galling, that patience deserted them, and they abandoned
+their employment rather than to submit longer to conditions against
+which their very souls revolted. Whether they were right or not, let
+only those judge who comprehend the conditions under which these
+faithful employes toiled and groaned. Let us avoid sentiment. The bare
+facts will suffice, and they are haggard enough to excite the sympathy
+of every good citizen, rich or poor, employer or employed.
+
+"The Pullman company, be it understood owns the town of Pullman, owns
+the houses, the homes of employes, controls the light and water, and
+other necessaries of life, and wages are so adjusted to living expenses
+that in a large majority of cases the employes are barely able to
+support their families. Proof overwhelming can be furnished. One
+instance will suffice. At the time they struck the employes were in
+arrears to the Pullman company $70,000 for rent alone. Wages had been
+repeatedly reduced but rent and other expenses had remained the same.
+
+"At this rate it would be a question of a short time only until the
+employes would have been hopelessly involved in debt, mortgaged soul and
+body to the Pullman company.
+
+"The employes from the beginning, have been willing to arbitrate their
+differences with the company. That is their position to-day. The company
+arrogantly declares that there is nothing to arbitrate. If this be true
+why not allow a board of fair and impartial arbitrators to determine the
+fact?
+
+"At this point we appeal to the public as to whether the position of the
+employes is entitled to the sanction of the public conscience. If the
+employes were to assume the position of the Pullman company and
+defiantly declare they had nothing to arbitrate, and arbitrarily demand
+unconditional surrender as the only basis of settlement they would
+merit the condemnation of the public and it would certainly and swiftly
+fall upon them with crushing severity. Committee after committee waited
+upon the officials of the Pullman company with the vain hope of
+effecting a settlement. They were willing to make concessions, to
+compromise in the interest of peace. All their advances were repelled.
+
+"The company was, and is, unyielding as adamant. Finally, June 12th, the
+delegates of the American Railway Union, representing 425 local unions
+of railway employes located on the principal lines of American railways,
+met in convention at Chicago. The Pullman trouble had been discussed at
+their local meetings. Many of the delegates came instructed. The
+grievances of the Pullman employes were taken under consideration, and
+two separate committees were sent to the officials.
+
+"Not the slightest satisfaction could be obtained. As a last resort the
+delegates by a unanimous vote determined that unless the Pullman company
+would agree to do justice to their employes within five days, the
+members of the order would refuse to haul Pullman cars. This action be
+it remembered, was not taken until the strike had been on six weeks, and
+every conceivable effort to obtain redress had failed because of the
+obstinacy of the company.
+
+"Up to this time the trouble had been confined to the Pullman company
+and its employes. How, then, did the strike extend to the railways? Let
+the answer be given in accordance with the facts. The day before the
+order of the delegates declining to haul Pullman cars, went into effect,
+the General Managers' association, representing the principal Western
+railways, met and passed a series of resolutions, declaring in substance
+that they would uphold the Pullman company in its fight upon the
+employes, that they would haul Pullman cars and that they would stand
+together in crushing out the American Railway Union. The resolutions in
+question were published in the city papers and can be referred to in
+substantiation of this averment. It will thus be seen that the railway
+companies virtually joined forces with the Pullman company, went into
+partnership with them so to speak, to reduce and defeat their half
+starved employes. In this way the trouble was extended from line to
+line, and from system to system until a crisis has been reached. The
+business of the country is demoralized to an extent that defies
+exaggeration.
+
+"To say that the situation is alarming is entirely within the bounds of
+prudent statement. Every good citizen must view the outlook with grave
+concern.
+
+"Something should, something must be done. The American people are a
+peace-loving people--they want neither anarchy or revolution. They have
+faith in their institutions, they believe in law and order, they believe
+in good government, but they also believe in fair play. Once aroused
+they will not tolerate arbitrary and dictatorial defiance, even on the
+part of an alliance of rich and powerful corporations.
+
+"What can be done to dispel the apprehension that now prevails, and
+restore peace and confidence? The American Railway Union on whose
+authority and in whose behalf this statement is made, stands ready, has
+from the beginning stood ready, to do anything in its power, provided it
+is honorable to end this trouble.
+
+"This, briefly stated, is the position the organization occupies. It
+simply insists that the Pullman Company shall meet its employes and do
+them justice. We guarantee that the latter will accept any reasonable
+proposition.
+
+"The company may act through its officials or otherwise, and the
+employes through their chosen representatives. Let them agree as far as
+they can, and where they fail to agree, let the points in dispute be
+subjected to arbitration. The question of the recognition of the
+American Railway Union or any other organization is waived. We do not
+ask, nor have we ever asked for a recognition as an organization. We
+care nothing about that, and so far as we are concerned it has no part
+in the controversy. Let the officials deal with the employes without
+reference to organizations. Let the spirit of conciliation, mutual
+concession, and compromise animate and govern both sides, and there will
+be no trouble in reaching a settlement that will be satisfactory to all
+concerned.
+
+"This done let the railway companies agree to restore all their employes
+to their situations without prejudice and the trouble will be ended. The
+crisis will thus be averted, traffic will resume and peace will reign.
+The railways are not required to recognize the American Railway Union.
+This has never been asked nor is it asked now.
+
+"If there are those who discover in this statement a 'weakening' on the
+part of the employes, as has been so often charged when an exposition of
+the true attitude of our order was attempted, we have only to say that
+they are welcome to such solace as such a perverted conclusion affords
+them. We have been deliberately and maliciously misrepresented, but we
+have borne it all with an unwavering faith that the truth will finally
+and powerfully prevail. We firmly believe our cause is just, and while
+we hold that belief, we will not recede. If we are wrong we are ready to
+be convinced. We are open to reason and to conviction, but we will not
+be cowed or intimidated. Were we to sacrifice the multiplied thousands
+of wageworkers who have committed their interests to our hands and yield
+to the pressure of corporate power, we would be totally unworthy of
+American citizenship.
+
+"It may be asked what sense is there in sympathetic strikes. Let the
+corporations answer.
+
+"When one is assailed all go to the rescue. They stand together; they
+support each other with men, money and equipments. Labor, in unifying
+its forces, simply follows their example. The corporations established
+a precedent. If the proceeding is vicious and indefensible let them
+first abolish it.
+
+"In this contest labor will stand by labor. Other organizations of
+workingmen have themselves felt the oppressive hand of corporate
+capital. They will not be called out, but will go out. And the spectacle
+of Mr. Pullman, fanned by the breezes of the seashore while his employes
+are starving, is not calculated to prevent their fellow wageworkers from
+going to their rescue by their only means at their command.
+
+"A few words in reference to myself, although ordinarily I pay no
+attention to misrepresentation or vituperation, may not be out of place,
+not because of myself personally, but on account of the cause I have the
+honor to in part represent, which may suffer if silence is maintained
+while it is assailed with falsehood and malignant detraction. I shirk no
+responsibility, neither do I want credit to which I am not entitled.
+This strike was not 'ordered' by myself nor by any other individual. I
+have never 'ordered' nor 'called' anybody out. Under the rules of the
+American Railway Union members can only strike when a majority of the
+members so decide.
+
+"The votes of the delegates in this instance was unanimous, and where
+ever men have struck they did so of their own accord. I have simply
+served the notice after the men themselves had determined to go out.
+
+"This is the extent of my authority and I have never exceeded it. My
+alleged authority to 'call' or 'order' out has been made the pretext on
+which to assail me with every slander that malignity could conceive. So
+far as I am personally concerned, detraction cannot harm me, nor does it
+matter if it could. I do not amount to more than the humblest member of
+our order--perhaps not as much. Fate or fortune has assigned me a duty,
+and, no matter how trying the ordeal or severe the penalties I propose
+to perform it. The reflection that an honest man has nothing to fear
+sustains and comforts me in every hour of trial.
+
+"In closing let me repeat that we stand ready to do our part toward
+averting the impending crisis. We have no false pride to stand in the
+way of a statement. We do not want official recognition. All we ask is
+fair play for the men who have chosen us to represent them.
+
+"If the corporations refuse to yield and stubbornly maintain that there
+is 'nothing to arbitrate,' the responsibility of what may ensue will be
+upon their heads, and they cannot escape its penalties.
+
+  EUGENE V. DEBS."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SLAUGHTER OF CITIZENS.
+
+
+The situation at Hammond, Ind., would compare favorably with Chicago in
+so far as the wanton shooting of innocent citizens was concerned. The
+town had become infested with a gang of toughs from Chicago, who
+overturned a number of box cars and blocked the passage of trains. About
+noon of July 8th, the U. S. troops arrived, and their appearance
+attracted large crowds of citizens on the streets, in the vicinity of
+the railroad tracks. The troops who were ensconced in passenger cars
+were being hauled up and down the track, when a gang of toughs attempted
+to overturn a Pullman coach. The soldiers, who could easily have left
+the coaches and placed the lawbreakers under arrest opened fire, but
+strange to say these sharpshooters, under instructions to shoot to kill,
+did not wound even one of the lawless rioters. Not so, however, with the
+citizens who were walking along the street and had no connection
+whatever with the mob. Charles Fleischer, who lived near with his wife
+and five children, walked down the street in search of his little son,
+when without a moment's warning he fell to the ground a corpse pierced
+with a law and order bullet. This man had no connection whatever with
+the riot nor even with the strike.
+
+Miss Flemming, of Chicago, who was visiting friends in Hammond was on
+the street when the shooting occurred and was seriously injured by a
+shot in the knee. Wm. Campbell, Victor Dizuttner and an unknown man were
+also shot and seriously injured by the regulars without the slightest
+provocation.
+
+These people had no connection with the rioters, were citizens of
+Hammond, and not on railroad property.
+
+Bullets crashed through frame walls, and I was told by a man whose head
+was grazed by a bullet while in his room, that nothing short of a
+miracle saved many persons from being shot down in their own dwellings.
+
+Mayor Reily whose anger knew no bounds, after the killing rushed to the
+telegraph office and wired Governor Matthews, asking if martial law had
+been proclaimed. I should like to know, he said, by what authority the
+U. S. troops come to our city and shoot down our citizens without the
+slightest warning.
+
+Immediately after the fatal occurrence, A. Shields and Dr. F. E. Bell,
+representing the citizens of Hammond, wired Governor Matthews the
+following message: "Federal troops shooting down citizens promiscuously
+and without provocation. Cannot something be done to protect citizens?
+Act quickly."
+
+The governor replied that he had sent troops to restore order, enforce
+law, and protect lives of law abiding citizens. Lawlessness and rioting
+must be suppressed. Citizens obeying law had nothing to fear.
+
+Was ever military despotism more thoroughly demonstrated? What further
+proof was necessary than the reply of the chief executive of the state,
+to the citizens, that they were at the mercy of, and subject to the
+arrogant brutality of military despotism? The governor in his reply
+said: "Citizens obeying law have nothing to fear, that lawlessness must
+be suppressed." According to that we can only arrive at one conclusion;
+that the persons overturning cars and destroying property were obeying
+the law, as they were not shot down nor were they arrested, but on the
+other hand peaceable citizens who were in no way connected with the
+rioting, were shot and maimed by the troops.
+
+The people were beginning to regard the law with suspicion, they no
+longer felt that sense of security, the implicit confidence, they were
+wont to place in the constitution. The law of to-day, if the interests
+of the railroad corporations so required, would be reversed to-morrow.
+Under those circumstances could it be wondered that the people were
+beginning to lose the respect that had been accorded the law, and to
+which it was entitled? Could it be wondered that they became restless
+and exhibited signs of revolting against such damnable brutality, and
+the indignities to which they were subjected under the guise of the law?
+
+Cleveland was now beginning to fear, that in his eagerness to assist the
+railroads in crushing the strikers he had overreached himself and the
+wanton murder of citizens, he feared, might have a damaging effect on
+his future political plans. His uneasiness was quite apparent, while on
+the other hand his co-conspirator, Olney, was in a happy state of mind.
+He claimed to be able with the anti-trust bill, to break up every labor
+union in America.
+
+The general managers, finding out that the city would not be held
+responsible for the loss of and damage to railroad property, were now in
+favor of removing the troops from the city of Chicago--but knowing the
+effect of such action after making an appeal for their assistance--did
+not ask for their removal.
+
+The situation throughout the country had not materially changed, and the
+prospects for a final victory for the strikers looked very favorably.
+
+General Miles circulated a story that ninety per cent of the citizens of
+Chicago were in sympathy with the Pullman company and the railroads.
+
+The railway managers took advantage of this report and spread and
+distorted it in order to discourage the strikers.
+
+Now for facts: The trades unions of Chicago alone represent 750,000
+people, adding to this the membership of the railway unions you have a
+total of 900,000 or ninety per cent of the citizens, who were in direct
+sympathy with the strikers. And it was not confined to members of
+Unions alone; such men as Bishop Fallaws, Rev. Dr. Henson, Prof. E. W.
+Bennis, Rev. G. P. Brushingham, Rev. W. H. Carvardine, Mayor Hopkins and
+hosts of other men prominent in the affairs of the city endorsed the men
+and denounced the railroad corporations.
+
+Resolutions by the score were passed by business men, by the
+Typographical Unions and other organizations endorsing the American
+Railway Union, and denouncing Pullman and the railroads, also condemning
+the action of Grover Cleveland in upholding the corporations against the
+workingmen.
+
+Resolutions were passed requesting all sympathizers to wear a white
+ribbon, the badge adopted by the American Railway Union, and the sea of
+white ribbons to be seen in Chicago would not bear out the statement of
+Gen. Miles.
+
+The labor unions now signified their willingness to strike in support of
+the movement if called upon by the American Railway Union.
+
+Grover Cleveland at this time issued a proclamation which--to all
+intents and purposes--declared martial law in the city of Chicago. This
+was what Gen. Miles desired, as it virtually gave him full power to
+rule with despotic sway over the citizens and civil authorities.
+
+The following protest was wired the President of the United States by
+President Debs, of the American Railway Union and Grand Master Sovereign
+of the Knights of Labor.
+
+"To the Hon. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, Executive
+Mansion, Washington, D. C.
+
+"Dear Sir:--Through a long period of depression, enforced idleness and
+low wages, resulting in wide spread poverty, and in many cases actual
+starvation, the working people have been patient, patriotic and law
+abiding, and not until the iron heel of corporate tyranny was applied
+with the intention to subjugate the working people to the will of
+arrogant monopolies, did they make any effort to stay their oppressors.
+
+"The Pullman strike was not declared until the employes of the Pullman
+company were driven to the verge of starvation, their entreaties spurned
+with contempt, and their grievances denied a hearing. No refusal to
+handle Pullman cars was declared by any railway employe until all
+propositions looking towards arbitration and conciliation were rejected
+by the Pullman company. Notwithstanding the truths set forth above were
+known to the public and the national authorities, you have seen fit
+under guise of protecting the mails and federal property to invoke the
+services of the United States army, whose very presence is used to
+coerce and intimidate peaceable working people into a humiliating
+obedience to the will of their oppressors.
+
+"By your acts, insofar as you have supplanted civil and state
+authorities with the federal military power, the spirit of unrest and
+distrust has so far been augmented that a deep seated conviction is fast
+becoming prevalent that this government is soon to become a military
+despotism. The transmission of the United States mails is not
+interrupted by the striking employes of any railway company, but by the
+railway companies themselves, who refused to haul the mail on trains to
+which Pullman cars were not attached. If it is a criminal interference
+with the United States mails for the employes of a railway company to
+detach from a mail train a Pullman palace car, contrary to the will of
+the company then it holds true that it is the same criminal interference
+whenever a Pullman palace car is detached from a mail train in
+accordance with the will of a railroad company while said mail train is
+in transit. The line of criminality in such a case should not be drawn
+at the willingness or unwillingness of railway employes, but at the act
+itself, and inasmuch as it has been the common practice of railway
+corporations to attach and detach from mail trains Pullman palace cars
+at will while said trains are in transit and carrying the mails of the
+United States, it would seem an act of discrimination against the
+employes of the railway corporations to declare such acts unlawful
+interference with the transmission of the mails when done by employes
+with or without the consent of their employers.
+
+"In view of these facts we look upon the far-fetched decision of
+Attorney General Olney, the sweeping un-American injunctions against
+railway employes, and the movements of the regular army as employing the
+powers of the general government for the support and protection of the
+railway corporations in their determination to degrade and oppress their
+employes.
+
+"The present railway strike was precipitated by the uneasy desire of the
+railway corporations to destroy the organizations of their employes and
+make the working people more subservient to the will of their
+employers; and as all students of government agree that free
+institutions depend for their perpetuity upon the freedom and prosperity
+of the common people, it would seem more in consonance with the spirit
+of democratic government if federal authority was exercised in deference
+of the rights of the toiling masses to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness. But on the contrary there is not an instance on record where
+in any conflict between corporations and the people the strong arm of
+the military power has been employed to protect the working people and
+the industrial masses from the ravage and persecution of corporate
+greed. But the measure of character has been in the line of declaring
+the corporations always good and in the right, and the working people
+always bad and in the wrong.
+
+"Now, sir, we pledge to you the power of our respective organizations,
+individually and collectively, for the maintenance of peace and good
+order and the preservation of life and property, and will aid in the
+arrest and punishment of all violators of the civil and criminal laws of
+the state or nation. In the present contest between labor and railway
+corporations we shall use every peaceable and honorable means at our
+command consistent with the law and our constitutional rights, to secure
+for the working people just compensation for labor done and respectable
+consideration in accordance with the inherent rights of all men and the
+spirit of republican government. In doing so we appeal to all the
+liberty loving people of the nation to aid and support us in this most
+just and righteous cause.
+
+  By EUGENE V. DEBS,
+  President.
+
+  "Order of Knights of Labor,
+  By J. R. SOVEREIGN,
+  Grand Master Workman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BUSINESS MEN'S PROTEST.
+
+
+The town of Danville, Ill., was now visited by martial law with the
+result that two women were killed and two men fatally wounded. A
+non-union brakeman fired three shots into a crowd that was jeering him,
+whereupon some one in the crowd returned the fire hitting him in the
+neck. The militia then opened fire, killing a Mrs. Glennon who was
+standing in her own yard and Miss James seated at the organ in her own
+house. This was the effect of federal troops in Danville, and so it was
+in every town and city where Grover's minions were stationed. The
+damnable outrages perpetrated on the people of the commonweal by the
+federal troops under the guise of law and order was goading the citizens
+to a state of open rebellion. The business men of Chicago fearing a
+general outbreak determined on sending a committee to the Pullman
+company with a view to reaching a settlement whereby this dire calamity
+would be averted. A committee was formed composed of representative
+business men, members of the city council, and members of the various
+trades of the city. The committee met with no success.
+
+Mr. Wickes, who represented the Pullman company, informed them that the
+company had nothing to arbitrate and wished to see no committee. The
+proposition they wished to submit to Mr. Wickes as the representative of
+the Pullman company was this: That Mr. Pullman had said there was
+nothing to arbitrate while the men contended that there was. Let the
+Pullman company appoint two men and the circuit court two men. Let these
+four select a fifth, if necessary, to determine if there was anything to
+arbitrate and in case there was, that would take care of itself later.
+If not, the strike would end just as soon as the decision was reached.
+Surely this proposition was fair and manly but speaking for the Pullman
+company Mr. Wickes flatly refused to entertain it for an instant.
+Alderman McGillen, who acted as spokesman, then made an eloquent plea
+for the Pullman company to take steps, which he considered would go far
+toward settling the strike. He said: "Mr. Wickes we received a request
+from the trades-unions--their representatives who are now here you have
+already met--to see if some means to settle this strike peaceably could
+not be found.
+
+"It has been demonstrated that your company had no subject for
+arbitration, that the request of the employes for arbitration could not
+be acceded to?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Yes, sir."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "We are here to suggest that it might be possible to
+obviate all differences between the company and the men--strikers,
+ex-employes, or whatever you wish to call them. We would suggest a
+committee to ascertain whether there is any matter needing arbitration
+as you are a quasi public."
+
+Mr. Wickes, interrupting: "Do you come as representatives of the city
+instructed by the mayor? We have nothing to arbitrate, the Pullman
+company cannot recede from its position."
+
+Ald. O'Brien: "There must be some trouble?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Our men made complaint, we promised to investigate, but
+before we had time to do so they struck."
+
+Ald. O'Brien: "But that will not settle the matter."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Unfortunately not."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "We suggest that this committee be made up of
+representative men, the best men in Chicago, men who occupy positions of
+honor."
+
+Here attorney John S. Runnell appeared and was closeted with Mr. Wickes
+for a quarter of an hour.
+
+On his return to the room Mr. Wickes said that neither the Pullman
+company or the railway manager's association created the situation of
+to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work
+at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then,
+some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this,
+you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be
+conducted.
+
+Ald. McGillen then said: "You require protection from us. You call on
+the police, on the county, on the state, and on the nation for
+protection. Your only valued assets are the patents which the nation
+gives you in recognition of the genius which built the Pullman car.
+Remove that asset and you are ruined. You utterly ignore our request. It
+is not dishonorable men we ask to investigate your affairs. Think of the
+sickness, starvation, want, disaster and bloodshed which is coming if
+the strike assumes larger proportions. The climax is fast approaching
+and who will be to blame. I am here for the common weal, and I hope and
+beg of you not to refuse."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "There is a principle involved. Every business should have
+the right to dictate to its own labor, we will brook no interference,
+national, state, county or municipal."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "Compulsory arbitration is not a law but it will be if
+this strike does not stop."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "We have nothing to arbitrate."
+
+Ald. Warreinner: "We are not asking for arbitration, we want a committee
+appointed to see if there is need of it. Will you consent to that?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "No."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "In the name of humanity let me beseech you to reconsider
+your negation."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Gentlemen, the Pullman company has nothing to arbitrate, we
+want to see no committee, the Pullman company cannot recede from its
+position. This is final."
+
+When the committee met again at 4:30 to make its final report, it was
+completely discouraged. Mr. Elderkin stated the proposition that had
+been made to the Pullman company and its direct refusal. The alderman
+begged the labor representatives not to strike and cause widespread
+suffering.
+
+The general manager's and Pullman's position was so clearly defined that
+it would be impossible for the public to fail to see it in any but its
+true light.
+
+The companies were losing millions of dollars but the general managers
+had determined if necessary to bankrupt every system in the United
+States in order to crush labor organizations out of existence. The
+Pullman matter was something of the past, with them they were after the
+labor organizations, and they were after them with a vengeance.
+
+The government was backing them. The attorney general of the United
+states,--a corporation attorney as well,--had pledged himself to disrupt
+every labor organization in the country. President Cleveland, another
+railroad attorney, had encouraged and abetted them to the same end.
+
+With the subsidized press, the bankers unions, the moneycrat
+manufacturers and the federal courts arrayed against them, what in the
+name of justice could they expect?
+
+Surely the martyred president and savior of mankind, the immortal
+Lincoln, must have anticipated the present deplorable condition when in
+his message to the second session of the thirty-seventh congress,--to be
+found in the appendix to the Congressional Globe of the thirty-seventh
+congress, second section, page 4--when he said: "Monarchy itself is
+sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people.
+In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit
+raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It
+is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in
+favor of popular institutions, but there is one point with its
+connections not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief
+attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with,
+if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that
+labor is available only in connection with capital, that nobody labors
+unless somebody else owning capital somehow by the use of it induces him
+to labor. * * * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is
+only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not
+first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the
+higher consideration. * * * No men living are more worthy to be trusted
+than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch
+aught which they have not earned. Let them beware of surrendering a
+political power which they already possess and which, if surrendered,
+will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as
+they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of
+liberty shall be lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+INDICTMENT OF PRESIDENT DEBS.
+
+
+The railroad managers and federal courts were leaving no stone unturned
+to secure the indictment and incarceration of Eugene V. Debs. If
+successful, it was their intention to dispose of all the officers and
+directors of the American Railway Union in the same manner.
+
+Attorney General Olney, acting for the railroads, was hatching a scheme
+to incarcerate the officers of the union and refuse them bail. Attorneys
+Walker and Milchrist were ready to prove that Debs ordered the boycott,
+that he conspired against the lives and liberty of the people, that he
+conspired to overthrow the government, in short, they were ready to
+prove anything that would further the ends of the corporations which
+they represented.
+
+These diabolical plotters never doubted for one instant that the
+officers of the American Railway Union were innocent of the charges
+preferred against them. They knew very well that they (the officers)
+had no authority to order a boycott or strike, and that it was ordered
+by a majority vote of the men employed on each system. They also knew
+that from the inauguration of the strike, not one word or act of Eugene
+V. Debs could be construed into an offense and make him amenable to the
+law.
+
+That he counseled moderation and appealed to the men to refrain from
+acts of violence from the start, was a well known fact. This was very
+clear to them, but the powerful magnetism of his presence in restraining
+the men from acts of violence would also have a tendency to keep their
+ranks firm and intact. This was also known to them and they must devise
+some scheme to shackle him or get him out of the way. With consummate
+skill they proceeded with the avowed effort to accomplish this end.
+
+At 3:00 P. M., July 10, the special grand jury summoned by
+Judges Wood and Grosscup set the machinery of federal law in motion, and
+after one hour and seven minutes--most of which time was occupied in
+waiting for advice from the Western Union Telegraph Co., in New York, to
+its manager in Chicago--returned indictments against E. V. Debs, G. W.
+Howard, L. W. Rogers and Sylvester Kelliher. No sooner were the four
+officers of the American Railway Union indicted than they were arrested
+and the private papers as well as the documents of the union were
+seized.
+
+The four men were admitted to bail and the joint bond of $10,000 was
+signed by J. W. Fitzgerald and Wm. Skakel.
+
+The special grand jurors selected by the court for the express purpose
+of indicting the officers of the American Railway Union were well
+chosen. An elaborate charge from his honor, the judge, a pretense of
+examining a lone witness, just a farcical formality, and Debs, Howard,
+Rogers and Kelliher were indicted. These men were virtually indicted
+before the grand jury went into session. This is a fact that defies
+contradiction, Z. E. Holbrook, one of the jurors, was a man who two
+years ago went to Homestead, Pa., at the request of H. C. Frick, manager
+of the Carnegie Company, and after obtaining a supply of alleged facts
+from Mr. Frick, returned to Chicago and made a speech before the Sunset
+Club, in which he charged the Homestead strikers with being
+conspirators, anarchists and murderers, and he denounced and abused in
+no measured terms all labor unions and sympathizers. So bitterly did he
+attack labor that he was roundly hissed by members of his own club.
+
+The city directory sets him down as a capitalist, and he is known
+throughout the city as a bitter enemy to labor unions. Such is the
+character of one of the men who was chosen to indict Eugene V. Debs. Was
+ever court of justice so utterly debauched?
+
+What has become of our boasted liberty? Are we freemen? No! in the
+burning words of Rienzi, the Roman, we are slaves, the bright sun rises
+to its course and sets on a race of slaves. Slaves, not such as
+conqueror led to crimson glory and undying fame, but base, ignoble
+slaves, slaves to a horde of petty tyrants, feudal despots.
+
+The same conditions that emanated these immortal utterances from the
+ancient Roman is absolutely the condition of the working people of
+America to-day.
+
+The federal courts had now accomplished a master stroke; they had
+indicted the president of the American Railway Union for conspiracy.
+
+When the wires flashed the news to the various local unions throughout
+the country, the excitement was intense. The illegal proceeding was
+condemned by every good citizen, regardless of vocation or station in
+life. Millions of men in every branch of labor threatened to strike, but
+were held in check by the assurance of their leaders that all would be
+well in the end.
+
+Mr. Debs, fearing the bad effect his arrest would have on the working
+people, sent out the following appeal for order:
+
+"To all striking employes and sympathizers:
+
+"In view of the serious phases which the strike has assumed, I deem it
+my duty to again admonish you to not only refrain from acts of violence
+but to aid in every way in your power to maintain law and order. We have
+everything to lose and nothing to gain by participating, even by our
+presence in demonstrative gatherings. Almost universal unrest prevails.
+Men are excitable and inflammable. The distance from anger to vengeance
+is not great. Every precaution against still further aggravating
+conditions should be taken. In this supreme hour let workingmen show
+themselves to be orderly and law abiding by freely co-operating with the
+authorities in suppressing turbulence and preserving the peace. Our
+position is secure and the people are with us. We have made every
+effort that reason and justice could suggest to obtain redress for our
+grievances.
+
+"Our advances have been repelled. The responsibility for the grave
+situation that confronts the country is not with us. The indications now
+are that the stoppage of work will become general. This in itself will
+be a calamity, but if order be maintained it may yet prove to be a
+blessing to the country. I appeal to every workingman to entirely keep
+away from places where trouble would be likely to occur. What, under
+normal conditions, would probably be a peaceable gathering may now
+become a demonstrative mob. All good citizens deprecate the loss of life
+and the destruction of property. Grave as these complications are, our
+civilization is far enough advanced to find and apply a remedy without
+resort to violence. We are merely contending for justice for our fellow
+workingmen, who have been reduced to want by a power that now defies
+public opinion. Strong in the faith that our position is correct, that
+our grievances are just, we can afford to await the final verdict, with
+patience. The great public may be slow to act, but in the fullness of
+time it will act. Then the wrong, wherever found will be rebuked and
+cloven down, and the right will be enthroned. However serious the
+situation may become, let it not be intensified by lawlessness or
+violence.
+
+  Eugene V. Debs."
+
+If there is anything tending to conspiracy, any anarchistic sentiment in
+the above appeal then it is certain that Debs was guilty as indicted,
+but if there is not, then the railroad managers and federal court were
+guilty of a greater conspiracy and should be dealt with accordingly. In
+all the appeals, instructions or advice given verbally or otherwise by
+E. V. Debs, not a solitary one was of a more inflammatory nature than
+this, and yet this man was accused of this serious crime.
+
+The Chicago Times in an editorial on the indictment of Debs says in
+part: "We can perhaps leave to the lawyers who are so eager to indict
+Mr. Debs, determination of the legal position of this rebel Wickes,
+declaring that his tottering corporation will brook no interference
+national, state, county, or municipal. The times has learned many things
+of late showing the power of corporations over the national government
+but we still cling to the belief that Uncle Sam is bigger than Duke
+George, and if either the national, state, county or municipal
+government determines to interfere with the affairs of the Pullman
+corporation, Mr. Wickes will have to brook it or take refuge in Canada
+with his titled chiefs, embezzlers, boodlers, forgers and other harpies
+of society, who from time to time have fled thither."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A PROTEST BY THE PEOPLES PARTY.
+
+
+The newsboys of Chicago now decided to join the boycott by dropping the
+papers unfavorable to the American Railway Union, and after a noisy
+session in which parliamentary rules were freely discussed, and several
+amusing antics were indulged in, they voted to boycott the Tribune,
+Herald, Mail, Inter-Ocean, Post and Journal. When the Times was
+mentioned, they yelled themselves hoarse, and declared that it was the
+only paper they would sell. Hill, the circulator of the Post, caused the
+arrest of five of the little fellows and they were locked up.
+
+L. W. Rogers, editor of the Railway Times, the official organ of the
+American Railway Union finally succeeded in getting the attention of the
+boys and informed them that the union could not accept any sacrifice
+from the newsboys of Chicago. He assured them that the men were strong
+enough to do their own boycotting and requested them to continue the
+sale of the papers. He said: "We do not want to take one red cent out
+of your earnings, if things were as they should be, you lads would be at
+school in the day time and in comfortable homes at night instead of
+selling papers on the street."
+
+At the conclusion of Mr. Rogers' remarks they all sped away to the Times
+office, where cheer after cheer was given for the peoples paper.
+Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Rogers, the Times, Record, Dispatch
+and News were the only papers to be had on the streets.
+
+The Knights of Labor and Trades Unions as well as business men's unions
+were holding meetings all over the country, denouncing the action of
+Cleveland and the courts and endorsing the American Railway Union in its
+manly fight for rights. The strike situation had not changed to any
+great extent with the exception of passenger service. Passenger trains
+were beginning to run with more regularity, but the freight business was
+to all practical purposes dead. The men whom the companies had succeeded
+in getting so far to fill the places of strikers were green men,
+entirely unused to that kind of work, and incompetent men who had
+previously been discharged for drunkenness and other causes. The yard
+service was a failure, and as an illustration--to show the kind of men
+the different roads had secured to make up trains--I was passing a
+certain yard and stopped to watch a switching crew, and carefully noted
+how they performed their work. An engine with one car backed up to
+couple unto some cars on a lumber track. Two of the would-be switchmen
+with a long stick were holding up the link, one men on either side of
+the coupling, but just as the link was about to enter the drawbar one of
+them jumped away, at the same time stumbling over a pile of lumber, and
+the way that fellow scrambled about in his frantic endeavor to get out
+of the way, would lead a person to believe he had fallen upon a hornet's
+nest.
+
+After several such attempts they finally succeeded in making the
+coupling. This is the kind of men with which the company proposed to
+fill the places of the strikers.
+
+The Grand Trunk engineers, who up to this time had refused to work with
+other than brotherhood firemen decided to work with scabs, and their
+decision was hailed with delight by the officials. They said that the
+strike was now settled and they could run their trains without
+difficulty.
+
+The engineers and firemen on the Chicago & Alton road also decided to
+stand by the company. The firemen, switchmen and other employes of the
+Grand Trunk called a meeting, and after denouncing the action of the
+engineers, voted to stand by the American Railway Union to the end.
+
+One amusing incident that occurred about this time, was the refusal of
+the Washington National Guards to ride on a train that was run by scabs.
+The entire company of sixty men refused to ride on a Northern Pacific
+train for this reason, and they were promptly placed under arrest, put
+into box cars and taken to Sprague.
+
+General Master Workman Sovereign had at this time an order drawn up for
+a general walk out of members of the Knights of Labor, but it was
+withdrawn after a consultation with other labor leaders. Many comments
+were made by newspapers throughout the country on this order, of which a
+copy was furnished the papers under the impression that it would go into
+effect at once.
+
+People who had remained passive up to this time were now aroused to the
+gravity of the situation. The pending crisis was near at hand, and a
+general uprising of the laboring people to assert their rights was
+imminent. The tyrannical and dogged persistency of plutocratic capital
+to dominate over the laboring classes with utter disregard for their
+constitutional rights, was nothing more or less than an open declaration
+of despotic supremacy, and the outcome was looked forward to with the
+gravest apprehension.
+
+The following communication addressed to the chairman of the National
+Committee of the Peoples Party was sent to Washington, D. C.
+
+"To the Hon. H. E. Taubeneck, chairman National Committee, Peoples
+Party:
+
+"Through the gloom of civil war the enemies of human liberty laid the
+foundation upon which the giant monopolies of to-day have been built. On
+public lands, with public funds they built the railroads which they now
+use to plunder the producers of this nation, and with the wealth and
+power thus obtained they now usurp the power and functions of government
+to reduce the people of this country to a condition of serfdom. The
+workmen in the cities, the miners in their isolated communities, and
+the railroad men throughout the land have risen in manful protest
+against a threatened military government of the railroads and their
+associate monopolies.
+
+"In this hour of need the duty of the Peoples Party is clear and plain.
+
+"Quick as the lightning's flash will bear the message, must go forth
+that the Peoples Party recognize the gravity of the situation, and by
+common impulse aligns itself to the side of the toiler in the shop and
+mine, and on the railroads; their battle is our battle, because it is a
+struggle for liberty and the right to exist--a peaceable contest on the
+part of toil against the combined armies of greed and force.
+
+"The farmer knows the means best calculated to help his brother in this
+conflict. The railroads intend to run their trains under military guard
+and expect American citizen to patronize public means of traffic,
+operated under military despotism. The Peoples Party of Cook county, in
+common with organized labor demand immediate arbitration, and urges
+immediate action on the part of our national committee to the end that
+all organizations in sympathy with labor be united in common cause
+against a common enemy.
+
+  "Signed: T. O'Brien, Chairman,
+  I. H. Hawley, Sec'y.
+  H. S. Taylor,
+  Henry Vincent,
+  John Bagley,
+  D. M. Fielwiler,
+  John Schwartz,
+  C. G. Dixon,
+  J. P. Grimes,
+  Committee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AN OFFER OF SETTLEMENT.
+
+
+Senator Pfeffer, of Kansas, arraigned congress for its defence of
+monopolies, and its stand against the people. Senator Kyle, of Dakota,
+also charged congress with being in collusion with the railroads, but
+Senator Davis, of Minnesota, on the other hand, denounced Debs and the
+strikers. He said the strike grew from a strike to a boycott, from
+boycott to riot, from riot to insurrection, that the acts, if committed
+on the high seas, would be piracy and punishable by death. He spoke of
+the injustice being done the farmers of the United States, and how they
+were effected by the strike in Chicago. He urged that it was time some
+action should be taken to put down the rising tide of anarchy. He held
+that a nuisance should be abated and that Debs was a nuisance.
+
+Senator Gordon, of Georgia, and Senator Daniels, of Virginia, followed
+in the same kind of demagoguery as Davis.
+
+A great meeting was held in Dubuque, and prominent among the speakers
+was County Attorney Mathews who insisted on obedience to law, but
+denounced Judge Grosscup for issuing an injunction which denied the
+constitutional right of free speech and trial by Jury.
+
+Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, Michigan, and
+Erskine M. Phelps conferred with Mr. Wickes, and Mrs. Brown and Runnell
+of the Pullman Company at the request of some fifty mayors, representing
+about one-third of the population of the United States--and urged
+arbitration as a means of settling the strike. The efforts of these
+gentlemen were in vain. The imperious Pullman company through its
+representative, though not saying so in as many words, intimated that
+the company would not establish a precedent whereby workmen could
+interfere in its business. Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, corresponded with
+almost every mayor of the larger cities of the United States, and
+received answers favorable to arbitration from all with one exception,
+that of Mayor Gilroy, of New York City, whose answer to the telegram of
+Mayor Pingree was an emphatic no.
+
+The wildest excitement now prevailed at Sacramento. The United States
+troops commanded by Col. Graham and consisting of infantry, cavalry,
+artillery, and gatling and Hotchkiss guns, presented a most war like
+aspect. The strikers on learning of this movement on the part of the
+government armed themselves, and it was feared that a desperate conflict
+would take place.
+
+The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in this district called upon
+Supt. Filmore of the Southern Pacific and stated that they were ready to
+resume work at once. This weakened the cause of the strikers to some
+extent and caused a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the railroad
+managers.
+
+After much persuasion due to the untiring efforts of Congressman McGann,
+President Cleveland consented to appoint a committee of three to
+investigate the strike, under section 6 of the arbitration act, prepared
+some years ago under the eyes of Powderly, McGuire and Hays of the
+Knights of Labor, offered by Representative Quail, of St. Louis, and
+made a law on Oct. 1, 1888. This determination on the part of Cleveland
+was received with satisfaction throughout the country. This was just
+what the American Railway Union wanted. This was what the Trades and
+Labor Unions of the United States had appealed for, and what the
+business men and city representatives had so long demanded, begged and
+entreated of the Pullman company, but without avail.
+
+It looked at this time as if an investigation would be forced on Duke
+Pullman, and the people were looking forward to a speedy settlement of
+the trouble. The American Railway Union, having no fear of the final
+decision of the investigating committee, and viewing the vast amount of
+destruction of property, loss of life and extreme hardship to which the
+people were subjected on account of the strike--decided to take the
+necessary steps to call off the strike, they drew up the following
+proposition which was given to Mr. Hopkins, mayor of Chicago, to present
+to the general managers.
+
+"To the Railway Managers:
+
+"Gentlemen:--The existing trouble growing out of the Pullman strike
+having assumed continental proportions, and there being no indications
+of relief from the wide spread business demoralization and distress,
+incident thereto, the railway employes, through the board of directors
+of the American Railway Union respectfully make the following
+proposition as a basis of settlement:
+
+"They agree to return to work in a body at once, provided they shall be
+restored to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases,
+if any there be, where they have been convicted of crime. This
+proposition looking to an immediate settlement of the existing strike on
+all lines of railway is inspired by a purpose to subserve public good.
+The strike, small and comparatively unimportant in its inception, has
+extended in every direction until now it involves or threatens not only
+every public interest, but the peace, security and prosperity of our
+common country. The contest has waged fiercely, it has extended far
+beyond the limits of interest originally involved, and has laid hold of
+a vast number of industries and enterprises in nowise responsible for
+the difference and disagreements that led to the trouble.
+
+"Factory, mill, mine and shop have been silenced. Widespread
+demoralization has sway. The interests of multiplied thousands of people
+are suffering, and the common welfare is seriously menaced, The public
+peace and tranquility are imperiled, and grave apprehension for the
+future prevails. This being true, and the statement will not be
+controverted, we conceive it to be our duty as citizens and as men, to
+make extraordinary efforts to end the existing strife and approaching
+calamities whose shadows are even now upon us. If ended now, the
+contest, however serious in some respects, will not have been in vain.
+
+"Sacrifices have been made, but they will have their compensations.
+Indeed, if lessons shall be taught by experience, the troubles now so
+widely deplored will prove a blessing of inestimable value in the years
+to come. The difference that led up to the present complications need
+not now be discussed, every consideration of duty and patriotism demands
+that a remedy for existing troubles be found and applied. The employes
+purpose to do their part by meeting their employers half way. Let it be
+stated that they do not impose any condition of settlement except that
+they be returned to their former positions; they do not ask recognition
+of their organization or any organization.
+
+"Believing this proposition to be fair, reasonable and just it is
+respectfully submitted with the belief that its acceptance will result
+in the prompt resumption of traffic, the revival of industry, and the
+restoration of peace and order.
+
+  "Respectfully,
+  E. V. DEBS, Pres.
+  G. W. HOWARD, V. Pres.
+  S. KELLIHER, Secy.
+  American Railway Union."
+
+The proposition was rejected and spurned by the General Managers
+Association.
+
+Is there a man so utterly lost to the sense of justice, that would
+conscientiously dispute the manly fairness of this communication?
+
+The object of the general managers was too apparent, their position was
+clearly defined. Their determination to wipe out of existence all
+railroad organizations was as fixed and unmovable as the Rock of
+Gibraltar and why should they recede from their position?
+
+The federal courts and federal government (owned and controlled by the
+corporations) decided that the constitutional rights of free speech and
+trial by jury, equal rights to all and special privileges to none, was a
+farce. In their narrow money-loving minds there could be no rights for
+honest labor, and determined there should be no rights for a
+workingman. After this decision of the general managers the American
+Railway Union could do nothing but fight out the battle to the bitter
+end.
+
+Eugene V. Debs,--representing a body of honest toilers with no other
+motive than to obtain for them living wages, his heart overflowing with
+generous impulses and humane kindness, his noble nature revolting
+against the tyrannical oppression of his fellow man by the soulless
+corporations, a man who loves his country with patriotic devotion,--for
+these reasons and no other, was indicted and arrested on the charge of
+criminal conspiracy, while John M. Egan--representing the General
+Managers Association, a giant monopoly and powerful money grasping
+trust, built on the people's land and with the people's money, a
+combination foreign to American institutions, usurping the functions of
+the government with avowed intent and purpose to take away the rights of
+organization from the working man and reduce him to a condition of
+absolute slavery,--was allowed to continue his nefarious work without
+interruption. Surely this partial, one-sided distribution of justice,
+openly and defiantly administered, deserves the severest condemnation of
+every loyal American citizen.
+
+The Pullman boycott had now ceased to be the point at issue in the
+strike. It was now the life or death of railroad organizations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+DEBS IN JAIL.
+
+
+The strike situation still looked very bright for the men.
+
+At St. Paul and Minneapolis the business of the railroads, with the
+exception of the Soo Line, St. Paul & Duluth and the Great Northern, was
+practically at a standstill.
+
+On the St. Paul & Duluth the men as a whole refused to strike, a few
+firemen and switchmen left their positions at the call but did not
+seriously affect the operation of trains. This was also true of the Soo
+Line. The Great Northern so far was not implicated as they used no
+Pullman cars and positively refused boycotted freight, that is, freight
+offered by railroads whose employes were on a strike. The Minnesota
+Transfer, which was the key to the coast lines, was completely blocked,
+and this condition was duplicated in almost every railroad center
+throughout the country.
+
+Encouraging telegrams were being received from all points contradicting
+the reports circulated by a subsidized press that everything was running
+as usual. So far the men in the Twin Cities were conducting themselves
+in such an orderly manner that even the press could not rake up one
+charge against them. They strictly adhered to the advice of President
+Debs to keep out of saloons and away from railroad property. The only
+action taken by the strikers was to induce other men by moral persuasion
+not to take their places and assist the managers to operate the roads.
+
+For this Charles J. Luth was foully murdered by one Leonard, chief clerk
+in the office of James McCabe, superintendent of the C., St. P., M. & O.
+Ry.
+
+On the evening of July 14, Leonard, in company with Bert Nash, also an
+employe of the same railroad, brought a lot of non-union men to a
+boarding place in St. Paul, known as the Minnesota Home. Luth followed
+them into the house and requested the proprietress of the Home not to
+board them as they were in the city to take the place of strikers, and
+while explaining the situation, became involved in an altercation with
+Nash. Leonard interfered and was told by Luth that he was little better
+than a scab, whereupon Leonard drew a revolver and fired five times, all
+of the shots taking effect in the body of Luth. Two of the shots were
+fired after Luth had fallen to the floor.
+
+These facts were given by an eye witness who afterwards took the
+revolver from Leonard.
+
+This dastardly, cold blooded murder worked the strikers into a frenzy of
+excitement, and had it not been for a herculean effort on the part of
+older and cooler heads, a lynching would surely have occurred.
+
+This foul deed was absolutely unwarranted as Luth was unarmed and alone,
+and if he had harmed or threatened to harm any one, an officer could
+have been called and he would have been promptly arrested.
+
+Luth left a wife and two small children to mourn his loss and grieve
+over his tragic end.
+
+The funeral procession that followed the remains to the grave headed by
+the Knights of Pythias and Foresters, was the largest ever seen in St.
+Paul.
+
+President Debs felt confident of victory. Addressing a meeting at Ulrich
+Hall, he said:
+
+"We have just finished reading 160 telegrams in not one of which there
+is any sign of weakening." He dwelled on the action of the general
+managers refusing to entertain the proposition made to them, and the
+necessity of the men remaining loyal to one another. "The law seems to
+be against us as it is read by some, but if the law makes it a crime to
+advise you men against the encroachments of capital, by all the Gods
+united I will rot in jail." Referring to the attitude of other railroad
+organizations, he said: "Men in such positions as myself and Mr. Howard
+cannot afford to be on good terms with general managers. If we are we
+cannot be your friends. It is true, however, that certain officers of
+certain other organizations ride on annual passes and spend months on
+fishing excursions at the expense of the railroad managers, but it comes
+out of your wages in the end."
+
+Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers present, informed the
+officers of the American Railway Union that Chief Arthur had issued
+orders for men to work with scabs, and that he was supplying scabs to
+take the places of men on strike. In other words, he was running an
+employment agency for the benefit of the railroads.
+
+The general managers' defeat on the fifth day of the strike was beyond
+all question of a doubt. They had summoned to their support the federal
+government with the result previously mentioned, but the government aid
+was not sufficient to operate their roads. They must have a number of
+the old men to educate and aid the scabs in the performance of their
+duties. At this critical time the services of their faithful allies were
+badly wanted. In this, their time of need they knew that those men who
+had feted, dined and wined at their expense would prove faithful to them
+and traitors to the orders they represented.
+
+The damnable spirit of treachery that evoked Benedict Arnold to betray
+his country predominated in the hearts of these double-dyed scoundrels.
+They were not only ready and willing but feverishly anxious to assist
+the corporations to enslave the men that they were oath-bound as well as
+duty bound to protect. Grand Chief Arthur, representing the engineers,
+who had grown old in the service of the corporations, and whose wealth
+was estimated at half a million dollars, in direct violation of the
+constitution of his order, ordered his men to work with scab firemen.
+Not only this, he ordered all those who were on strike to return at once
+to their engines and in case of their refusal he would supply men to
+take their places. This was also true of Grand Chief Sargent of the
+Firemen and Wilkinson of the Trainmen. Clark of the Conductors, and
+Barrett of the Switchmen advised their men to return to work as they had
+no grievance. But only a part of these men would be taken back by the
+companies, and what under the sun did these chiefs intend to do with the
+others? Positively nothing. But the result was exactly what they
+intended it should be, and the men were applying to the companies--in
+lots of ten and twenty in the different cities--for their positions.
+
+The dark deeds of treachery were now rife in many places especially in
+the Twin Cities. At this point the blockade, which was on since the
+strike began, and which was the key to the situation in the Northwest
+was raised.
+
+The Great Northern was the only line in operation to the coast, and
+under instructions from J. J. Hill, the president, refused to accept
+any freight from roads included in the boycott. The men were instructed
+to decline even to throw a switch or assist in any manner any road on
+strike, as the Great Northern company did not wish to be drawn into the
+difficulty. In fact the men on this line were, almost to a man, members
+of the American Railway Union, and could not even if asked to do any act
+that might prove a detriment to their brothers. At this time there
+happened to be sixty car loads of twine in St. Paul, a greater portion
+of which was at Minnesota Transfer. This freight was consigned to points
+on the Great Northern Line and a committee headed by Harry Gray,
+chairman of the general board of mediation of the American Railway Union
+on that system, appeared at the rooms of the central strike committee
+and asked permission to switch out the twine, giving as an excuse that
+the farmers were in need of it.
+
+This permission the committee was loth to grant as any move toward
+raising this blockade in the Twin Cities might prove detrimental to
+their cause, and further action on the matter was deferred until it
+would be submitted to the different unions interested.
+
+That night at a meeting held at Plummer Post Hall in Minneapolis, the
+American Railway Union headquarters, a committee of farmers, from the
+peoples' party convention in session there at that time, were admitted.
+
+When appraised of the nature of the trouble they stated that they had
+contracts with the twine companies to deliver their twine and on failure
+to do so the farmers would suffer no loss. They further stated that the
+farmers would bind their grain by hand before they would ask the men to
+do anything detrimental to the success of the strike. This settled it as
+far as the twine was concerned. However, the next day, the officials of
+the Great Northern took an engine and switched the twine out themselves
+without any objection being made by the men who stood by while the work
+was being done.
+
+This was the beginning only.
+
+The next move was a positive assurance of treachery.
+
+The Burlington road had about thirty cars of water pipe for the Great
+Northern, and this same man Gray again waited on the central committee
+for permission to move the freight, saying, that he had the assurance of
+the company that no more concessions would be asked. His request was
+promptly refused. Later a committee of switchmen called on the central
+committee for instructions and were told not to move the freight under
+any conditions.
+
+They left apparently satisfied, but nevertheless the cars were moved; no
+one seemed to know how but it became apparent to the strikers that a
+traitor was in their ranks, and took immediate steps to ferret him out,
+and have the embargo once more placed on business at this point.
+
+Gray of St. Paul, and Foster of St. Cloud, were openly accused of being
+the traitors to the cause, although others were thought to be
+implicated. Charges were preferred against Gray in the Union, but
+nothing ever came of it. Every conceivable means was used to again cause
+a blockade at this point but to no avail.
+
+The switchmen promised to refuse to handle boycotted freight if the road
+would support them in case of discharge, which they well knew was
+inevitable. It would be simply a sacrifice to strike in the yards of St.
+Paul and Minneapolis without the support of the whole system, although
+after a canvas of the road, when it was found that the majority of the
+men voted against a strike, the switchmen of these cities sent word
+that they were ready to ask for their time and quit the service of the
+company if the Union so desired. This proposition the strikers would not
+accept, not caring to sacrifice a few loyal switchmen whose places could
+be easily filled if the rest of the employes remained at work.
+
+This result was wired to Chicago, and Director Goodwin was sent out to
+see what could be done. His efforts were fruitless. The road was again
+canvassed with the same result, and Goodwin returning to Chicago, Mr.
+Burns, another director of the Union, was sent to take his place, but
+with no better success.
+
+They positively refused to strike. The traitors with the price of their
+treachery in their pockets had been there first and accomplished their
+purpose.
+
+The damnable traitors responsible for the raising of the blockade were
+also responsible for the suffering and untold misery of the noble men
+whose sympathetic hearts went out to their brothers in Pullman, and who
+without money were obliged to leave their homes (in many cases only
+partly paid for) and seek employment elsewhere in order to provide for
+their families.
+
+The switchmen in the employ of the Milwaukee road at Minneapolis,
+now--fearing that the treachery of the men on the Great Northern Line
+would lose the strike in the Northwest--applied for their positions, and
+all who were wanted were taken back. The men who were employed by the
+Omaha Railway at East St. Paul, took the same course, but all others
+declared their intention of standing out until the American Railway
+Union called off the strike.
+
+Disasters seemed to follow one another in rapid succession at this time.
+In many places the weak-kneed men were applying for work and circulating
+false stories to induce others to do the same. The news went flashing
+over the wires that Debs, Howard, Rogers and Kelliher were in jail. But
+this news did not have the depressing effect on the men that was
+expected, in fact it only caused a feeling of indignation and the
+strikers were now more determined than ever to stand up for their rights
+and fight out the battle with renewed energy.
+
+In making this statement I do not refer to the poltroons who were
+continually raising the cry: We are lost, but I refer to the noble men
+who spoke from their manly hearts, and with words of no uncertain sound
+declared their intention to go down to defeat if need be with those
+grand, noble, generous hearted men, who signified their willingness to
+rot in jail, or even mount the scaffold in defence of the just and
+righteous cause they had wrapped their lives in.
+
+Could it be charged that they were actuated by selfish motives in the
+cause in which they had enlisted? No! A thousand times no! If Eugene V.
+Debs could be induced to turn his magnificent executive abilities over
+to the railroads instead of the poor enslaved workingmen, these
+corporations would place him upon the highest pinnacle of plutocratic
+fame, and no one can dispute George W. Howard's title to being a
+workingman's friend, for by his actions on more than one occasion he has
+proven himself to be a friend indeed, and actions speak louder than
+words.
+
+Yes; the four officers of the American Railway Union were in jail.
+United States Attorney Milchrist appeared before Judge Seaman in the
+United States district court on the morning of July 17, and on behalf of
+the government filed information presented by George R. Peck, who
+represented the general managers and receivers of the Santa Fe system.
+
+In response to the prayer of the district attorney, Judge Seaman issued
+writs of attachment for the appearance of Debs, Howard, Rogers and
+Kelliher, directing them to be present at the afternoon session of the
+court and show causes why they should not be punished for contempt in
+continuing to disregard the injunction of the court. W. W. Erwin, of St.
+Paul, W. A. Shoemaker and S. S. Gregory, of Chicago, were retained to
+defend the men on behalf of the American Railway Union. The voluminous
+information made up of telegrams, copies of injunctions, etc., was read
+by Attorney Milchrist, after which the court ruled that two separate
+attachments be issued and separate records be kept.
+
+Mr. Gregory stated that he failed to see why the government should
+interfere to protect property rights of railroads, and this called forth
+a retort from Mr. Walker that Uncle Sam was seeking to protect only the
+interstate commerce and the mails and not the railroad property.
+
+The information embodied almost everything pertaining to the strike, and
+over an hour was consumed in its reading. Telegrams sent out to strike
+leaders by President Debs were submitted but contained no startling
+facts.
+
+One of these addressed to H. E. Sarion, Garrett, Ind., read as follows:
+"Have all classes of employes withdrawn from service at once." Another
+to Charles Fink, Oakland, Cal., says: "Commit no violence." Mr. Debs'
+communication to the railway managers suggesting a settlement of the
+strike was incorporated in the information as was also the question of
+Chicago public health in the matter of removing dead animals from the
+city. Several newspaper interviews and a copy of the original injunction
+issued by Judges Wood and Grosscup was also contained therein, and after
+Peck of the Santa Fe had sought to bolster up the information with an
+argument, Mr. Gregory urged that the defendants had not been charged
+with violence, and declared that it was his belief that the testimony
+should be taken by a master. Mr. Walker opposed this in favor of a
+hearing in open court and was sustained. This led up to a long legal
+wrangle participated in by both sides, and a fiery speech by Mr. Irwin
+of the defence, in which he denied the jurisdiction of the court, and
+hinted at monarchy and dictatorial methods. Mr. Walker pressed his
+motion that the defendants be placed under bonds to appear before the
+court and Judge Seaman fixed the bail in each case at $3,000. Mr. Debs,
+declining a score of offers from prominent men to furnish the necessary
+security, decided to go to jail. In reply to a question Mr. Debs said:
+"This is the first time in my life that I have been incarcerated in a
+jail, but with us it is a matter of principle. We have had many offers
+of bail but have refused them all. The poor striker if arrested would be
+thrown into jail and we are certainly no better than he, we will eat
+regularly, prison fare, and expect to be treated as any other prisoners
+would be."
+
+Their trial was set for the following Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BLACKLISTING BEGINS.
+
+
+The strike situation was now in the balance. The managers and their
+faithful allies the press, had given it out that the strike was off. One
+fact that could not be denied, was that P. M. Arthur, of the General
+Managers Association,--though still representing the engineers--was
+doing great work for the companies, as the engineers were returning to
+work pretty generally throughout the country. Sargent of the firemen was
+also playing his cards well, but not meeting with the same success as
+the "grand old chief." Wilkinson of the trainmen was sending out his
+orders and ultimatums, thick and fast and his men were now fast
+returning to their old positions.
+
+It was now a question of whether the men would prove loyal to themselves
+and their best interests, or loyal to the companies who were putting
+forth their best efforts to trample them to earth, and it is a painful
+fact that many of them were so blinded to their own interests,--through
+their craven cowardice--that they returned to work, and, to what will be
+in the near future beyond a question of a doubt, longer hours, less
+wages, and the complete annihilation of all semblance of rights.
+
+The strike was fast resolving itself into a switchmen's fight against
+the railroads. The yards were in the worst imaginable shape, and the
+engines were sadly in need of repairs. Shopmen, freight handlers,
+trackmen, and car-repairers were still out. Office men were now back at
+work with the exception of a few. The majority of the strikers were
+still loyal to the cause and the American Railway Union was sure of
+winning. The Knights of Labor did not respond to the call of Grand
+Master Workman Sovereign as generally as was expected, and the
+Federation of Labor had decided not to strike at present, perhaps this
+may be accounted for by the reports given out by the general managers
+that the strike was off and trains running as usual.
+
+The United States troops in the pay of the government were still doing
+service for the railroad corporations.
+
+Authenticated reports--given out by the striking committees--from
+different parts of the country would not seem to bear out the statements
+of the general managers.
+
+These committees had reports in regards to the operation of the roads,
+as complete as the officials of the roads themselves. They were
+thoroughly posted on the number of cars moved each day by each company,
+the number and character of switch crews at work and the number of
+strikers who had gone back to work. In short, everything that had a
+bearing on the result. This was part of the duties imposed upon them and
+they were faithfully carried out.
+
+Thirteen Pan Handle switchmen brought to Chicago from Pittsburg through
+misrepresentation, when informed of the true state of affairs, refused
+to go to work, and demanded transportation back to Pittsburg. They were
+given orders for the necessary transportation, but on presentation the
+companies refused to honor them. This was also true in the case of half
+a dozen men brought in by the Ft. Wayne road.
+
+The scabs on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, through ignorance and
+incompetency burned up five engines and wrecked as many more. One
+splendid new engine was blown up twenty miles from Terre Haute, while
+en route to Chicago. Yard service was of the worst possible kind.
+
+The Illinois Central was doing no freight business to speak of, in fact
+the condition of this road was still worse than the Chicago & Eastern
+Illinois.
+
+The Northwestern shops at Fortieth street, employing over 2300 men, were
+idle, only about twelve men signifying their willingness to work. The
+Galena division of this road, while making quite a bluff at handling
+freight, was not accomplishing very much, as it took them two days to
+unload a stock train.
+
+The Milwaukee road was doing better, having at work fifteen engines days
+and fourteen nights, but being manned mostly by green and incompetent
+men, were not making great headway. In all some 350 cars were gotten out
+and about 300 received in one day which is very small business for this
+line.
+
+The Wabash had only one engine at work nights, and this was guarded by a
+company of troops and about twenty deputy police. They succeeded in
+breaking down two posts, one at Polk street and another at Taylor street
+station, causing a damage of some $300 which was all accomplished in
+one night. The Chicago and Blue Island were now working two engines
+(this company generally worked ten), manned by scabs, one of whom was a
+nigger.
+
+A committee man from the Grand Trunk reported that only three men had
+returned to work.
+
+He said a personal friend of mine, a business man from Valparaiso, and
+whom I know, is in touch with the Grand Trunk, informed me that a Grand
+Trunk official had said in his presence that his company could not do
+business unless they made some kind of a settlement with the switchmen.
+
+Through John Downey and Miles Barrett, of the Switchmen's Mutual Aid
+Association, a meeting of switchmen was called in a hall at Eden to
+induce the switchmen to return to work. This meeting was "packed" in
+order to secure a majority vote in favor of returning but the scheme did
+not work.
+
+All the officials on the Pan Handle admitted that they could do nothing
+without the assistance of the old men. They had a few "stake" men whom
+they were paying $5.00 per day, but not enough to do any business.
+
+At Union Stock Yards all switchmen and assistant yard masters were out,
+and at the yard of the Street Stable Car Co. out of 300 men only three
+were at work.
+
+All men at the Burton Stock Car Co., the Canada Cattle Car Co. and the
+American Life Stock Co.'s yards were out, and refused to work under
+police protection. At Armour's car shops only nine men returned out of
+sixty who went on strike, and at Swifts only five out of forty-two. The
+yard trackmen were all out, as were also the Illinois Central switchmen
+and the Rock Island machinists and boiler makers.
+
+This was the condition of the strike in Chicago and the same existed in
+all parts of the strike district. Messages were received from many
+points saying that only those men who were subservient to the orders of
+their chiefs had returned to work, and from some points came the news
+that the strike had gained strength owing to the arrest of President
+Debs.
+
+The enemies of the American Railway Union had now began a systematic
+course--as dark and devilish as it was designing--of poisoning the
+public mind against Debs, who was, so to speak, a gagged prisoner and
+unable to defend himself.
+
+Such reports as: Mrs. Highenbotham was dying in Montana and Mr.
+Highenbotham appealed to Mr. Debs to allow her to be brought home by
+special train and see her friends, and Mr. Debs' brutal answer that not
+a wheel would turn.
+
+Whole columns of such falsehoods were published and circulated broadcast
+throughout the land, but not one word was written of the generous acts
+of this noble hearted man. When he was seen to pause in the most trying
+moment of his life to listen to the tale of distress and suffering
+related by a poor widow woman, and going down into his pocket, hand her
+a five dollar bill, all he had with him, this great and just public
+press was silent.
+
+Then the blacklisting of ex-employes began, the Missouri Pacific taking
+the initiatory step. The following certificate given to a yard clerk
+will speak for itself.
+
+"This is to certify that ---- has been employed in the capacity of yard
+clerk of the Missouri Pacific system from April, 1893 to June, 1894, at
+which time it was necessary to lay him off on account of a strike in the
+yards. He applied for work on July 18th, but in the meantime it was
+learned that he was a member of the American Railway Union and was in
+sympathy with the strike movement, so we could not re-employ him. His
+work and conduct up to the time of the strike was perfectly
+satisfactory.
+
+  J. S. JONES,
+  Terminal Supt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TRIAL OF DEBS.
+
+
+On the 23d day of July, the day set for the trial of the officers of the
+American Railway Union,--Debs, Howard, Rodgers and Kelliher were on hand
+to answer to the charge of contempt.
+
+The court room was densely packed, when Judges Wood of Indianapolis and
+Grosscup of Chicago entered and Judge Wood raised a serious objection to
+the crowded condition, saying that only those finding seats should be
+allowed to remain,--lawyers, and possibly reporters.
+
+After signing and swearing to the answers, the defendants filed in at
+11:40 and Judge Wood asked if the Santa Fe road was represented.
+Attorney Miller stepped forward and was asked if both proceedings could
+not be heard at the same time. Judge Wood favored this to save time, and
+it was finally agreed that if the Santa Fe cases be heard later the
+government testimony on this bearing be admitted. Attorney Gregory
+thereupon submitted the answers to the information filed before Judge
+Seaman in the contempt proceedings, and suggested that the trial for
+which the defendants had given bail be immediate and have precedence
+over the contempt proceedings. Judge Woods said that the court could
+decide upon a motion for delay, much more intelligently could they have
+the government information and the answers filed by the defendants.
+Attorney Milchrist then read the court the information.
+
+As Attorney Gregory had previously moved that the information be
+dismissed and the defendants discharged on their sworn answers, Attorney
+Erwin followed by reading the answers.
+
+At the conclusion of the reading he said that the defendants had made
+and filed a motion to quash, holding that the information was not
+sufficient. They now asked that the defendants be discharged, and also
+that the district attorney and government counsel to elect whether they
+should proceed under the indictment or under the contempt cases. No man
+could be tried twice for the same offense. Judge Wood said that the
+counsel for the government could proceed with either case. Attorney
+Walker elected to go ahead with the contempt proceedings.
+
+Attorney Gregory in the opening made an eloquent appeal for a trial by
+jury instead of a criminal proceeding in a contempt case, as he held the
+present proceeding to be. He cited a number of authorities in support of
+his position. He argued that it was the rule that there could be no
+appeal from the decision of a federal court in a contempt case, and that
+consequently, where the question of a crime was involved, a sentence
+from the court would practically be a conviction on the original
+criminal charge without a trial by jury which is guaranteed by the
+constitution.
+
+Mr. Gregory then took up the question of the motion to dismiss the bill
+on the grounds that the information did not set out in specific forms
+any violation of the specifications in the injunction granted by the
+United States court.
+
+He held that the men had a right to combine, choose leaders to advise,
+and quit work if they wished to do so and persuade others to quit work,
+that the injunctions did not prohibit them from doing so. Judge Wood
+asked if he considered that the defendants had a right to ask men to
+tumble goods out of cars that were ready for transportation. Mr. Gregory
+replied that he did not consider that they had any such right, and
+claimed that there was nowhere in the information a distinct allegation
+that the defendants had counseled violence or infractions of the orders
+in the injunction. While he was willing to admit that violence had been
+done during the present strike, nothing was charged in the information
+that the violence was due to the acts of the defendants.
+
+Attorney Walker for the government followed. He held that the defendants
+had no right to go into other states and persuade men to quit work for
+the purpose of paralyzing railroads, and that the issuance of these
+orders was a willful and vicious violation of the order of the court.
+
+Mr. Walker said the telegrams were the strongest evidence in the hands
+of the state to show that this had been done. He spoke for three
+quarters of an hour and directed his remarks more to the general charge
+against the defendants for violation of the injunction, than to the
+legal points raised by Mr. Gregory.
+
+It will be remembered that the answers filed by the attorneys for the
+defense, was a complete denial of the charges.
+
+After hearing all the arguments, Judges Wood and Grosscup decided that
+the contempt proceedings against Mr. Debs and the others, were in the
+nature of proceedings in equity, and therefore the defendants could not
+be discharged on their denial of the charges under oath.
+
+Mr. Walker gave as an excuse for wanting the case heard at once, that
+the defendants were liable to continue calling out the men unless they
+were restrained from so doing by the court.
+
+"Then," said Mr. Gregory, "you wish the court to practically call the
+strike off."
+
+Mr. Walker smiled and said that such an order would suit him all right.
+
+Judge Wood then added that it was within the bounds of the injunction
+called, for him to insist that the strike be declared off.
+
+Attorney Greeting, reviewing the information, raised the insufficiency
+of the allegations, he also raised the question of the bearing of the
+statutes under which the defendants were enjoined.
+
+The following are the sections of acts under which the United States
+courts issued injunctions restraining the American Railway Union, its
+officers or agents, from interfering in any way with the interstate
+traffic on railroads.
+
+"SECTION 1. Every contract combination in the form of trust or
+otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the
+several states or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be
+illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any
+such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
+and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
+$5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both; said
+punishments at the discretion of the court.
+
+"SECTION 2. Any person who shall monopolize or attempt to
+monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to
+monopolize, any part of the trade or commerce among the several states
+or foreign powers shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
+conviction thereof shall be punished etc.
+
+"SECTION 3. Every contract combination in form of trust or
+otherwise or conspiracy in restraint of commerce or trade in any
+territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in
+restraint of trade or commerce between any such territory and another,
+or between any such territory or territories and any state or states or
+the District of Columbia or with foreign nations, or between the
+District of Columbia and any other state or states or foreign nations,
+is hereby declared illegal Every person who shall make any such
+contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be
+declared guilty of a misdemeanor and punished as in the case of Sections
+1 and 2.
+
+"SECTION 8. The word person or persons wherever used shall be
+deemed to include corporations and associations existing under, or
+authorized by, the laws of either the United States, the laws of any of
+the territories, the laws of any state or the laws of any foreign
+country."
+
+"This law was never intended to cover the case of these defendants,"
+said Mr. Greeting. "It is clearly directed at the trusts and
+combinations which conspire to rob such people as the defendants. It
+seems to me that the district attorney would have been acting more
+within the spirit of the law if he had charged the railroads and the
+Pullman Palace Car Co., with conspiracy to monopolize interstate
+commerce, as it is a well known fact that the railroads have contracted
+with Pullman to haul none but his cars."
+
+A sickly smile spread over the features of the railroad attorneys
+present. It was evident that the words of Mr. Greeting sunk deeper than
+some of them would care to acknowledge.
+
+District Attorney Milchrist argued that the court had perfect
+jurisdiction in these cases, he held that the government derived revenue
+from postal service and interstate commerce. It had suffered in a
+pecuniary way hence the bill of information filed had a proper place in
+court.
+
+In regard to the information and answers, Mr. Milchrist said: "Either
+the counsel for the government deserved to be disbarred for willful
+misconduct for filing it, or the defendants in their sworn answer
+embodying a sweeping denial of the charge in the information had been
+guilty of rank perjury."
+
+Attorney Erwin then proceeded, prefacing his remarks with the statement
+that this was a court of equity. When these defendants denied under oath
+before the court, the allegations made in the bill, equity shut its
+doors. There was a remedy at law. The men could be punished for perjury
+in swearing falsely in their answers. No court of equity could hear such
+a case. Mr. Erwin held that the information was filed in equity and that
+the answer filed by the defendants was final and the remedy then was at
+law in a charge of perjury.
+
+"Is it any indication of the power of a court," interrupted Judge Wood,
+"to hold a man convicted on a charge of perjury?"
+
+Attorney Erwin said that the perjury charge could purge the defendants
+in the case of contempt.
+
+"You say in your answer," said Judge Wood, "that the defendants deny
+ordering strikes because it was not in their power to do so. Is it not
+enough to deny that you ordered the men out without going further and
+denying that you advised them in this matter."
+
+"We say," answered Mr. Erwin "that every strike was voted on by a
+majority of the American Railway Union men upon each road upon which
+there had been a strike. The defendants deny the power to order or
+coerce the members of the American Railway Union."
+
+When questioned as to the answers denying the telegrams Mr. Erwin said
+the denials were sweeping. They had covered every point and purged
+themselves of any desire to disregard the orders of the court and the
+proceedings should be dismissed. He said: "Had Special Counsel Walker
+who set before the grand jury made his charges more specific, and not
+sought to prejudice the minds of the court by holding his averments for
+the attachment proceedings, and making them in vague and declamatory
+charges."
+
+Judge Wood said if the defendants had asked for more specific charges he
+thought the court would have granted it.
+
+Attorney Erwin here remarked that they would prefer to make a motion to
+quash, which Judge Wood announced could not be done in this case unless
+the bill was wholly defective.
+
+Mr. Erwin said that Attorney Walker had drawn the bill up hastily, and
+it was signed only by himself and the district attorney, who verified it
+merely by belief. He urged that the court should not add the information
+by continuing the consideration of the imperfectly drawn and inadequate
+bill. The court should not be a detective to ferret out the alleged
+truths of certain charges the evidence of which should have been
+collected by the government officers before a rule against the
+defendants was issued.
+
+Mr. Bancroft for the Santa Fe followed Mr. Erwin. He vigorously defended
+the information filed, and proceeded to color the telegrams admitted by
+the defendants, to suit the purposes of the government.
+
+After a legal tilt between the counsel on both sides, Judge Wood
+overruled the motion of defendant's counsel to quash the information,
+and postponed the case until September 5.
+
+In conclusion he said that from what he had heard, he thought it
+necessary for the court to have its hand on the matter. It was evident,
+he said, that the defense intended to attempt to put forward a quantity
+of irrelevant matter as to the allegations regarding a combination on
+the part of the railroads. He said that while it was irrelevant he would
+hear it as a matter of curiosity and for public disclosure.
+
+The above synopsis of the proceedings of the trial, will give a fair
+idea of the course the government--on behalf of the railroads--pursued
+in conducting the prosecution of the officers of the American Railway
+Union.
+
+After a conference with their counsel--although opposed to it on
+principle--the officers of the American Railway Union decided to give
+bail.
+
+This decision was due to the fact that matters of an important nature
+demanded their immediate attention. They were placed under $7,000 bonds
+each, signed by Wm. Skakel and Wm. Fitzgerald, these gentlemen
+qualifying to the extent of $50,000 and $250,000 respectively.
+
+For the time being the officers of the American Railway Union were free
+men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION CALLED TO TAKE ACTION ON THE
+STRIKE.
+
+
+In an editorial on the trial, headed: The Press against Justice, the
+Chicago Times had this to say: "When it became evident that the rights
+and actions of E. V. Debs and his associates in the American Railway
+Union strike were to be reviewed in court this paper said editorially:
+"The Times appeals to its contemporaries and to the people to join with
+it in avoiding all clamor which may in the least degree influence the
+findings of the court or bring its proceedings into contempt." It
+appears that the appeal fell upon deaf ears.
+
+"Such papers as the Tribune and the Evening Journal seized upon the very
+first utterance of Mr. Debs' counsel as an opportunity for insidious
+effort to prejudice the court and the people against the cause of the
+labor leaders.
+
+"Two of the editorials and two of what it calls editorialettes were
+necessary to the Tribune yesterday in order to give its advice to the
+prosecuting lawyers and the court proper expression. The other organs of
+plutocracy though less lavish of editorial space, employed their news
+columns to the same end. The first strike of the allied newspapers is to
+pronounce the opening plea of the counsel for the defense, Mr. Erwin, in
+effect an assertion of the gospel of anarchy.
+
+"Overworked as it is by the bigoted press the word anarchy still serves
+as a more or less effective bogyman to frighten timid and ill-informed
+people, but no one who will read the reports of Mr. Erwin's address will
+find any anarchistic doctrines lurking therein.
+
+"He charged that Pullman and the railroad managers had conspired
+together against the interest of workingmen, that the manner of the
+conspiracy made resort to the law hopeless, that lawmakers could not or
+would not act, and under these conditions the men were justified in
+combining, resisting and refusing to work longer for Mr. Pullman or the
+roads allied with him.
+
+"The Times is unable to discern the savour of anarchy in that. It is in
+effect only a declaration that when employes combine to resist them,
+neither by direct statement or by innuendoes did the attorney suggest
+or excuse violence or the destruction of property. He erred, the Times
+thinks, in describing Pullman's course of procedure as illegal, for
+unhappily, law as it stands, protects Pullman in his most despotic and
+oppressive acts. If Pullman's course had been illegal, action at law
+instead of a strike and boycott would have been the remedy for it, but
+with the exception of this over-statement which may have been due to
+inadvertence, Mr. Erwin said nothing that men of fair and judicial minds
+can denounce as false, and nothing at all incendiary. The clamor of the
+conspiracy is raised to defeat justice."
+
+After the release of the officers a meeting was called at the Revere
+House, of the directors of the American Railway Union. They concluded to
+call a convention of the delegates from the different local unions, to
+meet in Chicago, August 2d, and take some action on the strike. Each
+local union was notified of this action and instructed to send a
+delegate with full power to act.
+
+After this meeting of the officers, they at once repaired to Ulrich
+Hall, where an enormous crowd greeted Mr. Debs with the greatest
+enthusiasm.
+
+Mr. Debs,--after being introduced by the chairman of the meeting, Mr.
+Adams,--was given three cheers with such a vim that the building fairly
+shook. He then advanced to the platform and said: "I see you have
+changed your quarters since I saw you before, and I am glad to say we
+have changed ours also.
+
+"When Judge Wood delivered his ruling yesterday he declared it to be
+illegal for men to combine and strike.
+
+"If that is the law, labor organizations had better disband at once. If
+we have no right to strike, no right to combine, no right to exercise
+the functions which are delegated to us, then we might as well give up
+and acknowledge that we are slaves.
+
+"If that is the law we have no right to resist or defend ourselves
+against the injustice of employers.
+
+"No matter how much has been said about the stars and stripes and the
+freedom of the workingman, if that is the final tribunal, corporate
+capital has the right to suck the life blood from the toiler who must
+make no sign. But I am not prepared to believe that this is in harmony
+with the constitution. If this is the constitution, then our liberty is
+gone. Mr. Erwin sounded the slogan yesterday when he declared that there
+is a higher power than the courts, a power greater than the aggregated
+combinations of capital and railroads. That is the inherent rights of
+workingmen to strike at the polls.
+
+"What we want then is to rid ourselves of the old party shackles.
+
+"We want to change the constitution so that even federal judges will be
+elected by the people. Then no judge will render a decision defying all
+law and justice. It is wonderful how sensitive the machinery of justice
+is to any complaint directed against the workingman.
+
+"But how is it when corporations combine? Is it of record that any
+officials of any one of them has ever been in prison for violating the
+law?
+
+"It is a notorious fact that the Santa Fe has robbed the people of
+$7,000,000 in the face of the interstate commerce law. Why not bring
+these colossal scoundrels to justice too? They say we must obey the law.
+I say we are law-abiding, and I defy any man to show a single instance
+where the heads of the labor organization have advocated violence. If
+the authorities want the law respected let them enforce it against the
+rich and poor alike.
+
+"In July, 1892, when the switchmen struck, the soldiers were called out
+to suppress them. Deputy marshalls set fire to a lot of box cars in
+Buffalo, N. Y., and this furnished the railroads an excuse to call on
+the government for soldiers. The railroads are still violating the eight
+hour law for which the men struck. They arrested the switchmen while the
+corporations are still allowed to trample the law under foot.
+
+"Is not that enough to bring disrespect of the law? As it is now, the
+whole thing is a roaring farce. Has anybody ever heard of soldiers being
+called out to guard the rights of workingmen? Whatever else I have
+suffered myself, I have not lost the right of free speech. If Judge Wood
+expounds the law I would rather rot in jail than be an alleged freeman.
+There is no man in the country who can directly charge me with violating
+the law of this country. Did any one of you ever hear me advocate
+violence? (A mighty no went up in response.) On the other hand did
+anyone here ever hear me counsel the men to be frank and straight
+forward, and honest and law-abiding in all they did?"
+
+The audience shouted yes to this and President Debs continued:
+
+"Before we get through with this trial it will be shown that the real
+conspirators are the railroad managers. Then if I go to the penitentiary
+Mr. Egan will have the distinction of accompanying me. We will produce
+the proof that the real purpose of the General Managers Association was
+to reduce wages, and that until we stopped them on the Great Northern,
+they were going around the circle with that end in view.
+
+"When it comes to striking at the polls we know the people will be with
+us, it will be a contest against the money power by which this country
+has been absolutely ruled for so many years. Havemeyer goes into the
+United States Senate and dictates what the duty on sugar shall be, and
+all the people combined can't stop him. Let a poor man go to Washington
+to protest and he is arrested for treading on the grass.
+
+"I am a populist and favor wiping out both old parties, so they will
+never come into power again. I have been a democrat all my life and I am
+ashamed to admit it. I want every one of you to go to the polls and vote
+the peoples' ticket."
+
+At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Debs announced his intention of
+going to his home for a few days.
+
+On hearing this, the members of the American Railway Union determined to
+escort him to the depot, and, although they had but two hours to make
+arrangements, a procession a couple of miles in length was formed.
+
+On arrival at his home in Terre Haute, President Debs was tendered a
+great reception. Thousands of his fellow citizens in all stations of
+life welcomed him with outstretched arms. Early in the evening the
+Naylor Opera House was packed to completion, and hundreds of people were
+denied admission owing to the dense throng of people who wished to do
+honor to this great leader. When President Debs appeared upon the stage
+he was greeted by a roar of applause that shook the building to its very
+foundation. His eloquent address on the strike situation and the causes
+that led up to it was received with thunders of applause.
+
+This was the man whom the corporate courts had indicted for criminal
+conspiracy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE STRIKE LOST.
+
+
+Through the machination of the general managers, the courts and the
+press and the Benedict Arnolds of labor, the cause of the railroad
+corporations was beginning to triumph. Discouraged and disheartened by
+the treachery in their own ranks, a great many strikers had lost
+confidence in the success of their undertaking and were now silently
+awaiting the result of the convention called at Chicago. This was made
+known on the return of the delegates.
+
+The action taken was to decide by a majority vote of each system whether
+the strike would continue in force or be declared off.
+
+After thoroughly discussing the matter, it was decided to call off the
+strike owing to the fact that they were forced to fight against
+overwhelming odds and rank treachery, and the men were instructed to
+make application for their positions at once, in view of getting as many
+as possible re-instated.
+
+This action was taken on all roads with the exception of the Chicago and
+Eastern Illinois, the Santa Fe and the Northern Pacific.
+
+Very few of the men were successful in securing positions, for instance
+at Minnesota Transfer the switchmen waited on the superintendent in a
+body (all who were still in the city) and made applications to be
+reinstated.
+
+Mr. Dudgeon the superintendent, who, by the way, was appointed during
+the strike to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Mr. Sullivan,
+informed the men that he had more applications already than would fill
+all vacancies for the next two years. He said: "I will not mislead you
+boys for one minute, not one of you will be taken back."
+
+I was not present at this interview, but being informed that Mr.
+Hastings, president of the company, had signified his willingness to
+hear us, we consulted together and decided to call on him at his office.
+
+John F. Keenan and myself were appointed as a committee to confer with
+him, and, after introducing ourselves, stated our mission.
+
+He received us in a gentlemanly manner, said that he was always ready to
+listen to the switchmen, as he had been a switchmen himself at one
+time, and while he assured us that he knew we had not interfered with
+the company property during the strike and conducted ourselves in a
+creditable manner, he could do nothing for us. He also said that he had
+more respect for us than he had for those who were hanging on the fence,
+but he had nothing to do with the employes of the Minnesota Transfer, as
+he had left that matter entirely in the hands of the superintendent. We
+told him that we were informed that Mr. Dudgeon would take some of the
+men back if the president of the company was satisfied.
+
+"Whatever arrangements you boys make with Mr. Dudgeon will be
+satisfactory to me," answered Mr. Hastings.
+
+He then referred us to Mr. Dudgeon who was present and who then said
+that he had already given us our answer which was final. He said that he
+had promised steady work to the men he had already employed if they
+proved themselves competent, and as they were doing the work
+satisfactorily, he would not consider any more applications.
+
+This statement regarding the work we knew to be a bluff, as it would
+take an old switchman, if unacquainted with this yard, at least three
+months under the most favorable circumstances to learn, if unaided,
+enough to enable him to give efficient service, as the yard is very
+complicated. And again in contradiction of this statement it is known
+that freight was refused from different roads for four days at a time to
+enable them to get the yard in shape, and after the freight of
+twenty-four hours was received, the same operation would be necessary,
+although they had the services of competent switchmen from the Omaha and
+other railroads.
+
+So speaking for the Minnesota Transfer the general managers were winners
+so to speak, in the game of freeze out waged against the switchmen. The
+men in all other departments were taken back with but few exceptions,
+but it was now a settled fact that the switchmen must look elsewhere for
+employment. The officials were credited with saying that they would
+permanently close the transfer, rather than reinstate a single
+switchman.
+
+It would be nothing more than justice at this time to say that the
+former superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan, had resigned his position
+during the strike for the reason that the management would not allow him
+to take back the old men. Mr. Sullivan contended that it would be
+impossible to operate the yard without the assistance of a goodly
+portion of the old employes.
+
+In a newspaper article he denied that his resignation was handed in on
+that account, but it is nevertheless credited by those who know him
+well, and by the employes themselves.
+
+We then applied at all the yards in the Twin Cities but with like
+result, and although not told in so many words, we were given to
+understand that we were blacklisted, and this was the case not only with
+us, but with men all over the country.
+
+The Soo Line had now put in force an ironclad agreement that all
+employes were obliged to sign if they wished to remain in the service of
+the company. This debarred the men from belonging to any labor
+organization for five years. Another rule put in force at this time was
+that engineers would hire their own firemen. This would appear to be a
+blow at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.
+
+The railroad corporations exulting in their victory, determined to
+boycott every striker and sympathizer throughout the country, as far as
+it was in their power.
+
+The weapon, that it was made a criminal offense for a striker to use,
+and for which the officers of the American Railway Union were sent to
+jail, was now in the hands of the railroad corporations to use at will.
+
+What was decided by the courts unlawful in the hands of the American
+Railway Union was legal in the hands of the General Managers
+Association. This the federal judges made no effort to investigate.
+Judge Wood said regarding the charge of a combination on the part of the
+railroads, that while it was irrelevant he would hear it as a matter of
+curiosity.
+
+Expressions like this emanating from a judge of the United States court,
+immediately following his ruling against the strikers, are too plain to
+be misunderstood. While he might condescend to hear the charges against
+the general managers, it is very evident that a motion to quash any
+proceeding against the corporation would be granted.
+
+The greatest pressure of evidence brought to bear by the American
+Railway Union against this illegal combination would have no weight with
+the judge, therefore it could not be wondered that when the General
+Managers Association started a systematic course of boycotting the
+American Railway Union by blacklisting its members, there was no action
+taken to prosecute them.
+
+The Union Pacific, now in the hands of the government, not only
+discharged every striker and sympathizer but blacklisted them also.
+
+This is a sample of justice. Some of the men had worked for the company
+for twenty years, and the only charge against them was that of being
+members of the American Railway Union and struck in sympathy with the
+starving Pullman employes.
+
+Their system of blacklisting is so perfect that every avenue of escape
+is closed against an employe.
+
+They have what is known as the blacklist book. The names of the strikers
+are entered in the book of which a copy is held by all railroads. When a
+man makes application his name is taken and the book is then consulted.
+If his name is registered he is told that no more men are wanted, if
+not, he is told to call the next day, by which time, if he is a striker,
+it is known, and he will have to travel.
+
+An assumed name will do no good, as he will be asked to give reference
+signed by his last employer, so you will see very plainly that the
+strikers lot is not a bed of roses.
+
+President Debs has been accused of being responsible for this condition
+of affairs. There is absolutely no truth in that accusation, as in the
+first place it was directly against his wishes and advice that the
+Pullman employes struck, and only after a personal investigation of the
+case--and realizing that the causes which led to it would admit of no
+denial that the men were justified in their action--did he approve of
+it.
+
+The boycott that followed the Pullman strike, as has been previously
+stated, was not ordered by Mr. Debs. He did not have the power to order
+it, therefore he could not be held responsible for the result.
+
+The men who were the victims of this unfortunate boycott, were
+themselves responsible for its beginning, as by an almost unanimous vote
+they ordered it. Perhaps they may have acted hastily, it has been stated
+many times that this was the case, but when the brutal inhuman treatment
+of the Pullman employes came to light through the investigation of the
+delegates to the convention, they would be less than human if they had
+refused to come to the assistance of these men who were being ground
+down by a merciless corporation.
+
+After reading the facts brought to light by the witnesses before the
+strike commission appointed by President Cleveland, and also Gov.
+Altgeld's personal investigation I do not believe that any one with a
+spark of humanity in his heart will condemn them for their actions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE COMMISSION.
+
+
+The commission appointed by President Cleveland to investigate the
+strike began its work Aug. 15, at 10 o'clock in Judge Grosscup's court
+room. Most of those present were members of the American Railway Union.
+Prof. Bemis, of the Chicago University, was in attendance. Neither the
+Pullman Company or the railroad companies were represented. The
+witnesses examined were Geo. W. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, and James R. Sovereign, grand master workman of the
+Knights of Labor. Acting with the commission were B. J. Hastings, of
+Utica, N. Y., and Deputy United States Marshall Bartlett. Chairman
+Wright announced that they were in session pursuant to the President's
+call which the clerk read. This document directed an inquiry into the
+causes and the conditions of the controversy between the Illinois
+Central and the Rock Island roads and their employes. After the reading
+chairman Wright made the following statement: "By the act recited in
+the commission of the President that has just been read, this commission
+is directed to examine into the causes, controversies and difficulties
+existing between the roads named and their employes at the time the
+commission of the President was issued. The board is constituted as a
+temporary body for this purpose and not for the purpose of arbitrating
+the difficulties that existed. It is practically a court of inquiry and
+its proceedings will be in accordance with the usages of such courts. It
+will proceed first to hear all witnesses in behalf of the employes and
+then those of the corporations named. All such witnesses are requested
+to hand their names to the clerk. Under the law parties may be
+represented by counsel or appear in person as they see fit, and examine
+and cross-examine the witnesses. After all the witnesses have given
+their testimony the commission will then consider arguments or
+suggestions to be made upon the questions before it. All suggestions and
+arguments presented in writing will be filed and considered by the
+commission, but the question as to how far the commission will listen to
+parties who desire to be heard orally will depend upon the time left to
+the disposal of the commission and will be determined after the
+testimony is concluded. By the act creating it this commission possesses
+all the power and authority of the United States Commissioners appointed
+by the Circuit Courts of the United States. The hours of sitting will be
+from 10:00 A. M. to 4:00 P. M. Parties and their counsel and witnesses
+attending will find seats within the rail."
+
+Vice President Howard was the first witness sworn. In answer to
+questions as to his age, residence and occupation, Mr. Howard replied
+that he was 46 years old, resided in Chicago, and was vice president of
+the American Railway Union. For nearly 30 years he had been identified
+with the railroad service filling positions from trackman to general
+superintendent. He had been a member of the Yard Masters' Association,
+the B. of L. E. and O. R. C. By request of Mr. Wright he gave the
+following connection of the American Railway Union with the strike.
+
+"We began organizing the Pullman employes in March of this year. Early
+in May they struck. The strike was voted by themselves not by the
+American Railway Union, indeed we advised against the strike.
+
+"Immediately after the strike was called I accompanied a committee of
+forty-three representing every branch of the Pullman service to a
+conference with Mr. Wickes at Pullman. Mr. Pullman refused to arbitrate
+but promised to give their grievances immediate attention if they would
+return to work. I inquired of Mr. Wickes if there would be any prejudice
+against the members of the committee and was assured by him that there
+would not be. After receiving this assurance from Mr. Wickes, I advised
+the men to go back to their work, which they did. Next day three of the
+committee were discharged, not on order or with the knowledge of Mr.
+Wickes or Mr. Pullman, but by some under boss in the shops. This so
+incensed the rest of the employes who considered it a breach of promise
+that they unanimously struck again.
+
+"June 12, the convention of the American Railway Union met in Chicago.
+The Pullman strikers were represented by seven or eight delegates. The
+situation at Pullman received consideration. A joint committee
+representing the convention and the Pullman strikers was appointed to
+wait on the Pullman company. The committee was informed that the Pullman
+company would confer with only its employes, consequently this body was
+discharged and a committee consisting of Pullman employes appointed. The
+action of the Pullman company was reported to the American Railway Union
+convention whereupon each delegate wired his local union for
+instructions. The result of this was that the members of the American
+Railway Union all over the country voted to discontinue handling Pullman
+cars if at the end of five days from that date the Pullman company
+refused to arbitrate with its employes.
+
+"In this connection I wish to say that Mr. Pullman stated to the
+committee of forty-three, in my hearing, that his employes at that time
+owed him $70,000 for rent and that he had not pushed them for payment
+which fact clearly shows that his men were not making enough to pay
+rent."
+
+Mr. Wright: "That was the boycott order, was it?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I do not use the word boycott. The action taken was simply
+that members of the American Railway Union would not handle Pullman
+cars.
+
+"Two days before the limit of five days--the dates I do not now
+recall--but I will furnish them--the General Managers' Association took
+action declaring that they would share the expense of whipping the
+American Railway Union.
+
+"Pullman would not arbitrate and first the men on one road then on
+another refused to handle Pullman cars. They did not decline to handle
+other cars, but switchmen, you understand, would not attach Pullmans to
+trains. Engineers, conductors, firemen and trainmen would not take out
+trains which Pullman cars were attached to. There was no attempt to
+interfere with the mails but on the contrary every effort in our power
+was made to help the roads carry them. The companies held the mails in
+their determination to attach Pullman cars to trains.
+
+"Of my personal knowledge I know of a road that abandoned a mail train
+to take out an excursion train, not having crews to take out both. In
+another instance I know of a mail train going out on the order of the
+railway officials after the Pullmans had been cut off by the employes.
+Things went on in this way for several days. No violence was committed
+by the employes and the police were in full control of the situation to
+prevent violence from outsiders.
+
+"The first pistol was drawn by one Miller, an employe of the Tribune at
+Blue Island, wholly without cause, and after the troops were on the
+ground. The violence that was afterward committed was not as was
+believed by members of the American Railway Union but by outsiders--some
+acting in passion, because they saw in the presence of the soldiers an
+instrument of tyranny. Others in a spirit of mischief and love of
+destruction and others still--hired by the General Managers in order to
+create public sentiment against us. Yesterday I gave the mayor of
+Chicago the name of a man who claimed, while under the influence of
+liquor to have received $400 for burning cars. The Committee of safety,
+at Springfield, sent us the names of three men who quarreled about the
+division of $500 received for burning cars. $200 of which was paid in
+advance by John M. Eagan, of the General Managers' Association."
+
+Regarding the motives actuating the organization of the American Railway
+Union Mr. Howard denied that it was to destroy the old organizations but
+because they no longer fulfilled the necessities of the situation. If
+the old brotherhoods could get together amicably there would be no need
+of the American Railway Union, but they never can. There are two many
+causes for jealousy, for instance: There are 10,000 locomotive engineers
+who are not in the B. of L. E. but are members of the B. of L. F. In
+case of a grievance the engineers are divided and are represented by two
+organizations. The Brotherhood of Trainmen contains men who have been
+promoted to conductors causing a friction between these two orders.
+
+Mr. Wright: "Then the sole purpose of the American Railway Union in
+taking the action it did was to oppose the Pullman company and it was
+not actuated by any desire to injure the other railway organizations?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "That is it exactly. After the action taken by the General
+Managers' Association we had to act as we did or lie down."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Did the officers of the American Railway Union advise the
+men on roads other than those using Pullmans to go on strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "The men on all roads represented by the General Managers'
+Association were advised to go out on strike."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Was this order extended to roads not using Pullman cars or
+which were not represented in the General Managers' Association?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Were there any such road?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes. General Manager Clark, of the Mobile & Ohio, sent us
+word that his road would drop the Pullman service if the men would
+continue at work. We advised the men to return to work under those
+conditions, but the men at St. Louis argued that such action would
+weaken their cause and refused to take our advice in the matter."
+
+Mr. Worthingford: "How did you advise all other organizations to go on a
+sympathetic strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "We did not advise nor even request other organizations to
+declare a strike. We invited the heads of all labor organizations to
+come here and aid us by their advice or in any way they saw fit to help
+us. I think Mr. Debs sent the invitation. When the representatives of
+the other labor organizations met here, we went before the body and
+explained the entire situation. They asked Mr. Debs what he wished them
+to do. He replied that he did not ask anything of them but left it to
+their best judgment and conscience to take such measures as would help
+bring the trouble to an end. Mr. Debs read a communication which he had
+prepared to present to the general managers, and asked the
+representatives at the conference if they would act as a board of
+arbitration or assume the role of peace-makers. President Gompers of the
+American Federation of Labor, seemed afraid that such action would
+involve the other organizations in some way and hesitated to accept our
+request to take the communication to the general managers. We then
+concluded to ask Mayor Hopkins to present our communication. The mayor
+willingly granted our request."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Was any written record kept of that conference of the heads
+of the labor organizations which was held at the Briggs House?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I do not know."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What records have you of the proceedings of your
+convention as to who invited the heads of other labor organizations to
+meet here in conference, and what they were expected to do?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I think it was decided at the convention of the American
+Railway Union, which met here June 12, to extend such an invitation. I
+know it was talked over then."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Then the American Railway Union did not advise a
+sympathetic strike of all organizations."
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir. Mr. Debs left that question to the judgment and
+conscience of the men themselves."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Was the action of the convention of June 12 a
+strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Well, it was called a strike."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Was the communication you referred to
+presented to the general managers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, and returned without an answer further than a
+statement that the General Managers' Association had no business to
+transact with the American Railway Union or its representatives."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "It is charged that your organization, like others,
+encouraged its members to persistently interfere with and prevent
+unorganized labor from taking positions given up by their striking
+members. Is that charge true?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "It cannot be shown in one instance that anything of the
+kind has been done."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You won't go so far as to say that no interference
+of the sort alluded to has ever been engaged in?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Certainly not. I mean that such interference was not
+authorized or countenanced by the union."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you take any steps to prevent such
+interference?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "We have taken the ground that when we go out on strike not
+to interfere with any of the new men the companies may employ."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do countenance advice to such men not to take
+the places of strikers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Oh, yes. We claim the right to ask new men not to take our
+places."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Is it not a fact that such interviews usually result in
+violence?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. I think the rule is to the contrary. We go no further
+than to request the men to quit work and to commit no violence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any punishment for violation of that
+rule?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. No organization has any power to punish a member for
+violation of such rule except by expulsion. We leave the punishment of
+such cases to the civil authorities."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think some steps should be taken by
+labor unions to punish their members who violate the rules in that
+respect?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, I do, and we started out to do so here during the
+strike but the trouble assumed such vast proportions that it was
+impossible to do anything in that direction. In the case of the Great
+Northern strike we appointed committees to guard the company's property,
+and the men were instructed to shoot anyone found in the act of
+destroying same."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What, as a rule has been your experience in
+strikes where violence was restored to?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "The men have always been defeated."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then a resort to violence is rather detrimental to
+the cause of the strikers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Decidedly so. We want public opinion with us in a strike."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Do you know of any organization that disciplines
+its members for resorting to violence?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "None, excepting the American Railway Union. Our argument is
+that the only weapons labor has to fight its battles with are the strike
+and the boycott. There is some talk about the ballot but some questions
+cannot be settled by the ballot. Only the array of labor in one solid
+phalanx will give it the power that will make strikes unnecessary."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Does not history show that on account of
+jealousies in your own ranks a complete organization of labor cannot be
+effected?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes. That is history up to the present, but the workingman
+is doing more thinking to-day than ever before."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You regard such a strike as would be possible
+under the conditions you outline as a desirable thing for organized
+labor?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir. If employers would be a little more considerate of
+their men there would soon be no labor organizations in existence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do not say that all grievances are just, do
+you?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. Many of them are frivolous."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "It is charged that there is a minority in all
+labor organizations who are practically enslaved by the will of the
+majority and that a man for that reason loses his independence when he
+joins a union?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Well, I think the reverse is the rule. The hot heads and
+agitators in the labor movement are in the minority; the quiet, thinking
+men are always in the majority. It often happens that the man who is
+really most anxious to strike assumes an air of indifference or positive
+objection to such a move. He is merely waiting for a good excuse to stop
+and let the blame lie with some one else. He wants some one to order him
+to quit work so he can say to the superintendent that he is afraid to
+remain at work for fear of personal violence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Was any other motive behind the strike other than
+to force a settlement with Mr. Pullman?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan; "Was there any object in breaking the older unions
+so that the American Railway Union might profit thereby?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "While the increase in membership in the American Railway
+Union meant a decrease in the strength of the older organizations it was
+not the object of the strike to break down the older unions."
+
+In answer to a question by Commissioner Kernan as to what he would
+suggest to prevent railroad strikes in the future, Mr. Howard replied
+that the government ownership and control of railroads was the only
+practical solution of the question. He argued that about one third of
+the railroads of the country are practically under control of the
+government, and thought the balance could easily be taken. He claimed
+the Santa Fe was from two to four months behind in payment of wages;
+that it would seem only fair that the government should see that the men
+were paid. The government had gone to the extent of forcing the employes
+of that and other roads to work whether they wished to or not and he
+thought the other step might as well be taken at once.
+
+Mr. Sovereign, grand master workman of the Knights of Labor, was the
+next witness. He testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+Union. Said the only official connection the Knights of Labor had with
+the strike was the adoption of a resolution that they would not ride in
+Pullman cars. He also stated that a general tie-up of all the industries
+in the country to force public sentiment on Pullman and bring to bear on
+the Pullman company the greatest possible pressure was contemplated, but
+it was found the tie-up could not be made sufficiently general to bring
+about the desired results, so it was not attempted.
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then you do not consider the American Railway
+Union responsible for the rioting that occurred?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "No, sir. In fact I do not think there was any rioting."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Do you consider burning cars a species of
+rioting?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Not when it was done by U. S. marshalls."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Was it so done?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "I read reports in Mayor Hopkins' office to-day to that
+effect--reports that seem conclusive on that point. Moreover I don't
+think there was as much rioting as is generally believed. I came from
+Des Moines on what was supposed to be the last train to Chicago. We
+arrived without incident at Blue Island on July 6. There the train was
+side tracked and we were told by the officials that it could go no
+further because of the mobs between there and the city. I saw a west
+bound mail train on another track and was told it had been there for
+twenty-six hours and could not proceed on account of the mob and
+violence beyond, though it would go on the very same track on which we
+had just arrived. I bought a ticket from Blue Island to Chicago on the
+Wisconsin Central. After coming a short distance the train stopped and
+the conductor told us we could go no further on account of mobs ahead of
+us. I picked up my grip with the intention of walking to the city, but
+the conductor cautioned me against risking my life. However I walked in,
+was not molested, saw no disorder and did not see more then ten men at
+any one place."
+
+Mr. Kernan inquired what views the Knights of Labor held about letting
+non-union men take the places of strikers.
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "That depends on circumstances. In the case of mine
+owners, for instance, who have sold houses to their employes who have
+partly paid for same, the unjust discharge of these men means a
+forfeiture to the mine owners of all money paid on the property. We hold
+that we must by all honorable means prevent others from taking their
+places."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "But suppose honorable means are not effective?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Well, if it's necessary to prevent them from passing a
+given line we clasp hands and keep them out."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do not assault them?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "No. If they break through they assault us."
+
+Mr. Sovereign did not think that strikes or compulsory arbitration was
+the remedy for labor troubles. He believed that the government ownership
+of railroads would settle the trouble for employes. He also believed the
+employes of corporations had an equity in their positions and for unjust
+discharge should have a remedy in a court of equity.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Why cannot the contract between employer and employe
+provide for all you want the law to cover?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Because labor is always dependent, always has been at
+least and is forced by the duress of circumstances to accept employment
+without insisting on protecting conditions."
+
+George W. Lovejoy was the next witness to take the stand. In answer to a
+question by Commissioner Wright, he said: "I am familiar with the
+history of the strike on the Rock Island road. Beside the order passed
+by the convention to refuse to handle Pullman cars, the men at La Salle
+had a special grievance that consisted of unjust treatment of the
+members of the American Railway Union which had a local lodge at that
+point. I for one was dismissed without any cause being assigned.
+Complaint was made to Supt. Dunlap and an explanation asked as to why
+the men were discharged. He refused to consider the grievance submitted
+to him so the men concluded to strike."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Was the grievance submitted in writing?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It was. I have not a copy, but think I can get one from
+the local union."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What part did your local union take in the Pullman
+strike?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It decided to sustain it."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Was there any violence at La Salle?" Mr. Lovejoy:
+"No, sir. None whatever."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Have any of the old men been taken back?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "No, sir. And never will."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Is it on account of the strike that they cannot get
+back?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I suppose it is."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How general was the strike at La Salle?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It extended to every branch of the service. Switchmen,
+firemen, engineers, conductors, brakemen, telegraph operators, clerks,
+round-housemen and trackmen."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Now tell us about the cause that led to your
+discharge as you understand it?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Six months previous to the convention of the American
+Railway Union which met in Chicago, June 12, I had an understanding with
+the superintendent that I would get a leave of absence and was to put a
+man in my place while absent. When I got ready to come to Chicago, I
+sent a note asking for such leave of absence and transportation. The
+transportation was sent me, but no answer to my note was given. When I
+came to Chicago I called at the office of the superintendent to have an
+understanding about my leave and he told me that a written notice was
+not necessary. Whenever I wanted to go anywhere all I had to do was to
+put a good man in my place and go. The Tuesday following the opening of
+the convention the assistant superintendent went to La Salle and put
+another man in my place permanently. No reason has ever been given me
+why such action was taken."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Mr. Lovejoy, I suppose you have given the subjects
+of labor troubles and strikes some study. I wish to ask if you can
+suggest any solution of these troubles."
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir, I have and I consider the only way to solve the
+question is for the government to own the railroads."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What is your reason?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I think the employes would receive better treatment and be
+better satisfied. I think they would get the same kind of treatment as
+the postal employes and there would be no strikes under these
+conditions."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What do you think of arbitration as a remedy?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I have never seen arbitration tried to any great extent
+and while I believe in the principle I am not prepared to say that I am
+in favor of compulsory arbitration."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "If the government owned the railroads how would
+you avoid the changes incident to a change in administration?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I consider that railroad employes would be in practically
+the same position as postal clerks. They would be under civil service
+rules to the extent of being pensioned after a term of years of faithful
+service."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Would it not cause jealousy among other branches
+of workingmen if such a system should be adopted toward railroad men?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I do not think so. I am not jealous of postal clerks."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What would you suggest as the next best thing if
+government ownership proved impracticable?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "That the government keep hands off altogether; let the
+roads and their men fight out their troubles free from outside
+interference. It is the knowledge that the government can be called to
+their aid that makes many of the railroad officials so arbitrary with
+their men."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think that disputes ought to be settled
+by some other method than open warfare?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "There would be none if the authorities would keep away.
+The employes would settle their grievances by arbitration."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "What would you think of a law providing that upon
+application of a certain number of employes the railroads should be
+compelled to come before a board of arbitration and make answer to the
+grievances of the men or vice versa before a strike could be declared? I
+mean by that a law which would compel a hearing of disputes by a
+constituted tribunal even though that tribunal had not the power to
+force a decision in the matter?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I would be in favor of such a court and believe that the
+railroad men would abide by its decision voluntarily if they had some
+choice in the selection of the arbitrators."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not one of the greatest troubles the
+railroad men have to contend with that they cannot get a hearing of
+their grievances?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir. It is. And if the men could always be sure of
+getting a fair and impartial hearing I do not believe there would be any
+strikes. As a rule the men are opposed to strikes and resort to them
+only when every means of settling grievances has failed."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that strikes usually end
+disastrously to the men?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Strikes often fail to accomplish the particular end in
+view, but I believe on the whole their tendency is toward a betterment
+of the conditions of the men. The strike we have just passed through has
+demonstrated to the working people of this country that they must get
+together as one solid body before they can win. They have found out that
+when they undertake to assert their rights they have no friends but
+themselves. The press, the judiciary, the ministers and office holders
+are all against them."
+
+Secretary Kelliher of the American Railway Union was next to testify. He
+promised to furnish the commissioners with certified copies of any of
+the proceedings of the convention, and the correspondence which occurred
+during the strike. In answer to questions by the commissioners he
+considered government ownership of railways the only solution to
+strikes. While he favored arbitration, he did not think compulsory
+arbitration would be satisfactory to the men.
+
+Thomas J. Heathcoat, a resident of Pullman, and one of the strikers, was
+the next witness examined. He testified to the condition of Pullman
+prior to and at the time of the strike and gave a full account of the
+strike and the causes that brought it about. He gave in detail the scale
+of wages paid prior to June, '93, and the constant reductions since.
+
+Mr. Heathcoat, in answer to Commissioner Kernan asking him to explain
+the mode adopted by the Pullman Company in cutting wages for piece work,
+said:
+
+"Take, for instance, that desk behind which you sit. Suppose it were
+given to me to make. I figured that I could do the work for $20.00, and
+took it at that price. As a good mechanic I could make $4.00 per day at
+it. For the next one the foreman would allow me $18.00. Being anxious to
+make good wages, and being a good mechanic, I would use extra effort and
+still make $4.00 per day. The next one the foreman would allow me only
+$16.00 for. Yet, by extraordinary effort I could still make $4.00 daily.
+The next one the foreman would allow me $12.00 for, and with my utmost
+endeavors I could make only $3.00 per day. As a good mechanic I would
+refuse to take any more at that price and the work would be given to an
+inferior workman who could make only $1.25 per day. This is the way the
+Pullman Company has worked its piece work system."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Did the cuts in other departments average as much
+as in yours?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "They averaged the same though they were not alike. The
+new men in the freight car department suffered more than we did and
+there were others in some of the departments that were making pretty
+good wages at the time of the strike."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "You have spoken of asking the company for a
+reduction in rent. What rent do you pay, and what did you get for it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Up to the beginning of the strike I paid $17 a month
+rent and 71 cents per month for water. Gas I did not use. Could not
+afford it. The company charged $2.25 per 1,000 feet. My house had five
+rooms, cellar and back yard." Commissioner Wright: "What would similar
+houses rent for elsewhere?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I know of eight and nine room cottages with front and
+back yards, in every way more desirable than the house I live in, that
+can be rented for $8.00 and $9.00 per month."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "What, in your opinion, would it cost to build
+houses such as you live in?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I should like to take the contract for building them at
+$600 apiece."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What other accommodations do you get for the rent
+you pay, say in the way of paved streets?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "There are cheap wooden sidewalks in front of the house
+and the company keeps a force of men on the street picking up paper and
+hauling away garbage. That's all I know."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you applied to the Pullman company for work
+since the strike?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. I understand that I am blacklisted. They have a
+blacklist, you know. I have one in my pocket now."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Will you let me see it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. Here it is."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any objection to telling us where you got
+this?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. I got it from a friend of one of the clerks in
+the Pullman office and I would not like to tell the name of either, as
+it would cost the clerk his position."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any other evidence of the existence of a
+blacklist?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. One of the men who applied to Mr. Childs at
+the Rock Island shops for work. He was asked his name and the same being
+found on one of their lists he was told that he was a Pullman striker,
+consequently could not get work. I understand the Pullman company's
+blacklist was sent to all the railroads so that others besides myself
+can never get work in the railroad shop again."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Do labor unions ever blacklist non-union men?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "The American Railway Union does not. That is the only
+labor union I ever belonged to."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What was the feeling of the employes toward Mr.
+Pullman previous to the strike?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "As a rule I think the employes had a high regard for Mr.
+Pullman until Harry Middleton took charge two and a half years ago. He
+is not a practical car builder. He wastes material for which we are
+charged. He displaces men who have earned their positions by good work
+and promotes his favorites. He makes arbitrary and tyrannical shop rules
+which deprive us of part of our pay. For instance, suppose a car
+carpenter be given a lot of cars, the work to be finished in a certain
+time. Within a day of the time limit it is seen that there is still six
+days work for one man. He will put on five extra men, regardless whether
+that many can work to advantage, and pay them by the hour charging the
+same to the man who took the job as piece work."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is not time enough allowed to finish the work so
+that such instances would be due to the neglect of the man who took the
+job?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, except in rare cases. It is
+misjudgment on the part of the manager, Mr. Middleton, as I said before,
+who is not a practical car builder. As an instance of a waste of
+material--There was a set of car sashes, made of mahogany. Care was not
+taken to see that the mahogany picked out was all of the same color.
+Instead of picking out those of the set that were alike in color and
+completing the set with new ones and using the off color ones in another
+set with wood picked out to match, Middleton had the whole set smashed
+and charged the men with the cost of the material and refused to pay
+them for their time when it was not their fault at all."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Referring now to the committee appointed to wait on Mr.
+Pullman--tell us what you said and what was said to you."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "We asked Mr. Wickes and Mr. Pullman to adjust our wages
+so that we could support our families. We wanted either the wages of
+June, 1893, or a reduction in rent and some increase in wages. Mr.
+Pullman said he could not reduce rents as he was making only 3-1/2 or
+2-1/2 per cent., I don't know which now, on his investment. He said he
+could not increase wages because he was losing money on his contract
+work. But he did not say what was a fact that nine tenths of the work
+that had been done since the cut began was Pullman and not contract
+work."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What do you mean by Pullman work?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Work on cars owned and operated by the Pullman Company
+and not work on cars sold to railroads. One result of this was that the
+company was getting work from us for $1.90 for which it paid the
+railroads when they did this work $2.50 and $2.70. Two days after he
+told us the company was losing money on its contract work, a quarterly
+dividend of 2 per cent. was declared."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "That might have been paid from accumulations and
+not from earnings."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Mr. Pullman did not make any such explanation to us when
+we spoke to him afterward. If he had, perhaps we would not have felt so
+badly about it. But it did seem hard that when men were working and not
+getting enough from the company to buy enough to eat that it should pay
+out $600,000.00 in dividends."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Were there those not getting enough to eat?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I have seen men faint by the side of cars on which they
+were working because they had not had enough to eat. After the cuts,
+while working as hard as I could to earn enough to support my family, I
+have been obliged to sit down in the middle of the forenoon to rest
+because I had not had enough food to enable me to do such hard work and
+there were hundreds worse off than I. If rents had been reduced I
+believe there would have been no strike. We wanted to submit the
+question of rent and wages to a board of arbitration, we to choose one,
+the Pullman company one, and the two a third. We would have abided by
+any decision the arbitrators made."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Did not Mr. Pullman offer to let you look over the
+company's books to convince you that what he said was true?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes. But what would we know about them? Besides, we did
+not believe that the books would show the real facts. I have been told
+that there is only one accountant in the city who understands the
+company's books and we did not have money enough to buy bread let alone
+to hire an accountant. I have seen men crying at the paymaster's window
+when their pay checks for two weeks would be eight cents or 35 cents,
+or one dollar or two dollars over their rent and the company expected
+them to support their families on that 'till next pay day. You see the
+men got two pay checks, one for just the amount of rent owed and the
+other for the balance of their two weeks pay. The rent checks they are
+expected to indorse and turn over at once to the town agent in payment
+of rent. The law will not allow the company to deduct the rent from the
+pay and retain it, but the check must be turned over just the same for
+you cannot cash it unless you can persuade the agent that you cannot
+possibly live unless you are allowed to retain it. Then perhaps you will
+be allowed to retain a part or all of it. I have been insulted by the
+clerks in the agent's office because I told them I could not get along
+without the money for my rent check. Yet such was the case for there was
+one time when my pay after the rent was deducted left only eight cents a
+day for each member of my family to live on until the next pay day."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Are the Pullman employes required to live in Pullman?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. As long as there are any houses in Pullman
+vacant the men must live there, unless they own houses somewhere else or
+are favorites of the shop bosses. In fact during last winter I knew of
+people who owned houses in Roseland leaving them unrented and moving to
+Pullman so they could get work. When you apply for work you are required
+to make application if you are a man of family."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Are there any lots in Pullman bought and sold so that
+you could form an idea of the value, for instance, of the lot on which
+the house you live in stands?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. No lots are sold but I know of a house and lot
+over in Roseland on the boulevard near One hundred and eleventh street
+which were bought two years ago for $2,500 and can be rented for $12 a
+month. The house is better than the one I live in, is bigger and in a
+good location while mine is on a back street and I would not pay more
+than $1,000 for the house and lot."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "If your house could be built for $600 and only yields
+3-1/2 per cent the lot must be worth more than $5,000. Is it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, but there are some frame houses in
+Pullman which the company charges eight dollars a month for that could
+be built for $100."
+
+Mr. Wright: "It was said at the beginning of this strike that the
+Pullman people owed $70,000 for rent. How far back did that accumulation
+begin?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I should say about Nov. 1, 1893."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you know what the cuts in wages were in
+departments other than your own."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "The freight car builders suffered more than others, but
+the commission can find out best by having some one from each department
+come before it."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't the people of Pullman know that we want to
+hear from every one that can throw any light on this subject?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. They understand it but there are lots of them
+who have not money to get down here."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you can what was the average pay of the
+employes, say in April last?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "On a lot of elevated cars on which I worked I made 16
+cents per hour, on one car and 15 cents per hour on another, but there
+were men working alongside of me who made only four and five cents per
+hour. I would say that in January, February and March the mechanic's pay
+averaged $1.50 and the laborers' pay $1.30 per day. Some times the
+laborers' checks were bigger than the mechanics'."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any suggestion of a remedy for labor
+troubles?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. The ownership of railroads and banks by the
+government would do it. I never heard of a strike in the post-office
+department or the navy yard."
+
+Miss Curtis next took the stand. She was an employe of Pullman and
+president of the Girls Union of the American Railway Union at Pullman.
+Beginning her testimony she said: "In June, 1893, the wages in my
+department were 22-1/2 cents per hour, $2.25 a day. In April, 1894, they
+were 70 to 80 cents a day. There were two cuts in one week in November
+and another in January. In April the best wages any of us could make was
+eighty cents a day, while some could not make more than from 40 to 50
+cents a day. Last June they could make at least $1.50 per day."
+Commissioner Wright: "Do you pay rent?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "Not now. My father worked for the Pullman company thirteen
+years, during which time he paid rent. He died last September and as
+there was some expense connected with his sickness he owed $60 back
+rent. Then I went to work in the repair shop and boarded out. The
+company made me pay $3 per week on account of the back rent. I still
+owed $15 on the day of the strike and owe it yet. Some weeks I did not
+earn enough to pay my board and rent too and then I paid only part of
+the $3."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Were you on any of the committees that waited on
+Mr. Pullman and Mr. Wickes?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "Yes, sir. I represented the girls on that committee. We
+wanted our wages raised as the men did theirs. Mr. Wickes said it was
+impossible to raise wages as they were losing money on their contracts
+and it was utterly impossible to reduce rents. An appointment was made
+to meet Mr. Pullman on another day. When we saw him he said the same
+that Mr. Wickes told us."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What work was done in your department?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "We made the silk, satin and velvet drapings; the carpets,
+tapestries and mattresses for the sleeping coaches, the linen for the
+dining cars, sewed the fringe on cushions and all that sort of thing."
+
+Theodore Rhode was the next to testify. He said: "Four years ago I had a
+good job. Then they wanted me to do a kind of work that no one else
+could make a living at. Four or five of us were to work together. I was
+to have charge of the work and we were to divide whatever we made. I
+said I would try it, but if I didn't like it wanted my old job back.
+This was agreed to. When I became satisfied that I could make nothing at
+the new work I asked for my old place, but they would not give it to me
+and told me that if I didn't like what I was doing I could quit working
+for the company. After a while we got so we could make from $2.60 to
+$2.85 for 10-3/4 hours work. Then the cuts came, and work for which we
+had received $9.00 paid only $4.25. It was impossible to make $1.25 per
+day, and we were told by the foreman to quit if not satisfied. I paid
+$15.00 a month for rent and 71 cents for water. I could rent as good a
+house in Kensington or Roseland for $7.00 a month. On the day of the
+strike I owed $2.50 for rent. Have not paid it since, although the
+collector has been around two or three times lately. Low wages and high
+rents are not all the trouble. It is the abuse. They talk to men as they
+would to dogs. They are constantly experimenting with new materials. If
+it don't prove satisfactory we get no pay for our work. Take English
+varnish, for instance. The atmosphere must be just right or it won't
+work. Oftentimes, owing to a dampness in the air, we were obliged to do
+our work over two or three times for which we get no extra pay. In April
+my wages every two weeks were from $12.00 to $15.00. I understand they
+pay the men who took our places from $2.50 to $3.00 and $3.00 to $5.00
+per day. I have not applied for work again."
+
+R. W. Combes. For 30 years a car carpenter and for 10 years employed at
+Pullman, was next called before the commission.
+
+"A year ago," he said, "wages in his department was $2.25 at piece work,
+and 17-1/2 cents per hour. In March, piece work was cut so that they
+could not make more than 68 cents a day."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How much would you have gotten at the rate of
+wages in force in March or April?" Mr. Combes: "We did not built the
+same kind of cars in 1894, but had we, we would not have received
+anything for them. In February I had $3.50 to support my wife and two
+children after paying rent. Had the men received fair treatment there
+would have been no strike. John Pearson, superintendent of the freight
+car department, is the whole cause of the strike. He is abusive and
+tyrannical. I was inspector in April and Pearson told me if the men did
+not do what I told them to take a club and knock their damned heads off.
+That's the kind of a man he is. I have not applied for work. Middleton
+told me I never could work there again."
+
+H. F. Griswold, a switchman, testified that he had last been employed by
+the C. M. & St. P. Ry.--that he lost his position through the
+strike--had tried to get work within the last few weeks on the Penn. R.
+R., at Pittsburg, Altona and Columbus and at each of these places had
+been shown a blacklist with his name on it as a member of the American
+Railway Union.
+
+Several other witnesses testified as to being blacklisted on account of
+being in the strike.
+
+Charles Naylor, a fireman on the Ft. Wayne road up to the time of the
+strike, was next examined. In answer to questions as to what he thought
+of arbitration he said: "From my knowledge of railroad men I do not
+believe they would have much confidence in arbitrators elected in the
+same way public officials are. My idea is that they should be appointed
+when their services are required and a new set of arbitrators selected
+for each case. The board should be composed of one man selected by the
+employes, one by the roads, and a third by these two."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "That is the law now."
+
+Mr. Naylor: "Yes, but it is not enforced. It seems to me that if Mr.
+Cleveland had followed in the line of action pursued by Mr. Gladstone,
+during the coal miners' strike in England, there would have been no
+trouble here. If he had told the railroads when they called on him for
+troops that they must submit to arbitration or they would get no support
+from the government, the men would have thought a good deal more of his
+honesty and fairness, but when they see the whole power of the
+government thrown on the side of the railroads they lose confidence in
+the justice of the government."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "There was no law under which the president could
+have told the roads to arbitrate the trouble with their men."
+
+Mr. Naylor: "From all that I can learn there was as much law for him to
+do so as for him to send troops here without the request of the governor
+of the state."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "In your suggestion of a board of arbitrators there
+would be but one of them unprejudiced?"
+
+Mr. Naylor: "I think such a board would always be able to effect a
+compromise between the parties. I have acted in the capacity of
+arbitrator between the company and the men in adjusting grievances and
+have always found that a spirit of compromise was met in a like spirit
+and that is the principle, after all, upon which such questions must be
+settled."
+
+Vice President Howard of the American Railway Union, was recalled to
+make an explanation regarding some testimony which Mr. Heathcoat had
+given the day before. He said: "Mr. Heathcoat told you that Mr. Pullman
+had promised to allow a committee to examine his books, to prove the
+correctness of his statements to the effect that his company was losing
+money on its contracts. The next day, Wallace Rice, a reporter on the
+Herald, called on Mr. Pullman and asked him if he would allow an expert
+to examine his books on behalf of the union. Mr. Pullman replied that
+what he meant by allowing an examination of his books was that he would
+have his own book-keeper prepare a statement to be submitted to the
+committee. He said he never had any idea of allowing the committee to
+actually examine his books. Mr. Howard then asked if he might make a
+statement of a couple of matters of importance to the employes. The
+commissioners looked doubtful about this, but finally Mr. Wright said he
+might go ahead if the matter had anything to do with the subject under
+consideration.
+
+Mr. Howard then said: "The United States government is blacklisting
+3,000 employes of the Union Pacific Railroad now."
+
+Mr. Wright: "We have no authority to go into that question."
+
+Mr. Howard: "And the other matter is that all the other roads are making
+a threat against the M. K. & T. to boycott its business if the road
+persists in making a certain rate to Washington."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Has that anything to do with the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir. If the government allows the railroads to violate
+the laws it ought to keep hands off in disputes between the roads and
+the men."
+
+Rev. Mr. Cawardine was called and related what he knew about the matter.
+Mr. Cawardine is pastor of the M. E. church in Pullman. His testimony
+was directed chiefly to the exorbitant rents. In answer to Mr. Wright,
+saying that he had been charged with being an anarchist, and a
+socialist, Mr. Cawardine said: "I have considered the charge so
+contemptible in the bitterness and prejudice of its origin as to be
+beneath answer. That I, an American born citizen and the son of a
+soldier who died for his country, should be charged with being
+anarchist, seems to me incomprehensible. It is simply an evidence of
+what has been made very apparent that a good many people are violently
+prejudiced against working men and will not listen to what may be said
+on their side or read what may be written. I find this feeling even
+among many of my brethren in the ministry. I regret it too, because the
+labor problem can only be solved by a consideration of it from all
+sides."
+
+Andrew W. Pearson, a real estate agent who formerly worked in Pullman,
+was called on the stand and in answer to a question put by Mr. Wright,
+said:
+
+"Houses which rent for $17.00 in Pullman can be rented in Kensington and
+Roseland for $10.00. Pullman houses which rent for $25.00 can be rented
+elsewhere for $15.00, and $10.00 Pullman houses for $5.00. In Grand
+Crossing, a manufacturing town, $8.00 a month will rent a five-room
+brick cottage. The rents I am giving now are the present rents. There
+has been a decline since two years ago everywhere but in Pullman."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How much higher are rents in Pullman than
+elsewhere?"
+
+Mr. Pearson: "I should say fully one-third."
+
+Frank P. McDonald, a locomotive engineer and author of the Great scab
+route circular, testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+Union and a delegate to their convention. He said he was opposed to the
+strike, but voted for it as it was the unanimous sentiment of his local
+union. His reason for opposing it was because he did not think the union
+was strong enough to win.
+
+President Debs, of the American Railway Union, was the next important
+witness to testify. Mr. Debs outlined the trouble from its inception
+down to the special convention in Chicago on Aug. 2. In answer to
+questions by Commissioner Wright, Mr. Debs said he was 38 years old, a
+resident of Terre Haute, Ind., and had been president of the American
+Railway Union since June 20, 1893. He was a practical railroad man, had
+been employed four and a half years in the capacity of locomotive
+fireman and was at present editor of the Fireman's Magazine. Mr. Wright
+told him to go ahead and give a history of the late strike so far as he
+knew from his own experience.
+
+Mr. Debs said: "In the early part of May, while at home in Indiana, I
+received a telegram from Mr. Howard notifying me of the probability of a
+strike at the Pullman shops, the employes of which were members of our
+union. I authorized Mr. Howard to take full charge of the matter, but to
+do all in his power to prevent a strike. My reason for this was that the
+American Railway Union had just been involved in a strike on the Great
+Northern railway. At a meeting of the general officers of the union we
+had discussed the possibility of other strikes arising on account of the
+victory the union had won on the Great Northern railway, and we decided
+that it would be good policy to be very cautious in encouraging the men
+to go into strikes whenever there was a possibility of avoiding them.
+May 11th, I heard that the Pullman employes had struck. A few days
+after, I came here and made a personal investigation of the trouble.
+After a trip to St. Paul I again went down there and the result of my
+investigation was that the conditions at Pullman justified the men in
+the course they had taken. I found that wages and expenses were so
+adjusted that every dollar the men made found its way back to Pullman
+coffers. The men were not only not getting enough wages to live on but
+were getting deeper and deeper in debt every day. They had not money
+enough as a rule to get away. There seemed to be no escape for them.
+Wages had been reduced, but expenses remained the same. After I had
+satisfied myself of the truth of the men's statements regarding their
+conditions, I made up my mind to do everything possible in law and
+justice to right the wrongs of our members who had gone out on strike.
+We first tried to get the company to arbitrate. We were confident that
+any fair and impartial board would decide in favor of the employes. The
+company, however, refused every proposition of that sort saying that it
+had nothing to arbitrate. I then suggested that the Pullman company
+select two men to act with two judges of the circuit court and a fifth
+person whom they should select to act as a board to investigate the
+question whether there was anything to arbitrate. This proposition was
+refused.
+
+"June 12, delegates representing 425 local unions of the American
+Railway Union met here in the first quadrennial convention of the
+organization. The Pullman question came up for consideration before the
+convention sitting as a committee of the whole to hear reports etc. I
+wish to say in this connection that all of our deliberations were held
+with open doors, except one executive session at which the question of
+finances was considered, in which we felt the general public had no
+interest, but at all the other meetings the entire press of the city was
+represented. I mention this in refutation of the statements which have
+been made as to the American Railway Union forming a conspiracy against
+the railroads and committing offenses against the United States. If a
+conspiracy were intended it seems improbable that we should have sat
+with open doors. The first steps taken toward securing a settlement of
+the trouble, was the appointment of a committee composed partly of
+Pullman employes and in part of other delegates present, with authority
+to call on Mr. Wickes to find out if anything could be done toward
+effecting a settlement of the strike."
+
+Here Mr. Debs related how Mr. Wickes refused to confer with a committee
+composed of any but his former employes, and finally refused to confer
+with them, stating that he had nothing to arbitrate.
+
+He then continued: "The matter was then referred to a special committee
+with authority to act in the matter. This committee reported that if the
+Pullman Company refused to concede anything after five days time to
+consider the question, it was the sense of the convention that the
+members of the union would refuse to handle Pullman cars. Under the
+constitution of the American Railway Union the majority rules in all
+questions under consideration. No strike can be declared except by a
+majority of the men involved. In order to conform to this rule, the
+delegates were instructed to communicate by wire with their respective
+unions to ascertain the sentiment of the members on the question before
+the convention. After reports had been received from all the local
+unions, the convention by a unanimous vote decided to adopt the report
+of the special committee.
+
+"Since the railroad employes have been criticised for engaging in a
+sympathetic strike, I wish to make some statement regarding the general
+situation. In many instances they had local grievances themselves, and
+besides, there was this general condition which aggravated the whole
+situation.
+
+"In the spring of 1893, just before the opening of the World's Fair, the
+general managers of the various roads centering in Chicago, were very
+apprehensive lest there should be a general strike among all classes of
+railroad employes for an increase of wages. The officers of the
+organizations appealed to the men not to strike, arguing that it was
+their patriotic duty to bear with patience their grievances until the
+fair was over. The result was there was no strike anywhere. The men all
+worked in harmony throughout the country. Some of the managers promised,
+by implication at least, that there would be an increase of wages to
+reward the patriotic action of their men. Instead of doing as they
+promised, the general managers during this time equipped their
+organization to protect their mutual interests."
+
+Mr. Debs then read an article from a Chicago paper which told how the
+general managers had formed an air tight association which would be able
+to deal with any strikes that might arise in the future, and suggested
+that the association rather courted than feared trouble with employes of
+the railroads.
+
+Continuing, Mr. Debs said: "Shortly after the new association had
+completed its organization it became apparent what course it intended to
+pursue. About Sept. 1, the Louisville & Nashville road made a sweeping
+reduction of 10 per cent in the pay of all its employes--the section men
+getting 67-1/2 cents a day under this reduction. Then in succession
+followed the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, the Richmond &
+Danville, the Mobile & Ohio, Nashville & Chattanooga, Big Four, New York
+& New England, New York, New Haven & Hartford, Wabash, Union Pacific,
+Northern Pacific, Monon, Great Northern and the Great Western was just
+on the point of declaring a reduction when the strike was declared. "It
+was significant that no two roads declared a reduction at the same time,
+and in most instances the reductions began with the unorganized and
+poorest paid men in the service. The men viewed these reductions with
+apprehension and unrest. This was particularly the case after Judge
+Caldwell had declared upon investigation that the cut on the Union
+Pacific was unwarrantable. In two cases the reductions annulled and the
+original pay of the men restored. On the Union Pacific--on the order of
+Judge Caldwell and on the Great Northern through the efforts of the
+American Railway Union. In the later case the matter was decided by a
+board of arbitration, composed of leading capitalists and business men
+of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
+
+"These conditions confronted the American Railway Union, when its
+delegates met here in convention. The employes felt that other systems
+in sound financial conditions had taken advantage of the unfortunate
+condition of the country to reduce wages. The men had lost confidence in
+their old unions which had failed utterly to protect them against these
+reductions and they came in the hope that the American Railway Union
+would take some steps to resist them and protect its members against
+the rapacity of the railroad companies. This was the reason they were
+ripe to take up the cause of the Pullman strikers. They were wrought up
+to a point where they were willing to jeopardize their positions to
+protect both themselves and the Pullman employes. The primary purpose
+was to cut off Pullman's revenues by cutting off his cars and thereby
+force him to a settlement."
+
+Mr. Wright: "I understand you to say you advised against the Pullman
+strike. Why did you do so?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "We had just gone through a strike on the Great Northern and I
+did not think it advisable to go into another at that time."
+
+Mr. Wright: "What would have been the action of the convention if there
+had been no strike at Pullman? Did not that strike force the issue?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "There would have been no trouble with the railroads, I think,
+but for the Pullman strike. That and the depressed condition of the
+country aggravated the situation so as to bring about a general strike."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was the general strike precipitated by the Pullman
+troubles?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes sir, it was."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was a notice of the action of the convention served on the
+different companies?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Not by the convention. That matter was left to the men on the
+various systems. From the action of the managers toward the American
+Railway Union generally, the matter of serving a formal notice of our
+action on them was not looked upon as necessary, as we were very sure it
+would be ignored."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was notice served on the Illinois Central and Rock Island
+roads?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I think so, but am not sure."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did they have notice through the press?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Do you know the date on which the general managers adopted
+their resolution to resist the strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I think it was June 24, four days after our action. It was
+currently reported at that time, though I have no written or other
+evidence of the fact that the general managers resolved among themselves
+to exterminate the union."
+
+Mr. Wright: "If the American Railway Union had had its own way in
+regard to its policy would a general strike have been postponed?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. The conditions were not altogether propitious and
+we were fully aware of the fact."
+
+Mr. Wright: "What was the number of your membership at that time?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "About 150,000."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Did you consider that strong enough for a general strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. But it was not a question of membership altogether.
+There were other reasons." Mr. Debs said there was one other point to
+which he wished to call the attention of the commission. One great
+reason the men had in resisting a reduction of wages was the fact that
+the companies never restored them voluntarily. The tendency had
+therefore been for the employes to get closer together to resist the
+combined efforts of the managers. That was the principle, he said, which
+had inspired the idea of the American Railway Union. Then resuming the
+history of the strike Mr. Debs said:
+
+"Pursuant to the order of the convention, which was practically the
+order of 150,000 men composing the American Railway Union, the members
+refused to handle Pullman cars. It has been claimed that the president
+of the union was a self appointed leader who had ordered the strike,
+etc. In this connection I wish to say that while such is not the case,
+when the report came in I gave it my approval as president. I do not
+wish to avoid any of the responsibility. If I had had the authority I
+would have ordered it under the same circumstances. June 26, the men
+began to refuse to haul Pullman cars. They had been advised not to
+handle the cars on any system where they could not get the sanction of a
+sufficient number of men to make such a refusal effective. The officers
+of the union opened headquarters at Uhlics Hall and as committees came
+in from various roads and made their reports they were advised how to
+act, and above all else to avoid trouble and violence and to maintain
+order. We advised them of their right to quit in a body and told them
+their rights ended there, and that the railroad companies had a right to
+hire new men and their right began there."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What steps if any did you take to prevent
+violence?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "When we saw there was to be trouble we issued an appeal to
+the men not to commit any acts of violence. Fourteen years of experience
+taught me that violence was the worst thing that could happen for any
+strike."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How about the telegrams sent by you?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "None of them were inflammatory."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How about that 'save your money and buy a gun'
+telegram?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I can explain that telegram very easily. Among those who were
+employed at headquarters to take charge of our correspondence and
+telegraphing was a young man named Benedict. He had authority to sign my
+name to telegrams in answer to questions, etc. The telegram was sent to
+a man whom Mr. Benedict had worked under as a telegraph operator in
+Montana. The allusion to the gun was a playful expression which they had
+been accustomed to use in joking each other, and was understood in that
+way by the man who received the telegram. I have his letter in
+explanation of the matter which I will be glad to turn over to the
+commissioners. I never saw many of the telegrams sent out and did not
+see the one you refer to. The employes, obedient to the order of the
+convention, began as I have said, to refuse to handle cars. The refusal
+usually came from the switchmen who refused to make up trains with the
+Pullman equipment. As they refused they were discharged--when the others
+would quit.
+
+"July 1st. After five days of strike the general managers were
+completely defeated and their immediate resources exhausted. Up to that
+time there had been no signs of violence anywhere. Our men were intact
+and confident. Then the intervention of the courts was called into play.
+
+"July 2d. I was served with a sweeping injunction restraining me from
+sending out telegrams or issuing orders having the effect of persuading
+the men to quit work. This injunction was issued wherever the trouble
+existed. The result was to reduce our influence to nothing. This was the
+point from which the strike was conducted by telegrams and otherwise.
+Then a special grand jury was called to inquire into my conduct with the
+result that I was indicted with other officials of the union and
+warrants issued for our arrest. We were held under a joint bond of
+$10,000. Then followed an attachment issued for contempt of the
+injunction of July 2d, and our incarceration in the county jail. As
+soon as our men found we were under arrest they quit. The U. S. courts
+ended the strike, not the soldiers." Mr. Debs told of the seizure of his
+mail and personal effects. He said he merely cited the fact to show to
+what extent the U. S. authorities were willing to go to defeat the
+strikers. He also commented on Gen. Miles who was reported to have gone
+directly to the General Managers headquarters on his arrival with the U.
+S. troops. He said Gen. Miles was quoted next day as having said he had
+broken the back bone of the strike. Mr. Debs thought Gen. Miles had
+mistaken his mission which was to preserve order and not to help the
+railroads run their trains. He said:
+
+"I think Gen. Miles was vulgarly out of place, both when he went to the
+General Managers and when he made the remark credited to him." He said
+he thought if the General Managers were compelled to bring into court
+copies of their telegrams sent to the attorney general as the American
+Railway Union had done he could substantiate the charge that it was the
+object to annihilate the American Railway Union.
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did I understand you this morning to charge the
+General Managers Association with the responsibility of the strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Not in that broad and general way. The American Railway Union
+ordered the strike and is responsible for it, but there were aggravating
+circumstances which ought to go in mitigation under any view of the
+situation. But the attitude taken by the General Managers' Association,
+their expressed determination to crush the American Railway Union, in
+that respect and in refusing to arbitrate they were responsible. We felt
+if they could combine we could and each was culpable."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You believe in enforcing the law, do you not, and in
+the proper authorities using sufficient force to do it, do you not?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Most certainly I do."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You have doubtless given considerable thought to the
+matter. How do you think strikes can be avoided?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "There are two ways. First. By submitting to reduction in
+wages and other grievances as the old organizations have done for years.
+When the general manager determines to reduce wages he proposes a cut of
+20 per cent when he only intends to make a 10 per cent reduction. Then
+there is a conference when they finally agree on 10 per cent. This
+avoids strikes but it reduces wages. The second way is a unification of
+all, or practically all the railroad men of the country in a prudently
+managed organization. That would prevent strikes on railroads, for even
+if the railroads could unite to beat such an organization, it would be
+expensive."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Do you believe that such an organization would be so
+strong as to compel the adoption of all reasonable demands?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "We did believe it, or the American Railway Union would never
+have been organized. We see now that it cannot because all the organized
+forces of society and of the government are arrayed against it. When a
+strike inconveniences no one, no one is particularly interested in it
+and it gradually dwindles down to the little end of nothing. But when a
+strike does inconvenience the public, as railroad strikes must of
+necessity do, the organized forces of society and the government, a
+practically impregnable force, and properly so, is arrayed against it.
+Take, for instance, the Ann Arbor strike. It inconvenienced the public
+and immediately the roads applied to the courts, and Judge Taft issued
+an injunction against the men. The first of the injunctions that have
+been so much questioned both by lawyers and laborers."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Is it justifiable to incommode the public as such
+strikes do?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "It depends on circumstances. I believe with Admiral Porter,
+that a pin is worth fighting for if a principle is involved. To resist
+degradation is justifiable no matter what the result. If there were no
+resistance, things would be, if possible, worse than they are and
+without resistance degradation is inevitable. If the railroads treated
+their men fairly there would be no labor organizations. Every
+organization of railroad men is traceable to oppression. The Brotherhood
+of Locomotive Engineers was born of the tyranny of the Michigan Central
+road. I have that from the lips of Mr. Robinson, the founder of that
+organization. The first meetings were held in secret because the men
+would have been discharged if the management knew they were organizing.
+Everywhere organization originated from similar causes. No legislation
+can reconcile railroad employers and employes while human nature is in
+it. Confidence has been destroyed. The men have been so treated that
+they have grown suspicious, and when general managers, who are
+themselves employes, order a reduction of wages on instructions from
+those above them, that it is necessary because of hard times or slack
+business, the men are not at all assured that such are the reasons. They
+may accept the reduction, but they are not satisfied. In many instances
+the general managers obey orders to reduce wages with regret for they
+are humane men, many of them. Soon after the Great Northern strike, the
+president of a railroad told me that I now had the opportunity to make
+myself a most enviable reputation, both among railroad employers and
+employes by advising the men themselves to propose a reduction of say 10
+per cent in their wages during these dull times, thus putting the road
+under obligation to increase wages when business improved. I said to
+him, only a few months ago your road was doing a phenomenally heavy
+business. Did you propose an increase of even 5 per cent in your
+employes wages because you were making money? Every time a decrease in
+wages has been prevented or an increase secured, it has been the result
+of weeks of labor and pleading and the expenditures of thousands of
+dollars by the men. Every schedule ever adopted is evidence of that.
+Now that the strike is practically over the usual persecutions will be
+indulged in against those who took part in it. Some people are
+felicitating themselves that the strike has been suppressed, but the
+safety valve has been screwed down, that's all. The men are no more
+satisfied than they were. Some of them will get back their old
+positions; others will get work on other roads; still others will find
+work elsewhere, while some will be forced to remain idle for a long
+time. None of them are satisfied with the conditions and sooner or later
+strikes will break out again, I fear. You might as well try to stop
+Niagara with a feather as crush the spirit of organization."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "If it should be shown that government ownership of
+railroads resulted in poorer service and more expensive management, do
+you think it would be a good thing?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Government ownership of railroads is decidedly better than
+railroad ownership of government. The time is coming when there must be
+government ownership of railroads. Strikes cannot be averted
+otherwise."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Will government supervision answer the
+purpose?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I don't think so."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Will arbitration answer?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I fear not. No good can come from compulsory arbitration,
+that is a contradiction of terms, even if some means of enforcing the
+decree could be devised. Those against whom the decree was rendered
+would not be satisfied. The basis must be friendship and confidence."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Admitting that there is some contradiction in
+the term compulsory arbitration, it expresses what we mean though
+compulsory attempts at conciliation would express it better. Would it be
+of no avail in any case?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "It would undoubtedly in many cases where trouble is local and
+the conditions homogeneous, so that all of them could be considered as
+for instance in the Pullman troubles. It could be put in force if there
+was a trial by jury or something of that sort, as other courts are
+constituted, but in interstate matters on railroads extending over
+thousands of miles where conditions vary, no decree could be made to
+fit the case. It is easy to compass local matters but not widespread
+matters because the conditions are not homogeneous. It would be
+impossible to force the decree."
+
+                         "MR. DEBS' TESTIMONY."
+                   An extract from the Chicago Times.
+
+"People who read an Editorial from the Chicago Times of Eugene V. Debs
+before the strike commission, as printed in the Times yesterday, cannot,
+if they be fair-minded, fail to be convinced of the justice of the cause
+in which he is working and of the sincerity and ability of the man
+himself.
+
+"In a struggle for the rights of humanity individuals are nothing. He
+will be but a poor champion of the cause of the people who will pause to
+eulogize certain champions when he should be fighting for principles.
+But when a leader like Debs is attacked, as he has been attacked, and
+all the agencies and all the influence of capitalism are set in motion
+to 'make an example of him'--i. e., to so persecute him that no other
+man will be willing to encounter like danger in the wageworkers'
+cause--then must every spokesman of the working classes speak out in
+defense of the leader so attacked.
+
+"The slanders that have been directed against Debs during this struggle
+simply baffled recountal because of their number. He has been called
+crazy, drunken, revolutionary, criminal, incompetent. Newspapers have at
+once declared his conduct of the strike impotent and denounced him for
+having made it so effective. Labor has been entreated to throw him over
+as a puerile leader and capital has been warned that he is a dangerous
+man because of his surpassing ability. 'Anything to beat Debs' has been
+the one policy which has animated the organs of capital for the last
+four months.
+
+"Well, Debs is beaten--in a certain sense. His effort in behalf of the
+Pullman strikers has failed and the very journals which most strenuously
+opposed his work are now printing the story of the dreadful destitution
+bred of the Pullman despotism which Debs did his best to break down.
+
+"It is too late now to fight over again the issues of the American
+Railway Union strike and boycott. Debs and his associates now stand in
+the shadow of the penitentiary for trying to avert by entirely proper
+and lawful means the conditions which now engage the attention of the
+governor of the state, and which must awaken the sympathy of all humane
+people. The privileged corporations flocked to the aid of the Pullman
+concern--no one conversant with the facts in the case can gainsay that.
+The railroads stood by Pullman; every morning newspaper in Chicago
+except the Times stood by the railroads; the government joined in with
+the combination. Mr. Debs' testimony is to the effect that governmental
+action, by hastily issued injunctions, killed the strike--a statement
+which everybody cognizant of the course of that movement will indorse.
+
+"There has been much evidence adduced before the investigation
+commission, but none so exact or none more clear than that of Mr. Debs.
+His explanation of the causes of the strike and boycott is perspicuous
+and logical, his outline of the causes of its failure coherent and
+convincing, his suggestion of means for avoiding its recurrence
+absolutely right. He sees, as all clear-sighted and fair-minded men must
+see, that under the private ownership of railroads there is no
+possibility of justice for railroad employes. The public interest in the
+smooth and uninterrupted course of traffic over the roads enables the
+managers to call upon public opinion and even upon state forces to aid
+them against the employes in any serious controversy. The government
+ownership of railroads is indeed, as Mr. Debs has said, the one
+effective remedy for strikes among railroad hands. Asked for a solution
+of the general railroad problem, he suggested the co-operative
+commonwealth--a solution, doubtless, but one so difficult of
+accomplishment as to seem almost, if not quite, Utopian. Mr. Debs might
+have proceeded logically from his declaration for government ownership
+of railroads to government ownership and management of all other
+industries which tend naturally and inevitably to become monopolies.
+This accomplished, the repeal of all laws giving private persons the
+benefit of artificial law-created monopolies would follow. Then the
+abolition of all taxes upon industry. Finally, the throwing open to all
+men on equal conditions of all natural opportunities so that every man
+starting in life should have, so far as human power could accomplish it,
+an equal chance with every other man. Under such an organization and
+with such laws the co-operative commonwealth which Mr. Debs suggests
+would probably prove unnecessary. Competition, which is essential to the
+progress of civilization, would still continue, but it would be free
+competition, not the calm triumph of man plus monopoly over the man
+without it."
+
+Following President Debs' testimony the matter of rioting was taken up
+by the commissioners. Chief Deputy U. S. Marshall John C. Donnelly,
+testified that there were between 1,400 and 1,500 deputies sworn in,
+armed and paid by the government, concerning whose character and fitness
+practically no inquiries were made, and that there were between 3,000
+and 4,000 men sworn in as deputies at the request of the railroads,
+armed and paid by them, and that no inquiries concerning their
+characters were made at all. That this army of 3,000 or 4,000 armed men
+clothed with the authority of the United States was not at all under the
+control of the U. S. marshall and was not responsible and reported to no
+one unless to the chiefs of detectives of the several roads. Most of the
+reports of drunkenness and violence of deputies were from among those
+hired by the railroads.
+
+Malcolm McDonald, a reporter for the Record, was next to testify. In
+answer to questions by the commissioners he said, he thought as a rule
+the turbulent element was not composed of railroad men. He spoke to some
+of the American Railway Union men about upsetting cars and they denied
+having had any hand in it. He also said that the conduct of the U. S.
+marshalls had not been such as to prevent trouble and they seemed to be
+hunting opportunities to get into conflict with the men.
+
+M. L. Wickman, pastor of the Swedish Methodist Church, testified that
+many members of his church who worked for the Pullman Company, had to be
+taken care of during the fall and winter of 1893 and 1894. He told of
+one man who had his hand injured by a piece of flying steel. After a
+great deal of expense at the hospital he finally recovered the partial
+use of his hand and was taken back to work at reduced pay. Mr. Wickman
+took the case before Manager Brown, and that officer confronted him with
+a written statement by the injured man to the effect that the accident
+was one for which the company was in no way responsible. It was
+subsequently proved that the man's signature to the paper was forged.
+
+Ray Baker, a reporter for the Record, said he was at Hammond during the
+rioting there and thought the rioters were not railroad men.
+
+H. J. Cleveland, a reporter for the Herald, testified that he was to
+work along the Rock Island and Lake Shore tracks where considerable
+rioting occurred between July 4 and 15. From an extensive acquaintance
+among railroad men, he felt sure that there were few, if any railroad
+men among the rioters. Criticising the deputy marshals, Mr. Cleveland
+said that he saw many acts on their part which were calculated to cause
+trouble unnecessary, and thought, as a rule, they were men not fit to be
+in authority. He characterized the whole lot as a contemptible set of
+men. The men who were doing the rioting, had the appearance of those who
+had never done an honest day's work in their lives.
+
+N. D. Hutton, reporter for the Tribune, was the next witness called. He
+said that he was at Blue Island and about the stock yards district.
+Thought some of the rioting was done by railroad men, but could not say
+so from personal knowledge of the fact.
+
+Mr. Miller, a reporter for the Tribune was next examined. He testified
+that he was sworn in as a deputy marshall and detailed to go to Blue
+Island. After relating his experience as to rioting, Commissioner Kernan
+asked him if he had an extensive acquaintance among railroad men.
+
+Mr. Miller: "In the course of my work I have learned to know a great
+many of them by sight at least."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you see anyone whom you know to be a railroad
+man engaged in violence or encouraging others who were so engaged?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "Never, except once. That was when a meat train had been cut
+in two and switches were being turned. He was not doing any of it but
+the general tenor of his talk was in the nature of advice to what was
+being done. Most of the trouble was caused by hoodlums and toughs. In my
+reports I characterized them as hoodlums. Many were boys."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What was your observation as to the sobriety or
+otherwise of the strikers at the meetings?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "I scarcely remember of seeing one under the influence of
+liquor. Sobriety was the rule and drunkenness the exception."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did the speakers at the meetings advice against
+violence or did they encourage it?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "They advised against it."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you think them sincere in this advice or was
+it simply a cloak?" Mr. Miller: "I believed them sincere particularly
+the brainier men."
+
+Victor M. Harding, a reporter for the Times, was the next witness, he
+testified to being present during the rioting on the Rock Island road,
+and saw boys throwing burning waste into cars within a hundred yards of
+a cavalry camp."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you ever see anyone you knew to be a railroad
+man engaged in any violence?"
+
+Mr. Harding: "I never did. The stock yards furnish the most glaring
+examples of the false and exaggerated reports of riot and disorder made
+by the newspapers. This district has been for years made to bear the
+burden of the crimes committed in this part of the city. There was
+comparatively little disorder at the stock yards during the strike, but
+the newspaper reports contained accounts of fights, shooting affrays and
+riots almost every night. Capt. O'Neil, of the stock yards police told
+me that the reporters and the militia were both responsible for this.
+Volleys of shot fired by the soldiers or militia were to be heard every
+day and night, which on investigation proved to have no cause other than
+a desire to create excitement. The militia men, he said, were in the
+habit of firing merely for the sake of making a sensation. A crowd would
+naturally gather, reporters would flock around and then there would be
+something to tell and brag about. I know this is so from talk with the
+men themselves. They intimated that they were getting tired of doing
+nothing and were desirous of creating some excitement. One night Capt.
+O'Neil said he heard a volley of shots, went to the spot and found that
+the shooting had been done by a lot of sentries. They said they had
+fired at a Polak--the common name for a Pole--who was seen crawling
+under a car. The soldiers claimed it was dark, the man was at a distance
+and was not hit. Yet they knew he was a Polak. Equally absurd stories in
+explanation of shooting were given the police captain on other
+occasions."
+
+Assistant Fire Marshall John Fitzgerald testified that he had been on
+duty at all fires of any importance and had witnessed many acts of
+incendiarism. In all instances he stated that these acts had been
+committed by boys or youths belonging to the hoodlum element. He said
+the eldest could not have been over nineteen years old. The fire
+department had never been obstructed in any way in reaching fires. On
+one occasion railroad men, whom he knew to be strikers, aided in placing
+an engine in position, though he had never solicited aid of any kind
+during the period when the fires were most numerous.
+
+The Pullman side was now taken up by the commissioners.
+
+Frank W. Glover was the first witness. He described himself as a real
+estate dealer who owned a sub-division in Kensington, besides acre
+property there, owned and sold houses and lots, and had tenants. In
+reply to Commissioner Worthington as to what he knew of the rents in
+Pullman, Kensington, Roseland and other similar suburbs, how they would
+compare, Mr. Glover said: "I should say a six-room house in Pullman for
+$17.00 is better than one of my six-room houses in Kensington which
+rents for $10.00 to $12.00. The Pullman houses are connected with
+sewers. The land on which they stand is better drained and from what I
+should judge from outside appearances they have more of what are called
+modern conveniences. My houses have no sewer connections, the land is
+low, and in spring and fall is liable to have water on it; besides I
+understand the Pullman Company keeps their houses in repair, while I do
+not."
+
+Paul E. Hearns, stationer and newsdealer at Pullman, was the next
+witness. In his opinion there would have been less suffering if some of
+the men had let beer and whiskey alone.
+
+L. H. Johnson, a hardware and furniture dealer, testified next. He
+expressed the belief that the Pullman employes were as thrifty,
+economical and temperate a class of people as others of a similar class.
+
+Wm. R. McKay, a reporter for the Mail, was next heard. He said that he
+had been detailed to look after the American Railway Union headquarters
+and the meetings at Uhlics Hall. The speeches at all these meetings were
+against violence and in favor of observing the law as the only means of
+winning the strike.
+
+B. H. Atwell, a reporter for the Daily News, was the next witness. He
+testified that he was at Blue Island during the trouble. He said the
+deputy marshalls had drawn revolvers without any reason. Most of the men
+who made trouble there were not railroad men. Railroad officials had
+said to him that the strikers were not making the trouble. At the stock
+yards also, such violence as was done was not by railroad strikers but
+by toughs.
+
+The next witness called was Alex Lungren, a wood-carver. In answer to
+Commissioner Kernan's question if foremen had absolute power over the
+men in their departments, Mr. Lungren replied that he did not know.
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Are the workingmen compelled to obey the orders
+given by the foremen?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "Yes. They must obey orders."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any appeal from these orders?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no way of getting the matter to the
+officials or superintendent?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no system of obtaining a hearing
+from the officials concerning any grievance?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No there is no system and it is very difficult to see any
+of the officials to obtain redress."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What were the conditions of your re-employment
+with the company?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "I had to leave the American Railway Union."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were you obliged to sign any contract relating to
+your membership in any labor organization?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "Yes. There was a written contract which I signed. It
+stated that I would have nothing to do with the American Railway Union."
+Mr. Lungren also testified that he did not vote to strike. He did not
+attend the meetings; said he quit work in accordance with the notice
+posted by the company that the works would be closed down.
+
+Dr. John W. McLean was the next witness. He said he had been a
+practicing physician since 1863, and had been in the employ of the
+Pullman company since 1894. He thought the strike had been brought about
+by the general depression in business throughout the country. Did not
+think the rents exorbitant in Pullman. Said he attended the Pullman
+employes who were injured, free of charge. When asked by Commissioner
+Kernan if he thought intemperance one cause of the Pullman strike, he
+said:
+
+"Yes, I think all labor troubles are directly due to this cause."
+
+General Manager E. St. John of the Rock Island road was the next witness
+examined. His testimony, which would fill several pages, was in brief a
+general contradiction of all evidence offered by the reporters, and
+American Railway Union witnesses. He charged the rioting to the
+strikers. He was opposed to the government ownership of railroads and
+also thought arbitration impracticable. He admitted that a greater
+reduction of wages was liable to follow unless the present depressed
+condition of business was soon remedied. Regarding the losses incurred
+by his road on account of the strike he said it was his impression that
+they would be somewhere between $800,000 and $1,000,000. When the
+question of communications from the officers of the American Railway
+Union came up Commissioner Kernan asked why the General Managers
+Association declined to receive it.
+
+Mr. St. John: "Because we considered such an organization unworthy of
+consideration."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were you determined not to recognize any union?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "Not exactly, but the American Railway Union least of
+all."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were not the roads united sympathetically? Now
+what had the Lake Shore road to do with the Rock Island road?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "What had the Rock Island to do with the Lake Shore?"
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that the roads were united
+sympathetically?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "Let me ask you a question."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "No, I am not on the stand. I may be some day and
+then you can question me."
+
+Mr. St. John: "When a neighbor's house burns we all unite to fight the
+blaze. When an assault is made on all the roads, they unite to resist
+it."
+
+When General Manager St. John resumed the witness stand, he had with him
+one of the twenty-six sets of books mentioned by Mr. Howard, containing
+the scale of wages and rules of employment of all classes of railway
+employes on the roads represented in the General Managers' Association.
+When questioned by Commissioner Kernan he admitted that a committee had
+been appointed to formulate from these a schedule of what was a fair
+rate of wages for all classes of employes and uniform rules of
+employment. That committee reported, but the report was never acted on.
+This committee was appointed under a resolution passed February 15,
+1894. Its report was made in March, and if adopted would have affected
+125,000 men at least. One or two roads, he admitted, might have reduced
+wages about this time, but there was no agreement with the other roads
+concerning it. It became known that Mr. Wright, chairman of the
+commission, had an annual Pullman pass. He said concerning it that he
+and Mr. Pullman had been personal friends for several years, and it was
+to him as a personal friend that the pass was given several years ago
+and had been renewed annually since. He deemed that it was for the
+glowing reports of Pullman, made by Mr. Wright and others in 1884, for
+he did not know Mr. Pullman then. He said that he had not used it since
+the appointment of the commission.
+
+Following Mr. St. John, John M. Eagan took the stand.
+
+Mr. Eagan admitted that as the manager of the General Managers'
+Association he was authorized to incur any expense to secure force to
+crush the strike, but was not authorized to do anything to settle it
+peaceably. Of his connection with the General Managers' Association he
+said that he was requested to take charge of the association during the
+strike.
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you have anything done in relation to the
+appointment of deputy marshals?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Each road appointed an official to select the men they
+wanted to act as deputy marshalls and turned 'em over to me. I sent them
+to Arnold to be sworn."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did those men serve as employes of the road
+while acting as marshals?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "My judgment is that they were to take care of the interests
+of the roads."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did they act in the double capacity as
+marshals and as railroad employes? That is, would an engineer, for
+instance, while wearing a star showing his authority, run an engine for
+the road?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I believe they did that. They were sworn in as deputy
+marshals to give them a chance to protect themselves."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "By whom were the deputy marshals to be paid
+or by whom will they be paid?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Each road is supposed to pay its own men."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "What do you know of any efforts made by the
+officers of the American Railway Union or the city officials to settle
+the strike amicably?"
+
+Mr. Egan: "A party named McGillen, Alderman McGillen, I think, told me
+that Howard and Debs wanted a conference with me about settling the
+strike. I told him I had no authority to confer with them."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you not have authority to talk with them
+and find out what they wanted or could do, without making any agreement
+with them?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Not with those parties--I did not think I had. A few days
+later I found the mayor and Mr. McGillen in the office of the General
+Managers' Association. They said they had come with a letter from Debs,
+Howard and Kelliher. I told the mayor he ought not to make a messenger
+boy of himself for these parties of the American Railway Union. Later I
+was given the document to give to the mayor. He was at Kensington, so I
+left it with the chief of police, and wrote a letter telling him I
+could not receive the letter he had brought."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Were any other overtures of settlement made
+to you?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "That's all I know of any overtures."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Was there anything insulting or offensive in
+the language of the letter the mayor brought you that made you refuse to
+receive it?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "The letter was published that evening and next morning and
+speaks for itself."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "I am asking you how you regarded it. Did you
+consider that there was anything insulting or offensive in the letter?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I considered that any parties that had fought railroads as
+they had and been beaten as I believe they have been had lots of cheek
+to dictate the terms of their surrender."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "You do not answer my question. Were there not
+soldiers, U. S. marshals, deputy sheriffs and policemen engaged in
+guarding the railroads, and were you not hindered in the operation of
+the roads?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Yes."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Now was not the letter courteously composed
+and looking to a settlement of the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "We didn't need a settlement--we had 'em already."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "The soldiers, marshals, sheriffs and police
+remained on duty sometime after that--didn't they?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Yes, we needed the soldiers to protect our property."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "If a settlement could have been reached at
+that time between the railroads and the strikers, couldn't the soldiers
+and marshals have been dismissed. They wouldn't have been needed after
+an amicable settlement had been reached, would they?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "It was their intention not to recognize the American Railway
+Union."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Then it is true is it that the reason this
+communication was not received was not because it was not courteously
+worded or because it was discourteous or insulting but because the
+General Managers would not recognize the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Well, that's as I understood it." Commissioner Worthington:
+"What would have been out of the way in your talking with Debs and
+Howard when they asked a conference with you?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I didn't have any authority to talk to them."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Then your authority extended to this. You had
+authority to contract at the expense of the railroad for all the force
+necessary to crush the strike but had no authority to settle it by
+peaceful means?"
+
+Mr. Eagan, "Well, yes. I suppose so."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "When you rebuked the mayor did you think it
+derogatory to bear a respectful message looking to a peaceful settlement
+of the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I believed the American Railway Union was whipped at that
+time."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "It was then the condition and not the
+character of the men that signed the document that made you refuse to
+receive it?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "We believed we had the strike won."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you ever try to use anything but force
+to settle the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "None, except to the different parties that came to see me,
+men that I knew personally had quit work. I told them to go back to
+work." In regard to violence Mr. Eagan knew nothing about it personally,
+but assumed that the strikers did it.
+
+Superintendent Dunlap, of the Rock Island, was asked if he recognized
+any of the ex-employes among the rioters, and said that he did not know
+many of the men but was sure that they were present. He was also asked
+by Mr. Wright if he knew one John T. Norton to which he answered no.
+
+Superintendent of Police, Michael Brennan, was next examined. He
+testified that but a small per cent of the rioting was done by strikers.
+
+John T. Norton, a locomotive engineer, was next called to the stand and
+testified that he was employed on the Illinois Central road prior to the
+strike, and had since obtained a position on the Calumet & Blue Island.
+
+This line uses the Rock Island track to Joliet. He said that he passed
+an examination on the C. & B. I. and also on the Rock Island. He had
+made one trip when informed that the Rock Island road had barred him and
+would not allow him to run over any part of their line. He consulted a
+lawyer and was told to see Superintendent Dunlap. He called on him in
+company with a friend named Fraser. He asked Mr. Dunlap if he was barred
+off the Rock Island, who said yes, and he then saw that he was
+blacklisted.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Do you call that evidence of a blacklist?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "I do. After getting a letter from Superintendent Conlin I
+was barred out by Superintendent Dunlap who has just sworn he did not
+know me."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Can you produce Mr. Fraser. We would like to hear his
+testimony?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "I will."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Were you concerned in any violence during the strike?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "No."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Are you an officer of the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "Yes. I am president of local union No. 193."
+
+Mr. Gompers of the American Federation of Labor was next examined but
+refused to be sworn. Mr. Gompers went into the labor question in a
+general way. In reference to strikes, he said that so long as the
+present industrial and commercial systems last, so long will strikes
+continue.
+
+George M. Pullman, president of the Pullman company, was now before the
+commissioners. He submitted a lengthy statement in relation to the town
+of Pullman, and under examination he told of the increase of the Palace
+Car company from $1,000,000 to $36,000,000 and the accumulation of a
+cash surplus of $25,000,000. When questioned concerning the grievance of
+the employes, he was not so well posted. When asked by Mr. Wright if it
+was the practice of the company to reduce wages from time to time, he
+said:
+
+"I am not familiar with the details of the manufacturing department and
+must refer you to the second vice-president."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did you ever express any unwillingness to arbitrate?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I did express unwillingness and refer you to my published
+statements. I was aware of the losses of the company in paying the
+wages it did when contract prices were so low, and I knew it was
+impossible for the company to pay a higher scale. It was a question
+whether the shops should be closed, or secure work at a low figure. It
+was the principle involved in letting a third party determine how the
+company should transact its business."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But you paid the usual dividend of eight per cent last
+year?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "Yes. But the profit during the World's Fair helped out the
+amount."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now don't you think that the Pullman corporation which
+paid a dividend of $2,800,000 for the year just ended should have borne
+with the employes and shared its profits to some extent?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I don't see why we should take the money from the
+stockholders to pay a set of men higher wages because the manufacturing
+business paid well, to pay this money to men working at Pullman when the
+employes at Ludlow, Wilmington and St. Louis had no complaint to make.
+The efforts of the American Railway Union to call a strike there was a
+failure."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Has the Pullman Company ever voluntarily raised
+wages?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No; but it always has paid fair wages."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now, Mr. Pullman, when you see the present unrest of
+labor, and the possible consequences, what objection had you to
+distributing a portion of the profits or increasing wages a little?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "The reason is embodied in my statement, it is a matter of
+opinion, and then there is the principle involved. It is impossible
+under the circumstances."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Impossible, what is impossible? Could not arbitration
+determine the principle involved?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "As president of the company I do not care to give any
+other."
+
+Mr. Worthington then introduced a lease used between the company and its
+tenants. This provided that the tenants should make all repairs to
+plumbing, water pipes, gas, etc., and to surrender premises in good
+repair. When such repairs were made by the company, the amount was
+deducted from their salaries.
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now, the company does not make any repairs, does it?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "The company repairs the roofs or outside of the houses, I
+am not familiar with the details."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But by the lease the tenants are bound to make all the
+repairs, it is stipulated that the tenant shall repay the company for
+all repairs made."
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I will have to refer you to some official of the company."
+(Laughter.)
+
+Mr. Worthington: "The rent is deducted monthly, is it not?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I am unable myself to identify that lease you handed me."
+
+Mr. Pullman concluded with the statement that the company declined to
+employ any member of the American Railway Union.
+
+Mr. Worthington again asked if the company could not afford to pay an
+increased scale of wages and this Mr. Pullman refused.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "When the general cut in salaries was made, was your salary
+reduced?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No." (Laughter.)
+
+Mr. Kernan: "That of officials, superintendents or foremen?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No."
+
+Mr. Wickes then took the stand. His evidence--which in main was
+documentary--embraced every detail of the strike. He admitted having
+promised members of the grievance committee that they would not be
+discharged, and said the agreement had not been broken by him. From
+statistics presented by Mr. Wickes, he claimed that the average rate of
+wages paid for the year ending in April, 1893, was $2.63 per day and for
+the same succeeding period $2.03, which fact, he said, disproved of
+statements made by strikers.
+
+In the case of Miss Jennie Curtis the books showed that her father had
+owed but $17.00 at the time of his death, which sum had never been
+repaid the company.
+
+Blacklisting, he said, had never been practiced by the Pullman Company,
+although the foreman kept a list of discharged men. He also said that
+the company had been losing $500 per month by furnishing water. He said
+that the men were advised by Mr. Howard not to strike.
+
+Referring to rent and wages, he did not consider that there was any
+connection between them. He said: "We paid the market price for labor
+and we asked the market price for houses." He contended that wages were
+regulated by the law of supply and demand. We go into the market to buy
+labor, as we go into the market to buy other things. If a manufacturer
+by reason of improved machinery, of special facilities, or greater
+ability in securing supplies or disposing of products, or by more
+effective handling of men, should be making larger profits than his
+competitors and should increase wages, he would deprive himself of all
+the benefits of these advantages which are his and to which his employes
+do not contribute, and would make no more than the manufacturer who
+conducted his business in a shiftless manner or without ability, energy
+or enterprise.
+
+Mr. Wickes concluded his testimony, and Inspector Nicholas Hunt was
+called.
+
+He testified that from June 27th, or the time his force was first called
+to protect railroad property at various points, up to July 3d, there had
+been no serious difficulty. When asked by Mr. Worthington if he had seen
+railroad men take part in the destruction of property. He replied:
+
+"I have not seen one railroad man interfere in any way."
+
+A. J. Sullivan, general manager of the Illinois Central, was next to
+testify.
+
+He went into details concerning the trouble on his road. He was certain
+that the acts of violence were committed by the strikers although he did
+not witness it personally.
+
+H. R. Saunders, general yardmaster for the Rock Island, testified for
+the company in relation to the way the strike was ordered on the Rock
+Island. He charged that Mr. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, with using abusive and violent language. Epithets applied
+to Pullman and the expression, "if scabs take your places kill them with
+a coupling pin," was declared to have been used.
+
+W. D. Fuller, agent for the Rock Island road at Blue Island, testified
+that he was present, and thought Mr. Howard's speech was very violent,
+he applied epithets to Pullman, thought he ought to be hanged, and that
+he (Howard) would like to head a crowd to do it.
+
+L. A. Camp, a yardmaster for the Rock Island, was also at the meeting
+and heard no violent language used.
+
+G. D. Cruelly also a yardmaster for the same road, thought the strike at
+Blue Island was due to Mr. Howard and Mr. Debs. Mr. Howard in particular
+and Mr. Debs incidentally. Mr. Howard was violent and abusive in his
+language. The witness is a member of the Order of Railway conductors but
+not of the American Railway Union.
+
+Fred Baumbach testified to hearing both Debs and Howard speak, but did
+not remember of hearing either one of them using violent language.
+
+Otto Moriling, a tailor, testified to being present. He did not hear any
+violent language used except that Mr. Howard applied an epithet to
+Pullman.
+
+James Simmons also heard Howard speak, but did not hear him counsel
+violence.
+
+Alexander Quasso said he was present when Howard spoke but heard no
+violence counseled except some reference by Mr. Howard to the justice of
+hanging Pullman.
+
+Vice President Howard now took the stand and testified regarding his
+speech at Blue Island. He said:
+
+"I want to begin by saying that among railroad men particularly
+trainmen, it has been a constant habit and practice and has been for
+years, to use a certain class of expressions which literally are very
+offensive in the lightest and most ordinary way, and without meaning
+anything in particular about them. Every old railroad man can bear me
+out in this. A railroad man will address his best friend with a most
+offensive epithet uttered in a most cordial way and intended to express
+cordiality, so that the term I applied to Pullman, has among railroad
+men a technical meaning, very broad it is true and expressing according
+to the circumstances very different sentiments. But its use is so common
+and I may say usual, that it has altogether lost the meaning it has,
+among others than railroad men.
+
+"I was telling them the condition of things at Pullman. I told them of
+incidents that have been testified to before this commission. I was
+trying to array them against Pullman. I used the language of railroad
+men and I applied to Mr. Pullman the epithet I am charged with using.
+But I used it in the railroad sense. I said he ought to be hung, that is
+another railroad expression.
+
+"I did not say that I would like to take part in the hanging or lead a
+party to hang him. As to the coupling pin expression, what I said at
+Blue Island, I have said at hundreds of other places, it was this I told
+them, it was often said that capital would always defeat labor. I denied
+this. I said that capital could only whip labor when it could divide it,
+and make labor defeat itself. That in the last few years a wave of
+religious intolerance had swept over this country, and the
+representatives of the railroads had taken advantage of it as a means of
+dividing labor. I gave instances where some emissary of the railroads
+would come in, and going to the protestant members, instill distrust in
+their minds of the Roman Catholic members, and then going to the Roman
+Catholics and creating distrust of the Protestants. I urged them not to
+allow themselves to be divided in the labor movement by questions of
+religious differences, and I said that if any of those sleuths, and I
+may have said sleuths of hell, come into this movement to array you
+against each other in a question of religion, I hope some one will have
+the nerve to hit him on the head with a round end coupling pin and send
+him to his last long sleep.
+
+"I said nothing about injuring men who came to take their places. I told
+them if they struck, to put on their good clothes and keep away from the
+railroad property. If the railroads could get men to run their roads,
+let them, but if the men stood together, were united, the roads couldn't
+get men and would have to yield.
+
+"Far from advising violence, I have always advised against it. I have
+some questions I would like the commission to put to the general
+managers, either here, or in Washington. They are these:
+
+"1st. Were not the general managers whipped on July 5, before there had
+been any violence to array public opinion against the strikers, and
+before the troops were here and by their presence provoked violence?
+
+"2d. Did your company have a contract with the government to carry the
+mails?
+
+"3d. Was the contract dependent upon your ability to carry Pullmans?
+
+"4th. Did your contract with the Pullman Company require you to refuse
+to transport mail if you left the Pullmans off?
+
+"5th. Did the strikers interfere to prevent carrying of the mails if you
+left the Pullmans off?
+
+"6th. Could you not have carried mails, if you did not insist in hauling
+Pullmans?
+
+"7th. Was your contract with the government less binding on you than
+your contract with the Pullman Company, or was either dependent on the
+other?"
+
+Mr. Kernan had no objection to the questions being put to the general
+managers, but did not think, under the circumstances, the commission
+could prolong its sitting in order to ask them.
+
+Mayor John P. Hopkins was then called and cordially shook hands with the
+commissioners before taking the witness chair. His examination was
+conducted by Judge Worthington as follows:
+
+Mr. Worthington: "As mayor of the city and the actual head of the police
+department, please state the general conduct of the police force during
+the strike and the conditions attending the strike."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "The evening of June 25, Mr. Ellsworth, who claimed to
+represent the different railroads, called on me and said he understood a
+boycott was to be enforced on all roads hauling Pullman cars. He said he
+understood I was going to Springfield that night and wished me to give
+instructions to the chief of police and arrange for the protection of
+the roads. So far as I know, the police did all the work required of
+them, and I have ample assurance of that fact from railway officials.
+
+"This condition existed until July 5. That morning Mr. Wright of the
+Rock Island called at my office and claimed that riotous mobs were
+interfering with the operation of trains, overturning cars, etc. I went
+with him to the office of Mr. Cable of the Rock Island road, where we
+discussed the matter. Mr. Cable said he thought the police were not
+doing their duty, but from the information I had received, I was
+confident that such was not the case. I then suggested that Mr. Cable go
+with me to the scene of the alleged trouble, but he said that he did not
+think it safe to do so. I proposed the same plan to Mr. Wright, but he
+made the same objection. I then saw the corporation counsel and
+suggested the same plan, which he accepted. A switch engine was secured
+and we went. A crowd of probably 3,000 or 3,500 persons, mostly women
+and children, had assembled at that point. On the tracks at
+Thirty-seventh street four trains were standing, and just north of them
+an empty freight car was lying across the tracks. Half an hour after we
+arrived, a wrecking crew, accompanied by young Newell, Attorney Wright,
+and other officials came up, and they started to take the car off the
+track. On going down we had found the tracks entirely unobstructed, but
+on going back found ten or fifteen overturned cars. I thought the police
+did all they could to prevent such an occurrence. I stayed about two
+hours, when I came back and issued the proclamation to the people which
+was published. I also instructed the chief of police to suspend all
+officers who had been stationed at the crossings where the cars were
+overturned.
+
+"That night I wired the governor at Springfield, that the militia, which
+had been preparing to go into camp there, had better be retained in the
+city, as it might be advisable to call out the troops within twenty-four
+hours. The same night about 10:30, I was at the Hyde Park police
+station when I heard that the "Diamond Special" had been stopped at
+Kensington and that large crowds had congregated there. Inspector Hunt
+sent re-inforcements to that point, and when I retired everything seemed
+quiet. Friday morning, July 6, which was the first time the railroads
+had intimated that the protection afforded them was inadequate, I heard
+from Kensington that there was trouble in the Rock Island and Chicago &
+Eastern Illinois roads. I then called on the governor for five regiments
+of the state militia. Saturday, at 3:30 P. M., some trouble
+occurred at Forty-seventh and Loomis streets, where a mob had collected.
+The state troops fired and killed one man, two others dying afterward.
+There was no trouble after that, so far as I know."
+
+Mayor Hopkins then read a number of communications from railway
+officials expressing satisfaction in regard to the perfect protection
+afforded by the police during the strike. Among these were letters from
+President Marvin Hughitt of the Northwestern, General Superintendent
+Sullivan of the Illinois Central, President Thomas of the Chicago &
+Western Indiana, and others. Several officers who were deemed worthy of
+promotion for their good services at critical times were mentioned in a
+letter from a Santa Fe official. The mayor then continued his testimony
+as follows:
+
+"So far as the management of the police was concerned I think it was
+excellent. I wish to state that the Blue Island police are governed by
+the officials of that town. The word police has been referred to
+indiscriminately in the testimony, leaving the impression that Blue
+Island was under the jurisdiction of the city.
+
+"There was very little resistance to the police. The strikers treated me
+all right, and the crowds seemed good-natured. There was some resistance
+to the police, I believe, on the night of July 7, at Ashland avenue and
+the Northwestern tracks. The police fired and killed a woman on the roof
+of a house in the neighborhood."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "How many were killed in all or who have since died in
+consequence of injuries received?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "About seven, I think in Chicago. Three at Forty-seventh
+and Loomis streets, one at Kensington, the woman just mentioned, and I
+think two others."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Please state about the militia engaged during the
+strike."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I will read my copy of the telegram to the governor to
+which I referred. The next day I again telegraphed the governor
+suggesting that five regiments be placed at the disposal of the city. In
+one half hour I received an answer stating that the militia had been
+ordered to report. There was virtually the entire militia of the state
+in service, probably 2,000 men. The last detachment went home August 6."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You have stated that you gave orders to suspend
+officers at certain crossings. Why was that?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "The officers complained that people jumped over the fences
+and that they could not prevent them. The Rock Island road is protected
+on each side of the right-of-way by low fences, and empty freight cars
+were standing for many blocks on the side track next the fence. The
+people who lived near the tracks could easily jump the fence unseen and
+tip the cars over. I ordered the men suspended for the general effect it
+would have on the force."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "I would like to ask a general question. As mayor of
+the city, do you think the police, or a portion of them, either directly
+or indirectly, took a part in promoting the strike in any way?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I would not deny that some of the men had sympathy with
+the strikers. I am in sympathy myself with the Pullman strikers."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But do you think the police did their duty?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir. Several times Mr. Eagan telephoned that trouble
+was occurring at some point. When officers would investigate they would
+find no trouble at all. There are 2,100 miles of railway in the city
+limits; there are 1,360 trains daily, 160 railroad crossings, and 3,000
+surface railroad crossings. The police force for this year is scheduled
+at 1,928 patrolmen. There are 186 square miles of territory in the city
+and you can readily see that every point could not be covered at once.
+The amount of violence was not very great. In Pullman not one pane of
+glass was broken in the three months of the strike. I live in Pullman
+myself."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You may state whether at any time you advised the
+American Railway Union or its members to strike?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did the General Manager's Association either during or
+since the strike request the city to arrest any individual strikers or
+suggest such arrest?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir; I think that President Newell swore out a warrant
+for a man named Hall, but the information was furnished by the city."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Has the American Railway Union brought in any
+information of this character?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; in the case of Hall, who was charged with
+turning over cars; also in other cases, which upon investigation we
+concluded not to take up."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Then the disposition of the American Railway Union
+appears to have been to assist the city?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "During or before the strike were there any overtures
+made in regard to arbitration?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I met Mr. Pullman at lunch in the Chicago club one day
+and he told me of a meeting his employes had held. Then July 3, there
+was a further talk about protecting the works on the following day when
+trouble might be expected. There was some talk about a settlement, but
+the company seemed to regard the strikers as law breakers. Then a
+committee of the council was appointed, and word sent to Mr. Eagan, but
+he said he couldn't come. Then the committee called at Mr. Pullman's
+office to discuss the question of arbitration--or if there was anything
+to arbitrate. The answer received there was that the company refused to
+arbitrate. July 11, I received a telegram from Mayor Pingree of Detroit,
+asking if I would act with him in endeavoring to settle the strike. He
+had communications from fifty other mayors giving their views on the
+question. We saw Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown, and had a long
+interview. Mayor Pingree took the point that arbitration should be
+tested, and made a strong argument. He is a member of a shoe
+manufacturing firm and related his own experience in a strike of nine
+months' duration. Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown withdrew and
+prepared a statement giving the position of the company and declining
+the proposition. On July 13, Mr. Debs, Mr. Howard, and Mr. Kelliher
+prepared a communication to the railway managers offering to settle the
+strike if the railroads would re-instate the men as individuals or such
+men as had committed no overt acts. With Mr. McGillen I went over with
+the document to Mr. St. John. What occurred there has been published.
+Now, while I think of it, I want to say that the statement published in
+some papers that Mr. St. John told me I should not act as a messenger
+boy for the American Railway Union is false. I deny most emphatically
+that Mr. St. John used those words. I should not have allowed it. This
+was the last action on my part to bring about a settlement.
+
+"It has been said that I protested against the presence of the federal
+troops in the city. I do say that the railways had never complained that
+the civil authorities were unable to protect the roads. I have never
+protested against the federal troops and think they did some good."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "It has been stated in the press that you applied to
+Mr. Debs to move trains."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "That is not true. A man named Brenock has a contract with
+the city to remove dead animals, the place where they are rendered
+being over the Indiana state line. He called upon me and said that there
+was a train load of dead animals at the stock yards which could not be
+pulled out; the men had quit work. I said I thought a volunteer crew of
+trainmen could be procured which would do the work. I sent my secretary
+to the American Railway Union with that request. A crew went down to the
+yards and manned the train. When it proceeded some distance it was
+discovered that a train load of dressed beef had been substituted and
+the train crew abandoned the cars. The dead animals then remained where
+they were for several days."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Then this action was simply a plan to guard the public
+health?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; simply to remove the dead animals from the city
+limits."
+
+At the conclusion of Mayor Hopkins' testimony, President Carroll D.
+Wright arose and declared the commission formally adjourned until
+Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Washington, D. C.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ALTGELD INVESTIGATES PULLMAN.
+
+
+In response to a piteous appeal for help from a committee of Pullman
+strikers, John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois, came in person to the
+town of Pullman and made an investigation of the condition of the people
+in order to satisfy himself regarding their complaints of suffering and
+destitution. After only a partial investigation the governor returned to
+his hotel satisfied with the correctness of the reports.
+
+He said the starvation at Pullman was as bad if not worse than had been
+reported by the Times that 1,600 families in Pullman and vicinity were
+starving.
+
+"Not only starving," said the governor, "but they are without fuel and
+in rags. They must not starve and I will remain in Pullman until some
+means can be devised for their relief.
+
+"I went to Pullman in response to an invitation by the strikers'
+committee, and found matters even worse than represented. I visited
+their homes and went through every room in some of their houses. Two
+representatives of the Pullman company who accompanied me, admitted that
+the houses visited were a fair representation of every house occupied by
+the strikers' families. Their condition is pitiful, there are families
+numbering from two to eight members and I tell you they are slowly
+starving to death. The little ones are crying with hunger and there is
+nothing in the house to eat. Something for their relief must be done
+immediately. I have thought of several measures, but as yet have arrived
+at no conclusion. For several months the people may have to be cared
+for, and it is well to go slow when one is treading in deep water. I
+suppose I will be abused no matter what steps I take, but I don't care a
+blank, as these people will not starve if I can prevent it, and I shall
+see that I do prevent it."
+
+The governor declined to say anything in relation to the cause which
+created the present condition at Pullman. He said it was enough to know
+that women and children were crying with hunger, it was time enough to
+talk about the causes later.
+
+Upon the governor's arrival at Pullman, a big man with gray whiskers
+and a lordly air rushed forward and presented his card to his
+excellency. He was August Rapp, chief designer of the company and
+formerly superintendent of the works. With him was Chief Wilde,
+Pullman's head accountant, whom he presented. It was evident that the
+governor did not wish to see the Pullman official.
+
+"Where are the members of the committee that sent for me?" he demanded.
+"I want to see the men." Somewhat abashed Messrs. Wilde and Rapp stepped
+backward and three or four mechanics came forward. There was Thos. W.
+Heathcoat, G. A. Kreamer, Theo. Rhode and two or three members of the
+relief committee. "I want to see what you men have to show me," said the
+governor.
+
+They repaired at once to the tenements on Fulton street, where the first
+stop was made at No. 124, occupied by Mrs. O'Halleron. A blind widow was
+found occupying four small rooms on the first floor. She told the
+governor that she had two sons aged nineteen and fourteen respectively
+and a daughter aged twenty. All three had worked for Pullman but were
+now idle. They had applied for work but were told there was no work for
+them. One of the boys had been a brass polisher and the younger son and
+the daughter had worked in the laundry. They had lived in the town seven
+years. There was no coal in the house, they had a little food, given
+them by the relief committee, but they could not support themselves and
+said there was no one to look after their condition.
+
+"Have the Pullman people sent any one to see you?"
+
+"They have not," replied the blind woman.
+
+She said they paid $12.60 for the four rooms. One of her sons had drawn
+$1.60 and the other 96 cents per day.
+
+"Good luck to you, sir," she said as the governor walked away with his
+teeth set firmly together.
+
+F. H. Taylor, superintendent of the Pullman company, had now joined the
+party taking the place of Accountant Wilde. Mr. Rapp pressed his way in
+everywhere though paying no attention to the audible slurs of the people
+about him.
+
+Block B, across the way on Fulton street was next visited. The manner of
+Gov. Altgeld was kindly and he introduced himself in a pleasant way,
+asking questions in a manner calculated to inspire confidence.
+
+There were six families in Block B, some of the tenants had gone back to
+work. A poor woman in No. 3 said her husband was not working, he had
+been in Pullman for six years and had asked to return to work, but was
+told there was nothing for him to do, the shop was full. She had three
+little children but little to eat, only a bit of flour, coffee and tea
+from the relief store left.
+
+In Block S, room 7, was John Carlson, a cabinet maker who had worked in
+Pullman for seven years and could not get his position back He had
+nothing in the house to eat.
+
+"Have you eaten to-day?" asked the governor.
+
+"I had some bread and coffee from a neighbor," said the man. "My wife is
+sick and I divided with her, we haven't a thing in the house now."
+
+Theo. Ericson, of 301 Fulton street, had six in family. He said he could
+not get work and the money he had saved before the strike was all gone.
+The relief committee had given a little food.
+
+"How many in Pullman," said the governor, "are in the same fix, whom you
+know of?"
+
+"Lots of men, sir, I know of half a dozen in my neighborhood," answered
+the man.
+
+Olaf Olson had worked in the street car shops and was now idle. He had
+six children and his wife to care for, they have nothing to eat, and he
+could get nothing from the relief committee as their supplies were
+exhausted.
+
+Otto Wullf, of room 22, Block F, also had a wife and six children. He
+said that all he had in the house to eat was two pounds of oat meal from
+the relief store. As he told his story tears rolled down the cheeks of
+the big bearded fellow and the governor was visibly affected. His wife
+was sick abed he said and a newspaper reporter dropped a quarter into
+his hand while he used a handkerchief to remove the moisture from his
+eyes.
+
+The man stated that his wages had been $1.30 per day, and his rent $9.60
+per month for four small rooms.
+
+Peter Anderson, of Kensington, said he had worked in the repair shop but
+could not get work now as the shop was filled, or at least so he was
+told when he applied.
+
+He had five children and not enough to eat. He had borrowed a dollar
+with which to buy a sack of flour. This was all he had.
+
+Mr. Vanderwein had a wife and four children and could not get a
+position. He had no money and only two pounds of oat meal, two pounds of
+corn meal and a little flour left.
+
+Here someone whispered to the governor and the latter turned to Mr. Rapp
+and said:
+
+"They tell me you are taking the names of those who complain, with a
+view of keeping them out of work?"
+
+"That is not so, sir," said Rapp, coloring deeply.
+
+"And," said the governor, "they tell me you are largely responsible for
+the reduction of the wages?"
+
+"That is not so, sir," persisted Mr. Rapp.
+
+"Well, men," said the governor, "let him come with us, this must not be
+a star chamber affair."
+
+A boy named Koopka spoke for his father who did not understand English.
+
+He was one of three children he said, and they hadn't enough to eat. No
+relief could be obtained now and every thing was gone but a few
+potatoes.
+
+Mrs. Nathan Booth stepped forward. She said she had six children, all
+barefooted, the oldest eleven years, and the youngest six months. They
+had been two years in Pullman and her husband had earned $1.30 per day.
+He had no work now, and the only food was that given them by the wife of
+the Methodist minister.
+
+Andrew Schelly said he had worked for the Pullman company twelve years
+but could get no work now, and his family had nothing to eat. He had
+borrowed a pair of shoes in which he could seek work.
+
+A. Bergstrom for seven years in Pullman said he could not get his old
+position. He had five children, the eldest ten years, and they had no
+money, no food, no trust.
+
+Frank Mass had been three years in Pullman, had three children and
+nothing to eat.
+
+The wife of Pat Mullen, of Block E, room 1, appeared with a child in her
+arms and a toddler at her skirts.
+
+They had been in Pullman twelve years and had four other children. Her
+husband could not get back to work because he was on the strike
+committee. She did not know where the next meal was to come from.
+
+Though wretchedly poor these people were clean and neat. They are all of
+the better class of laboring people.
+
+John Cedarland sat at a table and stared stolidly at the visitors, while
+his wife with a baby at her breast and two at her heels stood by. A
+neighbor who had given them of her scanty store, said the man was sick
+and the family destitute. On Sunday she had given them a piece of meat,
+and wood with which to cook it.
+
+A reporter slipped a quarter into her hand and received a look worth
+$8.00.
+
+Two of John Smith's collectors, out with furniture bills as a matter of
+form, told the governor that two-thirds of the old men were still idle,
+and that the condition of these men was deplorable. They had called at
+one place where one of the children was celebrating its birthday and all
+there was for the feast was bread and onions. The collectors chipped in
+for a few luxuries.
+
+Mrs. Peter Camp appeared with two children and reported five more, and
+there were scores of similar cases, all destitute and absolutely
+without food.
+
+On his way back to the city the governor would say but little.
+
+Mr. Wickes, vice president of the Pullman company called and was
+presented to his excellency in due form. The object of his visit was to
+tender his services as guide and escort.
+
+This was declined.
+
+Mr. Wickes expressed his regret that the governor saw fit not to accept
+the offer.
+
+As a result of Gov. Altgeld's investigation he issued the following
+proclamation:
+
+"TO THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE CITY OF
+CHICAGO: There is great distress growing out of the want of food in
+and around the town of Pullman. More than a thousand families in the
+neighborhood of 6,000 people, are utterly destitute. Nearly four-fifths
+of them are women and children. The men have endeavored to get work but
+were unable to do so. I have made a personal examination of the case and
+learn from the officials of the Pullman company that prior to the strike
+they had 3,260 names on the pay roll; yesterday they had 2,220 people at
+work, but over 600 of these were new men, so that they have only about
+1,600 of their old employes at work, leaving about 1,660 that have not
+been taken back. Several hundreds of these have left, but the remainder
+are unable to go away and have nothing to eat. I find that immediately
+after the beginning of the strike a relief association was formed to
+provide for the needy, and the books of this association show that 2,463
+applications were made by the Pullman employes, mostly heads of
+families, to this association for aid. In fact, nearly all of the
+employes, except the few hundred who left, have been supported by
+charity for nearly three months.
+
+"As a rule they are a superior class of laboring people, industrious,
+capable, and steady and some of them have worked for the Pullman company
+for more than ten years. Those who have been given work can get food,
+but are still in such an impoverished condition that they cannot help
+their neighbors if they would. The relief society is unable to get more
+supplies. Last Saturday it gave to each family two pounds of oat meal
+and two pounds of corn meal, and having nothing left it suspended
+operations, leaving the people in an absolutely helpless condition. The
+county commissioners of Cook county, as overseers of the poor, have
+rendered some assistance, but owing to limited appropriation they can
+furnish relief but for a short time.
+
+"We cannot now stop to inquire into the cause of this distress. The good
+people of this state cannot allow women and children by the hundred to
+perish of hunger. I therefore call upon all humane and charitably
+disposed citizens to contribute what they can toward giving relief to
+these people. I am satisfied that any contribution sent to the Pullman
+relief committee at Kensington, Ill., will be judiciously distributed. I
+find their treasurer has given a bond to properly account for all moneys
+received.
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD.
+  "Governor.
+  "Aug. 21, 1894.
+
+  "TO THE HONORABLE, THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COOK COUNTY--
+
+_Gentlemen_: Your attention has already been called to the great
+destitution that exists in and around the town of Pullman and you have
+furnished some relief there. I have made a personal investigation of the
+conditions there and find the suffering is very great for want of food.
+I respectfully appeal to you as the officers upon whom devolves the
+duty of providing for cases of this kind, that you do the uttermost in
+your power to furnish immediate assistance to those people.
+
+  Very respectfully,
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD.
+  "Governor.
+  "Aug. 21, 1894."
+
+Before leaving Springfield to investigate the condition at Pullman, Gov.
+Altgeld sent the following telegram to Mr. Pullman:
+
+  "Aug. 19, 1894.
+  "George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    Chicago, Ill.:
+
+"I have received numerous reports to the effect that there is great
+distress at Pullman. To-day I received a formal appeal as governor from
+a committee of the Pullman people for aid. They state that 1,600
+families, including women and children, are starving; that they cannot
+get work and have not the means to go elsewhere; that your company has
+brought men from all over the United States to fill their places. Now,
+these people live in your town and were your employes. Some of them
+worked for your company for many years. They must be people of industry
+and character or you would not have kept them. Many of them have
+practically given their lives to you. It is claimed that they struck
+because after years of toil their wages were so reduced that their
+children went hungry. Assuming that they were wrong and foolish, they
+had yet served you long and well and you must feel some interest in
+them. They do not stand on the same footing with you, so that much must
+be overlooked. The state of Illinois has not the least desire to meddle
+in the affairs of your company, but it cannot allow a whole community
+within its borders to perish of hunger. The local overseer of the poor
+has been appealed to, but there is a limit to what he can do. I cannot
+help them very much at present, so unless relief comes from some other
+source I shall either have to call an extra session of the legislature
+to make special appropriation or else issue an appeal to the humane
+people of the state to give bread to your recent employes. It seems to
+me that you would prefer to relieve the situation yourself, especially
+as it has just cost the state upward of $50,000 to protect your property
+and as both the state and the public have suffered enormous loss and
+expense on account of disturbances that grew out of the trouble between
+your company and its workmen. I am going to Chicago to-night to make a
+personal investigation before taking any official action. I will be in
+my office in the Unity block at 10 A. M. to-morrow and shall be
+glad to hear from you if you care to make any reply.
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+The following letter was addressed to Mr. Pullman by Gov. Altgeld.
+
+  "CHICAGO, Ill., Aug. 21.
+  "George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    Chicago.
+
+"SIR: I examined the conditions at Pullman yesterday, visited
+even the kitchens and bedrooms of many of the people. Two
+representatives of your company were with me and we found the distress
+as great as it was represented. The men are hungry and the women and
+children are actually suffering. They have been living on charity for a
+number of months and it is exhausted. Men who have worked for your
+company for more than ten years had to apply to the relief society in
+two weeks after the work stopped. I learn from your manager that last
+spring there were 3,260 people on the pay roll; yesterday there were
+2,220 at work, but over 600 of these are new men, so that only about
+1,600 of the old employes have been taken back, thus leaving over 1,000
+of the old employes who have not been taken back. A few hundred have
+left. The remainder have nearly all applied for work, but were told that
+they were not needed. These are utterly destitute. The relief committee
+last Saturday gave out two pounds of oatmeal and two pounds of cornmeal
+to each family, but even the relief committee has exhausted its
+resources. Something must be done at once. The case differs from
+instances of destitution found elsewhere, for generally there is
+somebody in the neighborhood able to give relief. This is not the case
+at Pullman. Even those who have gone to work are so exhausted that they
+cannot help their neighbors if they would. I repeat now that it seems to
+me your company cannot afford to have me appeal to the charity and
+humanity of the state to save the lives of your old employes.
+Four-fifths of those people are women and children. No matter what
+caused this distress it must be met.
+
+"If you will allow me I will make this suggestion: If you had shut down
+your works last fall when you say business was poor you would not have
+expected to get any rent from your tenants. Now, while a dollar is a
+large sum to each of these people all the rent now due you is a
+comparatively small matter to you. If you will cancel all rent to Oct.
+1, you will be as well off as if you had shut down. This would enable
+those at work to meet their most pressing wants. Then if you cannot give
+work to all, work some half time so that all can at least get something
+to eat for their families. This will give immediate relief to the whole
+situation and then by degrees assist as many to go elsewhere as desire
+to do so and all to whom you cannot give work. In this way something
+like a normal condition could be re-established at Pullman before winter
+and you would not be out any more than you would have been had you shut
+down a year ago. I will be at the Unity block for several hours and will
+be glad to see you if you care to make any reply.
+
+  "Yours respectfully,
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+Mr. Pullman replied as follows:
+
+  "THE PULLMAN'S PALACE CAR COMPANY,
+  "OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
+
+  "CHICAGO, ILL., Aug. 21, 1894.
+
+"SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+letter of this date, giving your impressions derived from your visit to
+the town of Pullman yesterday. In pursuance of the invitation contained
+in your telegram of the 19th inst. I caused Mr. Wickes, a vice president
+of this company, who is thoroughly acquainted with its affairs at
+Pullman, to call upon you and offer you every assistance in his power or
+which could be offered by any officer of the company in making your
+proposed personal investigation. Mr. Wickes offered to accompany you to
+Pullman for this purpose, and I regret that you did not appear to
+consider that he could be of service to you. As an indication of the
+importance of the aid of local knowledge in making essential
+discriminations I may say to you that I have the best reason for
+believing that the husband of a wife who is published as representing
+her family to you yesterday as in need of help, drew more than $1,300 of
+his savings from a bank July 2 last for the purpose as he said of
+buying lots.
+
+"While it has not been represented to the officers of this company by
+any persons concerned that there was any such extended distress at
+Pullman, as was represented for the first time by the extraordinary
+method of a published telegram to you in your official capacity, I do
+not doubt that there are many cases of need caused by the refusal of the
+employes for more than two and one-half months to earn offered wages of
+more than $300,000; and that such cases have been increased and made
+more severe by the persistence of more than 650 of our employes, of whom
+about 350 live in Pullman, in refusing to apply for their old places
+after the strike was practically over and after they were publicly
+invited, July 16, to resume their work, until by the gradual coming in
+of new men during the whole month their places have been filled and the
+full force engaged for all work in hand. In addition to this there is,
+no doubt, need among the old employes living in Pullman, a considerable
+number of whom have persistently refused to apply for work at all, many
+of them it is understood, considering themselves to be still engaged in
+a strike.
+
+"I mention these things so that the responsibility for the existing
+situation, whatever it is may not be improperly placed. The situation,
+however, is one which must be dealt with without regard to what has
+caused it, and I shall give it the consideration which is due from the
+company. I do not, however, anticipate, as you appear to do, that those
+employes who have resumed their work will be limited to the satisfaction
+of their most pressing wants, and as to those who are not at work the
+cancelling of their rents is not, I venture to suggest, a question to
+which attention should first be given at the present juncture if their
+pressing needs are as you suppose them to be. The company will continue
+in its efforts to secure work in order to employ as many men as
+possible, and in that way relieve the situation as far as practicable.
+
+"Your suggestion that the work should be divided so that a sufficient
+number of our present employes should be put on half time in order to
+give at least half time work for all was tried last winter. The result
+has been that the gross earnings of various individual employes were
+last winter so small as to give an erroneous impression with reference
+to the sufficiency of the rate of wages. The policy of the company is
+now to employ only as many men as it is possible to furnish work for on
+full time.
+
+  "Very respectfully yours,
+  "GEORGE M. PULLMAN,
+  "President.
+
+
+  "The Hon. John P. Altgeld, Governor."
+  "CHICAGO, Aug. 21.
+
+  "George M. Pullman, Esq., President the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    City.
+
+"SIR: I have your answer to my communication this morning. I
+see by it that your company refuses to do anything toward relieving the
+situation at Pullman. It is true that Mr. Wickes offered to take me to
+Pullman and show me around. I told him that I had no objection to his
+going, but that I doubted the wisdom of my going under anybody's wing. I
+was, however, met by two of your representatives, both able men, who
+accompanied me everywhere. I took pains to have them present in each
+case. I also called at your office and got what information they could
+give there, so that your company was represented and heard, and no man
+there questioned either the condition or the extent of their suffering.
+If you will make the round I made, go into the houses of these people,
+meet them face to face, and talk with them you will be convinced that
+none of them had $1,300 or any other sum of money a few weeks ago.
+
+"I cannot enter into a discussion with you as to the merits of the
+controversy between you and your former workmen. It is not my business to
+fix the moral responsibility in this case. There are nearly 6,000 people
+suffering for the want of food--they were your employes--four-fifths of
+them are women and children--some of these people have worked for you
+more than twelve years. I assume that even if they were wrong and had
+been foolish you would not be willing to see them perish. I also assume
+that as the state has just been to a large expense to protect your
+property you would not want to have the public shoulder the burden of
+relieving distress in your town.
+
+"As you refuse to do anything to relieve the suffering in this case I am
+compelled to appeal to the humanity of the people of Illinois to do so.
+Respectfully yours,
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The condition of the Pullman strikers elicited by the commission
+appointed by President Cleveland for that purpose as shown by the
+preceding extracts from the investigation, was known to the delegates to
+the convention of the American Railway Union held in Chicago in June. In
+turn they made known to the various local unions these deplorable
+conditions. Hence the boycott, or as it has been designated by the
+general managers, a sympathetic strike.
+
+They have been charged with striking without a cause other than a
+fanciful grievance of the Pullman employe, and roundly censured for
+their actions. That too by men of kind hearts and liberal views who were
+not aware of the true situation. Had this commission been appointed
+previous to the boycott, it is my honest conviction, there would have
+been no trouble. The broad inherent spirit of humanity in American
+hearts would assert itself and the powerful voice of public sentiment
+would terrorize this inhuman corporation into doing justice to their
+employes.
+
+The defeat of the strikers was attributed to a great many causes, but
+the real cause can be laid to the federal government or the
+administration thereof.
+
+President Cleveland, it is said, was and is a partner in a law firm who
+are employed by four of the largest railroad systems in the United
+States. The cabinet, with a few exceptions, are also connected with
+railroad corporations either directly or indirectly.
+
+The federal courts are absolutely owned by the railroads, and
+consequently the whole federal government was arrayed against the
+strikers.
+
+The federal judges prostituted the courts to the use of the railroads in
+granting injunctions to restrain the officers of the American Railway
+Union from acting in any form for or with that organization. From the
+time that Mr. Debs was successfully shackled by the courts, the strikers
+were like some great beheaded mastodon, staggering about, vainly
+endeavoring to retain the dying spark of life.
+
+In order to be more explicit, just as soon as the officers of the
+American Railway Union were incarcerated, reports were circulated by the
+general managers at one point, that men at some distant point had
+returned to work. The men, where these reports would be received, would
+at once wire to the officers at Chicago, asking if it be true. The
+officers of the union were prohibited from sending telegrams, and on
+receiving no reply they would take it for granted that these reports
+were authentic, and apply for work. In short, when they lost the
+guidance of Debs, their ranks became demoralized. This was the real
+cause of the defeat of the American Railway Union. Its first defeat
+after twelve decisive victories, eleven of which were accomplished
+without a strike.
+
+The prostitution of the government--founded on the blood of our
+forefathers--by the organized capital of this country, of which the
+greater part is foreign gold, is something of the most vital importance
+to every workingman in America to-day. This is a matter that demands the
+gravest thought of every American citizen who is loyal to himself, to
+his family and to his country.
+
+The flagrant abuse of the constitution by the plutocratic money power,
+if not checked by the people, will reduce them to a condition beneath
+that of any nation in the known world.
+
+This strike has clearly demonstrated the truth of this assertion. In not
+one instance during the whole course of the trouble, have the
+representatives of the corporations and the representatives of the
+government failed to unite in destroying the constitutional rights of
+the American workingman.
+
+The devilish ingenuity of this corporate power goes still further to
+retain the power they hold over the government. They have conceived a
+plan to disfranchise in a manner all members of the American Railway
+Union and deprive them of the right to vote. In this they have actually
+accomplished their purpose by forcing its members out of employment, and
+driving them from their homes to seek employment in foreign parts of the
+country on the eve of election, where they would not be eligible to
+vote.
+
+The inherent cunning of this blood sucking money power would pale to
+insignificance the most diabolical deeds of the prince of darkness.
+
+Blinded by their victory over the American Railway Union--through the
+assistance of the federal courts--they will stop at nothing to complete
+the work of subjugation and annihilation. They have tested their power
+over the courts and find them so completely subservient to their will
+that they know they would be secure in carrying out any high-handed
+proceeding which they may deem necessary to complete their work of
+demoralization and hounding to death, if need be, the members of this
+order.
+
+This was the very condition of affairs that President Debs anticipated,
+and tried to guard against. This was the impending danger against which
+he warned the men, and for this he filled a felon's cell in Cook county
+jail.
+
+Against these conditions the people must unite and co-operate. We must
+no longer close our eyes to the glaring fact that we are being made
+parties to our own destruction by the corporations and trusts of this
+country, and their allies the Democratic and Republican parties.
+
+These two great political parties are so completely controlled by the
+corporations, that anything asked of them is immediately granted, the
+only difference between the two being their views as to the best method
+by which they can serve these corporations.
+
+The railroads combine and trusts of all kinds furnish the funds for
+campaign purposes, and also incidentally furnish the votes to elect
+their friends. They have in every precinct, ward, town, city, county and
+state, their hirelings who beguile the people into voting as they
+dictate.
+
+The child like confidence of the people could not be shaken in the old
+parties. They were ever ready to place implicit faith in these designing
+politicians, believing that the laws made by them were just what was
+wanted for the people's salvation.
+
+This delusion cannot last, the time is now ripe for action. The masses
+must protect their interests if they would be free to enjoy the rights
+awarded them by the constitution.
+
+The American Railway Union has proven the greatest blessing to the
+working people of this country. It has torn the mask of hypocrisy from
+these plutocratic professional politicians and revealed them in their
+true character.
+
+The working people can no longer afford to be deluded by these old
+parties. They must unite and arise in one grand body and assert their
+independence as freemen and intelligent American citizens, and by their
+ballot take possession of this government of the capitalist, by the
+capitalist, and for the capitalist, and again make it a government of
+the people, by the people and for the people.
+
+President Debs struck the keynote when he said that it was better for
+the government to own the railroads than for the railroads to own the
+government. Our only chance to succeed in obtaining our constitutional
+rights is by legislation and this we must create ourselves. We never can
+obtain it through either of the old parties and therefore must ally
+ourselves to a new party.
+
+It is time that every intelligent workingman would think and act for
+himself. All semblance to aristocracy in labor must be eliminated, the
+skillful artisan has no more guarantee of just treatment than has the
+common laborer.
+
+Every workingman should endorse the Peoples party. They must unite as
+one, in one common cause and strike for their rights with the only
+effective weapon left to them, "the ballot."
+
+This strike has proven beyond doubt that the protective features in
+railroad organizations, and other organizations as well, is a dead
+letter as long as the federal courts are controlled by capital. Unless
+this is remedied, all labor organizations might just as well send in
+their charters and cease to exist.
+
+I cannot believe that the American people will allow this state of
+affairs to continue. There are many men in public life to-day whose
+motives are pure and unselfish. Such men as Governors Altgeld, Waite,
+Penoyer; Congressmen Kyle, Pfeffer, McGann, Pence, Goldgier; Mayor
+Hopkins of Chicago, Sydney M. Owens, Clarence S. Darrow, Judge Tully,
+Gen. Weaver, W. W. Erwin and hosts of others, who publicly espoused the
+cause of the strikers.
+
+The subsidized press, the most dangerous enemy of labor, and next to the
+courts, the most effective weapon in the hands of the railroad
+corporations in destroying the rights of labor and defeating the
+strikers, has again fallen in line as the champions of the laboring
+classes. With hypocritical pretensions to sympathy for the workingman,
+the organs of the two great political parties have begun to knife each
+other, and unite in denouncing the People's party, all for the benefit
+of the poor farmer, railroader, mechanic and laborer. They are loud in
+their denunciation of trusts, combines and corporations of all kinds
+that have a tendency to crush the poor working people. Their great and
+generous hearts are overflowing with sympathy for the poor oppressed
+toiler.
+
+The question is, can the American workingman be again deluded by these
+organs of organized capital?
+
+The laboring people do not want sympathy, neither do they want charity,
+all they want is simple justice, and this they must and will have.
+
+There are exceptions among the press and these should be remembered by
+the people. Papers that were champions of right and justice and whom the
+general managers could not buy.
+
+And now, kind reader, in conclusion I will quote the words of him, whose
+noble life is devoted to the cause of humanity:
+
+"The strike was not a failure. It will pass into history as a noble
+struggle for a righteous cause, and those who participated in it,
+whatever their immediate sacrifices may be, will in the end feel amply
+compensated for all their losses."
+
+  THE END.
+
+
+
+    +-------------------------------------------------------+
+    |             Transcriber's Note:                       |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the          |
+    | original document have been preserved.                |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:           |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Page    8  Crachus changed to Gracchus                |
+    | Page    8  Pometheus changed to Prometheus            |
+    | Page    8  lethergic changed to lethargic             |
+    | Page   10  rumaging changed to rummaging              |
+    | Page   10  consciousnes changed to consciousness      |
+    | Page   13  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page   14  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page   16  resistence changed to resistance           |
+    | Page   18  grestest changed to greatest               |
+    | Page   18  120 changed to 20                          |
+    | Page   19  averice changed to avarice                 |
+    | Page   20  accomodations changed to accommodations    |
+    | Page   22  averice changed to avarice                 |
+    | Page   28  authoritively changed to authoritatively   |
+    | Page   29  Fourty changed to Forty                    |
+    | Page   38  to changed to too                          |
+    | Page   38  chattle changed to chattel                 |
+    | Page   41  epethets changed to epithets               |
+    | Page   43  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page   44  meetting changed to meeting                |
+    | Page   44  apointed changed to appointed              |
+    | Page   45  Gattling changed to Gatling                |
+    | Page   46  counsles changed to counsels               |
+    | Page   47  Sheriden changed to Sheridan               |
+    | Page   47  attitute changed to attitude               |
+    | Page   47  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   48  intimitation changed to intimidation       |
+    | Page   48  threads changed to threats                 |
+    | Page   48  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   49  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   50  know changed to known                      |
+    | Page   50  than changed to that                       |
+    | Page   51  spectical changed to spectacle             |
+    | Page   51  depotism changed to despotism              |
+    | Page   51  wanta changed to wont                      |
+    | Page   51  contagous changed to contagious            |
+    | Page   55  waving changed to waiving                  |
+    | Page   56  where changed to were                      |
+    | Page   57  coroborated changed to corroborated        |
+    | Page   57  occurrance changed to occurrence           |
+    | Page   58  Waving changed to Waiving                  |
+    | Page   59  ignor changed to ignore                    |
+    | Page   59  assistence changed to assistance           |
+    | Page   61  importaut changed to important             |
+    | Page   61  hour's changed to hours'                   |
+    | Page   61  interferance changed to interference       |
+    | Page   65  clearely changed to clearly                |
+    | Page   70  art changed to are                         |
+    | Page   73  grievences changed to grievances           |
+    | Page   77  intimitated changed to intimidated         |
+    | Page   77  their changed to there                     |
+    | Page   79  aud changed to and                         |
+    | Page   81  ensconsed changed to ensconced             |
+    | Page   82  occured changed to ccurred                 |
+    | Page   83  occurance changed to occurrence            |
+    | Page   83  promisciously changed to promiscuously     |
+    | Page   83  surpressed changed to suppressed           |
+    | Page   84  wonton changed to wanton                   |
+    | Page   88  interupted changed to interrupted          |
+    | Page   89  criminalty changed to criminality          |
+    | Page   89  discrimation changed to discrimination     |
+    | Page   89  subservent changed to subservient          |
+    | Page   92  guize changed to guise                     |
+    | Page   93  Wicks changed to Wickes                    |
+    | Page   93  contented changed to contended             |
+    | Page   94  acceeded changed to acceded                |
+    | Page   94  interupting changed to interrupting        |
+    | Page   96  ignor changed to ignore                    |
+    | Page   96  hear changed to here                       |
+    | Page   97  vengence changed to vengeance              |
+    | Page   99  independant changed to independent         |
+    | Page  101  counciled changed to counseled             |
+    | Page  101  device changed to devise                   |
+    | Page  102  farcial changed to farcical                |
+    | Page  102  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page  103  eminated changed to emanated               |
+    | Page  104  inflamable changed to inflammable          |
+    | Page  104  aggrivating changed to aggravating         |
+    | Page  104  surpressing changed to suppressing         |
+    | Page  105  peacable changed to peaceable              |
+    | Page  105  contenting changed to contending           |
+    | Page  106  coporations changed to corporations        |
+    | Page  106  inflamatory changed to inflammatory        |
+    | Page  108  parlimentary changed to parliamentary      |
+    | Page  109  Ammerican changed to American              |
+    | Page  109  busiuess changed to business               |
+    | Page  109  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  109  Roger's changed to Rogers'                 |
+    | Page  110  endeaver changed to endeavor               |
+    | Page  111  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page  112  uprisal changed to uprising                |
+    | Page  112  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  113  alligns changed to aligns                  |
+    | Page  115  demagogery changed to demagougery          |
+    | Page  116  Wicks changed to Wickes                    |
+    | Page  119  propositiou changed to proposition         |
+    | Page  119  extented changed to extended               |
+    | Page  120  calamaties changed to calamities           |
+    | Page  121  propisition changed to proposition         |
+    | Page  121  Gibralter changed to Gibraltar             |
+    | Page  121  unmoveable changed to unmovable            |
+    | Page  122  interuption changed to interruption        |
+    | Page  122  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  124  effect changed to affect                   |
+    | Page  125  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page  128  traiters changed to traitors               |
+    | Page  129  intent changed to intend                   |
+    | Page  129  blocade changed to blockade                |
+    | Page  132  requst changed to request                  |
+    | Page  132  concievable changed to conceivable         |
+    | Page  135  pinacle changed to pinnacle                |
+    | Page  136  seperate changed to separate               |
+    | Page  136  intestate changed to interstate            |
+    | Page  137  firey changed to fiery                     |
+    | Page  137  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  139  Wilkenson changed to Wilkinson             |
+    | Page  140  anihilation changed to annihilation        |
+    | Page  140  semblence changed to semblance             |
+    | Page  140  immaginable changed to imaginable          |
+    | Page  143  Valpraiso changed to Valparaiso            |
+    | Page  144  poisening changed to poisoning             |
+    | Page  148  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  149  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  150  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  150  counselled changed to counseled            |
+    | Page  154  interupted changed to interrupted          |
+    | Page  155  or changed to on                           |
+    | Page  156  draw changed to drawn                      |
+    | Page  156  aid changed to add                         |
+    | Page  157  irrevelant changed to irrelevant           |
+    | Page  157  persued changed to pursued                 |
+    | Page  160  pronunce changed to pronounce              |
+    | Page  160  biggotted changed to bigoted               |
+    | Page  160  affective changed to effective             |
+    | Page  160  savory changed to savour                   |
+    | Page  161  inuendoes changed to innuendoes            |
+    | Page  161  precedure changed to procedure             |
+    | Page  162  chariman changed to chairman               |
+    | Page  164  it changed to is                           |
+    | Page  165  destinction changed to distinction         |
+    | Page  167  STIKE changed to STRIKE                    |
+    | Page  171  assistence changed to assistance           |
+    | Page  172  condecend changed to condescend            |
+    | Page  173  bycotting changed to boycotting            |
+    | Page  183  extented changed to extended               |
+    | Page  186  extent changed to extend                   |
+    | Page  189  restoring changed to resorting             |
+    | Page  190  frivilous changed to frivolous             |
+    | Page  194  compulsary changed to compulsory           |
+    | Page  194  corporotions changed to corporations       |
+    | Page  197  give changed to given                      |
+    | Page  197  "there" inserted between "and" and "would" |
+    | Page  199  content changed to contend                 |
+    | Page  201  compulsary changed to compulsory           |
+    | Page  203  accomodations changed to accommodations    |
+    | Page  205  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  207  "you" inserted between "do" and "mean"     |
+    | Page  207  divident changed to dividend               |
+    | Page  208  "I" inserted between "family," and "have"  |
+    | Page  210  their changed to there                     |
+    | Page  214  things changed to thing                    |
+    | Page  214  made changed to make                       |
+    | Page  222  Terry changed to Terre                     |
+    | Page  225  convenion changed to convention            |
+    | Page  227  Chatanooga changed to Chattanooga          |
+    | Page  233  inflamatory changed to inflammatory        |
+    | Page  234  otherwis changed to otherwise              |
+    | Page  237  avoides changed to avoids                  |
+    | Page  238  degredation changed to degradation         |
+    | Page  239  phenominally changed to phenomenally       |
+    | Page  241  contradicture changed to contradiction     |
+    | Page  241  concilliation changed to conciliation      |
+    | Page  244  on changed to one                          |
+    | Page  244  governtal changed to governmenetal         |
+    | Page  246  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  247  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page  249  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  252  decribed changed to described              |
+    | Page  254  grievence changed to grievance             |
+    | Page  266  lenghty changed to lengthy                 |
+    | Page  272  vic changed to vice                        |
+    | Page  272  Epethets changed to Epithets               |
+    | Page  272  epethets changed to epithets               |
+    | Page  273  taylor changed to tailor                   |
+    | Page  275  intolerence changed to intolerance         |
+    | Page  277  attenting changed to attending             |
+    | Page  278  Sprinfield changed to Springfield          |
+    | Page  281  resistence changed to resistance           |
+    | Page  285  committe changed to committee              |
+    | Page  287  voltneeer changed to volunteer             |
+    | Page  290  superintendant changed to superintendent   |
+    | Page  292  havn't changed to haven't                  |
+    | Page  303  so changed to to                           |
+    | Page  310  preceeding changed to preceding            |
+    | Page  313  elligible changed to eligible              |
+    | Page  314  immediatedly changed to immediately        |
+    | Page  315  hypocracy changed to hypocrisy             |
+    | Page  316  artesan changed to artisan                 |
+    | Page  317  pretentions changed to pretensions         |
+    | Page  317  Peffer changed to Pfeffer                  |
+    +-------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W. F. Burns
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W.F. Burns.
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W. F. Burns
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pullman Boycott
+       A Complete History of the R.R. Strike
+
+Author: W. F. Burns
+
+Release Date: May 1, 2011 [EBook #36004]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PULLMAN BOYCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Kosker, Odessa Paige Turner and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+(This book was produced from scanned images of public
+domain material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h1>  The Pullman Boycott</h1>
+<br />
+<h3>  A Complete History<br />
+          of<br />
+  The Great R. R. Strike.</h3>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>  <span class="smcap">By W. F. Burns.</span></h2>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%" />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>  1894:<br />
+  THE McGILL PRINTING CO.<br />
+  ST. PAUL.</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr style="width: 10%" />
+<h5><span class="smcap">Copyrighted 1894</span><br />
+by<br />
+W. F. BURNS.</h5>
+<hr style="width: 10%" />
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="10%" style="font-size: 80%;">CHAPTER.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="80%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="10%" style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">The American Railway Union,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">The Boycott,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">First Day of the Strike,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">An Appeal from Debs,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">The Federal Government Sides with the Managers,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VI&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Troops at Blue Island,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">A Protest from Gov. Altgeld,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VIII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Incendiarism and Bloodshed,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IX&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Slaughter of Citizens,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">X&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Business Men's Protest,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XI&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Indictment of President Debs,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">A Protest by the Peoples Party,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XIII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">An Offer of Settlement,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XIV&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Debs in Jail,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XV&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Blacklisting Begins,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XVI&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Trial of Debs,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">XVII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">A Convention of the American Railway Union Called to Take Action on the Strike,</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XVIII&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">The Strike Lost,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XIX&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">The Commission,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XX&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Altgeld Investigates Pullman,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">XXI&mdash;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Conclusion,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>INTRODUCTORY.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>In presenting this work to the public, I beg leave to say that I lay no
+claim whatever to literary ability, and will ask the reader to kindly
+overlook the crudeness of this my first effort.</p>
+
+<p>My line of work since boyhood has been confined principally to railway
+service; in short I am a switchman, and in that branch of the service,
+have been frequently confronted with the differences that arise between
+the management of the various railroad corporations and their employees.</p>
+
+<p>While I disclaim any credit for ability as a writer, by years of
+experience and careful study of the condition of affairs as they have in
+the past and do in the present exist, I profess to be able to fairly
+present the facts of the Pullman strike. This strike was a matter of
+unusual interest to me, not alone because my individual interests were
+involved, but because the independence of every man in America who earns
+his bread by the sweat of his brow, was in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>The right to organize for mutual protection was questioned, nay more,
+the right to be heard, a right granted to the greatest criminal in any
+part of the civilized world, was refused by the power representing the
+capital of this country. This power fortified by the Federal troops, by
+the mandate of the Federal courts, instigated by the chief executive,
+the president of the United States, the account of this strike as
+presented to the public by the Associated Press, was George M. Pullman's
+and the General Managers' side of the question, distorted and colored to
+suit their purposes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>My aim in presenting this book, is to disabuse the minds of the people
+as far as possible, from the misleading statements given out by the
+General Managers' Association through their mouth piece, the Associated
+Press.</p>
+
+<p>To this end I have carefully collected facts from the best and most
+reliable sources, aside from what personal knowledge I had of this
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>I obtained information from telegrams received in our Central Committee
+rooms, from all parts of the country, also from committees appointed to
+investigate the authenticity of reports received from different parts of
+the country where the strike extended.</p>
+
+<p>The general accounts I quote largely from the "Chicago Times," a paper
+whose honorable and manly stand throughout that great struggle, gained
+for it a world wide reputation for honesty and fairness.</p>
+
+<p>The accounts herein contained are truths pure and simple, and upon these
+truths I base the merits of this book.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 9em;">Very respectfully,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">W. F. Burns</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+
+<p>In order to give a clear conception of the greatest strike in the
+history of railroad organizations, it will be necessary to go back to
+the birth of the American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>This organization was instituted on the 17th day of August, 1893, in the
+city of Chicago, and owes its existence to its present leader Eugene V.
+Debs.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs' connection with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen dates
+back to the early seventies, and be the credit due to that organization
+for introducing to the laboring people of America, a leader who stands
+absolutely without a peer in the labor world to-day, possessed of the
+collective traits of some of the greatest men of the past.</p>
+
+<p>I know no better description of Debs than that of Wm. C. Pomeroy in the
+Eight Hour Herald, as follows: "I am sitting on the stage of a great
+meeting of people, my eyes are closed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>in dreamy reverie, I hear a voice
+whose resonant tones are familiar to my ears, the voice, the words bear
+me in imagination back to the days of Rome, and Caius Gracchus is
+proclaiming the coming liberty of the people. The words of flaming
+eloquence suddenly change into the rugged tones of Cola di Rienzi,
+crying: 'Arouse, ye Romans; arouse, ye slaves.' The words are sweet to
+the ears, and stir my soul to extacy. Soft, I am no longer in the
+Eternal City, but wander among the hills and dales of Judea, and the
+voice has changed again. This time 'tis the compassionate tones of Him
+of Galilee, beseeching to 'love ye one another,' now swift changing in
+its mellifluous harmony, I hear Pandora whisper 'the dawn approaches,
+take heart of hope,' and Prometheus answers with the echoed groans of
+the suffering, sighing souls. The air is now filled with stirring
+martial music, and above its changing cadences pours forth in passionate
+appeal the stentor voice of Peter, the Hermit, raising in the bosom of
+men, the lethargic love of duty. Aye; on the German hilltops, pulpited
+he speaks, and Hermanic in deep-toned thunder hurdles back, 'I come.'
+Now there is a silence for a space, and the changing draperies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>of
+imagination disclose a newer scene. I am in the meeting of the Virginian
+Burgesses, and the voice has taken on the tones of Patrick Henry. It
+says: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and, 'he who would be
+free himself must strike the blow.' Now 'tis Thomas Jefferson giving
+utterance to, 'we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are
+born free and equal.' And lo! even as the soft tones of the 'chosen son'
+die into the distance, the voice of Andrew Jackson hurls forth the edict
+'each man and every man in this country, by the eternal, must and shall
+be free.'</p>
+
+<p>"The echoing ages take up the dictum and it becomes mingled with the
+tones of him who at Gettysburg spoke the immortal flaming words: 'This
+nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and the government
+of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from
+the earth.' Scarce had the utterance of the martyr ceased to fill the
+air when Lowell softly says:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'He's true to God, who's true to men, whenever wrong is done.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To the humblest and the weakest of all the beholding sun;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That wrong is also done to us, and they are slaves most base,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all the race.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"My brain is puzzled. How comes it, I ask myself, that these heroes dead
+and gone are near me here to-day?</p>
+
+<p>"What power permits them to quit their abiding places within the crusty
+bosom of mother earth, and visiting again the haunts of mortal man, pour
+forth their immortal utterances? My rummaging mind takes on a newer
+consciousness. Reverie lifts her leaden hand from off my brow, my eyes
+open and gaze upon a vast multitude of people&mdash;men, women and children.
+Men are standing on the seats and hurling their hats in the air; women
+are weeping in joy and waving handkerchiefs, all, all shout in clamorous
+accord. Their eyes are riveted upon the stage, and upon a man who is
+gracefully bowing acknowledgement to the thunders of applause. I am near
+him, I gaze in his face. 'Tis the face of Eugene V. Debs."</p>
+
+<p>To my mind the above beautiful comparisons are not overdrawn.</p>
+
+<p>In 1874 he was admitted to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and in
+1877 his brother <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>members of the local lodge, recognizing his superior
+ability, sent him to the Indianapolis convention to represent them. The
+next year he was a delegate to the Buffalo convention. Here he was
+chosen associate editor of the Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, and three
+years later he was elected editor, and assumed full control.</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1880, he was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer in
+Chicago, and to prove the confidence placed in him by this organization,
+he was unanimously elected to that office for thirteen consecutive years
+without a dissenting vote, and at the last convention, held in San
+Francisco, he was again nominated after making a speech, courteously but
+firmly declining, and was finally forced to refuse the nomination before
+his declinature would be accepted.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Debs assumed control of this office, the Brotherhood was on the
+verge of disruption.</p>
+
+<p>From this condition he, by his untiring devotion and wonderful executive
+abilities, elevated the Brotherhood to one of the most powerful
+organizations of the age, and thus it was through the instrumentality of
+the Brotherhood of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>Locomotive Firemen he was brought before the
+laboring people. Some few years ago he saw that class organization would
+not be successful, owing to the petty jealousy existing between the
+different orders, and that in every instance where one organization had
+a grievance with a railroad corporation, the management would use one or
+all the others to crush the one having the grievance.</p>
+
+<p>In order to remedy this, he promulgated a plan of federation whereby all
+the different organizations, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen
+and switchmen would stand as a unit in case of a grievance.</p>
+
+<p>This federation was accomplished, but owing to the treachery of some of
+the chiefs, proved unsatisfactory and was finally dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more
+determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of
+railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American
+Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the
+trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently
+became such a power, was by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>no means the offspring of a premature
+conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully
+considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages
+and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union,
+before taking active steps to organize.</p>
+
+<p>He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true
+principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his
+associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and,
+Kelliher, this union was founded.</p>
+
+<p>The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was
+that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in
+wages in all departments on that system.</p>
+
+<p>This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of
+eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents
+in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the
+grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was
+settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway
+Union.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>Then it was that the true principles of this organization were
+recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came
+pouring in from all parts of the country.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BOYCOTT.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The American Railway Union is in every sense an American Institution,
+whose aims and objects as previously stated are to protect and shield
+its members from the grinding power of railroad corporations. Its motto
+is unity: "One for all and all for one."</p>
+
+<p>The Pullman employes were admitted to this organization and consequently
+entitled to the protection guaranteed to all members, therefore when
+they walked out, after every honorable means to avert a strike was
+exhausted, the American Railway Union was in duty bound to sustain them.</p>
+
+<p>The strike was ordered on the 11th day of May, after an all night
+session by a committee of forty-six members representing every
+department in the Pullman works. When the word was given four thousand
+employes responded to the call, and this proved to be the beginning of
+the most gigantic strike in the history of organized labor.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>The wrongs of the Pullman people were not generally known to the public,
+the cruel and inhuman treatment they were subjected to, was kept
+strictly from the public ears.</p>
+
+<p>They were reduced to a condition of slavery beneath that of the black
+slave of the South prior to the civil war, for while the black slave was
+clothed, housed and fed, the white slave of Pullman was forced to work
+for wages entirely inadequate to furnish a sufficient amount of food to
+keep body and soul together. In this condition, on the verge of
+starvation, with all hope of justice from the hands of George M. Pullman
+gone, they revolted. Whether the grievance of these men was a just one,
+or their resistance to further encroachments on their rights was right
+or wrong, after reading the report of the committee appointed to
+investigate and report to the American Railway Union Annual Convention,
+at that time in session in the city of Chicago, it will be for the
+reader to decide.</p>
+
+<p>The report, as condensed, in one of the Chicago daily papers, copied and
+commented on by the St. Paul Branch of the American Railway Union, was
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>After showing by way of contrast, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>$30,000,000 worth of Pullman
+stock paid its holders 9-1/2 per cent in dividends last year, the report
+goes statistically into a comparison of wages in the past year, with the
+wages received by the Pullman employees when the strike was inaugurated.
+A fair example of the general reduction is given in a comparison in the
+price of labor involved in the construction of a freight car in 1888 and
+1893.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="60%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png 017">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="50%">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lot 1526.</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="25%">Oct. 1888.</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="25%">Nov. 1893.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Car carpenter</td>
+  <td class="tdc">$13.00</td>
+  <td class="tdc">$7.00</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Truck builder</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.90</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Truck labor</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.31</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.09</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Hanging brakes</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.20</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.65</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Delivering, forging and casting</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.05</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.35</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Delivering lumber</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.88</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.21</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Framing</td>
+  <td class="tdc" style="text-decoration: underline;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.40</td>
+  <td class="tdc" style="text-decoration: underline;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.12</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td>
+  <td class="tdc">$17.74</td>
+  <td class="tdc">$9.02</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Other comparisons in the same department show that the wages of men
+employed in building freight cars, have been reduced 49, 57-1/2 and 47
+per cent on contract work since 1888 and 89, and a long list of figures
+from the account <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>of men in the upholstering department, show that cuts
+have been made in the prices paid for piece work during the last twelve
+months ranging from 33-1/3 to 50 per cent. The painters, according to
+the figures given, have been cut 20 per cent since 1893 and were
+receiving, when the strike went into effect, only 23 cents per hour,
+while the union men employed by the boss painters in Chicago were all
+busy under the scale, whereby they are paid 35 cents per hour until June
+15th, and 32-1/2 cents during the summer months.</p>
+
+<p>The machinists, sheet iron and tin workers, foundrymen and blacksmiths
+had all been reduced from 30 to 50 per cent during the last year, and
+even heavier reductions, according to the report, have been made in
+other departments. Although wages had been previously reduced, the
+greatest cut went into effect last fall in the higher grades of labor.</p>
+
+<p>The reduction then made was from 80 to 20 per cent and in the lower
+grades 30 per cent. For example, the price paid for the decorating
+finish on the outside of a Pullman sleeper before the reduction, was
+$40.00, and now it is $18.00.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>By working hard for ten hours a decorator may earn $1.90.</p>
+
+<p>This sweeping reduction included all classes, and the laborers were
+compelled to work for from 70 cents to $1.00 per day, all this in the
+face of the fact that when a reduction was made three years ago, the men
+were told that as long as the shops stood there would never be another
+cut in the wages of those who worked upon the Pullman sleepers.</p>
+
+<p>A committee of girls, from those who were barely keeping body and soul
+together by working piece work for $2.50 and $3.00 per week, asked the
+foreman for an increase to enable them to live, and his answer was: If
+you cannot live upon the pay you are getting, go out and hustle for
+more. Why should we wonder that houses of prostitution find no
+difficulty in procuring inmates?</p>
+
+<p>Think of young women having to board and clothe themselves, and in many
+instances supporting an invalid mother or young brothers and sisters on
+such meager wages.</p>
+
+<p>The cold blooded avarice of the Pullman company is not even satisfied in
+requiring its employes to work for starvation wages, for in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>what he
+exacts from his tenant employes he is even more grasping.</p>
+
+<p>That model town of Pullman is owned by the Pullman company and
+everything about it is made to pay toll to this grasping monopoly.</p>
+
+<p>All employes must rent their houses from this slave driving corporation.
+There is now in the city of St. Paul a gentleman who formerly worked in
+Pullman, and growing tired of paying so much rent for such poor
+accommodations, moved to the adjoining hamlet, and rented a better house
+for $8.00 per month. He was at once informed that if he wished to retain
+his situation he would have to move back, and he did so. The house was
+of the average kind and was called a cottage, consisting of two rooms
+down stairs, each 10 &times; 14 feet, and three rooms up stairs, one of which,
+the front room, was 10 &times; 12 and the two rear rooms each 8 &times; 10 feet,
+lighted front and back, with no bath room or other convenience, and the
+whole, a part of a solid row or block. For this abode there was exacted
+a monthly rental of $17.00 although the cost would not exceed $1,000. A
+four room flat rents for $14.50 per month, and if you should want one of
+these cheap cottages with inside <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>blinds for the front window, you must
+pay 50 cents per month for that much style. Some tenants have paid 50
+cents per month for this luxury for more than thirteen years, which is
+pretty good interest on the cost of those blinds.</p>
+
+<p>About 100 acres of land is covered with dwellings and the rent derived
+is about $500,000 annually, which is over 8 per cent per annum on the
+investment.</p>
+
+<p>In many of these houses families are crowded into attics in order to
+reduce expenses to enable them to procure the necessaries of life.</p>
+
+<p>Recently a new church was erected in Pullman, known as the Green church
+and parsonage, for which is demanded a monthly rental of $60.00 and for
+a good sized audience room, and two smaller ones attached Mr. Pullman
+charges the Methodist Episcopal society $500 per year. These rents must
+be paid in advance and are deducted from the wages of the men, and
+notwithstanding that the wages have been reduced no reductions have as
+yet been made in the rent.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which these men have been bled in the matter of rent, is
+fully equaled in the manner in which money for water and gas has been
+extorted from them. When the town was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>built a contract was made with
+the Village of Hyde Park, to furnish water at the rate of four cents per
+thousand gallons, and incredible as it may appear, this water was
+furnished to the Pullman tenants at ten cents per thousand gallons. In
+other words he charged $3,000 per month for the water which cost him but
+$1,200. This represents an annual profit on this one item of $21,000.</p>
+
+<p>Could cold blooded heartless avarice go further? Yes; in the matter of
+gas which was manufactured and furnished to the people by the Pullman
+company itself, and although the cost is but 33 cents per thousand cubic
+feet, the tenants pay $2.25 per thousand while the same gas is furnished
+the residents of Hyde Park for 75 cents per thousand.</p>
+
+<p>This adds from three to four dollars per month to living expenses in the
+average house at Pullman.</p>
+
+<p>Another source of income which is wrung from the unfortunate victim is
+for heat, for which the company charges for six months in the year
+$10.80 per month.</p>
+
+<p>It might be well to state also, that no person is allowed to keep a
+horse, unless the animal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>is kept at the company stables for which $3.00
+per week is charged.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the conditions of affairs discovered by the investigating
+committee in this model town, nor was this all. Miss Curtis, a delegate
+to the convention representing a ladies' lodge of the American Railway
+Union at Pullman, and whose father died in September, '93, was obliged
+to work fourteen hours per day in order to earn fifty cents at the same
+work for which she received prior to the first reduction $2.25 per day,
+and not satisfied with reducing her wages to this starvation point, the
+company insisted on the payment of a debt of $60.00 contracted during
+her father's illness. This is but a sample of the devilish cruelties
+perpetrated on the employes by the Pullman Company to satisfy their
+hellish greed for gold.</p>
+
+<p>This corporation cannot plead poverty for thus treating its employes, as
+its capital stock is $30,000,000 and carries an enormous surplus of
+$18,000,000 which is termed a reserve fund. Mr. Pullman's personal
+wealth is estimated at about $25,000,000. Quarterly dividends of not
+less than two per cent have been paid regularly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>on the capital stock,
+and the stockholders receive every three months $600,000 as their share
+of the earnings. It is to enable them to pay this immense sum every
+three months, that the wages of its employes have been reduced. Can it
+be wondered that the American Railway Union took the matter in hand and
+declared a boycott on Pullman cars. When the report was received every
+brother present was deeply moved, and it was the unanimous sentiment of
+the convention to declare a boycott, but before taking action, apprised
+the various local unions of the state of affairs then existing, and
+received the sanction of the local bodies. They then decided that if the
+Pullman Company would not submit the difficulty to arbitration on or
+before the 26th day of June, to cut off the Pullman cars and refuse to
+handle them until the matter was settled. This action was taken June 22,
+and decided action held off until June 26, in hope that committees
+appointed to wait on Mr. Pullman would be successful in gaining some
+concessions whereby a peaceable settlement could be arrived at before
+resorting to the boycott, and, although several committees were sent to
+the management <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>and every honorable means resorted to in order to bring
+about an amicable settlement, it was of no avail and there was nothing
+for the American Railway Union to do but enforce the boycott.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST DAY OF THE STRIKE.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The 26th day of June was awaited with more than ordinary interest by the
+people of Chicago on account of the proposed boycott.</p>
+
+<p>The first train to leave Chicago handling Pullman cars was the Chicago
+and Erie Buffalo Express, and hundreds of men gathered to witness the
+departure at 2:55 P. M.</p>
+
+<p>It started out on time with several Pullmans attached and several
+Pinkerton detectives on board. This was owing to the fact that it had
+been made up before the time set for the boycott to go into effect, but
+drawbars had been chained together and fastened with padlocks as a
+safeguard against cutting out the Pullman cars. Everyone was anxious to
+see if the engineer would pull it out. All doubt was soon set at rest
+however, as the engine backed onto the train and started out on time as
+usual. The crowd then waited to see if the next train, the Limited
+Express, on the Grand Trunk, due <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>to leave at 3:10 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, would
+meet with the same success, and after seeing this train also pull out on
+time, the crowd dispersed.</p>
+
+<p>The trains on the Monon Route, Santa Fe, and Eastern Illinois also
+departed with their accustomed regularity and without interference, and
+at 6.00 o'clock, as every train was running on time, Mr. Pullman and the
+railway officials were quite jubilant at what they considered a complete
+failure of the American Railway Union to perform the task it had
+undertaken. But inside of three hours they were doomed to
+disappointment, for at that time not a wheel was turning on the Illinois
+Central with the exception of express trains that had been started
+before the strike was ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The strikers might have stopped the Diamond Special which leaves at 9:00
+<span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, but through consideration for the passengers who had
+already purchased berth tickets, and adhering strictly to the
+instructions of their leaders to do nothing to discommode the travelers
+who in all probability were not acquainted with the existing state of
+affairs, this train was allowed to proceed. The strike that paralyzed
+the traffic of the entire country was started in this manner. Early in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>the afternoon a committee of five switchmen, employed on the Illinois
+Central, made their appearance at the headquarters of the American
+Railway Union in the Ashland block, to learn authoritatively the nature
+and purpose of the order issued requiring them to refuse to switch the
+cars of the Pullman Company, as the instructions received by them
+through Organizer Meyers of the union, were not sufficiently definite,
+so they claimed, to warrant their resisting the railroad company, and
+forfeiting their positions by such action. The switchmen, they said were
+willing to help the Pullman strikers, but they wished to know to a
+certainty what was expected of them. The directors of the union
+immediately held a conference with the delegates the result of which was
+an order to strike if the company insisted on them switching the Pullman
+cars. Those who were not members of the American Railway Union were
+guaranteed equal protection if they joined the strike, and the result
+was a complete tie up of the Illinois Central R. R.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago Times, in an article next morning, said that for rapidity of
+conception and execution this strike which probably involves five
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>thousand men, beats anything of the kind on record, and in the same
+article says: the efforts to sidetrack the cars of the Pullman company
+yesterday was carried on with strict conformity to law and order.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of a crowd attracted out of a curiosity to see what
+might happen, there was nothing unusual about the depot, there was no
+boisterous talking, no threats were made, and the few squads of police
+officers sent there to preserve order, had nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>Train No. 7, due to leave at 9 o'clock, hauling two Pullman coaches
+filled with passengers, did not leave on time there being a delay of 30
+minutes before it finally pulled out of the depot. After running within
+one hundred yards of Grand Crossing it stopped, there being a crowd of
+about five thousand people at this point of whom there was not to exceed
+one hundred and twenty-five railroad men. The engineer refused to start,
+and although Supt. Collins expostulated with him it was of no avail, and
+any further attempt to move the train was abandoned for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>At 11:30 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> tower man Cable, who controls the switches at
+Forty-third street, left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>his post, and two south-bound suburban trains
+were whistling for the switches. They were soon joined by three
+north-bound trains, a freight train, Michigan Central Fast Mail, and
+Illinois Central Limited, and all were tied up until one o'clock in the
+morning when the superintendent of terminals threw the switches. The
+Chicago Great Western, Baltimore &amp; Ohio, Chicago and Northern Pacific
+and Wisconsin Central were next to fall in line and refuse to handle
+Pullman cars.</p>
+
+<p>President Debs, after reviewing the situation, asked the men as
+individuals to consider the problem involved, saying, that if the
+Pullman Company was right, then the strikers must be wrong, but if you
+feel assured that those men are only striking to gain that which is
+every man's right&mdash;living wages, then we ask your moral support. There
+is but one hope for the laborer. Labor must stand by labor. The
+corporations have now forced a fight upon us by combining to help the
+Pullman company; they have forced us to combine and use the only weapon
+which the workingman possesses, the strike and the boycott. The
+railroads have never done anything for labor that the latter should
+hesitate to use these weapons.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>It is a battle between allied monopoly against the rights of working
+people, it is a matter of broad humanity. I want to see the switchmen,
+the car inspectors and other employes wait upon the officials in a manly
+way, and refuse to handle these boycotted cars.</p>
+
+<p>I want to appeal only to your reason, and not to influence your passion,
+but I ask you to take a manly stand in the aid of men, women and
+children who have been ground down by the iron heel of the oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>I would rather be a manly pauper than an unmanly millionaire.</p>
+
+<p>I ask every man, as an individual to think for himself and to do what he
+thinks to be right.</p>
+
+<p>President Debs appealed to the men to commit no acts of violence but act
+in strict accordance with the law.</p>
+
+<p>The strike had now reached St. Paul, Omaha, Denver, Trinidad, Cal.;
+Raton, N. M.; Cincinnati, St. Louis and Duluth, and no intimidation, no
+threats, no violence of any kind whatever was resorted to. When the men
+were asked to handle the Pullman cars, they simply stepped down and
+out.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN APPEAL FROM DEBS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>As the light of dawn proclaimed the birth of a new day so the events
+that this day would bring forth was the all absorbing thought and theme
+of a great number of the American people.</p>
+
+<p>All were anxious to learn the situation, whether interested in the
+boycott or otherwise, as by this time the whole western part of the
+United States had begun to feel the heavy hand of the American Railway
+Union boycott, and every railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific
+coast, from Manitoba to Mexico, and all centers of importance in the
+West, Southwest and Northwest were tied up, because the American Railway
+Union men, in the cause of humanity and right, would not operate them
+with Pullman sleepers attached, and the railroad managers, in the cause
+of oppression, would not allow them to run otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Thirteen roads centering in Chicago were now completely tied up, the
+Santa Fe, Chicago &amp; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, Chicago &amp;
+Western Indiana, Pan Handle, Monon Route, Chicago &amp; Grand Trunk, Chicago
+&amp; Erie, Illinois Central, Baltimore &amp; Ohio, Chicago &amp; Great Western,
+Wisconsin Central and Cincinnati Southern, and the General Managers had
+begun to realize the futility of carrying on the fight, and if they had
+not received encouragement and aid from outside sources, would have in
+all probability ended the strike at once by dropping the Pullman cars.</p>
+
+<p>As a prominent railroad man said when asked about the strike situation:
+"It is my opinion that the railroads will drop the fight just as soon as
+the American Railway Union can demonstrate the fact that Pullman cars
+can not be hauled without a long and expensive fight with their own
+employes. I know that this view of the case was taken by some of the
+managers at a meeting to-day, and Mr. Pullman will be notified that he
+must make a settlement with his men at once, otherwise the effected
+roads will drop his cars and resume business."</p>
+
+<p>The Union now felt confident of success. President Debs said: "We are
+sure to win as our cause is just, there will be no disturbances as the
+men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>have orders that there must be no rioting and no interference
+whatever with the roads, other than to refuse to assist to operate them.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever the officials can do for themselves with the few men at their
+command let them do; we propose to be fair and square in this fight, and
+if within my power to prevent, not one spike belonging to any road will
+be damaged."</p>
+
+<p>And thus the second day of the great strike came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>June 28th added nine more roads to those already tied up.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago &amp; Northwestern; Chicago &amp; Alton; Union Pacific; Denver &amp; Rio
+Grande; Chicago &amp; Eastern Illinois; Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne &amp; Chicago;
+Chicago, Milwaukee &amp; St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington &amp; Quincy, and the
+Stock Yard Terminals, making in all twenty-two roads out and twenty
+thousand men on strike in the city of Chicago, and not one act of
+violence committed that could be charged to a striker.</p>
+
+<p>The Mobile &amp; Ohio at this time succumbed to the boycott and sidetracked
+its Pullman cars promising not to haul them again until the strike was
+settled. This rail road is a large <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>corporation, and its surrender to
+the American Railway Union was considered a great victory, and the
+directors at once ordered the boycott raised as far as this line was
+concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Minneapolis and St. Paul was now beginning to feel the effect of the
+boycott.</p>
+
+<p>The Northern Pacific was the first in the fight, and the same plan of
+action outlined at Chicago was followed at these points when the time
+came to make up passenger trains. The switchmen refused to couple on the
+Pullman's and were discharged.</p>
+
+<p>The mediation committee at once took up the matter with the manager,
+asking him to re-instate the discharged men, which he refused to do, and
+as a result the entire system from the Pacific coast to Minneapolis and
+St. Paul was called out.</p>
+
+<p>This plan was adopted and carried out on all the rail roads entering the
+Twin cities.</p>
+
+<p>The boycott was no longer a fight in the interest of the Pullman
+employes alone but had resolved itself into a gigantic contest between
+organized labor on the one side, and organized capital on the other, and
+although up to this time there had been no violence, no loud
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>demonstrations, no threats of any kind, the Illinois Central demanded
+troops to protect their property, and the militia was ordered out. On
+the Pan Handle the Cincinnati Express had the cars of Mr. Pullman
+detached, and the officials cried "riot" and asked from Sheriff Gilbert
+of Chicago a posse to protect the U. S. mail. This was furnished, and
+although the mail cars were not molested in any way, the officials
+refused to allow the mail to go forward without the Pullman sleepers
+attached.</p>
+
+<p>Seven more railroads had now come under the ban of the boycott making in
+all twenty-nine at the close of the fourth day.</p>
+
+<p>On June 29th President Debs issued the following appeal to railway
+employes of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"The struggle with the Pullman company has developed into a contest
+between the producing classes and the money power of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"This is what Lincoln predicted at the close of the civil war, and it
+was this reflection that gave the great emancipator his gloomiest
+forebodings. We stand upon the ground that the workingmen are entitled
+to a just proportion of the proceeds of their labor. This the Pullman
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>company denied them. Reductions have been made from time to time until
+the employes earned barely sufficient wages to live, not enough to
+prevent them from sinking deeper and deeper into Pullman's debt, thereby
+mortgaging their bodies and souls, as well as their children's, to that
+heartless corporation.</p>
+
+<p>"Up to this point the fight was between the American Railway Union and
+the Pullman company. The American Railway Union resolved that its
+members would refuse to handle Pullman cars and equipment. Then the
+railway corporations through the General Manager's association, came to
+the rescue, and in a series of whereases declared to the world that they
+would go into partnership with Pullman, so to speak, and stand by him in
+his devilish work of starving his employes to death. The American
+Railway Union accepted his gauge of war, and thus the contest is now on
+between the railway corporations arrayed solidly on the one hand, and
+the labor forces upon the other. Every railroad employe of the country
+should take his stand against the corporations in this fight, for if it
+should be lost corporations will have despotic sway and all employes
+will be reduced to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>condition scarcely removed above chattel slavery;
+but the fight will not be lost. The great principle of American manhood
+and independence is involved. Corporate power, drunk with its own
+excesses, has presumed too far upon the forbearance of the American
+people, and, notwithstanding a subsidized press (to which there are many
+notable and noble exceptions), public sympathy is with the striking
+employes, who are merely contending for the right of their fellow
+toilers to receive living wages for their work.</p>
+
+<p>"I appeal to strikers everywhere to refrain from any act of violence.
+Let there be no interference with the affairs of the companies involved
+and above all let there be no act of depredation. A man who will destroy
+property or violate law is an enemy, not a friend to the cause of labor.
+The great public is with us and we need only to maintain a dignified,
+honest, straight forward policy to achieve victory. Let it be understood
+that this strike is not ordered by myself nor by any other individual;
+nor is the strike inaugurated anywhere except by consent and authority
+from a majority of the employes themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither is this a fight simply of the American Railway Union. The
+question of organization <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>ought not be raised, but every man who
+believes in organized railroad labor should take his stand on the side
+of labor, and its battles for his rights and those of his fellowmen. I
+have faith in the great body of railroad employes of the country and am
+confident they will maintain an unbroken front in spite of any
+opposition that may be brought to bear against them.</p>
+
+<p>"I am perfectly confident of success. We cannot fail.</p>
+
+<p class="right smmcap">E. V. Debs.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIDES WITH THE MANAGERS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The fifth day of the great strike showed no cessation of hostilities,
+the entire Northwestern and Southwestern portion of the United States
+was practically at a standstill. Every road entering Chicago was
+partially, if not completely tied up, and the General Managers
+Association, under the leadership of John M. Egan was at sea.</p>
+
+<p>They now realized that they had taken a contract that it would be
+difficult to fulfill, and without the co-operation of some greater power
+they would be defeated. A lack of confidence in their ability to subdue
+the strikers and compel them to work, was well illustrated in a meeting
+between Sir George Pullman and Vice-President Harahan of the Illinois
+Central. W. M. Daley, of New Orleans, was the only witness to the
+meeting and his presence undoubtedly saved Sir George from a masterly
+drubbing at the hands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>of Mr. Harahan. Mr. Pullman entered the office of
+Vice-President Harahan, and in the course of time his conversation
+turned to the strike and its effect on the Illinois Central.</p>
+
+<p>This was the opening round.</p>
+
+<p>It aroused all the ire in the portly form of Mr. Harahan, and with
+blazing eyes he turned on Sir George.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not fit to govern men," he said; "instead of visiting your own
+works, you have a number of superintendents who furnish you with
+reports, and when they are colored to suit you take them as facts, and a
+result is business is embargoed, poverty stalks all over your grounds,
+you are alone responsible for the present condition of affairs on the
+railroads. Why don't you go among your employes and see things for
+yourself? If you did there would be no such trouble." Then followed a
+number of epithets such as thick head, incompetent, over-rated, and the
+official shook his fist under the stubby nose of Sir George in a very
+threatening manner. Mr. Pullman tried to speak, but the Vice-President
+broke in on him again. "You think you have a contract with this road
+that you can rub it in on us, but you can't, never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>will we submit to
+it, the railroads are losing $250,000 a day owing to your obstinacy. You
+are unfit to act as president of any company, and if you were to visit
+your much boasted town to-day, the chances are that you would be dealt
+with severely. Why, you are nothing but a figure head, you are not the
+actual president of the company, for if you were you would know
+something about it. You know nothing in regard to the actual state of
+affairs." It did not take long for the story to reach the different
+railroad centers about the city.</p>
+
+<p>It came to the knowledge of the American Railway Union that J. M. Egan
+and Manager St. John of the Rock Island road had employed two thousand
+men in Canada to fill the places of the strikers, and steps were taken
+immediately to stop their importation, but with what success it was
+impossible to determine.</p>
+
+<p>All this time the strike was spreading and the membership of the
+American Railway Union was increasing rapidly. The sensational reports
+of rioting and bloodshed in various yards proved upon investigation to
+be false, and beyond doubt circulated by the General Managers and
+eagerly seized by the subsidized press to win the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>sympathy of the
+public in the interest of the corporations.</p>
+
+<p>The police when questioned positively denied the stories saying there
+were no grounds for the reports.</p>
+
+<p>Marching orders were received at the headquarters of the Missouri U. S.
+troops, for the 15th infantry and though it was not known at the time
+the orders were received from Washington, it was soon learned that they
+were to go to Chicago and assist the General Managers to run their
+trains.</p>
+
+<p>At this time occurred the tie-up at Minnesota Transfer, which was the
+most complete and effectual blockade of any in the strike district. The
+Minnesota Transfer represents nine different roads. The Chicago,
+Milwaukee &amp; St. Paul; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis &amp; Omaha; Great
+Northern; Northern Pacific; Minneapolis &amp; St. Louis; Chicago Great
+Western; Wisconsin Central; Chicago, Burlington &amp; Northern and Belt Line
+Ry.</p>
+
+<p>All freight through the Twin Cities handled by these roads, is
+interchanged at this point. It is situated midway between St. Paul and
+Minneapolis and employes from three hundred to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>five hundred men
+according to the volume of business. This is a freight yard exclusively,
+and therefore had nothing to do with the handling of Pullman equipment.
+But this little technicality did not prevent this body of men from
+coming to the assistance of their brothers, and as each road was brought
+under the ban of the boycott they refused to handle cars or in any way
+assist them to operate their line.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the 1st day of July, the Milwaukee road now under
+boycott brought in five cars of beer for delivery to the Great Northern.</p>
+
+<p>The men including the yardmaster refused to deliver the cars, and were
+sent home. A meeting was called for the night of July 2nd, and a
+committee appointed to wait upon the superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan,
+and ascertain if the men were discharged. Mr. Sullivan answered in the
+affirmative, and an unanimous vote to strike was then taken, over three
+hundred men, the entire force with three exceptions quit work, and not a
+wheel was turned except by the superintendent himself, for ten days.</p>
+
+<p>The general Managers now got in their fine work by utilizing the
+government. A Washington special to the Chicago Times says:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>Our wretched administration is in the hands of the railroads, there is
+no doubt about it, Cleveland, Lamont, Olney and Bissel are at the beck
+and call of the corporations, from the White House down it has been
+determined to put forth every effort even to Gatling guns, to employ
+every arm of the government even to its Supreme Judges to destroy this
+strike and the laboring people concerned in it. The case is decided
+against the strikers in advance, the wired words of the General Managers
+are accepted as settled facts; what they ask for they will get, what
+they suggest will be adopted. The workingmen are to be ground beneath
+the heel of the military, and if necessary, to force them into
+submission they are to be sabered, bayoneted, shot down or taken
+prisoners or whatever is deemed sternly necessary to compel them to
+submit to such terms as their moneycrat owner sees fit to impose.</p>
+
+<p>This is a railway administration. So promptly loyal has Cleveland proven
+himself to be that it is to be believed that should the companies desire
+it, they could have the Executive Mansion for a round house and the
+White House grounds for switching purposes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>The managers wired Olney to name Edwin Walker, who is attorney for the
+Milwaukee road as special solicitor for the government, to take measures
+against the strikers as they had no confidence in Milchrist.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed weak, his term was soon to expire and he seemed inclined to
+avoid harsh measures ablest with the men. They wanted Walker, he was the
+corporation attorney in the country; he had been cradled by, and grown
+up at the knee of corporations; he was their body and soul in the life
+and death struggle with their employes.</p>
+
+<p>They urged Olney to clothe Walker with the special United States
+authority to better protect them and overthrow the strike. By thus
+making the railway attorney Walker solicitor for the United States, the
+control of government power could be placed in the hands of the
+corporations to wield against the men. Walker was appointed by Olney and
+placed in control over Milchrist in the affairs of the strike. Mr.
+Walker was known personally by Olney, and Olney is at the present time
+one of the counsels of the Santa Fe and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,
+and said to be a director of the latter road. He has been for years
+intimate with Mr. Walker, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>who, by the way, is a hot favorite of Fuller
+of the supreme bench. There was, therefore a dozen good reasons for this
+selection, which addressed themselves to Mr. Olney, who is in this not
+as a cabinet officer, but as a friend and director of railway
+corporations, and he therefore precipitately granted the request of the
+general managers. Bissel, also a railroad director, shows Olney's
+anxiety to come to the back of the roads. (The truth of the above
+correspondence could not be denied.) In this way the entire available
+force of troops at Ft. Sheridan, including infantry, cavalry and
+artillery was ordered out by the President of the United States to
+assist the railroad managers against the people. Such was the attitude
+of this government "of the people, by the people, and for the people"
+against the people. The railway managers having now secured the federal
+troops, proceeds to issue injunctions restraining the strikers from
+using the power of persuasion on those men still in the service, to
+induce them to quit. This order drawn up by Judges Wood and Grosscup was
+a lengthy one, and peculiarly in harmony with the corporation interest.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>The Chicago Times, in an editorial says: In this Federal injunction,
+which is in the main eminently just and equally unnecessary, appears a
+claim in which certain persons named, and all other persons whatsoever
+are ordered to refrain from compelling or inducing, or attempting to
+compel or induce, by threats, intimidation, force or violence any of the
+employes of any of the said railroads, to refuse or fail to perform any
+of their duties, as employes of said railroads, in connection with the
+interstate business or commerce of such railroads, or the transportation
+of passenger or property between or among the states; or from compelling
+or inducing or attempting to compel or induce by threats, intimidation,
+persuasion, force or violence, any of the employes of any of said
+railroads, who are employed by said railroads and engaged in its
+service, in the conduct of interstate business or in the operation of
+any of its trains carrying mail of the United States or doing interstate
+business or transportation of passengers or freight, between and among
+the states, to leave the service of such railroad. The Times
+emphatically does not believe that any court whatever has a right to
+order men to refrain from attempting by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>persuasion to induce others to
+leave the employment they are engaged in. There is a natural law that in
+the end will prevail over the formal law built up by lawyers and courts.
+If as Judge Gary says, the law is common sense, this injunction will not
+stand, for common sense will certainly pronounce an orderly and
+respectful request to a railroad employee to give up his position and
+join the organized strikers, no crime. It is idle to plead that a
+discreet and just court will only enforce this injunction against actual
+law breakers, for there is in it an opportunity for injustice and
+oppression which makes it wholly bad. The injunction is becoming a
+menace to liberty, it is a weapon ever ready for the capitalist, and
+there should be more careful federal legislation limiting its use.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly if the restraining order of Judges Wood and Grosscup be good
+law there is no sense in maintaining organized labor. Childlike trust in
+the benevolence and fairness of the employer must be the workingman's
+future policy if this injunction be made a precedent.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the General Manager's association and the subsidized
+press were endeavoring to impress the public with the belief that the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>strikers were a lot of disorderly and riotous law breakers of the worst
+description. To show how much truth there was in these tales, I will
+give the statement of Capt. J. Hartnett as made after dispersing a mob.
+He said: There wasn't a railroad man in the whole outfit, but a lot of
+bums who thought they would have a lot of sport at the expense of the
+railroads. But we soon gave them a hustling, and I want to say this for
+the strikers, and by that I mean the real railroad men, they are orderly
+here and as quiet as possible, I have had no disturbance in any district
+that can be traced to railroad men. It is well known that on occasions
+like these every loafer turns loose and takes advantage of the strike to
+start a row, but the genuine railroad men are too sensible to cause any
+disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>This was true also of all other cities engaged in the strike.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>TROOPS AT BLUE ISLAND.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Fourth of July dawned upon a scene that would start the blood of the
+signers of the Declaration of Independence leaping in flames of fire
+through their veins, if they could but reappear upon this land in the
+vigorous manhood of their youth; those heroes whose blood baptized the
+battlefields of Yorktown and Bunker Hill for the glorious cause of
+liberty and equal rights; and behold the spectacle of this day, they
+would think that they had fought, bled and died in vain, that victory
+after all was but defeat.</p>
+
+<p>Military despotism reigned supreme. The great masses of the liberty
+loving people who were wont to celebrate this National holiday of
+Independence in a manner befitting the occasion, began to think. Their
+thoughts took them back to the days of English tyranny, and they ask
+themselves, must this fight be fought again? The thoughts were
+contagious, and when the American people began to think, their thoughts
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>are dangerous. The battle must and will be fought again, but not with
+the weapons of '76, but with the weapon the old man can wield as well as
+the young; the ballot.</p>
+
+<p>Wholesale arrests followed the arrival of the federal troops at Blue
+Island, free speech was eliminated, any man who passed along, who had
+the appearance of striker or sympathizer was promptly arrested, and that
+too without a warrant. The remark "that fellow is a scab," was
+sufficient to send a man to the guard house. A fireman was asked by his
+landlord, "where have you been lately?" That was enough, he was placed
+with other shackled prisoners in the guard house, but was released later
+on. In the morning there was a parade, but the old time patriotism was
+noticeably wanting, a fireman arrested for refusing to go to work,
+having a depressing effect. Patriotic speeches were prominent by their
+absence, and people began to wonder what day was being celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>The bloodcurdling lawlessness and rioting by the strikers at Blue
+Island, as depicted by the corporation press; when simmered down to
+facts proved to be as false as other similar reports sent out by the
+plutocratic press. The so-called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>rioting amounted to nothing more or
+less than expression of thought, and I believe if the General Managers,
+corporation courts, Cleveland &amp; Co., could conceive and put into
+execution some plan whereby they could put a restraining order on the
+minds of the striker and deny him the right to think, it would be done.
+The gist of the rioting as I said before was simply expression of
+thought. A man as he watched a train pass by remarked: "There are d&mdash;&mdash;d
+few Pullmans anyway." He was promptly arrested. Another remarked that
+some fellow was a scab, and was also taken in. This and other like
+remarks were samples of the Blue Island rioting at Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the arrival of the federal troops, the General Managers Association
+shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of Uncle
+Sam, and the eager willingness that the representatives of the people
+exhibited to assist Sir Duke Pullman and the railroad corporation to
+subjugate and reduce the working people to a condition of serfdom, was
+sufficient evidence that the managers knew what they were about. They
+felt secure in the knowledge that their interest would be well taken
+care of by the administration, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>sought the much needed rest that
+these weary sessions of plotting and scheming had earned for them.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PROTEST FROM GOV. ALTGELD.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>It was plain to be seen that the presence of U. S. troops in Chicago had
+a bad effect. The people felt disposed to resent this uncalled for
+interference of the President. His unwarranted and illegal action in
+sending federal troops into the state of Illinois uncalled for by the
+civil authorities (waiving all question of courtesy), was a reflection
+on the efficiency of the civil authorities to maintain order, and a
+direct insult to the intelligence and loyalty to the citizens of the
+state. The governor protested against this high-handed proceeding, and
+in no mild terms insisted that he was amply able and willing to preserve
+order if called upon to do so.</p>
+
+<p>He assured the President that it was not troops the railroads needed but
+men to run their trains, and this was the exact truth, as the strikers
+were not interfering with the running of trains but refused to run them,
+and the companies could not operate their roads without the aid of the
+men who left the service.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>But they needed a shield to hide their helplessness, and this they found
+in the federal troops, therefore it requires but little reasoning to
+understand the bad effect on the people, made by the presence of United
+States troops, equipped for war in time of peace. This ill feeling,
+mingled with curiosity produced excitement. Excitement invited the
+presence of the tough and lawless element, which was exactly what the
+railroad magnates were striving for, as the strikers had no intention of
+interfering with their trains, and they knew that it was necessary to
+incite rioting in order to have an excuse for not operating their roads.</p>
+
+<p>Their devilish schemes succeeded only too well. A mob composed of the
+tough and hoodlum element congregated at the Rock Island yards and from
+Nineteenth to Fortieth Street, overturned box cars and destroyed
+everything that came in their way. The mob increased until not less than
+ten thousand people participated in the work of destruction, but be it
+said to the credit of the <i>impartial</i> press of that city, they announced
+that no strikers had taken part in the lawlessness. Mayor Hopkins, who
+went in person to the scene, said that from what he had heard, and what
+he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>could see for himself, that no railroad men were implicated in the
+depredations, and business men whose veracity could not be questioned
+corroborated his statement.</p>
+
+<p>This occurrence was much to be feared by the strikers, as it was not the
+first time that such means had been employed to turn public sentiment
+from the side of the workingmen.</p>
+
+<p>Realizing this the men did their utmost to prevent it, and by threats
+and entreaties tried to persuade the mob to desist from the work of
+destruction, but were successful only for a short time. One of the
+strikers remarked to an officer at the time: "By Heavens! this won't do,
+there is not a striker in that crowd; this is done to injure us, and
+those fellows are not trying to stop it," meaning the troops.</p>
+
+<p>The strike had now reached Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, and was
+rapidly spreading east, the entire country was in a whirlpool of
+excitement, and the strikers were jubilant. The general managers with
+the combined forces of the federal troops, state militia, and Cleveland
+and his cabinet could not operate the roads. One simple word from the
+general managers to Pullman would have been more effective in starting
+the trains <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>than all the armies and courts in the United States or all
+the scabs from Canada, but rather than speak that one word,
+"arbitration," they would bankrupt every system of railroads in the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>On July 5, President Cleveland received by wire the following protest
+from Gov. Altgeld of Illinois:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Sir:&mdash;I am advised that you have ordered federal troops to go into
+service in the state of Illinois. Surely the facts have not been
+correctly presented to you in this case or you would not have taken this
+step, for it is entirely unnecessary and as it seems to me
+unjustifiable. Waiving all question of courtesy I will say that the
+state of Illinois is not only able to take care of itself, but it stands
+ready to-day to furnish the federal government any assistance it may
+need elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Our military force is ample and consists of as good soldiers as can be
+found in the country. They have been ordered promptly, whenever and
+wherever they were needed. We have stationed in Chicago alone three
+regiments of infantry, one battery and one troop of cavalry, and no
+better soldiers can be found. They have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>ready every moment to go
+on duty and have been and are now eager to go into service.</p>
+
+<p>"But they have not been ordered out because nobody in Cook county,
+whether official or private citizen, asked to have their assistance or
+even intimated in any way that their assistance was desired or
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"So far as I have been advised the local officials have been able to
+handle the situation, but if any assistance were needed the state stood
+ready to furnish 100 men for every one man required, and stood ready to
+do so at a moment's notice. Notwithstanding these facts the federal
+government has been applied to by men who had political and selfish
+motives for wanting to ignore the state government.</p>
+
+<p>"We have just gone through a long coal strike more extensive here than
+in any other state because our soft coal fields are larger than that of
+any other state. We have now had ten days of the railroad strike, and we
+have promptly furnished military aid wherever the local officials needed
+it. In two instances the United States marshall for the southern
+district of Illinois applied for assistance to enable him to enforce the
+processes of the United States court and troops <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>were promptly furnished
+him, and he was assisted in every way he desired. The law has been
+thoroughly executed and every man guilty of violating it during the
+strike has been brought to justice.</p>
+
+<p>"If the marshall of the northern district of Illinois or the authorities
+of Cook county needed military assistance they had but to ask for it in
+order to get it from the state.</p>
+
+<p>"At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not by reason of
+obstruction but because they cannot get men to operate their trains. For
+some reason they are anxious to keep this fact from the public and for
+this purpose are making an outcry about obstructions in order to avert
+attention. Now, I will cite to you two examples which illustrate the
+situation: Some days ago I was advised that the business of one of our
+railroads was obstructed at two railroad centers, that there was a
+condition bordering on anarchy there&mdash;and I was asked to furnish
+protection so as to enable the employees of the road to operate the
+trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both points. Then it transpired
+that the company had not sufficient men on its line to operate one
+train. All the old hands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>were orderly but refused to go. The company
+had large shops in which worked a number of men who did not belong to
+the railway union and who could run an engine. They were appealed to to
+run the train but flatly refused to do so. We were obliged to hunt up
+soldiers who could run an engine and operate a train.</p>
+
+<p>"Again two days ago appeals which were almost frantic came from
+officials of another road stating that at an important point on their
+line trains were forcibly obstructed and that there was a reign of
+anarchy at that place and they asked for protection so that they could
+move their trains. Troops were put on the ground in a few hours' time,
+when the officer in command telegraphed me that there was no trouble and
+had been none at that point, but the road seemed to have no men to run
+the trains and the sheriff wired that he did not need troops, but would
+himself move every train if the company would only furnish an engineer.
+The result was that the troops were there over twelve hours before a
+single train was moved although there was no attempt at interference by
+anyone. It is true that in several instances a road made an effort to
+work a few green men and a crowd <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>standing around insulted them and
+tried to drive them away, and in a few other instances they cut off
+Pullman sleepers from trains. But all these troubles were local in
+character and could easily be handled by the state authorities. Illinois
+has more railroad men than any state in the Union, but as a rule they
+are orderly and well behaved. This is shown by the fact that so very
+little actual violence has been committed. Only a very small per cent of
+these men have been guilty of any infractions of the law. The newspaper
+accounts have in many cases been pure fabrications and in others wild
+exaggerations.</p>
+
+<p>"I have gone thus into details to show that it is not soldiers that the
+railroads need so much as it is men to operate trains, and that the
+conditions do not exist here which bring the cause within the federal
+statutes, a statute that was passed in 1881, and was in reality a war
+measure. This statute authorizes the use of federal troops in a state
+where ever it is impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States
+within such states by the ordinary judicial proceedings. Such a
+condition does not exist in the state of Illinois. There have been a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>few local disturbances but nothing that seriously interfered with the
+administration of justice or that could not easily be controlled by the
+local or state authorities for the federal troops can do nothing that
+the state troops cannot do.</p>
+
+<p>"I repeat that you have been imposed upon in this matter, but even if by
+a forced construction it were held that the condition here came within
+the letter of the statute, then I submit that local self government is a
+fundamental principle of our constitution. Each community shall govern
+itself so long as it can and is ready and able to enforce the law, and
+it is in harmony with this fundamental principle that the statute
+authorizing the president to send troops into states must be construed.
+Especially is this so in matters relating to the exercise of the police
+power and the preservation of law and order. To absolutely ignore a
+local government in matters of this kind, when the local government is
+ready to furnish assistance needed and is amply able to enforce the law,
+not only insults the people of this state by imputing to them an
+inability to govern themselves or an unwillingness to enforce the law,
+but is in violation of a basic principle of our institutions.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>"The question of federal supremacy is in no way involved; no one
+disputes it for a moment but under our constitution federal supremacy
+and local self government must go hand in hand and to ignore the latter
+is to do violence to the constitution.</p>
+
+<p>"As governor of the state of Illinois I protest against this and ask the
+immediate withdrawal of the federal troops from active duty in this
+state.</p>
+
+<p>"Should the situation at any time get so serious that we cannot control
+it with the state troops we will promptly and freely ask for federal
+assistance, but until such time I protest with all due deference against
+this uncalled for reflection upon our people and again ask the immediate
+withdrawal of the troops. I have the honor to be,</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 8em;">Yours respectfully</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 5em;" class="smcap">John P. Altgeld,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 2em;">Governor of Illinois."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>To the above communication President Cleveland answered as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"To the Hon. John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois. Federal troops were
+sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the constitutions and laws of
+the United States upon the demand of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>the post office department that
+obstructions of the mails should be removed, and upon the
+representations of the judicial officers of the United States that
+process of law federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary
+means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against
+commerce between the states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly
+within the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops
+in Chicago was deemed not only proper but necessary, and there has been
+no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local
+authorities to preserve the peace of the city.</p>
+
+<p class="right smcap">
+Grover Cleveland."</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>INCENDIARISM AND BLOODSHED.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The 6th day of July was one long to be remembered, as the first act of
+incendiarism was committed. A conflagration was started along the tracks
+of the Pan Handle, Baltimore &amp; Ohio; Chicago &amp; Northern Pacific, and
+Belt Line R. R., which terminated in the burning of whole trains of
+cars, switch houses and tool-houses belonging to these companies. A
+splendid tower house belonging to the Pan Handle was saved through the
+supreme efforts of the strikers, who tore away the burning sidewalks
+which connected the tool-house with the tower-house. This fine structure
+was recently built and cost the company $40,000. Upon the authority of
+the city police and firemen, I can state that the fires were started by
+a crowd of young hoodlums and toughs living in the vicinity, and the
+strikers were in no way responsible for them.</p>
+
+<p>There was only a small crowd of these young toughs around the yards,
+they scattered in different directions and simultaneously fire broke out
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>in different places. One boy was seen to set fire to a bunch of waste,
+and throw it into the empty cars as he ran, and the dry woodwork was
+soon a mass of flames. Between eight hundred and sixteen hundred cars
+were destroyed by this conflagration and the loss aggregated over
+$200,000, besides three men killed outright and seven wounded.</p>
+
+<p>The peaceable and law abiding city of Chicago was feeling the effects of
+a reign of terror. Innocent men, women and children were being shot down
+or bayoneted by the tools of railroad corporations in a most cold
+blooded and heartless manner. According to the statements of eye
+witnesses some young fellows under the age of sixteen years, and
+therefore not strikers, threw stones at the soldiers who at once began
+to shoot indiscriminately into a crowd composed of men, women and
+children who had no connection whatever with the affair, then with fixed
+bayonets charged upon the people, and those who were unfortunate enough
+to be caught were severely dealt with. One old man, a Pole, who was
+standing in in his own door yard, and seeing the people run took fright
+and started into his house, was pursued by a soldier who saw him run and
+stabbed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>in the back. The old man fell shrieking to the ground, begging
+for mercy, when the brutal fiend plunged the bayonet twice more into the
+helpless form and left him in a dying condition.</p>
+
+<p>One young lady was shot while standing on the roof of her own house, and
+fell a corpse in her brother's arm.</p>
+
+<p>Still another victim was a man who was shot while standing in the
+doorway of his home and a rioter by the name of Burke was shot and
+killed in the charge.</p>
+
+<p>In an editorial the Chicago Times says: "Let us examine the net results
+of the activity of the troops on Saturday; results of which the amateur
+soldier Brigadier General Wheeler remarked: "I am glad that the troops
+made a stand and that blood was shed." There is some conflict in the
+reports of the day's carnage, but the salient facts seem to be these:</p>
+
+<p>"Three persons in all were shot dead, one of these, an eighteen year old
+girl, was standing on a distant house top watching the fray, when a
+bullet pierced her heart. Of course she was not a striker nor was her
+continued life a menace to American institutions.</p>
+
+<p>"John Burke, identified by the police as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>professional crook, was
+another victim and his presence in the mob adds evidence to the claim of
+the Times that the rioting was the work of chronic toughs and criminals
+and not of workingmen. Joseph Warzouski, the third to fall before a
+military bullet, was sitting smoking before his house door when wantonly
+shot down by a regular. He was not a striker, and not within one hundred
+yards of railroad property when murdered.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the wounded five were women, one of whom looses an arm and another a
+leg. Six were boys under nineteen years of age, and one was a baby.</p>
+
+<p>"The points which these facts demonstrate, is that the rioting is not
+the work of members of the American Railway Union, or in fact of
+workingmen of any organization, but the acts of toughs and pluguglies
+and boisterous boys, with whom this city like other large cities,
+abound. Though the crowd looks large and dangerous, the actual number of
+combatants is comparatively small, and the clubs of the police instead
+of the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers, would have been the proper
+weapons to use. Then Chicago would not have been disgraced by shedding
+the blood of women and children and taking innocent lives."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>On July 6, Mr. Debs issued the following clear and succinct statement of
+the causes and status of the present condition of affairs:</p>
+
+<p>"To the public:&mdash;So many misleading reports have been given currency in
+reference to the great railroad strike now in progress that I am
+prompted, in the interest of justice and fair play, to give the public
+an honest, impartial statement of the issues involved and the facts as
+they actually exist. My purpose in this is to have the great American
+public&mdash;the plain people&mdash;in every avenue of life conversant with the
+situation as it really is, that they who constitute the highest tribunal
+we know, may pass judgment upon our acts, condemn us if we are wrong,
+and uphold us if we are right.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all let it be said that the Pullman employes who struck May
+6th, last, did so entirely of their own accord."</p>
+
+<p>"Their action in so doing was spontaneous and unanimous. They simply
+revolted against a series of deep-seated wrongs of long standing, and no
+power could stay them. It has been charged, and the charge has been
+widely accepted, that they were induced to strike by their "leaders" and
+labor agitators; that if left alone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>they would have remained at work.
+The charge is wholly untrue.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is that the officers of the American Railway Union used all
+their influence to pacify the employes and advised them repeatedly not
+to strike, but to bear patiently their grievances until a peaceable
+settlement could be effected. To the truth of this statement the
+employes themselves will bear willing testimony.</p>
+
+<p>"But the grievances of the employes, men and women, had become so
+aggravated, so galling, that patience deserted them, and they abandoned
+their employment rather than to submit longer to conditions against
+which their very souls revolted. Whether they were right or not, let
+only those judge who comprehend the conditions under which these
+faithful employes toiled and groaned. Let us avoid sentiment. The bare
+facts will suffice, and they are haggard enough to excite the sympathy
+of every good citizen, rich or poor, employer or employed.</p>
+
+<p>"The Pullman company, be it understood owns the town of Pullman, owns
+the houses, the homes of employes, controls the light and water, and
+other necessaries of life, and wages are so adjusted to living expenses
+that in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>large majority of cases the employes are barely able to
+support their families. Proof overwhelming can be furnished. One
+instance will suffice. At the time they struck the employes were in
+arrears to the Pullman company $70,000 for rent alone. Wages had been
+repeatedly reduced but rent and other expenses had remained the same.</p>
+
+<p>"At this rate it would be a question of a short time only until the
+employes would have been hopelessly involved in debt, mortgaged soul and
+body to the Pullman company.</p>
+
+<p>"The employes from the beginning, have been willing to arbitrate their
+differences with the company. That is their position to-day. The company
+arrogantly declares that there is nothing to arbitrate. If this be true
+why not allow a board of fair and impartial arbitrators to determine the
+fact?</p>
+
+<p>"At this point we appeal to the public as to whether the position of the
+employes is entitled to the sanction of the public conscience. If the
+employes were to assume the position of the Pullman company and
+defiantly declare they had nothing to arbitrate, and arbitrarily demand
+unconditional surrender as the only basis <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>of settlement they would
+merit the condemnation of the public and it would certainly and swiftly
+fall upon them with crushing severity. Committee after committee waited
+upon the officials of the Pullman company with the vain hope of
+effecting a settlement. They were willing to make concessions, to
+compromise in the interest of peace. All their advances were repelled.</p>
+
+<p>"The company was, and is, unyielding as adamant. Finally, June 12th, the
+delegates of the American Railway Union, representing 425 local unions
+of railway employes located on the principal lines of American railways,
+met in convention at Chicago. The Pullman trouble had been discussed at
+their local meetings. Many of the delegates came instructed. The
+grievances of the Pullman employes were taken under consideration, and
+two separate committees were sent to the officials.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the slightest satisfaction could be obtained. As a last resort the
+delegates by a unanimous vote determined that unless the Pullman company
+would agree to do justice to their employes within five days, the
+members of the order would refuse to haul Pullman cars. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>This action be
+it remembered, was not taken until the strike had been on six weeks, and
+every conceivable effort to obtain redress had failed because of the
+obstinacy of the company.</p>
+
+<p>"Up to this time the trouble had been confined to the Pullman company
+and its employes. How, then, did the strike extend to the railways? Let
+the answer be given in accordance with the facts. The day before the
+order of the delegates declining to haul Pullman cars, went into effect,
+the General Managers' association, representing the principal Western
+railways, met and passed a series of resolutions, declaring in substance
+that they would uphold the Pullman company in its fight upon the
+employes, that they would haul Pullman cars and that they would stand
+together in crushing out the American Railway Union. The resolutions in
+question were published in the city papers and can be referred to in
+substantiation of this averment. It will thus be seen that the railway
+companies virtually joined forces with the Pullman company, went into
+partnership with them so to speak, to reduce and defeat their half
+starved employes. In this way the trouble was extended from line to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>line, and from system to system until a crisis has been reached. The
+business of the country is demoralized to an extent that defies
+exaggeration.</p>
+
+<p>"To say that the situation is alarming is entirely within the bounds of
+prudent statement. Every good citizen must view the outlook with grave
+concern.</p>
+
+<p>"Something should, something must be done. The American people are a
+peace-loving people&mdash;they want neither anarchy or revolution. They have
+faith in their institutions, they believe in law and order, they believe
+in good government, but they also believe in fair play. Once aroused
+they will not tolerate arbitrary and dictatorial defiance, even on the
+part of an alliance of rich and powerful corporations.</p>
+
+<p>"What can be done to dispel the apprehension that now prevails, and
+restore peace and confidence? The American Railway Union on whose
+authority and in whose behalf this statement is made, stands ready, has
+from the beginning stood ready, to do anything in its power, provided it
+is honorable to end this trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"This, briefly stated, is the position the organization occupies. It
+simply insists that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>Pullman Company shall meet its employes and do
+them justice. We guarantee that the latter will accept any reasonable
+proposition.</p>
+
+<p>"The company may act through its officials or otherwise, and the
+employes through their chosen representatives. Let them agree as far as
+they can, and where they fail to agree, let the points in dispute be
+subjected to arbitration. The question of the recognition of the
+American Railway Union or any other organization is waived. We do not
+ask, nor have we ever asked for a recognition as an organization. We
+care nothing about that, and so far as we are concerned it has no part
+in the controversy. Let the officials deal with the employes without
+reference to organizations. Let the spirit of conciliation, mutual
+concession, and compromise animate and govern both sides, and there will
+be no trouble in reaching a settlement that will be satisfactory to all
+concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"This done let the railway companies agree to restore all their employes
+to their situations without prejudice and the trouble will be ended. The
+crisis will thus be averted, traffic will resume and peace will reign.
+The railways are not required to recognize the American Railway Union.
+This has never been asked nor is it asked now.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>"If there are those who discover in this statement a 'weakening' on the
+part of the employes, as has been so often charged when an exposition of
+the true attitude of our order was attempted, we have only to say that
+they are welcome to such solace as such a perverted conclusion affords
+them. We have been deliberately and maliciously misrepresented, but we
+have borne it all with an unwavering faith that the truth will finally
+and powerfully prevail. We firmly believe our cause is just, and while
+we hold that belief, we will not recede. If we are wrong we are ready to
+be convinced. We are open to reason and to conviction, but we will not
+be cowed or intimidated. Were we to sacrifice the multiplied thousands
+of wageworkers who have committed their interests to our hands and yield
+to the pressure of corporate power, we would be totally unworthy of
+American citizenship.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be asked what sense is there in sympathetic strikes. Let the
+corporations answer.</p>
+
+<p>"When one is assailed all go to the rescue. They stand together; they
+support each other with men, money and equipments. Labor, in unifying
+its forces, simply follows their example. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>The corporations established
+a precedent. If the proceeding is vicious and indefensible let them
+first abolish it.</p>
+
+<p>"In this contest labor will stand by labor. Other organizations of
+workingmen have themselves felt the oppressive hand of corporate
+capital. They will not be called out, but will go out. And the spectacle
+of Mr. Pullman, fanned by the breezes of the seashore while his employes
+are starving, is not calculated to prevent their fellow wageworkers from
+going to their rescue by their only means at their command.</p>
+
+<p>"A few words in reference to myself, although ordinarily I pay no
+attention to misrepresentation or vituperation, may not be out of place,
+not because of myself personally, but on account of the cause I have the
+honor to in part represent, which may suffer if silence is maintained
+while it is assailed with falsehood and malignant detraction. I shirk no
+responsibility, neither do I want credit to which I am not entitled.
+This strike was not 'ordered' by myself nor by any other individual. I
+have never 'ordered' nor 'called' anybody out. Under the rules of the
+American Railway Union members can only strike when a majority of the
+members so decide.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>"The votes of the delegates in this instance was unanimous, and where
+ever men have struck they did so of their own accord. I have simply
+served the notice after the men themselves had determined to go out.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the extent of my authority and I have never exceeded it. My
+alleged authority to 'call' or 'order' out has been made the pretext on
+which to assail me with every slander that malignity could conceive. So
+far as I am personally concerned, detraction cannot harm me, nor does it
+matter if it could. I do not amount to more than the humblest member of
+our order&mdash;perhaps not as much. Fate or fortune has assigned me a duty,
+and, no matter how trying the ordeal or severe the penalties I propose
+to perform it. The reflection that an honest man has nothing to fear
+sustains and comforts me in every hour of trial.</p>
+
+<p>"In closing let me repeat that we stand ready to do our part toward
+averting the impending crisis. We have no false pride to stand in the
+way of a statement. We do not want official recognition. All we ask is
+fair play for the men who have chosen us to represent them.</p>
+
+<p>"If the corporations refuse to yield and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>stubbornly maintain that there
+is 'nothing to arbitrate,' the responsibility of what may ensue will be
+upon their heads, and they cannot escape its penalties.</p>
+
+<p class="right smcap">Eugene V. Debs."</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>SLAUGHTER OF CITIZENS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The situation at Hammond, Ind., would compare favorably with Chicago in
+so far as the wanton shooting of innocent citizens was concerned. The
+town had become infested with a gang of toughs from Chicago, who
+overturned a number of box cars and blocked the passage of trains. About
+noon of July 8th, the U. S. troops arrived, and their appearance
+attracted large crowds of citizens on the streets, in the vicinity of
+the railroad tracks. The troops who were ensconced in passenger cars
+were being hauled up and down the track, when a gang of toughs attempted
+to overturn a Pullman coach. The soldiers, who could easily have left
+the coaches and placed the lawbreakers under arrest opened fire, but
+strange to say these sharpshooters, under instructions to shoot to kill,
+did not wound even one of the lawless rioters. Not so, however, with the
+citizens who were walking along the street and had no connection
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>whatever with the mob. Charles Fleischer, who lived near with his wife
+and five children, walked down the street in search of his little son,
+when without a moment's warning he fell to the ground a corpse pierced
+with a law and order bullet. This man had no connection whatever with
+the riot nor even with the strike.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Flemming, of Chicago, who was visiting friends in Hammond was on
+the street when the shooting occurred and was seriously injured by a
+shot in the knee. Wm. Campbell, Victor Dizuttner and an unknown man were
+also shot and seriously injured by the regulars without the slightest
+provocation.</p>
+
+<p>These people had no connection with the rioters, were citizens of
+Hammond, and not on railroad property.</p>
+
+<p>Bullets crashed through frame walls, and I was told by a man whose head
+was grazed by a bullet while in his room, that nothing short of a
+miracle saved many persons from being shot down in their own dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>Mayor Reily whose anger knew no bounds, after the killing rushed to the
+telegraph office and wired Governor Matthews, asking if martial law had
+been proclaimed. I should like to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>know, he said, by what authority the
+U. S. troops come to our city and shoot down our citizens without the
+slightest warning.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after the fatal occurrence, A. Shields and Dr. F. E. Bell,
+representing the citizens of Hammond, wired Governor Matthews the
+following message: "Federal troops shooting down citizens promiscuously
+and without provocation. Cannot something be done to protect citizens?
+Act quickly."</p>
+
+<p>The governor replied that he had sent troops to restore order, enforce
+law, and protect lives of law abiding citizens. Lawlessness and rioting
+must be suppressed. Citizens obeying law had nothing to fear.</p>
+
+<p>Was ever military despotism more thoroughly demonstrated? What further
+proof was necessary than the reply of the chief executive of the state,
+to the citizens, that they were at the mercy of, and subject to the
+arrogant brutality of military despotism? The governor in his reply
+said: "Citizens obeying law have nothing to fear, that lawlessness must
+be suppressed." According to that we can only arrive at one conclusion;
+that the persons overturning cars and destroying property were obeying
+the law, as they were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>not shot down nor were they arrested, but on the
+other hand peaceable citizens who were in no way connected with the
+rioting, were shot and maimed by the troops.</p>
+
+<p>The people were beginning to regard the law with suspicion, they no
+longer felt that sense of security, the implicit confidence, they were
+wont to place in the constitution. The law of to-day, if the interests
+of the railroad corporations so required, would be reversed to-morrow.
+Under those circumstances could it be wondered that the people were
+beginning to lose the respect that had been accorded the law, and to
+which it was entitled? Could it be wondered that they became restless
+and exhibited signs of revolting against such damnable brutality, and
+the indignities to which they were subjected under the guise of the law?</p>
+
+<p>Cleveland was now beginning to fear, that in his eagerness to assist the
+railroads in crushing the strikers he had overreached himself and the
+wanton murder of citizens, he feared, might have a damaging effect on
+his future political plans. His uneasiness was quite apparent, while on
+the other hand his co-conspirator, Olney, was in a happy state of mind.
+He claimed to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>able with the anti-trust bill, to break up every labor
+union in America.</p>
+
+<p>The general managers, finding out that the city would not be held
+responsible for the loss of and damage to railroad property, were now in
+favor of removing the troops from the city of Chicago&mdash;but knowing the
+effect of such action after making an appeal for their assistance&mdash;did
+not ask for their removal.</p>
+
+<p>The situation throughout the country had not materially changed, and the
+prospects for a final victory for the strikers looked very favorably.</p>
+
+<p>General Miles circulated a story that ninety per cent of the citizens of
+Chicago were in sympathy with the Pullman company and the railroads.</p>
+
+<p>The railway managers took advantage of this report and spread and
+distorted it in order to discourage the strikers.</p>
+
+<p>Now for facts: The trades unions of Chicago alone represent 750,000
+people, adding to this the membership of the railway unions you have a
+total of 900,000 or ninety per cent of the citizens, who were in direct
+sympathy with the strikers. And it was not confined to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>members of
+Unions alone; such men as Bishop Fallaws, Rev. Dr. Henson, Prof. E. W.
+Bennis, Rev. G. P. Brushingham, Rev. W. H. Carvardine, Mayor Hopkins and
+hosts of other men prominent in the affairs of the city endorsed the men
+and denounced the railroad corporations.</p>
+
+<p>Resolutions by the score were passed by business men, by the
+Typographical Unions and other organizations endorsing the American
+Railway Union, and denouncing Pullman and the railroads, also condemning
+the action of Grover Cleveland in upholding the corporations against the
+workingmen.</p>
+
+<p>Resolutions were passed requesting all sympathizers to wear a white
+ribbon, the badge adopted by the American Railway Union, and the sea of
+white ribbons to be seen in Chicago would not bear out the statement of
+Gen. Miles.</p>
+
+<p>The labor unions now signified their willingness to strike in support of
+the movement if called upon by the American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>Grover Cleveland at this time issued a proclamation which&mdash;to all
+intents and purposes&mdash;declared martial law in the city of Chicago. This
+was what Gen. Miles desired, as it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>virtually gave him full power to
+rule with despotic sway over the citizens and civil authorities.</p>
+
+<p>The following protest was wired the President of the United States by
+President Debs, of the American Railway Union and Grand Master Sovereign
+of the Knights of Labor.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Hon. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, Executive
+Mansion, Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Sir:&mdash;Through a long period of depression, enforced idleness and
+low wages, resulting in wide spread poverty, and in many cases actual
+starvation, the working people have been patient, patriotic and law
+abiding, and not until the iron heel of corporate tyranny was applied
+with the intention to subjugate the working people to the will of
+arrogant monopolies, did they make any effort to stay their oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>"The Pullman strike was not declared until the employes of the Pullman
+company were driven to the verge of starvation, their entreaties spurned
+with contempt, and their grievances denied a hearing. No refusal to
+handle Pullman cars was declared by any railway employe until all
+propositions looking towards arbitration and conciliation were rejected
+by the Pullman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>company. Notwithstanding the truths set forth above were
+known to the public and the national authorities, you have seen fit
+under guise of protecting the mails and federal property to invoke the
+services of the United States army, whose very presence is used to
+coerce and intimidate peaceable working people into a humiliating
+obedience to the will of their oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>"By your acts, insofar as you have supplanted civil and state
+authorities with the federal military power, the spirit of unrest and
+distrust has so far been augmented that a deep seated conviction is fast
+becoming prevalent that this government is soon to become a military
+despotism. The transmission of the United States mails is not
+interrupted by the striking employes of any railway company, but by the
+railway companies themselves, who refused to haul the mail on trains to
+which Pullman cars were not attached. If it is a criminal interference
+with the United States mails for the employes of a railway company to
+detach from a mail train a Pullman palace car, contrary to the will of
+the company then it holds true that it is the same criminal interference
+whenever a Pullman palace car is detached from a mail train in
+accordance with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>will of a railroad company while said mail train is
+in transit. The line of criminality in such a case should not be drawn
+at the willingness or unwillingness of railway employes, but at the act
+itself, and inasmuch as it has been the common practice of railway
+corporations to attach and detach from mail trains Pullman palace cars
+at will while said trains are in transit and carrying the mails of the
+United States, it would seem an act of discrimination against the
+employes of the railway corporations to declare such acts unlawful
+interference with the transmission of the mails when done by employes
+with or without the consent of their employers.</p>
+
+<p>"In view of these facts we look upon the far-fetched decision of
+Attorney General Olney, the sweeping un-American injunctions against
+railway employes, and the movements of the regular army as employing the
+powers of the general government for the support and protection of the
+railway corporations in their determination to degrade and oppress their
+employes.</p>
+
+<p>"The present railway strike was precipitated by the uneasy desire of the
+railway corporations to destroy the organizations of their employes and
+make the working people more subservient <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>to the will of their
+employers; and as all students of government agree that free
+institutions depend for their perpetuity upon the freedom and prosperity
+of the common people, it would seem more in consonance with the spirit
+of democratic government if federal authority was exercised in deference
+of the rights of the toiling masses to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness. But on the contrary there is not an instance on record where
+in any conflict between corporations and the people the strong arm of
+the military power has been employed to protect the working people and
+the industrial masses from the ravage and persecution of corporate
+greed. But the measure of character has been in the line of declaring
+the corporations always good and in the right, and the working people
+always bad and in the wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sir, we pledge to you the power of our respective organizations,
+individually and collectively, for the maintenance of peace and good
+order and the preservation of life and property, and will aid in the
+arrest and punishment of all violators of the civil and criminal laws of
+the state or nation. In the present contest between labor and railway
+corporations we shall use <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>every peaceable and honorable means at our
+command consistent with the law and our constitutional rights, to secure
+for the working people just compensation for labor done and respectable
+consideration in accordance with the inherent rights of all men and the
+spirit of republican government. In doing so we appeal to all the
+liberty loving people of the nation to aid and support us in this most
+just and righteous cause.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 6em;">By <span class="smcap">Eugene V. Debs</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 3em;">President.</span><br /></p>
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Order of Knights of Labor,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By <span class="smcap">J. R. Sovereign</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Grand Master Workman."</span><br />
+</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>BUSINESS MEN'S PROTEST.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The town of Danville, Ill., was now visited by martial law with the
+result that two women were killed and two men fatally wounded. A
+non-union brakeman fired three shots into a crowd that was jeering him,
+whereupon some one in the crowd returned the fire hitting him in the
+neck. The militia then opened fire, killing a Mrs. Glennon who was
+standing in her own yard and Miss James seated at the organ in her own
+house. This was the effect of federal troops in Danville, and so it was
+in every town and city where Grover's minions were stationed. The
+damnable outrages perpetrated on the people of the commonweal by the
+federal troops under the guise of law and order was goading the citizens
+to a state of open rebellion. The business men of Chicago fearing a
+general outbreak determined on sending a committee to the Pullman
+company with a view to reaching a settlement whereby this dire calamity
+would be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>averted. A committee was formed composed of representative
+business men, members of the city council, and members of the various
+trades of the city. The committee met with no success.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes, who represented the Pullman company, informed them that the
+company had nothing to arbitrate and wished to see no committee. The
+proposition they wished to submit to Mr. Wickes as the representative of
+the Pullman company was this: That Mr. Pullman had said there was
+nothing to arbitrate while the men contended that there was. Let the
+Pullman company appoint two men and the circuit court two men. Let these
+four select a fifth, if necessary, to determine if there was anything to
+arbitrate and in case there was, that would take care of itself later.
+If not, the strike would end just as soon as the decision was reached.
+Surely this proposition was fair and manly but speaking for the Pullman
+company Mr. Wickes flatly refused to entertain it for an instant.
+Alderman McGillen, who acted as spokesman, then made an eloquent plea
+for the Pullman company to take steps, which he considered would go far
+toward settling the strike. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>said: "Mr. Wickes we received a request
+from the trades-unions&mdash;their representatives who are now here you have
+already met&mdash;to see if some means to settle this strike peaceably could
+not be found.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been demonstrated that your company had no subject for
+arbitration, that the request of the employes for arbitration could not
+be acceded to?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. McGillen: "We are here to suggest that it might be possible to
+obviate all differences between the company and the men&mdash;strikers,
+ex-employes, or whatever you wish to call them. We would suggest a
+committee to ascertain whether there is any matter needing arbitration
+as you are a quasi public."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes, interrupting: "Do you come as representatives of the city
+instructed by the mayor? We have nothing to arbitrate, the Pullman
+company cannot recede from its position."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. O'Brien: "There must be some trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "Our men made complaint, we promised to investigate, but
+before we had time to do so they struck."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>Ald. O'Brien: "But that will not settle the matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "Unfortunately not."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. McGillen: "We suggest that this committee be made up of
+representative men, the best men in Chicago, men who occupy positions of
+honor."</p>
+
+<p>Here attorney John S. Runnell appeared and was closeted with Mr. Wickes
+for a quarter of an hour.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to the room Mr. Wickes said that neither the Pullman
+company or the railway manager's association created the situation of
+to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work
+at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then,
+some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this,
+you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be
+conducted.</p>
+
+<p>Ald. McGillen then said: "You require protection from us. You call on
+the police, on the county, on the state, and on the nation for
+protection. Your only valued assets are the patents which the nation
+gives you in recognition of the genius which built the Pullman car.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>Remove that asset and you are ruined. You utterly ignore our request. It
+is not dishonorable men we ask to investigate your affairs. Think of the
+sickness, starvation, want, disaster and bloodshed which is coming if
+the strike assumes larger proportions. The climax is fast approaching
+and who will be to blame. I am here for the common weal, and I hope and
+beg of you not to refuse."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "There is a principle involved. Every business should have
+the right to dictate to its own labor, we will brook no interference,
+national, state, county or municipal."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. McGillen: "Compulsory arbitration is not a law but it will be if
+this strike does not stop."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "We have nothing to arbitrate."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. Warreinner: "We are not asking for arbitration, we want a committee
+appointed to see if there is need of it. Will you consent to that?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Ald. McGillen: "In the name of humanity let me beseech you to reconsider
+your negation."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes: "Gentlemen, the Pullman company has nothing to arbitrate, we
+want to see <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>no committee, the Pullman company cannot recede from its
+position. This is final."</p>
+
+<p>When the committee met again at 4:30 to make its final report, it was
+completely discouraged. Mr. Elderkin stated the proposition that had
+been made to the Pullman company and its direct refusal. The alderman
+begged the labor representatives not to strike and cause widespread
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p>The general manager's and Pullman's position was so clearly defined that
+it would be impossible for the public to fail to see it in any but its
+true light.</p>
+
+<p>The companies were losing millions of dollars but the general managers
+had determined if necessary to bankrupt every system in the United
+States in order to crush labor organizations out of existence. The
+Pullman matter was something of the past, with them they were after the
+labor organizations, and they were after them with a vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>The government was backing them. The attorney general of the United
+states,&mdash;a corporation attorney as well,&mdash;had pledged himself to disrupt
+every labor organization in the country. President Cleveland, another
+railroad <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>attorney, had encouraged and abetted them to the same end.</p>
+
+<p>With the subsidized press, the bankers unions, the moneycrat
+manufacturers and the federal courts arrayed against them, what in the
+name of justice could they expect?</p>
+
+<p>Surely the martyred president and savior of mankind, the immortal
+Lincoln, must have anticipated the present deplorable condition when in
+his message to the second session of the thirty-seventh congress,&mdash;to be
+found in the appendix to the Congressional Globe of the thirty-seventh
+congress, second section, page 4&mdash;when he said: "Monarchy itself is
+sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people.
+In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit
+raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It
+is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in
+favor of popular institutions, but there is one point with its
+connections not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief
+attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with,
+if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that
+labor is available only in connection with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>capital, that nobody labors
+unless somebody else owning capital somehow by the use of it induces him
+to labor. * * * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is
+only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not
+first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the
+higher consideration. * * * No men living are more worthy to be trusted
+than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch
+aught which they have not earned. Let them beware of surrendering a
+political power which they already possess and which, if surrendered,
+will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as
+they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of
+liberty shall be lost."</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>INDICTMENT OF PRESIDENT DEBS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The railroad managers and federal courts were leaving no stone unturned
+to secure the indictment and incarceration of Eugene V. Debs. If
+successful, it was their intention to dispose of all the officers and
+directors of the American Railway Union in the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney General Olney, acting for the railroads, was hatching a scheme
+to incarcerate the officers of the union and refuse them bail. Attorneys
+Walker and Milchrist were ready to prove that Debs ordered the boycott,
+that he conspired against the lives and liberty of the people, that he
+conspired to overthrow the government, in short, they were ready to
+prove anything that would further the ends of the corporations which
+they represented.</p>
+
+<p>These diabolical plotters never doubted for one instant that the
+officers of the American Railway Union were innocent of the charges
+preferred against them. They knew very well that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>they (the officers)
+had no authority to order a boycott or strike, and that it was ordered
+by a majority vote of the men employed on each system. They also knew
+that from the inauguration of the strike, not one word or act of Eugene
+V. Debs could be construed into an offense and make him amenable to the
+law.</p>
+
+<p>That he counseled moderation and appealed to the men to refrain from
+acts of violence from the start, was a well known fact. This was very
+clear to them, but the powerful magnetism of his presence in restraining
+the men from acts of violence would also have a tendency to keep their
+ranks firm and intact. This was also known to them and they must devise
+some scheme to shackle him or get him out of the way. With consummate
+skill they proceeded with the avowed effort to accomplish this end.</p>
+
+<p>At 3:00 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, July 10, the special grand jury summoned by
+Judges Wood and Grosscup set the machinery of federal law in motion, and
+after one hour and seven minutes&mdash;most of which time was occupied in
+waiting for advice from the Western Union Telegraph Co., in New York, to
+its manager in Chicago&mdash;returned indictments against E. V. Debs, G. W.
+Howard, L. W. Rogers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>and Sylvester Kelliher. No sooner were the four
+officers of the American Railway Union indicted than they were arrested
+and the private papers as well as the documents of the union were
+seized.</p>
+
+<p>The four men were admitted to bail and the joint bond of $10,000 was
+signed by J. W. Fitzgerald and Wm. Skakel.</p>
+
+<p>The special grand jurors selected by the court for the express purpose
+of indicting the officers of the American Railway Union were well
+chosen. An elaborate charge from his honor, the judge, a pretense of
+examining a lone witness, just a farcical formality, and Debs, Howard,
+Rogers and Kelliher were indicted. These men were virtually indicted
+before the grand jury went into session. This is a fact that defies
+contradiction, Z. E. Holbrook, one of the jurors, was a man who two
+years ago went to Homestead, Pa., at the request of H. C. Frick, manager
+of the Carnegie Company, and after obtaining a supply of alleged facts
+from Mr. Frick, returned to Chicago and made a speech before the Sunset
+Club, in which he charged the Homestead strikers with being
+conspirators, anarchists and murderers, and he denounced and abused in
+no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>measured terms all labor unions and sympathizers. So bitterly did he
+attack labor that he was roundly hissed by members of his own club.</p>
+
+<p>The city directory sets him down as a capitalist, and he is known
+throughout the city as a bitter enemy to labor unions. Such is the
+character of one of the men who was chosen to indict Eugene V. Debs. Was
+ever court of justice so utterly debauched?</p>
+
+<p>What has become of our boasted liberty? Are we freemen? No! in the
+burning words of Rienzi, the Roman, we are slaves, the bright sun rises
+to its course and sets on a race of slaves. Slaves, not such as
+conqueror led to crimson glory and undying fame, but base, ignoble
+slaves, slaves to a horde of petty tyrants, feudal despots.</p>
+
+<p>The same conditions that emanated these immortal utterances from the
+ancient Roman is absolutely the condition of the working people of
+America to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The federal courts had now accomplished a master stroke; they had
+indicted the president of the American Railway Union for conspiracy.</p>
+
+<p>When the wires flashed the news to the various local unions throughout
+the country, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>excitement was intense. The illegal proceeding was
+condemned by every good citizen, regardless of vocation or station in
+life. Millions of men in every branch of labor threatened to strike, but
+were held in check by the assurance of their leaders that all would be
+well in the end.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs, fearing the bad effect his arrest would have on the working
+people, sent out the following appeal for order:</p>
+
+<p>"To all striking employes and sympathizers:</p>
+
+<p>"In view of the serious phases which the strike has assumed, I deem it
+my duty to again admonish you to not only refrain from acts of violence
+but to aid in every way in your power to maintain law and order. We have
+everything to lose and nothing to gain by participating, even by our
+presence in demonstrative gatherings. Almost universal unrest prevails.
+Men are excitable and inflammable. The distance from anger to vengeance
+is not great. Every precaution against still further aggravating
+conditions should be taken. In this supreme hour let workingmen show
+themselves to be orderly and law abiding by freely co-operating with the
+authorities in suppressing turbulence and preserving the peace. Our
+position is secure and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>the people are with us. We have made every
+effort that reason and justice could suggest to obtain redress for our
+grievances.</p>
+
+<p>"Our advances have been repelled. The responsibility for the grave
+situation that confronts the country is not with us. The indications now
+are that the stoppage of work will become general. This in itself will
+be a calamity, but if order be maintained it may yet prove to be a
+blessing to the country. I appeal to every workingman to entirely keep
+away from places where trouble would be likely to occur. What, under
+normal conditions, would probably be a peaceable gathering may now
+become a demonstrative mob. All good citizens deprecate the loss of life
+and the destruction of property. Grave as these complications are, our
+civilization is far enough advanced to find and apply a remedy without
+resort to violence. We are merely contending for justice for our fellow
+workingmen, who have been reduced to want by a power that now defies
+public opinion. Strong in the faith that our position is correct, that
+our grievances are just, we can afford to await the final verdict, with
+patience. The great public may be slow to act, but in the fullness of
+time it will act. Then the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>wrong, wherever found will be rebuked and
+cloven down, and the right will be enthroned. However serious the
+situation may become, let it not be intensified by lawlessness or
+violence.</p>
+
+<p class="right">Eugene V. Debs."</p>
+
+<p>If there is anything tending to conspiracy, any anarchistic sentiment in
+the above appeal then it is certain that Debs was guilty as indicted,
+but if there is not, then the railroad managers and federal court were
+guilty of a greater conspiracy and should be dealt with accordingly. In
+all the appeals, instructions or advice given verbally or otherwise by
+E. V. Debs, not a solitary one was of a more inflammatory nature than
+this, and yet this man was accused of this serious crime.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago Times in an editorial on the indictment of Debs says in
+part: "We can perhaps leave to the lawyers who are so eager to indict
+Mr. Debs, determination of the legal position of this rebel Wickes,
+declaring that his tottering corporation will brook no interference
+national, state, county, or municipal. The times has learned many things
+of late showing the power of corporations over the national government
+but we still cling to the belief that Uncle Sam is bigger than Duke
+George, and if either the national, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>state, county or municipal
+government determines to interfere with the affairs of the Pullman
+corporation, Mr. Wickes will have to brook it or take refuge in Canada
+with his titled chiefs, embezzlers, boodlers, forgers and other harpies
+of society, who from time to time have fled thither."</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PROTEST BY THE PEOPLES PARTY.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The newsboys of Chicago now decided to join the boycott by dropping the
+papers unfavorable to the American Railway Union, and after a noisy
+session in which parliamentary rules were freely discussed, and several
+amusing antics were indulged in, they voted to boycott the Tribune,
+Herald, Mail, Inter-Ocean, Post and Journal. When the Times was
+mentioned, they yelled themselves hoarse, and declared that it was the
+only paper they would sell. Hill, the circulator of the Post, caused the
+arrest of five of the little fellows and they were locked up.</p>
+
+<p>L. W. Rogers, editor of the Railway Times, the official organ of the
+American Railway Union finally succeeded in getting the attention of the
+boys and informed them that the union could not accept any sacrifice
+from the newsboys of Chicago. He assured them that the men were strong
+enough to do their own boycotting and requested them to continue the
+sale of the papers. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>He said: "We do not want to take one red cent out
+of your earnings, if things were as they should be, you lads would be at
+school in the day time and in comfortable homes at night instead of
+selling papers on the street."</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of Mr. Rogers' remarks they all sped away to the Times
+office, where cheer after cheer was given for the peoples paper.
+Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Rogers, the Times, Record, Dispatch
+and News were the only papers to be had on the streets.</p>
+
+<p>The Knights of Labor and Trades Unions as well as business men's unions
+were holding meetings all over the country, denouncing the action of
+Cleveland and the courts and endorsing the American Railway Union in its
+manly fight for rights. The strike situation had not changed to any
+great extent with the exception of passenger service. Passenger trains
+were beginning to run with more regularity, but the freight business was
+to all practical purposes dead. The men whom the companies had succeeded
+in getting so far to fill the places of strikers were green men,
+entirely unused to that kind of work, and incompetent men who had
+previously been discharged for drunkenness and other causes. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>yard
+service was a failure, and as an illustration&mdash;to show the kind of men
+the different roads had secured to make up trains&mdash;I was passing a
+certain yard and stopped to watch a switching crew, and carefully noted
+how they performed their work. An engine with one car backed up to
+couple unto some cars on a lumber track. Two of the would-be switchmen
+with a long stick were holding up the link, one men on either side of
+the coupling, but just as the link was about to enter the drawbar one of
+them jumped away, at the same time stumbling over a pile of lumber, and
+the way that fellow scrambled about in his frantic endeavor to get out
+of the way, would lead a person to believe he had fallen upon a hornet's
+nest.</p>
+
+<p>After several such attempts they finally succeeded in making the
+coupling. This is the kind of men with which the company proposed to
+fill the places of the strikers.</p>
+
+<p>The Grand Trunk engineers, who up to this time had refused to work with
+other than brotherhood firemen decided to work with scabs, and their
+decision was hailed with delight by the officials. They said that the
+strike was now <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>settled and they could run their trains without
+difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The engineers and firemen on the Chicago &amp; Alton road also decided to
+stand by the company. The firemen, switchmen and other employes of the
+Grand Trunk called a meeting, and after denouncing the action of the
+engineers, voted to stand by the American Railway Union to the end.</p>
+
+<p>One amusing incident that occurred about this time, was the refusal of
+the Washington National Guards to ride on a train that was run by scabs.
+The entire company of sixty men refused to ride on a Northern Pacific
+train for this reason, and they were promptly placed under arrest, put
+into box cars and taken to Sprague.</p>
+
+<p>General Master Workman Sovereign had at this time an order drawn up for
+a general walk out of members of the Knights of Labor, but it was
+withdrawn after a consultation with other labor leaders. Many comments
+were made by newspapers throughout the country on this order, of which a
+copy was furnished the papers under the impression that it would go into
+effect at once.</p>
+
+<p>People who had remained passive up to this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>time were now aroused to the
+gravity of the situation. The pending crisis was near at hand, and a
+general uprising of the laboring people to assert their rights was
+imminent. The tyrannical and dogged persistency of plutocratic capital
+to dominate over the laboring classes with utter disregard for their
+constitutional rights, was nothing more or less than an open declaration
+of despotic supremacy, and the outcome was looked forward to with the
+gravest apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>The following communication addressed to the chairman of the National
+Committee of the Peoples Party was sent to Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Hon. H. E. Taubeneck, chairman National Committee, Peoples
+Party:</p>
+
+<p>"Through the gloom of civil war the enemies of human liberty laid the
+foundation upon which the giant monopolies of to-day have been built. On
+public lands, with public funds they built the railroads which they now
+use to plunder the producers of this nation, and with the wealth and
+power thus obtained they now usurp the power and functions of government
+to reduce the people of this country to a condition of serfdom. The
+workmen in the cities, the miners in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>their isolated communities, and
+the railroad men throughout the land have risen in manful protest
+against a threatened military government of the railroads and their
+associate monopolies.</p>
+
+<p>"In this hour of need the duty of the Peoples Party is clear and plain.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick as the lightning's flash will bear the message, must go forth
+that the Peoples Party recognize the gravity of the situation, and by
+common impulse aligns itself to the side of the toiler in the shop and
+mine, and on the railroads; their battle is our battle, because it is a
+struggle for liberty and the right to exist&mdash;a peaceable contest on the
+part of toil against the combined armies of greed and force.</p>
+
+<p>"The farmer knows the means best calculated to help his brother in this
+conflict. The railroads intend to run their trains under military guard
+and expect American citizen to patronize public means of traffic,
+operated under military despotism. The Peoples Party of Cook county, in
+common with organized labor demand immediate arbitration, and urges
+immediate action on the part of our national committee to the end that
+all organizations in sympathy with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>labor be united in common cause
+against a common enemy.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 60%;">
+<p class="noin">Signed:<br />
+T. O'Brien, Chairman,<br />
+H. Hawley, Sec'y.<br />
+H. S. Taylor,<br />
+Henry Vincent,<br />
+John Bagley,<br />
+D. M. Fielwiler,<br />
+John Schwartz,<br />
+C. G. Dixon,<br />
+J. P. Grimes,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Committee."</p>
+</div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN OFFER OF SETTLEMENT.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Senator Pfeffer, of Kansas, arraigned congress for its defence of
+monopolies, and its stand against the people. Senator Kyle, of Dakota,
+also charged congress with being in collusion with the railroads, but
+Senator Davis, of Minnesota, on the other hand, denounced Debs and the
+strikers. He said the strike grew from a strike to a boycott, from
+boycott to riot, from riot to insurrection, that the acts, if committed
+on the high seas, would be piracy and punishable by death. He spoke of
+the injustice being done the farmers of the United States, and how they
+were effected by the strike in Chicago. He urged that it was time some
+action should be taken to put down the rising tide of anarchy. He held
+that a nuisance should be abated and that Debs was a nuisance.</p>
+
+<p>Senator Gordon, of Georgia, and Senator Daniels, of Virginia, followed
+in the same kind of demagoguery as Davis.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>A great meeting was held in Dubuque, and prominent among the speakers
+was County Attorney Mathews who insisted on obedience to law, but
+denounced Judge Grosscup for issuing an injunction which denied the
+constitutional right of free speech and trial by Jury.</p>
+
+<p>Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, Michigan, and
+Erskine M. Phelps conferred with Mr. Wickes, and Mrs. Brown and Runnell
+of the Pullman Company at the request of some fifty mayors, representing
+about one-third of the population of the United States&mdash;and urged
+arbitration as a means of settling the strike. The efforts of these
+gentlemen were in vain. The imperious Pullman company through its
+representative, though not saying so in as many words, intimated that
+the company would not establish a precedent whereby workmen could
+interfere in its business. Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, corresponded with
+almost every mayor of the larger cities of the United States, and
+received answers favorable to arbitration from all with one exception,
+that of Mayor Gilroy, of New York City, whose answer to the telegram of
+Mayor Pingree was an emphatic no.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>The wildest excitement now prevailed at Sacramento. The United States
+troops commanded by Col. Graham and consisting of infantry, cavalry,
+artillery, and gatling and Hotchkiss guns, presented a most war like
+aspect. The strikers on learning of this movement on the part of the
+government armed themselves, and it was feared that a desperate conflict
+would take place.</p>
+
+<p>The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in this district called upon
+Supt. Filmore of the Southern Pacific and stated that they were ready to
+resume work at once. This weakened the cause of the strikers to some
+extent and caused a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the railroad
+managers.</p>
+
+<p>After much persuasion due to the untiring efforts of Congressman McGann,
+President Cleveland consented to appoint a committee of three to
+investigate the strike, under section 6 of the arbitration act, prepared
+some years ago under the eyes of Powderly, McGuire and Hays of the
+Knights of Labor, offered by Representative Quail, of St. Louis, and
+made a law on Oct. 1, 1888. This determination on the part of Cleveland
+was received with satisfaction throughout <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>the country. This was just
+what the American Railway Union wanted. This was what the Trades and
+Labor Unions of the United States had appealed for, and what the
+business men and city representatives had so long demanded, begged and
+entreated of the Pullman company, but without avail.</p>
+
+<p>It looked at this time as if an investigation would be forced on Duke
+Pullman, and the people were looking forward to a speedy settlement of
+the trouble. The American Railway Union, having no fear of the final
+decision of the investigating committee, and viewing the vast amount of
+destruction of property, loss of life and extreme hardship to which the
+people were subjected on account of the strike&mdash;decided to take the
+necessary steps to call off the strike, they drew up the following
+proposition which was given to Mr. Hopkins, mayor of Chicago, to present
+to the general managers.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Railway Managers:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen:&mdash;The existing trouble growing out of the Pullman strike
+having assumed continental proportions, and there being no indications
+of relief from the wide spread business demoralization and distress,
+incident thereto, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>railway employes, through the board of directors
+of the American Railway Union respectfully make the following
+proposition as a basis of settlement:</p>
+
+<p>"They agree to return to work in a body at once, provided they shall be
+restored to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases,
+if any there be, where they have been convicted of crime. This
+proposition looking to an immediate settlement of the existing strike on
+all lines of railway is inspired by a purpose to subserve public good.
+The strike, small and comparatively unimportant in its inception, has
+extended in every direction until now it involves or threatens not only
+every public interest, but the peace, security and prosperity of our
+common country. The contest has waged fiercely, it has extended far
+beyond the limits of interest originally involved, and has laid hold of
+a vast number of industries and enterprises in nowise responsible for
+the difference and disagreements that led to the trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Factory, mill, mine and shop have been silenced. Widespread
+demoralization has sway. The interests of multiplied thousands of people
+are suffering, and the common welfare is seriously <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>menaced, The public
+peace and tranquility are imperiled, and grave apprehension for the
+future prevails. This being true, and the statement will not be
+controverted, we conceive it to be our duty as citizens and as men, to
+make extraordinary efforts to end the existing strife and approaching
+calamities whose shadows are even now upon us. If ended now, the
+contest, however serious in some respects, will not have been in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"Sacrifices have been made, but they will have their compensations.
+Indeed, if lessons shall be taught by experience, the troubles now so
+widely deplored will prove a blessing of inestimable value in the years
+to come. The difference that led up to the present complications need
+not now be discussed, every consideration of duty and patriotism demands
+that a remedy for existing troubles be found and applied. The employes
+purpose to do their part by meeting their employers half way. Let it be
+stated that they do not impose any condition of settlement except that
+they be returned to their former positions; they do not ask recognition
+of their organization or any organization.</p>
+
+<p>"Believing this proposition to be fair, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>reasonable and just it is
+respectfully submitted with the belief that its acceptance will result
+in the prompt resumption of traffic, the revival of industry, and the
+restoration of peace and order.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 50%;">
+<p class="noin">Respectfully yours,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">E. V. Debs</span>, Pres.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">G. W. Howard</span>, V. Pres.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">S. Kelliher</span>, Secy.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;American Railway Union."</p></div>
+
+<p>The proposition was rejected and spurned by the General Managers
+Association.</p>
+
+<p>Is there a man so utterly lost to the sense of justice, that would
+conscientiously dispute the manly fairness of this communication?</p>
+
+<p>The object of the general managers was too apparent, their position was
+clearly defined. Their determination to wipe out of existence all
+railroad organizations was as fixed and unmovable as the Rock of
+Gibraltar and why should they recede from their position?</p>
+
+<p>The federal courts and federal government (owned and controlled by the
+corporations) decided that the constitutional rights of free speech and
+trial by jury, equal rights to all and special privileges to none, was a
+farce. In their narrow money-loving minds there could be no rights for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>honest labor, and determined there should be no rights for a
+workingman. After this decision of the general managers the American
+Railway Union could do nothing but fight out the battle to the bitter
+end.</p>
+
+<p>Eugene V. Debs,&mdash;representing a body of honest toilers with no other
+motive than to obtain for them living wages, his heart overflowing with
+generous impulses and humane kindness, his noble nature revolting
+against the tyrannical oppression of his fellow man by the soulless
+corporations, a man who loves his country with patriotic devotion,&mdash;for
+these reasons and no other, was indicted and arrested on the charge of
+criminal conspiracy, while John M. Egan&mdash;representing the General
+Managers Association, a giant monopoly and powerful money grasping
+trust, built on the people's land and with the people's money, a
+combination foreign to American institutions, usurping the functions of
+the government with avowed intent and purpose to take away the rights of
+organization from the working man and reduce him to a condition of
+absolute slavery,&mdash;was allowed to continue his nefarious work without
+interruption. Surely this partial, one-sided <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>distribution of justice,
+openly and defiantly administered, deserves the severest condemnation of
+every loyal American citizen.</p>
+
+<p>The Pullman boycott had now ceased to be the point at issue in the
+strike. It was now the life or death of railroad organizations.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>DEBS IN JAIL.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The strike situation still looked very bright for the men.</p>
+
+<p>At St. Paul and Minneapolis the business of the railroads, with the
+exception of the Soo Line, St. Paul &amp; Duluth and the Great Northern, was
+practically at a standstill.</p>
+
+<p>On the St. Paul &amp; Duluth the men as a whole refused to strike, a few
+firemen and switchmen left their positions at the call but did not
+seriously affect the operation of trains. This was also true of the Soo
+Line. The Great Northern so far was not implicated as they used no
+Pullman cars and positively refused boycotted freight, that is, freight
+offered by railroads whose employes were on a strike. The Minnesota
+Transfer, which was the key to the coast lines, was completely blocked,
+and this condition was duplicated in almost every railroad center
+throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Encouraging telegrams were being received from all points contradicting
+the reports circulated by a subsidized press that everything was running
+as usual. So far the men in the Twin Cities were conducting themselves
+in such an orderly manner that even the press could not rake up one
+charge against them. They strictly adhered to the advice of President
+Debs to keep out of saloons and away from railroad property. The only
+action taken by the strikers was to induce other men by moral persuasion
+not to take their places and assist the managers to operate the roads.</p>
+
+<p>For this Charles J. Luth was foully murdered by one Leonard, chief clerk
+in the office of James McCabe, superintendent of the C., St. P., M. &amp; O.
+Ry.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of July 14, Leonard, in company with Bert Nash, also an
+employe of the same railroad, brought a lot of non-union men to a
+boarding place in St. Paul, known as the Minnesota Home. Luth followed
+them into the house and requested the proprietress of the Home not to
+board them as they were in the city to take the place of strikers, and
+while explaining the situation, became involved in an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>altercation with
+Nash. Leonard interfered and was told by Luth that he was little better
+than a scab, whereupon Leonard drew a revolver and fired five times, all
+of the shots taking effect in the body of Luth. Two of the shots were
+fired after Luth had fallen to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>These facts were given by an eye witness who afterwards took the
+revolver from Leonard.</p>
+
+<p>This dastardly, cold blooded murder worked the strikers into a frenzy of
+excitement, and had it not been for a herculean effort on the part of
+older and cooler heads, a lynching would surely have occurred.</p>
+
+<p>This foul deed was absolutely unwarranted as Luth was unarmed and alone,
+and if he had harmed or threatened to harm any one, an officer could
+have been called and he would have been promptly arrested.</p>
+
+<p>Luth left a wife and two small children to mourn his loss and grieve
+over his tragic end.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral procession that followed the remains to the grave headed by
+the Knights of Pythias and Foresters, was the largest ever seen in St.
+Paul.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>President Debs felt confident of victory. Addressing a meeting at Ulrich
+Hall, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"We have just finished reading 160 telegrams in not one of which there
+is any sign of weakening." He dwelled on the action of the general
+managers refusing to entertain the proposition made to them, and the
+necessity of the men remaining loyal to one another. "The law seems to
+be against us as it is read by some, but if the law makes it a crime to
+advise you men against the encroachments of capital, by all the Gods
+united I will rot in jail." Referring to the attitude of other railroad
+organizations, he said: "Men in such positions as myself and Mr. Howard
+cannot afford to be on good terms with general managers. If we are we
+cannot be your friends. It is true, however, that certain officers of
+certain other organizations ride on annual passes and spend months on
+fishing excursions at the expense of the railroad managers, but it comes
+out of your wages in the end."</p>
+
+<p>Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers present, informed the
+officers of the American Railway Union that Chief Arthur had issued
+orders for men to work with scabs, and that he was supplying scabs to
+take the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>places of men on strike. In other words, he was running an
+employment agency for the benefit of the railroads.</p>
+
+<p>The general managers' defeat on the fifth day of the strike was beyond
+all question of a doubt. They had summoned to their support the federal
+government with the result previously mentioned, but the government aid
+was not sufficient to operate their roads. They must have a number of
+the old men to educate and aid the scabs in the performance of their
+duties. At this critical time the services of their faithful allies were
+badly wanted. In this, their time of need they knew that those men who
+had feted, dined and wined at their expense would prove faithful to them
+and traitors to the orders they represented.</p>
+
+<p>The damnable spirit of treachery that evoked Benedict Arnold to betray
+his country predominated in the hearts of these double-dyed scoundrels.
+They were not only ready and willing but feverishly anxious to assist
+the corporations to enslave the men that they were oath-bound as well as
+duty bound to protect. Grand Chief Arthur, representing the engineers,
+who had grown old in the service of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>corporations, and whose wealth
+was estimated at half a million dollars, in direct violation of the
+constitution of his order, ordered his men to work with scab firemen.
+Not only this, he ordered all those who were on strike to return at once
+to their engines and in case of their refusal he would supply men to
+take their places. This was also true of Grand Chief Sargent of the
+Firemen and Wilkinson of the Trainmen. Clark of the Conductors, and
+Barrett of the Switchmen advised their men to return to work as they had
+no grievance. But only a part of these men would be taken back by the
+companies, and what under the sun did these chiefs intend to do with the
+others? Positively nothing. But the result was exactly what they
+intended it should be, and the men were applying to the companies&mdash;in
+lots of ten and twenty in the different cities&mdash;for their positions.</p>
+
+<p>The dark deeds of treachery were now rife in many places especially in
+the Twin Cities. At this point the blockade, which was on since the
+strike began, and which was the key to the situation in the Northwest
+was raised.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Northern was the only line in operation to the coast, and
+under instructions from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>J. J. Hill, the president, refused to accept
+any freight from roads included in the boycott. The men were instructed
+to decline even to throw a switch or assist in any manner any road on
+strike, as the Great Northern company did not wish to be drawn into the
+difficulty. In fact the men on this line were, almost to a man, members
+of the American Railway Union, and could not even if asked to do any act
+that might prove a detriment to their brothers. At this time there
+happened to be sixty car loads of twine in St. Paul, a greater portion
+of which was at Minnesota Transfer. This freight was consigned to points
+on the Great Northern Line and a committee headed by Harry Gray,
+chairman of the general board of mediation of the American Railway Union
+on that system, appeared at the rooms of the central strike committee
+and asked permission to switch out the twine, giving as an excuse that
+the farmers were in need of it.</p>
+
+<p>This permission the committee was loth to grant as any move toward
+raising this blockade in the Twin Cities might prove detrimental to
+their cause, and further action on the matter was deferred until it
+would be submitted to the different unions interested.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>That night at a meeting held at Plummer Post Hall in Minneapolis, the
+American Railway Union headquarters, a committee of farmers, from the
+peoples' party convention in session there at that time, were admitted.</p>
+
+<p>When appraised of the nature of the trouble they stated that they had
+contracts with the twine companies to deliver their twine and on failure
+to do so the farmers would suffer no loss. They further stated that the
+farmers would bind their grain by hand before they would ask the men to
+do anything detrimental to the success of the strike. This settled it as
+far as the twine was concerned. However, the next day, the officials of
+the Great Northern took an engine and switched the twine out themselves
+without any objection being made by the men who stood by while the work
+was being done.</p>
+
+<p>This was the beginning only.</p>
+
+<p>The next move was a positive assurance of treachery.</p>
+
+<p>The Burlington road had about thirty cars of water pipe for the Great
+Northern, and this same man Gray again waited on the central committee
+for permission to move the freight, saying, that he had the assurance of
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>company that no more concessions would be asked. His request was
+promptly refused. Later a committee of switchmen called on the central
+committee for instructions and were told not to move the freight under
+any conditions.</p>
+
+<p>They left apparently satisfied, but nevertheless the cars were moved; no
+one seemed to know how but it became apparent to the strikers that a
+traitor was in their ranks, and took immediate steps to ferret him out,
+and have the embargo once more placed on business at this point.</p>
+
+<p>Gray of St. Paul, and Foster of St. Cloud, were openly accused of being
+the traitors to the cause, although others were thought to be
+implicated. Charges were preferred against Gray in the Union, but
+nothing ever came of it. Every conceivable means was used to again cause
+a blockade at this point but to no avail.</p>
+
+<p>The switchmen promised to refuse to handle boycotted freight if the road
+would support them in case of discharge, which they well knew was
+inevitable. It would be simply a sacrifice to strike in the yards of St.
+Paul and Minneapolis without the support of the whole system, although
+after a canvas of the road, when it was found that the majority of the
+men voted against <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>a strike, the switchmen of these cities sent word
+that they were ready to ask for their time and quit the service of the
+company if the Union so desired. This proposition the strikers would not
+accept, not caring to sacrifice a few loyal switchmen whose places could
+be easily filled if the rest of the employes remained at work.</p>
+
+<p>This result was wired to Chicago, and Director Goodwin was sent out to
+see what could be done. His efforts were fruitless. The road was again
+canvassed with the same result, and Goodwin returning to Chicago, Mr.
+Burns, another director of the Union, was sent to take his place, but
+with no better success.</p>
+
+<p>They positively refused to strike. The traitors with the price of their
+treachery in their pockets had been there first and accomplished their
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The damnable traitors responsible for the raising of the blockade were
+also responsible for the suffering and untold misery of the noble men
+whose sympathetic hearts went out to their brothers in Pullman, and who
+without money were obliged to leave their homes (in many cases only
+partly paid for) and seek employment elsewhere in order to provide for
+their families.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>The switchmen in the employ of the Milwaukee road at Minneapolis,
+now&mdash;fearing that the treachery of the men on the Great Northern Line
+would lose the strike in the Northwest&mdash;applied for their positions, and
+all who were wanted were taken back. The men who were employed by the
+Omaha Railway at East St. Paul, took the same course, but all others
+declared their intention of standing out until the American Railway
+Union called off the strike.</p>
+
+<p>Disasters seemed to follow one another in rapid succession at this time.
+In many places the weak-kneed men were applying for work and circulating
+false stories to induce others to do the same. The news went flashing
+over the wires that Debs, Howard, Rogers and Kelliher were in jail. But
+this news did not have the depressing effect on the men that was
+expected, in fact it only caused a feeling of indignation and the
+strikers were now more determined than ever to stand up for their rights
+and fight out the battle with renewed energy.</p>
+
+<p>In making this statement I do not refer to the poltroons who were
+continually raising the cry: We are lost, but I refer to the noble men
+who spoke from their manly hearts, and with words of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>no uncertain sound
+declared their intention to go down to defeat if need be with those
+grand, noble, generous hearted men, who signified their willingness to
+rot in jail, or even mount the scaffold in defence of the just and
+righteous cause they had wrapped their lives in.</p>
+
+<p>Could it be charged that they were actuated by selfish motives in the
+cause in which they had enlisted? No! A thousand times no! If Eugene V.
+Debs could be induced to turn his magnificent executive abilities over
+to the railroads instead of the poor enslaved workingmen, these
+corporations would place him upon the highest pinnacle of plutocratic
+fame, and no one can dispute George W. Howard's title to being a
+workingman's friend, for by his actions on more than one occasion he has
+proven himself to be a friend indeed, and actions speak louder than
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Yes; the four officers of the American Railway Union were in jail.
+United States Attorney Milchrist appeared before Judge Seaman in the
+United States district court on the morning of July 17, and on behalf of
+the government filed information presented by George R. Peck, who
+represented the general managers and receivers of the Santa Fe system.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>In response to the prayer of the district attorney, Judge Seaman issued
+writs of attachment for the appearance of Debs, Howard, Rogers and
+Kelliher, directing them to be present at the afternoon session of the
+court and show causes why they should not be punished for contempt in
+continuing to disregard the injunction of the court. W. W. Erwin, of St.
+Paul, W. A. Shoemaker and S. S. Gregory, of Chicago, were retained to
+defend the men on behalf of the American Railway Union. The voluminous
+information made up of telegrams, copies of injunctions, etc., was read
+by Attorney Milchrist, after which the court ruled that two separate
+attachments be issued and separate records be kept.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gregory stated that he failed to see why the government should
+interfere to protect property rights of railroads, and this called forth
+a retort from Mr. Walker that Uncle Sam was seeking to protect only the
+interstate commerce and the mails and not the railroad property.</p>
+
+<p>The information embodied almost everything pertaining to the strike, and
+over an hour was consumed in its reading. Telegrams sent out to strike
+leaders by President Debs were submitted but contained no startling
+facts.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>One of these addressed to H. E. Sarion, Garrett, Ind., read as follows:
+"Have all classes of employes withdrawn from service at once." Another
+to Charles Fink, Oakland, Cal., says: "Commit no violence." Mr. Debs'
+communication to the railway managers suggesting a settlement of the
+strike was incorporated in the information as was also the question of
+Chicago public health in the matter of removing dead animals from the
+city. Several newspaper interviews and a copy of the original injunction
+issued by Judges Wood and Grosscup was also contained therein, and after
+Peck of the Santa Fe had sought to bolster up the information with an
+argument, Mr. Gregory urged that the defendants had not been charged
+with violence, and declared that it was his belief that the testimony
+should be taken by a master. Mr. Walker opposed this in favor of a
+hearing in open court and was sustained. This led up to a long legal
+wrangle participated in by both sides, and a fiery speech by Mr. Irwin
+of the defence, in which he denied the jurisdiction of the court, and
+hinted at monarchy and dictatorial methods. Mr. Walker pressed his
+motion that the defendants be placed under bonds to appear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>before the
+court and Judge Seaman fixed the bail in each case at $3,000. Mr. Debs,
+declining a score of offers from prominent men to furnish the necessary
+security, decided to go to jail. In reply to a question Mr. Debs said:
+"This is the first time in my life that I have been incarcerated in a
+jail, but with us it is a matter of principle. We have had many offers
+of bail but have refused them all. The poor striker if arrested would be
+thrown into jail and we are certainly no better than he, we will eat
+regularly, prison fare, and expect to be treated as any other prisoners
+would be."</p>
+
+<p>Their trial was set for the following Monday.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>BLACKLISTING BEGINS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The strike situation was now in the balance. The managers and their
+faithful allies the press, had given it out that the strike was off. One
+fact that could not be denied, was that P. M. Arthur, of the General
+Managers Association,&mdash;though still representing the engineers&mdash;was
+doing great work for the companies, as the engineers were returning to
+work pretty generally throughout the country. Sargent of the firemen was
+also playing his cards well, but not meeting with the same success as
+the "grand old chief." Wilkinson of the trainmen was sending out his
+orders and ultimatums, thick and fast and his men were now fast
+returning to their old positions.</p>
+
+<p>It was now a question of whether the men would prove loyal to themselves
+and their best interests, or loyal to the companies who were putting
+forth their best efforts to trample them to earth, and it is a painful
+fact that many of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>them were so blinded to their own interests,&mdash;through
+their craven cowardice&mdash;that they returned to work, and, to what will be
+in the near future beyond a question of a doubt, longer hours, less
+wages, and the complete annihilation of all semblance of rights.</p>
+
+<p>The strike was fast resolving itself into a switchmen's fight against
+the railroads. The yards were in the worst imaginable shape, and the
+engines were sadly in need of repairs. Shopmen, freight handlers,
+trackmen, and car-repairers were still out. Office men were now back at
+work with the exception of a few. The majority of the strikers were
+still loyal to the cause and the American Railway Union was sure of
+winning. The Knights of Labor did not respond to the call of Grand
+Master Workman Sovereign as generally as was expected, and the
+Federation of Labor had decided not to strike at present, perhaps this
+may be accounted for by the reports given out by the general managers
+that the strike was off and trains running as usual.</p>
+
+<p>The United States troops in the pay of the government were still doing
+service for the railroad corporations.</p>
+
+<p>Authenticated reports&mdash;given out by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>striking committees&mdash;from
+different parts of the country would not seem to bear out the statements
+of the general managers.</p>
+
+<p>These committees had reports in regards to the operation of the roads,
+as complete as the officials of the roads themselves. They were
+thoroughly posted on the number of cars moved each day by each company,
+the number and character of switch crews at work and the number of
+strikers who had gone back to work. In short, everything that had a
+bearing on the result. This was part of the duties imposed upon them and
+they were faithfully carried out.</p>
+
+<p>Thirteen Pan Handle switchmen brought to Chicago from Pittsburg through
+misrepresentation, when informed of the true state of affairs, refused
+to go to work, and demanded transportation back to Pittsburg. They were
+given orders for the necessary transportation, but on presentation the
+companies refused to honor them. This was also true in the case of half
+a dozen men brought in by the Ft. Wayne road.</p>
+
+<p>The scabs on the Chicago &amp; Eastern Illinois, through ignorance and
+incompetency burned up five engines and wrecked as many more. One
+splendid new engine was blown up twenty miles <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>from Terre Haute, while
+en route to Chicago. Yard service was of the worst possible kind.</p>
+
+<p>The Illinois Central was doing no freight business to speak of, in fact
+the condition of this road was still worse than the Chicago &amp; Eastern
+Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>The Northwestern shops at Fortieth street, employing over 2300 men, were
+idle, only about twelve men signifying their willingness to work. The
+Galena division of this road, while making quite a bluff at handling
+freight, was not accomplishing very much, as it took them two days to
+unload a stock train.</p>
+
+<p>The Milwaukee road was doing better, having at work fifteen engines days
+and fourteen nights, but being manned mostly by green and incompetent
+men, were not making great headway. In all some 350 cars were gotten out
+and about 300 received in one day which is very small business for this
+line.</p>
+
+<p>The Wabash had only one engine at work nights, and this was guarded by a
+company of troops and about twenty deputy police. They succeeded in
+breaking down two posts, one at Polk street and another at Taylor street
+station, causing a damage of some $300 which was all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>accomplished in
+one night. The Chicago and Blue Island were now working two engines
+(this company generally worked ten), manned by scabs, one of whom was a
+nigger.</p>
+
+<p>A committee man from the Grand Trunk reported that only three men had
+returned to work.</p>
+
+<p>He said a personal friend of mine, a business man from Valparaiso, and
+whom I know, is in touch with the Grand Trunk, informed me that a Grand
+Trunk official had said in his presence that his company could not do
+business unless they made some kind of a settlement with the switchmen.</p>
+
+<p>Through John Downey and Miles Barrett, of the Switchmen's Mutual Aid
+Association, a meeting of switchmen was called in a hall at Eden to
+induce the switchmen to return to work. This meeting was "packed" in
+order to secure a majority vote in favor of returning but the scheme did
+not work.</p>
+
+<p>All the officials on the Pan Handle admitted that they could do nothing
+without the assistance of the old men. They had a few "stake" men whom
+they were paying $5.00 per day, but not enough to do any business.</p>
+
+<p>At Union Stock Yards all switchmen and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>assistant yard masters were out,
+and at the yard of the Street Stable Car Co. out of 300 men only three
+were at work.</p>
+
+<p>All men at the Burton Stock Car Co., the Canada Cattle Car Co. and the
+American Life Stock Co.'s yards were out, and refused to work under
+police protection. At Armour's car shops only nine men returned out of
+sixty who went on strike, and at Swifts only five out of forty-two. The
+yard trackmen were all out, as were also the Illinois Central switchmen
+and the Rock Island machinists and boiler makers.</p>
+
+<p>This was the condition of the strike in Chicago and the same existed in
+all parts of the strike district. Messages were received from many
+points saying that only those men who were subservient to the orders of
+their chiefs had returned to work, and from some points came the news
+that the strike had gained strength owing to the arrest of President
+Debs.</p>
+
+<p>The enemies of the American Railway Union had now began a systematic
+course&mdash;as dark and devilish as it was designing&mdash;of poisoning the
+public mind against Debs, who was, so to speak, a gagged prisoner and
+unable to defend himself.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>Such reports as: Mrs. Highenbotham was dying in Montana and Mr.
+Highenbotham appealed to Mr. Debs to allow her to be brought home by
+special train and see her friends, and Mr. Debs' brutal answer that not
+a wheel would turn.</p>
+
+<p>Whole columns of such falsehoods were published and circulated broadcast
+throughout the land, but not one word was written of the generous acts
+of this noble hearted man. When he was seen to pause in the most trying
+moment of his life to listen to the tale of distress and suffering
+related by a poor widow woman, and going down into his pocket, hand her
+a five dollar bill, all he had with him, this great and just public
+press was silent.</p>
+
+<p>Then the blacklisting of ex-employes began, the Missouri Pacific taking
+the initiatory step. The following certificate given to a yard clerk
+will speak for itself.</p>
+
+<p>"This is to certify that &mdash;&mdash; has been employed in the capacity of yard
+clerk of the Missouri Pacific system from April, 1893 to June, 1894, at
+which time it was necessary to lay him off on account of a strike in the
+yards. He applied for work on July 18th, but in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>meantime it was
+learned that he was a member of the American Railway Union and was in
+sympathy with the strike movement, so we could not re-employ him. His
+work and conduct up to the time of the strike was perfectly
+satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 7em;" class="smcap">J. S. Jones,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 3em;">Terminal Supt."</span><br />
+</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>TRIAL OF DEBS.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>On the 23d day of July, the day set for the trial of the officers of the
+American Railway Union,&mdash;Debs, Howard, Rodgers and Kelliher were on hand
+to answer to the charge of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>The court room was densely packed, when Judges Wood of Indianapolis and
+Grosscup of Chicago entered and Judge Wood raised a serious objection to
+the crowded condition, saying that only those finding seats should be
+allowed to remain,&mdash;lawyers, and possibly reporters.</p>
+
+<p>After signing and swearing to the answers, the defendants filed in at
+11:40 and Judge Wood asked if the Santa Fe road was represented.
+Attorney Miller stepped forward and was asked if both proceedings could
+not be heard at the same time. Judge Wood favored this to save time, and
+it was finally agreed that if the Santa Fe cases be heard later the
+government testimony on this bearing be admitted. Attorney Gregory
+thereupon submitted the answers to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>information filed before Judge
+Seaman in the contempt proceedings, and suggested that the trial for
+which the defendants had given bail be immediate and have precedence
+over the contempt proceedings. Judge Woods said that the court could
+decide upon a motion for delay, much more intelligently could they have
+the government information and the answers filed by the defendants.
+Attorney Milchrist then read the court the information.</p>
+
+<p>As Attorney Gregory had previously moved that the information be
+dismissed and the defendants discharged on their sworn answers, Attorney
+Erwin followed by reading the answers.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the reading he said that the defendants had made
+and filed a motion to quash, holding that the information was not
+sufficient. They now asked that the defendants be discharged, and also
+that the district attorney and government counsel to elect whether they
+should proceed under the indictment or under the contempt cases. No man
+could be tried twice for the same offense. Judge Wood said that the
+counsel for the government could proceed with either case. Attorney
+Walker elected to go ahead with the contempt proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Gregory in the opening made an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>eloquent appeal for a trial by
+jury instead of a criminal proceeding in a contempt case, as he held the
+present proceeding to be. He cited a number of authorities in support of
+his position. He argued that it was the rule that there could be no
+appeal from the decision of a federal court in a contempt case, and that
+consequently, where the question of a crime was involved, a sentence
+from the court would practically be a conviction on the original
+criminal charge without a trial by jury which is guaranteed by the
+constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gregory then took up the question of the motion to dismiss the bill
+on the grounds that the information did not set out in specific forms
+any violation of the specifications in the injunction granted by the
+United States court.</p>
+
+<p>He held that the men had a right to combine, choose leaders to advise,
+and quit work if they wished to do so and persuade others to quit work,
+that the injunctions did not prohibit them from doing so. Judge Wood
+asked if he considered that the defendants had a right to ask men to
+tumble goods out of cars that were ready for transportation. Mr. Gregory
+replied that he did not consider that they had any such right, and
+claimed that there was nowhere in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>information a distinct allegation
+that the defendants had counseled violence or infractions of the orders
+in the injunction. While he was willing to admit that violence had been
+done during the present strike, nothing was charged in the information
+that the violence was due to the acts of the defendants.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Walker for the government followed. He held that the defendants
+had no right to go into other states and persuade men to quit work for
+the purpose of paralyzing railroads, and that the issuance of these
+orders was a willful and vicious violation of the order of the court.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walker said the telegrams were the strongest evidence in the hands
+of the state to show that this had been done. He spoke for three
+quarters of an hour and directed his remarks more to the general charge
+against the defendants for violation of the injunction, than to the
+legal points raised by Mr. Gregory.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that the answers filed by the attorneys for the
+defense, was a complete denial of the charges.</p>
+
+<p>After hearing all the arguments, Judges Wood and Grosscup decided that
+the contempt proceedings against Mr. Debs and the others, were in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>nature of proceedings in equity, and therefore the defendants could not
+be discharged on their denial of the charges under oath.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walker gave as an excuse for wanting the case heard at once, that
+the defendants were liable to continue calling out the men unless they
+were restrained from so doing by the court.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Mr. Gregory, "you wish the court to practically call the
+strike off."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walker smiled and said that such an order would suit him all right.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Wood then added that it was within the bounds of the injunction
+called, for him to insist that the strike be declared off.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Greeting, reviewing the information, raised the insufficiency
+of the allegations, he also raised the question of the bearing of the
+statutes under which the defendants were enjoined.</p>
+
+<p>The following are the sections of acts under which the United States
+courts issued injunctions restraining the American Railway Union, its
+officers or agents, from interfering in any way with the interstate
+traffic on railroads.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Section 1.</span> Every contract combination in the form of trust or
+otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the
+several <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>states or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be
+illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any
+such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
+and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
+$5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both; said
+punishments at the discretion of the court.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Section 2.</span> Any person who shall monopolize or attempt to
+monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to
+monopolize, any part of the trade or commerce among the several states
+or foreign powers shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
+conviction thereof shall be punished etc.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Section 3.</span> Every contract combination in form of trust or
+otherwise or conspiracy in restraint of commerce or trade in any
+territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in
+restraint of trade or commerce between any such territory and another,
+or between any such territory or territories and any state or states or
+the District of Columbia or with foreign nations, or between the
+District of Columbia and any other state or states or foreign nations,
+is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>hereby declared illegal Every person who shall make any such
+contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be
+declared guilty of a misdemeanor and punished as in the case of Sections
+1 and 2.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Section 8.</span> The word person or persons wherever used shall be
+deemed to include corporations and associations existing under, or
+authorized by, the laws of either the United States, the laws of any of
+the territories, the laws of any state or the laws of any foreign
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"This law was never intended to cover the case of these defendants,"
+said Mr. Greeting. "It is clearly directed at the trusts and
+combinations which conspire to rob such people as the defendants. It
+seems to me that the district attorney would have been acting more
+within the spirit of the law if he had charged the railroads and the
+Pullman Palace Car Co., with conspiracy to monopolize interstate
+commerce, as it is a well known fact that the railroads have contracted
+with Pullman to haul none but his cars."</p>
+
+<p>A sickly smile spread over the features of the railroad attorneys
+present. It was evident that the words of Mr. Greeting sunk deeper than
+some of them would care to acknowledge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>District Attorney Milchrist argued that the court had perfect
+jurisdiction in these cases, he held that the government derived revenue
+from postal service and interstate commerce. It had suffered in a
+pecuniary way hence the bill of information filed had a proper place in
+court.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the information and answers, Mr. Milchrist said: "Either
+the counsel for the government deserved to be disbarred for willful
+misconduct for filing it, or the defendants in their sworn answer
+embodying a sweeping denial of the charge in the information had been
+guilty of rank perjury."</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Erwin then proceeded, prefacing his remarks with the statement
+that this was a court of equity. When these defendants denied under oath
+before the court, the allegations made in the bill, equity shut its
+doors. There was a remedy at law. The men could be punished for perjury
+in swearing falsely in their answers. No court of equity could hear such
+a case. Mr. Erwin held that the information was filed in equity and that
+the answer filed by the defendants was final and the remedy then was at
+law in a charge of perjury.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it any indication of the power of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>court," interrupted Judge Wood,
+"to hold a man convicted on a charge of perjury?"</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Erwin said that the perjury charge could purge the defendants
+in the case of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"You say in your answer," said Judge Wood, "that the defendants deny
+ordering strikes because it was not in their power to do so. Is it not
+enough to deny that you ordered the men out without going further and
+denying that you advised them in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"We say," answered Mr. Erwin "that every strike was voted on by a
+majority of the American Railway Union men upon each road upon which
+there had been a strike. The defendants deny the power to order or
+coerce the members of the American Railway Union."</p>
+
+<p>When questioned as to the answers denying the telegrams Mr. Erwin said
+the denials were sweeping. They had covered every point and purged
+themselves of any desire to disregard the orders of the court and the
+proceedings should be dismissed. He said: "Had Special Counsel Walker
+who set before the grand jury made his charges more specific, and not
+sought to prejudice the minds of the court by holding his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>averments for
+the attachment proceedings, and making them in vague and declamatory
+charges."</p>
+
+<p>Judge Wood said if the defendants had asked for more specific charges he
+thought the court would have granted it.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Erwin here remarked that they would prefer to make a motion to
+quash, which Judge Wood announced could not be done in this case unless
+the bill was wholly defective.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Erwin said that Attorney Walker had drawn the bill up hastily, and
+it was signed only by himself and the district attorney, who verified it
+merely by belief. He urged that the court should not add the information
+by continuing the consideration of the imperfectly drawn and inadequate
+bill. The court should not be a detective to ferret out the alleged
+truths of certain charges the evidence of which should have been
+collected by the government officers before a rule against the
+defendants was issued.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bancroft for the Santa Fe followed Mr. Erwin. He vigorously defended
+the information filed, and proceeded to color the telegrams admitted by
+the defendants, to suit the purposes of the government.</p>
+
+<p>After a legal tilt between the counsel on both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>sides, Judge Wood
+overruled the motion of defendant's counsel to quash the information,
+and postponed the case until September 5.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion he said that from what he had heard, he thought it
+necessary for the court to have its hand on the matter. It was evident,
+he said, that the defense intended to attempt to put forward a quantity
+of irrelevant matter as to the allegations regarding a combination on
+the part of the railroads. He said that while it was irrelevant he would
+hear it as a matter of curiosity and for public disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>The above synopsis of the proceedings of the trial, will give a fair
+idea of the course the government&mdash;on behalf of the railroads&mdash;pursued
+in conducting the prosecution of the officers of the American Railway
+Union.</p>
+
+<p>After a conference with their counsel&mdash;although opposed to it on
+principle&mdash;the officers of the American Railway Union decided to give
+bail.</p>
+
+<p>This decision was due to the fact that matters of an important nature
+demanded their immediate attention. They were placed under $7,000 bonds
+each, signed by Wm. Skakel and Wm. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>Fitzgerald, these gentlemen
+qualifying to the extent of $50,000 and $250,000 respectively.</p>
+
+<p>For the time being the officers of the American Railway Union were free
+men.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION<br />
+    CALLED TO TAKE ACTION ON THE STRIKE.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>In an editorial on the trial, headed: The Press against Justice, the
+Chicago Times had this to say: "When it became evident that the rights
+and actions of E. V. Debs and his associates in the American Railway
+Union strike were to be reviewed in court this paper said editorially:
+"The Times appeals to its contemporaries and to the people to join with
+it in avoiding all clamor which may in the least degree influence the
+findings of the court or bring its proceedings into contempt." It
+appears that the appeal fell upon deaf ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Such papers as the Tribune and the Evening Journal seized upon the very
+first utterance of Mr. Debs' counsel as an opportunity for insidious
+effort to prejudice the court and the people against the cause of the
+labor leaders.</p>
+
+<p>"Two of the editorials and two of what it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>calls editorialettes were
+necessary to the Tribune yesterday in order to give its advice to the
+prosecuting lawyers and the court proper expression. The other organs of
+plutocracy though less lavish of editorial space, employed their news
+columns to the same end. The first strike of the allied newspapers is to
+pronounce the opening plea of the counsel for the defense, Mr. Erwin, in
+effect an assertion of the gospel of anarchy.</p>
+
+<p>"Overworked as it is by the bigoted press the word anarchy still serves
+as a more or less effective bogyman to frighten timid and ill-informed
+people, but no one who will read the reports of Mr. Erwin's address will
+find any anarchistic doctrines lurking therein.</p>
+
+<p>"He charged that Pullman and the railroad managers had conspired
+together against the interest of workingmen, that the manner of the
+conspiracy made resort to the law hopeless, that lawmakers could not or
+would not act, and under these conditions the men were justified in
+combining, resisting and refusing to work longer for Mr. Pullman or the
+roads allied with him.</p>
+
+<p>"The Times is unable to discern the savour of anarchy in that. It is in
+effect only a declaration that when employes combine to resist them,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>neither by direct statement or by innuendoes did the attorney suggest
+or excuse violence or the destruction of property. He erred, the Times
+thinks, in describing Pullman's course of procedure as illegal, for
+unhappily, law as it stands, protects Pullman in his most despotic and
+oppressive acts. If Pullman's course had been illegal, action at law
+instead of a strike and boycott would have been the remedy for it, but
+with the exception of this over-statement which may have been due to
+inadvertence, Mr. Erwin said nothing that men of fair and judicial minds
+can denounce as false, and nothing at all incendiary. The clamor of the
+conspiracy is raised to defeat justice."</p>
+
+<p>After the release of the officers a meeting was called at the Revere
+House, of the directors of the American Railway Union. They concluded to
+call a convention of the delegates from the different local unions, to
+meet in Chicago, August 2d, and take some action on the strike. Each
+local union was notified of this action and instructed to send a
+delegate with full power to act.</p>
+
+<p>After this meeting of the officers, they at once repaired to Ulrich
+Hall, where an enormous crowd greeted Mr. Debs with the greatest
+enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>Mr. Debs,&mdash;after being introduced by the chairman of the meeting, Mr.
+Adams,&mdash;was given three cheers with such a vim that the building fairly
+shook. He then advanced to the platform and said: "I see you have
+changed your quarters since I saw you before, and I am glad to say we
+have changed ours also.</p>
+
+<p>"When Judge Wood delivered his ruling yesterday he declared it to be
+illegal for men to combine and strike.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the law, labor organizations had better disband at once. If
+we have no right to strike, no right to combine, no right to exercise
+the functions which are delegated to us, then we might as well give up
+and acknowledge that we are slaves.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the law we have no right to resist or defend ourselves
+against the injustice of employers.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter how much has been said about the stars and stripes and the
+freedom of the workingman, if that is the final tribunal, corporate
+capital has the right to suck the life blood from the toiler who must
+make no sign. But I am not prepared to believe that this is in harmony
+with the constitution. If this is the constitution, then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>our liberty is
+gone. Mr. Erwin sounded the slogan yesterday when he declared that there
+is a higher power than the courts, a power greater than the aggregated
+combinations of capital and railroads. That is the inherent rights of
+workingmen to strike at the polls.</p>
+
+<p>"What we want then is to rid ourselves of the old party shackles.</p>
+
+<p>"We want to change the constitution so that even federal judges will be
+elected by the people. Then no judge will render a decision defying all
+law and justice. It is wonderful how sensitive the machinery of justice
+is to any complaint directed against the workingman.</p>
+
+<p>"But how is it when corporations combine? Is it of record that any
+officials of any one of them has ever been in prison for violating the
+law?</p>
+
+<p>"It is a notorious fact that the Santa Fe has robbed the people of
+$7,000,000 in the face of the interstate commerce law. Why not bring
+these colossal scoundrels to justice too? They say we must obey the law.
+I say we are law-abiding, and I defy any man to show a single instance
+where the heads of the labor organization have advocated violence. If
+the authorities want the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>law respected let them enforce it against the
+rich and poor alike.</p>
+
+<p>"In July, 1892, when the switchmen struck, the soldiers were called out
+to suppress them. Deputy marshalls set fire to a lot of box cars in
+Buffalo, N. Y., and this furnished the railroads an excuse to call on
+the government for soldiers. The railroads are still violating the eight
+hour law for which the men struck. They arrested the switchmen while the
+corporations are still allowed to trample the law under foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Is not that enough to bring disrespect of the law? As it is now, the
+whole thing is a roaring farce. Has anybody ever heard of soldiers being
+called out to guard the rights of workingmen? Whatever else I have
+suffered myself, I have not lost the right of free speech. If Judge Wood
+expounds the law I would rather rot in jail than be an alleged freeman.
+There is no man in the country who can directly charge me with violating
+the law of this country. Did any one of you ever hear me advocate
+violence? (A mighty no went up in response.) On the other hand did
+anyone here ever hear me counsel the men to be frank and straight
+forward, and honest and law-abiding in all they did?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>The audience shouted yes to this and President Debs continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Before we get through with this trial it will be shown that the real
+conspirators are the railroad managers. Then if I go to the penitentiary
+Mr. Egan will have the distinction of accompanying me. We will produce
+the proof that the real purpose of the General Managers Association was
+to reduce wages, and that until we stopped them on the Great Northern,
+they were going around the circle with that end in view.</p>
+
+<p>"When it comes to striking at the polls we know the people will be with
+us, it will be a contest against the money power by which this country
+has been absolutely ruled for so many years. Havemeyer goes into the
+United States Senate and dictates what the duty on sugar shall be, and
+all the people combined can't stop him. Let a poor man go to Washington
+to protest and he is arrested for treading on the grass.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a populist and favor wiping out both old parties, so they will
+never come into power again. I have been a democrat all my life and I am
+ashamed to admit it. I want every one of you to go to the polls and vote
+the peoples' ticket."</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Debs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>announced his intention of
+going to his home for a few days.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing this, the members of the American Railway Union determined to
+escort him to the depot, and, although they had but two hours to make
+arrangements, a procession a couple of miles in length was formed.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival at his home in Terre Haute, President Debs was tendered a
+great reception. Thousands of his fellow citizens in all stations of
+life welcomed him with outstretched arms. Early in the evening the
+Naylor Opera House was packed to completion, and hundreds of people were
+denied admission owing to the dense throng of people who wished to do
+honor to this great leader. When President Debs appeared upon the stage
+he was greeted by a roar of applause that shook the building to its very
+foundation. His eloquent address on the strike situation and the causes
+that led up to it was received with thunders of applause.</p>
+
+<p>This was the man whom the corporate courts had indicted for criminal
+conspiracy.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STRIKE LOST.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Through the machination of the general managers, the courts and the
+press and the Benedict Arnolds of labor, the cause of the railroad
+corporations was beginning to triumph. Discouraged and disheartened by
+the treachery in their own ranks, a great many strikers had lost
+confidence in the success of their undertaking and were now silently
+awaiting the result of the convention called at Chicago. This was made
+known on the return of the delegates.</p>
+
+<p>The action taken was to decide by a majority vote of each system whether
+the strike would continue in force or be declared off.</p>
+
+<p>After thoroughly discussing the matter, it was decided to call off the
+strike owing to the fact that they were forced to fight against
+overwhelming odds and rank treachery, and the men were instructed to
+make application for their positions at once, in view of getting as many
+as possible re-instated.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>This action was taken on all roads with the exception of the Chicago and
+Eastern Illinois, the Santa Fe and the Northern Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of the men were successful in securing positions, for instance
+at Minnesota Transfer the switchmen waited on the superintendent in a
+body (all who were still in the city) and made applications to be
+reinstated.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dudgeon the superintendent, who, by the way, was appointed during
+the strike to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Mr. Sullivan,
+informed the men that he had more applications already than would fill
+all vacancies for the next two years. He said: "I will not mislead you
+boys for one minute, not one of you will be taken back."</p>
+
+<p>I was not present at this interview, but being informed that Mr.
+Hastings, president of the company, had signified his willingness to
+hear us, we consulted together and decided to call on him at his office.</p>
+
+<p>John F. Keenan and myself were appointed as a committee to confer with
+him, and, after introducing ourselves, stated our mission.</p>
+
+<p>He received us in a gentlemanly manner, said that he was always ready to
+listen to the switchmen, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>as he had been a switchmen himself at one
+time, and while he assured us that he knew we had not interfered with
+the company property during the strike and conducted ourselves in a
+creditable manner, he could do nothing for us. He also said that he had
+more respect for us than he had for those who were hanging on the fence,
+but he had nothing to do with the employes of the Minnesota Transfer, as
+he had left that matter entirely in the hands of the superintendent. We
+told him that we were informed that Mr. Dudgeon would take some of the
+men back if the president of the company was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever arrangements you boys make with Mr. Dudgeon will be
+satisfactory to me," answered Mr. Hastings.</p>
+
+<p>He then referred us to Mr. Dudgeon who was present and who then said
+that he had already given us our answer which was final. He said that he
+had promised steady work to the men he had already employed if they
+proved themselves competent, and as they were doing the work
+satisfactorily, he would not consider any more applications.</p>
+
+<p>This statement regarding the work we knew to be a bluff, as it would
+take an old switchman, if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>unacquainted with this yard, at least three
+months under the most favorable circumstances to learn, if unaided,
+enough to enable him to give efficient service, as the yard is very
+complicated. And again in contradiction of this statement it is known
+that freight was refused from different roads for four days at a time to
+enable them to get the yard in shape, and after the freight of
+twenty-four hours was received, the same operation would be necessary,
+although they had the services of competent switchmen from the Omaha and
+other railroads.</p>
+
+<p>So speaking for the Minnesota Transfer the general managers were winners
+so to speak, in the game of freeze out waged against the switchmen. The
+men in all other departments were taken back with but few exceptions,
+but it was now a settled fact that the switchmen must look elsewhere for
+employment. The officials were credited with saying that they would
+permanently close the transfer, rather than reinstate a single
+switchman.</p>
+
+<p>It would be nothing more than justice at this time to say that the
+former superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan, had resigned his position
+during the strike for the reason that the management would not allow him
+to take back the old men. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>Mr. Sullivan contended that it would be
+impossible to operate the yard without the assistance of a goodly
+portion of the old employes.</p>
+
+<p>In a newspaper article he denied that his resignation was handed in on
+that account, but it is nevertheless credited by those who know him
+well, and by the employes themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We then applied at all the yards in the Twin Cities but with like
+result, and although not told in so many words, we were given to
+understand that we were blacklisted, and this was the case not only with
+us, but with men all over the country.</p>
+
+<p>The Soo Line had now put in force an ironclad agreement that all
+employes were obliged to sign if they wished to remain in the service of
+the company. This debarred the men from belonging to any labor
+organization for five years. Another rule put in force at this time was
+that engineers would hire their own firemen. This would appear to be a
+blow at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.</p>
+
+<p>The railroad corporations exulting in their victory, determined to
+boycott every striker and sympathizer throughout the country, as far as
+it was in their power.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>The weapon, that it was made a criminal offense for a striker to use,
+and for which the officers of the American Railway Union were sent to
+jail, was now in the hands of the railroad corporations to use at will.</p>
+
+<p>What was decided by the courts unlawful in the hands of the American
+Railway Union was legal in the hands of the General Managers
+Association. This the federal judges made no effort to investigate.
+Judge Wood said regarding the charge of a combination on the part of the
+railroads, that while it was irrelevant he would hear it as a matter of
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>Expressions like this emanating from a judge of the United States court,
+immediately following his ruling against the strikers, are too plain to
+be misunderstood. While he might condescend to hear the charges against
+the general managers, it is very evident that a motion to quash any
+proceeding against the corporation would be granted.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest pressure of evidence brought to bear by the American
+Railway Union against this illegal combination would have no weight with
+the judge, therefore it could not be wondered that when the General
+Managers Association <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>started a systematic course of boycotting the
+American Railway Union by blacklisting its members, there was no action
+taken to prosecute them.</p>
+
+<p>The Union Pacific, now in the hands of the government, not only
+discharged every striker and sympathizer but blacklisted them also.</p>
+
+<p>This is a sample of justice. Some of the men had worked for the company
+for twenty years, and the only charge against them was that of being
+members of the American Railway Union and struck in sympathy with the
+starving Pullman employes.</p>
+
+<p>Their system of blacklisting is so perfect that every avenue of escape
+is closed against an employe.</p>
+
+<p>They have what is known as the blacklist book. The names of the strikers
+are entered in the book of which a copy is held by all railroads. When a
+man makes application his name is taken and the book is then consulted.
+If his name is registered he is told that no more men are wanted, if
+not, he is told to call the next day, by which time, if he is a striker,
+it is known, and he will have to travel.</p>
+
+<p>An assumed name will do no good, as he will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>be asked to give reference
+signed by his last employer, so you will see very plainly that the
+strikers lot is not a bed of roses.</p>
+
+<p>President Debs has been accused of being responsible for this condition
+of affairs. There is absolutely no truth in that accusation, as in the
+first place it was directly against his wishes and advice that the
+Pullman employes struck, and only after a personal investigation of the
+case&mdash;and realizing that the causes which led to it would admit of no
+denial that the men were justified in their action&mdash;did he approve of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The boycott that followed the Pullman strike, as has been previously
+stated, was not ordered by Mr. Debs. He did not have the power to order
+it, therefore he could not be held responsible for the result.</p>
+
+<p>The men who were the victims of this unfortunate boycott, were
+themselves responsible for its beginning, as by an almost unanimous vote
+they ordered it. Perhaps they may have acted hastily, it has been stated
+many times that this was the case, but when the brutal inhuman treatment
+of the Pullman employes came to light through the investigation of the
+delegates to the convention, they would be less than human if they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>had
+refused to come to the assistance of these men who were being ground
+down by a merciless corporation.</p>
+
+<p>After reading the facts brought to light by the witnesses before the
+strike commission appointed by President Cleveland, and also Gov.
+Altgeld's personal investigation I do not believe that any one with a
+spark of humanity in his heart will condemn them for their actions.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COMMISSION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The commission appointed by President Cleveland to investigate the
+strike began its work Aug. 15, at 10 o'clock in Judge Grosscup's court
+room. Most of those present were members of the American Railway Union.
+Prof. Bemis, of the Chicago University, was in attendance. Neither the
+Pullman Company or the railroad companies were represented. The
+witnesses examined were Geo. W. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, and James R. Sovereign, grand master workman of the
+Knights of Labor. Acting with the commission were B. J. Hastings, of
+Utica, N. Y., and Deputy United States Marshall Bartlett. Chairman
+Wright announced that they were in session pursuant to the President's
+call which the clerk read. This document directed an inquiry into the
+causes and the conditions of the controversy between the Illinois
+Central and the Rock Island roads and their employes. After the reading
+chairman Wright made the following statement: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>"By the act recited in
+the commission of the President that has just been read, this commission
+is directed to examine into the causes, controversies and difficulties
+existing between the roads named and their employes at the time the
+commission of the President was issued. The board is constituted as a
+temporary body for this purpose and not for the purpose of arbitrating
+the difficulties that existed. It is practically a court of inquiry and
+its proceedings will be in accordance with the usages of such courts. It
+will proceed first to hear all witnesses in behalf of the employes and
+then those of the corporations named. All such witnesses are requested
+to hand their names to the clerk. Under the law parties may be
+represented by counsel or appear in person as they see fit, and examine
+and cross-examine the witnesses. After all the witnesses have given
+their testimony the commission will then consider arguments or
+suggestions to be made upon the questions before it. All suggestions and
+arguments presented in writing will be filed and considered by the
+commission, but the question as to how far the commission will listen to
+parties who desire to be heard orally will depend upon the time left to
+the disposal of the commission and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>will be determined after the
+testimony is concluded. By the act creating it this commission possesses
+all the power and authority of the United States Commissioners appointed
+by the Circuit Courts of the United States. The hours of sitting will be
+from 10:00 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> to 4:00 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> Parties and their
+counsel and witnesses attending will find seats within the rail."</p>
+
+<p>Vice President Howard was the first witness sworn. In answer to
+questions as to his age, residence and occupation, Mr. Howard replied
+that he was 46 years old, resided in Chicago, and was vice president of
+the American Railway Union. For nearly 30 years he had been identified
+with the railroad service filling positions from trackman to general
+superintendent. He had been a member of the Yard Masters' Association,
+the B. of L. E. and O. R. C. By request of Mr. Wright he gave the
+following connection of the American Railway Union with the strike.</p>
+
+<p>"We began organizing the Pullman employes in March of this year. Early
+in May they struck. The strike was voted by themselves not by the
+American Railway Union, indeed we advised against the strike.</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately after the strike was called I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>accompanied a committee of
+forty-three representing every branch of the Pullman service to a
+conference with Mr. Wickes at Pullman. Mr. Pullman refused to arbitrate
+but promised to give their grievances immediate attention if they would
+return to work. I inquired of Mr. Wickes if there would be any prejudice
+against the members of the committee and was assured by him that there
+would not be. After receiving this assurance from Mr. Wickes, I advised
+the men to go back to their work, which they did. Next day three of the
+committee were discharged, not on order or with the knowledge of Mr.
+Wickes or Mr. Pullman, but by some under boss in the shops. This so
+incensed the rest of the employes who considered it a breach of promise
+that they unanimously struck again.</p>
+
+<p>"June 12, the convention of the American Railway Union met in Chicago.
+The Pullman strikers were represented by seven or eight delegates. The
+situation at Pullman received consideration. A joint committee
+representing the convention and the Pullman strikers was appointed to
+wait on the Pullman company. The committee was informed that the Pullman
+company would confer with only its employes, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>consequently this body was
+discharged and a committee consisting of Pullman employes appointed. The
+action of the Pullman company was reported to the American Railway Union
+convention whereupon each delegate wired his local union for
+instructions. The result of this was that the members of the American
+Railway Union all over the country voted to discontinue handling Pullman
+cars if at the end of five days from that date the Pullman company
+refused to arbitrate with its employes.</p>
+
+<p>"In this connection I wish to say that Mr. Pullman stated to the
+committee of forty-three, in my hearing, that his employes at that time
+owed him $70,000 for rent and that he had not pushed them for payment
+which fact clearly shows that his men were not making enough to pay
+rent."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "That was the boycott order, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "I do not use the word boycott. The action taken was simply
+that members of the American Railway Union would not handle Pullman
+cars.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days before the limit of five days&mdash;the dates I do not now
+recall&mdash;but I will furnish <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>them&mdash;the General Managers' Association took
+action declaring that they would share the expense of whipping the
+American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>"Pullman would not arbitrate and first the men on one road then on
+another refused to handle Pullman cars. They did not decline to handle
+other cars, but switchmen, you understand, would not attach Pullmans to
+trains. Engineers, conductors, firemen and trainmen would not take out
+trains which Pullman cars were attached to. There was no attempt to
+interfere with the mails but on the contrary every effort in our power
+was made to help the roads carry them. The companies held the mails in
+their determination to attach Pullman cars to trains.</p>
+
+<p>"Of my personal knowledge I know of a road that abandoned a mail train
+to take out an excursion train, not having crews to take out both. In
+another instance I know of a mail train going out on the order of the
+railway officials after the Pullmans had been cut off by the employes.
+Things went on in this way for several days. No violence was committed
+by the employes and the police were in full control of the situation to
+prevent violence from outsiders.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>"The first pistol was drawn by one Miller, an employe of the Tribune at
+Blue Island, wholly without cause, and after the troops were on the
+ground. The violence that was afterward committed was not as was
+believed by members of the American Railway Union but by outsiders&mdash;some
+acting in passion, because they saw in the presence of the soldiers an
+instrument of tyranny. Others in a spirit of mischief and love of
+destruction and others still&mdash;hired by the General Managers in order to
+create public sentiment against us. Yesterday I gave the mayor of
+Chicago the name of a man who claimed, while under the influence of
+liquor to have received $400 for burning cars. The Committee of safety,
+at Springfield, sent us the names of three men who quarreled about the
+division of $500 received for burning cars. $200 of which was paid in
+advance by John M. Eagan, of the General Managers' Association."</p>
+
+<p>Regarding the motives actuating the organization of the American Railway
+Union Mr. Howard denied that it was to destroy the old organizations but
+because they no longer fulfilled the necessities of the situation. If
+the old brotherhoods could get together amicably there would be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>no need
+of the American Railway Union, but they never can. There are two many
+causes for jealousy, for instance: There are 10,000 locomotive engineers
+who are not in the B. of L. E. but are members of the B. of L. F. In
+case of a grievance the engineers are divided and are represented by two
+organizations. The Brotherhood of Trainmen contains men who have been
+promoted to conductors causing a friction between these two orders.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Then the sole purpose of the American Railway Union in
+taking the action it did was to oppose the Pullman company and it was
+not actuated by any desire to injure the other railway organizations?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "That is it exactly. After the action taken by the General
+Managers' Association we had to act as we did or lie down."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Did the officers of the American Railway Union advise the
+men on roads other than those using Pullmans to go on strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "The men on all roads represented by the General Managers'
+Association were advised to go out on strike."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Was this order extended to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>roads not using Pullman cars or
+which were not represented in the General Managers' Association?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Were there any such road?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Yes. General Manager Clark, of the Mobile &amp; Ohio, sent us
+word that his road would drop the Pullman service if the men would
+continue at work. We advised the men to return to work under those
+conditions, but the men at St. Louis argued that such action would
+weaken their cause and refused to take our advice in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthingford: "How did you advise all other organizations to go on a
+sympathetic strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "We did not advise nor even request other organizations to
+declare a strike. We invited the heads of all labor organizations to
+come here and aid us by their advice or in any way they saw fit to help
+us. I think Mr. Debs sent the invitation. When the representatives of
+the other labor organizations met here, we went before the body and
+explained the entire situation. They asked Mr. Debs what he wished them
+to do. He replied that he did not ask <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>anything of them but left it to
+their best judgment and conscience to take such measures as would help
+bring the trouble to an end. Mr. Debs read a communication which he had
+prepared to present to the general managers, and asked the
+representatives at the conference if they would act as a board of
+arbitration or assume the role of peace-makers. President Gompers of the
+American Federation of Labor, seemed afraid that such action would
+involve the other organizations in some way and hesitated to accept our
+request to take the communication to the general managers. We then
+concluded to ask Mayor Hopkins to present our communication. The mayor
+willingly granted our request."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Was any written record kept of that conference of the heads
+of the labor organizations which was held at the Briggs House?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What records have you of the proceedings of your
+convention as to who invited the heads of other labor organizations to
+meet here in conference, and what they were expected to do?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "I think it was decided at the convention of the American
+Railway Union, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>met here June 12, to extend such an invitation. I
+know it was talked over then."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Then the American Railway Union did not advise a
+sympathetic strike of all organizations."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No, sir. Mr. Debs left that question to the judgment and
+conscience of the men themselves."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Was the action of the convention of June 12 a
+strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Well, it was called a strike."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Was the communication you referred to
+presented to the general managers?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, and returned without an answer further than a
+statement that the General Managers' Association had no business to
+transact with the American Railway Union or its representatives."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "It is charged that your organization, like others,
+encouraged its members to persistently interfere with and prevent
+unorganized labor from taking positions given up by their striking
+members. Is that charge true?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "It cannot be shown in one instance that anything of the
+kind has been done."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>Commissioner Kernan: "You won't go so far as to say that no interference
+of the sort alluded to has ever been engaged in?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Certainly not. I mean that such interference was not
+authorized or countenanced by the union."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Did you take any steps to prevent such
+interference?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "We have taken the ground that when we go out on strike not
+to interfere with any of the new men the companies may employ."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "You do countenance advice to such men not to take
+the places of strikers?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Oh, yes. We claim the right to ask new men not to take our
+places."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Is it not a fact that such interviews usually result in
+violence?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No. I think the rule is to the contrary. We go no further
+than to request the men to quit work and to commit no violence."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any punishment for violation of that
+rule?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No. No organization has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>any power to punish a member for
+violation of such rule except by expulsion. We leave the punishment of
+such cases to the civil authorities."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think some steps should be taken by
+labor unions to punish their members who violate the rules in that
+respect?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, I do, and we started out to do so here during the
+strike but the trouble assumed such vast proportions that it was
+impossible to do anything in that direction. In the case of the Great
+Northern strike we appointed committees to guard the company's property,
+and the men were instructed to shoot anyone found in the act of
+destroying same."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What, as a rule has been your experience in
+strikes where violence was restored to?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "The men have always been defeated."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Then a resort to violence is rather detrimental to
+the cause of the strikers?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Decidedly so. We want public opinion with us in a strike."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Do you know of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>any organization that disciplines
+its members for resorting to violence?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "None, excepting the American Railway Union. Our argument is
+that the only weapons labor has to fight its battles with are the strike
+and the boycott. There is some talk about the ballot but some questions
+cannot be settled by the ballot. Only the array of labor in one solid
+phalanx will give it the power that will make strikes unnecessary."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Does not history show that on account of
+jealousies in your own ranks a complete organization of labor cannot be
+effected?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Yes. That is history up to the present, but the workingman
+is doing more thinking to-day than ever before."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "You regard such a strike as would be possible
+under the conditions you outline as a desirable thing for organized
+labor?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No, sir. If employers would be a little more considerate of
+their men there would soon be no labor organizations in existence."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>Commissioner Kernan: "You do not say that all grievances are just, do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No. Many of them are frivolous."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "It is charged that there is a minority in all
+labor organizations who are practically enslaved by the will of the
+majority and that a man for that reason loses his independence when he
+joins a union?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "Well, I think the reverse is the rule. The hot heads and
+agitators in the labor movement are in the minority; the quiet, thinking
+men are always in the majority. It often happens that the man who is
+really most anxious to strike assumes an air of indifference or positive
+objection to such a move. He is merely waiting for a good excuse to stop
+and let the blame lie with some one else. He wants some one to order him
+to quit work so he can say to the superintendent that he is afraid to
+remain at work for fear of personal violence."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Was any other motive behind the strike other than
+to force a settlement with Mr. Pullman?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan; "Was there any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>object in breaking the older unions
+so that the American Railway Union might profit thereby?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "While the increase in membership in the American Railway
+Union meant a decrease in the strength of the older organizations it was
+not the object of the strike to break down the older unions."</p>
+
+<p>In answer to a question by Commissioner Kernan as to what he would
+suggest to prevent railroad strikes in the future, Mr. Howard replied
+that the government ownership and control of railroads was the only
+practical solution of the question. He argued that about one third of
+the railroads of the country are practically under control of the
+government, and thought the balance could easily be taken. He claimed
+the Santa Fe was from two to four months behind in payment of wages;
+that it would seem only fair that the government should see that the men
+were paid. The government had gone to the extent of forcing the employes
+of that and other roads to work whether they wished to or not and he
+thought the other step might as well be taken at once.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign, grand master workman of the Knights of Labor, was the
+next witness. He testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>Union. Said the only official connection the Knights of Labor had with
+the strike was the adoption of a resolution that they would not ride in
+Pullman cars. He also stated that a general tie-up of all the industries
+in the country to force public sentiment on Pullman and bring to bear on
+the Pullman company the greatest possible pressure was contemplated, but
+it was found the tie-up could not be made sufficiently general to bring
+about the desired results, so it was not attempted.</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Then you do not consider the American Railway
+Union responsible for the rioting that occurred?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "No, sir. In fact I do not think there was any rioting."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Do you consider burning cars a species of
+rioting?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "Not when it was done by U. S. marshalls."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Was it so done?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "I read reports in Mayor Hopkins' office to-day to that
+effect&mdash;reports that seem conclusive on that point. Moreover I don't
+think there was as much rioting as is generally believed. I came from
+Des Moines on what was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>supposed to be the last train to Chicago. We
+arrived without incident at Blue Island on July 6. There the train was
+side tracked and we were told by the officials that it could go no
+further because of the mobs between there and the city. I saw a west
+bound mail train on another track and was told it had been there for
+twenty-six hours and could not proceed on account of the mob and
+violence beyond, though it would go on the very same track on which we
+had just arrived. I bought a ticket from Blue Island to Chicago on the
+Wisconsin Central. After coming a short distance the train stopped and
+the conductor told us we could go no further on account of mobs ahead of
+us. I picked up my grip with the intention of walking to the city, but
+the conductor cautioned me against risking my life. However I walked in,
+was not molested, saw no disorder and did not see more then ten men at
+any one place."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan inquired what views the Knights of Labor held about letting
+non-union men take the places of strikers.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "That depends on circumstances. In the case of mine
+owners, for instance, who have sold houses to their employes who have
+partly paid for same, the unjust discharge of these <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>men means a
+forfeiture to the mine owners of all money paid on the property. We hold
+that we must by all honorable means prevent others from taking their
+places."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "But suppose honorable means are not effective?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "Well, if it's necessary to prevent them from passing a
+given line we clasp hands and keep them out."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "You do not assault them?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "No. If they break through they assault us."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign did not think that strikes or compulsory arbitration was
+the remedy for labor troubles. He believed that the government ownership
+of railroads would settle the trouble for employes. He also believed the
+employes of corporations had an equity in their positions and for unjust
+discharge should have a remedy in a court of equity.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Why cannot the contract between employer and employe
+provide for all you want the law to cover?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sovereign: "Because labor is always dependent, always has been at
+least and is forced by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>the duress of circumstances to accept employment
+without insisting on protecting conditions."</p>
+
+<p>George W. Lovejoy was the next witness to take the stand. In answer to a
+question by Commissioner Wright, he said: "I am familiar with the
+history of the strike on the Rock Island road. Beside the order passed
+by the convention to refuse to handle Pullman cars, the men at La Salle
+had a special grievance that consisted of unjust treatment of the
+members of the American Railway Union which had a local lodge at that
+point. I for one was dismissed without any cause being assigned.
+Complaint was made to Supt. Dunlap and an explanation asked as to why
+the men were discharged. He refused to consider the grievance submitted
+to him so the men concluded to strike."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Was the grievance submitted in writing?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "It was. I have not a copy, but think I can get one from
+the local union."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "What part did your local union take in the Pullman
+strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "It decided to sustain it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Was there any violence at La Salle?" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>Mr. Lovejoy:
+"No, sir. None whatever."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Have any of the old men been taken back?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "No, sir. And never will."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Is it on account of the strike that they cannot get
+back?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "I suppose it is."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "How general was the strike at La Salle?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "It extended to every branch of the service. Switchmen,
+firemen, engineers, conductors, brakemen, telegraph operators, clerks,
+round-housemen and trackmen."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Now tell us about the cause that led to your
+discharge as you understand it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "Six months previous to the convention of the American
+Railway Union which met in Chicago, June 12, I had an understanding with
+the superintendent that I would get a leave of absence and was to put a
+man in my place while absent. When I got ready to come to Chicago, I
+sent a note asking for such leave of absence and transportation. The
+transportation was sent me, but no answer to my note was given. When I
+came to Chicago I called at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>the office of the superintendent to have an
+understanding about my leave and he told me that a written notice was
+not necessary. Whenever I wanted to go anywhere all I had to do was to
+put a good man in my place and go. The Tuesday following the opening of
+the convention the assistant superintendent went to La Salle and put
+another man in my place permanently. No reason has ever been given me
+why such action was taken."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Mr. Lovejoy, I suppose you have given the subjects
+of labor troubles and strikes some study. I wish to ask if you can
+suggest any solution of these troubles."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir, I have and I consider the only way to solve the
+question is for the government to own the railroads."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What is your reason?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "I think the employes would receive better treatment and be
+better satisfied. I think they would get the same kind of treatment as
+the postal employes and there would be no strikes under these
+conditions."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What do you think of arbitration as a remedy?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>Mr. Lovejoy: "I have never seen arbitration tried to any great extent
+and while I believe in the principle I am not prepared to say that I am
+in favor of compulsory arbitration."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "If the government owned the railroads how would
+you avoid the changes incident to a change in administration?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "I consider that railroad employes would be in practically
+the same position as postal clerks. They would be under civil service
+rules to the extent of being pensioned after a term of years of faithful
+service."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Would it not cause jealousy among other branches
+of workingmen if such a system should be adopted toward railroad men?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "I do not think so. I am not jealous of postal clerks."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "What would you suggest as the next best thing if
+government ownership proved impracticable?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "That the government keep hands off altogether; let the
+roads and their men fight out their troubles free from outside
+interference. It is the knowledge that the government can be called to
+their aid that makes many <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>of the railroad officials so arbitrary with
+their men."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think that disputes ought to be settled
+by some other method than open warfare?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "There would be none if the authorities would keep away.
+The employes would settle their grievances by arbitration."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "What would you think of a law providing that upon
+application of a certain number of employes the railroads should be
+compelled to come before a board of arbitration and make answer to the
+grievances of the men or vice versa before a strike could be declared? I
+mean by that a law which would compel a hearing of disputes by a
+constituted tribunal even though that tribunal had not the power to
+force a decision in the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "I would be in favor of such a court and believe that the
+railroad men would abide by its decision voluntarily if they had some
+choice in the selection of the arbitrators."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not one of the greatest troubles the
+railroad men have to contend with that they cannot get a hearing of
+their grievances?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir. It is. And if the men could always be sure of
+getting a fair and impartial hearing I do not believe there would be any
+strikes. As a rule the men are opposed to strikes and resort to them
+only when every means of settling grievances has failed."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that strikes usually end
+disastrously to the men?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lovejoy: "Strikes often fail to accomplish the particular end in
+view, but I believe on the whole their tendency is toward a betterment
+of the conditions of the men. The strike we have just passed through has
+demonstrated to the working people of this country that they must get
+together as one solid body before they can win. They have found out that
+when they undertake to assert their rights they have no friends but
+themselves. The press, the judiciary, the ministers and office holders
+are all against them."</p>
+
+<p>Secretary Kelliher of the American Railway Union was next to testify. He
+promised to furnish the commissioners with certified copies of any of
+the proceedings of the convention, and the correspondence which occurred
+during the strike. In answer to questions by the commissioners he
+considered government ownership of railways <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>the only solution to
+strikes. While he favored arbitration, he did not think compulsory
+arbitration would be satisfactory to the men.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas J. Heathcoat, a resident of Pullman, and one of the strikers, was
+the next witness examined. He testified to the condition of Pullman
+prior to and at the time of the strike and gave a full account of the
+strike and the causes that brought it about. He gave in detail the scale
+of wages paid prior to June, '93, and the constant reductions since.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat, in answer to Commissioner Kernan asking him to explain
+the mode adopted by the Pullman Company in cutting wages for piece work,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Take, for instance, that desk behind which you sit. Suppose it were
+given to me to make. I figured that I could do the work for $20.00, and
+took it at that price. As a good mechanic I could make $4.00 per day at
+it. For the next one the foreman would allow me $18.00. Being anxious to
+make good wages, and being a good mechanic, I would use extra effort and
+still make $4.00 per day. The next one the foreman would allow me only
+$16.00 for. Yet, by extraordinary effort I could still make $4.00 daily.
+The next one the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>foreman would allow me $12.00 for, and with my utmost
+endeavors I could make only $3.00 per day. As a good mechanic I would
+refuse to take any more at that price and the work would be given to an
+inferior workman who could make only $1.25 per day. This is the way the
+Pullman Company has worked its piece work system."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Did the cuts in other departments average as much
+as in yours?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "They averaged the same though they were not alike. The
+new men in the freight car department suffered more than we did and
+there were others in some of the departments that were making pretty
+good wages at the time of the strike."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "You have spoken of asking the company for a
+reduction in rent. What rent do you pay, and what did you get for it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Up to the beginning of the strike I paid $17 a month
+rent and 71 cents per month for water. Gas I did not use. Could not
+afford it. The company charged $2.25 per 1,000 feet. My house had five
+rooms, cellar and back yard." <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>Commissioner Wright: "What would similar
+houses rent for elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "I know of eight and nine room cottages with front and
+back yards, in every way more desirable than the house I live in, that
+can be rented for $8.00 and $9.00 per month."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "What, in your opinion, would it cost to build
+houses such as you live in?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "I should like to take the contract for building them at
+$600 apiece."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What other accommodations do you get for the rent
+you pay, say in the way of paved streets?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "There are cheap wooden sidewalks in front of the house
+and the company keeps a force of men on the street picking up paper and
+hauling away garbage. That's all I know."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Have you applied to the Pullman company for work
+since the strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. I understand that I am blacklisted. They have a
+blacklist, you know. I have one in my pocket now."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Commissioner Wright: "Will you let me see it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. Here it is."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Have you any objection to telling us where you got
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. I got it from a friend of one of the clerks in
+the Pullman office and I would not like to tell the name of either, as
+it would cost the clerk his position."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Have you any other evidence of the existence of a
+blacklist?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. One of the men who applied to Mr. Childs at
+the Rock Island shops for work. He was asked his name and the same being
+found on one of their lists he was told that he was a Pullman striker,
+consequently could not get work. I understand the Pullman company's
+blacklist was sent to all the railroads so that others besides myself
+can never get work in the railroad shop again."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Do labor unions ever blacklist non-union men?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "The American Railway Union does not. That is the only
+labor union I ever belonged to."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "What was the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>feeling of the employes toward Mr.
+Pullman previous to the strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "As a rule I think the employes had a high regard for Mr.
+Pullman until Harry Middleton took charge two and a half years ago. He
+is not a practical car builder. He wastes material for which we are
+charged. He displaces men who have earned their positions by good work
+and promotes his favorites. He makes arbitrary and tyrannical shop rules
+which deprive us of part of our pay. For instance, suppose a car
+carpenter be given a lot of cars, the work to be finished in a certain
+time. Within a day of the time limit it is seen that there is still six
+days work for one man. He will put on five extra men, regardless whether
+that many can work to advantage, and pay them by the hour charging the
+same to the man who took the job as piece work."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is not time enough allowed to finish the work so
+that such instances would be due to the neglect of the man who took the
+job?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, except in rare cases. It is
+misjudgment on the part of the manager, Mr. Middleton, as I said before,
+who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>is not a practical car builder. As an instance of a waste of
+material&mdash;There was a set of car sashes, made of mahogany. Care was not
+taken to see that the mahogany picked out was all of the same color.
+Instead of picking out those of the set that were alike in color and
+completing the set with new ones and using the off color ones in another
+set with wood picked out to match, Middleton had the whole set smashed
+and charged the men with the cost of the material and refused to pay
+them for their time when it was not their fault at all."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Referring now to the committee appointed to wait on Mr.
+Pullman&mdash;tell us what you said and what was said to you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "We asked Mr. Wickes and Mr. Pullman to adjust our wages
+so that we could support our families. We wanted either the wages of
+June, 1893, or a reduction in rent and some increase in wages. Mr.
+Pullman said he could not reduce rents as he was making only 3-1/2 or
+2-1/2 per cent., I don't know which now, on his investment. He said he
+could not increase wages because he was losing money on his contract
+work. But he did not say what was a fact that nine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>tenths of the work
+that had been done since the cut began was Pullman and not contract
+work."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What do you mean by Pullman work?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Work on cars owned and operated by the Pullman Company
+and not work on cars sold to railroads. One result of this was that the
+company was getting work from us for $1.90 for which it paid the
+railroads when they did this work $2.50 and $2.70. Two days after he
+told us the company was losing money on its contract work, a quarterly
+dividend of 2 per cent. was declared."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "That might have been paid from accumulations and
+not from earnings."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Mr. Pullman did not make any such explanation to us when
+we spoke to him afterward. If he had, perhaps we would not have felt so
+badly about it. But it did seem hard that when men were working and not
+getting enough from the company to buy enough to eat that it should pay
+out $600,000.00 in dividends."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Were there those not getting enough to eat?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "I have seen men faint by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>the side of cars on which they
+were working because they had not had enough to eat. After the cuts,
+while working as hard as I could to earn enough to support my family, I
+have been obliged to sit down in the middle of the forenoon to rest
+because I had not had enough food to enable me to do such hard work and
+there were hundreds worse off than I. If rents had been reduced I
+believe there would have been no strike. We wanted to submit the
+question of rent and wages to a board of arbitration, we to choose one,
+the Pullman company one, and the two a third. We would have abided by
+any decision the arbitrators made."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Did not Mr. Pullman offer to let you look over the
+company's books to convince you that what he said was true?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes. But what would we know about them? Besides, we did
+not believe that the books would show the real facts. I have been told
+that there is only one accountant in the city who understands the
+company's books and we did not have money enough to buy bread let alone
+to hire an accountant. I have seen men crying at the paymaster's window
+when their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>pay checks for two weeks would be eight cents or 35 cents,
+or one dollar or two dollars over their rent and the company expected
+them to support their families on that 'till next pay day. You see the
+men got two pay checks, one for just the amount of rent owed and the
+other for the balance of their two weeks pay. The rent checks they are
+expected to indorse and turn over at once to the town agent in payment
+of rent. The law will not allow the company to deduct the rent from the
+pay and retain it, but the check must be turned over just the same for
+you cannot cash it unless you can persuade the agent that you cannot
+possibly live unless you are allowed to retain it. Then perhaps you will
+be allowed to retain a part or all of it. I have been insulted by the
+clerks in the agent's office because I told them I could not get along
+without the money for my rent check. Yet such was the case for there was
+one time when my pay after the rent was deducted left only eight cents a
+day for each member of my family to live on until the next pay day."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Are the Pullman employes required to live in Pullman?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. As long as there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>are any houses in Pullman
+vacant the men must live there, unless they own houses somewhere else or
+are favorites of the shop bosses. In fact during last winter I knew of
+people who owned houses in Roseland leaving them unrented and moving to
+Pullman so they could get work. When you apply for work you are required
+to make application if you are a man of family."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Are there any lots in Pullman bought and sold so that
+you could form an idea of the value, for instance, of the lot on which
+the house you live in stands?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. No lots are sold but I know of a house and lot
+over in Roseland on the boulevard near One hundred and eleventh street
+which were bought two years ago for $2,500 and can be rented for $12 a
+month. The house is better than the one I live in, is bigger and in a
+good location while mine is on a back street and I would not pay more
+than $1,000 for the house and lot."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "If your house could be built for $600 and only yields
+3-1/2 per cent the lot must be worth more than $5,000. Is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, but there are some frame houses in
+Pullman which the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>company charges eight dollars a month for that could
+be built for $100."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "It was said at the beginning of this strike that the
+Pullman people owed $70,000 for rent. How far back did that accumulation
+begin?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "I should say about Nov. 1, 1893."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you know what the cuts in wages were in
+departments other than your own."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "The freight car builders suffered more than others, but
+the commission can find out best by having some one from each department
+come before it."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Don't the people of Pullman know that we want to
+hear from every one that can throw any light on this subject?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. They understand it but there are lots of them
+who have not money to get down here."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you can what was the average pay of the
+employes, say in April last?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "On a lot of elevated cars on which I worked I made 16
+cents per hour, on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>one car and 15 cents per hour on another, but there
+were men working alongside of me who made only four and five cents per
+hour. I would say that in January, February and March the mechanic's pay
+averaged $1.50 and the laborers' pay $1.30 per day. Some times the
+laborers' checks were bigger than the mechanics'."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Have you any suggestion of a remedy for labor
+troubles?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. The ownership of railroads and banks by the
+government would do it. I never heard of a strike in the post-office
+department or the navy yard."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Curtis next took the stand. She was an employe of Pullman and
+president of the Girls Union of the American Railway Union at Pullman.
+Beginning her testimony she said: "In June, 1893, the wages in my
+department were 22-1/2 cents per hour, $2.25 a day. In April, 1894, they
+were 70 to 80 cents a day. There were two cuts in one week in November
+and another in January. In April the best wages any of us could make was
+eighty cents a day, while some could not make more than from 40 to 50
+cents a day. Last June they could make at least $1.50 per day."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>Commissioner Wright: "Do you pay rent?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Curtis: "Not now. My father worked for the Pullman company thirteen
+years, during which time he paid rent. He died last September and as
+there was some expense connected with his sickness he owed $60 back
+rent. Then I went to work in the repair shop and boarded out. The
+company made me pay $3 per week on account of the back rent. I still
+owed $15 on the day of the strike and owe it yet. Some weeks I did not
+earn enough to pay my board and rent too and then I paid only part of
+the $3."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "Were you on any of the committees that waited on
+Mr. Pullman and Mr. Wickes?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Curtis: "Yes, sir. I represented the girls on that committee. We
+wanted our wages raised as the men did theirs. Mr. Wickes said it was
+impossible to raise wages as they were losing money on their contracts
+and it was utterly impossible to reduce rents. An appointment was made
+to meet Mr. Pullman on another day. When we saw him he said the same
+that Mr. Wickes told us."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What work was done in your department?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Curtis: "We made the silk, satin and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>velvet drapings; the carpets,
+tapestries and mattresses for the sleeping coaches, the linen for the
+dining cars, sewed the fringe on cushions and all that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>Theodore Rhode was the next to testify. He said: "Four years ago I had a
+good job. Then they wanted me to do a kind of work that no one else
+could make a living at. Four or five of us were to work together. I was
+to have charge of the work and we were to divide whatever we made. I
+said I would try it, but if I didn't like it wanted my old job back.
+This was agreed to. When I became satisfied that I could make nothing at
+the new work I asked for my old place, but they would not give it to me
+and told me that if I didn't like what I was doing I could quit working
+for the company. After a while we got so we could make from $2.60 to
+$2.85 for 10-3/4 hours work. Then the cuts came, and work for which we
+had received $9.00 paid only $4.25. It was impossible to make $1.25 per
+day, and we were told by the foreman to quit if not satisfied. I paid
+$15.00 a month for rent and 71 cents for water. I could rent as good a
+house in Kensington or Roseland for $7.00 a month. On the day of the
+strike I owed $2.50 for rent. Have not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>paid it since, although the
+collector has been around two or three times lately. Low wages and high
+rents are not all the trouble. It is the abuse. They talk to men as they
+would to dogs. They are constantly experimenting with new materials. If
+it don't prove satisfactory we get no pay for our work. Take English
+varnish, for instance. The atmosphere must be just right or it won't
+work. Oftentimes, owing to a dampness in the air, we were obliged to do
+our work over two or three times for which we get no extra pay. In April
+my wages every two weeks were from $12.00 to $15.00. I understand they
+pay the men who took our places from $2.50 to $3.00 and $3.00 to $5.00
+per day. I have not applied for work again."</p>
+
+<p>R. W. Combes. For 30 years a car carpenter and for 10 years employed at
+Pullman, was next called before the commission.</p>
+
+<p>"A year ago," he said, "wages in his department was $2.25 at piece work,
+and 17-1/2 cents per hour. In March, piece work was cut so that they
+could not make more than 68 cents a day."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "How much would you have gotten at the rate of
+wages in force in March or April?" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>Mr. Combes: "We did not built the
+same kind of cars in 1894, but had we, we would not have received
+anything for them. In February I had $3.50 to support my wife and two
+children after paying rent. Had the men received fair treatment there
+would have been no strike. John Pearson, superintendent of the freight
+car department, is the whole cause of the strike. He is abusive and
+tyrannical. I was inspector in April and Pearson told me if the men did
+not do what I told them to take a club and knock their damned heads off.
+That's the kind of a man he is. I have not applied for work. Middleton
+told me I never could work there again."</p>
+
+<p>H. F. Griswold, a switchman, testified that he had last been employed by
+the C. M. &amp; St. P. Ry.&mdash;that he lost his position through the
+strike&mdash;had tried to get work within the last few weeks on the Penn. R.
+R., at Pittsburg, Altona and Columbus and at each of these places had
+been shown a blacklist with his name on it as a member of the American
+Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>Several other witnesses testified as to being blacklisted on account of
+being in the strike.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Naylor, a fireman on the Ft. Wayne road up to the time of the
+strike, was next examined. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>In answer to questions as to what he thought
+of arbitration he said: "From my knowledge of railroad men I do not
+believe they would have much confidence in arbitrators elected in the
+same way public officials are. My idea is that they should be appointed
+when their services are required and a new set of arbitrators selected
+for each case. The board should be composed of one man selected by the
+employes, one by the roads, and a third by these two."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "That is the law now."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Naylor: "Yes, but it is not enforced. It seems to me that if Mr.
+Cleveland had followed in the line of action pursued by Mr. Gladstone,
+during the coal miners' strike in England, there would have been no
+trouble here. If he had told the railroads when they called on him for
+troops that they must submit to arbitration or they would get no support
+from the government, the men would have thought a good deal more of his
+honesty and fairness, but when they see the whole power of the
+government thrown on the side of the railroads they lose confidence in
+the justice of the government."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Wright: "There was no law <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>under which the president could
+have told the roads to arbitrate the trouble with their men."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Naylor: "From all that I can learn there was as much law for him to
+do so as for him to send troops here without the request of the governor
+of the state."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "In your suggestion of a board of arbitrators there
+would be but one of them unprejudiced?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Naylor: "I think such a board would always be able to effect a
+compromise between the parties. I have acted in the capacity of
+arbitrator between the company and the men in adjusting grievances and
+have always found that a spirit of compromise was met in a like spirit
+and that is the principle, after all, upon which such questions must be
+settled."</p>
+
+<p>Vice President Howard of the American Railway Union, was recalled to
+make an explanation regarding some testimony which Mr. Heathcoat had
+given the day before. He said: "Mr. Heathcoat told you that Mr. Pullman
+had promised to allow a committee to examine his books, to prove the
+correctness of his statements to the effect that his company was losing
+money on its contracts. The next day, Wallace Rice, a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>reporter on the
+Herald, called on Mr. Pullman and asked him if he would allow an expert
+to examine his books on behalf of the union. Mr. Pullman replied that
+what he meant by allowing an examination of his books was that he would
+have his own book-keeper prepare a statement to be submitted to the
+committee. He said he never had any idea of allowing the committee to
+actually examine his books. Mr. Howard then asked if he might make a
+statement of a couple of matters of importance to the employes. The
+commissioners looked doubtful about this, but finally Mr. Wright said he
+might go ahead if the matter had anything to do with the subject under
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard then said: "The United States government is blacklisting
+3,000 employes of the Union Pacific Railroad now."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "We have no authority to go into that question."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard: "And the other matter is that all the other roads are making
+a threat against the M. K. &amp; T. to boycott its business if the road
+persists in making a certain rate to Washington."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Has that anything to do with the American Railway Union?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir. If the government allows the railroads to violate
+the laws it ought to keep hands off in disputes between the roads and
+the men."</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Mr. Cawardine was called and related what he knew about the matter.
+Mr. Cawardine is pastor of the M. E. church in Pullman. His testimony
+was directed chiefly to the exorbitant rents. In answer to Mr. Wright,
+saying that he had been charged with being an anarchist, and a
+socialist, Mr. Cawardine said: "I have considered the charge so
+contemptible in the bitterness and prejudice of its origin as to be
+beneath answer. That I, an American born citizen and the son of a
+soldier who died for his country, should be charged with being
+anarchist, seems to me incomprehensible. It is simply an evidence of
+what has been made very apparent that a good many people are violently
+prejudiced against working men and will not listen to what may be said
+on their side or read what may be written. I find this feeling even
+among many of my brethren in the ministry. I regret it too, because the
+labor problem can only be solved by a consideration of it from all
+sides."</p>
+
+<p>Andrew W. Pearson, a real estate agent who formerly worked in Pullman,
+was called on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>stand and in answer to a question put by Mr. Wright,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Houses which rent for $17.00 in Pullman can be rented in Kensington and
+Roseland for $10.00. Pullman houses which rent for $25.00 can be rented
+elsewhere for $15.00, and $10.00 Pullman houses for $5.00. In Grand
+Crossing, a manufacturing town, $8.00 a month will rent a five-room
+brick cottage. The rents I am giving now are the present rents. There
+has been a decline since two years ago everywhere but in Pullman."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "How much higher are rents in Pullman than
+elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pearson: "I should say fully one-third."</p>
+
+<p>Frank P. McDonald, a locomotive engineer and author of the Great scab
+route circular, testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+Union and a delegate to their convention. He said he was opposed to the
+strike, but voted for it as it was the unanimous sentiment of his local
+union. His reason for opposing it was because he did not think the union
+was strong enough to win.</p>
+
+<p>President Debs, of the American Railway <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>Union, was the next important
+witness to testify. Mr. Debs outlined the trouble from its inception
+down to the special convention in Chicago on Aug. 2. In answer to
+questions by Commissioner Wright, Mr. Debs said he was 38 years old, a
+resident of Terre Haute, Ind., and had been president of the American
+Railway Union since June 20, 1893. He was a practical railroad man, had
+been employed four and a half years in the capacity of locomotive
+fireman and was at present editor of the Fireman's Magazine. Mr. Wright
+told him to go ahead and give a history of the late strike so far as he
+knew from his own experience.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs said: "In the early part of May, while at home in Indiana, I
+received a telegram from Mr. Howard notifying me of the probability of a
+strike at the Pullman shops, the employes of which were members of our
+union. I authorized Mr. Howard to take full charge of the matter, but to
+do all in his power to prevent a strike. My reason for this was that the
+American Railway Union had just been involved in a strike on the Great
+Northern railway. At a meeting of the general officers of the union we
+had discussed the possibility of other strikes arising on account of the
+victory the union had won on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>the Great Northern railway, and we decided
+that it would be good policy to be very cautious in encouraging the men
+to go into strikes whenever there was a possibility of avoiding them.
+May 11th, I heard that the Pullman employes had struck. A few days
+after, I came here and made a personal investigation of the trouble.
+After a trip to St. Paul I again went down there and the result of my
+investigation was that the conditions at Pullman justified the men in
+the course they had taken. I found that wages and expenses were so
+adjusted that every dollar the men made found its way back to Pullman
+coffers. The men were not only not getting enough wages to live on but
+were getting deeper and deeper in debt every day. They had not money
+enough as a rule to get away. There seemed to be no escape for them.
+Wages had been reduced, but expenses remained the same. After I had
+satisfied myself of the truth of the men's statements regarding their
+conditions, I made up my mind to do everything possible in law and
+justice to right the wrongs of our members who had gone out on strike.
+We first tried to get the company to arbitrate. We were confident that
+any fair and impartial board would decide in favor of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>employes. The
+company, however, refused every proposition of that sort saying that it
+had nothing to arbitrate. I then suggested that the Pullman company
+select two men to act with two judges of the circuit court and a fifth
+person whom they should select to act as a board to investigate the
+question whether there was anything to arbitrate. This proposition was
+refused.</p>
+
+<p>"June 12, delegates representing 425 local unions of the American
+Railway Union met here in the first quadrennial convention of the
+organization. The Pullman question came up for consideration before the
+convention sitting as a committee of the whole to hear reports etc. I
+wish to say in this connection that all of our deliberations were held
+with open doors, except one executive session at which the question of
+finances was considered, in which we felt the general public had no
+interest, but at all the other meetings the entire press of the city was
+represented. I mention this in refutation of the statements which have
+been made as to the American Railway Union forming a conspiracy against
+the railroads and committing offenses against the United States. If a
+conspiracy were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>intended it seems improbable that we should have sat
+with open doors. The first steps taken toward securing a settlement of
+the trouble, was the appointment of a committee composed partly of
+Pullman employes and in part of other delegates present, with authority
+to call on Mr. Wickes to find out if anything could be done toward
+effecting a settlement of the strike."</p>
+
+<p>Here Mr. Debs related how Mr. Wickes refused to confer with a committee
+composed of any but his former employes, and finally refused to confer
+with them, stating that he had nothing to arbitrate.</p>
+
+<p>He then continued: "The matter was then referred to a special committee
+with authority to act in the matter. This committee reported that if the
+Pullman Company refused to concede anything after five days time to
+consider the question, it was the sense of the convention that the
+members of the union would refuse to handle Pullman cars. Under the
+constitution of the American Railway Union the majority rules in all
+questions under consideration. No strike can be declared except by a
+majority of the men involved. In order to conform to this rule, the
+delegates were instructed to communicate by wire with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>their respective
+unions to ascertain the sentiment of the members on the question before
+the convention. After reports had been received from all the local
+unions, the convention by a unanimous vote decided to adopt the report
+of the special committee.</p>
+
+<p>"Since the railroad employes have been criticised for engaging in a
+sympathetic strike, I wish to make some statement regarding the general
+situation. In many instances they had local grievances themselves, and
+besides, there was this general condition which aggravated the whole
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>"In the spring of 1893, just before the opening of the World's Fair, the
+general managers of the various roads centering in Chicago, were very
+apprehensive lest there should be a general strike among all classes of
+railroad employes for an increase of wages. The officers of the
+organizations appealed to the men not to strike, arguing that it was
+their patriotic duty to bear with patience their grievances until the
+fair was over. The result was there was no strike anywhere. The men all
+worked in harmony throughout the country. Some of the managers promised,
+by implication at least, that there would be an increase of wages to
+reward the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>patriotic action of their men. Instead of doing as they
+promised, the general managers during this time equipped their
+organization to protect their mutual interests."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs then read an article from a Chicago paper which told how the
+general managers had formed an air tight association which would be able
+to deal with any strikes that might arise in the future, and suggested
+that the association rather courted than feared trouble with employes of
+the railroads.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing, Mr. Debs said: "Shortly after the new association had
+completed its organization it became apparent what course it intended to
+pursue. About Sept. 1, the Louisville &amp; Nashville road made a sweeping
+reduction of 10 per cent in the pay of all its employes&mdash;the section men
+getting 67-1/2 cents a day under this reduction. Then in succession
+followed the East Tennessee, Virginia &amp; Georgia, the Richmond &amp;
+Danville, the Mobile &amp; Ohio, Nashville &amp; Chattanooga, Big Four, New York
+&amp; New England, New York, New Haven &amp; Hartford, Wabash, Union Pacific,
+Northern Pacific, Monon, Great Northern and the Great Western was just
+on the point of declaring a reduction when the strike was declared. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>"It
+was significant that no two roads declared a reduction at the same time,
+and in most instances the reductions began with the unorganized and
+poorest paid men in the service. The men viewed these reductions with
+apprehension and unrest. This was particularly the case after Judge
+Caldwell had declared upon investigation that the cut on the Union
+Pacific was unwarrantable. In two cases the reductions annulled and the
+original pay of the men restored. On the Union Pacific&mdash;on the order of
+Judge Caldwell and on the Great Northern through the efforts of the
+American Railway Union. In the later case the matter was decided by a
+board of arbitration, composed of leading capitalists and business men
+of St. Paul and Minneapolis.</p>
+
+<p>"These conditions confronted the American Railway Union, when its
+delegates met here in convention. The employes felt that other systems
+in sound financial conditions had taken advantage of the unfortunate
+condition of the country to reduce wages. The men had lost confidence in
+their old unions which had failed utterly to protect them against these
+reductions and they came in the hope that the American Railway Union
+would take some steps to resist them and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>protect its members against
+the rapacity of the railroad companies. This was the reason they were
+ripe to take up the cause of the Pullman strikers. They were wrought up
+to a point where they were willing to jeopardize their positions to
+protect both themselves and the Pullman employes. The primary purpose
+was to cut off Pullman's revenues by cutting off his cars and thereby
+force him to a settlement."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "I understand you to say you advised against the Pullman
+strike. Why did you do so?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "We had just gone through a strike on the Great Northern and I
+did not think it advisable to go into another at that time."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "What would have been the action of the convention if there
+had been no strike at Pullman? Did not that strike force the issue?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "There would have been no trouble with the railroads, I think,
+but for the Pullman strike. That and the depressed condition of the
+country aggravated the situation so as to bring about a general strike."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Was the general strike precipitated by the Pullman
+troubles?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>Mr. Debs: "Yes sir, it was."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Was a notice of the action of the convention served on the
+different companies?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Not by the convention. That matter was left to the men on the
+various systems. From the action of the managers toward the American
+Railway Union generally, the matter of serving a formal notice of our
+action on them was not looked upon as necessary, as we were very sure it
+would be ignored."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Was notice served on the Illinois Central and Rock Island
+roads?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "I think so, but am not sure."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Did they have notice through the press?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Do you know the date on which the general managers adopted
+their resolution to resist the strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "I think it was June 24, four days after our action. It was
+currently reported at that time, though I have no written or other
+evidence of the fact that the general managers resolved among themselves
+to exterminate the union."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "If the American Railway <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>Union had had its own way in
+regard to its policy would a general strike have been postponed?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. The conditions were not altogether propitious and
+we were fully aware of the fact."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "What was the number of your membership at that time?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "About 150,000."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright: "Did you consider that strong enough for a general strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. But it was not a question of membership altogether.
+There were other reasons." Mr. Debs said there was one other point to
+which he wished to call the attention of the commission. One great
+reason the men had in resisting a reduction of wages was the fact that
+the companies never restored them voluntarily. The tendency had
+therefore been for the employes to get closer together to resist the
+combined efforts of the managers. That was the principle, he said, which
+had inspired the idea of the American Railway Union. Then resuming the
+history of the strike Mr. Debs said:</p>
+
+<p>"Pursuant to the order of the convention, which was practically the
+order of 150,000 men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>composing the American Railway Union, the members
+refused to handle Pullman cars. It has been claimed that the president
+of the union was a self appointed leader who had ordered the strike,
+etc. In this connection I wish to say that while such is not the case,
+when the report came in I gave it my approval as president. I do not
+wish to avoid any of the responsibility. If I had had the authority I
+would have ordered it under the same circumstances. June 26, the men
+began to refuse to haul Pullman cars. They had been advised not to
+handle the cars on any system where they could not get the sanction of a
+sufficient number of men to make such a refusal effective. The officers
+of the union opened headquarters at Uhlics Hall and as committees came
+in from various roads and made their reports they were advised how to
+act, and above all else to avoid trouble and violence and to maintain
+order. We advised them of their right to quit in a body and told them
+their rights ended there, and that the railroad companies had a right to
+hire new men and their right began there."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What steps if any did you take to prevent
+violence?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "When we saw there was to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>trouble we issued an appeal to
+the men not to commit any acts of violence. Fourteen years of experience
+taught me that violence was the worst thing that could happen for any
+strike."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "How about the telegrams sent by you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "None of them were inflammatory."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "How about that 'save your money and buy a gun'
+telegram?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "I can explain that telegram very easily. Among those who were
+employed at headquarters to take charge of our correspondence and
+telegraphing was a young man named Benedict. He had authority to sign my
+name to telegrams in answer to questions, etc. The telegram was sent to
+a man whom Mr. Benedict had worked under as a telegraph operator in
+Montana. The allusion to the gun was a playful expression which they had
+been accustomed to use in joking each other, and was understood in that
+way by the man who received the telegram. I have his letter in
+explanation of the matter which I will be glad to turn over to the
+commissioners. I never saw many of the telegrams sent out and did not
+see the one you refer to. The employes, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>obedient to the order of the
+convention, began as I have said, to refuse to handle cars. The refusal
+usually came from the switchmen who refused to make up trains with the
+Pullman equipment. As they refused they were discharged&mdash;when the others
+would quit.</p>
+
+<p>"July 1st. After five days of strike the general managers were
+completely defeated and their immediate resources exhausted. Up to that
+time there had been no signs of violence anywhere. Our men were intact
+and confident. Then the intervention of the courts was called into play.</p>
+
+<p>"July 2d. I was served with a sweeping injunction restraining me from
+sending out telegrams or issuing orders having the effect of persuading
+the men to quit work. This injunction was issued wherever the trouble
+existed. The result was to reduce our influence to nothing. This was the
+point from which the strike was conducted by telegrams and otherwise.
+Then a special grand jury was called to inquire into my conduct with the
+result that I was indicted with other officials of the union and
+warrants issued for our arrest. We were held under a joint bond of
+$10,000. Then followed an attachment issued for contempt of the
+injunction of July 2d, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>and our incarceration in the county jail. As
+soon as our men found we were under arrest they quit. The U. S. courts
+ended the strike, not the soldiers." Mr. Debs told of the seizure of his
+mail and personal effects. He said he merely cited the fact to show to
+what extent the U. S. authorities were willing to go to defeat the
+strikers. He also commented on Gen. Miles who was reported to have gone
+directly to the General Managers headquarters on his arrival with the U.
+S. troops. He said Gen. Miles was quoted next day as having said he had
+broken the back bone of the strike. Mr. Debs thought Gen. Miles had
+mistaken his mission which was to preserve order and not to help the
+railroads run their trains. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think Gen. Miles was vulgarly out of place, both when he went to the
+General Managers and when he made the remark credited to him." He said
+he thought if the General Managers were compelled to bring into court
+copies of their telegrams sent to the attorney general as the American
+Railway Union had done he could substantiate the charge that it was the
+object to annihilate the American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Did I understand you this morning to charge the
+General Managers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>Association with the responsibility of the strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Not in that broad and general way. The American Railway Union
+ordered the strike and is responsible for it, but there were aggravating
+circumstances which ought to go in mitigation under any view of the
+situation. But the attitude taken by the General Managers' Association,
+their expressed determination to crush the American Railway Union, in
+that respect and in refusing to arbitrate they were responsible. We felt
+if they could combine we could and each was culpable."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "You believe in enforcing the law, do you not, and in
+the proper authorities using sufficient force to do it, do you not?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Most certainly I do."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "You have doubtless given considerable thought to the
+matter. How do you think strikes can be avoided?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "There are two ways. First. By submitting to reduction in
+wages and other grievances as the old organizations have done for years.
+When the general manager determines to reduce wages he proposes a cut of
+20 per cent when he only intends to make a 10 per cent reduction. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>Then
+there is a conference when they finally agree on 10 per cent. This
+avoids strikes but it reduces wages. The second way is a unification of
+all, or practically all the railroad men of the country in a prudently
+managed organization. That would prevent strikes on railroads, for even
+if the railroads could unite to beat such an organization, it would be
+expensive."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Do you believe that such an organization would be so
+strong as to compel the adoption of all reasonable demands?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "We did believe it, or the American Railway Union would never
+have been organized. We see now that it cannot because all the organized
+forces of society and of the government are arrayed against it. When a
+strike inconveniences no one, no one is particularly interested in it
+and it gradually dwindles down to the little end of nothing. But when a
+strike does inconvenience the public, as railroad strikes must of
+necessity do, the organized forces of society and the government, a
+practically impregnable force, and properly so, is arrayed against it.
+Take, for instance, the Ann Arbor strike. It inconvenienced the public
+and immediately the roads applied to the courts, and Judge Taft issued
+an injunction <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>against the men. The first of the injunctions that have
+been so much questioned both by lawyers and laborers."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Is it justifiable to incommode the public as such
+strikes do?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "It depends on circumstances. I believe with Admiral Porter,
+that a pin is worth fighting for if a principle is involved. To resist
+degradation is justifiable no matter what the result. If there were no
+resistance, things would be, if possible, worse than they are and
+without resistance degradation is inevitable. If the railroads treated
+their men fairly there would be no labor organizations. Every
+organization of railroad men is traceable to oppression. The Brotherhood
+of Locomotive Engineers was born of the tyranny of the Michigan Central
+road. I have that from the lips of Mr. Robinson, the founder of that
+organization. The first meetings were held in secret because the men
+would have been discharged if the management knew they were organizing.
+Everywhere organization originated from similar causes. No legislation
+can reconcile railroad employers and employes while human nature is in
+it. Confidence has been destroyed. The men have been so treated that
+they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>have grown suspicious, and when general managers, who are
+themselves employes, order a reduction of wages on instructions from
+those above them, that it is necessary because of hard times or slack
+business, the men are not at all assured that such are the reasons. They
+may accept the reduction, but they are not satisfied. In many instances
+the general managers obey orders to reduce wages with regret for they
+are humane men, many of them. Soon after the Great Northern strike, the
+president of a railroad told me that I now had the opportunity to make
+myself a most enviable reputation, both among railroad employers and
+employes by advising the men themselves to propose a reduction of say 10
+per cent in their wages during these dull times, thus putting the road
+under obligation to increase wages when business improved. I said to
+him, only a few months ago your road was doing a phenomenally heavy
+business. Did you propose an increase of even 5 per cent in your
+employes wages because you were making money? Every time a decrease in
+wages has been prevented or an increase secured, it has been the result
+of weeks of labor and pleading and the expenditures of thousands of
+dollars by the men. Every schedule ever adopted is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>evidence of that.
+Now that the strike is practically over the usual persecutions will be
+indulged in against those who took part in it. Some people are
+felicitating themselves that the strike has been suppressed, but the
+safety valve has been screwed down, that's all. The men are no more
+satisfied than they were. Some of them will get back their old
+positions; others will get work on other roads; still others will find
+work elsewhere, while some will be forced to remain idle for a long
+time. None of them are satisfied with the conditions and sooner or later
+strikes will break out again, I fear. You might as well try to stop
+Niagara with a feather as crush the spirit of organization."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "If it should be shown that government ownership of
+railroads resulted in poorer service and more expensive management, do
+you think it would be a good thing?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "Government ownership of railroads is decidedly better than
+railroad ownership of government. The time is coming when there must be
+government ownership of railroads. Strikes cannot be averted
+otherwise."</p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Will government supervision answer the
+purpose?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Will arbitration answer?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "I fear not. No good can come from compulsory arbitration,
+that is a contradiction of terms, even if some means of enforcing the
+decree could be devised. Those against whom the decree was rendered
+would not be satisfied. The basis must be friendship and confidence."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Admitting that there is some contradiction in
+the term compulsory arbitration, it expresses what we mean though
+compulsory attempts at conciliation would express it better. Would it be
+of no avail in any case?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Debs: "It would undoubtedly in many cases where trouble is local and
+the conditions homogeneous, so that all of them could be considered as
+for instance in the Pullman troubles. It could be put in force if there
+was a trial by jury or something of that sort, as other courts are
+constituted, but in interstate matters on railroads extending over
+thousands of miles where conditions vary, no decree could be made to
+fit <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>the case. It is easy to compass local matters but not widespread
+matters because the conditions are not homogeneous. It would be
+impossible to force the decree."</p>
+
+<p class="cen">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"MR. DEBS' TESTIMONY."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An extract from the Chicago Times.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"People who read an Editorial from the Chicago Times of Eugene V. Debs
+before the strike commission, as printed in the Times yesterday, cannot,
+if they be fair-minded, fail to be convinced of the justice of the cause
+in which he is working and of the sincerity and ability of the man
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"In a struggle for the rights of humanity individuals are nothing. He
+will be but a poor champion of the cause of the people who will pause to
+eulogize certain champions when he should be fighting for principles.
+But when a leader like Debs is attacked, as he has been attacked, and
+all the agencies and all the influence of capitalism are set in motion
+to 'make an example of him'&mdash;i. e., to so persecute him that no other
+man will be willing to encounter like danger in the wageworkers'
+cause&mdash;then must every spokesman of the working classes speak out in
+defense of the leader so attacked.</p>
+
+<p>"The slanders that have been directed against <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>Debs during this struggle
+simply baffled recountal because of their number. He has been called
+crazy, drunken, revolutionary, criminal, incompetent. Newspapers have at
+once declared his conduct of the strike impotent and denounced him for
+having made it so effective. Labor has been entreated to throw him over
+as a puerile leader and capital has been warned that he is a dangerous
+man because of his surpassing ability. 'Anything to beat Debs' has been
+the one policy which has animated the organs of capital for the last
+four months.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Debs is beaten&mdash;in a certain sense. His effort in behalf of the
+Pullman strikers has failed and the very journals which most strenuously
+opposed his work are now printing the story of the dreadful destitution
+bred of the Pullman despotism which Debs did his best to break down.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late now to fight over again the issues of the American
+Railway Union strike and boycott. Debs and his associates now stand in
+the shadow of the penitentiary for trying to avert by entirely proper
+and lawful means the conditions which now engage the attention of the
+governor of the state, and which must awaken the sympathy of all humane
+people. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>privileged corporations flocked to the aid of the Pullman
+concern&mdash;no one conversant with the facts in the case can gainsay that.
+The railroads stood by Pullman; every morning newspaper in Chicago
+except the Times stood by the railroads; the government joined in with
+the combination. Mr. Debs' testimony is to the effect that governmental
+action, by hastily issued injunctions, killed the strike&mdash;a statement
+which everybody cognizant of the course of that movement will indorse.</p>
+
+<p>"There has been much evidence adduced before the investigation
+commission, but none so exact or none more clear than that of Mr. Debs.
+His explanation of the causes of the strike and boycott is perspicuous
+and logical, his outline of the causes of its failure coherent and
+convincing, his suggestion of means for avoiding its recurrence
+absolutely right. He sees, as all clear-sighted and fair-minded men must
+see, that under the private ownership of railroads there is no
+possibility of justice for railroad employes. The public interest in the
+smooth and uninterrupted course of traffic over the roads enables the
+managers to call upon public opinion and even upon state forces to aid
+them against the employes in any serious controversy. The government
+ownership of railroads <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>is indeed, as Mr. Debs has said, the one
+effective remedy for strikes among railroad hands. Asked for a solution
+of the general railroad problem, he suggested the co-operative
+commonwealth&mdash;a solution, doubtless, but one so difficult of
+accomplishment as to seem almost, if not quite, Utopian. Mr. Debs might
+have proceeded logically from his declaration for government ownership
+of railroads to government ownership and management of all other
+industries which tend naturally and inevitably to become monopolies.
+This accomplished, the repeal of all laws giving private persons the
+benefit of artificial law-created monopolies would follow. Then the
+abolition of all taxes upon industry. Finally, the throwing open to all
+men on equal conditions of all natural opportunities so that every man
+starting in life should have, so far as human power could accomplish it,
+an equal chance with every other man. Under such an organization and
+with such laws the co-operative commonwealth which Mr. Debs suggests
+would probably prove unnecessary. Competition, which is essential to the
+progress of civilization, would still continue, but it would be free
+competition, not the calm triumph of man plus monopoly over the man
+without it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>Following President Debs' testimony the matter of rioting was taken up
+by the commissioners. Chief Deputy U. S. Marshall John C. Donnelly,
+testified that there were between 1,400 and 1,500 deputies sworn in,
+armed and paid by the government, concerning whose character and fitness
+practically no inquiries were made, and that there were between 3,000
+and 4,000 men sworn in as deputies at the request of the railroads,
+armed and paid by them, and that no inquiries concerning their
+characters were made at all. That this army of 3,000 or 4,000 armed men
+clothed with the authority of the United States was not at all under the
+control of the U. S. marshall and was not responsible and reported to no
+one unless to the chiefs of detectives of the several roads. Most of the
+reports of drunkenness and violence of deputies were from among those
+hired by the railroads.</p>
+
+<p>Malcolm McDonald, a reporter for the Record, was next to testify. In
+answer to questions by the commissioners he said, he thought as a rule
+the turbulent element was not composed of railroad men. He spoke to some
+of the American Railway Union men about upsetting cars and they denied
+having had any hand in it. He also <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>said that the conduct of the U. S.
+marshalls had not been such as to prevent trouble and they seemed to be
+hunting opportunities to get into conflict with the men.</p>
+
+<p>M. L. Wickman, pastor of the Swedish Methodist Church, testified that
+many members of his church who worked for the Pullman Company, had to be
+taken care of during the fall and winter of 1893 and 1894. He told of
+one man who had his hand injured by a piece of flying steel. After a
+great deal of expense at the hospital he finally recovered the partial
+use of his hand and was taken back to work at reduced pay. Mr. Wickman
+took the case before Manager Brown, and that officer confronted him with
+a written statement by the injured man to the effect that the accident
+was one for which the company was in no way responsible. It was
+subsequently proved that the man's signature to the paper was forged.</p>
+
+<p>Ray Baker, a reporter for the Record, said he was at Hammond during the
+rioting there and thought the rioters were not railroad men.</p>
+
+<p>H. J. Cleveland, a reporter for the Herald, testified that he was to
+work along the Rock Island and Lake Shore tracks where considerable
+rioting occurred between July 4 and 15. From an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>extensive acquaintance
+among railroad men, he felt sure that there were few, if any railroad
+men among the rioters. Criticising the deputy marshals, Mr. Cleveland
+said that he saw many acts on their part which were calculated to cause
+trouble unnecessary, and thought, as a rule, they were men not fit to be
+in authority. He characterized the whole lot as a contemptible set of
+men. The men who were doing the rioting, had the appearance of those who
+had never done an honest day's work in their lives.</p>
+
+<p>N. D. Hutton, reporter for the Tribune, was the next witness called. He
+said that he was at Blue Island and about the stock yards district.
+Thought some of the rioting was done by railroad men, but could not say
+so from personal knowledge of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miller, a reporter for the Tribune was next examined. He testified
+that he was sworn in as a deputy marshall and detailed to go to Blue
+Island. After relating his experience as to rioting, Commissioner Kernan
+asked him if he had an extensive acquaintance among railroad men.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miller: "In the course of my work I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>have learned to know a great
+many of them by sight at least."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Did you see anyone whom you know to be a railroad
+man engaged in violence or encouraging others who were so engaged?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miller: "Never, except once. That was when a meat train had been cut
+in two and switches were being turned. He was not doing any of it but
+the general tenor of his talk was in the nature of advice to what was
+being done. Most of the trouble was caused by hoodlums and toughs. In my
+reports I characterized them as hoodlums. Many were boys."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What was your observation as to the sobriety or
+otherwise of the strikers at the meetings?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miller: "I scarcely remember of seeing one under the influence of
+liquor. Sobriety was the rule and drunkenness the exception."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Did the speakers at the meetings advice against
+violence or did they encourage it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miller: "They advised against it."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Did you think them sincere in this advice or was
+it simply a cloak?" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>Mr. Miller: "I believed them sincere particularly
+the brainier men."</p>
+
+<p>Victor M. Harding, a reporter for the Times, was the next witness, he
+testified to being present during the rioting on the Rock Island road,
+and saw boys throwing burning waste into cars within a hundred yards of
+a cavalry camp."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Did you ever see anyone you knew to be a railroad
+man engaged in any violence?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harding: "I never did. The stock yards furnish the most glaring
+examples of the false and exaggerated reports of riot and disorder made
+by the newspapers. This district has been for years made to bear the
+burden of the crimes committed in this part of the city. There was
+comparatively little disorder at the stock yards during the strike, but
+the newspaper reports contained accounts of fights, shooting affrays and
+riots almost every night. Capt. O'Neil, of the stock yards police told
+me that the reporters and the militia were both responsible for this.
+Volleys of shot fired by the soldiers or militia were to be heard every
+day and night, which on investigation proved to have no cause other than
+a desire to create excitement. The militia men, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>said, were in the
+habit of firing merely for the sake of making a sensation. A crowd would
+naturally gather, reporters would flock around and then there would be
+something to tell and brag about. I know this is so from talk with the
+men themselves. They intimated that they were getting tired of doing
+nothing and were desirous of creating some excitement. One night Capt.
+O'Neil said he heard a volley of shots, went to the spot and found that
+the shooting had been done by a lot of sentries. They said they had
+fired at a Polak&mdash;the common name for a Pole&mdash;who was seen crawling
+under a car. The soldiers claimed it was dark, the man was at a distance
+and was not hit. Yet they knew he was a Polak. Equally absurd stories in
+explanation of shooting were given the police captain on other
+occasions."</p>
+
+<p>Assistant Fire Marshall John Fitzgerald testified that he had been on
+duty at all fires of any importance and had witnessed many acts of
+incendiarism. In all instances he stated that these acts had been
+committed by boys or youths belonging to the hoodlum element. He said
+the eldest could not have been over nineteen years old. The fire
+department had never been obstructed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>in any way in reaching fires. On
+one occasion railroad men, whom he knew to be strikers, aided in placing
+an engine in position, though he had never solicited aid of any kind
+during the period when the fires were most numerous.</p>
+
+<p>The Pullman side was now taken up by the commissioners.</p>
+
+<p>Frank W. Glover was the first witness. He described himself as a real
+estate dealer who owned a sub-division in Kensington, besides acre
+property there, owned and sold houses and lots, and had tenants. In
+reply to Commissioner Worthington as to what he knew of the rents in
+Pullman, Kensington, Roseland and other similar suburbs, how they would
+compare, Mr. Glover said: "I should say a six-room house in Pullman for
+$17.00 is better than one of my six-room houses in Kensington which
+rents for $10.00 to $12.00. The Pullman houses are connected with
+sewers. The land on which they stand is better drained and from what I
+should judge from outside appearances they have more of what are called
+modern conveniences. My houses have no sewer connections, the land is
+low, and in spring and fall is liable to have water on it; besides I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>understand the Pullman Company keeps their houses in repair, while I do
+not."</p>
+
+<p>Paul E. Hearns, stationer and newsdealer at Pullman, was the next
+witness. In his opinion there would have been less suffering if some of
+the men had let beer and whiskey alone.</p>
+
+<p>L. H. Johnson, a hardware and furniture dealer, testified next. He
+expressed the belief that the Pullman employes were as thrifty,
+economical and temperate a class of people as others of a similar class.</p>
+
+<p>Wm. R. McKay, a reporter for the Mail, was next heard. He said that he
+had been detailed to look after the American Railway Union headquarters
+and the meetings at Uhlics Hall. The speeches at all these meetings were
+against violence and in favor of observing the law as the only means of
+winning the strike.</p>
+
+<p>B. H. Atwell, a reporter for the Daily News, was the next witness. He
+testified that he was at Blue Island during the trouble. He said the
+deputy marshalls had drawn revolvers without any reason. Most of the men
+who made trouble there were not railroad men. Railroad officials had
+said to him that the strikers were not making the trouble. At the stock
+yards also, such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>violence as was done was not by railroad strikers but
+by toughs.</p>
+
+<p>The next witness called was Alex Lungren, a wood-carver. In answer to
+Commissioner Kernan's question if foremen had absolute power over the
+men in their departments, Mr. Lungren replied that he did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Are the workingmen compelled to obey the orders
+given by the foremen?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "Yes. They must obey orders."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any appeal from these orders?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no way of getting the matter to the
+officials or superintendent?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no system of obtaining a hearing
+from the officials concerning any grievance?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "No there is no system and it is very difficult to see any
+of the officials to obtain redress."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "What were the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>conditions of your re-employment
+with the company?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "I had to leave the American Railway Union."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Were you obliged to sign any contract relating to
+your membership in any labor organization?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungren: "Yes. There was a written contract which I signed. It
+stated that I would have nothing to do with the American Railway Union."
+Mr. Lungren also testified that he did not vote to strike. He did not
+attend the meetings; said he quit work in accordance with the notice
+posted by the company that the works would be closed down.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. John W. McLean was the next witness. He said he had been a
+practicing physician since 1863, and had been in the employ of the
+Pullman company since 1894. He thought the strike had been brought about
+by the general depression in business throughout the country. Did not
+think the rents exorbitant in Pullman. Said he attended the Pullman
+employes who were injured, free of charge. When asked by Commissioner
+Kernan if he thought intemperance one cause of the Pullman strike, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>"Yes, I think all labor troubles are directly due to this cause."</p>
+
+<p>General Manager E. St. John of the Rock Island road was the next witness
+examined. His testimony, which would fill several pages, was in brief a
+general contradiction of all evidence offered by the reporters, and
+American Railway Union witnesses. He charged the rioting to the
+strikers. He was opposed to the government ownership of railroads and
+also thought arbitration impracticable. He admitted that a greater
+reduction of wages was liable to follow unless the present depressed
+condition of business was soon remedied. Regarding the losses incurred
+by his road on account of the strike he said it was his impression that
+they would be somewhere between $800,000 and $1,000,000. When the
+question of communications from the officers of the American Railway
+Union came up Commissioner Kernan asked why the General Managers
+Association declined to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. St. John: "Because we considered such an organization unworthy of
+consideration."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Were you determined not to recognize any union?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>Mr. St. John: "Not exactly, but the American Railway Union least of
+all."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Were not the roads united sympathetically? Now
+what had the Lake Shore road to do with the Rock Island road?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. St. John: "What had the Rock Island to do with the Lake Shore?"</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that the roads were united
+sympathetically?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. St. John: "Let me ask you a question."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Kernan: "No, I am not on the stand. I may be some day and
+then you can question me."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. St. John: "When a neighbor's house burns we all unite to fight the
+blaze. When an assault is made on all the roads, they unite to resist
+it."</p>
+
+<p>When General Manager St. John resumed the witness stand, he had with him
+one of the twenty-six sets of books mentioned by Mr. Howard, containing
+the scale of wages and rules of employment of all classes of railway
+employes on the roads represented in the General Managers' Association.
+When questioned by Commissioner Kernan he admitted that a committee had
+been appointed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>to formulate from these a schedule of what was a fair
+rate of wages for all classes of employes and uniform rules of
+employment. That committee reported, but the report was never acted on.
+This committee was appointed under a resolution passed February 15,
+1894. Its report was made in March, and if adopted would have affected
+125,000 men at least. One or two roads, he admitted, might have reduced
+wages about this time, but there was no agreement with the other roads
+concerning it. It became known that Mr. Wright, chairman of the
+commission, had an annual Pullman pass. He said concerning it that he
+and Mr. Pullman had been personal friends for several years, and it was
+to him as a personal friend that the pass was given several years ago
+and had been renewed annually since. He deemed that it was for the
+glowing reports of Pullman, made by Mr. Wright and others in 1884, for
+he did not know Mr. Pullman then. He said that he had not used it since
+the appointment of the commission.</p>
+
+<p>Following Mr. St. John, John M. Eagan took the stand.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan admitted that as the manager of the General Managers'
+Association he was authorized to incur any expense to secure force to
+crush <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>the strike, but was not authorized to do anything to settle it
+peaceably. Of his connection with the General Managers' Association he
+said that he was requested to take charge of the association during the
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Did you have anything done in relation to the
+appointment of deputy marshals?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "Each road appointed an official to select the men they
+wanted to act as deputy marshalls and turned 'em over to me. I sent them
+to Arnold to be sworn."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Did those men serve as employes of the road
+while acting as marshals?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "My judgment is that they were to take care of the interests
+of the roads."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Did they act in the double capacity as
+marshals and as railroad employes? That is, would an engineer, for
+instance, while wearing a star showing his authority, run an engine for
+the road?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "I believe they did that. They were sworn in as deputy
+marshals to give them a chance to protect themselves."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "By whom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>were the deputy marshals to be paid
+or by whom will they be paid?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "Each road is supposed to pay its own men."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "What do you know of any efforts made by the
+officers of the American Railway Union or the city officials to settle
+the strike amicably?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Egan: "A party named McGillen, Alderman McGillen, I think, told me
+that Howard and Debs wanted a conference with me about settling the
+strike. I told him I had no authority to confer with them."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Did you not have authority to talk with them
+and find out what they wanted or could do, without making any agreement
+with them?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "Not with those parties&mdash;I did not think I had. A few days
+later I found the mayor and Mr. McGillen in the office of the General
+Managers' Association. They said they had come with a letter from Debs,
+Howard and Kelliher. I told the mayor he ought not to make a messenger
+boy of himself for these parties of the American Railway Union. Later I
+was given the document to give to the mayor. He was at Kensington, so I
+left it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>with the chief of police, and wrote a letter telling him I
+could not receive the letter he had brought."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Were any other overtures of settlement made
+to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "That's all I know of any overtures."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Was there anything insulting or offensive in
+the language of the letter the mayor brought you that made you refuse to
+receive it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "The letter was published that evening and next morning and
+speaks for itself."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "I am asking you how you regarded it. Did you
+consider that there was anything insulting or offensive in the letter?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "I considered that any parties that had fought railroads as
+they had and been beaten as I believe they have been had lots of cheek
+to dictate the terms of their surrender."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "You do not answer my question. Were there not
+soldiers, U. S. marshals, deputy sheriffs and policemen engaged in
+guarding the railroads, and were you not hindered in the operation of
+the roads?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>Mr. Eagan: "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Now was not the letter courteously composed
+and looking to a settlement of the difficulty?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "We didn't need a settlement&mdash;we had 'em already."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "The soldiers, marshals, sheriffs and police
+remained on duty sometime after that&mdash;didn't they?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "Yes, we needed the soldiers to protect our property."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "If a settlement could have been reached at
+that time between the railroads and the strikers, couldn't the soldiers
+and marshals have been dismissed. They wouldn't have been needed after
+an amicable settlement had been reached, would they?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "It was their intention not to recognize the American Railway
+Union."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Then it is true is it that the reason this
+communication was not received was not because it was not courteously
+worded or because it was discourteous or insulting but because the
+General Managers would not recognize the American Railway Union?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "Well, that's as I understood it." <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>Commissioner Worthington:
+"What would have been out of the way in your talking with Debs and
+Howard when they asked a conference with you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "I didn't have any authority to talk to them."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Then your authority extended to this. You had
+authority to contract at the expense of the railroad for all the force
+necessary to crush the strike but had no authority to settle it by
+peaceful means?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan, "Well, yes. I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "When you rebuked the mayor did you think it
+derogatory to bear a respectful message looking to a peaceful settlement
+of the difficulty?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "I believed the American Railway Union was whipped at that
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "It was then the condition and not the
+character of the men that signed the document that made you refuse to
+receive it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "We believed we had the strike won."</p>
+
+<p>Commissioner Worthington: "Did you ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>try to use anything but force
+to settle the difficulty?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eagan: "None, except to the different parties that came to see me,
+men that I knew personally had quit work. I told them to go back to
+work." In regard to violence Mr. Eagan knew nothing about it personally,
+but assumed that the strikers did it.</p>
+
+<p>Superintendent Dunlap, of the Rock Island, was asked if he recognized
+any of the ex-employes among the rioters, and said that he did not know
+many of the men but was sure that they were present. He was also asked
+by Mr. Wright if he knew one John T. Norton to which he answered no.</p>
+
+<p>Superintendent of Police, Michael Brennan, was next examined. He
+testified that but a small per cent of the rioting was done by strikers.</p>
+
+<p>John T. Norton, a locomotive engineer, was next called to the stand and
+testified that he was employed on the Illinois Central road prior to the
+strike, and had since obtained a position on the Calumet &amp; Blue Island.</p>
+
+<p>This line uses the Rock Island track to Joliet. He said that he passed
+an examination on the C. &amp; B. I. and also on the Rock Island. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>had
+made one trip when informed that the Rock Island road had barred him and
+would not allow him to run over any part of their line. He consulted a
+lawyer and was told to see Superintendent Dunlap. He called on him in
+company with a friend named Fraser. He asked Mr. Dunlap if he was barred
+off the Rock Island, who said yes, and he then saw that he was
+blacklisted.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Do you call that evidence of a blacklist?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Norton: "I do. After getting a letter from Superintendent Conlin I
+was barred out by Superintendent Dunlap who has just sworn he did not
+know me."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Can you produce Mr. Fraser. We would like to hear his
+testimony?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Norton: "I will."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Were you concerned in any violence during the strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Norton: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Are you an officer of the American Railway Union?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Norton: "Yes. I am president of local union No. 193."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gompers of the American Federation of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>Labor was next examined but
+refused to be sworn. Mr. Gompers went into the labor question in a
+general way. In reference to strikes, he said that so long as the
+present industrial and commercial systems last, so long will strikes
+continue.</p>
+
+<p>George M. Pullman, president of the Pullman company, was now before the
+commissioners. He submitted a lengthy statement in relation to the town
+of Pullman, and under examination he told of the increase of the Palace
+Car company from $1,000,000 to $36,000,000 and the accumulation of a
+cash surplus of $25,000,000. When questioned concerning the grievance of
+the employes, he was not so well posted. When asked by Mr. Wright if it
+was the practice of the company to reduce wages from time to time, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am not familiar with the details of the manufacturing department and
+must refer you to the second vice-president."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Did you ever express any unwillingness to arbitrate?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "I did express unwillingness and refer you to my published
+statements. I was aware of the losses of the company in paying the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>wages it did when contract prices were so low, and I knew it was
+impossible for the company to pay a higher scale. It was a question
+whether the shops should be closed, or secure work at a low figure. It
+was the principle involved in letting a third party determine how the
+company should transact its business."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "But you paid the usual dividend of eight per cent last
+year?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "Yes. But the profit during the World's Fair helped out the
+amount."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Now don't you think that the Pullman corporation which
+paid a dividend of $2,800,000 for the year just ended should have borne
+with the employes and shared its profits to some extent?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "I don't see why we should take the money from the
+stockholders to pay a set of men higher wages because the manufacturing
+business paid well, to pay this money to men working at Pullman when the
+employes at Ludlow, Wilmington and St. Louis had no complaint to make.
+The efforts of the American Railway Union to call a strike there was a
+failure."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>Mr. Worthington: "Has the Pullman Company ever voluntarily raised
+wages?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "No; but it always has paid fair wages."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Now, Mr. Pullman, when you see the present unrest of
+labor, and the possible consequences, what objection had you to
+distributing a portion of the profits or increasing wages a little?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "The reason is embodied in my statement, it is a matter of
+opinion, and then there is the principle involved. It is impossible
+under the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Impossible, what is impossible? Could not arbitration
+determine the principle involved?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "As president of the company I do not care to give any
+other."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington then introduced a lease used between the company and its
+tenants. This provided that the tenants should make all repairs to
+plumbing, water pipes, gas, etc., and to surrender premises in good
+repair. When such repairs were made by the company, the amount was
+deducted from their salaries.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>Mr. Worthington: "Now, the company does not make any repairs, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "The company repairs the roofs or outside of the houses, I
+am not familiar with the details."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "But by the lease the tenants are bound to make all the
+repairs, it is stipulated that the tenant shall repay the company for
+all repairs made."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "I will have to refer you to some official of the company."
+(Laughter.)</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "The rent is deducted monthly, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "I am unable myself to identify that lease you handed me."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman concluded with the statement that the company declined to
+employ any member of the American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington again asked if the company could not afford to pay an
+increased scale of wages and this Mr. Pullman refused.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "When the general cut in salaries was made, was your salary
+reduced?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pullman: "No." (Laughter.)</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "That of officials, superintendents or foremen?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Mr. Pullman: "No."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes then took the stand. His evidence&mdash;which in main was
+documentary&mdash;embraced every detail of the strike. He admitted having
+promised members of the grievance committee that they would not be
+discharged, and said the agreement had not been broken by him. From
+statistics presented by Mr. Wickes, he claimed that the average rate of
+wages paid for the year ending in April, 1893, was $2.63 per day and for
+the same succeeding period $2.03, which fact, he said, disproved of
+statements made by strikers.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of Miss Jennie Curtis the books showed that her father had
+owed but $17.00 at the time of his death, which sum had never been
+repaid the company.</p>
+
+<p>Blacklisting, he said, had never been practiced by the Pullman Company,
+although the foreman kept a list of discharged men. He also said that
+the company had been losing $500 per month by furnishing water. He said
+that the men were advised by Mr. Howard not to strike.</p>
+
+<p>Referring to rent and wages, he did not consider that there was any
+connection between them. He said: "We paid the market price for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>labor
+and we asked the market price for houses." He contended that wages were
+regulated by the law of supply and demand. We go into the market to buy
+labor, as we go into the market to buy other things. If a manufacturer
+by reason of improved machinery, of special facilities, or greater
+ability in securing supplies or disposing of products, or by more
+effective handling of men, should be making larger profits than his
+competitors and should increase wages, he would deprive himself of all
+the benefits of these advantages which are his and to which his employes
+do not contribute, and would make no more than the manufacturer who
+conducted his business in a shiftless manner or without ability, energy
+or enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes concluded his testimony, and Inspector Nicholas Hunt was
+called.</p>
+
+<p>He testified that from June 27th, or the time his force was first called
+to protect railroad property at various points, up to July 3d, there had
+been no serious difficulty. When asked by Mr. Worthington if he had seen
+railroad men take part in the destruction of property. He replied:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>"I have not seen one railroad man interfere in any way."</p>
+
+<p>A. J. Sullivan, general manager of the Illinois Central, was next to
+testify.</p>
+
+<p>He went into details concerning the trouble on his road. He was certain
+that the acts of violence were committed by the strikers although he did
+not witness it personally.</p>
+
+<p>H. R. Saunders, general yardmaster for the Rock Island, testified for
+the company in relation to the way the strike was ordered on the Rock
+Island. He charged that Mr. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, with using abusive and violent language. Epithets applied
+to Pullman and the expression, "if scabs take your places kill them with
+a coupling pin," was declared to have been used.</p>
+
+<p>W. D. Fuller, agent for the Rock Island road at Blue Island, testified
+that he was present, and thought Mr. Howard's speech was very violent,
+he applied epithets to Pullman, thought he ought to be hanged, and that
+he (Howard) would like to head a crowd to do it.</p>
+
+<p>L. A. Camp, a yardmaster for the Rock <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>Island, was also at the meeting
+and heard no violent language used.</p>
+
+<p>G. D. Cruelly also a yardmaster for the same road, thought the strike at
+Blue Island was due to Mr. Howard and Mr. Debs. Mr. Howard in particular
+and Mr. Debs incidentally. Mr. Howard was violent and abusive in his
+language. The witness is a member of the Order of Railway conductors but
+not of the American Railway Union.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Baumbach testified to hearing both Debs and Howard speak, but did
+not remember of hearing either one of them using violent language.</p>
+
+<p>Otto Moriling, a tailor, testified to being present. He did not hear any
+violent language used except that Mr. Howard applied an epithet to
+Pullman.</p>
+
+<p>James Simmons also heard Howard speak, but did not hear him counsel
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Quasso said he was present when Howard spoke but heard no
+violence counseled except some reference by Mr. Howard to the justice of
+hanging Pullman.</p>
+
+<p>Vice President Howard now took the stand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>and testified regarding his
+speech at Blue Island. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to begin by saying that among railroad men particularly
+trainmen, it has been a constant habit and practice and has been for
+years, to use a certain class of expressions which literally are very
+offensive in the lightest and most ordinary way, and without meaning
+anything in particular about them. Every old railroad man can bear me
+out in this. A railroad man will address his best friend with a most
+offensive epithet uttered in a most cordial way and intended to express
+cordiality, so that the term I applied to Pullman, has among railroad
+men a technical meaning, very broad it is true and expressing according
+to the circumstances very different sentiments. But its use is so common
+and I may say usual, that it has altogether lost the meaning it has,
+among others than railroad men.</p>
+
+<p>"I was telling them the condition of things at Pullman. I told them of
+incidents that have been testified to before this commission. I was
+trying to array them against Pullman. I used the language of railroad
+men and I applied to Mr. Pullman the epithet I am charged with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>using.
+But I used it in the railroad sense. I said he ought to be hung, that is
+another railroad expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that I would like to take part in the hanging or lead a
+party to hang him. As to the coupling pin expression, what I said at
+Blue Island, I have said at hundreds of other places, it was this I told
+them, it was often said that capital would always defeat labor. I denied
+this. I said that capital could only whip labor when it could divide it,
+and make labor defeat itself. That in the last few years a wave of
+religious intolerance had swept over this country, and the
+representatives of the railroads had taken advantage of it as a means of
+dividing labor. I gave instances where some emissary of the railroads
+would come in, and going to the protestant members, instill distrust in
+their minds of the Roman Catholic members, and then going to the Roman
+Catholics and creating distrust of the Protestants. I urged them not to
+allow themselves to be divided in the labor movement by questions of
+religious differences, and I said that if any of those sleuths, and I
+may have said sleuths of hell, come into this movement to array you
+against each other in a question of religion, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>I hope some one will have
+the nerve to hit him on the head with a round end coupling pin and send
+him to his last long sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"I said nothing about injuring men who came to take their places. I told
+them if they struck, to put on their good clothes and keep away from the
+railroad property. If the railroads could get men to run their roads,
+let them, but if the men stood together, were united, the roads couldn't
+get men and would have to yield.</p>
+
+<p>"Far from advising violence, I have always advised against it. I have
+some questions I would like the commission to put to the general
+managers, either here, or in Washington. They are these:</p>
+
+<p>"1st. Were not the general managers whipped on July 5, before there had
+been any violence to array public opinion against the strikers, and
+before the troops were here and by their presence provoked violence?</p>
+
+<p>"2d. Did your company have a contract with the government to carry the
+mails?</p>
+
+<p>"3d. Was the contract dependent upon your ability to carry Pullmans?</p>
+
+<p>"4th. Did your contract with the Pullman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>Company require you to refuse
+to transport mail if you left the Pullmans off?</p>
+
+<p>"5th. Did the strikers interfere to prevent carrying of the mails if you
+left the Pullmans off?</p>
+
+<p>"6th. Could you not have carried mails, if you did not insist in hauling
+Pullmans?</p>
+
+<p>"7th. Was your contract with the government less binding on you than
+your contract with the Pullman Company, or was either dependent on the
+other?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan had no objection to the questions being put to the general
+managers, but did not think, under the circumstances, the commission
+could prolong its sitting in order to ask them.</p>
+
+<p>Mayor John P. Hopkins was then called and cordially shook hands with the
+commissioners before taking the witness chair. His examination was
+conducted by Judge Worthington as follows:</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "As mayor of the city and the actual head of the police
+department, please state the general conduct of the police force during
+the strike and the conditions attending the strike."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "The evening of June 25, Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>Ellsworth, who claimed to
+represent the different railroads, called on me and said he understood a
+boycott was to be enforced on all roads hauling Pullman cars. He said he
+understood I was going to Springfield that night and wished me to give
+instructions to the chief of police and arrange for the protection of
+the roads. So far as I know, the police did all the work required of
+them, and I have ample assurance of that fact from railway officials.</p>
+
+<p>"This condition existed until July 5. That morning Mr. Wright of the
+Rock Island called at my office and claimed that riotous mobs were
+interfering with the operation of trains, overturning cars, etc. I went
+with him to the office of Mr. Cable of the Rock Island road, where we
+discussed the matter. Mr. Cable said he thought the police were not
+doing their duty, but from the information I had received, I was
+confident that such was not the case. I then suggested that Mr. Cable go
+with me to the scene of the alleged trouble, but he said that he did not
+think it safe to do so. I proposed the same plan to Mr. Wright, but he
+made the same objection. I then saw the corporation counsel and
+suggested the same plan, which he accepted. A <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>switch engine was secured
+and we went. A crowd of probably 3,000 or 3,500 persons, mostly women
+and children, had assembled at that point. On the tracks at
+Thirty-seventh street four trains were standing, and just north of them
+an empty freight car was lying across the tracks. Half an hour after we
+arrived, a wrecking crew, accompanied by young Newell, Attorney Wright,
+and other officials came up, and they started to take the car off the
+track. On going down we had found the tracks entirely unobstructed, but
+on going back found ten or fifteen overturned cars. I thought the police
+did all they could to prevent such an occurrence. I stayed about two
+hours, when I came back and issued the proclamation to the people which
+was published. I also instructed the chief of police to suspend all
+officers who had been stationed at the crossings where the cars were
+overturned.</p>
+
+<p>"That night I wired the governor at Springfield, that the militia, which
+had been preparing to go into camp there, had better be retained in the
+city, as it might be advisable to call out the troops within twenty-four
+hours. The same night about 10:30, I was at the Hyde Park <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>police
+station when I heard that the "Diamond Special" had been stopped at
+Kensington and that large crowds had congregated there. Inspector Hunt
+sent re-inforcements to that point, and when I retired everything seemed
+quiet. Friday morning, July 6, which was the first time the railroads
+had intimated that the protection afforded them was inadequate, I heard
+from Kensington that there was trouble in the Rock Island and Chicago &amp;
+Eastern Illinois roads. I then called on the governor for five regiments
+of the state militia. Saturday, at 3:30 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, some trouble
+occurred at Forty-seventh and Loomis streets, where a mob had collected.
+The state troops fired and killed one man, two others dying afterward.
+There was no trouble after that, so far as I know."</p>
+
+<p>Mayor Hopkins then read a number of communications from railway
+officials expressing satisfaction in regard to the perfect protection
+afforded by the police during the strike. Among these were letters from
+President Marvin Hughitt of the Northwestern, General Superintendent
+Sullivan of the Illinois Central, President Thomas of the Chicago &amp;
+Western Indiana, and others. Several officers who were deemed worthy of
+promotion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>for their good services at critical times were mentioned in a
+letter from a Santa Fe official. The mayor then continued his testimony
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"So far as the management of the police was concerned I think it was
+excellent. I wish to state that the Blue Island police are governed by
+the officials of that town. The word police has been referred to
+indiscriminately in the testimony, leaving the impression that Blue
+Island was under the jurisdiction of the city.</p>
+
+<p>"There was very little resistance to the police. The strikers treated me
+all right, and the crowds seemed good-natured. There was some resistance
+to the police, I believe, on the night of July 7, at Ashland avenue and
+the Northwestern tracks. The police fired and killed a woman on the roof
+of a house in the neighborhood."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "How many were killed in all or who have since died in
+consequence of injuries received?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "About seven, I think in Chicago. Three at Forty-seventh
+and Loomis streets, one at Kensington, the woman just mentioned, and I
+think two others."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>Mr. Worthington: "Please state about the militia engaged during the
+strike."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "I will read my copy of the telegram to the governor to
+which I referred. The next day I again telegraphed the governor
+suggesting that five regiments be placed at the disposal of the city. In
+one half hour I received an answer stating that the militia had been
+ordered to report. There was virtually the entire militia of the state
+in service, probably 2,000 men. The last detachment went home August 6."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "You have stated that you gave orders to suspend
+officers at certain crossings. Why was that?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "The officers complained that people jumped over the fences
+and that they could not prevent them. The Rock Island road is protected
+on each side of the right-of-way by low fences, and empty freight cars
+were standing for many blocks on the side track next the fence. The
+people who lived near the tracks could easily jump the fence unseen and
+tip the cars over. I ordered the men suspended for the general effect it
+would have on the force."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "I would like to ask a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>general question. As mayor of
+the city, do you think the police, or a portion of them, either directly
+or indirectly, took a part in promoting the strike in any way?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "I would not deny that some of the men had sympathy with
+the strikers. I am in sympathy myself with the Pullman strikers."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "But do you think the police did their duty?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir. Several times Mr. Eagan telephoned that trouble
+was occurring at some point. When officers would investigate they would
+find no trouble at all. There are 2,100 miles of railway in the city
+limits; there are 1,360 trains daily, 160 railroad crossings, and 3,000
+surface railroad crossings. The police force for this year is scheduled
+at 1,928 patrolmen. There are 186 square miles of territory in the city
+and you can readily see that every point could not be covered at once.
+The amount of violence was not very great. In Pullman not one pane of
+glass was broken in the three months of the strike. I live in Pullman
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "You may state whether <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>at any time you advised the
+American Railway Union or its members to strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Did the General Manager's Association either during or
+since the strike request the city to arrest any individual strikers or
+suggest such arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir; I think that President Newell swore out a warrant
+for a man named Hall, but the information was furnished by the city."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Has the American Railway Union brought in any
+information of this character?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; in the case of Hall, who was charged with
+turning over cars; also in other cases, which upon investigation we
+concluded not to take up."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "Then the disposition of the American Railway Union
+appears to have been to assist the city?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "During or before the strike were there any overtures
+made in regard to arbitration?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "I met Mr. Pullman at lunch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>in the Chicago club one day
+and he told me of a meeting his employes had held. Then July 3, there
+was a further talk about protecting the works on the following day when
+trouble might be expected. There was some talk about a settlement, but
+the company seemed to regard the strikers as law breakers. Then a
+committee of the council was appointed, and word sent to Mr. Eagan, but
+he said he couldn't come. Then the committee called at Mr. Pullman's
+office to discuss the question of arbitration&mdash;or if there was anything
+to arbitrate. The answer received there was that the company refused to
+arbitrate. July 11, I received a telegram from Mayor Pingree of Detroit,
+asking if I would act with him in endeavoring to settle the strike. He
+had communications from fifty other mayors giving their views on the
+question. We saw Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown, and had a long
+interview. Mayor Pingree took the point that arbitration should be
+tested, and made a strong argument. He is a member of a shoe
+manufacturing firm and related his own experience in a strike of nine
+months' duration. Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown withdrew and
+prepared a statement giving the position of the company and declining
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>the proposition. On July 13, Mr. Debs, Mr. Howard, and Mr. Kelliher
+prepared a communication to the railway managers offering to settle the
+strike if the railroads would re-instate the men as individuals or such
+men as had committed no overt acts. With Mr. McGillen I went over with
+the document to Mr. St. John. What occurred there has been published.
+Now, while I think of it, I want to say that the statement published in
+some papers that Mr. St. John told me I should not act as a messenger
+boy for the American Railway Union is false. I deny most emphatically
+that Mr. St. John used those words. I should not have allowed it. This
+was the last action on my part to bring about a settlement.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been said that I protested against the presence of the federal
+troops in the city. I do say that the railways had never complained that
+the civil authorities were unable to protect the roads. I have never
+protested against the federal troops and think they did some good."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Worthington: "It has been stated in the press that you applied to
+Mr. Debs to move trains."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "That is not true. A man named Brenock has a contract with
+the city to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>remove dead animals, the place where they are rendered
+being over the Indiana state line. He called upon me and said that there
+was a train load of dead animals at the stock yards which could not be
+pulled out; the men had quit work. I said I thought a volunteer crew of
+trainmen could be procured which would do the work. I sent my secretary
+to the American Railway Union with that request. A crew went down to the
+yards and manned the train. When it proceeded some distance it was
+discovered that a train load of dressed beef had been substituted and
+the train crew abandoned the cars. The dead animals then remained where
+they were for several days."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kernan: "Then this action was simply a plan to guard the public
+health?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; simply to remove the dead animals from the city
+limits."</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of Mayor Hopkins' testimony, President Carroll D.
+Wright arose and declared the commission formally adjourned until
+Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Washington, D. C. </p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>ALTGELD INVESTIGATES PULLMAN.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>In response to a piteous appeal for help from a committee of Pullman
+strikers, John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois, came in person to the
+town of Pullman and made an investigation of the condition of the people
+in order to satisfy himself regarding their complaints of suffering and
+destitution. After only a partial investigation the governor returned to
+his hotel satisfied with the correctness of the reports.</p>
+
+<p>He said the starvation at Pullman was as bad if not worse than had been
+reported by the Times that 1,600 families in Pullman and vicinity were
+starving.</p>
+
+<p>"Not only starving," said the governor, "but they are without fuel and
+in rags. They must not starve and I will remain in Pullman until some
+means can be devised for their relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I went to Pullman in response to an invitation by the strikers'
+committee, and found matters even worse than represented. I visited
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>their homes and went through every room in some of their houses. Two
+representatives of the Pullman company who accompanied me, admitted that
+the houses visited were a fair representation of every house occupied by
+the strikers' families. Their condition is pitiful, there are families
+numbering from two to eight members and I tell you they are slowly
+starving to death. The little ones are crying with hunger and there is
+nothing in the house to eat. Something for their relief must be done
+immediately. I have thought of several measures, but as yet have arrived
+at no conclusion. For several months the people may have to be cared
+for, and it is well to go slow when one is treading in deep water. I
+suppose I will be abused no matter what steps I take, but I don't care a
+blank, as these people will not starve if I can prevent it, and I shall
+see that I do prevent it."</p>
+
+<p>The governor declined to say anything in relation to the cause which
+created the present condition at Pullman. He said it was enough to know
+that women and children were crying with hunger, it was time enough to
+talk about the causes later.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the governor's arrival at Pullman, a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>big man with gray whiskers
+and a lordly air rushed forward and presented his card to his
+excellency. He was August Rapp, chief designer of the company and
+formerly superintendent of the works. With him was Chief Wilde,
+Pullman's head accountant, whom he presented. It was evident that the
+governor did not wish to see the Pullman official.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the members of the committee that sent for me?" he demanded.
+"I want to see the men." Somewhat abashed Messrs. Wilde and Rapp stepped
+backward and three or four mechanics came forward. There was Thos. W.
+Heathcoat, G. A. Kreamer, Theo. Rhode and two or three members of the
+relief committee. "I want to see what you men have to show me," said the
+governor.</p>
+
+<p>They repaired at once to the tenements on Fulton street, where the first
+stop was made at No. 124, occupied by Mrs. O'Halleron. A blind widow was
+found occupying four small rooms on the first floor. She told the
+governor that she had two sons aged nineteen and fourteen respectively
+and a daughter aged twenty. All three had worked for Pullman but were
+now idle. They had applied for work but were told there was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>no work for
+them. One of the boys had been a brass polisher and the younger son and
+the daughter had worked in the laundry. They had lived in the town seven
+years. There was no coal in the house, they had a little food, given
+them by the relief committee, but they could not support themselves and
+said there was no one to look after their condition.</p>
+
+<p>"Have the Pullman people sent any one to see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have not," replied the blind woman.</p>
+
+<p>She said they paid $12.60 for the four rooms. One of her sons had drawn
+$1.60 and the other 96 cents per day.</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck to you, sir," she said as the governor walked away with his
+teeth set firmly together.</p>
+
+<p>F. H. Taylor, superintendent of the Pullman company, had now joined the
+party taking the place of Accountant Wilde. Mr. Rapp pressed his way in
+everywhere though paying no attention to the audible slurs of the people
+about him.</p>
+
+<p>Block B, across the way on Fulton street was next visited. The manner of
+Gov. Altgeld was kindly and he introduced himself in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>pleasant way,
+asking questions in a manner calculated to inspire confidence.</p>
+
+<p>There were six families in Block B, some of the tenants had gone back to
+work. A poor woman in No. 3 said her husband was not working, he had
+been in Pullman for six years and had asked to return to work, but was
+told there was nothing for him to do, the shop was full. She had three
+little children but little to eat, only a bit of flour, coffee and tea
+from the relief store left.</p>
+
+<p>In Block S, room 7, was John Carlson, a cabinet maker who had worked in
+Pullman for seven years and could not get his position back He had
+nothing in the house to eat.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you eaten to-day?" asked the governor.</p>
+
+<p>"I had some bread and coffee from a neighbor," said the man. "My wife is
+sick and I divided with her, we haven't a thing in the house now."</p>
+
+<p>Theo. Ericson, of 301 Fulton street, had six in family. He said he could
+not get work and the money he had saved before the strike was all gone.
+The relief committee had given a little food.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>"How many in Pullman," said the governor, "are in the same fix, whom you
+know of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of men, sir, I know of half a dozen in my neighborhood," answered
+the man.</p>
+
+<p>Olaf Olson had worked in the street car shops and was now idle. He had
+six children and his wife to care for, they have nothing to eat, and he
+could get nothing from the relief committee as their supplies were
+exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>Otto Wullf, of room 22, Block F, also had a wife and six children. He
+said that all he had in the house to eat was two pounds of oat meal from
+the relief store. As he told his story tears rolled down the cheeks of
+the big bearded fellow and the governor was visibly affected. His wife
+was sick abed he said and a newspaper reporter dropped a quarter into
+his hand while he used a handkerchief to remove the moisture from his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The man stated that his wages had been $1.30 per day, and his rent $9.60
+per month for four small rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Anderson, of Kensington, said he had worked in the repair shop but
+could not get work now as the shop was filled, or at least so he was
+told when he applied.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>He had five children and not enough to eat. He had borrowed a dollar
+with which to buy a sack of flour. This was all he had.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vanderwein had a wife and four children and could not get a
+position. He had no money and only two pounds of oat meal, two pounds of
+corn meal and a little flour left.</p>
+
+<p>Here someone whispered to the governor and the latter turned to Mr. Rapp
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"They tell me you are taking the names of those who complain, with a
+view of keeping them out of work?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not so, sir," said Rapp, coloring deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"And," said the governor, "they tell me you are largely responsible for
+the reduction of the wages?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not so, sir," persisted Mr. Rapp.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, men," said the governor, "let him come with us, this must not be
+a star chamber affair."</p>
+
+<p>A boy named Koopka spoke for his father who did not understand English.</p>
+
+<p>He was one of three children he said, and they hadn't enough to eat. No
+relief could be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>obtained now and every thing was gone but a few
+potatoes.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Nathan Booth stepped forward. She said she had six children, all
+barefooted, the oldest eleven years, and the youngest six months. They
+had been two years in Pullman and her husband had earned $1.30 per day.
+He had no work now, and the only food was that given them by the wife of
+the Methodist minister.</p>
+
+<p>Andrew Schelly said he had worked for the Pullman company twelve years
+but could get no work now, and his family had nothing to eat. He had
+borrowed a pair of shoes in which he could seek work.</p>
+
+<p>A. Bergstrom for seven years in Pullman said he could not get his old
+position. He had five children, the eldest ten years, and they had no
+money, no food, no trust.</p>
+
+<p>Frank Mass had been three years in Pullman, had three children and
+nothing to eat.</p>
+
+<p>The wife of Pat Mullen, of Block E, room 1, appeared with a child in her
+arms and a toddler at her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>They had been in Pullman twelve years and had four other children. Her
+husband could not get back to work because he was on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>strike
+committee. She did not know where the next meal was to come from.</p>
+
+<p>Though wretchedly poor these people were clean and neat. They are all of
+the better class of laboring people.</p>
+
+<p>John Cedarland sat at a table and stared stolidly at the visitors, while
+his wife with a baby at her breast and two at her heels stood by. A
+neighbor who had given them of her scanty store, said the man was sick
+and the family destitute. On Sunday she had given them a piece of meat,
+and wood with which to cook it.</p>
+
+<p>A reporter slipped a quarter into her hand and received a look worth
+$8.00.</p>
+
+<p>Two of John Smith's collectors, out with furniture bills as a matter of
+form, told the governor that two-thirds of the old men were still idle,
+and that the condition of these men was deplorable. They had called at
+one place where one of the children was celebrating its birthday and all
+there was for the feast was bread and onions. The collectors chipped in
+for a few luxuries.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Peter Camp appeared with two children and reported five more, and
+there were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>scores of similar cases, all destitute and absolutely
+without food.</p>
+
+<p>On his way back to the city the governor would say but little.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes, vice president of the Pullman company called and was
+presented to his excellency in due form. The object of his visit was to
+tender his services as guide and escort.</p>
+
+<p>This was declined.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wickes expressed his regret that the governor saw fit not to accept
+the offer.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of Gov. Altgeld's investigation he issued the following
+proclamation:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">To the People of Illinois, and Especially Those of the City of
+Chicago:</span> There is great distress growing out of the want of food in
+and around the town of Pullman. More than a thousand families in the
+neighborhood of 6,000 people, are utterly destitute. Nearly four-fifths
+of them are women and children. The men have endeavored to get work but
+were unable to do so. I have made a personal examination of the case and
+learn from the officials of the Pullman company that prior to the strike
+they had 3,260 names on the pay roll; yesterday they had 2,220 people at
+work, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>over 600 of these were new men, so that they have only about
+1,600 of their old employes at work, leaving about 1,660 that have not
+been taken back. Several hundreds of these have left, but the remainder
+are unable to go away and have nothing to eat. I find that immediately
+after the beginning of the strike a relief association was formed to
+provide for the needy, and the books of this association show that 2,463
+applications were made by the Pullman employes, mostly heads of
+families, to this association for aid. In fact, nearly all of the
+employes, except the few hundred who left, have been supported by
+charity for nearly three months.</p>
+
+<p>"As a rule they are a superior class of laboring people, industrious,
+capable, and steady and some of them have worked for the Pullman company
+for more than ten years. Those who have been given work can get food,
+but are still in such an impoverished condition that they cannot help
+their neighbors if they would. The relief society is unable to get more
+supplies. Last Saturday it gave to each family two pounds of oat meal
+and two pounds of corn meal, and having nothing left it suspended
+operations, leaving the people in an absolutely helpless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>condition. The
+county commissioners of Cook county, as overseers of the poor, have
+rendered some assistance, but owing to limited appropriation they can
+furnish relief but for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot now stop to inquire into the cause of this distress. The good
+people of this state cannot allow women and children by the hundred to
+perish of hunger. I therefore call upon all humane and charitably
+disposed citizens to contribute what they can toward giving relief to
+these people. I am satisfied that any contribution sent to the Pullman
+relief committee at Kensington, Ill., will be judiciously distributed. I
+find their treasurer has given a bond to properly account for all moneys
+received.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 9em;" class="smcap">"John P. Altgeld.</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 7em;">"Governor.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"Aug. 21, 1894</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">"To the Honorable, the Board of County Commissioners of
+    Cook County&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Gentlemen:</i> Your attention has already been called to the great
+destitution that exists in and around the town of Pullman and you have
+furnished some relief there. I have made a personal investigation of the
+conditions there and find the suffering is very great for want of food.
+I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>respectfully appeal to you as the officers upon whom devolves the
+duty of providing for cases of this kind, that you do the uttermost in
+your power to furnish immediate assistance to those people.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 6em;">Very respectfully,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 5em;" class="smcap">"John P. Altgeld.</span></p>
+<p><span class="leftsig">"Aug. 21, 1894.</span> <span class="rightsig">Governor."</span></p>
+
+
+<p>Before leaving Springfield to investigate the condition at Pullman, Gov.
+Altgeld sent the following telegram to Mr. Pullman:</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Aug. 19, 1894.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's
+  Palace Car Company, Chicago, Ill.:</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have received numerous reports to the effect that there is great
+distress at Pullman. To-day I received a formal appeal as governor from
+a committee of the Pullman people for aid. They state that 1,600
+families, including women and children, are starving; that they cannot
+get work and have not the means to go elsewhere; that your company has
+brought men from all over the United States to fill their places. Now,
+these people live in your town and were your employes. Some of them
+worked for your company for many years. They must be people of industry
+and character or you would not have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>kept them. Many of them have
+practically given their lives to you. It is claimed that they struck
+because after years of toil their wages were so reduced that their
+children went hungry. Assuming that they were wrong and foolish, they
+had yet served you long and well and you must feel some interest in
+them. They do not stand on the same footing with you, so that much must
+be overlooked. The state of Illinois has not the least desire to meddle
+in the affairs of your company, but it cannot allow a whole community
+within its borders to perish of hunger. The local overseer of the poor
+has been appealed to, but there is a limit to what he can do. I cannot
+help them very much at present, so unless relief comes from some other
+source I shall either have to call an extra session of the legislature
+to make special appropriation or else issue an appeal to the humane
+people of the state to give bread to your recent employes. It seems to
+me that you would prefer to relieve the situation yourself, especially
+as it has just cost the state upward of $50,000 to protect your property
+and as both the state and the public have suffered enormous loss and
+expense on account of disturbances that grew out of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>trouble between
+your company and its workmen. I am going to Chicago to-night to make a
+personal investigation before taking any official action. I will be in
+my office in the Unity block at 10 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> to-morrow and shall be
+glad to hear from you if you care to make any reply.</p>
+
+<p class="right smcap">John P. Altgeld."</p>
+
+<p>The following letter was addressed to Mr. Pullman by Gov. Altgeld.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+"<span class="smcap">Chicago</span>, Ill., Aug. 21.</p>
+<p class="noin"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's
+  Palace Car Company, Chicago.</span></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir:</span> I examined the conditions at Pullman yesterday, visited
+even the kitchens and bedrooms of many of the people. Two
+representatives of your company were with me and we found the distress
+as great as it was represented. The men are hungry and the women and
+children are actually suffering. They have been living on charity for a
+number of months and it is exhausted. Men who have worked for your
+company for more than ten years had to apply to the relief society in
+two weeks after the work stopped. I learn from your manager that last
+spring there were 3,260 people on the pay roll; yesterday there were
+2,220 at work, but over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>600 of these are new men, so that only about
+1,600 of the old employes have been taken back, thus leaving over 1,000
+of the old employes who have not been taken back. A few hundred have
+left. The remainder have nearly all applied for work, but were told that
+they were not needed. These are utterly destitute. The relief committee
+last Saturday gave out two pounds of oatmeal and two pounds of cornmeal
+to each family, but even the relief committee has exhausted its
+resources. Something must be done at once. The case differs from
+instances of destitution found elsewhere, for generally there is
+somebody in the neighborhood able to give relief. This is not the case
+at Pullman. Even those who have gone to work are so exhausted that they
+cannot help their neighbors if they would. I repeat now that it seems to
+me your company cannot afford to have me appeal to the charity and
+humanity of the state to save the lives of your old employes.
+Four-fifths of those people are women and children. No matter what
+caused this distress it must be met.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will allow me I will make this suggestion: If you had shut down
+your works last fall when you say business was poor you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>would not have
+expected to get any rent from your tenants. Now, while a dollar is a
+large sum to each of these people all the rent now due you is a
+comparatively small matter to you. If you will cancel all rent to Oct.
+1, you will be as well off as if you had shut down. This would enable
+those at work to meet their most pressing wants. Then if you cannot give
+work to all, work some half time so that all can at least get something
+to eat for their families. This will give immediate relief to the whole
+situation and then by degrees assist as many to go elsewhere as desire
+to do so and all to whom you cannot give work. In this way something
+like a normal condition could be re-established at Pullman before winter
+and you would not be out any more than you would have been had you shut
+down a year ago. I will be at the Unity block for several hours and will
+be glad to see you if you care to make any reply.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 5em;">"Yours respectfully,</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+<span style="padding-right: 5em;" class="smcap">"John P. Altgeld."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>Mr. Pullman replied as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="cen smcap">
+The Pullman's Palace Car Company,<br />
+Office of the President</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Chicago, Ill.</span>, Aug. 21, 1894.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir:</span> I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+letter of this date, giving your impressions derived from your visit to
+the town of Pullman yesterday. In pursuance of the invitation contained
+in your telegram of the 19th inst. I caused Mr. Wickes, a vice president
+of this company, who is thoroughly acquainted with its affairs at
+Pullman, to call upon you and offer you every assistance in his power or
+which could be offered by any officer of the company in making your
+proposed personal investigation. Mr. Wickes offered to accompany you to
+Pullman for this purpose, and I regret that you did not appear to
+consider that he could be of service to you. As an indication of the
+importance of the aid of local knowledge in making essential
+discriminations I may say to you that I have the best reason for
+believing that the husband of a wife who is published as representing
+her family to you yesterday as in need of help, drew more than $1,300 of
+his savings from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>a bank July 2 last for the purpose as he said of
+buying lots.</p>
+
+<p>"While it has not been represented to the officers of this company by
+any persons concerned that there was any such extended distress at
+Pullman, as was represented for the first time by the extraordinary
+method of a published telegram to you in your official capacity, I do
+not doubt that there are many cases of need caused by the refusal of the
+employes for more than two and one-half months to earn offered wages of
+more than $300,000; and that such cases have been increased and made
+more severe by the persistence of more than 650 of our employes, of whom
+about 350 live in Pullman, in refusing to apply for their old places
+after the strike was practically over and after they were publicly
+invited, July 16, to resume their work, until by the gradual coming in
+of new men during the whole month their places have been filled and the
+full force engaged for all work in hand. In addition to this there is,
+no doubt, need among the old employes living in Pullman, a considerable
+number of whom have persistently refused to apply for work at all, many
+of them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>it is understood, considering themselves to be still engaged in
+a strike.</p>
+
+<p>"I mention these things so that the responsibility for the existing
+situation, whatever it is may not be improperly placed. The situation,
+however, is one which must be dealt with without regard to what has
+caused it, and I shall give it the consideration which is due from the
+company. I do not, however, anticipate, as you appear to do, that those
+employes who have resumed their work will be limited to the satisfaction
+of their most pressing wants, and as to those who are not at work the
+cancelling of their rents is not, I venture to suggest, a question to
+which attention should first be given at the present juncture if their
+pressing needs are as you suppose them to be. The company will continue
+in its efforts to secure work in order to employ as many men as
+possible, and in that way relieve the situation as far as practicable.</p>
+
+<p>"Your suggestion that the work should be divided so that a sufficient
+number of our present employes should be put on half time in order to
+give at least half time work for all was tried last winter. The result
+has been that the gross earnings of various individual employes were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>last winter so small as to give an erroneous impression with reference
+to the sufficiency of the rate of wages. The policy of the company is
+now to employ only as many men as it is possible to furnish work for on
+full time.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 8em;">"Very respectfully yours,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 6em;" class="smcap">"George M. Pullman,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 9em;">"President.</span></p>
+<br />
+<p class="cen">"The Hon. John P. Altgeld, Governor."</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Chicago</span>, Aug. 21.</p>
+
+<p>"George M. Pullman, Esq., President the Pullman's Palace Car Company, City.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir:</span> I have your answer to my communication this morning. I
+see by it that your company refuses to do anything toward relieving the
+situation at Pullman. It is true that Mr. Wickes offered to take me to
+Pullman and show me around. I told him that I had no objection to his
+going, but that I doubted the wisdom of my going under anybody's wing. I
+was, however, met by two of your representatives, both able men, who
+accompanied me everywhere. I took pains to have them present in each
+case. I also called at your office and got what information they could
+give there, so that your company was represented and heard, and no man
+there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>questioned either the condition or the extent of their suffering.
+If you will make the round I made, go into the houses of these people,
+meet them face to face, and talk with them you will be convinced that
+none of them had $1,300 or any other sum of money a few weeks ago.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot enter into a discussion with you as to the merits of the
+controversy between you and your former workmen. It is not my business
+to fix the moral responsibility in this case. There are nearly 6,000
+people suffering for the want of food&mdash;they were your
+employes&mdash;four-fifths of them are women and children&mdash;some of these
+people have worked for you more than twelve years. I assume that even if
+they were wrong and had been foolish you would not be willing to see
+them perish. I also assume that as the state has just been to a large
+expense to protect your property you would not want to have the public
+shoulder the burden of relieving distress in your town.</p>
+
+<p>"As you refuse to do anything to relieve the suffering in this case I am
+compelled to appeal to the humanity of the people of Illinois to do so.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 8em;">Respectfully yours,</span><br />
+<span style="padding-right: 5em;" class="smcap">"John P. Altgeld."</span></p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The condition of the Pullman strikers elicited by the commission
+appointed by President Cleveland for that purpose as shown by the
+preceding extracts from the investigation, was known to the delegates to
+the convention of the American Railway Union held in Chicago in June. In
+turn they made known to the various local unions these deplorable
+conditions. Hence the boycott, or as it has been designated by the
+general managers, a sympathetic strike.</p>
+
+<p>They have been charged with striking without a cause other than a
+fanciful grievance of the Pullman employe, and roundly censured for
+their actions. That too by men of kind hearts and liberal views who were
+not aware of the true situation. Had this commission been appointed
+previous to the boycott, it is my honest conviction, there would have
+been no trouble. The broad inherent spirit of humanity in American
+hearts would assert itself and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>powerful voice of public sentiment
+would terrorize this inhuman corporation into doing justice to their
+employes.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of the strikers was attributed to a great many causes, but
+the real cause can be laid to the federal government or the
+administration thereof.</p>
+
+<p>President Cleveland, it is said, was and is a partner in a law firm who
+are employed by four of the largest railroad systems in the United
+States. The cabinet, with a few exceptions, are also connected with
+railroad corporations either directly or indirectly.</p>
+
+<p>The federal courts are absolutely owned by the railroads, and
+consequently the whole federal government was arrayed against the
+strikers.</p>
+
+<p>The federal judges prostituted the courts to the use of the railroads in
+granting injunctions to restrain the officers of the American Railway
+Union from acting in any form for or with that organization. From the
+time that Mr. Debs was successfully shackled by the courts, the strikers
+were like some great beheaded mastodon, staggering about, vainly
+endeavoring to retain the dying spark of life.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>In order to be more explicit, just as soon as the officers of the
+American Railway Union were incarcerated, reports were circulated by the
+general managers at one point, that men at some distant point had
+returned to work. The men, where these reports would be received, would
+at once wire to the officers at Chicago, asking if it be true. The
+officers of the union were prohibited from sending telegrams, and on
+receiving no reply they would take it for granted that these reports
+were authentic, and apply for work. In short, when they lost the
+guidance of Debs, their ranks became demoralized. This was the real
+cause of the defeat of the American Railway Union. Its first defeat
+after twelve decisive victories, eleven of which were accomplished
+without a strike.</p>
+
+<p>The prostitution of the government&mdash;founded on the blood of our
+forefathers&mdash;by the organized capital of this country, of which the
+greater part is foreign gold, is something of the most vital importance
+to every workingman in America to-day. This is a matter that demands the
+gravest thought of every American citizen who is loyal to himself, to
+his family and to his country.</p>
+
+<p>The flagrant abuse of the constitution by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>the plutocratic money power,
+if not checked by the people, will reduce them to a condition beneath
+that of any nation in the known world.</p>
+
+<p>This strike has clearly demonstrated the truth of this assertion. In not
+one instance during the whole course of the trouble, have the
+representatives of the corporations and the representatives of the
+government failed to unite in destroying the constitutional rights of
+the American workingman.</p>
+
+<p>The devilish ingenuity of this corporate power goes still further to
+retain the power they hold over the government. They have conceived a
+plan to disfranchise in a manner all members of the American Railway
+Union and deprive them of the right to vote. In this they have actually
+accomplished their purpose by forcing its members out of employment, and
+driving them from their homes to seek employment in foreign parts of the
+country on the eve of election, where they would not be eligible to
+vote.</p>
+
+<p>The inherent cunning of this blood sucking money power would pale to
+insignificance the most diabolical deeds of the prince of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Blinded by their victory over the American Railway Union&mdash;through the
+assistance of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>federal courts&mdash;they will stop at nothing to complete
+the work of subjugation and annihilation. They have tested their power
+over the courts and find them so completely subservient to their will
+that they know they would be secure in carrying out any high-handed
+proceeding which they may deem necessary to complete their work of
+demoralization and hounding to death, if need be, the members of this
+order.</p>
+
+<p>This was the very condition of affairs that President Debs anticipated,
+and tried to guard against. This was the impending danger against which
+he warned the men, and for this he filled a felon's cell in Cook county
+jail.</p>
+
+<p>Against these conditions the people must unite and co-operate. We must
+no longer close our eyes to the glaring fact that we are being made
+parties to our own destruction by the corporations and trusts of this
+country, and their allies the Democratic and Republican parties.</p>
+
+<p>These two great political parties are so completely controlled by the
+corporations, that anything asked of them is immediately granted, the
+only difference between the two being their views as to the best method
+by which they can serve these corporations.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>The railroads combine and trusts of all kinds furnish the funds for
+campaign purposes, and also incidentally furnish the votes to elect
+their friends. They have in every precinct, ward, town, city, county and
+state, their hirelings who beguile the people into voting as they
+dictate.</p>
+
+<p>The child like confidence of the people could not be shaken in the old
+parties. They were ever ready to place implicit faith in these designing
+politicians, believing that the laws made by them were just what was
+wanted for the people's salvation.</p>
+
+<p>This delusion cannot last, the time is now ripe for action. The masses
+must protect their interests if they would be free to enjoy the rights
+awarded them by the constitution.</p>
+
+<p>The American Railway Union has proven the greatest blessing to the
+working people of this country. It has torn the mask of hypocrisy from
+these plutocratic professional politicians and revealed them in their
+true character.</p>
+
+<p>The working people can no longer afford to be deluded by these old
+parties. They must unite and arise in one grand body and assert their
+independence as freemen and intelligent American citizens, and by their
+ballot take possession <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>of this government of the capitalist, by the
+capitalist, and for the capitalist, and again make it a government of
+the people, by the people and for the people.</p>
+
+<p>President Debs struck the keynote when he said that it was better for
+the government to own the railroads than for the railroads to own the
+government. Our only chance to succeed in obtaining our constitutional
+rights is by legislation and this we must create ourselves. We never can
+obtain it through either of the old parties and therefore must ally
+ourselves to a new party.</p>
+
+<p>It is time that every intelligent workingman would think and act for
+himself. All semblance to aristocracy in labor must be eliminated, the
+skillful artisan has no more guarantee of just treatment than has the
+common laborer.</p>
+
+<p>Every workingman should endorse the Peoples party. They must unite as
+one, in one common cause and strike for their rights with the only
+effective weapon left to them, "the ballot."</p>
+
+<p>This strike has proven beyond doubt that the protective features in
+railroad organizations, and other organizations as well, is a dead
+letter as long as the federal courts are controlled by capital. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>Unless
+this is remedied, all labor organizations might just as well send in
+their charters and cease to exist.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot believe that the American people will allow this state of
+affairs to continue. There are many men in public life to-day whose
+motives are pure and unselfish. Such men as Governors Altgeld, Waite,
+Penoyer; Congressmen Kyle, Pfeffer, McGann, Pence, Goldgier; Mayor
+Hopkins of Chicago, Sydney M. Owens, Clarence S. Darrow, Judge Tully,
+Gen. Weaver, W. W. Erwin and hosts of others, who publicly espoused the
+cause of the strikers.</p>
+
+<p>The subsidized press, the most dangerous enemy of labor, and next to the
+courts, the most effective weapon in the hands of the railroad
+corporations in destroying the rights of labor and defeating the
+strikers, has again fallen in line as the champions of the laboring
+classes. With hypocritical pretensions to sympathy for the workingman,
+the organs of the two great political parties have begun to knife each
+other, and unite in denouncing the People's party, all for the benefit
+of the poor farmer, railroader, mechanic and laborer. They are loud in
+their denunciation of trusts, combines and corporations of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>all kinds
+that have a tendency to crush the poor working people. Their great and
+generous hearts are overflowing with sympathy for the poor oppressed
+toiler.</p>
+
+<p>The question is, can the American workingman be again deluded by these
+organs of organized capital?</p>
+
+<p>The laboring people do not want sympathy, neither do they want charity,
+all they want is simple justice, and this they must and will have.</p>
+
+<p>There are exceptions among the press and these should be remembered by
+the people. Papers that were champions of right and justice and whom the
+general managers could not buy.</p>
+
+<p>And now, kind reader, in conclusion I will quote the words of him, whose
+noble life is devoted to the cause of humanity:</p>
+
+<p>"The strike was not a failure. It will pass into history as a noble
+struggle for a righteous cause, and those who participated in it,
+whatever their immediate sacrifices may be, will in the end feel amply
+compensated for all their losses."</p>
+<br />
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p>
+<br />
+
+Some inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in
+the original document has been preserved.<br />
+<br />
+Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br />
+<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    8&nbsp;  Crachus changed to Gracchus<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    8&nbsp;  Pometheus changed to Prometheus<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    8&nbsp;  lethergic changed to lethargic<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   10&nbsp;  rumaging changed to rummaging<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   10&nbsp;  consciousnes changed to consciousness<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   13&nbsp;  Kelleher changed to Kelliher<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   14&nbsp;  Kelleher changed to Kelliher<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   16&nbsp;  resistence changed to resistance<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   18&nbsp;  grestest changed to greatest<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   18&nbsp;  120 changed to 20<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   19&nbsp;  averice changed to avarice<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   20&nbsp;  accomodations changed to accommodations<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   22&nbsp;  averice changed to avarice<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   28&nbsp;  authoritively changed to authoritatively<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   29&nbsp;  Fourty changed to Forty<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   38&nbsp;  to changed to too<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   38&nbsp;  chattle changed to chattel<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   41&nbsp;  epethets changed to epithets<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   43&nbsp;  occured changed to occurred<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   44&nbsp;  meetting changed to meeting<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   44&nbsp;  apointed changed to appointed<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   45&nbsp;  Gattling changed to Gatling<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   46&nbsp;  counsles changed to counsels<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   47&nbsp;  Sheriden changed to Sheridan<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   47&nbsp;  attitute changed to attitude<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   47&nbsp;  persuation changed to persuasion<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   48&nbsp;  intimitation changed to intimidation<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   48&nbsp;  threads changed to threats<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   48&nbsp;  persuation changed to persuasion<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   49&nbsp;  persuation changed to persuasion<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   50&nbsp;  know changed to known<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   50&nbsp;  than changed to that<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   51&nbsp;  spectical changed to spectacle<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   51&nbsp;  depotism changed to despotism<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   51&nbsp;  wanta changed to wont<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   51&nbsp;  contagous changed to contagious<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   55&nbsp;  waving changed to waiving<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   56&nbsp;  where changed to were<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   57&nbsp;  coroborated changed to corroborated<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   57&nbsp;  occurrance changed to occurrence<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   58&nbsp;  Waving changed to Waiving<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   59&nbsp;  ignor changed to ignore<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   59&nbsp;  assistence changed to assistance<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   61&nbsp;  importaut changed to important<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   61&nbsp;  hour's changed to hours'<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   61&nbsp;  interferance changed to interference<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   65&nbsp;  clearely changed to clearly<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   70&nbsp;  art changed to are<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   73&nbsp;  grievences changed to grievances<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   77&nbsp;  intimitated changed to intimidated<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   77&nbsp;  their changed to there<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   79&nbsp;  aud changed to and<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   81&nbsp;  ensconsed changed to ensconced<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   82&nbsp;  occured changed to ccurred<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   83&nbsp;  occurance changed to occurrence<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   83&nbsp;  promisciously changed to promiscuously<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   83&nbsp;  surpressed changed to suppressed<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   84&nbsp;  wonton changed to wanton<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   88&nbsp;  interupted changed to interrupted<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   89&nbsp;  criminalty changed to criminality<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   89&nbsp;  discrimation changed to discrimination<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   89&nbsp;  subservent changed to subservient<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   92&nbsp;  guize changed to guise<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   93&nbsp;  Wicks changed to Wickes<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   93&nbsp;  contented changed to contended<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   94&nbsp;  acceeded changed to acceded<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   94&nbsp;  interupting changed to interrupting<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   96&nbsp;  ignor changed to ignore<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   96&nbsp;  hear changed to here<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   97&nbsp;  vengence changed to vengeance<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   99&nbsp;  independant changed to independent<br />
+Page&nbsp;  101&nbsp;  counciled changed to counseled<br />
+Page&nbsp;  101&nbsp;  device changed to devise<br />
+Page&nbsp;  102&nbsp;  farcial changed to farcical<br />
+Page&nbsp;  102&nbsp;  Kelleher changed to Kelliher<br />
+Page&nbsp;  103&nbsp;  eminated changed to emanated<br />
+Page&nbsp;  104&nbsp;  inflamable changed to inflammable<br />
+Page&nbsp;  104&nbsp;  aggrivating changed to aggravating<br />
+Page&nbsp;  104&nbsp;  surpressing changed to suppressing<br />
+Page&nbsp;  105&nbsp;  peacable changed to peaceable<br />
+Page&nbsp;  105&nbsp;  contenting changed to contending<br />
+Page&nbsp;  106&nbsp;  coporations changed to corporations<br />
+Page&nbsp;  106&nbsp;  inflamatory changed to inflammatory<br />
+Page&nbsp;  108&nbsp;  parlimentary changed to parliamentary<br />
+Page&nbsp;  109&nbsp;  Ammerican changed to American<br />
+Page&nbsp;  109&nbsp;  busiuess changed to business<br />
+Page&nbsp;  109&nbsp;  drunkeness changed to drunkenness<br />
+Page&nbsp;  109&nbsp;  Roger's changed to Rogers'<br />
+Page&nbsp;  110&nbsp;  endeaver changed to endeavor<br />
+Page&nbsp;  111&nbsp;  occured changed to occurred<br />
+Page&nbsp;  112&nbsp;  uprisal changed to uprising<br />
+Page&nbsp;  112&nbsp;  tyranical changed to tyrannical<br />
+Page&nbsp;  113&nbsp;  alligns changed to aligns<br />
+Page&nbsp;  115&nbsp;  Wicks changed to Wickes<br />
+Page&nbsp;  119&nbsp;  propositiou changed to proposition<br />
+Page&nbsp;  119&nbsp;  extented changed to extended<br />
+Page&nbsp;  120&nbsp;  calamaties changed to calamities<br />
+Page&nbsp;  121&nbsp;  propisition changed to proposition<br />
+Page&nbsp;  121&nbsp;  Gibralter changed to Gibraltar<br />
+Page&nbsp;  121&nbsp;  unmoveable changed to unmovable<br />
+Page&nbsp;  122&nbsp;  interuption changed to interruption<br />
+Page&nbsp;  122&nbsp;  tyranical changed to tyrannical<br />
+Page&nbsp;  124&nbsp;  effect changed to affect<br />
+Page&nbsp;  125&nbsp;  persuation changed to persuasion<br />
+Page&nbsp;  128&nbsp;  traiters changed to traitors<br />
+Page&nbsp;  129&nbsp;  intent changed to intend<br />
+Page&nbsp;  129&nbsp;  blocade changed to blockade<br />
+Page&nbsp;  132&nbsp;  requst changed to request<br />
+Page&nbsp;  132&nbsp;  concievable changed to conceivable<br />
+Page&nbsp;  135&nbsp;  pinacle changed to pinnacle<br />
+Page&nbsp;  136&nbsp;  seperate changed to separate<br />
+Page&nbsp;  136&nbsp;  intestate changed to interstate<br />
+Page&nbsp;  137&nbsp;  firey changed to fiery<br />
+Page&nbsp;  137&nbsp;  defendents changed to defendants<br />
+Page&nbsp;  139&nbsp;  Wilkenson changed to Wilkinson<br />
+Page&nbsp;  140&nbsp;  anihilation changed to annihilation<br />
+Page&nbsp;  140&nbsp;  semblence changed to semblance<br />
+Page&nbsp;  140&nbsp;  immaginable changed to imaginable<br />
+Page&nbsp;  143&nbsp;  Valpraiso changed to Valparaiso<br />
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+Page&nbsp;  167&nbsp;  STIKE changed to STRIKE<br />
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+Page&nbsp;  207&nbsp;  "you" inserted between "do" and "mean"<br />
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+Page&nbsp;  208&nbsp;  "I" inserted between "family," and "have"<br />
+Page&nbsp;  210&nbsp;  their changed to there<br />
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+Page&nbsp;  317&nbsp;  pretentions changed to pretensions<br />
+Page&nbsp;  317&nbsp;  Peffer changed to Pfeffer<br />
+
+</div>
+
+
+
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+
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+
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+<pre>
+
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+
+
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/36004.txt b/36004.txt
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+++ b/36004.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W. F. Burns
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pullman Boycott
+       A Complete History of the R.R. Strike
+
+Author: W. F. Burns
+
+Release Date: May 1, 2011 [EBook #36004]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PULLMAN BOYCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Kosker, Odessa Paige Turner and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+(This book was produced from scanned images of public
+domain material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  The Pullman Boycott
+
+
+  A Complete History
+          of
+  The Great R. R. Strike.
+
+
+  BY W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+  1894:
+  THE McGILL PRINTING CO.
+  ST. PAUL.
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHTED 1894
+
+  by
+
+  W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER.                                               PAGE.
+
+       I--The American Railway Union,                       7
+
+      II--The Boycott,                                     15
+
+     III--First Day of the Strike,                         26
+
+      IV--An Appeal from Debs,                             32
+
+       V--The Federal Government Sides with the
+          Managers,                                        40
+
+      VI--Troops at Blue Island,                           51
+
+     VII--A Protest from Gov. Altgeld,                     55
+
+    VIII--Incendiarism and Bloodshed,                      66
+
+      IX--Slaughter of Citizens,                           81
+
+       X--Business Men's Protest,                          92
+
+      XI--Indictment of President Debs,                   100
+
+     XII--A Protest by the Peoples Party,                 108
+
+    XIII--An Offer of Settlement,                         115
+
+     XIV--Debs in Jail,                                   124
+
+      XV--Blacklisting Begins,                            139
+
+     XVI--Trial of Debs,                                  147
+
+    XVII--A Convention of the American Railway Union
+          Called to Take Action on the Strike,            159
+
+   XVIII--The Strike Lost,                                167
+
+     XIX--The Commission,                                 176
+
+      XX--Altgeld Investigates Pullman,                   288
+
+     XXI--Conclusion,                                     310
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+In presenting this work to the public, I beg leave to say that I lay no
+claim whatever to literary ability, and will ask the reader to kindly
+overlook the crudeness of this my first effort.
+
+My line of work since boyhood has been confined principally to railway
+service; in short I am a switchman, and in that branch of the service,
+have been frequently confronted with the differences that arise between
+the management of the various railroad corporations and their employees.
+
+While I disclaim any credit for ability as a writer, by years of
+experience and careful study of the condition of affairs as they have in
+the past and do in the present exist, I profess to be able to fairly
+present the facts of the Pullman strike. This strike was a matter of
+unusual interest to me, not alone because my individual interests were
+involved, but because the independence of every man in America who earns
+his bread by the sweat of his brow, was in the balance.
+
+The right to organize for mutual protection was questioned, nay more,
+the right to be heard, a right granted to the greatest criminal in any
+part of the civilized world, was refused by the power representing the
+capital of this country. This power fortified by the Federal troops, by
+the mandate of the Federal courts, instigated by the chief executive,
+the president of the United States, the account of this strike as
+presented to the public by the Associated Press, was George M. Pullman's
+and the General Managers' side of the question, distorted and colored to
+suit their purposes.
+
+My aim in presenting this book, is to disabuse the minds of the people
+as far as possible, from the misleading statements given out by the
+General Managers' Association through their mouth piece, the Associated
+Press.
+
+To this end I have carefully collected facts from the best and most
+reliable sources, aside from what personal knowledge I had of this
+strike.
+
+I obtained information from telegrams received in our Central Committee
+rooms, from all parts of the country, also from committees appointed to
+investigate the authenticity of reports received from different parts of
+the country where the strike extended.
+
+The general accounts I quote largely from the "Chicago Times," a paper
+whose honorable and manly stand throughout that great struggle, gained
+for it a world wide reputation for honesty and fairness.
+
+The accounts herein contained are truths pure and simple, and upon these
+truths I base the merits of this book.
+
+  Very respectfully,
+
+  W. F. BURNS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION.
+
+
+In order to give a clear conception of the greatest strike in the
+history of railroad organizations, it will be necessary to go back to
+the birth of the American Railway Union.
+
+This organization was instituted on the 17th day of August, 1893, in the
+city of Chicago, and owes its existence to its present leader Eugene V.
+Debs.
+
+Mr. Debs' connection with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen dates
+back to the early seventies, and be the credit due to that organization
+for introducing to the laboring people of America, a leader who stands
+absolutely without a peer in the labor world to-day, possessed of the
+collective traits of some of the greatest men of the past.
+
+I know no better description of Debs than that of Wm. C. Pomeroy in the
+Eight Hour Herald, as follows: "I am sitting on the stage of a great
+meeting of people, my eyes are closed in dreamy reverie, I hear a voice
+whose resonant tones are familiar to my ears, the voice, the words bear
+me in imagination back to the days of Rome, and Caius Gracchus is
+proclaiming the coming liberty of the people. The words of flaming
+eloquence suddenly change into the rugged tones of Cola di Rienzi,
+crying: 'Arouse, ye Romans; arouse, ye slaves.' The words are sweet to
+the ears, and stir my soul to extacy. Soft, I am no longer in the
+Eternal City, but wander among the hills and dales of Judea, and the
+voice has changed again. This time 'tis the compassionate tones of Him
+of Galilee, beseeching to 'love ye one another,' now swift changing in
+its mellifluous harmony, I hear Pandora whisper 'the dawn approaches,
+take heart of hope,' and Prometheus answers with the echoed groans of
+the suffering, sighing souls. The air is now filled with stirring
+martial music, and above its changing cadences pours forth in passionate
+appeal the stentor voice of Peter, the Hermit, raising in the bosom of
+men, the lethargic love of duty. Aye; on the German hilltops, pulpited
+he speaks, and Hermanic in deep-toned thunder hurdles back, 'I come.'
+Now there is a silence for a space, and the changing draperies of
+imagination disclose a newer scene. I am in the meeting of the Virginian
+Burgesses, and the voice has taken on the tones of Patrick Henry. It
+says: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and, 'he who would be
+free himself must strike the blow.' Now 'tis Thomas Jefferson giving
+utterance to, 'we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are
+born free and equal.' And lo! even as the soft tones of the 'chosen son'
+die into the distance, the voice of Andrew Jackson hurls forth the edict
+'each man and every man in this country, by the eternal, must and shall
+be free.'
+
+"The echoing ages take up the dictum and it becomes mingled with the
+tones of him who at Gettysburg spoke the immortal flaming words: 'This
+nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and the government
+of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from
+the earth.' Scarce had the utterance of the martyr ceased to fill the
+air when Lowell softly says:
+
+  "'He's true to God, who's true to men, whenever wrong is done.
+  To the humblest and the weakest of all the beholding sun;
+  That wrong is also done to us, and they are slaves most base,
+  Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all the race.'
+
+"My brain is puzzled. How comes it, I ask myself, that these heroes dead
+and gone are near me here to-day?
+
+"What power permits them to quit their abiding places within the crusty
+bosom of mother earth, and visiting again the haunts of mortal man, pour
+forth their immortal utterances? My rummaging mind takes on a newer
+consciousness. Reverie lifts her leaden hand from off my brow, my eyes
+open and gaze upon a vast multitude of people--men, women and children.
+Men are standing on the seats and hurling their hats in the air; women
+are weeping in joy and waving handkerchiefs, all, all shout in clamorous
+accord. Their eyes are riveted upon the stage, and upon a man who is
+gracefully bowing acknowledgement to the thunders of applause. I am near
+him, I gaze in his face. 'Tis the face of Eugene V. Debs."
+
+To my mind the above beautiful comparisons are not overdrawn.
+
+In 1874 he was admitted to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and in
+1877 his brother members of the local lodge, recognizing his superior
+ability, sent him to the Indianapolis convention to represent them. The
+next year he was a delegate to the Buffalo convention. Here he was
+chosen associate editor of the Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, and three
+years later he was elected editor, and assumed full control.
+
+In September, 1880, he was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer in
+Chicago, and to prove the confidence placed in him by this organization,
+he was unanimously elected to that office for thirteen consecutive years
+without a dissenting vote, and at the last convention, held in San
+Francisco, he was again nominated after making a speech, courteously but
+firmly declining, and was finally forced to refuse the nomination before
+his declinature would be accepted.
+
+When Mr. Debs assumed control of this office, the Brotherhood was on the
+verge of disruption.
+
+From this condition he, by his untiring devotion and wonderful executive
+abilities, elevated the Brotherhood to one of the most powerful
+organizations of the age, and thus it was through the instrumentality of
+the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen he was brought before the
+laboring people. Some few years ago he saw that class organization would
+not be successful, owing to the petty jealousy existing between the
+different orders, and that in every instance where one organization had
+a grievance with a railroad corporation, the management would use one or
+all the others to crush the one having the grievance.
+
+In order to remedy this, he promulgated a plan of federation whereby all
+the different organizations, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen
+and switchmen would stand as a unit in case of a grievance.
+
+This federation was accomplished, but owing to the treachery of some of
+the chiefs, proved unsatisfactory and was finally dissolved.
+
+But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more
+determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of
+railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American
+Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the
+trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently
+became such a power, was by no means the offspring of a premature
+conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully
+considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages
+and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union,
+before taking active steps to organize.
+
+He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true
+principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his
+associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and,
+Kelliher, this union was founded.
+
+The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was
+that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in
+wages in all departments on that system.
+
+This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of
+eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents
+in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the
+grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was
+settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway
+Union.
+
+Then it was that the true principles of this organization were
+recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came
+pouring in from all parts of the country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE BOYCOTT.
+
+
+The American Railway Union is in every sense an American Institution,
+whose aims and objects as previously stated are to protect and shield
+its members from the grinding power of railroad corporations. Its motto
+is unity: "One for all and all for one."
+
+The Pullman employes were admitted to this organization and consequently
+entitled to the protection guaranteed to all members, therefore when
+they walked out, after every honorable means to avert a strike was
+exhausted, the American Railway Union was in duty bound to sustain them.
+
+The strike was ordered on the 11th day of May, after an all night
+session by a committee of forty-six members representing every
+department in the Pullman works. When the word was given four thousand
+employes responded to the call, and this proved to be the beginning of
+the most gigantic strike in the history of organized labor.
+
+The wrongs of the Pullman people were not generally known to the public,
+the cruel and inhuman treatment they were subjected to, was kept
+strictly from the public ears.
+
+They were reduced to a condition of slavery beneath that of the black
+slave of the South prior to the civil war, for while the black slave was
+clothed, housed and fed, the white slave of Pullman was forced to work
+for wages entirely inadequate to furnish a sufficient amount of food to
+keep body and soul together. In this condition, on the verge of
+starvation, with all hope of justice from the hands of George M. Pullman
+gone, they revolted. Whether the grievance of these men was a just one,
+or their resistance to further encroachments on their rights was right
+or wrong, after reading the report of the committee appointed to
+investigate and report to the American Railway Union Annual Convention,
+at that time in session in the city of Chicago, it will be for the
+reader to decide.
+
+The report, as condensed, in one of the Chicago daily papers, copied and
+commented on by the St. Paul Branch of the American Railway Union, was
+as follows:
+
+After showing by way of contrast, that $30,000,000 worth of Pullman
+stock paid its holders 9-1/2 per cent in dividends last year, the report
+goes statistically into a comparison of wages in the past year, with the
+wages received by the Pullman employees when the strike was inaugurated.
+A fair example of the general reduction is given in a comparison in the
+price of labor involved in the construction of a freight car in 1888 and
+1893.
+
+    Lot 1526.             Oct. 1888.     Nov. 1893.
+
+  Car carpenter             $13.00          $7.00
+  Truck builder                .90            .60
+  Truck labor                  .31            .09
+  Hanging brakes              1.20            .65
+  Delivering, forging
+    and casting               1.05            .35
+  Delivering lumber            .88            .21
+  Framing                      .40            .12
+                            ------          -----
+          Total             $17.74          $9.02
+
+Other comparisons in the same department show that the wages of men
+employed in building freight cars, have been reduced 49, 57-1/2 and 47
+per cent on contract work since 1888 and 89, and a long list of figures
+from the account of men in the upholstering department, show that cuts
+have been made in the prices paid for piece work during the last twelve
+months ranging from 33-1/3 to 50 per cent. The painters, according to
+the figures given, have been cut 20 per cent since 1893 and were
+receiving, when the strike went into effect, only 23 cents per hour,
+while the union men employed by the boss painters in Chicago were all
+busy under the scale, whereby they are paid 35 cents per hour until June
+15th, and 32-1/2 cents during the summer months.
+
+The machinists, sheet iron and tin workers, foundrymen and blacksmiths
+had all been reduced from 30 to 50 per cent during the last year, and
+even heavier reductions, according to the report, have been made in
+other departments. Although wages had been previously reduced, the
+greatest cut went into effect last fall in the higher grades of labor.
+
+The reduction then made was from 80 to 20 per cent and in the lower
+grades 30 per cent. For example, the price paid for the decorating
+finish on the outside of a Pullman sleeper before the reduction, was
+$40.00, and now it is $18.00.
+
+By working hard for ten hours a decorator may earn $1.90.
+
+This sweeping reduction included all classes, and the laborers were
+compelled to work for from 70 cents to $1.00 per day, all this in the
+face of the fact that when a reduction was made three years ago, the men
+were told that as long as the shops stood there would never be another
+cut in the wages of those who worked upon the Pullman sleepers.
+
+A committee of girls, from those who were barely keeping body and soul
+together by working piece work for $2.50 and $3.00 per week, asked the
+foreman for an increase to enable them to live, and his answer was: If
+you cannot live upon the pay you are getting, go out and hustle for
+more. Why should we wonder that houses of prostitution find no
+difficulty in procuring inmates?
+
+Think of young women having to board and clothe themselves, and in many
+instances supporting an invalid mother or young brothers and sisters on
+such meager wages.
+
+The cold blooded avarice of the Pullman company is not even satisfied in
+requiring its employes to work for starvation wages, for in what he
+exacts from his tenant employes he is even more grasping.
+
+That model town of Pullman is owned by the Pullman company and
+everything about it is made to pay toll to this grasping monopoly.
+
+All employes must rent their houses from this slave driving corporation.
+There is now in the city of St. Paul a gentleman who formerly worked in
+Pullman, and growing tired of paying so much rent for such poor
+accommodations, moved to the adjoining hamlet, and rented a better house
+for $8.00 per month. He was at once informed that if he wished to retain
+his situation he would have to move back, and he did so. The house was
+of the average kind and was called a cottage, consisting of two rooms
+down stairs, each 10 x 14 feet, and three rooms up stairs, one of which,
+the front room, was 10 x 12 and the two rear rooms each 8 x 10 feet,
+lighted front and back, with no bath room or other convenience, and the
+whole, a part of a solid row or block. For this abode there was exacted
+a monthly rental of $17.00 although the cost would not exceed $1,000. A
+four room flat rents for $14.50 per month, and if you should want one of
+these cheap cottages with inside blinds for the front window, you must
+pay 50 cents per month for that much style. Some tenants have paid 50
+cents per month for this luxury for more than thirteen years, which is
+pretty good interest on the cost of those blinds.
+
+About 100 acres of land is covered with dwellings and the rent derived
+is about $500,000 annually, which is over 8 per cent per annum on the
+investment.
+
+In many of these houses families are crowded into attics in order to
+reduce expenses to enable them to procure the necessaries of life.
+
+Recently a new church was erected in Pullman, known as the Green church
+and parsonage, for which is demanded a monthly rental of $60.00 and for
+a good sized audience room, and two smaller ones attached Mr. Pullman
+charges the Methodist Episcopal society $500 per year. These rents must
+be paid in advance and are deducted from the wages of the men, and
+notwithstanding that the wages have been reduced no reductions have as
+yet been made in the rent.
+
+The manner in which these men have been bled in the matter of rent, is
+fully equaled in the manner in which money for water and gas has been
+extorted from them. When the town was built a contract was made with
+the Village of Hyde Park, to furnish water at the rate of four cents per
+thousand gallons, and incredible as it may appear, this water was
+furnished to the Pullman tenants at ten cents per thousand gallons. In
+other words he charged $3,000 per month for the water which cost him but
+$1,200. This represents an annual profit on this one item of $21,000.
+
+Could cold blooded heartless avarice go further? Yes; in the matter of
+gas which was manufactured and furnished to the people by the Pullman
+company itself, and although the cost is but 33 cents per thousand cubic
+feet, the tenants pay $2.25 per thousand while the same gas is furnished
+the residents of Hyde Park for 75 cents per thousand.
+
+This adds from three to four dollars per month to living expenses in the
+average house at Pullman.
+
+Another source of income which is wrung from the unfortunate victim is
+for heat, for which the company charges for six months in the year
+$10.80 per month.
+
+It might be well to state also, that no person is allowed to keep a
+horse, unless the animal is kept at the company stables for which $3.00
+per week is charged.
+
+Such were the conditions of affairs discovered by the investigating
+committee in this model town, nor was this all. Miss Curtis, a delegate
+to the convention representing a ladies' lodge of the American Railway
+Union at Pullman, and whose father died in September, '93, was obliged
+to work fourteen hours per day in order to earn fifty cents at the same
+work for which she received prior to the first reduction $2.25 per day,
+and not satisfied with reducing her wages to this starvation point, the
+company insisted on the payment of a debt of $60.00 contracted during
+her father's illness. This is but a sample of the devilish cruelties
+perpetrated on the employes by the Pullman Company to satisfy their
+hellish greed for gold.
+
+This corporation cannot plead poverty for thus treating its employes, as
+its capital stock is $30,000,000 and carries an enormous surplus of
+$18,000,000 which is termed a reserve fund. Mr. Pullman's personal
+wealth is estimated at about $25,000,000. Quarterly dividends of not
+less than two per cent have been paid regularly on the capital stock,
+and the stockholders receive every three months $600,000 as their share
+of the earnings. It is to enable them to pay this immense sum every
+three months, that the wages of its employes have been reduced. Can it
+be wondered that the American Railway Union took the matter in hand and
+declared a boycott on Pullman cars. When the report was received every
+brother present was deeply moved, and it was the unanimous sentiment of
+the convention to declare a boycott, but before taking action, apprised
+the various local unions of the state of affairs then existing, and
+received the sanction of the local bodies. They then decided that if the
+Pullman Company would not submit the difficulty to arbitration on or
+before the 26th day of June, to cut off the Pullman cars and refuse to
+handle them until the matter was settled. This action was taken June 22,
+and decided action held off until June 26, in hope that committees
+appointed to wait on Mr. Pullman would be successful in gaining some
+concessions whereby a peaceable settlement could be arrived at before
+resorting to the boycott, and, although several committees were sent to
+the management and every honorable means resorted to in order to bring
+about an amicable settlement, it was of no avail and there was nothing
+for the American Railway Union to do but enforce the boycott.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FIRST DAY OF THE STRIKE.
+
+
+The 26th day of June was awaited with more than ordinary interest by the
+people of Chicago on account of the proposed boycott.
+
+The first train to leave Chicago handling Pullman cars was the Chicago
+and Erie Buffalo Express, and hundreds of men gathered to witness the
+departure at 2:55 P. M.
+
+It started out on time with several Pullmans attached and several
+Pinkerton detectives on board. This was owing to the fact that it had
+been made up before the time set for the boycott to go into effect, but
+drawbars had been chained together and fastened with padlocks as a
+safeguard against cutting out the Pullman cars. Everyone was anxious to
+see if the engineer would pull it out. All doubt was soon set at rest
+however, as the engine backed onto the train and started out on time as
+usual. The crowd then waited to see if the next train, the Limited
+Express, on the Grand Trunk, due to leave at 3:10 P. M., would
+meet with the same success, and after seeing this train also pull out on
+time, the crowd dispersed.
+
+The trains on the Monon Route, Santa Fe, and Eastern Illinois also
+departed with their accustomed regularity and without interference, and
+at 6.00 o'clock, as every train was running on time, Mr. Pullman and the
+railway officials were quite jubilant at what they considered a complete
+failure of the American Railway Union to perform the task it had
+undertaken. But inside of three hours they were doomed to
+disappointment, for at that time not a wheel was turning on the Illinois
+Central with the exception of express trains that had been started
+before the strike was ordered.
+
+The strikers might have stopped the Diamond Special which leaves at 9:00
+P. M., but through consideration for the passengers who had
+already purchased berth tickets, and adhering strictly to the
+instructions of their leaders to do nothing to discommode the travelers
+who in all probability were not acquainted with the existing state of
+affairs, this train was allowed to proceed. The strike that paralyzed
+the traffic of the entire country was started in this manner. Early in
+the afternoon a committee of five switchmen, employed on the Illinois
+Central, made their appearance at the headquarters of the American
+Railway Union in the Ashland block, to learn authoritatively the nature
+and purpose of the order issued requiring them to refuse to switch the
+cars of the Pullman Company, as the instructions received by them
+through Organizer Meyers of the union, were not sufficiently definite,
+so they claimed, to warrant their resisting the railroad company, and
+forfeiting their positions by such action. The switchmen, they said were
+willing to help the Pullman strikers, but they wished to know to a
+certainty what was expected of them. The directors of the union
+immediately held a conference with the delegates the result of which was
+an order to strike if the company insisted on them switching the Pullman
+cars. Those who were not members of the American Railway Union were
+guaranteed equal protection if they joined the strike, and the result
+was a complete tie up of the Illinois Central R. R.
+
+The Chicago Times, in an article next morning, said that for rapidity of
+conception and execution this strike which probably involves five
+thousand men, beats anything of the kind on record, and in the same
+article says: the efforts to sidetrack the cars of the Pullman company
+yesterday was carried on with strict conformity to law and order.
+
+With the exception of a crowd attracted out of a curiosity to see what
+might happen, there was nothing unusual about the depot, there was no
+boisterous talking, no threats were made, and the few squads of police
+officers sent there to preserve order, had nothing to do.
+
+Train No. 7, due to leave at 9 o'clock, hauling two Pullman coaches
+filled with passengers, did not leave on time there being a delay of 30
+minutes before it finally pulled out of the depot. After running within
+one hundred yards of Grand Crossing it stopped, there being a crowd of
+about five thousand people at this point of whom there was not to exceed
+one hundred and twenty-five railroad men. The engineer refused to start,
+and although Supt. Collins expostulated with him it was of no avail, and
+any further attempt to move the train was abandoned for the time being.
+
+At 11:30 P. M. tower man Cable, who controls the switches at
+Forty-third street, left his post, and two south-bound suburban trains
+were whistling for the switches. They were soon joined by three
+north-bound trains, a freight train, Michigan Central Fast Mail, and
+Illinois Central Limited, and all were tied up until one o'clock in the
+morning when the superintendent of terminals threw the switches. The
+Chicago Great Western, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago and Northern Pacific
+and Wisconsin Central were next to fall in line and refuse to handle
+Pullman cars.
+
+President Debs, after reviewing the situation, asked the men as
+individuals to consider the problem involved, saying, that if the
+Pullman Company was right, then the strikers must be wrong, but if you
+feel assured that those men are only striking to gain that which is
+every man's right--living wages, then we ask your moral support. There
+is but one hope for the laborer. Labor must stand by labor. The
+corporations have now forced a fight upon us by combining to help the
+Pullman company; they have forced us to combine and use the only weapon
+which the workingman possesses, the strike and the boycott. The
+railroads have never done anything for labor that the latter should
+hesitate to use these weapons.
+
+It is a battle between allied monopoly against the rights of working
+people, it is a matter of broad humanity. I want to see the switchmen,
+the car inspectors and other employes wait upon the officials in a manly
+way, and refuse to handle these boycotted cars.
+
+I want to appeal only to your reason, and not to influence your passion,
+but I ask you to take a manly stand in the aid of men, women and
+children who have been ground down by the iron heel of the oppressor.
+
+I would rather be a manly pauper than an unmanly millionaire.
+
+I ask every man, as an individual to think for himself and to do what he
+thinks to be right.
+
+President Debs appealed to the men to commit no acts of violence but act
+in strict accordance with the law.
+
+The strike had now reached St. Paul, Omaha, Denver, Trinidad, Cal.;
+Raton, N. M.; Cincinnati, St. Louis and Duluth, and no intimidation, no
+threats, no violence of any kind whatever was resorted to. When the men
+were asked to handle the Pullman cars, they simply stepped down and
+out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AN APPEAL FROM DEBS.
+
+
+As the light of dawn proclaimed the birth of a new day so the events
+that this day would bring forth was the all absorbing thought and theme
+of a great number of the American people.
+
+All were anxious to learn the situation, whether interested in the
+boycott or otherwise, as by this time the whole western part of the
+United States had begun to feel the heavy hand of the American Railway
+Union boycott, and every railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific
+coast, from Manitoba to Mexico, and all centers of importance in the
+West, Southwest and Northwest were tied up, because the American Railway
+Union men, in the cause of humanity and right, would not operate them
+with Pullman sleepers attached, and the railroad managers, in the cause
+of oppression, would not allow them to run otherwise.
+
+Thirteen roads centering in Chicago were now completely tied up, the
+Santa Fe, Chicago & Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, Chicago &
+Western Indiana, Pan Handle, Monon Route, Chicago & Grand Trunk, Chicago
+& Erie, Illinois Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago & Great Western,
+Wisconsin Central and Cincinnati Southern, and the General Managers had
+begun to realize the futility of carrying on the fight, and if they had
+not received encouragement and aid from outside sources, would have in
+all probability ended the strike at once by dropping the Pullman cars.
+
+As a prominent railroad man said when asked about the strike situation:
+"It is my opinion that the railroads will drop the fight just as soon as
+the American Railway Union can demonstrate the fact that Pullman cars
+can not be hauled without a long and expensive fight with their own
+employes. I know that this view of the case was taken by some of the
+managers at a meeting to-day, and Mr. Pullman will be notified that he
+must make a settlement with his men at once, otherwise the effected
+roads will drop his cars and resume business."
+
+The Union now felt confident of success. President Debs said: "We are
+sure to win as our cause is just, there will be no disturbances as the
+men have orders that there must be no rioting and no interference
+whatever with the roads, other than to refuse to assist to operate them.
+
+"Whatever the officials can do for themselves with the few men at their
+command let them do; we propose to be fair and square in this fight, and
+if within my power to prevent, not one spike belonging to any road will
+be damaged."
+
+And thus the second day of the great strike came to an end.
+
+June 28th added nine more roads to those already tied up.
+
+The Chicago & Northwestern; Chicago & Alton; Union Pacific; Denver & Rio
+Grande; Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago;
+Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the
+Stock Yard Terminals, making in all twenty-two roads out and twenty
+thousand men on strike in the city of Chicago, and not one act of
+violence committed that could be charged to a striker.
+
+The Mobile & Ohio at this time succumbed to the boycott and sidetracked
+its Pullman cars promising not to haul them again until the strike was
+settled. This rail road is a large corporation, and its surrender to
+the American Railway Union was considered a great victory, and the
+directors at once ordered the boycott raised as far as this line was
+concerned.
+
+Minneapolis and St. Paul was now beginning to feel the effect of the
+boycott.
+
+The Northern Pacific was the first in the fight, and the same plan of
+action outlined at Chicago was followed at these points when the time
+came to make up passenger trains. The switchmen refused to couple on the
+Pullman's and were discharged.
+
+The mediation committee at once took up the matter with the manager,
+asking him to re-instate the discharged men, which he refused to do, and
+as a result the entire system from the Pacific coast to Minneapolis and
+St. Paul was called out.
+
+This plan was adopted and carried out on all the rail roads entering the
+Twin cities.
+
+The boycott was no longer a fight in the interest of the Pullman
+employes alone but had resolved itself into a gigantic contest between
+organized labor on the one side, and organized capital on the other, and
+although up to this time there had been no violence, no loud
+demonstrations, no threats of any kind, the Illinois Central demanded
+troops to protect their property, and the militia was ordered out. On
+the Pan Handle the Cincinnati Express had the cars of Mr. Pullman
+detached, and the officials cried "riot" and asked from Sheriff Gilbert
+of Chicago a posse to protect the U. S. mail. This was furnished, and
+although the mail cars were not molested in any way, the officials
+refused to allow the mail to go forward without the Pullman sleepers
+attached.
+
+Seven more railroads had now come under the ban of the boycott making in
+all twenty-nine at the close of the fourth day.
+
+On June 29th President Debs issued the following appeal to railway
+employes of the country.
+
+"The struggle with the Pullman company has developed into a contest
+between the producing classes and the money power of the country.
+
+"This is what Lincoln predicted at the close of the civil war, and it
+was this reflection that gave the great emancipator his gloomiest
+forebodings. We stand upon the ground that the workingmen are entitled
+to a just proportion of the proceeds of their labor. This the Pullman
+company denied them. Reductions have been made from time to time until
+the employes earned barely sufficient wages to live, not enough to
+prevent them from sinking deeper and deeper into Pullman's debt, thereby
+mortgaging their bodies and souls, as well as their children's, to that
+heartless corporation.
+
+"Up to this point the fight was between the American Railway Union and
+the Pullman company. The American Railway Union resolved that its
+members would refuse to handle Pullman cars and equipment. Then the
+railway corporations through the General Manager's association, came to
+the rescue, and in a series of whereases declared to the world that they
+would go into partnership with Pullman, so to speak, and stand by him in
+his devilish work of starving his employes to death. The American
+Railway Union accepted his gauge of war, and thus the contest is now on
+between the railway corporations arrayed solidly on the one hand, and
+the labor forces upon the other. Every railroad employe of the country
+should take his stand against the corporations in this fight, for if it
+should be lost corporations will have despotic sway and all employes
+will be reduced to a condition scarcely removed above chattel slavery;
+but the fight will not be lost. The great principle of American manhood
+and independence is involved. Corporate power, drunk with its own
+excesses, has presumed too far upon the forbearance of the American
+people, and, notwithstanding a subsidized press (to which there are many
+notable and noble exceptions), public sympathy is with the striking
+employes, who are merely contending for the right of their fellow
+toilers to receive living wages for their work.
+
+"I appeal to strikers everywhere to refrain from any act of violence.
+Let there be no interference with the affairs of the companies involved
+and above all let there be no act of depredation. A man who will destroy
+property or violate law is an enemy, not a friend to the cause of labor.
+The great public is with us and we need only to maintain a dignified,
+honest, straight forward policy to achieve victory. Let it be understood
+that this strike is not ordered by myself nor by any other individual;
+nor is the strike inaugurated anywhere except by consent and authority
+from a majority of the employes themselves.
+
+"Neither is this a fight simply of the American Railway Union. The
+question of organization ought not be raised, but every man who
+believes in organized railroad labor should take his stand on the side
+of labor, and its battles for his rights and those of his fellowmen. I
+have faith in the great body of railroad employes of the country and am
+confident they will maintain an unbroken front in spite of any
+opposition that may be brought to bear against them.
+
+"I am perfectly confident of success. We cannot fail.
+
+  E. V. DEBS."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIDES WITH THE MANAGERS.
+
+
+The fifth day of the great strike showed no cessation of hostilities,
+the entire Northwestern and Southwestern portion of the United States
+was practically at a standstill. Every road entering Chicago was
+partially, if not completely tied up, and the General Managers
+Association, under the leadership of John M. Egan was at sea.
+
+They now realized that they had taken a contract that it would be
+difficult to fulfill, and without the co-operation of some greater power
+they would be defeated. A lack of confidence in their ability to subdue
+the strikers and compel them to work, was well illustrated in a meeting
+between Sir George Pullman and Vice-President Harahan of the Illinois
+Central. W. M. Daley, of New Orleans, was the only witness to the
+meeting and his presence undoubtedly saved Sir George from a masterly
+drubbing at the hands of Mr. Harahan. Mr. Pullman entered the office of
+Vice-President Harahan, and in the course of time his conversation
+turned to the strike and its effect on the Illinois Central.
+
+This was the opening round.
+
+It aroused all the ire in the portly form of Mr. Harahan, and with
+blazing eyes he turned on Sir George.
+
+"You are not fit to govern men," he said; "instead of visiting your own
+works, you have a number of superintendents who furnish you with
+reports, and when they are colored to suit you take them as facts, and a
+result is business is embargoed, poverty stalks all over your grounds,
+you are alone responsible for the present condition of affairs on the
+railroads. Why don't you go among your employes and see things for
+yourself? If you did there would be no such trouble." Then followed a
+number of epithets such as thick head, incompetent, over-rated, and the
+official shook his fist under the stubby nose of Sir George in a very
+threatening manner. Mr. Pullman tried to speak, but the Vice-President
+broke in on him again. "You think you have a contract with this road
+that you can rub it in on us, but you can't, never will we submit to
+it, the railroads are losing $250,000 a day owing to your obstinacy. You
+are unfit to act as president of any company, and if you were to visit
+your much boasted town to-day, the chances are that you would be dealt
+with severely. Why, you are nothing but a figure head, you are not the
+actual president of the company, for if you were you would know
+something about it. You know nothing in regard to the actual state of
+affairs." It did not take long for the story to reach the different
+railroad centers about the city.
+
+It came to the knowledge of the American Railway Union that J. M. Egan
+and Manager St. John of the Rock Island road had employed two thousand
+men in Canada to fill the places of the strikers, and steps were taken
+immediately to stop their importation, but with what success it was
+impossible to determine.
+
+All this time the strike was spreading and the membership of the
+American Railway Union was increasing rapidly. The sensational reports
+of rioting and bloodshed in various yards proved upon investigation to
+be false, and beyond doubt circulated by the General Managers and
+eagerly seized by the subsidized press to win the sympathy of the
+public in the interest of the corporations.
+
+The police when questioned positively denied the stories saying there
+were no grounds for the reports.
+
+Marching orders were received at the headquarters of the Missouri U. S.
+troops, for the 15th infantry and though it was not known at the time
+the orders were received from Washington, it was soon learned that they
+were to go to Chicago and assist the General Managers to run their
+trains.
+
+At this time occurred the tie-up at Minnesota Transfer, which was the
+most complete and effectual blockade of any in the strike district. The
+Minnesota Transfer represents nine different roads. The Chicago,
+Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha; Great
+Northern; Northern Pacific; Minneapolis & St. Louis; Chicago Great
+Western; Wisconsin Central; Chicago, Burlington & Northern and Belt Line
+Ry.
+
+All freight through the Twin Cities handled by these roads, is
+interchanged at this point. It is situated midway between St. Paul and
+Minneapolis and employes from three hundred to five hundred men
+according to the volume of business. This is a freight yard exclusively,
+and therefore had nothing to do with the handling of Pullman equipment.
+But this little technicality did not prevent this body of men from
+coming to the assistance of their brothers, and as each road was brought
+under the ban of the boycott they refused to handle cars or in any way
+assist them to operate their line.
+
+On the night of the 1st day of July, the Milwaukee road now under
+boycott brought in five cars of beer for delivery to the Great Northern.
+
+The men including the yardmaster refused to deliver the cars, and were
+sent home. A meeting was called for the night of July 2nd, and a
+committee appointed to wait upon the superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan,
+and ascertain if the men were discharged. Mr. Sullivan answered in the
+affirmative, and an unanimous vote to strike was then taken, over three
+hundred men, the entire force with three exceptions quit work, and not a
+wheel was turned except by the superintendent himself, for ten days.
+
+The general Managers now got in their fine work by utilizing the
+government. A Washington special to the Chicago Times says:
+
+Our wretched administration is in the hands of the railroads, there is
+no doubt about it, Cleveland, Lamont, Olney and Bissel are at the beck
+and call of the corporations, from the White House down it has been
+determined to put forth every effort even to Gatling guns, to employ
+every arm of the government even to its Supreme Judges to destroy this
+strike and the laboring people concerned in it. The case is decided
+against the strikers in advance, the wired words of the General Managers
+are accepted as settled facts; what they ask for they will get, what
+they suggest will be adopted. The workingmen are to be ground beneath
+the heel of the military, and if necessary, to force them into
+submission they are to be sabered, bayoneted, shot down or taken
+prisoners or whatever is deemed sternly necessary to compel them to
+submit to such terms as their moneycrat owner sees fit to impose.
+
+This is a railway administration. So promptly loyal has Cleveland proven
+himself to be that it is to be believed that should the companies desire
+it, they could have the Executive Mansion for a round house and the
+White House grounds for switching purposes.
+
+The managers wired Olney to name Edwin Walker, who is attorney for the
+Milwaukee road as special solicitor for the government, to take measures
+against the strikers as they had no confidence in Milchrist.
+
+He seemed weak, his term was soon to expire and he seemed inclined to
+avoid harsh measures ablest with the men. They wanted Walker, he was the
+corporation attorney in the country; he had been cradled by, and grown
+up at the knee of corporations; he was their body and soul in the life
+and death struggle with their employes.
+
+They urged Olney to clothe Walker with the special United States
+authority to better protect them and overthrow the strike. By thus
+making the railway attorney Walker solicitor for the United States, the
+control of government power could be placed in the hands of the
+corporations to wield against the men. Walker was appointed by Olney and
+placed in control over Milchrist in the affairs of the strike. Mr.
+Walker was known personally by Olney, and Olney is at the present time
+one of the counsels of the Santa Fe and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,
+and said to be a director of the latter road. He has been for years
+intimate with Mr. Walker, who, by the way, is a hot favorite of Fuller
+of the supreme bench. There was, therefore a dozen good reasons for this
+selection, which addressed themselves to Mr. Olney, who is in this not
+as a cabinet officer, but as a friend and director of railway
+corporations, and he therefore precipitately granted the request of the
+general managers. Bissel, also a railroad director, shows Olney's
+anxiety to come to the back of the roads. (The truth of the above
+correspondence could not be denied.) In this way the entire available
+force of troops at Ft. Sheridan, including infantry, cavalry and
+artillery was ordered out by the President of the United States to
+assist the railroad managers against the people. Such was the attitude
+of this government "of the people, by the people, and for the people"
+against the people. The railway managers having now secured the federal
+troops, proceeds to issue injunctions restraining the strikers from
+using the power of persuasion on those men still in the service, to
+induce them to quit. This order drawn up by Judges Wood and Grosscup was
+a lengthy one, and peculiarly in harmony with the corporation interest.
+
+The Chicago Times, in an editorial says: In this Federal injunction,
+which is in the main eminently just and equally unnecessary, appears a
+claim in which certain persons named, and all other persons whatsoever
+are ordered to refrain from compelling or inducing, or attempting to
+compel or induce, by threats, intimidation, force or violence any of the
+employes of any of the said railroads, to refuse or fail to perform any
+of their duties, as employes of said railroads, in connection with the
+interstate business or commerce of such railroads, or the transportation
+of passenger or property between or among the states; or from compelling
+or inducing or attempting to compel or induce by threats, intimidation,
+persuasion, force or violence, any of the employes of any of said
+railroads, who are employed by said railroads and engaged in its
+service, in the conduct of interstate business or in the operation of
+any of its trains carrying mail of the United States or doing interstate
+business or transportation of passengers or freight, between and among
+the states, to leave the service of such railroad. The Times
+emphatically does not believe that any court whatever has a right to
+order men to refrain from attempting by persuasion to induce others to
+leave the employment they are engaged in. There is a natural law that in
+the end will prevail over the formal law built up by lawyers and courts.
+If as Judge Gary says, the law is common sense, this injunction will not
+stand, for common sense will certainly pronounce an orderly and
+respectful request to a railroad employee to give up his position and
+join the organized strikers, no crime. It is idle to plead that a
+discreet and just court will only enforce this injunction against actual
+law breakers, for there is in it an opportunity for injustice and
+oppression which makes it wholly bad. The injunction is becoming a
+menace to liberty, it is a weapon ever ready for the capitalist, and
+there should be more careful federal legislation limiting its use.
+
+Certainly if the restraining order of Judges Wood and Grosscup be good
+law there is no sense in maintaining organized labor. Childlike trust in
+the benevolence and fairness of the employer must be the workingman's
+future policy if this injunction be made a precedent.
+
+In the meantime the General Manager's association and the subsidized
+press were endeavoring to impress the public with the belief that the
+strikers were a lot of disorderly and riotous law breakers of the worst
+description. To show how much truth there was in these tales, I will
+give the statement of Capt. J. Hartnett as made after dispersing a mob.
+He said: There wasn't a railroad man in the whole outfit, but a lot of
+bums who thought they would have a lot of sport at the expense of the
+railroads. But we soon gave them a hustling, and I want to say this for
+the strikers, and by that I mean the real railroad men, they are orderly
+here and as quiet as possible, I have had no disturbance in any district
+that can be traced to railroad men. It is well known that on occasions
+like these every loafer turns loose and takes advantage of the strike to
+start a row, but the genuine railroad men are too sensible to cause any
+disturbance.
+
+This was true also of all other cities engaged in the strike.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+TROOPS AT BLUE ISLAND.
+
+
+The Fourth of July dawned upon a scene that would start the blood of the
+signers of the Declaration of Independence leaping in flames of fire
+through their veins, if they could but reappear upon this land in the
+vigorous manhood of their youth; those heroes whose blood baptized the
+battlefields of Yorktown and Bunker Hill for the glorious cause of
+liberty and equal rights; and behold the spectacle of this day, they
+would think that they had fought, bled and died in vain, that victory
+after all was but defeat.
+
+Military despotism reigned supreme. The great masses of the liberty
+loving people who were wont to celebrate this National holiday of
+Independence in a manner befitting the occasion, began to think. Their
+thoughts took them back to the days of English tyranny, and they ask
+themselves, must this fight be fought again? The thoughts were
+contagious, and when the American people began to think, their thoughts
+are dangerous. The battle must and will be fought again, but not with
+the weapons of '76, but with the weapon the old man can wield as well as
+the young; the ballot.
+
+Wholesale arrests followed the arrival of the federal troops at Blue
+Island, free speech was eliminated, any man who passed along, who had
+the appearance of striker or sympathizer was promptly arrested, and that
+too without a warrant. The remark "that fellow is a scab," was
+sufficient to send a man to the guard house. A fireman was asked by his
+landlord, "where have you been lately?" That was enough, he was placed
+with other shackled prisoners in the guard house, but was released later
+on. In the morning there was a parade, but the old time patriotism was
+noticeably wanting, a fireman arrested for refusing to go to work,
+having a depressing effect. Patriotic speeches were prominent by their
+absence, and people began to wonder what day was being celebrated.
+
+The bloodcurdling lawlessness and rioting by the strikers at Blue
+Island, as depicted by the corporation press; when simmered down to
+facts proved to be as false as other similar reports sent out by the
+plutocratic press. The so-called rioting amounted to nothing more or
+less than expression of thought, and I believe if the General Managers,
+corporation courts, Cleveland & Co., could conceive and put into
+execution some plan whereby they could put a restraining order on the
+minds of the striker and deny him the right to think, it would be done.
+The gist of the rioting as I said before was simply expression of
+thought. A man as he watched a train pass by remarked: "There are d----d
+few Pullmans anyway." He was promptly arrested. Another remarked that
+some fellow was a scab, and was also taken in. This and other like
+remarks were samples of the Blue Island rioting at Chicago.
+
+Upon the arrival of the federal troops, the General Managers Association
+shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of Uncle
+Sam, and the eager willingness that the representatives of the people
+exhibited to assist Sir Duke Pullman and the railroad corporation to
+subjugate and reduce the working people to a condition of serfdom, was
+sufficient evidence that the managers knew what they were about. They
+felt secure in the knowledge that their interest would be well taken
+care of by the administration, and sought the much needed rest that
+these weary sessions of plotting and scheming had earned for them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A PROTEST FROM GOV. ALTGELD.
+
+
+It was plain to be seen that the presence of U. S. troops in Chicago had
+a bad effect. The people felt disposed to resent this uncalled for
+interference of the President. His unwarranted and illegal action in
+sending federal troops into the state of Illinois uncalled for by the
+civil authorities (waiving all question of courtesy), was a reflection
+on the efficiency of the civil authorities to maintain order, and a
+direct insult to the intelligence and loyalty to the citizens of the
+state. The governor protested against this high-handed proceeding, and
+in no mild terms insisted that he was amply able and willing to preserve
+order if called upon to do so.
+
+He assured the President that it was not troops the railroads needed but
+men to run their trains, and this was the exact truth, as the strikers
+were not interfering with the running of trains but refused to run them,
+and the companies could not operate their roads without the aid of the
+men who left the service.
+
+But they needed a shield to hide their helplessness, and this they found
+in the federal troops, therefore it requires but little reasoning to
+understand the bad effect on the people, made by the presence of United
+States troops, equipped for war in time of peace. This ill feeling,
+mingled with curiosity produced excitement. Excitement invited the
+presence of the tough and lawless element, which was exactly what the
+railroad magnates were striving for, as the strikers had no intention of
+interfering with their trains, and they knew that it was necessary to
+incite rioting in order to have an excuse for not operating their roads.
+
+Their devilish schemes succeeded only too well. A mob composed of the
+tough and hoodlum element congregated at the Rock Island yards and from
+Nineteenth to Fortieth Street, overturned box cars and destroyed
+everything that came in their way. The mob increased until not less than
+ten thousand people participated in the work of destruction, but be it
+said to the credit of the _impartial_ press of that city, they announced
+that no strikers had taken part in the lawlessness. Mayor Hopkins, who
+went in person to the scene, said that from what he had heard, and what
+he could see for himself, that no railroad men were implicated in the
+depredations, and business men whose veracity could not be questioned
+corroborated his statement.
+
+This occurrence was much to be feared by the strikers, as it was not the
+first time that such means had been employed to turn public sentiment
+from the side of the workingmen.
+
+Realizing this the men did their utmost to prevent it, and by threats
+and entreaties tried to persuade the mob to desist from the work of
+destruction, but were successful only for a short time. One of the
+strikers remarked to an officer at the time: "By Heavens! this won't do,
+there is not a striker in that crowd; this is done to injure us, and
+those fellows are not trying to stop it," meaning the troops.
+
+The strike had now reached Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, and was
+rapidly spreading east, the entire country was in a whirlpool of
+excitement, and the strikers were jubilant. The general managers with
+the combined forces of the federal troops, state militia, and Cleveland
+and his cabinet could not operate the roads. One simple word from the
+general managers to Pullman would have been more effective in starting
+the trains than all the armies and courts in the United States or all
+the scabs from Canada, but rather than speak that one word,
+"arbitration," they would bankrupt every system of railroads in the
+country.
+
+On July 5, President Cleveland received by wire the following protest
+from Gov. Altgeld of Illinois:
+
+"Dear Sir:--I am advised that you have ordered federal troops to go into
+service in the state of Illinois. Surely the facts have not been
+correctly presented to you in this case or you would not have taken this
+step, for it is entirely unnecessary and as it seems to me
+unjustifiable. Waiving all question of courtesy I will say that the
+state of Illinois is not only able to take care of itself, but it stands
+ready to-day to furnish the federal government any assistance it may
+need elsewhere.
+
+"Our military force is ample and consists of as good soldiers as can be
+found in the country. They have been ordered promptly, whenever and
+wherever they were needed. We have stationed in Chicago alone three
+regiments of infantry, one battery and one troop of cavalry, and no
+better soldiers can be found. They have been ready every moment to go
+on duty and have been and are now eager to go into service.
+
+"But they have not been ordered out because nobody in Cook county,
+whether official or private citizen, asked to have their assistance or
+even intimated in any way that their assistance was desired or
+necessary.
+
+"So far as I have been advised the local officials have been able to
+handle the situation, but if any assistance were needed the state stood
+ready to furnish 100 men for every one man required, and stood ready to
+do so at a moment's notice. Notwithstanding these facts the federal
+government has been applied to by men who had political and selfish
+motives for wanting to ignore the state government.
+
+"We have just gone through a long coal strike more extensive here than
+in any other state because our soft coal fields are larger than that of
+any other state. We have now had ten days of the railroad strike, and we
+have promptly furnished military aid wherever the local officials needed
+it. In two instances the United States marshall for the southern
+district of Illinois applied for assistance to enable him to enforce the
+processes of the United States court and troops were promptly furnished
+him, and he was assisted in every way he desired. The law has been
+thoroughly executed and every man guilty of violating it during the
+strike has been brought to justice.
+
+"If the marshall of the northern district of Illinois or the authorities
+of Cook county needed military assistance they had but to ask for it in
+order to get it from the state.
+
+"At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not by reason of
+obstruction but because they cannot get men to operate their trains. For
+some reason they are anxious to keep this fact from the public and for
+this purpose are making an outcry about obstructions in order to avert
+attention. Now, I will cite to you two examples which illustrate the
+situation: Some days ago I was advised that the business of one of our
+railroads was obstructed at two railroad centers, that there was a
+condition bordering on anarchy there--and I was asked to furnish
+protection so as to enable the employees of the road to operate the
+trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both points. Then it transpired
+that the company had not sufficient men on its line to operate one
+train. All the old hands were orderly but refused to go. The company
+had large shops in which worked a number of men who did not belong to
+the railway union and who could run an engine. They were appealed to to
+run the train but flatly refused to do so. We were obliged to hunt up
+soldiers who could run an engine and operate a train.
+
+"Again two days ago appeals which were almost frantic came from
+officials of another road stating that at an important point on their
+line trains were forcibly obstructed and that there was a reign of
+anarchy at that place and they asked for protection so that they could
+move their trains. Troops were put on the ground in a few hours' time,
+when the officer in command telegraphed me that there was no trouble and
+had been none at that point, but the road seemed to have no men to run
+the trains and the sheriff wired that he did not need troops, but would
+himself move every train if the company would only furnish an engineer.
+The result was that the troops were there over twelve hours before a
+single train was moved although there was no attempt at interference by
+anyone. It is true that in several instances a road made an effort to
+work a few green men and a crowd standing around insulted them and
+tried to drive them away, and in a few other instances they cut off
+Pullman sleepers from trains. But all these troubles were local in
+character and could easily be handled by the state authorities. Illinois
+has more railroad men than any state in the Union, but as a rule they
+are orderly and well behaved. This is shown by the fact that so very
+little actual violence has been committed. Only a very small per cent of
+these men have been guilty of any infractions of the law. The newspaper
+accounts have in many cases been pure fabrications and in others wild
+exaggerations.
+
+"I have gone thus into details to show that it is not soldiers that the
+railroads need so much as it is men to operate trains, and that the
+conditions do not exist here which bring the cause within the federal
+statutes, a statute that was passed in 1881, and was in reality a war
+measure. This statute authorizes the use of federal troops in a state
+where ever it is impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States
+within such states by the ordinary judicial proceedings. Such a
+condition does not exist in the state of Illinois. There have been a
+few local disturbances but nothing that seriously interfered with the
+administration of justice or that could not easily be controlled by the
+local or state authorities for the federal troops can do nothing that
+the state troops cannot do.
+
+"I repeat that you have been imposed upon in this matter, but even if by
+a forced construction it were held that the condition here came within
+the letter of the statute, then I submit that local self government is a
+fundamental principle of our constitution. Each community shall govern
+itself so long as it can and is ready and able to enforce the law, and
+it is in harmony with this fundamental principle that the statute
+authorizing the president to send troops into states must be construed.
+Especially is this so in matters relating to the exercise of the police
+power and the preservation of law and order. To absolutely ignore a
+local government in matters of this kind, when the local government is
+ready to furnish assistance needed and is amply able to enforce the law,
+not only insults the people of this state by imputing to them an
+inability to govern themselves or an unwillingness to enforce the law,
+but is in violation of a basic principle of our institutions.
+
+"The question of federal supremacy is in no way involved; no one
+disputes it for a moment but under our constitution federal supremacy
+and local self government must go hand in hand and to ignore the latter
+is to do violence to the constitution.
+
+"As governor of the state of Illinois I protest against this and ask the
+immediate withdrawal of the federal troops from active duty in this
+state.
+
+"Should the situation at any time get so serious that we cannot control
+it with the state troops we will promptly and freely ask for federal
+assistance, but until such time I protest with all due deference against
+this uncalled for reflection upon our people and again ask the immediate
+withdrawal of the troops. I have the honor to be,
+
+  Yours respectfully
+  JOHN P. ALTGELD,
+  Governor of Illinois."
+
+To the above communication President Cleveland answered as follows:
+
+"To the Hon. John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois. Federal troops were
+sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the constitutions and laws of
+the United States upon the demand of the post office department that
+obstructions of the mails should be removed, and upon the
+representations of the judicial officers of the United States that
+process of law federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary
+means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against
+commerce between the states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly
+within the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops
+in Chicago was deemed not only proper but necessary, and there has been
+no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local
+authorities to preserve the peace of the city.
+
+  GROVER CLEVELAND."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+INCENDIARISM AND BLOODSHED.
+
+
+The 6th day of July was one long to be remembered, as the first act of
+incendiarism was committed. A conflagration was started along the tracks
+of the Pan Handle, Baltimore & Ohio; Chicago & Northern Pacific, and
+Belt Line R. R., which terminated in the burning of whole trains of
+cars, switch houses and tool-houses belonging to these companies. A
+splendid tower house belonging to the Pan Handle was saved through the
+supreme efforts of the strikers, who tore away the burning sidewalks
+which connected the tool-house with the tower-house. This fine structure
+was recently built and cost the company $40,000. Upon the authority of
+the city police and firemen, I can state that the fires were started by
+a crowd of young hoodlums and toughs living in the vicinity, and the
+strikers were in no way responsible for them.
+
+There was only a small crowd of these young toughs around the yards,
+they scattered in different directions and simultaneously fire broke out
+in different places. One boy was seen to set fire to a bunch of waste,
+and throw it into the empty cars as he ran, and the dry woodwork was
+soon a mass of flames. Between eight hundred and sixteen hundred cars
+were destroyed by this conflagration and the loss aggregated over
+$200,000, besides three men killed outright and seven wounded.
+
+The peaceable and law abiding city of Chicago was feeling the effects of
+a reign of terror. Innocent men, women and children were being shot down
+or bayoneted by the tools of railroad corporations in a most cold
+blooded and heartless manner. According to the statements of eye
+witnesses some young fellows under the age of sixteen years, and
+therefore not strikers, threw stones at the soldiers who at once began
+to shoot indiscriminately into a crowd composed of men, women and
+children who had no connection whatever with the affair, then with fixed
+bayonets charged upon the people, and those who were unfortunate enough
+to be caught were severely dealt with. One old man, a Pole, who was
+standing in his own door yard, and seeing the people run took fright
+and started into his house, was pursued by a soldier who saw him run and
+stabbed in the back. The old man fell shrieking to the ground, begging
+for mercy, when the brutal fiend plunged the bayonet twice more into the
+helpless form and left him in a dying condition.
+
+One young lady was shot while standing on the roof of her own house, and
+fell a corpse in her brother's arm.
+
+Still another victim was a man who was shot while standing in the
+doorway of his home and a rioter by the name of Burke was shot and
+killed in the charge.
+
+In an editorial the Chicago Times says: "Let us examine the net results
+of the activity of the troops on Saturday; results of which the amateur
+soldier Brigadier General Wheeler remarked: "I am glad that the troops
+made a stand and that blood was shed." There is some conflict in the
+reports of the day's carnage, but the salient facts seem to be these:
+
+"Three persons in all were shot dead, one of these, an eighteen year old
+girl, was standing on a distant house top watching the fray, when a
+bullet pierced her heart. Of course she was not a striker nor was her
+continued life a menace to American institutions.
+
+"John Burke, identified by the police as a professional crook, was
+another victim and his presence in the mob adds evidence to the claim of
+the Times that the rioting was the work of chronic toughs and criminals
+and not of workingmen. Joseph Warzouski, the third to fall before a
+military bullet, was sitting smoking before his house door when wantonly
+shot down by a regular. He was not a striker, and not within one hundred
+yards of railroad property when murdered.
+
+"Of the wounded five were women, one of whom looses an arm and another a
+leg. Six were boys under nineteen years of age, and one was a baby.
+
+"The points which these facts demonstrate, is that the rioting is not
+the work of members of the American Railway Union, or in fact of
+workingmen of any organization, but the acts of toughs and pluguglies
+and boisterous boys, with whom this city like other large cities,
+abound. Though the crowd looks large and dangerous, the actual number of
+combatants is comparatively small, and the clubs of the police instead
+of the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers, would have been the proper
+weapons to use. Then Chicago would not have been disgraced by shedding
+the blood of women and children and taking innocent lives."
+
+On July 6, Mr. Debs issued the following clear and succinct statement of
+the causes and status of the present condition of affairs:
+
+"To the public:--So many misleading reports have been given currency in
+reference to the great railroad strike now in progress that I am
+prompted, in the interest of justice and fair play, to give the public
+an honest, impartial statement of the issues involved and the facts as
+they actually exist. My purpose in this is to have the great American
+public--the plain people--in every avenue of life conversant with the
+situation as it really is, that they who constitute the highest tribunal
+we know, may pass judgment upon our acts, condemn us if we are wrong,
+and uphold us if we are right.
+
+"First of all let it be said that the Pullman employes who struck May
+6th, last, did so entirely of their own accord."
+
+"Their action in so doing was spontaneous and unanimous. They simply
+revolted against a series of deep-seated wrongs of long standing, and no
+power could stay them. It has been charged, and the charge has been
+widely accepted, that they were induced to strike by their "leaders" and
+labor agitators; that if left alone they would have remained at work.
+The charge is wholly untrue.
+
+"The fact is that the officers of the American Railway Union used all
+their influence to pacify the employes and advised them repeatedly not
+to strike, but to bear patiently their grievances until a peaceable
+settlement could be effected. To the truth of this statement the
+employes themselves will bear willing testimony.
+
+"But the grievances of the employes, men and women, had become so
+aggravated, so galling, that patience deserted them, and they abandoned
+their employment rather than to submit longer to conditions against
+which their very souls revolted. Whether they were right or not, let
+only those judge who comprehend the conditions under which these
+faithful employes toiled and groaned. Let us avoid sentiment. The bare
+facts will suffice, and they are haggard enough to excite the sympathy
+of every good citizen, rich or poor, employer or employed.
+
+"The Pullman company, be it understood owns the town of Pullman, owns
+the houses, the homes of employes, controls the light and water, and
+other necessaries of life, and wages are so adjusted to living expenses
+that in a large majority of cases the employes are barely able to
+support their families. Proof overwhelming can be furnished. One
+instance will suffice. At the time they struck the employes were in
+arrears to the Pullman company $70,000 for rent alone. Wages had been
+repeatedly reduced but rent and other expenses had remained the same.
+
+"At this rate it would be a question of a short time only until the
+employes would have been hopelessly involved in debt, mortgaged soul and
+body to the Pullman company.
+
+"The employes from the beginning, have been willing to arbitrate their
+differences with the company. That is their position to-day. The company
+arrogantly declares that there is nothing to arbitrate. If this be true
+why not allow a board of fair and impartial arbitrators to determine the
+fact?
+
+"At this point we appeal to the public as to whether the position of the
+employes is entitled to the sanction of the public conscience. If the
+employes were to assume the position of the Pullman company and
+defiantly declare they had nothing to arbitrate, and arbitrarily demand
+unconditional surrender as the only basis of settlement they would
+merit the condemnation of the public and it would certainly and swiftly
+fall upon them with crushing severity. Committee after committee waited
+upon the officials of the Pullman company with the vain hope of
+effecting a settlement. They were willing to make concessions, to
+compromise in the interest of peace. All their advances were repelled.
+
+"The company was, and is, unyielding as adamant. Finally, June 12th, the
+delegates of the American Railway Union, representing 425 local unions
+of railway employes located on the principal lines of American railways,
+met in convention at Chicago. The Pullman trouble had been discussed at
+their local meetings. Many of the delegates came instructed. The
+grievances of the Pullman employes were taken under consideration, and
+two separate committees were sent to the officials.
+
+"Not the slightest satisfaction could be obtained. As a last resort the
+delegates by a unanimous vote determined that unless the Pullman company
+would agree to do justice to their employes within five days, the
+members of the order would refuse to haul Pullman cars. This action be
+it remembered, was not taken until the strike had been on six weeks, and
+every conceivable effort to obtain redress had failed because of the
+obstinacy of the company.
+
+"Up to this time the trouble had been confined to the Pullman company
+and its employes. How, then, did the strike extend to the railways? Let
+the answer be given in accordance with the facts. The day before the
+order of the delegates declining to haul Pullman cars, went into effect,
+the General Managers' association, representing the principal Western
+railways, met and passed a series of resolutions, declaring in substance
+that they would uphold the Pullman company in its fight upon the
+employes, that they would haul Pullman cars and that they would stand
+together in crushing out the American Railway Union. The resolutions in
+question were published in the city papers and can be referred to in
+substantiation of this averment. It will thus be seen that the railway
+companies virtually joined forces with the Pullman company, went into
+partnership with them so to speak, to reduce and defeat their half
+starved employes. In this way the trouble was extended from line to
+line, and from system to system until a crisis has been reached. The
+business of the country is demoralized to an extent that defies
+exaggeration.
+
+"To say that the situation is alarming is entirely within the bounds of
+prudent statement. Every good citizen must view the outlook with grave
+concern.
+
+"Something should, something must be done. The American people are a
+peace-loving people--they want neither anarchy or revolution. They have
+faith in their institutions, they believe in law and order, they believe
+in good government, but they also believe in fair play. Once aroused
+they will not tolerate arbitrary and dictatorial defiance, even on the
+part of an alliance of rich and powerful corporations.
+
+"What can be done to dispel the apprehension that now prevails, and
+restore peace and confidence? The American Railway Union on whose
+authority and in whose behalf this statement is made, stands ready, has
+from the beginning stood ready, to do anything in its power, provided it
+is honorable to end this trouble.
+
+"This, briefly stated, is the position the organization occupies. It
+simply insists that the Pullman Company shall meet its employes and do
+them justice. We guarantee that the latter will accept any reasonable
+proposition.
+
+"The company may act through its officials or otherwise, and the
+employes through their chosen representatives. Let them agree as far as
+they can, and where they fail to agree, let the points in dispute be
+subjected to arbitration. The question of the recognition of the
+American Railway Union or any other organization is waived. We do not
+ask, nor have we ever asked for a recognition as an organization. We
+care nothing about that, and so far as we are concerned it has no part
+in the controversy. Let the officials deal with the employes without
+reference to organizations. Let the spirit of conciliation, mutual
+concession, and compromise animate and govern both sides, and there will
+be no trouble in reaching a settlement that will be satisfactory to all
+concerned.
+
+"This done let the railway companies agree to restore all their employes
+to their situations without prejudice and the trouble will be ended. The
+crisis will thus be averted, traffic will resume and peace will reign.
+The railways are not required to recognize the American Railway Union.
+This has never been asked nor is it asked now.
+
+"If there are those who discover in this statement a 'weakening' on the
+part of the employes, as has been so often charged when an exposition of
+the true attitude of our order was attempted, we have only to say that
+they are welcome to such solace as such a perverted conclusion affords
+them. We have been deliberately and maliciously misrepresented, but we
+have borne it all with an unwavering faith that the truth will finally
+and powerfully prevail. We firmly believe our cause is just, and while
+we hold that belief, we will not recede. If we are wrong we are ready to
+be convinced. We are open to reason and to conviction, but we will not
+be cowed or intimidated. Were we to sacrifice the multiplied thousands
+of wageworkers who have committed their interests to our hands and yield
+to the pressure of corporate power, we would be totally unworthy of
+American citizenship.
+
+"It may be asked what sense is there in sympathetic strikes. Let the
+corporations answer.
+
+"When one is assailed all go to the rescue. They stand together; they
+support each other with men, money and equipments. Labor, in unifying
+its forces, simply follows their example. The corporations established
+a precedent. If the proceeding is vicious and indefensible let them
+first abolish it.
+
+"In this contest labor will stand by labor. Other organizations of
+workingmen have themselves felt the oppressive hand of corporate
+capital. They will not be called out, but will go out. And the spectacle
+of Mr. Pullman, fanned by the breezes of the seashore while his employes
+are starving, is not calculated to prevent their fellow wageworkers from
+going to their rescue by their only means at their command.
+
+"A few words in reference to myself, although ordinarily I pay no
+attention to misrepresentation or vituperation, may not be out of place,
+not because of myself personally, but on account of the cause I have the
+honor to in part represent, which may suffer if silence is maintained
+while it is assailed with falsehood and malignant detraction. I shirk no
+responsibility, neither do I want credit to which I am not entitled.
+This strike was not 'ordered' by myself nor by any other individual. I
+have never 'ordered' nor 'called' anybody out. Under the rules of the
+American Railway Union members can only strike when a majority of the
+members so decide.
+
+"The votes of the delegates in this instance was unanimous, and where
+ever men have struck they did so of their own accord. I have simply
+served the notice after the men themselves had determined to go out.
+
+"This is the extent of my authority and I have never exceeded it. My
+alleged authority to 'call' or 'order' out has been made the pretext on
+which to assail me with every slander that malignity could conceive. So
+far as I am personally concerned, detraction cannot harm me, nor does it
+matter if it could. I do not amount to more than the humblest member of
+our order--perhaps not as much. Fate or fortune has assigned me a duty,
+and, no matter how trying the ordeal or severe the penalties I propose
+to perform it. The reflection that an honest man has nothing to fear
+sustains and comforts me in every hour of trial.
+
+"In closing let me repeat that we stand ready to do our part toward
+averting the impending crisis. We have no false pride to stand in the
+way of a statement. We do not want official recognition. All we ask is
+fair play for the men who have chosen us to represent them.
+
+"If the corporations refuse to yield and stubbornly maintain that there
+is 'nothing to arbitrate,' the responsibility of what may ensue will be
+upon their heads, and they cannot escape its penalties.
+
+  EUGENE V. DEBS."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SLAUGHTER OF CITIZENS.
+
+
+The situation at Hammond, Ind., would compare favorably with Chicago in
+so far as the wanton shooting of innocent citizens was concerned. The
+town had become infested with a gang of toughs from Chicago, who
+overturned a number of box cars and blocked the passage of trains. About
+noon of July 8th, the U. S. troops arrived, and their appearance
+attracted large crowds of citizens on the streets, in the vicinity of
+the railroad tracks. The troops who were ensconced in passenger cars
+were being hauled up and down the track, when a gang of toughs attempted
+to overturn a Pullman coach. The soldiers, who could easily have left
+the coaches and placed the lawbreakers under arrest opened fire, but
+strange to say these sharpshooters, under instructions to shoot to kill,
+did not wound even one of the lawless rioters. Not so, however, with the
+citizens who were walking along the street and had no connection
+whatever with the mob. Charles Fleischer, who lived near with his wife
+and five children, walked down the street in search of his little son,
+when without a moment's warning he fell to the ground a corpse pierced
+with a law and order bullet. This man had no connection whatever with
+the riot nor even with the strike.
+
+Miss Flemming, of Chicago, who was visiting friends in Hammond was on
+the street when the shooting occurred and was seriously injured by a
+shot in the knee. Wm. Campbell, Victor Dizuttner and an unknown man were
+also shot and seriously injured by the regulars without the slightest
+provocation.
+
+These people had no connection with the rioters, were citizens of
+Hammond, and not on railroad property.
+
+Bullets crashed through frame walls, and I was told by a man whose head
+was grazed by a bullet while in his room, that nothing short of a
+miracle saved many persons from being shot down in their own dwellings.
+
+Mayor Reily whose anger knew no bounds, after the killing rushed to the
+telegraph office and wired Governor Matthews, asking if martial law had
+been proclaimed. I should like to know, he said, by what authority the
+U. S. troops come to our city and shoot down our citizens without the
+slightest warning.
+
+Immediately after the fatal occurrence, A. Shields and Dr. F. E. Bell,
+representing the citizens of Hammond, wired Governor Matthews the
+following message: "Federal troops shooting down citizens promiscuously
+and without provocation. Cannot something be done to protect citizens?
+Act quickly."
+
+The governor replied that he had sent troops to restore order, enforce
+law, and protect lives of law abiding citizens. Lawlessness and rioting
+must be suppressed. Citizens obeying law had nothing to fear.
+
+Was ever military despotism more thoroughly demonstrated? What further
+proof was necessary than the reply of the chief executive of the state,
+to the citizens, that they were at the mercy of, and subject to the
+arrogant brutality of military despotism? The governor in his reply
+said: "Citizens obeying law have nothing to fear, that lawlessness must
+be suppressed." According to that we can only arrive at one conclusion;
+that the persons overturning cars and destroying property were obeying
+the law, as they were not shot down nor were they arrested, but on the
+other hand peaceable citizens who were in no way connected with the
+rioting, were shot and maimed by the troops.
+
+The people were beginning to regard the law with suspicion, they no
+longer felt that sense of security, the implicit confidence, they were
+wont to place in the constitution. The law of to-day, if the interests
+of the railroad corporations so required, would be reversed to-morrow.
+Under those circumstances could it be wondered that the people were
+beginning to lose the respect that had been accorded the law, and to
+which it was entitled? Could it be wondered that they became restless
+and exhibited signs of revolting against such damnable brutality, and
+the indignities to which they were subjected under the guise of the law?
+
+Cleveland was now beginning to fear, that in his eagerness to assist the
+railroads in crushing the strikers he had overreached himself and the
+wanton murder of citizens, he feared, might have a damaging effect on
+his future political plans. His uneasiness was quite apparent, while on
+the other hand his co-conspirator, Olney, was in a happy state of mind.
+He claimed to be able with the anti-trust bill, to break up every labor
+union in America.
+
+The general managers, finding out that the city would not be held
+responsible for the loss of and damage to railroad property, were now in
+favor of removing the troops from the city of Chicago--but knowing the
+effect of such action after making an appeal for their assistance--did
+not ask for their removal.
+
+The situation throughout the country had not materially changed, and the
+prospects for a final victory for the strikers looked very favorably.
+
+General Miles circulated a story that ninety per cent of the citizens of
+Chicago were in sympathy with the Pullman company and the railroads.
+
+The railway managers took advantage of this report and spread and
+distorted it in order to discourage the strikers.
+
+Now for facts: The trades unions of Chicago alone represent 750,000
+people, adding to this the membership of the railway unions you have a
+total of 900,000 or ninety per cent of the citizens, who were in direct
+sympathy with the strikers. And it was not confined to members of
+Unions alone; such men as Bishop Fallaws, Rev. Dr. Henson, Prof. E. W.
+Bennis, Rev. G. P. Brushingham, Rev. W. H. Carvardine, Mayor Hopkins and
+hosts of other men prominent in the affairs of the city endorsed the men
+and denounced the railroad corporations.
+
+Resolutions by the score were passed by business men, by the
+Typographical Unions and other organizations endorsing the American
+Railway Union, and denouncing Pullman and the railroads, also condemning
+the action of Grover Cleveland in upholding the corporations against the
+workingmen.
+
+Resolutions were passed requesting all sympathizers to wear a white
+ribbon, the badge adopted by the American Railway Union, and the sea of
+white ribbons to be seen in Chicago would not bear out the statement of
+Gen. Miles.
+
+The labor unions now signified their willingness to strike in support of
+the movement if called upon by the American Railway Union.
+
+Grover Cleveland at this time issued a proclamation which--to all
+intents and purposes--declared martial law in the city of Chicago. This
+was what Gen. Miles desired, as it virtually gave him full power to
+rule with despotic sway over the citizens and civil authorities.
+
+The following protest was wired the President of the United States by
+President Debs, of the American Railway Union and Grand Master Sovereign
+of the Knights of Labor.
+
+"To the Hon. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, Executive
+Mansion, Washington, D. C.
+
+"Dear Sir:--Through a long period of depression, enforced idleness and
+low wages, resulting in wide spread poverty, and in many cases actual
+starvation, the working people have been patient, patriotic and law
+abiding, and not until the iron heel of corporate tyranny was applied
+with the intention to subjugate the working people to the will of
+arrogant monopolies, did they make any effort to stay their oppressors.
+
+"The Pullman strike was not declared until the employes of the Pullman
+company were driven to the verge of starvation, their entreaties spurned
+with contempt, and their grievances denied a hearing. No refusal to
+handle Pullman cars was declared by any railway employe until all
+propositions looking towards arbitration and conciliation were rejected
+by the Pullman company. Notwithstanding the truths set forth above were
+known to the public and the national authorities, you have seen fit
+under guise of protecting the mails and federal property to invoke the
+services of the United States army, whose very presence is used to
+coerce and intimidate peaceable working people into a humiliating
+obedience to the will of their oppressors.
+
+"By your acts, insofar as you have supplanted civil and state
+authorities with the federal military power, the spirit of unrest and
+distrust has so far been augmented that a deep seated conviction is fast
+becoming prevalent that this government is soon to become a military
+despotism. The transmission of the United States mails is not
+interrupted by the striking employes of any railway company, but by the
+railway companies themselves, who refused to haul the mail on trains to
+which Pullman cars were not attached. If it is a criminal interference
+with the United States mails for the employes of a railway company to
+detach from a mail train a Pullman palace car, contrary to the will of
+the company then it holds true that it is the same criminal interference
+whenever a Pullman palace car is detached from a mail train in
+accordance with the will of a railroad company while said mail train is
+in transit. The line of criminality in such a case should not be drawn
+at the willingness or unwillingness of railway employes, but at the act
+itself, and inasmuch as it has been the common practice of railway
+corporations to attach and detach from mail trains Pullman palace cars
+at will while said trains are in transit and carrying the mails of the
+United States, it would seem an act of discrimination against the
+employes of the railway corporations to declare such acts unlawful
+interference with the transmission of the mails when done by employes
+with or without the consent of their employers.
+
+"In view of these facts we look upon the far-fetched decision of
+Attorney General Olney, the sweeping un-American injunctions against
+railway employes, and the movements of the regular army as employing the
+powers of the general government for the support and protection of the
+railway corporations in their determination to degrade and oppress their
+employes.
+
+"The present railway strike was precipitated by the uneasy desire of the
+railway corporations to destroy the organizations of their employes and
+make the working people more subservient to the will of their
+employers; and as all students of government agree that free
+institutions depend for their perpetuity upon the freedom and prosperity
+of the common people, it would seem more in consonance with the spirit
+of democratic government if federal authority was exercised in deference
+of the rights of the toiling masses to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness. But on the contrary there is not an instance on record where
+in any conflict between corporations and the people the strong arm of
+the military power has been employed to protect the working people and
+the industrial masses from the ravage and persecution of corporate
+greed. But the measure of character has been in the line of declaring
+the corporations always good and in the right, and the working people
+always bad and in the wrong.
+
+"Now, sir, we pledge to you the power of our respective organizations,
+individually and collectively, for the maintenance of peace and good
+order and the preservation of life and property, and will aid in the
+arrest and punishment of all violators of the civil and criminal laws of
+the state or nation. In the present contest between labor and railway
+corporations we shall use every peaceable and honorable means at our
+command consistent with the law and our constitutional rights, to secure
+for the working people just compensation for labor done and respectable
+consideration in accordance with the inherent rights of all men and the
+spirit of republican government. In doing so we appeal to all the
+liberty loving people of the nation to aid and support us in this most
+just and righteous cause.
+
+  By EUGENE V. DEBS,
+  President.
+
+  "Order of Knights of Labor,
+  By J. R. SOVEREIGN,
+  Grand Master Workman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BUSINESS MEN'S PROTEST.
+
+
+The town of Danville, Ill., was now visited by martial law with the
+result that two women were killed and two men fatally wounded. A
+non-union brakeman fired three shots into a crowd that was jeering him,
+whereupon some one in the crowd returned the fire hitting him in the
+neck. The militia then opened fire, killing a Mrs. Glennon who was
+standing in her own yard and Miss James seated at the organ in her own
+house. This was the effect of federal troops in Danville, and so it was
+in every town and city where Grover's minions were stationed. The
+damnable outrages perpetrated on the people of the commonweal by the
+federal troops under the guise of law and order was goading the citizens
+to a state of open rebellion. The business men of Chicago fearing a
+general outbreak determined on sending a committee to the Pullman
+company with a view to reaching a settlement whereby this dire calamity
+would be averted. A committee was formed composed of representative
+business men, members of the city council, and members of the various
+trades of the city. The committee met with no success.
+
+Mr. Wickes, who represented the Pullman company, informed them that the
+company had nothing to arbitrate and wished to see no committee. The
+proposition they wished to submit to Mr. Wickes as the representative of
+the Pullman company was this: That Mr. Pullman had said there was
+nothing to arbitrate while the men contended that there was. Let the
+Pullman company appoint two men and the circuit court two men. Let these
+four select a fifth, if necessary, to determine if there was anything to
+arbitrate and in case there was, that would take care of itself later.
+If not, the strike would end just as soon as the decision was reached.
+Surely this proposition was fair and manly but speaking for the Pullman
+company Mr. Wickes flatly refused to entertain it for an instant.
+Alderman McGillen, who acted as spokesman, then made an eloquent plea
+for the Pullman company to take steps, which he considered would go far
+toward settling the strike. He said: "Mr. Wickes we received a request
+from the trades-unions--their representatives who are now here you have
+already met--to see if some means to settle this strike peaceably could
+not be found.
+
+"It has been demonstrated that your company had no subject for
+arbitration, that the request of the employes for arbitration could not
+be acceded to?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Yes, sir."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "We are here to suggest that it might be possible to
+obviate all differences between the company and the men--strikers,
+ex-employes, or whatever you wish to call them. We would suggest a
+committee to ascertain whether there is any matter needing arbitration
+as you are a quasi public."
+
+Mr. Wickes, interrupting: "Do you come as representatives of the city
+instructed by the mayor? We have nothing to arbitrate, the Pullman
+company cannot recede from its position."
+
+Ald. O'Brien: "There must be some trouble?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Our men made complaint, we promised to investigate, but
+before we had time to do so they struck."
+
+Ald. O'Brien: "But that will not settle the matter."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Unfortunately not."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "We suggest that this committee be made up of
+representative men, the best men in Chicago, men who occupy positions of
+honor."
+
+Here attorney John S. Runnell appeared and was closeted with Mr. Wickes
+for a quarter of an hour.
+
+On his return to the room Mr. Wickes said that neither the Pullman
+company or the railway manager's association created the situation of
+to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work
+at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then,
+some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this,
+you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be
+conducted.
+
+Ald. McGillen then said: "You require protection from us. You call on
+the police, on the county, on the state, and on the nation for
+protection. Your only valued assets are the patents which the nation
+gives you in recognition of the genius which built the Pullman car.
+Remove that asset and you are ruined. You utterly ignore our request. It
+is not dishonorable men we ask to investigate your affairs. Think of the
+sickness, starvation, want, disaster and bloodshed which is coming if
+the strike assumes larger proportions. The climax is fast approaching
+and who will be to blame. I am here for the common weal, and I hope and
+beg of you not to refuse."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "There is a principle involved. Every business should have
+the right to dictate to its own labor, we will brook no interference,
+national, state, county or municipal."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "Compulsory arbitration is not a law but it will be if
+this strike does not stop."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "We have nothing to arbitrate."
+
+Ald. Warreinner: "We are not asking for arbitration, we want a committee
+appointed to see if there is need of it. Will you consent to that?"
+
+Mr. Wickes: "No."
+
+Ald. McGillen: "In the name of humanity let me beseech you to reconsider
+your negation."
+
+Mr. Wickes: "Gentlemen, the Pullman company has nothing to arbitrate, we
+want to see no committee, the Pullman company cannot recede from its
+position. This is final."
+
+When the committee met again at 4:30 to make its final report, it was
+completely discouraged. Mr. Elderkin stated the proposition that had
+been made to the Pullman company and its direct refusal. The alderman
+begged the labor representatives not to strike and cause widespread
+suffering.
+
+The general manager's and Pullman's position was so clearly defined that
+it would be impossible for the public to fail to see it in any but its
+true light.
+
+The companies were losing millions of dollars but the general managers
+had determined if necessary to bankrupt every system in the United
+States in order to crush labor organizations out of existence. The
+Pullman matter was something of the past, with them they were after the
+labor organizations, and they were after them with a vengeance.
+
+The government was backing them. The attorney general of the United
+states,--a corporation attorney as well,--had pledged himself to disrupt
+every labor organization in the country. President Cleveland, another
+railroad attorney, had encouraged and abetted them to the same end.
+
+With the subsidized press, the bankers unions, the moneycrat
+manufacturers and the federal courts arrayed against them, what in the
+name of justice could they expect?
+
+Surely the martyred president and savior of mankind, the immortal
+Lincoln, must have anticipated the present deplorable condition when in
+his message to the second session of the thirty-seventh congress,--to be
+found in the appendix to the Congressional Globe of the thirty-seventh
+congress, second section, page 4--when he said: "Monarchy itself is
+sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people.
+In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit
+raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It
+is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in
+favor of popular institutions, but there is one point with its
+connections not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief
+attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with,
+if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that
+labor is available only in connection with capital, that nobody labors
+unless somebody else owning capital somehow by the use of it induces him
+to labor. * * * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is
+only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not
+first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the
+higher consideration. * * * No men living are more worthy to be trusted
+than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch
+aught which they have not earned. Let them beware of surrendering a
+political power which they already possess and which, if surrendered,
+will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as
+they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of
+liberty shall be lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+INDICTMENT OF PRESIDENT DEBS.
+
+
+The railroad managers and federal courts were leaving no stone unturned
+to secure the indictment and incarceration of Eugene V. Debs. If
+successful, it was their intention to dispose of all the officers and
+directors of the American Railway Union in the same manner.
+
+Attorney General Olney, acting for the railroads, was hatching a scheme
+to incarcerate the officers of the union and refuse them bail. Attorneys
+Walker and Milchrist were ready to prove that Debs ordered the boycott,
+that he conspired against the lives and liberty of the people, that he
+conspired to overthrow the government, in short, they were ready to
+prove anything that would further the ends of the corporations which
+they represented.
+
+These diabolical plotters never doubted for one instant that the
+officers of the American Railway Union were innocent of the charges
+preferred against them. They knew very well that they (the officers)
+had no authority to order a boycott or strike, and that it was ordered
+by a majority vote of the men employed on each system. They also knew
+that from the inauguration of the strike, not one word or act of Eugene
+V. Debs could be construed into an offense and make him amenable to the
+law.
+
+That he counseled moderation and appealed to the men to refrain from
+acts of violence from the start, was a well known fact. This was very
+clear to them, but the powerful magnetism of his presence in restraining
+the men from acts of violence would also have a tendency to keep their
+ranks firm and intact. This was also known to them and they must devise
+some scheme to shackle him or get him out of the way. With consummate
+skill they proceeded with the avowed effort to accomplish this end.
+
+At 3:00 P. M., July 10, the special grand jury summoned by
+Judges Wood and Grosscup set the machinery of federal law in motion, and
+after one hour and seven minutes--most of which time was occupied in
+waiting for advice from the Western Union Telegraph Co., in New York, to
+its manager in Chicago--returned indictments against E. V. Debs, G. W.
+Howard, L. W. Rogers and Sylvester Kelliher. No sooner were the four
+officers of the American Railway Union indicted than they were arrested
+and the private papers as well as the documents of the union were
+seized.
+
+The four men were admitted to bail and the joint bond of $10,000 was
+signed by J. W. Fitzgerald and Wm. Skakel.
+
+The special grand jurors selected by the court for the express purpose
+of indicting the officers of the American Railway Union were well
+chosen. An elaborate charge from his honor, the judge, a pretense of
+examining a lone witness, just a farcical formality, and Debs, Howard,
+Rogers and Kelliher were indicted. These men were virtually indicted
+before the grand jury went into session. This is a fact that defies
+contradiction, Z. E. Holbrook, one of the jurors, was a man who two
+years ago went to Homestead, Pa., at the request of H. C. Frick, manager
+of the Carnegie Company, and after obtaining a supply of alleged facts
+from Mr. Frick, returned to Chicago and made a speech before the Sunset
+Club, in which he charged the Homestead strikers with being
+conspirators, anarchists and murderers, and he denounced and abused in
+no measured terms all labor unions and sympathizers. So bitterly did he
+attack labor that he was roundly hissed by members of his own club.
+
+The city directory sets him down as a capitalist, and he is known
+throughout the city as a bitter enemy to labor unions. Such is the
+character of one of the men who was chosen to indict Eugene V. Debs. Was
+ever court of justice so utterly debauched?
+
+What has become of our boasted liberty? Are we freemen? No! in the
+burning words of Rienzi, the Roman, we are slaves, the bright sun rises
+to its course and sets on a race of slaves. Slaves, not such as
+conqueror led to crimson glory and undying fame, but base, ignoble
+slaves, slaves to a horde of petty tyrants, feudal despots.
+
+The same conditions that emanated these immortal utterances from the
+ancient Roman is absolutely the condition of the working people of
+America to-day.
+
+The federal courts had now accomplished a master stroke; they had
+indicted the president of the American Railway Union for conspiracy.
+
+When the wires flashed the news to the various local unions throughout
+the country, the excitement was intense. The illegal proceeding was
+condemned by every good citizen, regardless of vocation or station in
+life. Millions of men in every branch of labor threatened to strike, but
+were held in check by the assurance of their leaders that all would be
+well in the end.
+
+Mr. Debs, fearing the bad effect his arrest would have on the working
+people, sent out the following appeal for order:
+
+"To all striking employes and sympathizers:
+
+"In view of the serious phases which the strike has assumed, I deem it
+my duty to again admonish you to not only refrain from acts of violence
+but to aid in every way in your power to maintain law and order. We have
+everything to lose and nothing to gain by participating, even by our
+presence in demonstrative gatherings. Almost universal unrest prevails.
+Men are excitable and inflammable. The distance from anger to vengeance
+is not great. Every precaution against still further aggravating
+conditions should be taken. In this supreme hour let workingmen show
+themselves to be orderly and law abiding by freely co-operating with the
+authorities in suppressing turbulence and preserving the peace. Our
+position is secure and the people are with us. We have made every
+effort that reason and justice could suggest to obtain redress for our
+grievances.
+
+"Our advances have been repelled. The responsibility for the grave
+situation that confronts the country is not with us. The indications now
+are that the stoppage of work will become general. This in itself will
+be a calamity, but if order be maintained it may yet prove to be a
+blessing to the country. I appeal to every workingman to entirely keep
+away from places where trouble would be likely to occur. What, under
+normal conditions, would probably be a peaceable gathering may now
+become a demonstrative mob. All good citizens deprecate the loss of life
+and the destruction of property. Grave as these complications are, our
+civilization is far enough advanced to find and apply a remedy without
+resort to violence. We are merely contending for justice for our fellow
+workingmen, who have been reduced to want by a power that now defies
+public opinion. Strong in the faith that our position is correct, that
+our grievances are just, we can afford to await the final verdict, with
+patience. The great public may be slow to act, but in the fullness of
+time it will act. Then the wrong, wherever found will be rebuked and
+cloven down, and the right will be enthroned. However serious the
+situation may become, let it not be intensified by lawlessness or
+violence.
+
+  Eugene V. Debs."
+
+If there is anything tending to conspiracy, any anarchistic sentiment in
+the above appeal then it is certain that Debs was guilty as indicted,
+but if there is not, then the railroad managers and federal court were
+guilty of a greater conspiracy and should be dealt with accordingly. In
+all the appeals, instructions or advice given verbally or otherwise by
+E. V. Debs, not a solitary one was of a more inflammatory nature than
+this, and yet this man was accused of this serious crime.
+
+The Chicago Times in an editorial on the indictment of Debs says in
+part: "We can perhaps leave to the lawyers who are so eager to indict
+Mr. Debs, determination of the legal position of this rebel Wickes,
+declaring that his tottering corporation will brook no interference
+national, state, county, or municipal. The times has learned many things
+of late showing the power of corporations over the national government
+but we still cling to the belief that Uncle Sam is bigger than Duke
+George, and if either the national, state, county or municipal
+government determines to interfere with the affairs of the Pullman
+corporation, Mr. Wickes will have to brook it or take refuge in Canada
+with his titled chiefs, embezzlers, boodlers, forgers and other harpies
+of society, who from time to time have fled thither."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A PROTEST BY THE PEOPLES PARTY.
+
+
+The newsboys of Chicago now decided to join the boycott by dropping the
+papers unfavorable to the American Railway Union, and after a noisy
+session in which parliamentary rules were freely discussed, and several
+amusing antics were indulged in, they voted to boycott the Tribune,
+Herald, Mail, Inter-Ocean, Post and Journal. When the Times was
+mentioned, they yelled themselves hoarse, and declared that it was the
+only paper they would sell. Hill, the circulator of the Post, caused the
+arrest of five of the little fellows and they were locked up.
+
+L. W. Rogers, editor of the Railway Times, the official organ of the
+American Railway Union finally succeeded in getting the attention of the
+boys and informed them that the union could not accept any sacrifice
+from the newsboys of Chicago. He assured them that the men were strong
+enough to do their own boycotting and requested them to continue the
+sale of the papers. He said: "We do not want to take one red cent out
+of your earnings, if things were as they should be, you lads would be at
+school in the day time and in comfortable homes at night instead of
+selling papers on the street."
+
+At the conclusion of Mr. Rogers' remarks they all sped away to the Times
+office, where cheer after cheer was given for the peoples paper.
+Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Rogers, the Times, Record, Dispatch
+and News were the only papers to be had on the streets.
+
+The Knights of Labor and Trades Unions as well as business men's unions
+were holding meetings all over the country, denouncing the action of
+Cleveland and the courts and endorsing the American Railway Union in its
+manly fight for rights. The strike situation had not changed to any
+great extent with the exception of passenger service. Passenger trains
+were beginning to run with more regularity, but the freight business was
+to all practical purposes dead. The men whom the companies had succeeded
+in getting so far to fill the places of strikers were green men,
+entirely unused to that kind of work, and incompetent men who had
+previously been discharged for drunkenness and other causes. The yard
+service was a failure, and as an illustration--to show the kind of men
+the different roads had secured to make up trains--I was passing a
+certain yard and stopped to watch a switching crew, and carefully noted
+how they performed their work. An engine with one car backed up to
+couple unto some cars on a lumber track. Two of the would-be switchmen
+with a long stick were holding up the link, one men on either side of
+the coupling, but just as the link was about to enter the drawbar one of
+them jumped away, at the same time stumbling over a pile of lumber, and
+the way that fellow scrambled about in his frantic endeavor to get out
+of the way, would lead a person to believe he had fallen upon a hornet's
+nest.
+
+After several such attempts they finally succeeded in making the
+coupling. This is the kind of men with which the company proposed to
+fill the places of the strikers.
+
+The Grand Trunk engineers, who up to this time had refused to work with
+other than brotherhood firemen decided to work with scabs, and their
+decision was hailed with delight by the officials. They said that the
+strike was now settled and they could run their trains without
+difficulty.
+
+The engineers and firemen on the Chicago & Alton road also decided to
+stand by the company. The firemen, switchmen and other employes of the
+Grand Trunk called a meeting, and after denouncing the action of the
+engineers, voted to stand by the American Railway Union to the end.
+
+One amusing incident that occurred about this time, was the refusal of
+the Washington National Guards to ride on a train that was run by scabs.
+The entire company of sixty men refused to ride on a Northern Pacific
+train for this reason, and they were promptly placed under arrest, put
+into box cars and taken to Sprague.
+
+General Master Workman Sovereign had at this time an order drawn up for
+a general walk out of members of the Knights of Labor, but it was
+withdrawn after a consultation with other labor leaders. Many comments
+were made by newspapers throughout the country on this order, of which a
+copy was furnished the papers under the impression that it would go into
+effect at once.
+
+People who had remained passive up to this time were now aroused to the
+gravity of the situation. The pending crisis was near at hand, and a
+general uprising of the laboring people to assert their rights was
+imminent. The tyrannical and dogged persistency of plutocratic capital
+to dominate over the laboring classes with utter disregard for their
+constitutional rights, was nothing more or less than an open declaration
+of despotic supremacy, and the outcome was looked forward to with the
+gravest apprehension.
+
+The following communication addressed to the chairman of the National
+Committee of the Peoples Party was sent to Washington, D. C.
+
+"To the Hon. H. E. Taubeneck, chairman National Committee, Peoples
+Party:
+
+"Through the gloom of civil war the enemies of human liberty laid the
+foundation upon which the giant monopolies of to-day have been built. On
+public lands, with public funds they built the railroads which they now
+use to plunder the producers of this nation, and with the wealth and
+power thus obtained they now usurp the power and functions of government
+to reduce the people of this country to a condition of serfdom. The
+workmen in the cities, the miners in their isolated communities, and
+the railroad men throughout the land have risen in manful protest
+against a threatened military government of the railroads and their
+associate monopolies.
+
+"In this hour of need the duty of the Peoples Party is clear and plain.
+
+"Quick as the lightning's flash will bear the message, must go forth
+that the Peoples Party recognize the gravity of the situation, and by
+common impulse aligns itself to the side of the toiler in the shop and
+mine, and on the railroads; their battle is our battle, because it is a
+struggle for liberty and the right to exist--a peaceable contest on the
+part of toil against the combined armies of greed and force.
+
+"The farmer knows the means best calculated to help his brother in this
+conflict. The railroads intend to run their trains under military guard
+and expect American citizen to patronize public means of traffic,
+operated under military despotism. The Peoples Party of Cook county, in
+common with organized labor demand immediate arbitration, and urges
+immediate action on the part of our national committee to the end that
+all organizations in sympathy with labor be united in common cause
+against a common enemy.
+
+  "Signed: T. O'Brien, Chairman,
+  I. H. Hawley, Sec'y.
+  H. S. Taylor,
+  Henry Vincent,
+  John Bagley,
+  D. M. Fielwiler,
+  John Schwartz,
+  C. G. Dixon,
+  J. P. Grimes,
+  Committee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AN OFFER OF SETTLEMENT.
+
+
+Senator Pfeffer, of Kansas, arraigned congress for its defence of
+monopolies, and its stand against the people. Senator Kyle, of Dakota,
+also charged congress with being in collusion with the railroads, but
+Senator Davis, of Minnesota, on the other hand, denounced Debs and the
+strikers. He said the strike grew from a strike to a boycott, from
+boycott to riot, from riot to insurrection, that the acts, if committed
+on the high seas, would be piracy and punishable by death. He spoke of
+the injustice being done the farmers of the United States, and how they
+were effected by the strike in Chicago. He urged that it was time some
+action should be taken to put down the rising tide of anarchy. He held
+that a nuisance should be abated and that Debs was a nuisance.
+
+Senator Gordon, of Georgia, and Senator Daniels, of Virginia, followed
+in the same kind of demagoguery as Davis.
+
+A great meeting was held in Dubuque, and prominent among the speakers
+was County Attorney Mathews who insisted on obedience to law, but
+denounced Judge Grosscup for issuing an injunction which denied the
+constitutional right of free speech and trial by Jury.
+
+Mayor Hopkins, of Chicago, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, Michigan, and
+Erskine M. Phelps conferred with Mr. Wickes, and Mrs. Brown and Runnell
+of the Pullman Company at the request of some fifty mayors, representing
+about one-third of the population of the United States--and urged
+arbitration as a means of settling the strike. The efforts of these
+gentlemen were in vain. The imperious Pullman company through its
+representative, though not saying so in as many words, intimated that
+the company would not establish a precedent whereby workmen could
+interfere in its business. Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, corresponded with
+almost every mayor of the larger cities of the United States, and
+received answers favorable to arbitration from all with one exception,
+that of Mayor Gilroy, of New York City, whose answer to the telegram of
+Mayor Pingree was an emphatic no.
+
+The wildest excitement now prevailed at Sacramento. The United States
+troops commanded by Col. Graham and consisting of infantry, cavalry,
+artillery, and gatling and Hotchkiss guns, presented a most war like
+aspect. The strikers on learning of this movement on the part of the
+government armed themselves, and it was feared that a desperate conflict
+would take place.
+
+The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in this district called upon
+Supt. Filmore of the Southern Pacific and stated that they were ready to
+resume work at once. This weakened the cause of the strikers to some
+extent and caused a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the railroad
+managers.
+
+After much persuasion due to the untiring efforts of Congressman McGann,
+President Cleveland consented to appoint a committee of three to
+investigate the strike, under section 6 of the arbitration act, prepared
+some years ago under the eyes of Powderly, McGuire and Hays of the
+Knights of Labor, offered by Representative Quail, of St. Louis, and
+made a law on Oct. 1, 1888. This determination on the part of Cleveland
+was received with satisfaction throughout the country. This was just
+what the American Railway Union wanted. This was what the Trades and
+Labor Unions of the United States had appealed for, and what the
+business men and city representatives had so long demanded, begged and
+entreated of the Pullman company, but without avail.
+
+It looked at this time as if an investigation would be forced on Duke
+Pullman, and the people were looking forward to a speedy settlement of
+the trouble. The American Railway Union, having no fear of the final
+decision of the investigating committee, and viewing the vast amount of
+destruction of property, loss of life and extreme hardship to which the
+people were subjected on account of the strike--decided to take the
+necessary steps to call off the strike, they drew up the following
+proposition which was given to Mr. Hopkins, mayor of Chicago, to present
+to the general managers.
+
+"To the Railway Managers:
+
+"Gentlemen:--The existing trouble growing out of the Pullman strike
+having assumed continental proportions, and there being no indications
+of relief from the wide spread business demoralization and distress,
+incident thereto, the railway employes, through the board of directors
+of the American Railway Union respectfully make the following
+proposition as a basis of settlement:
+
+"They agree to return to work in a body at once, provided they shall be
+restored to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases,
+if any there be, where they have been convicted of crime. This
+proposition looking to an immediate settlement of the existing strike on
+all lines of railway is inspired by a purpose to subserve public good.
+The strike, small and comparatively unimportant in its inception, has
+extended in every direction until now it involves or threatens not only
+every public interest, but the peace, security and prosperity of our
+common country. The contest has waged fiercely, it has extended far
+beyond the limits of interest originally involved, and has laid hold of
+a vast number of industries and enterprises in nowise responsible for
+the difference and disagreements that led to the trouble.
+
+"Factory, mill, mine and shop have been silenced. Widespread
+demoralization has sway. The interests of multiplied thousands of people
+are suffering, and the common welfare is seriously menaced, The public
+peace and tranquility are imperiled, and grave apprehension for the
+future prevails. This being true, and the statement will not be
+controverted, we conceive it to be our duty as citizens and as men, to
+make extraordinary efforts to end the existing strife and approaching
+calamities whose shadows are even now upon us. If ended now, the
+contest, however serious in some respects, will not have been in vain.
+
+"Sacrifices have been made, but they will have their compensations.
+Indeed, if lessons shall be taught by experience, the troubles now so
+widely deplored will prove a blessing of inestimable value in the years
+to come. The difference that led up to the present complications need
+not now be discussed, every consideration of duty and patriotism demands
+that a remedy for existing troubles be found and applied. The employes
+purpose to do their part by meeting their employers half way. Let it be
+stated that they do not impose any condition of settlement except that
+they be returned to their former positions; they do not ask recognition
+of their organization or any organization.
+
+"Believing this proposition to be fair, reasonable and just it is
+respectfully submitted with the belief that its acceptance will result
+in the prompt resumption of traffic, the revival of industry, and the
+restoration of peace and order.
+
+  "Respectfully,
+  E. V. DEBS, Pres.
+  G. W. HOWARD, V. Pres.
+  S. KELLIHER, Secy.
+  American Railway Union."
+
+The proposition was rejected and spurned by the General Managers
+Association.
+
+Is there a man so utterly lost to the sense of justice, that would
+conscientiously dispute the manly fairness of this communication?
+
+The object of the general managers was too apparent, their position was
+clearly defined. Their determination to wipe out of existence all
+railroad organizations was as fixed and unmovable as the Rock of
+Gibraltar and why should they recede from their position?
+
+The federal courts and federal government (owned and controlled by the
+corporations) decided that the constitutional rights of free speech and
+trial by jury, equal rights to all and special privileges to none, was a
+farce. In their narrow money-loving minds there could be no rights for
+honest labor, and determined there should be no rights for a
+workingman. After this decision of the general managers the American
+Railway Union could do nothing but fight out the battle to the bitter
+end.
+
+Eugene V. Debs,--representing a body of honest toilers with no other
+motive than to obtain for them living wages, his heart overflowing with
+generous impulses and humane kindness, his noble nature revolting
+against the tyrannical oppression of his fellow man by the soulless
+corporations, a man who loves his country with patriotic devotion,--for
+these reasons and no other, was indicted and arrested on the charge of
+criminal conspiracy, while John M. Egan--representing the General
+Managers Association, a giant monopoly and powerful money grasping
+trust, built on the people's land and with the people's money, a
+combination foreign to American institutions, usurping the functions of
+the government with avowed intent and purpose to take away the rights of
+organization from the working man and reduce him to a condition of
+absolute slavery,--was allowed to continue his nefarious work without
+interruption. Surely this partial, one-sided distribution of justice,
+openly and defiantly administered, deserves the severest condemnation of
+every loyal American citizen.
+
+The Pullman boycott had now ceased to be the point at issue in the
+strike. It was now the life or death of railroad organizations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+DEBS IN JAIL.
+
+
+The strike situation still looked very bright for the men.
+
+At St. Paul and Minneapolis the business of the railroads, with the
+exception of the Soo Line, St. Paul & Duluth and the Great Northern, was
+practically at a standstill.
+
+On the St. Paul & Duluth the men as a whole refused to strike, a few
+firemen and switchmen left their positions at the call but did not
+seriously affect the operation of trains. This was also true of the Soo
+Line. The Great Northern so far was not implicated as they used no
+Pullman cars and positively refused boycotted freight, that is, freight
+offered by railroads whose employes were on a strike. The Minnesota
+Transfer, which was the key to the coast lines, was completely blocked,
+and this condition was duplicated in almost every railroad center
+throughout the country.
+
+Encouraging telegrams were being received from all points contradicting
+the reports circulated by a subsidized press that everything was running
+as usual. So far the men in the Twin Cities were conducting themselves
+in such an orderly manner that even the press could not rake up one
+charge against them. They strictly adhered to the advice of President
+Debs to keep out of saloons and away from railroad property. The only
+action taken by the strikers was to induce other men by moral persuasion
+not to take their places and assist the managers to operate the roads.
+
+For this Charles J. Luth was foully murdered by one Leonard, chief clerk
+in the office of James McCabe, superintendent of the C., St. P., M. & O.
+Ry.
+
+On the evening of July 14, Leonard, in company with Bert Nash, also an
+employe of the same railroad, brought a lot of non-union men to a
+boarding place in St. Paul, known as the Minnesota Home. Luth followed
+them into the house and requested the proprietress of the Home not to
+board them as they were in the city to take the place of strikers, and
+while explaining the situation, became involved in an altercation with
+Nash. Leonard interfered and was told by Luth that he was little better
+than a scab, whereupon Leonard drew a revolver and fired five times, all
+of the shots taking effect in the body of Luth. Two of the shots were
+fired after Luth had fallen to the floor.
+
+These facts were given by an eye witness who afterwards took the
+revolver from Leonard.
+
+This dastardly, cold blooded murder worked the strikers into a frenzy of
+excitement, and had it not been for a herculean effort on the part of
+older and cooler heads, a lynching would surely have occurred.
+
+This foul deed was absolutely unwarranted as Luth was unarmed and alone,
+and if he had harmed or threatened to harm any one, an officer could
+have been called and he would have been promptly arrested.
+
+Luth left a wife and two small children to mourn his loss and grieve
+over his tragic end.
+
+The funeral procession that followed the remains to the grave headed by
+the Knights of Pythias and Foresters, was the largest ever seen in St.
+Paul.
+
+President Debs felt confident of victory. Addressing a meeting at Ulrich
+Hall, he said:
+
+"We have just finished reading 160 telegrams in not one of which there
+is any sign of weakening." He dwelled on the action of the general
+managers refusing to entertain the proposition made to them, and the
+necessity of the men remaining loyal to one another. "The law seems to
+be against us as it is read by some, but if the law makes it a crime to
+advise you men against the encroachments of capital, by all the Gods
+united I will rot in jail." Referring to the attitude of other railroad
+organizations, he said: "Men in such positions as myself and Mr. Howard
+cannot afford to be on good terms with general managers. If we are we
+cannot be your friends. It is true, however, that certain officers of
+certain other organizations ride on annual passes and spend months on
+fishing excursions at the expense of the railroad managers, but it comes
+out of your wages in the end."
+
+Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers present, informed the
+officers of the American Railway Union that Chief Arthur had issued
+orders for men to work with scabs, and that he was supplying scabs to
+take the places of men on strike. In other words, he was running an
+employment agency for the benefit of the railroads.
+
+The general managers' defeat on the fifth day of the strike was beyond
+all question of a doubt. They had summoned to their support the federal
+government with the result previously mentioned, but the government aid
+was not sufficient to operate their roads. They must have a number of
+the old men to educate and aid the scabs in the performance of their
+duties. At this critical time the services of their faithful allies were
+badly wanted. In this, their time of need they knew that those men who
+had feted, dined and wined at their expense would prove faithful to them
+and traitors to the orders they represented.
+
+The damnable spirit of treachery that evoked Benedict Arnold to betray
+his country predominated in the hearts of these double-dyed scoundrels.
+They were not only ready and willing but feverishly anxious to assist
+the corporations to enslave the men that they were oath-bound as well as
+duty bound to protect. Grand Chief Arthur, representing the engineers,
+who had grown old in the service of the corporations, and whose wealth
+was estimated at half a million dollars, in direct violation of the
+constitution of his order, ordered his men to work with scab firemen.
+Not only this, he ordered all those who were on strike to return at once
+to their engines and in case of their refusal he would supply men to
+take their places. This was also true of Grand Chief Sargent of the
+Firemen and Wilkinson of the Trainmen. Clark of the Conductors, and
+Barrett of the Switchmen advised their men to return to work as they had
+no grievance. But only a part of these men would be taken back by the
+companies, and what under the sun did these chiefs intend to do with the
+others? Positively nothing. But the result was exactly what they
+intended it should be, and the men were applying to the companies--in
+lots of ten and twenty in the different cities--for their positions.
+
+The dark deeds of treachery were now rife in many places especially in
+the Twin Cities. At this point the blockade, which was on since the
+strike began, and which was the key to the situation in the Northwest
+was raised.
+
+The Great Northern was the only line in operation to the coast, and
+under instructions from J. J. Hill, the president, refused to accept
+any freight from roads included in the boycott. The men were instructed
+to decline even to throw a switch or assist in any manner any road on
+strike, as the Great Northern company did not wish to be drawn into the
+difficulty. In fact the men on this line were, almost to a man, members
+of the American Railway Union, and could not even if asked to do any act
+that might prove a detriment to their brothers. At this time there
+happened to be sixty car loads of twine in St. Paul, a greater portion
+of which was at Minnesota Transfer. This freight was consigned to points
+on the Great Northern Line and a committee headed by Harry Gray,
+chairman of the general board of mediation of the American Railway Union
+on that system, appeared at the rooms of the central strike committee
+and asked permission to switch out the twine, giving as an excuse that
+the farmers were in need of it.
+
+This permission the committee was loth to grant as any move toward
+raising this blockade in the Twin Cities might prove detrimental to
+their cause, and further action on the matter was deferred until it
+would be submitted to the different unions interested.
+
+That night at a meeting held at Plummer Post Hall in Minneapolis, the
+American Railway Union headquarters, a committee of farmers, from the
+peoples' party convention in session there at that time, were admitted.
+
+When appraised of the nature of the trouble they stated that they had
+contracts with the twine companies to deliver their twine and on failure
+to do so the farmers would suffer no loss. They further stated that the
+farmers would bind their grain by hand before they would ask the men to
+do anything detrimental to the success of the strike. This settled it as
+far as the twine was concerned. However, the next day, the officials of
+the Great Northern took an engine and switched the twine out themselves
+without any objection being made by the men who stood by while the work
+was being done.
+
+This was the beginning only.
+
+The next move was a positive assurance of treachery.
+
+The Burlington road had about thirty cars of water pipe for the Great
+Northern, and this same man Gray again waited on the central committee
+for permission to move the freight, saying, that he had the assurance of
+the company that no more concessions would be asked. His request was
+promptly refused. Later a committee of switchmen called on the central
+committee for instructions and were told not to move the freight under
+any conditions.
+
+They left apparently satisfied, but nevertheless the cars were moved; no
+one seemed to know how but it became apparent to the strikers that a
+traitor was in their ranks, and took immediate steps to ferret him out,
+and have the embargo once more placed on business at this point.
+
+Gray of St. Paul, and Foster of St. Cloud, were openly accused of being
+the traitors to the cause, although others were thought to be
+implicated. Charges were preferred against Gray in the Union, but
+nothing ever came of it. Every conceivable means was used to again cause
+a blockade at this point but to no avail.
+
+The switchmen promised to refuse to handle boycotted freight if the road
+would support them in case of discharge, which they well knew was
+inevitable. It would be simply a sacrifice to strike in the yards of St.
+Paul and Minneapolis without the support of the whole system, although
+after a canvas of the road, when it was found that the majority of the
+men voted against a strike, the switchmen of these cities sent word
+that they were ready to ask for their time and quit the service of the
+company if the Union so desired. This proposition the strikers would not
+accept, not caring to sacrifice a few loyal switchmen whose places could
+be easily filled if the rest of the employes remained at work.
+
+This result was wired to Chicago, and Director Goodwin was sent out to
+see what could be done. His efforts were fruitless. The road was again
+canvassed with the same result, and Goodwin returning to Chicago, Mr.
+Burns, another director of the Union, was sent to take his place, but
+with no better success.
+
+They positively refused to strike. The traitors with the price of their
+treachery in their pockets had been there first and accomplished their
+purpose.
+
+The damnable traitors responsible for the raising of the blockade were
+also responsible for the suffering and untold misery of the noble men
+whose sympathetic hearts went out to their brothers in Pullman, and who
+without money were obliged to leave their homes (in many cases only
+partly paid for) and seek employment elsewhere in order to provide for
+their families.
+
+The switchmen in the employ of the Milwaukee road at Minneapolis,
+now--fearing that the treachery of the men on the Great Northern Line
+would lose the strike in the Northwest--applied for their positions, and
+all who were wanted were taken back. The men who were employed by the
+Omaha Railway at East St. Paul, took the same course, but all others
+declared their intention of standing out until the American Railway
+Union called off the strike.
+
+Disasters seemed to follow one another in rapid succession at this time.
+In many places the weak-kneed men were applying for work and circulating
+false stories to induce others to do the same. The news went flashing
+over the wires that Debs, Howard, Rogers and Kelliher were in jail. But
+this news did not have the depressing effect on the men that was
+expected, in fact it only caused a feeling of indignation and the
+strikers were now more determined than ever to stand up for their rights
+and fight out the battle with renewed energy.
+
+In making this statement I do not refer to the poltroons who were
+continually raising the cry: We are lost, but I refer to the noble men
+who spoke from their manly hearts, and with words of no uncertain sound
+declared their intention to go down to defeat if need be with those
+grand, noble, generous hearted men, who signified their willingness to
+rot in jail, or even mount the scaffold in defence of the just and
+righteous cause they had wrapped their lives in.
+
+Could it be charged that they were actuated by selfish motives in the
+cause in which they had enlisted? No! A thousand times no! If Eugene V.
+Debs could be induced to turn his magnificent executive abilities over
+to the railroads instead of the poor enslaved workingmen, these
+corporations would place him upon the highest pinnacle of plutocratic
+fame, and no one can dispute George W. Howard's title to being a
+workingman's friend, for by his actions on more than one occasion he has
+proven himself to be a friend indeed, and actions speak louder than
+words.
+
+Yes; the four officers of the American Railway Union were in jail.
+United States Attorney Milchrist appeared before Judge Seaman in the
+United States district court on the morning of July 17, and on behalf of
+the government filed information presented by George R. Peck, who
+represented the general managers and receivers of the Santa Fe system.
+
+In response to the prayer of the district attorney, Judge Seaman issued
+writs of attachment for the appearance of Debs, Howard, Rogers and
+Kelliher, directing them to be present at the afternoon session of the
+court and show causes why they should not be punished for contempt in
+continuing to disregard the injunction of the court. W. W. Erwin, of St.
+Paul, W. A. Shoemaker and S. S. Gregory, of Chicago, were retained to
+defend the men on behalf of the American Railway Union. The voluminous
+information made up of telegrams, copies of injunctions, etc., was read
+by Attorney Milchrist, after which the court ruled that two separate
+attachments be issued and separate records be kept.
+
+Mr. Gregory stated that he failed to see why the government should
+interfere to protect property rights of railroads, and this called forth
+a retort from Mr. Walker that Uncle Sam was seeking to protect only the
+interstate commerce and the mails and not the railroad property.
+
+The information embodied almost everything pertaining to the strike, and
+over an hour was consumed in its reading. Telegrams sent out to strike
+leaders by President Debs were submitted but contained no startling
+facts.
+
+One of these addressed to H. E. Sarion, Garrett, Ind., read as follows:
+"Have all classes of employes withdrawn from service at once." Another
+to Charles Fink, Oakland, Cal., says: "Commit no violence." Mr. Debs'
+communication to the railway managers suggesting a settlement of the
+strike was incorporated in the information as was also the question of
+Chicago public health in the matter of removing dead animals from the
+city. Several newspaper interviews and a copy of the original injunction
+issued by Judges Wood and Grosscup was also contained therein, and after
+Peck of the Santa Fe had sought to bolster up the information with an
+argument, Mr. Gregory urged that the defendants had not been charged
+with violence, and declared that it was his belief that the testimony
+should be taken by a master. Mr. Walker opposed this in favor of a
+hearing in open court and was sustained. This led up to a long legal
+wrangle participated in by both sides, and a fiery speech by Mr. Irwin
+of the defence, in which he denied the jurisdiction of the court, and
+hinted at monarchy and dictatorial methods. Mr. Walker pressed his
+motion that the defendants be placed under bonds to appear before the
+court and Judge Seaman fixed the bail in each case at $3,000. Mr. Debs,
+declining a score of offers from prominent men to furnish the necessary
+security, decided to go to jail. In reply to a question Mr. Debs said:
+"This is the first time in my life that I have been incarcerated in a
+jail, but with us it is a matter of principle. We have had many offers
+of bail but have refused them all. The poor striker if arrested would be
+thrown into jail and we are certainly no better than he, we will eat
+regularly, prison fare, and expect to be treated as any other prisoners
+would be."
+
+Their trial was set for the following Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BLACKLISTING BEGINS.
+
+
+The strike situation was now in the balance. The managers and their
+faithful allies the press, had given it out that the strike was off. One
+fact that could not be denied, was that P. M. Arthur, of the General
+Managers Association,--though still representing the engineers--was
+doing great work for the companies, as the engineers were returning to
+work pretty generally throughout the country. Sargent of the firemen was
+also playing his cards well, but not meeting with the same success as
+the "grand old chief." Wilkinson of the trainmen was sending out his
+orders and ultimatums, thick and fast and his men were now fast
+returning to their old positions.
+
+It was now a question of whether the men would prove loyal to themselves
+and their best interests, or loyal to the companies who were putting
+forth their best efforts to trample them to earth, and it is a painful
+fact that many of them were so blinded to their own interests,--through
+their craven cowardice--that they returned to work, and, to what will be
+in the near future beyond a question of a doubt, longer hours, less
+wages, and the complete annihilation of all semblance of rights.
+
+The strike was fast resolving itself into a switchmen's fight against
+the railroads. The yards were in the worst imaginable shape, and the
+engines were sadly in need of repairs. Shopmen, freight handlers,
+trackmen, and car-repairers were still out. Office men were now back at
+work with the exception of a few. The majority of the strikers were
+still loyal to the cause and the American Railway Union was sure of
+winning. The Knights of Labor did not respond to the call of Grand
+Master Workman Sovereign as generally as was expected, and the
+Federation of Labor had decided not to strike at present, perhaps this
+may be accounted for by the reports given out by the general managers
+that the strike was off and trains running as usual.
+
+The United States troops in the pay of the government were still doing
+service for the railroad corporations.
+
+Authenticated reports--given out by the striking committees--from
+different parts of the country would not seem to bear out the statements
+of the general managers.
+
+These committees had reports in regards to the operation of the roads,
+as complete as the officials of the roads themselves. They were
+thoroughly posted on the number of cars moved each day by each company,
+the number and character of switch crews at work and the number of
+strikers who had gone back to work. In short, everything that had a
+bearing on the result. This was part of the duties imposed upon them and
+they were faithfully carried out.
+
+Thirteen Pan Handle switchmen brought to Chicago from Pittsburg through
+misrepresentation, when informed of the true state of affairs, refused
+to go to work, and demanded transportation back to Pittsburg. They were
+given orders for the necessary transportation, but on presentation the
+companies refused to honor them. This was also true in the case of half
+a dozen men brought in by the Ft. Wayne road.
+
+The scabs on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, through ignorance and
+incompetency burned up five engines and wrecked as many more. One
+splendid new engine was blown up twenty miles from Terre Haute, while
+en route to Chicago. Yard service was of the worst possible kind.
+
+The Illinois Central was doing no freight business to speak of, in fact
+the condition of this road was still worse than the Chicago & Eastern
+Illinois.
+
+The Northwestern shops at Fortieth street, employing over 2300 men, were
+idle, only about twelve men signifying their willingness to work. The
+Galena division of this road, while making quite a bluff at handling
+freight, was not accomplishing very much, as it took them two days to
+unload a stock train.
+
+The Milwaukee road was doing better, having at work fifteen engines days
+and fourteen nights, but being manned mostly by green and incompetent
+men, were not making great headway. In all some 350 cars were gotten out
+and about 300 received in one day which is very small business for this
+line.
+
+The Wabash had only one engine at work nights, and this was guarded by a
+company of troops and about twenty deputy police. They succeeded in
+breaking down two posts, one at Polk street and another at Taylor street
+station, causing a damage of some $300 which was all accomplished in
+one night. The Chicago and Blue Island were now working two engines
+(this company generally worked ten), manned by scabs, one of whom was a
+nigger.
+
+A committee man from the Grand Trunk reported that only three men had
+returned to work.
+
+He said a personal friend of mine, a business man from Valparaiso, and
+whom I know, is in touch with the Grand Trunk, informed me that a Grand
+Trunk official had said in his presence that his company could not do
+business unless they made some kind of a settlement with the switchmen.
+
+Through John Downey and Miles Barrett, of the Switchmen's Mutual Aid
+Association, a meeting of switchmen was called in a hall at Eden to
+induce the switchmen to return to work. This meeting was "packed" in
+order to secure a majority vote in favor of returning but the scheme did
+not work.
+
+All the officials on the Pan Handle admitted that they could do nothing
+without the assistance of the old men. They had a few "stake" men whom
+they were paying $5.00 per day, but not enough to do any business.
+
+At Union Stock Yards all switchmen and assistant yard masters were out,
+and at the yard of the Street Stable Car Co. out of 300 men only three
+were at work.
+
+All men at the Burton Stock Car Co., the Canada Cattle Car Co. and the
+American Life Stock Co.'s yards were out, and refused to work under
+police protection. At Armour's car shops only nine men returned out of
+sixty who went on strike, and at Swifts only five out of forty-two. The
+yard trackmen were all out, as were also the Illinois Central switchmen
+and the Rock Island machinists and boiler makers.
+
+This was the condition of the strike in Chicago and the same existed in
+all parts of the strike district. Messages were received from many
+points saying that only those men who were subservient to the orders of
+their chiefs had returned to work, and from some points came the news
+that the strike had gained strength owing to the arrest of President
+Debs.
+
+The enemies of the American Railway Union had now began a systematic
+course--as dark and devilish as it was designing--of poisoning the
+public mind against Debs, who was, so to speak, a gagged prisoner and
+unable to defend himself.
+
+Such reports as: Mrs. Highenbotham was dying in Montana and Mr.
+Highenbotham appealed to Mr. Debs to allow her to be brought home by
+special train and see her friends, and Mr. Debs' brutal answer that not
+a wheel would turn.
+
+Whole columns of such falsehoods were published and circulated broadcast
+throughout the land, but not one word was written of the generous acts
+of this noble hearted man. When he was seen to pause in the most trying
+moment of his life to listen to the tale of distress and suffering
+related by a poor widow woman, and going down into his pocket, hand her
+a five dollar bill, all he had with him, this great and just public
+press was silent.
+
+Then the blacklisting of ex-employes began, the Missouri Pacific taking
+the initiatory step. The following certificate given to a yard clerk
+will speak for itself.
+
+"This is to certify that ---- has been employed in the capacity of yard
+clerk of the Missouri Pacific system from April, 1893 to June, 1894, at
+which time it was necessary to lay him off on account of a strike in the
+yards. He applied for work on July 18th, but in the meantime it was
+learned that he was a member of the American Railway Union and was in
+sympathy with the strike movement, so we could not re-employ him. His
+work and conduct up to the time of the strike was perfectly
+satisfactory.
+
+  J. S. JONES,
+  Terminal Supt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TRIAL OF DEBS.
+
+
+On the 23d day of July, the day set for the trial of the officers of the
+American Railway Union,--Debs, Howard, Rodgers and Kelliher were on hand
+to answer to the charge of contempt.
+
+The court room was densely packed, when Judges Wood of Indianapolis and
+Grosscup of Chicago entered and Judge Wood raised a serious objection to
+the crowded condition, saying that only those finding seats should be
+allowed to remain,--lawyers, and possibly reporters.
+
+After signing and swearing to the answers, the defendants filed in at
+11:40 and Judge Wood asked if the Santa Fe road was represented.
+Attorney Miller stepped forward and was asked if both proceedings could
+not be heard at the same time. Judge Wood favored this to save time, and
+it was finally agreed that if the Santa Fe cases be heard later the
+government testimony on this bearing be admitted. Attorney Gregory
+thereupon submitted the answers to the information filed before Judge
+Seaman in the contempt proceedings, and suggested that the trial for
+which the defendants had given bail be immediate and have precedence
+over the contempt proceedings. Judge Woods said that the court could
+decide upon a motion for delay, much more intelligently could they have
+the government information and the answers filed by the defendants.
+Attorney Milchrist then read the court the information.
+
+As Attorney Gregory had previously moved that the information be
+dismissed and the defendants discharged on their sworn answers, Attorney
+Erwin followed by reading the answers.
+
+At the conclusion of the reading he said that the defendants had made
+and filed a motion to quash, holding that the information was not
+sufficient. They now asked that the defendants be discharged, and also
+that the district attorney and government counsel to elect whether they
+should proceed under the indictment or under the contempt cases. No man
+could be tried twice for the same offense. Judge Wood said that the
+counsel for the government could proceed with either case. Attorney
+Walker elected to go ahead with the contempt proceedings.
+
+Attorney Gregory in the opening made an eloquent appeal for a trial by
+jury instead of a criminal proceeding in a contempt case, as he held the
+present proceeding to be. He cited a number of authorities in support of
+his position. He argued that it was the rule that there could be no
+appeal from the decision of a federal court in a contempt case, and that
+consequently, where the question of a crime was involved, a sentence
+from the court would practically be a conviction on the original
+criminal charge without a trial by jury which is guaranteed by the
+constitution.
+
+Mr. Gregory then took up the question of the motion to dismiss the bill
+on the grounds that the information did not set out in specific forms
+any violation of the specifications in the injunction granted by the
+United States court.
+
+He held that the men had a right to combine, choose leaders to advise,
+and quit work if they wished to do so and persuade others to quit work,
+that the injunctions did not prohibit them from doing so. Judge Wood
+asked if he considered that the defendants had a right to ask men to
+tumble goods out of cars that were ready for transportation. Mr. Gregory
+replied that he did not consider that they had any such right, and
+claimed that there was nowhere in the information a distinct allegation
+that the defendants had counseled violence or infractions of the orders
+in the injunction. While he was willing to admit that violence had been
+done during the present strike, nothing was charged in the information
+that the violence was due to the acts of the defendants.
+
+Attorney Walker for the government followed. He held that the defendants
+had no right to go into other states and persuade men to quit work for
+the purpose of paralyzing railroads, and that the issuance of these
+orders was a willful and vicious violation of the order of the court.
+
+Mr. Walker said the telegrams were the strongest evidence in the hands
+of the state to show that this had been done. He spoke for three
+quarters of an hour and directed his remarks more to the general charge
+against the defendants for violation of the injunction, than to the
+legal points raised by Mr. Gregory.
+
+It will be remembered that the answers filed by the attorneys for the
+defense, was a complete denial of the charges.
+
+After hearing all the arguments, Judges Wood and Grosscup decided that
+the contempt proceedings against Mr. Debs and the others, were in the
+nature of proceedings in equity, and therefore the defendants could not
+be discharged on their denial of the charges under oath.
+
+Mr. Walker gave as an excuse for wanting the case heard at once, that
+the defendants were liable to continue calling out the men unless they
+were restrained from so doing by the court.
+
+"Then," said Mr. Gregory, "you wish the court to practically call the
+strike off."
+
+Mr. Walker smiled and said that such an order would suit him all right.
+
+Judge Wood then added that it was within the bounds of the injunction
+called, for him to insist that the strike be declared off.
+
+Attorney Greeting, reviewing the information, raised the insufficiency
+of the allegations, he also raised the question of the bearing of the
+statutes under which the defendants were enjoined.
+
+The following are the sections of acts under which the United States
+courts issued injunctions restraining the American Railway Union, its
+officers or agents, from interfering in any way with the interstate
+traffic on railroads.
+
+"SECTION 1. Every contract combination in the form of trust or
+otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the
+several states or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be
+illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any
+such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
+and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
+$5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both; said
+punishments at the discretion of the court.
+
+"SECTION 2. Any person who shall monopolize or attempt to
+monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to
+monopolize, any part of the trade or commerce among the several states
+or foreign powers shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
+conviction thereof shall be punished etc.
+
+"SECTION 3. Every contract combination in form of trust or
+otherwise or conspiracy in restraint of commerce or trade in any
+territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in
+restraint of trade or commerce between any such territory and another,
+or between any such territory or territories and any state or states or
+the District of Columbia or with foreign nations, or between the
+District of Columbia and any other state or states or foreign nations,
+is hereby declared illegal Every person who shall make any such
+contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be
+declared guilty of a misdemeanor and punished as in the case of Sections
+1 and 2.
+
+"SECTION 8. The word person or persons wherever used shall be
+deemed to include corporations and associations existing under, or
+authorized by, the laws of either the United States, the laws of any of
+the territories, the laws of any state or the laws of any foreign
+country."
+
+"This law was never intended to cover the case of these defendants,"
+said Mr. Greeting. "It is clearly directed at the trusts and
+combinations which conspire to rob such people as the defendants. It
+seems to me that the district attorney would have been acting more
+within the spirit of the law if he had charged the railroads and the
+Pullman Palace Car Co., with conspiracy to monopolize interstate
+commerce, as it is a well known fact that the railroads have contracted
+with Pullman to haul none but his cars."
+
+A sickly smile spread over the features of the railroad attorneys
+present. It was evident that the words of Mr. Greeting sunk deeper than
+some of them would care to acknowledge.
+
+District Attorney Milchrist argued that the court had perfect
+jurisdiction in these cases, he held that the government derived revenue
+from postal service and interstate commerce. It had suffered in a
+pecuniary way hence the bill of information filed had a proper place in
+court.
+
+In regard to the information and answers, Mr. Milchrist said: "Either
+the counsel for the government deserved to be disbarred for willful
+misconduct for filing it, or the defendants in their sworn answer
+embodying a sweeping denial of the charge in the information had been
+guilty of rank perjury."
+
+Attorney Erwin then proceeded, prefacing his remarks with the statement
+that this was a court of equity. When these defendants denied under oath
+before the court, the allegations made in the bill, equity shut its
+doors. There was a remedy at law. The men could be punished for perjury
+in swearing falsely in their answers. No court of equity could hear such
+a case. Mr. Erwin held that the information was filed in equity and that
+the answer filed by the defendants was final and the remedy then was at
+law in a charge of perjury.
+
+"Is it any indication of the power of a court," interrupted Judge Wood,
+"to hold a man convicted on a charge of perjury?"
+
+Attorney Erwin said that the perjury charge could purge the defendants
+in the case of contempt.
+
+"You say in your answer," said Judge Wood, "that the defendants deny
+ordering strikes because it was not in their power to do so. Is it not
+enough to deny that you ordered the men out without going further and
+denying that you advised them in this matter."
+
+"We say," answered Mr. Erwin "that every strike was voted on by a
+majority of the American Railway Union men upon each road upon which
+there had been a strike. The defendants deny the power to order or
+coerce the members of the American Railway Union."
+
+When questioned as to the answers denying the telegrams Mr. Erwin said
+the denials were sweeping. They had covered every point and purged
+themselves of any desire to disregard the orders of the court and the
+proceedings should be dismissed. He said: "Had Special Counsel Walker
+who set before the grand jury made his charges more specific, and not
+sought to prejudice the minds of the court by holding his averments for
+the attachment proceedings, and making them in vague and declamatory
+charges."
+
+Judge Wood said if the defendants had asked for more specific charges he
+thought the court would have granted it.
+
+Attorney Erwin here remarked that they would prefer to make a motion to
+quash, which Judge Wood announced could not be done in this case unless
+the bill was wholly defective.
+
+Mr. Erwin said that Attorney Walker had drawn the bill up hastily, and
+it was signed only by himself and the district attorney, who verified it
+merely by belief. He urged that the court should not add the information
+by continuing the consideration of the imperfectly drawn and inadequate
+bill. The court should not be a detective to ferret out the alleged
+truths of certain charges the evidence of which should have been
+collected by the government officers before a rule against the
+defendants was issued.
+
+Mr. Bancroft for the Santa Fe followed Mr. Erwin. He vigorously defended
+the information filed, and proceeded to color the telegrams admitted by
+the defendants, to suit the purposes of the government.
+
+After a legal tilt between the counsel on both sides, Judge Wood
+overruled the motion of defendant's counsel to quash the information,
+and postponed the case until September 5.
+
+In conclusion he said that from what he had heard, he thought it
+necessary for the court to have its hand on the matter. It was evident,
+he said, that the defense intended to attempt to put forward a quantity
+of irrelevant matter as to the allegations regarding a combination on
+the part of the railroads. He said that while it was irrelevant he would
+hear it as a matter of curiosity and for public disclosure.
+
+The above synopsis of the proceedings of the trial, will give a fair
+idea of the course the government--on behalf of the railroads--pursued
+in conducting the prosecution of the officers of the American Railway
+Union.
+
+After a conference with their counsel--although opposed to it on
+principle--the officers of the American Railway Union decided to give
+bail.
+
+This decision was due to the fact that matters of an important nature
+demanded their immediate attention. They were placed under $7,000 bonds
+each, signed by Wm. Skakel and Wm. Fitzgerald, these gentlemen
+qualifying to the extent of $50,000 and $250,000 respectively.
+
+For the time being the officers of the American Railway Union were free
+men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION CALLED TO TAKE ACTION ON THE
+STRIKE.
+
+
+In an editorial on the trial, headed: The Press against Justice, the
+Chicago Times had this to say: "When it became evident that the rights
+and actions of E. V. Debs and his associates in the American Railway
+Union strike were to be reviewed in court this paper said editorially:
+"The Times appeals to its contemporaries and to the people to join with
+it in avoiding all clamor which may in the least degree influence the
+findings of the court or bring its proceedings into contempt." It
+appears that the appeal fell upon deaf ears.
+
+"Such papers as the Tribune and the Evening Journal seized upon the very
+first utterance of Mr. Debs' counsel as an opportunity for insidious
+effort to prejudice the court and the people against the cause of the
+labor leaders.
+
+"Two of the editorials and two of what it calls editorialettes were
+necessary to the Tribune yesterday in order to give its advice to the
+prosecuting lawyers and the court proper expression. The other organs of
+plutocracy though less lavish of editorial space, employed their news
+columns to the same end. The first strike of the allied newspapers is to
+pronounce the opening plea of the counsel for the defense, Mr. Erwin, in
+effect an assertion of the gospel of anarchy.
+
+"Overworked as it is by the bigoted press the word anarchy still serves
+as a more or less effective bogyman to frighten timid and ill-informed
+people, but no one who will read the reports of Mr. Erwin's address will
+find any anarchistic doctrines lurking therein.
+
+"He charged that Pullman and the railroad managers had conspired
+together against the interest of workingmen, that the manner of the
+conspiracy made resort to the law hopeless, that lawmakers could not or
+would not act, and under these conditions the men were justified in
+combining, resisting and refusing to work longer for Mr. Pullman or the
+roads allied with him.
+
+"The Times is unable to discern the savour of anarchy in that. It is in
+effect only a declaration that when employes combine to resist them,
+neither by direct statement or by innuendoes did the attorney suggest
+or excuse violence or the destruction of property. He erred, the Times
+thinks, in describing Pullman's course of procedure as illegal, for
+unhappily, law as it stands, protects Pullman in his most despotic and
+oppressive acts. If Pullman's course had been illegal, action at law
+instead of a strike and boycott would have been the remedy for it, but
+with the exception of this over-statement which may have been due to
+inadvertence, Mr. Erwin said nothing that men of fair and judicial minds
+can denounce as false, and nothing at all incendiary. The clamor of the
+conspiracy is raised to defeat justice."
+
+After the release of the officers a meeting was called at the Revere
+House, of the directors of the American Railway Union. They concluded to
+call a convention of the delegates from the different local unions, to
+meet in Chicago, August 2d, and take some action on the strike. Each
+local union was notified of this action and instructed to send a
+delegate with full power to act.
+
+After this meeting of the officers, they at once repaired to Ulrich
+Hall, where an enormous crowd greeted Mr. Debs with the greatest
+enthusiasm.
+
+Mr. Debs,--after being introduced by the chairman of the meeting, Mr.
+Adams,--was given three cheers with such a vim that the building fairly
+shook. He then advanced to the platform and said: "I see you have
+changed your quarters since I saw you before, and I am glad to say we
+have changed ours also.
+
+"When Judge Wood delivered his ruling yesterday he declared it to be
+illegal for men to combine and strike.
+
+"If that is the law, labor organizations had better disband at once. If
+we have no right to strike, no right to combine, no right to exercise
+the functions which are delegated to us, then we might as well give up
+and acknowledge that we are slaves.
+
+"If that is the law we have no right to resist or defend ourselves
+against the injustice of employers.
+
+"No matter how much has been said about the stars and stripes and the
+freedom of the workingman, if that is the final tribunal, corporate
+capital has the right to suck the life blood from the toiler who must
+make no sign. But I am not prepared to believe that this is in harmony
+with the constitution. If this is the constitution, then our liberty is
+gone. Mr. Erwin sounded the slogan yesterday when he declared that there
+is a higher power than the courts, a power greater than the aggregated
+combinations of capital and railroads. That is the inherent rights of
+workingmen to strike at the polls.
+
+"What we want then is to rid ourselves of the old party shackles.
+
+"We want to change the constitution so that even federal judges will be
+elected by the people. Then no judge will render a decision defying all
+law and justice. It is wonderful how sensitive the machinery of justice
+is to any complaint directed against the workingman.
+
+"But how is it when corporations combine? Is it of record that any
+officials of any one of them has ever been in prison for violating the
+law?
+
+"It is a notorious fact that the Santa Fe has robbed the people of
+$7,000,000 in the face of the interstate commerce law. Why not bring
+these colossal scoundrels to justice too? They say we must obey the law.
+I say we are law-abiding, and I defy any man to show a single instance
+where the heads of the labor organization have advocated violence. If
+the authorities want the law respected let them enforce it against the
+rich and poor alike.
+
+"In July, 1892, when the switchmen struck, the soldiers were called out
+to suppress them. Deputy marshalls set fire to a lot of box cars in
+Buffalo, N. Y., and this furnished the railroads an excuse to call on
+the government for soldiers. The railroads are still violating the eight
+hour law for which the men struck. They arrested the switchmen while the
+corporations are still allowed to trample the law under foot.
+
+"Is not that enough to bring disrespect of the law? As it is now, the
+whole thing is a roaring farce. Has anybody ever heard of soldiers being
+called out to guard the rights of workingmen? Whatever else I have
+suffered myself, I have not lost the right of free speech. If Judge Wood
+expounds the law I would rather rot in jail than be an alleged freeman.
+There is no man in the country who can directly charge me with violating
+the law of this country. Did any one of you ever hear me advocate
+violence? (A mighty no went up in response.) On the other hand did
+anyone here ever hear me counsel the men to be frank and straight
+forward, and honest and law-abiding in all they did?"
+
+The audience shouted yes to this and President Debs continued:
+
+"Before we get through with this trial it will be shown that the real
+conspirators are the railroad managers. Then if I go to the penitentiary
+Mr. Egan will have the distinction of accompanying me. We will produce
+the proof that the real purpose of the General Managers Association was
+to reduce wages, and that until we stopped them on the Great Northern,
+they were going around the circle with that end in view.
+
+"When it comes to striking at the polls we know the people will be with
+us, it will be a contest against the money power by which this country
+has been absolutely ruled for so many years. Havemeyer goes into the
+United States Senate and dictates what the duty on sugar shall be, and
+all the people combined can't stop him. Let a poor man go to Washington
+to protest and he is arrested for treading on the grass.
+
+"I am a populist and favor wiping out both old parties, so they will
+never come into power again. I have been a democrat all my life and I am
+ashamed to admit it. I want every one of you to go to the polls and vote
+the peoples' ticket."
+
+At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Debs announced his intention of
+going to his home for a few days.
+
+On hearing this, the members of the American Railway Union determined to
+escort him to the depot, and, although they had but two hours to make
+arrangements, a procession a couple of miles in length was formed.
+
+On arrival at his home in Terre Haute, President Debs was tendered a
+great reception. Thousands of his fellow citizens in all stations of
+life welcomed him with outstretched arms. Early in the evening the
+Naylor Opera House was packed to completion, and hundreds of people were
+denied admission owing to the dense throng of people who wished to do
+honor to this great leader. When President Debs appeared upon the stage
+he was greeted by a roar of applause that shook the building to its very
+foundation. His eloquent address on the strike situation and the causes
+that led up to it was received with thunders of applause.
+
+This was the man whom the corporate courts had indicted for criminal
+conspiracy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE STRIKE LOST.
+
+
+Through the machination of the general managers, the courts and the
+press and the Benedict Arnolds of labor, the cause of the railroad
+corporations was beginning to triumph. Discouraged and disheartened by
+the treachery in their own ranks, a great many strikers had lost
+confidence in the success of their undertaking and were now silently
+awaiting the result of the convention called at Chicago. This was made
+known on the return of the delegates.
+
+The action taken was to decide by a majority vote of each system whether
+the strike would continue in force or be declared off.
+
+After thoroughly discussing the matter, it was decided to call off the
+strike owing to the fact that they were forced to fight against
+overwhelming odds and rank treachery, and the men were instructed to
+make application for their positions at once, in view of getting as many
+as possible re-instated.
+
+This action was taken on all roads with the exception of the Chicago and
+Eastern Illinois, the Santa Fe and the Northern Pacific.
+
+Very few of the men were successful in securing positions, for instance
+at Minnesota Transfer the switchmen waited on the superintendent in a
+body (all who were still in the city) and made applications to be
+reinstated.
+
+Mr. Dudgeon the superintendent, who, by the way, was appointed during
+the strike to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Mr. Sullivan,
+informed the men that he had more applications already than would fill
+all vacancies for the next two years. He said: "I will not mislead you
+boys for one minute, not one of you will be taken back."
+
+I was not present at this interview, but being informed that Mr.
+Hastings, president of the company, had signified his willingness to
+hear us, we consulted together and decided to call on him at his office.
+
+John F. Keenan and myself were appointed as a committee to confer with
+him, and, after introducing ourselves, stated our mission.
+
+He received us in a gentlemanly manner, said that he was always ready to
+listen to the switchmen, as he had been a switchmen himself at one
+time, and while he assured us that he knew we had not interfered with
+the company property during the strike and conducted ourselves in a
+creditable manner, he could do nothing for us. He also said that he had
+more respect for us than he had for those who were hanging on the fence,
+but he had nothing to do with the employes of the Minnesota Transfer, as
+he had left that matter entirely in the hands of the superintendent. We
+told him that we were informed that Mr. Dudgeon would take some of the
+men back if the president of the company was satisfied.
+
+"Whatever arrangements you boys make with Mr. Dudgeon will be
+satisfactory to me," answered Mr. Hastings.
+
+He then referred us to Mr. Dudgeon who was present and who then said
+that he had already given us our answer which was final. He said that he
+had promised steady work to the men he had already employed if they
+proved themselves competent, and as they were doing the work
+satisfactorily, he would not consider any more applications.
+
+This statement regarding the work we knew to be a bluff, as it would
+take an old switchman, if unacquainted with this yard, at least three
+months under the most favorable circumstances to learn, if unaided,
+enough to enable him to give efficient service, as the yard is very
+complicated. And again in contradiction of this statement it is known
+that freight was refused from different roads for four days at a time to
+enable them to get the yard in shape, and after the freight of
+twenty-four hours was received, the same operation would be necessary,
+although they had the services of competent switchmen from the Omaha and
+other railroads.
+
+So speaking for the Minnesota Transfer the general managers were winners
+so to speak, in the game of freeze out waged against the switchmen. The
+men in all other departments were taken back with but few exceptions,
+but it was now a settled fact that the switchmen must look elsewhere for
+employment. The officials were credited with saying that they would
+permanently close the transfer, rather than reinstate a single
+switchman.
+
+It would be nothing more than justice at this time to say that the
+former superintendent, Mr. D. M. Sullivan, had resigned his position
+during the strike for the reason that the management would not allow him
+to take back the old men. Mr. Sullivan contended that it would be
+impossible to operate the yard without the assistance of a goodly
+portion of the old employes.
+
+In a newspaper article he denied that his resignation was handed in on
+that account, but it is nevertheless credited by those who know him
+well, and by the employes themselves.
+
+We then applied at all the yards in the Twin Cities but with like
+result, and although not told in so many words, we were given to
+understand that we were blacklisted, and this was the case not only with
+us, but with men all over the country.
+
+The Soo Line had now put in force an ironclad agreement that all
+employes were obliged to sign if they wished to remain in the service of
+the company. This debarred the men from belonging to any labor
+organization for five years. Another rule put in force at this time was
+that engineers would hire their own firemen. This would appear to be a
+blow at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.
+
+The railroad corporations exulting in their victory, determined to
+boycott every striker and sympathizer throughout the country, as far as
+it was in their power.
+
+The weapon, that it was made a criminal offense for a striker to use,
+and for which the officers of the American Railway Union were sent to
+jail, was now in the hands of the railroad corporations to use at will.
+
+What was decided by the courts unlawful in the hands of the American
+Railway Union was legal in the hands of the General Managers
+Association. This the federal judges made no effort to investigate.
+Judge Wood said regarding the charge of a combination on the part of the
+railroads, that while it was irrelevant he would hear it as a matter of
+curiosity.
+
+Expressions like this emanating from a judge of the United States court,
+immediately following his ruling against the strikers, are too plain to
+be misunderstood. While he might condescend to hear the charges against
+the general managers, it is very evident that a motion to quash any
+proceeding against the corporation would be granted.
+
+The greatest pressure of evidence brought to bear by the American
+Railway Union against this illegal combination would have no weight with
+the judge, therefore it could not be wondered that when the General
+Managers Association started a systematic course of boycotting the
+American Railway Union by blacklisting its members, there was no action
+taken to prosecute them.
+
+The Union Pacific, now in the hands of the government, not only
+discharged every striker and sympathizer but blacklisted them also.
+
+This is a sample of justice. Some of the men had worked for the company
+for twenty years, and the only charge against them was that of being
+members of the American Railway Union and struck in sympathy with the
+starving Pullman employes.
+
+Their system of blacklisting is so perfect that every avenue of escape
+is closed against an employe.
+
+They have what is known as the blacklist book. The names of the strikers
+are entered in the book of which a copy is held by all railroads. When a
+man makes application his name is taken and the book is then consulted.
+If his name is registered he is told that no more men are wanted, if
+not, he is told to call the next day, by which time, if he is a striker,
+it is known, and he will have to travel.
+
+An assumed name will do no good, as he will be asked to give reference
+signed by his last employer, so you will see very plainly that the
+strikers lot is not a bed of roses.
+
+President Debs has been accused of being responsible for this condition
+of affairs. There is absolutely no truth in that accusation, as in the
+first place it was directly against his wishes and advice that the
+Pullman employes struck, and only after a personal investigation of the
+case--and realizing that the causes which led to it would admit of no
+denial that the men were justified in their action--did he approve of
+it.
+
+The boycott that followed the Pullman strike, as has been previously
+stated, was not ordered by Mr. Debs. He did not have the power to order
+it, therefore he could not be held responsible for the result.
+
+The men who were the victims of this unfortunate boycott, were
+themselves responsible for its beginning, as by an almost unanimous vote
+they ordered it. Perhaps they may have acted hastily, it has been stated
+many times that this was the case, but when the brutal inhuman treatment
+of the Pullman employes came to light through the investigation of the
+delegates to the convention, they would be less than human if they had
+refused to come to the assistance of these men who were being ground
+down by a merciless corporation.
+
+After reading the facts brought to light by the witnesses before the
+strike commission appointed by President Cleveland, and also Gov.
+Altgeld's personal investigation I do not believe that any one with a
+spark of humanity in his heart will condemn them for their actions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE COMMISSION.
+
+
+The commission appointed by President Cleveland to investigate the
+strike began its work Aug. 15, at 10 o'clock in Judge Grosscup's court
+room. Most of those present were members of the American Railway Union.
+Prof. Bemis, of the Chicago University, was in attendance. Neither the
+Pullman Company or the railroad companies were represented. The
+witnesses examined were Geo. W. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, and James R. Sovereign, grand master workman of the
+Knights of Labor. Acting with the commission were B. J. Hastings, of
+Utica, N. Y., and Deputy United States Marshall Bartlett. Chairman
+Wright announced that they were in session pursuant to the President's
+call which the clerk read. This document directed an inquiry into the
+causes and the conditions of the controversy between the Illinois
+Central and the Rock Island roads and their employes. After the reading
+chairman Wright made the following statement: "By the act recited in
+the commission of the President that has just been read, this commission
+is directed to examine into the causes, controversies and difficulties
+existing between the roads named and their employes at the time the
+commission of the President was issued. The board is constituted as a
+temporary body for this purpose and not for the purpose of arbitrating
+the difficulties that existed. It is practically a court of inquiry and
+its proceedings will be in accordance with the usages of such courts. It
+will proceed first to hear all witnesses in behalf of the employes and
+then those of the corporations named. All such witnesses are requested
+to hand their names to the clerk. Under the law parties may be
+represented by counsel or appear in person as they see fit, and examine
+and cross-examine the witnesses. After all the witnesses have given
+their testimony the commission will then consider arguments or
+suggestions to be made upon the questions before it. All suggestions and
+arguments presented in writing will be filed and considered by the
+commission, but the question as to how far the commission will listen to
+parties who desire to be heard orally will depend upon the time left to
+the disposal of the commission and will be determined after the
+testimony is concluded. By the act creating it this commission possesses
+all the power and authority of the United States Commissioners appointed
+by the Circuit Courts of the United States. The hours of sitting will be
+from 10:00 A. M. to 4:00 P. M. Parties and their counsel and witnesses
+attending will find seats within the rail."
+
+Vice President Howard was the first witness sworn. In answer to
+questions as to his age, residence and occupation, Mr. Howard replied
+that he was 46 years old, resided in Chicago, and was vice president of
+the American Railway Union. For nearly 30 years he had been identified
+with the railroad service filling positions from trackman to general
+superintendent. He had been a member of the Yard Masters' Association,
+the B. of L. E. and O. R. C. By request of Mr. Wright he gave the
+following connection of the American Railway Union with the strike.
+
+"We began organizing the Pullman employes in March of this year. Early
+in May they struck. The strike was voted by themselves not by the
+American Railway Union, indeed we advised against the strike.
+
+"Immediately after the strike was called I accompanied a committee of
+forty-three representing every branch of the Pullman service to a
+conference with Mr. Wickes at Pullman. Mr. Pullman refused to arbitrate
+but promised to give their grievances immediate attention if they would
+return to work. I inquired of Mr. Wickes if there would be any prejudice
+against the members of the committee and was assured by him that there
+would not be. After receiving this assurance from Mr. Wickes, I advised
+the men to go back to their work, which they did. Next day three of the
+committee were discharged, not on order or with the knowledge of Mr.
+Wickes or Mr. Pullman, but by some under boss in the shops. This so
+incensed the rest of the employes who considered it a breach of promise
+that they unanimously struck again.
+
+"June 12, the convention of the American Railway Union met in Chicago.
+The Pullman strikers were represented by seven or eight delegates. The
+situation at Pullman received consideration. A joint committee
+representing the convention and the Pullman strikers was appointed to
+wait on the Pullman company. The committee was informed that the Pullman
+company would confer with only its employes, consequently this body was
+discharged and a committee consisting of Pullman employes appointed. The
+action of the Pullman company was reported to the American Railway Union
+convention whereupon each delegate wired his local union for
+instructions. The result of this was that the members of the American
+Railway Union all over the country voted to discontinue handling Pullman
+cars if at the end of five days from that date the Pullman company
+refused to arbitrate with its employes.
+
+"In this connection I wish to say that Mr. Pullman stated to the
+committee of forty-three, in my hearing, that his employes at that time
+owed him $70,000 for rent and that he had not pushed them for payment
+which fact clearly shows that his men were not making enough to pay
+rent."
+
+Mr. Wright: "That was the boycott order, was it?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I do not use the word boycott. The action taken was simply
+that members of the American Railway Union would not handle Pullman
+cars.
+
+"Two days before the limit of five days--the dates I do not now
+recall--but I will furnish them--the General Managers' Association took
+action declaring that they would share the expense of whipping the
+American Railway Union.
+
+"Pullman would not arbitrate and first the men on one road then on
+another refused to handle Pullman cars. They did not decline to handle
+other cars, but switchmen, you understand, would not attach Pullmans to
+trains. Engineers, conductors, firemen and trainmen would not take out
+trains which Pullman cars were attached to. There was no attempt to
+interfere with the mails but on the contrary every effort in our power
+was made to help the roads carry them. The companies held the mails in
+their determination to attach Pullman cars to trains.
+
+"Of my personal knowledge I know of a road that abandoned a mail train
+to take out an excursion train, not having crews to take out both. In
+another instance I know of a mail train going out on the order of the
+railway officials after the Pullmans had been cut off by the employes.
+Things went on in this way for several days. No violence was committed
+by the employes and the police were in full control of the situation to
+prevent violence from outsiders.
+
+"The first pistol was drawn by one Miller, an employe of the Tribune at
+Blue Island, wholly without cause, and after the troops were on the
+ground. The violence that was afterward committed was not as was
+believed by members of the American Railway Union but by outsiders--some
+acting in passion, because they saw in the presence of the soldiers an
+instrument of tyranny. Others in a spirit of mischief and love of
+destruction and others still--hired by the General Managers in order to
+create public sentiment against us. Yesterday I gave the mayor of
+Chicago the name of a man who claimed, while under the influence of
+liquor to have received $400 for burning cars. The Committee of safety,
+at Springfield, sent us the names of three men who quarreled about the
+division of $500 received for burning cars. $200 of which was paid in
+advance by John M. Eagan, of the General Managers' Association."
+
+Regarding the motives actuating the organization of the American Railway
+Union Mr. Howard denied that it was to destroy the old organizations but
+because they no longer fulfilled the necessities of the situation. If
+the old brotherhoods could get together amicably there would be no need
+of the American Railway Union, but they never can. There are two many
+causes for jealousy, for instance: There are 10,000 locomotive engineers
+who are not in the B. of L. E. but are members of the B. of L. F. In
+case of a grievance the engineers are divided and are represented by two
+organizations. The Brotherhood of Trainmen contains men who have been
+promoted to conductors causing a friction between these two orders.
+
+Mr. Wright: "Then the sole purpose of the American Railway Union in
+taking the action it did was to oppose the Pullman company and it was
+not actuated by any desire to injure the other railway organizations?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "That is it exactly. After the action taken by the General
+Managers' Association we had to act as we did or lie down."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Did the officers of the American Railway Union advise the
+men on roads other than those using Pullmans to go on strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "The men on all roads represented by the General Managers'
+Association were advised to go out on strike."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Was this order extended to roads not using Pullman cars or
+which were not represented in the General Managers' Association?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Were there any such road?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes. General Manager Clark, of the Mobile & Ohio, sent us
+word that his road would drop the Pullman service if the men would
+continue at work. We advised the men to return to work under those
+conditions, but the men at St. Louis argued that such action would
+weaken their cause and refused to take our advice in the matter."
+
+Mr. Worthingford: "How did you advise all other organizations to go on a
+sympathetic strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "We did not advise nor even request other organizations to
+declare a strike. We invited the heads of all labor organizations to
+come here and aid us by their advice or in any way they saw fit to help
+us. I think Mr. Debs sent the invitation. When the representatives of
+the other labor organizations met here, we went before the body and
+explained the entire situation. They asked Mr. Debs what he wished them
+to do. He replied that he did not ask anything of them but left it to
+their best judgment and conscience to take such measures as would help
+bring the trouble to an end. Mr. Debs read a communication which he had
+prepared to present to the general managers, and asked the
+representatives at the conference if they would act as a board of
+arbitration or assume the role of peace-makers. President Gompers of the
+American Federation of Labor, seemed afraid that such action would
+involve the other organizations in some way and hesitated to accept our
+request to take the communication to the general managers. We then
+concluded to ask Mayor Hopkins to present our communication. The mayor
+willingly granted our request."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Was any written record kept of that conference of the heads
+of the labor organizations which was held at the Briggs House?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I do not know."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What records have you of the proceedings of your
+convention as to who invited the heads of other labor organizations to
+meet here in conference, and what they were expected to do?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "I think it was decided at the convention of the American
+Railway Union, which met here June 12, to extend such an invitation. I
+know it was talked over then."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Then the American Railway Union did not advise a
+sympathetic strike of all organizations."
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir. Mr. Debs left that question to the judgment and
+conscience of the men themselves."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Was the action of the convention of June 12 a
+strike?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Well, it was called a strike."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Was the communication you referred to
+presented to the general managers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, and returned without an answer further than a
+statement that the General Managers' Association had no business to
+transact with the American Railway Union or its representatives."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "It is charged that your organization, like others,
+encouraged its members to persistently interfere with and prevent
+unorganized labor from taking positions given up by their striking
+members. Is that charge true?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "It cannot be shown in one instance that anything of the
+kind has been done."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You won't go so far as to say that no interference
+of the sort alluded to has ever been engaged in?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Certainly not. I mean that such interference was not
+authorized or countenanced by the union."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you take any steps to prevent such
+interference?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "We have taken the ground that when we go out on strike not
+to interfere with any of the new men the companies may employ."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do countenance advice to such men not to take
+the places of strikers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Oh, yes. We claim the right to ask new men not to take our
+places."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Is it not a fact that such interviews usually result in
+violence?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. I think the rule is to the contrary. We go no further
+than to request the men to quit work and to commit no violence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any punishment for violation of that
+rule?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. No organization has any power to punish a member for
+violation of such rule except by expulsion. We leave the punishment of
+such cases to the civil authorities."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think some steps should be taken by
+labor unions to punish their members who violate the rules in that
+respect?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir, I do, and we started out to do so here during the
+strike but the trouble assumed such vast proportions that it was
+impossible to do anything in that direction. In the case of the Great
+Northern strike we appointed committees to guard the company's property,
+and the men were instructed to shoot anyone found in the act of
+destroying same."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What, as a rule has been your experience in
+strikes where violence was restored to?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "The men have always been defeated."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then a resort to violence is rather detrimental to
+the cause of the strikers?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Decidedly so. We want public opinion with us in a strike."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Do you know of any organization that disciplines
+its members for resorting to violence?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "None, excepting the American Railway Union. Our argument is
+that the only weapons labor has to fight its battles with are the strike
+and the boycott. There is some talk about the ballot but some questions
+cannot be settled by the ballot. Only the array of labor in one solid
+phalanx will give it the power that will make strikes unnecessary."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Does not history show that on account of
+jealousies in your own ranks a complete organization of labor cannot be
+effected?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes. That is history up to the present, but the workingman
+is doing more thinking to-day than ever before."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You regard such a strike as would be possible
+under the conditions you outline as a desirable thing for organized
+labor?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No, sir. If employers would be a little more considerate of
+their men there would soon be no labor organizations in existence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do not say that all grievances are just, do
+you?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No. Many of them are frivolous."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "It is charged that there is a minority in all
+labor organizations who are practically enslaved by the will of the
+majority and that a man for that reason loses his independence when he
+joins a union?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Well, I think the reverse is the rule. The hot heads and
+agitators in the labor movement are in the minority; the quiet, thinking
+men are always in the majority. It often happens that the man who is
+really most anxious to strike assumes an air of indifference or positive
+objection to such a move. He is merely waiting for a good excuse to stop
+and let the blame lie with some one else. He wants some one to order him
+to quit work so he can say to the superintendent that he is afraid to
+remain at work for fear of personal violence."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Was any other motive behind the strike other than
+to force a settlement with Mr. Pullman?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan; "Was there any object in breaking the older unions
+so that the American Railway Union might profit thereby?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "While the increase in membership in the American Railway
+Union meant a decrease in the strength of the older organizations it was
+not the object of the strike to break down the older unions."
+
+In answer to a question by Commissioner Kernan as to what he would
+suggest to prevent railroad strikes in the future, Mr. Howard replied
+that the government ownership and control of railroads was the only
+practical solution of the question. He argued that about one third of
+the railroads of the country are practically under control of the
+government, and thought the balance could easily be taken. He claimed
+the Santa Fe was from two to four months behind in payment of wages;
+that it would seem only fair that the government should see that the men
+were paid. The government had gone to the extent of forcing the employes
+of that and other roads to work whether they wished to or not and he
+thought the other step might as well be taken at once.
+
+Mr. Sovereign, grand master workman of the Knights of Labor, was the
+next witness. He testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+Union. Said the only official connection the Knights of Labor had with
+the strike was the adoption of a resolution that they would not ride in
+Pullman cars. He also stated that a general tie-up of all the industries
+in the country to force public sentiment on Pullman and bring to bear on
+the Pullman company the greatest possible pressure was contemplated, but
+it was found the tie-up could not be made sufficiently general to bring
+about the desired results, so it was not attempted.
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then you do not consider the American Railway
+Union responsible for the rioting that occurred?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "No, sir. In fact I do not think there was any rioting."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Do you consider burning cars a species of
+rioting?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Not when it was done by U. S. marshalls."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Was it so done?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "I read reports in Mayor Hopkins' office to-day to that
+effect--reports that seem conclusive on that point. Moreover I don't
+think there was as much rioting as is generally believed. I came from
+Des Moines on what was supposed to be the last train to Chicago. We
+arrived without incident at Blue Island on July 6. There the train was
+side tracked and we were told by the officials that it could go no
+further because of the mobs between there and the city. I saw a west
+bound mail train on another track and was told it had been there for
+twenty-six hours and could not proceed on account of the mob and
+violence beyond, though it would go on the very same track on which we
+had just arrived. I bought a ticket from Blue Island to Chicago on the
+Wisconsin Central. After coming a short distance the train stopped and
+the conductor told us we could go no further on account of mobs ahead of
+us. I picked up my grip with the intention of walking to the city, but
+the conductor cautioned me against risking my life. However I walked in,
+was not molested, saw no disorder and did not see more then ten men at
+any one place."
+
+Mr. Kernan inquired what views the Knights of Labor held about letting
+non-union men take the places of strikers.
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "That depends on circumstances. In the case of mine
+owners, for instance, who have sold houses to their employes who have
+partly paid for same, the unjust discharge of these men means a
+forfeiture to the mine owners of all money paid on the property. We hold
+that we must by all honorable means prevent others from taking their
+places."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "But suppose honorable means are not effective?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Well, if it's necessary to prevent them from passing a
+given line we clasp hands and keep them out."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "You do not assault them?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "No. If they break through they assault us."
+
+Mr. Sovereign did not think that strikes or compulsory arbitration was
+the remedy for labor troubles. He believed that the government ownership
+of railroads would settle the trouble for employes. He also believed the
+employes of corporations had an equity in their positions and for unjust
+discharge should have a remedy in a court of equity.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Why cannot the contract between employer and employe
+provide for all you want the law to cover?"
+
+Mr. Sovereign: "Because labor is always dependent, always has been at
+least and is forced by the duress of circumstances to accept employment
+without insisting on protecting conditions."
+
+George W. Lovejoy was the next witness to take the stand. In answer to a
+question by Commissioner Wright, he said: "I am familiar with the
+history of the strike on the Rock Island road. Beside the order passed
+by the convention to refuse to handle Pullman cars, the men at La Salle
+had a special grievance that consisted of unjust treatment of the
+members of the American Railway Union which had a local lodge at that
+point. I for one was dismissed without any cause being assigned.
+Complaint was made to Supt. Dunlap and an explanation asked as to why
+the men were discharged. He refused to consider the grievance submitted
+to him so the men concluded to strike."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Was the grievance submitted in writing?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It was. I have not a copy, but think I can get one from
+the local union."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What part did your local union take in the Pullman
+strike?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It decided to sustain it."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Was there any violence at La Salle?" Mr. Lovejoy:
+"No, sir. None whatever."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Have any of the old men been taken back?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "No, sir. And never will."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Is it on account of the strike that they cannot get
+back?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I suppose it is."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How general was the strike at La Salle?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "It extended to every branch of the service. Switchmen,
+firemen, engineers, conductors, brakemen, telegraph operators, clerks,
+round-housemen and trackmen."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Now tell us about the cause that led to your
+discharge as you understand it?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Six months previous to the convention of the American
+Railway Union which met in Chicago, June 12, I had an understanding with
+the superintendent that I would get a leave of absence and was to put a
+man in my place while absent. When I got ready to come to Chicago, I
+sent a note asking for such leave of absence and transportation. The
+transportation was sent me, but no answer to my note was given. When I
+came to Chicago I called at the office of the superintendent to have an
+understanding about my leave and he told me that a written notice was
+not necessary. Whenever I wanted to go anywhere all I had to do was to
+put a good man in my place and go. The Tuesday following the opening of
+the convention the assistant superintendent went to La Salle and put
+another man in my place permanently. No reason has ever been given me
+why such action was taken."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Mr. Lovejoy, I suppose you have given the subjects
+of labor troubles and strikes some study. I wish to ask if you can
+suggest any solution of these troubles."
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir, I have and I consider the only way to solve the
+question is for the government to own the railroads."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What is your reason?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I think the employes would receive better treatment and be
+better satisfied. I think they would get the same kind of treatment as
+the postal employes and there would be no strikes under these
+conditions."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What do you think of arbitration as a remedy?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I have never seen arbitration tried to any great extent
+and while I believe in the principle I am not prepared to say that I am
+in favor of compulsory arbitration."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "If the government owned the railroads how would
+you avoid the changes incident to a change in administration?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I consider that railroad employes would be in practically
+the same position as postal clerks. They would be under civil service
+rules to the extent of being pensioned after a term of years of faithful
+service."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Would it not cause jealousy among other branches
+of workingmen if such a system should be adopted toward railroad men?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I do not think so. I am not jealous of postal clerks."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What would you suggest as the next best thing if
+government ownership proved impracticable?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "That the government keep hands off altogether; let the
+roads and their men fight out their troubles free from outside
+interference. It is the knowledge that the government can be called to
+their aid that makes many of the railroad officials so arbitrary with
+their men."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't you think that disputes ought to be settled
+by some other method than open warfare?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "There would be none if the authorities would keep away.
+The employes would settle their grievances by arbitration."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "What would you think of a law providing that upon
+application of a certain number of employes the railroads should be
+compelled to come before a board of arbitration and make answer to the
+grievances of the men or vice versa before a strike could be declared? I
+mean by that a law which would compel a hearing of disputes by a
+constituted tribunal even though that tribunal had not the power to
+force a decision in the matter?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "I would be in favor of such a court and believe that the
+railroad men would abide by its decision voluntarily if they had some
+choice in the selection of the arbitrators."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not one of the greatest troubles the
+railroad men have to contend with that they cannot get a hearing of
+their grievances?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Yes, sir. It is. And if the men could always be sure of
+getting a fair and impartial hearing I do not believe there would be any
+strikes. As a rule the men are opposed to strikes and resort to them
+only when every means of settling grievances has failed."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that strikes usually end
+disastrously to the men?"
+
+Mr. Lovejoy: "Strikes often fail to accomplish the particular end in
+view, but I believe on the whole their tendency is toward a betterment
+of the conditions of the men. The strike we have just passed through has
+demonstrated to the working people of this country that they must get
+together as one solid body before they can win. They have found out that
+when they undertake to assert their rights they have no friends but
+themselves. The press, the judiciary, the ministers and office holders
+are all against them."
+
+Secretary Kelliher of the American Railway Union was next to testify. He
+promised to furnish the commissioners with certified copies of any of
+the proceedings of the convention, and the correspondence which occurred
+during the strike. In answer to questions by the commissioners he
+considered government ownership of railways the only solution to
+strikes. While he favored arbitration, he did not think compulsory
+arbitration would be satisfactory to the men.
+
+Thomas J. Heathcoat, a resident of Pullman, and one of the strikers, was
+the next witness examined. He testified to the condition of Pullman
+prior to and at the time of the strike and gave a full account of the
+strike and the causes that brought it about. He gave in detail the scale
+of wages paid prior to June, '93, and the constant reductions since.
+
+Mr. Heathcoat, in answer to Commissioner Kernan asking him to explain
+the mode adopted by the Pullman Company in cutting wages for piece work,
+said:
+
+"Take, for instance, that desk behind which you sit. Suppose it were
+given to me to make. I figured that I could do the work for $20.00, and
+took it at that price. As a good mechanic I could make $4.00 per day at
+it. For the next one the foreman would allow me $18.00. Being anxious to
+make good wages, and being a good mechanic, I would use extra effort and
+still make $4.00 per day. The next one the foreman would allow me only
+$16.00 for. Yet, by extraordinary effort I could still make $4.00 daily.
+The next one the foreman would allow me $12.00 for, and with my utmost
+endeavors I could make only $3.00 per day. As a good mechanic I would
+refuse to take any more at that price and the work would be given to an
+inferior workman who could make only $1.25 per day. This is the way the
+Pullman Company has worked its piece work system."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Did the cuts in other departments average as much
+as in yours?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "They averaged the same though they were not alike. The
+new men in the freight car department suffered more than we did and
+there were others in some of the departments that were making pretty
+good wages at the time of the strike."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "You have spoken of asking the company for a
+reduction in rent. What rent do you pay, and what did you get for it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Up to the beginning of the strike I paid $17 a month
+rent and 71 cents per month for water. Gas I did not use. Could not
+afford it. The company charged $2.25 per 1,000 feet. My house had five
+rooms, cellar and back yard." Commissioner Wright: "What would similar
+houses rent for elsewhere?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I know of eight and nine room cottages with front and
+back yards, in every way more desirable than the house I live in, that
+can be rented for $8.00 and $9.00 per month."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "What, in your opinion, would it cost to build
+houses such as you live in?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I should like to take the contract for building them at
+$600 apiece."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What other accommodations do you get for the rent
+you pay, say in the way of paved streets?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "There are cheap wooden sidewalks in front of the house
+and the company keeps a force of men on the street picking up paper and
+hauling away garbage. That's all I know."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you applied to the Pullman company for work
+since the strike?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. I understand that I am blacklisted. They have a
+blacklist, you know. I have one in my pocket now."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Will you let me see it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. Here it is."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any objection to telling us where you got
+this?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. I got it from a friend of one of the clerks in
+the Pullman office and I would not like to tell the name of either, as
+it would cost the clerk his position."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any other evidence of the existence of a
+blacklist?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. One of the men who applied to Mr. Childs at
+the Rock Island shops for work. He was asked his name and the same being
+found on one of their lists he was told that he was a Pullman striker,
+consequently could not get work. I understand the Pullman company's
+blacklist was sent to all the railroads so that others besides myself
+can never get work in the railroad shop again."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Do labor unions ever blacklist non-union men?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "The American Railway Union does not. That is the only
+labor union I ever belonged to."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "What was the feeling of the employes toward Mr.
+Pullman previous to the strike?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "As a rule I think the employes had a high regard for Mr.
+Pullman until Harry Middleton took charge two and a half years ago. He
+is not a practical car builder. He wastes material for which we are
+charged. He displaces men who have earned their positions by good work
+and promotes his favorites. He makes arbitrary and tyrannical shop rules
+which deprive us of part of our pay. For instance, suppose a car
+carpenter be given a lot of cars, the work to be finished in a certain
+time. Within a day of the time limit it is seen that there is still six
+days work for one man. He will put on five extra men, regardless whether
+that many can work to advantage, and pay them by the hour charging the
+same to the man who took the job as piece work."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is not time enough allowed to finish the work so
+that such instances would be due to the neglect of the man who took the
+job?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, except in rare cases. It is
+misjudgment on the part of the manager, Mr. Middleton, as I said before,
+who is not a practical car builder. As an instance of a waste of
+material--There was a set of car sashes, made of mahogany. Care was not
+taken to see that the mahogany picked out was all of the same color.
+Instead of picking out those of the set that were alike in color and
+completing the set with new ones and using the off color ones in another
+set with wood picked out to match, Middleton had the whole set smashed
+and charged the men with the cost of the material and refused to pay
+them for their time when it was not their fault at all."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Referring now to the committee appointed to wait on Mr.
+Pullman--tell us what you said and what was said to you."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "We asked Mr. Wickes and Mr. Pullman to adjust our wages
+so that we could support our families. We wanted either the wages of
+June, 1893, or a reduction in rent and some increase in wages. Mr.
+Pullman said he could not reduce rents as he was making only 3-1/2 or
+2-1/2 per cent., I don't know which now, on his investment. He said he
+could not increase wages because he was losing money on his contract
+work. But he did not say what was a fact that nine tenths of the work
+that had been done since the cut began was Pullman and not contract
+work."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What do you mean by Pullman work?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Work on cars owned and operated by the Pullman Company
+and not work on cars sold to railroads. One result of this was that the
+company was getting work from us for $1.90 for which it paid the
+railroads when they did this work $2.50 and $2.70. Two days after he
+told us the company was losing money on its contract work, a quarterly
+dividend of 2 per cent. was declared."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "That might have been paid from accumulations and
+not from earnings."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Mr. Pullman did not make any such explanation to us when
+we spoke to him afterward. If he had, perhaps we would not have felt so
+badly about it. But it did seem hard that when men were working and not
+getting enough from the company to buy enough to eat that it should pay
+out $600,000.00 in dividends."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Were there those not getting enough to eat?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I have seen men faint by the side of cars on which they
+were working because they had not had enough to eat. After the cuts,
+while working as hard as I could to earn enough to support my family, I
+have been obliged to sit down in the middle of the forenoon to rest
+because I had not had enough food to enable me to do such hard work and
+there were hundreds worse off than I. If rents had been reduced I
+believe there would have been no strike. We wanted to submit the
+question of rent and wages to a board of arbitration, we to choose one,
+the Pullman company one, and the two a third. We would have abided by
+any decision the arbitrators made."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Did not Mr. Pullman offer to let you look over the
+company's books to convince you that what he said was true?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes. But what would we know about them? Besides, we did
+not believe that the books would show the real facts. I have been told
+that there is only one accountant in the city who understands the
+company's books and we did not have money enough to buy bread let alone
+to hire an accountant. I have seen men crying at the paymaster's window
+when their pay checks for two weeks would be eight cents or 35 cents,
+or one dollar or two dollars over their rent and the company expected
+them to support their families on that 'till next pay day. You see the
+men got two pay checks, one for just the amount of rent owed and the
+other for the balance of their two weeks pay. The rent checks they are
+expected to indorse and turn over at once to the town agent in payment
+of rent. The law will not allow the company to deduct the rent from the
+pay and retain it, but the check must be turned over just the same for
+you cannot cash it unless you can persuade the agent that you cannot
+possibly live unless you are allowed to retain it. Then perhaps you will
+be allowed to retain a part or all of it. I have been insulted by the
+clerks in the agent's office because I told them I could not get along
+without the money for my rent check. Yet such was the case for there was
+one time when my pay after the rent was deducted left only eight cents a
+day for each member of my family to live on until the next pay day."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Are the Pullman employes required to live in Pullman?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. As long as there are any houses in Pullman
+vacant the men must live there, unless they own houses somewhere else or
+are favorites of the shop bosses. In fact during last winter I knew of
+people who owned houses in Roseland leaving them unrented and moving to
+Pullman so they could get work. When you apply for work you are required
+to make application if you are a man of family."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Are there any lots in Pullman bought and sold so that
+you could form an idea of the value, for instance, of the lot on which
+the house you live in stands?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. No lots are sold but I know of a house and lot
+over in Roseland on the boulevard near One hundred and eleventh street
+which were bought two years ago for $2,500 and can be rented for $12 a
+month. The house is better than the one I live in, is bigger and in a
+good location while mine is on a back street and I would not pay more
+than $1,000 for the house and lot."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "If your house could be built for $600 and only yields
+3-1/2 per cent the lot must be worth more than $5,000. Is it?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "No, sir. It is not, but there are some frame houses in
+Pullman which the company charges eight dollars a month for that could
+be built for $100."
+
+Mr. Wright: "It was said at the beginning of this strike that the
+Pullman people owed $70,000 for rent. How far back did that accumulation
+begin?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "I should say about Nov. 1, 1893."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you know what the cuts in wages were in
+departments other than your own."
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "The freight car builders suffered more than others, but
+the commission can find out best by having some one from each department
+come before it."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Don't the people of Pullman know that we want to
+hear from every one that can throw any light on this subject?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. They understand it but there are lots of them
+who have not money to get down here."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Tell us if you can what was the average pay of the
+employes, say in April last?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "On a lot of elevated cars on which I worked I made 16
+cents per hour, on one car and 15 cents per hour on another, but there
+were men working alongside of me who made only four and five cents per
+hour. I would say that in January, February and March the mechanic's pay
+averaged $1.50 and the laborers' pay $1.30 per day. Some times the
+laborers' checks were bigger than the mechanics'."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Have you any suggestion of a remedy for labor
+troubles?"
+
+Mr. Heathcoat: "Yes, sir. The ownership of railroads and banks by the
+government would do it. I never heard of a strike in the post-office
+department or the navy yard."
+
+Miss Curtis next took the stand. She was an employe of Pullman and
+president of the Girls Union of the American Railway Union at Pullman.
+Beginning her testimony she said: "In June, 1893, the wages in my
+department were 22-1/2 cents per hour, $2.25 a day. In April, 1894, they
+were 70 to 80 cents a day. There were two cuts in one week in November
+and another in January. In April the best wages any of us could make was
+eighty cents a day, while some could not make more than from 40 to 50
+cents a day. Last June they could make at least $1.50 per day."
+Commissioner Wright: "Do you pay rent?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "Not now. My father worked for the Pullman company thirteen
+years, during which time he paid rent. He died last September and as
+there was some expense connected with his sickness he owed $60 back
+rent. Then I went to work in the repair shop and boarded out. The
+company made me pay $3 per week on account of the back rent. I still
+owed $15 on the day of the strike and owe it yet. Some weeks I did not
+earn enough to pay my board and rent too and then I paid only part of
+the $3."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "Were you on any of the committees that waited on
+Mr. Pullman and Mr. Wickes?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "Yes, sir. I represented the girls on that committee. We
+wanted our wages raised as the men did theirs. Mr. Wickes said it was
+impossible to raise wages as they were losing money on their contracts
+and it was utterly impossible to reduce rents. An appointment was made
+to meet Mr. Pullman on another day. When we saw him he said the same
+that Mr. Wickes told us."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What work was done in your department?"
+
+Miss Curtis: "We made the silk, satin and velvet drapings; the carpets,
+tapestries and mattresses for the sleeping coaches, the linen for the
+dining cars, sewed the fringe on cushions and all that sort of thing."
+
+Theodore Rhode was the next to testify. He said: "Four years ago I had a
+good job. Then they wanted me to do a kind of work that no one else
+could make a living at. Four or five of us were to work together. I was
+to have charge of the work and we were to divide whatever we made. I
+said I would try it, but if I didn't like it wanted my old job back.
+This was agreed to. When I became satisfied that I could make nothing at
+the new work I asked for my old place, but they would not give it to me
+and told me that if I didn't like what I was doing I could quit working
+for the company. After a while we got so we could make from $2.60 to
+$2.85 for 10-3/4 hours work. Then the cuts came, and work for which we
+had received $9.00 paid only $4.25. It was impossible to make $1.25 per
+day, and we were told by the foreman to quit if not satisfied. I paid
+$15.00 a month for rent and 71 cents for water. I could rent as good a
+house in Kensington or Roseland for $7.00 a month. On the day of the
+strike I owed $2.50 for rent. Have not paid it since, although the
+collector has been around two or three times lately. Low wages and high
+rents are not all the trouble. It is the abuse. They talk to men as they
+would to dogs. They are constantly experimenting with new materials. If
+it don't prove satisfactory we get no pay for our work. Take English
+varnish, for instance. The atmosphere must be just right or it won't
+work. Oftentimes, owing to a dampness in the air, we were obliged to do
+our work over two or three times for which we get no extra pay. In April
+my wages every two weeks were from $12.00 to $15.00. I understand they
+pay the men who took our places from $2.50 to $3.00 and $3.00 to $5.00
+per day. I have not applied for work again."
+
+R. W. Combes. For 30 years a car carpenter and for 10 years employed at
+Pullman, was next called before the commission.
+
+"A year ago," he said, "wages in his department was $2.25 at piece work,
+and 17-1/2 cents per hour. In March, piece work was cut so that they
+could not make more than 68 cents a day."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How much would you have gotten at the rate of
+wages in force in March or April?" Mr. Combes: "We did not built the
+same kind of cars in 1894, but had we, we would not have received
+anything for them. In February I had $3.50 to support my wife and two
+children after paying rent. Had the men received fair treatment there
+would have been no strike. John Pearson, superintendent of the freight
+car department, is the whole cause of the strike. He is abusive and
+tyrannical. I was inspector in April and Pearson told me if the men did
+not do what I told them to take a club and knock their damned heads off.
+That's the kind of a man he is. I have not applied for work. Middleton
+told me I never could work there again."
+
+H. F. Griswold, a switchman, testified that he had last been employed by
+the C. M. & St. P. Ry.--that he lost his position through the
+strike--had tried to get work within the last few weeks on the Penn. R.
+R., at Pittsburg, Altona and Columbus and at each of these places had
+been shown a blacklist with his name on it as a member of the American
+Railway Union.
+
+Several other witnesses testified as to being blacklisted on account of
+being in the strike.
+
+Charles Naylor, a fireman on the Ft. Wayne road up to the time of the
+strike, was next examined. In answer to questions as to what he thought
+of arbitration he said: "From my knowledge of railroad men I do not
+believe they would have much confidence in arbitrators elected in the
+same way public officials are. My idea is that they should be appointed
+when their services are required and a new set of arbitrators selected
+for each case. The board should be composed of one man selected by the
+employes, one by the roads, and a third by these two."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "That is the law now."
+
+Mr. Naylor: "Yes, but it is not enforced. It seems to me that if Mr.
+Cleveland had followed in the line of action pursued by Mr. Gladstone,
+during the coal miners' strike in England, there would have been no
+trouble here. If he had told the railroads when they called on him for
+troops that they must submit to arbitration or they would get no support
+from the government, the men would have thought a good deal more of his
+honesty and fairness, but when they see the whole power of the
+government thrown on the side of the railroads they lose confidence in
+the justice of the government."
+
+Commissioner Wright: "There was no law under which the president could
+have told the roads to arbitrate the trouble with their men."
+
+Mr. Naylor: "From all that I can learn there was as much law for him to
+do so as for him to send troops here without the request of the governor
+of the state."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "In your suggestion of a board of arbitrators there
+would be but one of them unprejudiced?"
+
+Mr. Naylor: "I think such a board would always be able to effect a
+compromise between the parties. I have acted in the capacity of
+arbitrator between the company and the men in adjusting grievances and
+have always found that a spirit of compromise was met in a like spirit
+and that is the principle, after all, upon which such questions must be
+settled."
+
+Vice President Howard of the American Railway Union, was recalled to
+make an explanation regarding some testimony which Mr. Heathcoat had
+given the day before. He said: "Mr. Heathcoat told you that Mr. Pullman
+had promised to allow a committee to examine his books, to prove the
+correctness of his statements to the effect that his company was losing
+money on its contracts. The next day, Wallace Rice, a reporter on the
+Herald, called on Mr. Pullman and asked him if he would allow an expert
+to examine his books on behalf of the union. Mr. Pullman replied that
+what he meant by allowing an examination of his books was that he would
+have his own book-keeper prepare a statement to be submitted to the
+committee. He said he never had any idea of allowing the committee to
+actually examine his books. Mr. Howard then asked if he might make a
+statement of a couple of matters of importance to the employes. The
+commissioners looked doubtful about this, but finally Mr. Wright said he
+might go ahead if the matter had anything to do with the subject under
+consideration.
+
+Mr. Howard then said: "The United States government is blacklisting
+3,000 employes of the Union Pacific Railroad now."
+
+Mr. Wright: "We have no authority to go into that question."
+
+Mr. Howard: "And the other matter is that all the other roads are making
+a threat against the M. K. & T. to boycott its business if the road
+persists in making a certain rate to Washington."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Has that anything to do with the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Howard: "Yes, sir. If the government allows the railroads to violate
+the laws it ought to keep hands off in disputes between the roads and
+the men."
+
+Rev. Mr. Cawardine was called and related what he knew about the matter.
+Mr. Cawardine is pastor of the M. E. church in Pullman. His testimony
+was directed chiefly to the exorbitant rents. In answer to Mr. Wright,
+saying that he had been charged with being an anarchist, and a
+socialist, Mr. Cawardine said: "I have considered the charge so
+contemptible in the bitterness and prejudice of its origin as to be
+beneath answer. That I, an American born citizen and the son of a
+soldier who died for his country, should be charged with being
+anarchist, seems to me incomprehensible. It is simply an evidence of
+what has been made very apparent that a good many people are violently
+prejudiced against working men and will not listen to what may be said
+on their side or read what may be written. I find this feeling even
+among many of my brethren in the ministry. I regret it too, because the
+labor problem can only be solved by a consideration of it from all
+sides."
+
+Andrew W. Pearson, a real estate agent who formerly worked in Pullman,
+was called on the stand and in answer to a question put by Mr. Wright,
+said:
+
+"Houses which rent for $17.00 in Pullman can be rented in Kensington and
+Roseland for $10.00. Pullman houses which rent for $25.00 can be rented
+elsewhere for $15.00, and $10.00 Pullman houses for $5.00. In Grand
+Crossing, a manufacturing town, $8.00 a month will rent a five-room
+brick cottage. The rents I am giving now are the present rents. There
+has been a decline since two years ago everywhere but in Pullman."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How much higher are rents in Pullman than
+elsewhere?"
+
+Mr. Pearson: "I should say fully one-third."
+
+Frank P. McDonald, a locomotive engineer and author of the Great scab
+route circular, testified that he was a member of the American Railway
+Union and a delegate to their convention. He said he was opposed to the
+strike, but voted for it as it was the unanimous sentiment of his local
+union. His reason for opposing it was because he did not think the union
+was strong enough to win.
+
+President Debs, of the American Railway Union, was the next important
+witness to testify. Mr. Debs outlined the trouble from its inception
+down to the special convention in Chicago on Aug. 2. In answer to
+questions by Commissioner Wright, Mr. Debs said he was 38 years old, a
+resident of Terre Haute, Ind., and had been president of the American
+Railway Union since June 20, 1893. He was a practical railroad man, had
+been employed four and a half years in the capacity of locomotive
+fireman and was at present editor of the Fireman's Magazine. Mr. Wright
+told him to go ahead and give a history of the late strike so far as he
+knew from his own experience.
+
+Mr. Debs said: "In the early part of May, while at home in Indiana, I
+received a telegram from Mr. Howard notifying me of the probability of a
+strike at the Pullman shops, the employes of which were members of our
+union. I authorized Mr. Howard to take full charge of the matter, but to
+do all in his power to prevent a strike. My reason for this was that the
+American Railway Union had just been involved in a strike on the Great
+Northern railway. At a meeting of the general officers of the union we
+had discussed the possibility of other strikes arising on account of the
+victory the union had won on the Great Northern railway, and we decided
+that it would be good policy to be very cautious in encouraging the men
+to go into strikes whenever there was a possibility of avoiding them.
+May 11th, I heard that the Pullman employes had struck. A few days
+after, I came here and made a personal investigation of the trouble.
+After a trip to St. Paul I again went down there and the result of my
+investigation was that the conditions at Pullman justified the men in
+the course they had taken. I found that wages and expenses were so
+adjusted that every dollar the men made found its way back to Pullman
+coffers. The men were not only not getting enough wages to live on but
+were getting deeper and deeper in debt every day. They had not money
+enough as a rule to get away. There seemed to be no escape for them.
+Wages had been reduced, but expenses remained the same. After I had
+satisfied myself of the truth of the men's statements regarding their
+conditions, I made up my mind to do everything possible in law and
+justice to right the wrongs of our members who had gone out on strike.
+We first tried to get the company to arbitrate. We were confident that
+any fair and impartial board would decide in favor of the employes. The
+company, however, refused every proposition of that sort saying that it
+had nothing to arbitrate. I then suggested that the Pullman company
+select two men to act with two judges of the circuit court and a fifth
+person whom they should select to act as a board to investigate the
+question whether there was anything to arbitrate. This proposition was
+refused.
+
+"June 12, delegates representing 425 local unions of the American
+Railway Union met here in the first quadrennial convention of the
+organization. The Pullman question came up for consideration before the
+convention sitting as a committee of the whole to hear reports etc. I
+wish to say in this connection that all of our deliberations were held
+with open doors, except one executive session at which the question of
+finances was considered, in which we felt the general public had no
+interest, but at all the other meetings the entire press of the city was
+represented. I mention this in refutation of the statements which have
+been made as to the American Railway Union forming a conspiracy against
+the railroads and committing offenses against the United States. If a
+conspiracy were intended it seems improbable that we should have sat
+with open doors. The first steps taken toward securing a settlement of
+the trouble, was the appointment of a committee composed partly of
+Pullman employes and in part of other delegates present, with authority
+to call on Mr. Wickes to find out if anything could be done toward
+effecting a settlement of the strike."
+
+Here Mr. Debs related how Mr. Wickes refused to confer with a committee
+composed of any but his former employes, and finally refused to confer
+with them, stating that he had nothing to arbitrate.
+
+He then continued: "The matter was then referred to a special committee
+with authority to act in the matter. This committee reported that if the
+Pullman Company refused to concede anything after five days time to
+consider the question, it was the sense of the convention that the
+members of the union would refuse to handle Pullman cars. Under the
+constitution of the American Railway Union the majority rules in all
+questions under consideration. No strike can be declared except by a
+majority of the men involved. In order to conform to this rule, the
+delegates were instructed to communicate by wire with their respective
+unions to ascertain the sentiment of the members on the question before
+the convention. After reports had been received from all the local
+unions, the convention by a unanimous vote decided to adopt the report
+of the special committee.
+
+"Since the railroad employes have been criticised for engaging in a
+sympathetic strike, I wish to make some statement regarding the general
+situation. In many instances they had local grievances themselves, and
+besides, there was this general condition which aggravated the whole
+situation.
+
+"In the spring of 1893, just before the opening of the World's Fair, the
+general managers of the various roads centering in Chicago, were very
+apprehensive lest there should be a general strike among all classes of
+railroad employes for an increase of wages. The officers of the
+organizations appealed to the men not to strike, arguing that it was
+their patriotic duty to bear with patience their grievances until the
+fair was over. The result was there was no strike anywhere. The men all
+worked in harmony throughout the country. Some of the managers promised,
+by implication at least, that there would be an increase of wages to
+reward the patriotic action of their men. Instead of doing as they
+promised, the general managers during this time equipped their
+organization to protect their mutual interests."
+
+Mr. Debs then read an article from a Chicago paper which told how the
+general managers had formed an air tight association which would be able
+to deal with any strikes that might arise in the future, and suggested
+that the association rather courted than feared trouble with employes of
+the railroads.
+
+Continuing, Mr. Debs said: "Shortly after the new association had
+completed its organization it became apparent what course it intended to
+pursue. About Sept. 1, the Louisville & Nashville road made a sweeping
+reduction of 10 per cent in the pay of all its employes--the section men
+getting 67-1/2 cents a day under this reduction. Then in succession
+followed the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, the Richmond &
+Danville, the Mobile & Ohio, Nashville & Chattanooga, Big Four, New York
+& New England, New York, New Haven & Hartford, Wabash, Union Pacific,
+Northern Pacific, Monon, Great Northern and the Great Western was just
+on the point of declaring a reduction when the strike was declared. "It
+was significant that no two roads declared a reduction at the same time,
+and in most instances the reductions began with the unorganized and
+poorest paid men in the service. The men viewed these reductions with
+apprehension and unrest. This was particularly the case after Judge
+Caldwell had declared upon investigation that the cut on the Union
+Pacific was unwarrantable. In two cases the reductions annulled and the
+original pay of the men restored. On the Union Pacific--on the order of
+Judge Caldwell and on the Great Northern through the efforts of the
+American Railway Union. In the later case the matter was decided by a
+board of arbitration, composed of leading capitalists and business men
+of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
+
+"These conditions confronted the American Railway Union, when its
+delegates met here in convention. The employes felt that other systems
+in sound financial conditions had taken advantage of the unfortunate
+condition of the country to reduce wages. The men had lost confidence in
+their old unions which had failed utterly to protect them against these
+reductions and they came in the hope that the American Railway Union
+would take some steps to resist them and protect its members against
+the rapacity of the railroad companies. This was the reason they were
+ripe to take up the cause of the Pullman strikers. They were wrought up
+to a point where they were willing to jeopardize their positions to
+protect both themselves and the Pullman employes. The primary purpose
+was to cut off Pullman's revenues by cutting off his cars and thereby
+force him to a settlement."
+
+Mr. Wright: "I understand you to say you advised against the Pullman
+strike. Why did you do so?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "We had just gone through a strike on the Great Northern and I
+did not think it advisable to go into another at that time."
+
+Mr. Wright: "What would have been the action of the convention if there
+had been no strike at Pullman? Did not that strike force the issue?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "There would have been no trouble with the railroads, I think,
+but for the Pullman strike. That and the depressed condition of the
+country aggravated the situation so as to bring about a general strike."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was the general strike precipitated by the Pullman
+troubles?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes sir, it was."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was a notice of the action of the convention served on the
+different companies?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Not by the convention. That matter was left to the men on the
+various systems. From the action of the managers toward the American
+Railway Union generally, the matter of serving a formal notice of our
+action on them was not looked upon as necessary, as we were very sure it
+would be ignored."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Was notice served on the Illinois Central and Rock Island
+roads?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I think so, but am not sure."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did they have notice through the press?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Do you know the date on which the general managers adopted
+their resolution to resist the strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I think it was June 24, four days after our action. It was
+currently reported at that time, though I have no written or other
+evidence of the fact that the general managers resolved among themselves
+to exterminate the union."
+
+Mr. Wright: "If the American Railway Union had had its own way in
+regard to its policy would a general strike have been postponed?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. The conditions were not altogether propitious and
+we were fully aware of the fact."
+
+Mr. Wright: "What was the number of your membership at that time?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "About 150,000."
+
+Mr. Wright: "Did you consider that strong enough for a general strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Yes, sir. But it was not a question of membership altogether.
+There were other reasons." Mr. Debs said there was one other point to
+which he wished to call the attention of the commission. One great
+reason the men had in resisting a reduction of wages was the fact that
+the companies never restored them voluntarily. The tendency had
+therefore been for the employes to get closer together to resist the
+combined efforts of the managers. That was the principle, he said, which
+had inspired the idea of the American Railway Union. Then resuming the
+history of the strike Mr. Debs said:
+
+"Pursuant to the order of the convention, which was practically the
+order of 150,000 men composing the American Railway Union, the members
+refused to handle Pullman cars. It has been claimed that the president
+of the union was a self appointed leader who had ordered the strike,
+etc. In this connection I wish to say that while such is not the case,
+when the report came in I gave it my approval as president. I do not
+wish to avoid any of the responsibility. If I had had the authority I
+would have ordered it under the same circumstances. June 26, the men
+began to refuse to haul Pullman cars. They had been advised not to
+handle the cars on any system where they could not get the sanction of a
+sufficient number of men to make such a refusal effective. The officers
+of the union opened headquarters at Uhlics Hall and as committees came
+in from various roads and made their reports they were advised how to
+act, and above all else to avoid trouble and violence and to maintain
+order. We advised them of their right to quit in a body and told them
+their rights ended there, and that the railroad companies had a right to
+hire new men and their right began there."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What steps if any did you take to prevent
+violence?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "When we saw there was to be trouble we issued an appeal to
+the men not to commit any acts of violence. Fourteen years of experience
+taught me that violence was the worst thing that could happen for any
+strike."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How about the telegrams sent by you?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "None of them were inflammatory."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "How about that 'save your money and buy a gun'
+telegram?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I can explain that telegram very easily. Among those who were
+employed at headquarters to take charge of our correspondence and
+telegraphing was a young man named Benedict. He had authority to sign my
+name to telegrams in answer to questions, etc. The telegram was sent to
+a man whom Mr. Benedict had worked under as a telegraph operator in
+Montana. The allusion to the gun was a playful expression which they had
+been accustomed to use in joking each other, and was understood in that
+way by the man who received the telegram. I have his letter in
+explanation of the matter which I will be glad to turn over to the
+commissioners. I never saw many of the telegrams sent out and did not
+see the one you refer to. The employes, obedient to the order of the
+convention, began as I have said, to refuse to handle cars. The refusal
+usually came from the switchmen who refused to make up trains with the
+Pullman equipment. As they refused they were discharged--when the others
+would quit.
+
+"July 1st. After five days of strike the general managers were
+completely defeated and their immediate resources exhausted. Up to that
+time there had been no signs of violence anywhere. Our men were intact
+and confident. Then the intervention of the courts was called into play.
+
+"July 2d. I was served with a sweeping injunction restraining me from
+sending out telegrams or issuing orders having the effect of persuading
+the men to quit work. This injunction was issued wherever the trouble
+existed. The result was to reduce our influence to nothing. This was the
+point from which the strike was conducted by telegrams and otherwise.
+Then a special grand jury was called to inquire into my conduct with the
+result that I was indicted with other officials of the union and
+warrants issued for our arrest. We were held under a joint bond of
+$10,000. Then followed an attachment issued for contempt of the
+injunction of July 2d, and our incarceration in the county jail. As
+soon as our men found we were under arrest they quit. The U. S. courts
+ended the strike, not the soldiers." Mr. Debs told of the seizure of his
+mail and personal effects. He said he merely cited the fact to show to
+what extent the U. S. authorities were willing to go to defeat the
+strikers. He also commented on Gen. Miles who was reported to have gone
+directly to the General Managers headquarters on his arrival with the U.
+S. troops. He said Gen. Miles was quoted next day as having said he had
+broken the back bone of the strike. Mr. Debs thought Gen. Miles had
+mistaken his mission which was to preserve order and not to help the
+railroads run their trains. He said:
+
+"I think Gen. Miles was vulgarly out of place, both when he went to the
+General Managers and when he made the remark credited to him." He said
+he thought if the General Managers were compelled to bring into court
+copies of their telegrams sent to the attorney general as the American
+Railway Union had done he could substantiate the charge that it was the
+object to annihilate the American Railway Union.
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did I understand you this morning to charge the
+General Managers Association with the responsibility of the strike?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Not in that broad and general way. The American Railway Union
+ordered the strike and is responsible for it, but there were aggravating
+circumstances which ought to go in mitigation under any view of the
+situation. But the attitude taken by the General Managers' Association,
+their expressed determination to crush the American Railway Union, in
+that respect and in refusing to arbitrate they were responsible. We felt
+if they could combine we could and each was culpable."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You believe in enforcing the law, do you not, and in
+the proper authorities using sufficient force to do it, do you not?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Most certainly I do."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You have doubtless given considerable thought to the
+matter. How do you think strikes can be avoided?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "There are two ways. First. By submitting to reduction in
+wages and other grievances as the old organizations have done for years.
+When the general manager determines to reduce wages he proposes a cut of
+20 per cent when he only intends to make a 10 per cent reduction. Then
+there is a conference when they finally agree on 10 per cent. This
+avoids strikes but it reduces wages. The second way is a unification of
+all, or practically all the railroad men of the country in a prudently
+managed organization. That would prevent strikes on railroads, for even
+if the railroads could unite to beat such an organization, it would be
+expensive."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Do you believe that such an organization would be so
+strong as to compel the adoption of all reasonable demands?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "We did believe it, or the American Railway Union would never
+have been organized. We see now that it cannot because all the organized
+forces of society and of the government are arrayed against it. When a
+strike inconveniences no one, no one is particularly interested in it
+and it gradually dwindles down to the little end of nothing. But when a
+strike does inconvenience the public, as railroad strikes must of
+necessity do, the organized forces of society and the government, a
+practically impregnable force, and properly so, is arrayed against it.
+Take, for instance, the Ann Arbor strike. It inconvenienced the public
+and immediately the roads applied to the courts, and Judge Taft issued
+an injunction against the men. The first of the injunctions that have
+been so much questioned both by lawyers and laborers."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Is it justifiable to incommode the public as such
+strikes do?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "It depends on circumstances. I believe with Admiral Porter,
+that a pin is worth fighting for if a principle is involved. To resist
+degradation is justifiable no matter what the result. If there were no
+resistance, things would be, if possible, worse than they are and
+without resistance degradation is inevitable. If the railroads treated
+their men fairly there would be no labor organizations. Every
+organization of railroad men is traceable to oppression. The Brotherhood
+of Locomotive Engineers was born of the tyranny of the Michigan Central
+road. I have that from the lips of Mr. Robinson, the founder of that
+organization. The first meetings were held in secret because the men
+would have been discharged if the management knew they were organizing.
+Everywhere organization originated from similar causes. No legislation
+can reconcile railroad employers and employes while human nature is in
+it. Confidence has been destroyed. The men have been so treated that
+they have grown suspicious, and when general managers, who are
+themselves employes, order a reduction of wages on instructions from
+those above them, that it is necessary because of hard times or slack
+business, the men are not at all assured that such are the reasons. They
+may accept the reduction, but they are not satisfied. In many instances
+the general managers obey orders to reduce wages with regret for they
+are humane men, many of them. Soon after the Great Northern strike, the
+president of a railroad told me that I now had the opportunity to make
+myself a most enviable reputation, both among railroad employers and
+employes by advising the men themselves to propose a reduction of say 10
+per cent in their wages during these dull times, thus putting the road
+under obligation to increase wages when business improved. I said to
+him, only a few months ago your road was doing a phenomenally heavy
+business. Did you propose an increase of even 5 per cent in your
+employes wages because you were making money? Every time a decrease in
+wages has been prevented or an increase secured, it has been the result
+of weeks of labor and pleading and the expenditures of thousands of
+dollars by the men. Every schedule ever adopted is evidence of that.
+Now that the strike is practically over the usual persecutions will be
+indulged in against those who took part in it. Some people are
+felicitating themselves that the strike has been suppressed, but the
+safety valve has been screwed down, that's all. The men are no more
+satisfied than they were. Some of them will get back their old
+positions; others will get work on other roads; still others will find
+work elsewhere, while some will be forced to remain idle for a long
+time. None of them are satisfied with the conditions and sooner or later
+strikes will break out again, I fear. You might as well try to stop
+Niagara with a feather as crush the spirit of organization."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "If it should be shown that government ownership of
+railroads resulted in poorer service and more expensive management, do
+you think it would be a good thing?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "Government ownership of railroads is decidedly better than
+railroad ownership of government. The time is coming when there must be
+government ownership of railroads. Strikes cannot be averted
+otherwise."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Will government supervision answer the
+purpose?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I don't think so."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Will arbitration answer?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "I fear not. No good can come from compulsory arbitration,
+that is a contradiction of terms, even if some means of enforcing the
+decree could be devised. Those against whom the decree was rendered
+would not be satisfied. The basis must be friendship and confidence."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Admitting that there is some contradiction in
+the term compulsory arbitration, it expresses what we mean though
+compulsory attempts at conciliation would express it better. Would it be
+of no avail in any case?"
+
+Mr. Debs: "It would undoubtedly in many cases where trouble is local and
+the conditions homogeneous, so that all of them could be considered as
+for instance in the Pullman troubles. It could be put in force if there
+was a trial by jury or something of that sort, as other courts are
+constituted, but in interstate matters on railroads extending over
+thousands of miles where conditions vary, no decree could be made to
+fit the case. It is easy to compass local matters but not widespread
+matters because the conditions are not homogeneous. It would be
+impossible to force the decree."
+
+                         "MR. DEBS' TESTIMONY."
+                   An extract from the Chicago Times.
+
+"People who read an Editorial from the Chicago Times of Eugene V. Debs
+before the strike commission, as printed in the Times yesterday, cannot,
+if they be fair-minded, fail to be convinced of the justice of the cause
+in which he is working and of the sincerity and ability of the man
+himself.
+
+"In a struggle for the rights of humanity individuals are nothing. He
+will be but a poor champion of the cause of the people who will pause to
+eulogize certain champions when he should be fighting for principles.
+But when a leader like Debs is attacked, as he has been attacked, and
+all the agencies and all the influence of capitalism are set in motion
+to 'make an example of him'--i. e., to so persecute him that no other
+man will be willing to encounter like danger in the wageworkers'
+cause--then must every spokesman of the working classes speak out in
+defense of the leader so attacked.
+
+"The slanders that have been directed against Debs during this struggle
+simply baffled recountal because of their number. He has been called
+crazy, drunken, revolutionary, criminal, incompetent. Newspapers have at
+once declared his conduct of the strike impotent and denounced him for
+having made it so effective. Labor has been entreated to throw him over
+as a puerile leader and capital has been warned that he is a dangerous
+man because of his surpassing ability. 'Anything to beat Debs' has been
+the one policy which has animated the organs of capital for the last
+four months.
+
+"Well, Debs is beaten--in a certain sense. His effort in behalf of the
+Pullman strikers has failed and the very journals which most strenuously
+opposed his work are now printing the story of the dreadful destitution
+bred of the Pullman despotism which Debs did his best to break down.
+
+"It is too late now to fight over again the issues of the American
+Railway Union strike and boycott. Debs and his associates now stand in
+the shadow of the penitentiary for trying to avert by entirely proper
+and lawful means the conditions which now engage the attention of the
+governor of the state, and which must awaken the sympathy of all humane
+people. The privileged corporations flocked to the aid of the Pullman
+concern--no one conversant with the facts in the case can gainsay that.
+The railroads stood by Pullman; every morning newspaper in Chicago
+except the Times stood by the railroads; the government joined in with
+the combination. Mr. Debs' testimony is to the effect that governmental
+action, by hastily issued injunctions, killed the strike--a statement
+which everybody cognizant of the course of that movement will indorse.
+
+"There has been much evidence adduced before the investigation
+commission, but none so exact or none more clear than that of Mr. Debs.
+His explanation of the causes of the strike and boycott is perspicuous
+and logical, his outline of the causes of its failure coherent and
+convincing, his suggestion of means for avoiding its recurrence
+absolutely right. He sees, as all clear-sighted and fair-minded men must
+see, that under the private ownership of railroads there is no
+possibility of justice for railroad employes. The public interest in the
+smooth and uninterrupted course of traffic over the roads enables the
+managers to call upon public opinion and even upon state forces to aid
+them against the employes in any serious controversy. The government
+ownership of railroads is indeed, as Mr. Debs has said, the one
+effective remedy for strikes among railroad hands. Asked for a solution
+of the general railroad problem, he suggested the co-operative
+commonwealth--a solution, doubtless, but one so difficult of
+accomplishment as to seem almost, if not quite, Utopian. Mr. Debs might
+have proceeded logically from his declaration for government ownership
+of railroads to government ownership and management of all other
+industries which tend naturally and inevitably to become monopolies.
+This accomplished, the repeal of all laws giving private persons the
+benefit of artificial law-created monopolies would follow. Then the
+abolition of all taxes upon industry. Finally, the throwing open to all
+men on equal conditions of all natural opportunities so that every man
+starting in life should have, so far as human power could accomplish it,
+an equal chance with every other man. Under such an organization and
+with such laws the co-operative commonwealth which Mr. Debs suggests
+would probably prove unnecessary. Competition, which is essential to the
+progress of civilization, would still continue, but it would be free
+competition, not the calm triumph of man plus monopoly over the man
+without it."
+
+Following President Debs' testimony the matter of rioting was taken up
+by the commissioners. Chief Deputy U. S. Marshall John C. Donnelly,
+testified that there were between 1,400 and 1,500 deputies sworn in,
+armed and paid by the government, concerning whose character and fitness
+practically no inquiries were made, and that there were between 3,000
+and 4,000 men sworn in as deputies at the request of the railroads,
+armed and paid by them, and that no inquiries concerning their
+characters were made at all. That this army of 3,000 or 4,000 armed men
+clothed with the authority of the United States was not at all under the
+control of the U. S. marshall and was not responsible and reported to no
+one unless to the chiefs of detectives of the several roads. Most of the
+reports of drunkenness and violence of deputies were from among those
+hired by the railroads.
+
+Malcolm McDonald, a reporter for the Record, was next to testify. In
+answer to questions by the commissioners he said, he thought as a rule
+the turbulent element was not composed of railroad men. He spoke to some
+of the American Railway Union men about upsetting cars and they denied
+having had any hand in it. He also said that the conduct of the U. S.
+marshalls had not been such as to prevent trouble and they seemed to be
+hunting opportunities to get into conflict with the men.
+
+M. L. Wickman, pastor of the Swedish Methodist Church, testified that
+many members of his church who worked for the Pullman Company, had to be
+taken care of during the fall and winter of 1893 and 1894. He told of
+one man who had his hand injured by a piece of flying steel. After a
+great deal of expense at the hospital he finally recovered the partial
+use of his hand and was taken back to work at reduced pay. Mr. Wickman
+took the case before Manager Brown, and that officer confronted him with
+a written statement by the injured man to the effect that the accident
+was one for which the company was in no way responsible. It was
+subsequently proved that the man's signature to the paper was forged.
+
+Ray Baker, a reporter for the Record, said he was at Hammond during the
+rioting there and thought the rioters were not railroad men.
+
+H. J. Cleveland, a reporter for the Herald, testified that he was to
+work along the Rock Island and Lake Shore tracks where considerable
+rioting occurred between July 4 and 15. From an extensive acquaintance
+among railroad men, he felt sure that there were few, if any railroad
+men among the rioters. Criticising the deputy marshals, Mr. Cleveland
+said that he saw many acts on their part which were calculated to cause
+trouble unnecessary, and thought, as a rule, they were men not fit to be
+in authority. He characterized the whole lot as a contemptible set of
+men. The men who were doing the rioting, had the appearance of those who
+had never done an honest day's work in their lives.
+
+N. D. Hutton, reporter for the Tribune, was the next witness called. He
+said that he was at Blue Island and about the stock yards district.
+Thought some of the rioting was done by railroad men, but could not say
+so from personal knowledge of the fact.
+
+Mr. Miller, a reporter for the Tribune was next examined. He testified
+that he was sworn in as a deputy marshall and detailed to go to Blue
+Island. After relating his experience as to rioting, Commissioner Kernan
+asked him if he had an extensive acquaintance among railroad men.
+
+Mr. Miller: "In the course of my work I have learned to know a great
+many of them by sight at least."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you see anyone whom you know to be a railroad
+man engaged in violence or encouraging others who were so engaged?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "Never, except once. That was when a meat train had been cut
+in two and switches were being turned. He was not doing any of it but
+the general tenor of his talk was in the nature of advice to what was
+being done. Most of the trouble was caused by hoodlums and toughs. In my
+reports I characterized them as hoodlums. Many were boys."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What was your observation as to the sobriety or
+otherwise of the strikers at the meetings?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "I scarcely remember of seeing one under the influence of
+liquor. Sobriety was the rule and drunkenness the exception."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did the speakers at the meetings advice against
+violence or did they encourage it?"
+
+Mr. Miller: "They advised against it."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you think them sincere in this advice or was
+it simply a cloak?" Mr. Miller: "I believed them sincere particularly
+the brainier men."
+
+Victor M. Harding, a reporter for the Times, was the next witness, he
+testified to being present during the rioting on the Rock Island road,
+and saw boys throwing burning waste into cars within a hundred yards of
+a cavalry camp."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Did you ever see anyone you knew to be a railroad
+man engaged in any violence?"
+
+Mr. Harding: "I never did. The stock yards furnish the most glaring
+examples of the false and exaggerated reports of riot and disorder made
+by the newspapers. This district has been for years made to bear the
+burden of the crimes committed in this part of the city. There was
+comparatively little disorder at the stock yards during the strike, but
+the newspaper reports contained accounts of fights, shooting affrays and
+riots almost every night. Capt. O'Neil, of the stock yards police told
+me that the reporters and the militia were both responsible for this.
+Volleys of shot fired by the soldiers or militia were to be heard every
+day and night, which on investigation proved to have no cause other than
+a desire to create excitement. The militia men, he said, were in the
+habit of firing merely for the sake of making a sensation. A crowd would
+naturally gather, reporters would flock around and then there would be
+something to tell and brag about. I know this is so from talk with the
+men themselves. They intimated that they were getting tired of doing
+nothing and were desirous of creating some excitement. One night Capt.
+O'Neil said he heard a volley of shots, went to the spot and found that
+the shooting had been done by a lot of sentries. They said they had
+fired at a Polak--the common name for a Pole--who was seen crawling
+under a car. The soldiers claimed it was dark, the man was at a distance
+and was not hit. Yet they knew he was a Polak. Equally absurd stories in
+explanation of shooting were given the police captain on other
+occasions."
+
+Assistant Fire Marshall John Fitzgerald testified that he had been on
+duty at all fires of any importance and had witnessed many acts of
+incendiarism. In all instances he stated that these acts had been
+committed by boys or youths belonging to the hoodlum element. He said
+the eldest could not have been over nineteen years old. The fire
+department had never been obstructed in any way in reaching fires. On
+one occasion railroad men, whom he knew to be strikers, aided in placing
+an engine in position, though he had never solicited aid of any kind
+during the period when the fires were most numerous.
+
+The Pullman side was now taken up by the commissioners.
+
+Frank W. Glover was the first witness. He described himself as a real
+estate dealer who owned a sub-division in Kensington, besides acre
+property there, owned and sold houses and lots, and had tenants. In
+reply to Commissioner Worthington as to what he knew of the rents in
+Pullman, Kensington, Roseland and other similar suburbs, how they would
+compare, Mr. Glover said: "I should say a six-room house in Pullman for
+$17.00 is better than one of my six-room houses in Kensington which
+rents for $10.00 to $12.00. The Pullman houses are connected with
+sewers. The land on which they stand is better drained and from what I
+should judge from outside appearances they have more of what are called
+modern conveniences. My houses have no sewer connections, the land is
+low, and in spring and fall is liable to have water on it; besides I
+understand the Pullman Company keeps their houses in repair, while I do
+not."
+
+Paul E. Hearns, stationer and newsdealer at Pullman, was the next
+witness. In his opinion there would have been less suffering if some of
+the men had let beer and whiskey alone.
+
+L. H. Johnson, a hardware and furniture dealer, testified next. He
+expressed the belief that the Pullman employes were as thrifty,
+economical and temperate a class of people as others of a similar class.
+
+Wm. R. McKay, a reporter for the Mail, was next heard. He said that he
+had been detailed to look after the American Railway Union headquarters
+and the meetings at Uhlics Hall. The speeches at all these meetings were
+against violence and in favor of observing the law as the only means of
+winning the strike.
+
+B. H. Atwell, a reporter for the Daily News, was the next witness. He
+testified that he was at Blue Island during the trouble. He said the
+deputy marshalls had drawn revolvers without any reason. Most of the men
+who made trouble there were not railroad men. Railroad officials had
+said to him that the strikers were not making the trouble. At the stock
+yards also, such violence as was done was not by railroad strikers but
+by toughs.
+
+The next witness called was Alex Lungren, a wood-carver. In answer to
+Commissioner Kernan's question if foremen had absolute power over the
+men in their departments, Mr. Lungren replied that he did not know.
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Are the workingmen compelled to obey the orders
+given by the foremen?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "Yes. They must obey orders."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is there any appeal from these orders?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no way of getting the matter to the
+officials or superintendent?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Then there is no system of obtaining a hearing
+from the officials concerning any grievance?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "No there is no system and it is very difficult to see any
+of the officials to obtain redress."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "What were the conditions of your re-employment
+with the company?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "I had to leave the American Railway Union."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were you obliged to sign any contract relating to
+your membership in any labor organization?"
+
+Mr. Lungren: "Yes. There was a written contract which I signed. It
+stated that I would have nothing to do with the American Railway Union."
+Mr. Lungren also testified that he did not vote to strike. He did not
+attend the meetings; said he quit work in accordance with the notice
+posted by the company that the works would be closed down.
+
+Dr. John W. McLean was the next witness. He said he had been a
+practicing physician since 1863, and had been in the employ of the
+Pullman company since 1894. He thought the strike had been brought about
+by the general depression in business throughout the country. Did not
+think the rents exorbitant in Pullman. Said he attended the Pullman
+employes who were injured, free of charge. When asked by Commissioner
+Kernan if he thought intemperance one cause of the Pullman strike, he
+said:
+
+"Yes, I think all labor troubles are directly due to this cause."
+
+General Manager E. St. John of the Rock Island road was the next witness
+examined. His testimony, which would fill several pages, was in brief a
+general contradiction of all evidence offered by the reporters, and
+American Railway Union witnesses. He charged the rioting to the
+strikers. He was opposed to the government ownership of railroads and
+also thought arbitration impracticable. He admitted that a greater
+reduction of wages was liable to follow unless the present depressed
+condition of business was soon remedied. Regarding the losses incurred
+by his road on account of the strike he said it was his impression that
+they would be somewhere between $800,000 and $1,000,000. When the
+question of communications from the officers of the American Railway
+Union came up Commissioner Kernan asked why the General Managers
+Association declined to receive it.
+
+Mr. St. John: "Because we considered such an organization unworthy of
+consideration."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were you determined not to recognize any union?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "Not exactly, but the American Railway Union least of
+all."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Were not the roads united sympathetically? Now
+what had the Lake Shore road to do with the Rock Island road?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "What had the Rock Island to do with the Lake Shore?"
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "Is it not true that the roads were united
+sympathetically?"
+
+Mr. St. John: "Let me ask you a question."
+
+Commissioner Kernan: "No, I am not on the stand. I may be some day and
+then you can question me."
+
+Mr. St. John: "When a neighbor's house burns we all unite to fight the
+blaze. When an assault is made on all the roads, they unite to resist
+it."
+
+When General Manager St. John resumed the witness stand, he had with him
+one of the twenty-six sets of books mentioned by Mr. Howard, containing
+the scale of wages and rules of employment of all classes of railway
+employes on the roads represented in the General Managers' Association.
+When questioned by Commissioner Kernan he admitted that a committee had
+been appointed to formulate from these a schedule of what was a fair
+rate of wages for all classes of employes and uniform rules of
+employment. That committee reported, but the report was never acted on.
+This committee was appointed under a resolution passed February 15,
+1894. Its report was made in March, and if adopted would have affected
+125,000 men at least. One or two roads, he admitted, might have reduced
+wages about this time, but there was no agreement with the other roads
+concerning it. It became known that Mr. Wright, chairman of the
+commission, had an annual Pullman pass. He said concerning it that he
+and Mr. Pullman had been personal friends for several years, and it was
+to him as a personal friend that the pass was given several years ago
+and had been renewed annually since. He deemed that it was for the
+glowing reports of Pullman, made by Mr. Wright and others in 1884, for
+he did not know Mr. Pullman then. He said that he had not used it since
+the appointment of the commission.
+
+Following Mr. St. John, John M. Eagan took the stand.
+
+Mr. Eagan admitted that as the manager of the General Managers'
+Association he was authorized to incur any expense to secure force to
+crush the strike, but was not authorized to do anything to settle it
+peaceably. Of his connection with the General Managers' Association he
+said that he was requested to take charge of the association during the
+strike.
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you have anything done in relation to the
+appointment of deputy marshals?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Each road appointed an official to select the men they
+wanted to act as deputy marshalls and turned 'em over to me. I sent them
+to Arnold to be sworn."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did those men serve as employes of the road
+while acting as marshals?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "My judgment is that they were to take care of the interests
+of the roads."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did they act in the double capacity as
+marshals and as railroad employes? That is, would an engineer, for
+instance, while wearing a star showing his authority, run an engine for
+the road?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I believe they did that. They were sworn in as deputy
+marshals to give them a chance to protect themselves."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "By whom were the deputy marshals to be paid
+or by whom will they be paid?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Each road is supposed to pay its own men."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "What do you know of any efforts made by the
+officers of the American Railway Union or the city officials to settle
+the strike amicably?"
+
+Mr. Egan: "A party named McGillen, Alderman McGillen, I think, told me
+that Howard and Debs wanted a conference with me about settling the
+strike. I told him I had no authority to confer with them."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you not have authority to talk with them
+and find out what they wanted or could do, without making any agreement
+with them?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Not with those parties--I did not think I had. A few days
+later I found the mayor and Mr. McGillen in the office of the General
+Managers' Association. They said they had come with a letter from Debs,
+Howard and Kelliher. I told the mayor he ought not to make a messenger
+boy of himself for these parties of the American Railway Union. Later I
+was given the document to give to the mayor. He was at Kensington, so I
+left it with the chief of police, and wrote a letter telling him I
+could not receive the letter he had brought."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Were any other overtures of settlement made
+to you?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "That's all I know of any overtures."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Was there anything insulting or offensive in
+the language of the letter the mayor brought you that made you refuse to
+receive it?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "The letter was published that evening and next morning and
+speaks for itself."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "I am asking you how you regarded it. Did you
+consider that there was anything insulting or offensive in the letter?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I considered that any parties that had fought railroads as
+they had and been beaten as I believe they have been had lots of cheek
+to dictate the terms of their surrender."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "You do not answer my question. Were there not
+soldiers, U. S. marshals, deputy sheriffs and policemen engaged in
+guarding the railroads, and were you not hindered in the operation of
+the roads?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Yes."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Now was not the letter courteously composed
+and looking to a settlement of the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "We didn't need a settlement--we had 'em already."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "The soldiers, marshals, sheriffs and police
+remained on duty sometime after that--didn't they?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Yes, we needed the soldiers to protect our property."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "If a settlement could have been reached at
+that time between the railroads and the strikers, couldn't the soldiers
+and marshals have been dismissed. They wouldn't have been needed after
+an amicable settlement had been reached, would they?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "It was their intention not to recognize the American Railway
+Union."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Then it is true is it that the reason this
+communication was not received was not because it was not courteously
+worded or because it was discourteous or insulting but because the
+General Managers would not recognize the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "Well, that's as I understood it." Commissioner Worthington:
+"What would have been out of the way in your talking with Debs and
+Howard when they asked a conference with you?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I didn't have any authority to talk to them."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Then your authority extended to this. You had
+authority to contract at the expense of the railroad for all the force
+necessary to crush the strike but had no authority to settle it by
+peaceful means?"
+
+Mr. Eagan, "Well, yes. I suppose so."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "When you rebuked the mayor did you think it
+derogatory to bear a respectful message looking to a peaceful settlement
+of the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "I believed the American Railway Union was whipped at that
+time."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "It was then the condition and not the
+character of the men that signed the document that made you refuse to
+receive it?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "We believed we had the strike won."
+
+Commissioner Worthington: "Did you ever try to use anything but force
+to settle the difficulty?"
+
+Mr. Eagan: "None, except to the different parties that came to see me,
+men that I knew personally had quit work. I told them to go back to
+work." In regard to violence Mr. Eagan knew nothing about it personally,
+but assumed that the strikers did it.
+
+Superintendent Dunlap, of the Rock Island, was asked if he recognized
+any of the ex-employes among the rioters, and said that he did not know
+many of the men but was sure that they were present. He was also asked
+by Mr. Wright if he knew one John T. Norton to which he answered no.
+
+Superintendent of Police, Michael Brennan, was next examined. He
+testified that but a small per cent of the rioting was done by strikers.
+
+John T. Norton, a locomotive engineer, was next called to the stand and
+testified that he was employed on the Illinois Central road prior to the
+strike, and had since obtained a position on the Calumet & Blue Island.
+
+This line uses the Rock Island track to Joliet. He said that he passed
+an examination on the C. & B. I. and also on the Rock Island. He had
+made one trip when informed that the Rock Island road had barred him and
+would not allow him to run over any part of their line. He consulted a
+lawyer and was told to see Superintendent Dunlap. He called on him in
+company with a friend named Fraser. He asked Mr. Dunlap if he was barred
+off the Rock Island, who said yes, and he then saw that he was
+blacklisted.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Do you call that evidence of a blacklist?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "I do. After getting a letter from Superintendent Conlin I
+was barred out by Superintendent Dunlap who has just sworn he did not
+know me."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Can you produce Mr. Fraser. We would like to hear his
+testimony?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "I will."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Were you concerned in any violence during the strike?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "No."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Are you an officer of the American Railway Union?"
+
+Mr. Norton: "Yes. I am president of local union No. 193."
+
+Mr. Gompers of the American Federation of Labor was next examined but
+refused to be sworn. Mr. Gompers went into the labor question in a
+general way. In reference to strikes, he said that so long as the
+present industrial and commercial systems last, so long will strikes
+continue.
+
+George M. Pullman, president of the Pullman company, was now before the
+commissioners. He submitted a lengthy statement in relation to the town
+of Pullman, and under examination he told of the increase of the Palace
+Car company from $1,000,000 to $36,000,000 and the accumulation of a
+cash surplus of $25,000,000. When questioned concerning the grievance of
+the employes, he was not so well posted. When asked by Mr. Wright if it
+was the practice of the company to reduce wages from time to time, he
+said:
+
+"I am not familiar with the details of the manufacturing department and
+must refer you to the second vice-president."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did you ever express any unwillingness to arbitrate?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I did express unwillingness and refer you to my published
+statements. I was aware of the losses of the company in paying the
+wages it did when contract prices were so low, and I knew it was
+impossible for the company to pay a higher scale. It was a question
+whether the shops should be closed, or secure work at a low figure. It
+was the principle involved in letting a third party determine how the
+company should transact its business."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But you paid the usual dividend of eight per cent last
+year?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "Yes. But the profit during the World's Fair helped out the
+amount."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now don't you think that the Pullman corporation which
+paid a dividend of $2,800,000 for the year just ended should have borne
+with the employes and shared its profits to some extent?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I don't see why we should take the money from the
+stockholders to pay a set of men higher wages because the manufacturing
+business paid well, to pay this money to men working at Pullman when the
+employes at Ludlow, Wilmington and St. Louis had no complaint to make.
+The efforts of the American Railway Union to call a strike there was a
+failure."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Has the Pullman Company ever voluntarily raised
+wages?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No; but it always has paid fair wages."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now, Mr. Pullman, when you see the present unrest of
+labor, and the possible consequences, what objection had you to
+distributing a portion of the profits or increasing wages a little?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "The reason is embodied in my statement, it is a matter of
+opinion, and then there is the principle involved. It is impossible
+under the circumstances."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Impossible, what is impossible? Could not arbitration
+determine the principle involved?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "As president of the company I do not care to give any
+other."
+
+Mr. Worthington then introduced a lease used between the company and its
+tenants. This provided that the tenants should make all repairs to
+plumbing, water pipes, gas, etc., and to surrender premises in good
+repair. When such repairs were made by the company, the amount was
+deducted from their salaries.
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Now, the company does not make any repairs, does it?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "The company repairs the roofs or outside of the houses, I
+am not familiar with the details."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But by the lease the tenants are bound to make all the
+repairs, it is stipulated that the tenant shall repay the company for
+all repairs made."
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I will have to refer you to some official of the company."
+(Laughter.)
+
+Mr. Worthington: "The rent is deducted monthly, is it not?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "I am unable myself to identify that lease you handed me."
+
+Mr. Pullman concluded with the statement that the company declined to
+employ any member of the American Railway Union.
+
+Mr. Worthington again asked if the company could not afford to pay an
+increased scale of wages and this Mr. Pullman refused.
+
+Mr. Kernan: "When the general cut in salaries was made, was your salary
+reduced?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No." (Laughter.)
+
+Mr. Kernan: "That of officials, superintendents or foremen?"
+
+Mr. Pullman: "No."
+
+Mr. Wickes then took the stand. His evidence--which in main was
+documentary--embraced every detail of the strike. He admitted having
+promised members of the grievance committee that they would not be
+discharged, and said the agreement had not been broken by him. From
+statistics presented by Mr. Wickes, he claimed that the average rate of
+wages paid for the year ending in April, 1893, was $2.63 per day and for
+the same succeeding period $2.03, which fact, he said, disproved of
+statements made by strikers.
+
+In the case of Miss Jennie Curtis the books showed that her father had
+owed but $17.00 at the time of his death, which sum had never been
+repaid the company.
+
+Blacklisting, he said, had never been practiced by the Pullman Company,
+although the foreman kept a list of discharged men. He also said that
+the company had been losing $500 per month by furnishing water. He said
+that the men were advised by Mr. Howard not to strike.
+
+Referring to rent and wages, he did not consider that there was any
+connection between them. He said: "We paid the market price for labor
+and we asked the market price for houses." He contended that wages were
+regulated by the law of supply and demand. We go into the market to buy
+labor, as we go into the market to buy other things. If a manufacturer
+by reason of improved machinery, of special facilities, or greater
+ability in securing supplies or disposing of products, or by more
+effective handling of men, should be making larger profits than his
+competitors and should increase wages, he would deprive himself of all
+the benefits of these advantages which are his and to which his employes
+do not contribute, and would make no more than the manufacturer who
+conducted his business in a shiftless manner or without ability, energy
+or enterprise.
+
+Mr. Wickes concluded his testimony, and Inspector Nicholas Hunt was
+called.
+
+He testified that from June 27th, or the time his force was first called
+to protect railroad property at various points, up to July 3d, there had
+been no serious difficulty. When asked by Mr. Worthington if he had seen
+railroad men take part in the destruction of property. He replied:
+
+"I have not seen one railroad man interfere in any way."
+
+A. J. Sullivan, general manager of the Illinois Central, was next to
+testify.
+
+He went into details concerning the trouble on his road. He was certain
+that the acts of violence were committed by the strikers although he did
+not witness it personally.
+
+H. R. Saunders, general yardmaster for the Rock Island, testified for
+the company in relation to the way the strike was ordered on the Rock
+Island. He charged that Mr. Howard, vice-president of the American
+Railway Union, with using abusive and violent language. Epithets applied
+to Pullman and the expression, "if scabs take your places kill them with
+a coupling pin," was declared to have been used.
+
+W. D. Fuller, agent for the Rock Island road at Blue Island, testified
+that he was present, and thought Mr. Howard's speech was very violent,
+he applied epithets to Pullman, thought he ought to be hanged, and that
+he (Howard) would like to head a crowd to do it.
+
+L. A. Camp, a yardmaster for the Rock Island, was also at the meeting
+and heard no violent language used.
+
+G. D. Cruelly also a yardmaster for the same road, thought the strike at
+Blue Island was due to Mr. Howard and Mr. Debs. Mr. Howard in particular
+and Mr. Debs incidentally. Mr. Howard was violent and abusive in his
+language. The witness is a member of the Order of Railway conductors but
+not of the American Railway Union.
+
+Fred Baumbach testified to hearing both Debs and Howard speak, but did
+not remember of hearing either one of them using violent language.
+
+Otto Moriling, a tailor, testified to being present. He did not hear any
+violent language used except that Mr. Howard applied an epithet to
+Pullman.
+
+James Simmons also heard Howard speak, but did not hear him counsel
+violence.
+
+Alexander Quasso said he was present when Howard spoke but heard no
+violence counseled except some reference by Mr. Howard to the justice of
+hanging Pullman.
+
+Vice President Howard now took the stand and testified regarding his
+speech at Blue Island. He said:
+
+"I want to begin by saying that among railroad men particularly
+trainmen, it has been a constant habit and practice and has been for
+years, to use a certain class of expressions which literally are very
+offensive in the lightest and most ordinary way, and without meaning
+anything in particular about them. Every old railroad man can bear me
+out in this. A railroad man will address his best friend with a most
+offensive epithet uttered in a most cordial way and intended to express
+cordiality, so that the term I applied to Pullman, has among railroad
+men a technical meaning, very broad it is true and expressing according
+to the circumstances very different sentiments. But its use is so common
+and I may say usual, that it has altogether lost the meaning it has,
+among others than railroad men.
+
+"I was telling them the condition of things at Pullman. I told them of
+incidents that have been testified to before this commission. I was
+trying to array them against Pullman. I used the language of railroad
+men and I applied to Mr. Pullman the epithet I am charged with using.
+But I used it in the railroad sense. I said he ought to be hung, that is
+another railroad expression.
+
+"I did not say that I would like to take part in the hanging or lead a
+party to hang him. As to the coupling pin expression, what I said at
+Blue Island, I have said at hundreds of other places, it was this I told
+them, it was often said that capital would always defeat labor. I denied
+this. I said that capital could only whip labor when it could divide it,
+and make labor defeat itself. That in the last few years a wave of
+religious intolerance had swept over this country, and the
+representatives of the railroads had taken advantage of it as a means of
+dividing labor. I gave instances where some emissary of the railroads
+would come in, and going to the protestant members, instill distrust in
+their minds of the Roman Catholic members, and then going to the Roman
+Catholics and creating distrust of the Protestants. I urged them not to
+allow themselves to be divided in the labor movement by questions of
+religious differences, and I said that if any of those sleuths, and I
+may have said sleuths of hell, come into this movement to array you
+against each other in a question of religion, I hope some one will have
+the nerve to hit him on the head with a round end coupling pin and send
+him to his last long sleep.
+
+"I said nothing about injuring men who came to take their places. I told
+them if they struck, to put on their good clothes and keep away from the
+railroad property. If the railroads could get men to run their roads,
+let them, but if the men stood together, were united, the roads couldn't
+get men and would have to yield.
+
+"Far from advising violence, I have always advised against it. I have
+some questions I would like the commission to put to the general
+managers, either here, or in Washington. They are these:
+
+"1st. Were not the general managers whipped on July 5, before there had
+been any violence to array public opinion against the strikers, and
+before the troops were here and by their presence provoked violence?
+
+"2d. Did your company have a contract with the government to carry the
+mails?
+
+"3d. Was the contract dependent upon your ability to carry Pullmans?
+
+"4th. Did your contract with the Pullman Company require you to refuse
+to transport mail if you left the Pullmans off?
+
+"5th. Did the strikers interfere to prevent carrying of the mails if you
+left the Pullmans off?
+
+"6th. Could you not have carried mails, if you did not insist in hauling
+Pullmans?
+
+"7th. Was your contract with the government less binding on you than
+your contract with the Pullman Company, or was either dependent on the
+other?"
+
+Mr. Kernan had no objection to the questions being put to the general
+managers, but did not think, under the circumstances, the commission
+could prolong its sitting in order to ask them.
+
+Mayor John P. Hopkins was then called and cordially shook hands with the
+commissioners before taking the witness chair. His examination was
+conducted by Judge Worthington as follows:
+
+Mr. Worthington: "As mayor of the city and the actual head of the police
+department, please state the general conduct of the police force during
+the strike and the conditions attending the strike."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "The evening of June 25, Mr. Ellsworth, who claimed to
+represent the different railroads, called on me and said he understood a
+boycott was to be enforced on all roads hauling Pullman cars. He said he
+understood I was going to Springfield that night and wished me to give
+instructions to the chief of police and arrange for the protection of
+the roads. So far as I know, the police did all the work required of
+them, and I have ample assurance of that fact from railway officials.
+
+"This condition existed until July 5. That morning Mr. Wright of the
+Rock Island called at my office and claimed that riotous mobs were
+interfering with the operation of trains, overturning cars, etc. I went
+with him to the office of Mr. Cable of the Rock Island road, where we
+discussed the matter. Mr. Cable said he thought the police were not
+doing their duty, but from the information I had received, I was
+confident that such was not the case. I then suggested that Mr. Cable go
+with me to the scene of the alleged trouble, but he said that he did not
+think it safe to do so. I proposed the same plan to Mr. Wright, but he
+made the same objection. I then saw the corporation counsel and
+suggested the same plan, which he accepted. A switch engine was secured
+and we went. A crowd of probably 3,000 or 3,500 persons, mostly women
+and children, had assembled at that point. On the tracks at
+Thirty-seventh street four trains were standing, and just north of them
+an empty freight car was lying across the tracks. Half an hour after we
+arrived, a wrecking crew, accompanied by young Newell, Attorney Wright,
+and other officials came up, and they started to take the car off the
+track. On going down we had found the tracks entirely unobstructed, but
+on going back found ten or fifteen overturned cars. I thought the police
+did all they could to prevent such an occurrence. I stayed about two
+hours, when I came back and issued the proclamation to the people which
+was published. I also instructed the chief of police to suspend all
+officers who had been stationed at the crossings where the cars were
+overturned.
+
+"That night I wired the governor at Springfield, that the militia, which
+had been preparing to go into camp there, had better be retained in the
+city, as it might be advisable to call out the troops within twenty-four
+hours. The same night about 10:30, I was at the Hyde Park police
+station when I heard that the "Diamond Special" had been stopped at
+Kensington and that large crowds had congregated there. Inspector Hunt
+sent re-inforcements to that point, and when I retired everything seemed
+quiet. Friday morning, July 6, which was the first time the railroads
+had intimated that the protection afforded them was inadequate, I heard
+from Kensington that there was trouble in the Rock Island and Chicago &
+Eastern Illinois roads. I then called on the governor for five regiments
+of the state militia. Saturday, at 3:30 P. M., some trouble
+occurred at Forty-seventh and Loomis streets, where a mob had collected.
+The state troops fired and killed one man, two others dying afterward.
+There was no trouble after that, so far as I know."
+
+Mayor Hopkins then read a number of communications from railway
+officials expressing satisfaction in regard to the perfect protection
+afforded by the police during the strike. Among these were letters from
+President Marvin Hughitt of the Northwestern, General Superintendent
+Sullivan of the Illinois Central, President Thomas of the Chicago &
+Western Indiana, and others. Several officers who were deemed worthy of
+promotion for their good services at critical times were mentioned in a
+letter from a Santa Fe official. The mayor then continued his testimony
+as follows:
+
+"So far as the management of the police was concerned I think it was
+excellent. I wish to state that the Blue Island police are governed by
+the officials of that town. The word police has been referred to
+indiscriminately in the testimony, leaving the impression that Blue
+Island was under the jurisdiction of the city.
+
+"There was very little resistance to the police. The strikers treated me
+all right, and the crowds seemed good-natured. There was some resistance
+to the police, I believe, on the night of July 7, at Ashland avenue and
+the Northwestern tracks. The police fired and killed a woman on the roof
+of a house in the neighborhood."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "How many were killed in all or who have since died in
+consequence of injuries received?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "About seven, I think in Chicago. Three at Forty-seventh
+and Loomis streets, one at Kensington, the woman just mentioned, and I
+think two others."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Please state about the militia engaged during the
+strike."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I will read my copy of the telegram to the governor to
+which I referred. The next day I again telegraphed the governor
+suggesting that five regiments be placed at the disposal of the city. In
+one half hour I received an answer stating that the militia had been
+ordered to report. There was virtually the entire militia of the state
+in service, probably 2,000 men. The last detachment went home August 6."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You have stated that you gave orders to suspend
+officers at certain crossings. Why was that?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "The officers complained that people jumped over the fences
+and that they could not prevent them. The Rock Island road is protected
+on each side of the right-of-way by low fences, and empty freight cars
+were standing for many blocks on the side track next the fence. The
+people who lived near the tracks could easily jump the fence unseen and
+tip the cars over. I ordered the men suspended for the general effect it
+would have on the force."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "I would like to ask a general question. As mayor of
+the city, do you think the police, or a portion of them, either directly
+or indirectly, took a part in promoting the strike in any way?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I would not deny that some of the men had sympathy with
+the strikers. I am in sympathy myself with the Pullman strikers."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "But do you think the police did their duty?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir. Several times Mr. Eagan telephoned that trouble
+was occurring at some point. When officers would investigate they would
+find no trouble at all. There are 2,100 miles of railway in the city
+limits; there are 1,360 trains daily, 160 railroad crossings, and 3,000
+surface railroad crossings. The police force for this year is scheduled
+at 1,928 patrolmen. There are 186 square miles of territory in the city
+and you can readily see that every point could not be covered at once.
+The amount of violence was not very great. In Pullman not one pane of
+glass was broken in the three months of the strike. I live in Pullman
+myself."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "You may state whether at any time you advised the
+American Railway Union or its members to strike?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Did the General Manager's Association either during or
+since the strike request the city to arrest any individual strikers or
+suggest such arrest?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "No, sir; I think that President Newell swore out a warrant
+for a man named Hall, but the information was furnished by the city."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Has the American Railway Union brought in any
+information of this character?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; in the case of Hall, who was charged with
+turning over cars; also in other cases, which upon investigation we
+concluded not to take up."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "Then the disposition of the American Railway Union
+appears to have been to assist the city?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "During or before the strike were there any overtures
+made in regard to arbitration?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "I met Mr. Pullman at lunch in the Chicago club one day
+and he told me of a meeting his employes had held. Then July 3, there
+was a further talk about protecting the works on the following day when
+trouble might be expected. There was some talk about a settlement, but
+the company seemed to regard the strikers as law breakers. Then a
+committee of the council was appointed, and word sent to Mr. Eagan, but
+he said he couldn't come. Then the committee called at Mr. Pullman's
+office to discuss the question of arbitration--or if there was anything
+to arbitrate. The answer received there was that the company refused to
+arbitrate. July 11, I received a telegram from Mayor Pingree of Detroit,
+asking if I would act with him in endeavoring to settle the strike. He
+had communications from fifty other mayors giving their views on the
+question. We saw Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown, and had a long
+interview. Mayor Pingree took the point that arbitration should be
+tested, and made a strong argument. He is a member of a shoe
+manufacturing firm and related his own experience in a strike of nine
+months' duration. Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown withdrew and
+prepared a statement giving the position of the company and declining
+the proposition. On July 13, Mr. Debs, Mr. Howard, and Mr. Kelliher
+prepared a communication to the railway managers offering to settle the
+strike if the railroads would re-instate the men as individuals or such
+men as had committed no overt acts. With Mr. McGillen I went over with
+the document to Mr. St. John. What occurred there has been published.
+Now, while I think of it, I want to say that the statement published in
+some papers that Mr. St. John told me I should not act as a messenger
+boy for the American Railway Union is false. I deny most emphatically
+that Mr. St. John used those words. I should not have allowed it. This
+was the last action on my part to bring about a settlement.
+
+"It has been said that I protested against the presence of the federal
+troops in the city. I do say that the railways had never complained that
+the civil authorities were unable to protect the roads. I have never
+protested against the federal troops and think they did some good."
+
+Mr. Worthington: "It has been stated in the press that you applied to
+Mr. Debs to move trains."
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "That is not true. A man named Brenock has a contract with
+the city to remove dead animals, the place where they are rendered
+being over the Indiana state line. He called upon me and said that there
+was a train load of dead animals at the stock yards which could not be
+pulled out; the men had quit work. I said I thought a volunteer crew of
+trainmen could be procured which would do the work. I sent my secretary
+to the American Railway Union with that request. A crew went down to the
+yards and manned the train. When it proceeded some distance it was
+discovered that a train load of dressed beef had been substituted and
+the train crew abandoned the cars. The dead animals then remained where
+they were for several days."
+
+Mr. Kernan: "Then this action was simply a plan to guard the public
+health?"
+
+Mr. Hopkins: "Yes, sir; simply to remove the dead animals from the city
+limits."
+
+At the conclusion of Mayor Hopkins' testimony, President Carroll D.
+Wright arose and declared the commission formally adjourned until
+Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Washington, D. C.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ALTGELD INVESTIGATES PULLMAN.
+
+
+In response to a piteous appeal for help from a committee of Pullman
+strikers, John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois, came in person to the
+town of Pullman and made an investigation of the condition of the people
+in order to satisfy himself regarding their complaints of suffering and
+destitution. After only a partial investigation the governor returned to
+his hotel satisfied with the correctness of the reports.
+
+He said the starvation at Pullman was as bad if not worse than had been
+reported by the Times that 1,600 families in Pullman and vicinity were
+starving.
+
+"Not only starving," said the governor, "but they are without fuel and
+in rags. They must not starve and I will remain in Pullman until some
+means can be devised for their relief.
+
+"I went to Pullman in response to an invitation by the strikers'
+committee, and found matters even worse than represented. I visited
+their homes and went through every room in some of their houses. Two
+representatives of the Pullman company who accompanied me, admitted that
+the houses visited were a fair representation of every house occupied by
+the strikers' families. Their condition is pitiful, there are families
+numbering from two to eight members and I tell you they are slowly
+starving to death. The little ones are crying with hunger and there is
+nothing in the house to eat. Something for their relief must be done
+immediately. I have thought of several measures, but as yet have arrived
+at no conclusion. For several months the people may have to be cared
+for, and it is well to go slow when one is treading in deep water. I
+suppose I will be abused no matter what steps I take, but I don't care a
+blank, as these people will not starve if I can prevent it, and I shall
+see that I do prevent it."
+
+The governor declined to say anything in relation to the cause which
+created the present condition at Pullman. He said it was enough to know
+that women and children were crying with hunger, it was time enough to
+talk about the causes later.
+
+Upon the governor's arrival at Pullman, a big man with gray whiskers
+and a lordly air rushed forward and presented his card to his
+excellency. He was August Rapp, chief designer of the company and
+formerly superintendent of the works. With him was Chief Wilde,
+Pullman's head accountant, whom he presented. It was evident that the
+governor did not wish to see the Pullman official.
+
+"Where are the members of the committee that sent for me?" he demanded.
+"I want to see the men." Somewhat abashed Messrs. Wilde and Rapp stepped
+backward and three or four mechanics came forward. There was Thos. W.
+Heathcoat, G. A. Kreamer, Theo. Rhode and two or three members of the
+relief committee. "I want to see what you men have to show me," said the
+governor.
+
+They repaired at once to the tenements on Fulton street, where the first
+stop was made at No. 124, occupied by Mrs. O'Halleron. A blind widow was
+found occupying four small rooms on the first floor. She told the
+governor that she had two sons aged nineteen and fourteen respectively
+and a daughter aged twenty. All three had worked for Pullman but were
+now idle. They had applied for work but were told there was no work for
+them. One of the boys had been a brass polisher and the younger son and
+the daughter had worked in the laundry. They had lived in the town seven
+years. There was no coal in the house, they had a little food, given
+them by the relief committee, but they could not support themselves and
+said there was no one to look after their condition.
+
+"Have the Pullman people sent any one to see you?"
+
+"They have not," replied the blind woman.
+
+She said they paid $12.60 for the four rooms. One of her sons had drawn
+$1.60 and the other 96 cents per day.
+
+"Good luck to you, sir," she said as the governor walked away with his
+teeth set firmly together.
+
+F. H. Taylor, superintendent of the Pullman company, had now joined the
+party taking the place of Accountant Wilde. Mr. Rapp pressed his way in
+everywhere though paying no attention to the audible slurs of the people
+about him.
+
+Block B, across the way on Fulton street was next visited. The manner of
+Gov. Altgeld was kindly and he introduced himself in a pleasant way,
+asking questions in a manner calculated to inspire confidence.
+
+There were six families in Block B, some of the tenants had gone back to
+work. A poor woman in No. 3 said her husband was not working, he had
+been in Pullman for six years and had asked to return to work, but was
+told there was nothing for him to do, the shop was full. She had three
+little children but little to eat, only a bit of flour, coffee and tea
+from the relief store left.
+
+In Block S, room 7, was John Carlson, a cabinet maker who had worked in
+Pullman for seven years and could not get his position back He had
+nothing in the house to eat.
+
+"Have you eaten to-day?" asked the governor.
+
+"I had some bread and coffee from a neighbor," said the man. "My wife is
+sick and I divided with her, we haven't a thing in the house now."
+
+Theo. Ericson, of 301 Fulton street, had six in family. He said he could
+not get work and the money he had saved before the strike was all gone.
+The relief committee had given a little food.
+
+"How many in Pullman," said the governor, "are in the same fix, whom you
+know of?"
+
+"Lots of men, sir, I know of half a dozen in my neighborhood," answered
+the man.
+
+Olaf Olson had worked in the street car shops and was now idle. He had
+six children and his wife to care for, they have nothing to eat, and he
+could get nothing from the relief committee as their supplies were
+exhausted.
+
+Otto Wullf, of room 22, Block F, also had a wife and six children. He
+said that all he had in the house to eat was two pounds of oat meal from
+the relief store. As he told his story tears rolled down the cheeks of
+the big bearded fellow and the governor was visibly affected. His wife
+was sick abed he said and a newspaper reporter dropped a quarter into
+his hand while he used a handkerchief to remove the moisture from his
+eyes.
+
+The man stated that his wages had been $1.30 per day, and his rent $9.60
+per month for four small rooms.
+
+Peter Anderson, of Kensington, said he had worked in the repair shop but
+could not get work now as the shop was filled, or at least so he was
+told when he applied.
+
+He had five children and not enough to eat. He had borrowed a dollar
+with which to buy a sack of flour. This was all he had.
+
+Mr. Vanderwein had a wife and four children and could not get a
+position. He had no money and only two pounds of oat meal, two pounds of
+corn meal and a little flour left.
+
+Here someone whispered to the governor and the latter turned to Mr. Rapp
+and said:
+
+"They tell me you are taking the names of those who complain, with a
+view of keeping them out of work?"
+
+"That is not so, sir," said Rapp, coloring deeply.
+
+"And," said the governor, "they tell me you are largely responsible for
+the reduction of the wages?"
+
+"That is not so, sir," persisted Mr. Rapp.
+
+"Well, men," said the governor, "let him come with us, this must not be
+a star chamber affair."
+
+A boy named Koopka spoke for his father who did not understand English.
+
+He was one of three children he said, and they hadn't enough to eat. No
+relief could be obtained now and every thing was gone but a few
+potatoes.
+
+Mrs. Nathan Booth stepped forward. She said she had six children, all
+barefooted, the oldest eleven years, and the youngest six months. They
+had been two years in Pullman and her husband had earned $1.30 per day.
+He had no work now, and the only food was that given them by the wife of
+the Methodist minister.
+
+Andrew Schelly said he had worked for the Pullman company twelve years
+but could get no work now, and his family had nothing to eat. He had
+borrowed a pair of shoes in which he could seek work.
+
+A. Bergstrom for seven years in Pullman said he could not get his old
+position. He had five children, the eldest ten years, and they had no
+money, no food, no trust.
+
+Frank Mass had been three years in Pullman, had three children and
+nothing to eat.
+
+The wife of Pat Mullen, of Block E, room 1, appeared with a child in her
+arms and a toddler at her skirts.
+
+They had been in Pullman twelve years and had four other children. Her
+husband could not get back to work because he was on the strike
+committee. She did not know where the next meal was to come from.
+
+Though wretchedly poor these people were clean and neat. They are all of
+the better class of laboring people.
+
+John Cedarland sat at a table and stared stolidly at the visitors, while
+his wife with a baby at her breast and two at her heels stood by. A
+neighbor who had given them of her scanty store, said the man was sick
+and the family destitute. On Sunday she had given them a piece of meat,
+and wood with which to cook it.
+
+A reporter slipped a quarter into her hand and received a look worth
+$8.00.
+
+Two of John Smith's collectors, out with furniture bills as a matter of
+form, told the governor that two-thirds of the old men were still idle,
+and that the condition of these men was deplorable. They had called at
+one place where one of the children was celebrating its birthday and all
+there was for the feast was bread and onions. The collectors chipped in
+for a few luxuries.
+
+Mrs. Peter Camp appeared with two children and reported five more, and
+there were scores of similar cases, all destitute and absolutely
+without food.
+
+On his way back to the city the governor would say but little.
+
+Mr. Wickes, vice president of the Pullman company called and was
+presented to his excellency in due form. The object of his visit was to
+tender his services as guide and escort.
+
+This was declined.
+
+Mr. Wickes expressed his regret that the governor saw fit not to accept
+the offer.
+
+As a result of Gov. Altgeld's investigation he issued the following
+proclamation:
+
+"TO THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE CITY OF
+CHICAGO: There is great distress growing out of the want of food in
+and around the town of Pullman. More than a thousand families in the
+neighborhood of 6,000 people, are utterly destitute. Nearly four-fifths
+of them are women and children. The men have endeavored to get work but
+were unable to do so. I have made a personal examination of the case and
+learn from the officials of the Pullman company that prior to the strike
+they had 3,260 names on the pay roll; yesterday they had 2,220 people at
+work, but over 600 of these were new men, so that they have only about
+1,600 of their old employes at work, leaving about 1,660 that have not
+been taken back. Several hundreds of these have left, but the remainder
+are unable to go away and have nothing to eat. I find that immediately
+after the beginning of the strike a relief association was formed to
+provide for the needy, and the books of this association show that 2,463
+applications were made by the Pullman employes, mostly heads of
+families, to this association for aid. In fact, nearly all of the
+employes, except the few hundred who left, have been supported by
+charity for nearly three months.
+
+"As a rule they are a superior class of laboring people, industrious,
+capable, and steady and some of them have worked for the Pullman company
+for more than ten years. Those who have been given work can get food,
+but are still in such an impoverished condition that they cannot help
+their neighbors if they would. The relief society is unable to get more
+supplies. Last Saturday it gave to each family two pounds of oat meal
+and two pounds of corn meal, and having nothing left it suspended
+operations, leaving the people in an absolutely helpless condition. The
+county commissioners of Cook county, as overseers of the poor, have
+rendered some assistance, but owing to limited appropriation they can
+furnish relief but for a short time.
+
+"We cannot now stop to inquire into the cause of this distress. The good
+people of this state cannot allow women and children by the hundred to
+perish of hunger. I therefore call upon all humane and charitably
+disposed citizens to contribute what they can toward giving relief to
+these people. I am satisfied that any contribution sent to the Pullman
+relief committee at Kensington, Ill., will be judiciously distributed. I
+find their treasurer has given a bond to properly account for all moneys
+received.
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD.
+  "Governor.
+  "Aug. 21, 1894.
+
+  "TO THE HONORABLE, THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COOK COUNTY--
+
+_Gentlemen_: Your attention has already been called to the great
+destitution that exists in and around the town of Pullman and you have
+furnished some relief there. I have made a personal investigation of the
+conditions there and find the suffering is very great for want of food.
+I respectfully appeal to you as the officers upon whom devolves the
+duty of providing for cases of this kind, that you do the uttermost in
+your power to furnish immediate assistance to those people.
+
+  Very respectfully,
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD.
+  "Governor.
+  "Aug. 21, 1894."
+
+Before leaving Springfield to investigate the condition at Pullman, Gov.
+Altgeld sent the following telegram to Mr. Pullman:
+
+  "Aug. 19, 1894.
+  "George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    Chicago, Ill.:
+
+"I have received numerous reports to the effect that there is great
+distress at Pullman. To-day I received a formal appeal as governor from
+a committee of the Pullman people for aid. They state that 1,600
+families, including women and children, are starving; that they cannot
+get work and have not the means to go elsewhere; that your company has
+brought men from all over the United States to fill their places. Now,
+these people live in your town and were your employes. Some of them
+worked for your company for many years. They must be people of industry
+and character or you would not have kept them. Many of them have
+practically given their lives to you. It is claimed that they struck
+because after years of toil their wages were so reduced that their
+children went hungry. Assuming that they were wrong and foolish, they
+had yet served you long and well and you must feel some interest in
+them. They do not stand on the same footing with you, so that much must
+be overlooked. The state of Illinois has not the least desire to meddle
+in the affairs of your company, but it cannot allow a whole community
+within its borders to perish of hunger. The local overseer of the poor
+has been appealed to, but there is a limit to what he can do. I cannot
+help them very much at present, so unless relief comes from some other
+source I shall either have to call an extra session of the legislature
+to make special appropriation or else issue an appeal to the humane
+people of the state to give bread to your recent employes. It seems to
+me that you would prefer to relieve the situation yourself, especially
+as it has just cost the state upward of $50,000 to protect your property
+and as both the state and the public have suffered enormous loss and
+expense on account of disturbances that grew out of the trouble between
+your company and its workmen. I am going to Chicago to-night to make a
+personal investigation before taking any official action. I will be in
+my office in the Unity block at 10 A. M. to-morrow and shall be
+glad to hear from you if you care to make any reply.
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+The following letter was addressed to Mr. Pullman by Gov. Altgeld.
+
+  "CHICAGO, Ill., Aug. 21.
+  "George M. Pullman, President of the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    Chicago.
+
+"SIR: I examined the conditions at Pullman yesterday, visited
+even the kitchens and bedrooms of many of the people. Two
+representatives of your company were with me and we found the distress
+as great as it was represented. The men are hungry and the women and
+children are actually suffering. They have been living on charity for a
+number of months and it is exhausted. Men who have worked for your
+company for more than ten years had to apply to the relief society in
+two weeks after the work stopped. I learn from your manager that last
+spring there were 3,260 people on the pay roll; yesterday there were
+2,220 at work, but over 600 of these are new men, so that only about
+1,600 of the old employes have been taken back, thus leaving over 1,000
+of the old employes who have not been taken back. A few hundred have
+left. The remainder have nearly all applied for work, but were told that
+they were not needed. These are utterly destitute. The relief committee
+last Saturday gave out two pounds of oatmeal and two pounds of cornmeal
+to each family, but even the relief committee has exhausted its
+resources. Something must be done at once. The case differs from
+instances of destitution found elsewhere, for generally there is
+somebody in the neighborhood able to give relief. This is not the case
+at Pullman. Even those who have gone to work are so exhausted that they
+cannot help their neighbors if they would. I repeat now that it seems to
+me your company cannot afford to have me appeal to the charity and
+humanity of the state to save the lives of your old employes.
+Four-fifths of those people are women and children. No matter what
+caused this distress it must be met.
+
+"If you will allow me I will make this suggestion: If you had shut down
+your works last fall when you say business was poor you would not have
+expected to get any rent from your tenants. Now, while a dollar is a
+large sum to each of these people all the rent now due you is a
+comparatively small matter to you. If you will cancel all rent to Oct.
+1, you will be as well off as if you had shut down. This would enable
+those at work to meet their most pressing wants. Then if you cannot give
+work to all, work some half time so that all can at least get something
+to eat for their families. This will give immediate relief to the whole
+situation and then by degrees assist as many to go elsewhere as desire
+to do so and all to whom you cannot give work. In this way something
+like a normal condition could be re-established at Pullman before winter
+and you would not be out any more than you would have been had you shut
+down a year ago. I will be at the Unity block for several hours and will
+be glad to see you if you care to make any reply.
+
+  "Yours respectfully,
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+Mr. Pullman replied as follows:
+
+  "THE PULLMAN'S PALACE CAR COMPANY,
+  "OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
+
+  "CHICAGO, ILL., Aug. 21, 1894.
+
+"SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+letter of this date, giving your impressions derived from your visit to
+the town of Pullman yesterday. In pursuance of the invitation contained
+in your telegram of the 19th inst. I caused Mr. Wickes, a vice president
+of this company, who is thoroughly acquainted with its affairs at
+Pullman, to call upon you and offer you every assistance in his power or
+which could be offered by any officer of the company in making your
+proposed personal investigation. Mr. Wickes offered to accompany you to
+Pullman for this purpose, and I regret that you did not appear to
+consider that he could be of service to you. As an indication of the
+importance of the aid of local knowledge in making essential
+discriminations I may say to you that I have the best reason for
+believing that the husband of a wife who is published as representing
+her family to you yesterday as in need of help, drew more than $1,300 of
+his savings from a bank July 2 last for the purpose as he said of
+buying lots.
+
+"While it has not been represented to the officers of this company by
+any persons concerned that there was any such extended distress at
+Pullman, as was represented for the first time by the extraordinary
+method of a published telegram to you in your official capacity, I do
+not doubt that there are many cases of need caused by the refusal of the
+employes for more than two and one-half months to earn offered wages of
+more than $300,000; and that such cases have been increased and made
+more severe by the persistence of more than 650 of our employes, of whom
+about 350 live in Pullman, in refusing to apply for their old places
+after the strike was practically over and after they were publicly
+invited, July 16, to resume their work, until by the gradual coming in
+of new men during the whole month their places have been filled and the
+full force engaged for all work in hand. In addition to this there is,
+no doubt, need among the old employes living in Pullman, a considerable
+number of whom have persistently refused to apply for work at all, many
+of them it is understood, considering themselves to be still engaged in
+a strike.
+
+"I mention these things so that the responsibility for the existing
+situation, whatever it is may not be improperly placed. The situation,
+however, is one which must be dealt with without regard to what has
+caused it, and I shall give it the consideration which is due from the
+company. I do not, however, anticipate, as you appear to do, that those
+employes who have resumed their work will be limited to the satisfaction
+of their most pressing wants, and as to those who are not at work the
+cancelling of their rents is not, I venture to suggest, a question to
+which attention should first be given at the present juncture if their
+pressing needs are as you suppose them to be. The company will continue
+in its efforts to secure work in order to employ as many men as
+possible, and in that way relieve the situation as far as practicable.
+
+"Your suggestion that the work should be divided so that a sufficient
+number of our present employes should be put on half time in order to
+give at least half time work for all was tried last winter. The result
+has been that the gross earnings of various individual employes were
+last winter so small as to give an erroneous impression with reference
+to the sufficiency of the rate of wages. The policy of the company is
+now to employ only as many men as it is possible to furnish work for on
+full time.
+
+  "Very respectfully yours,
+  "GEORGE M. PULLMAN,
+  "President.
+
+
+  "The Hon. John P. Altgeld, Governor."
+  "CHICAGO, Aug. 21.
+
+  "George M. Pullman, Esq., President the Pullman's Palace Car Company,
+    City.
+
+"SIR: I have your answer to my communication this morning. I
+see by it that your company refuses to do anything toward relieving the
+situation at Pullman. It is true that Mr. Wickes offered to take me to
+Pullman and show me around. I told him that I had no objection to his
+going, but that I doubted the wisdom of my going under anybody's wing. I
+was, however, met by two of your representatives, both able men, who
+accompanied me everywhere. I took pains to have them present in each
+case. I also called at your office and got what information they could
+give there, so that your company was represented and heard, and no man
+there questioned either the condition or the extent of their suffering.
+If you will make the round I made, go into the houses of these people,
+meet them face to face, and talk with them you will be convinced that
+none of them had $1,300 or any other sum of money a few weeks ago.
+
+"I cannot enter into a discussion with you as to the merits of the
+controversy between you and your former workmen. It is not my business to
+fix the moral responsibility in this case. There are nearly 6,000 people
+suffering for the want of food--they were your employes--four-fifths of
+them are women and children--some of these people have worked for you
+more than twelve years. I assume that even if they were wrong and had
+been foolish you would not be willing to see them perish. I also assume
+that as the state has just been to a large expense to protect your
+property you would not want to have the public shoulder the burden of
+relieving distress in your town.
+
+"As you refuse to do anything to relieve the suffering in this case I am
+compelled to appeal to the humanity of the people of Illinois to do so.
+Respectfully yours,
+
+  "JOHN P. ALTGELD."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The condition of the Pullman strikers elicited by the commission
+appointed by President Cleveland for that purpose as shown by the
+preceding extracts from the investigation, was known to the delegates to
+the convention of the American Railway Union held in Chicago in June. In
+turn they made known to the various local unions these deplorable
+conditions. Hence the boycott, or as it has been designated by the
+general managers, a sympathetic strike.
+
+They have been charged with striking without a cause other than a
+fanciful grievance of the Pullman employe, and roundly censured for
+their actions. That too by men of kind hearts and liberal views who were
+not aware of the true situation. Had this commission been appointed
+previous to the boycott, it is my honest conviction, there would have
+been no trouble. The broad inherent spirit of humanity in American
+hearts would assert itself and the powerful voice of public sentiment
+would terrorize this inhuman corporation into doing justice to their
+employes.
+
+The defeat of the strikers was attributed to a great many causes, but
+the real cause can be laid to the federal government or the
+administration thereof.
+
+President Cleveland, it is said, was and is a partner in a law firm who
+are employed by four of the largest railroad systems in the United
+States. The cabinet, with a few exceptions, are also connected with
+railroad corporations either directly or indirectly.
+
+The federal courts are absolutely owned by the railroads, and
+consequently the whole federal government was arrayed against the
+strikers.
+
+The federal judges prostituted the courts to the use of the railroads in
+granting injunctions to restrain the officers of the American Railway
+Union from acting in any form for or with that organization. From the
+time that Mr. Debs was successfully shackled by the courts, the strikers
+were like some great beheaded mastodon, staggering about, vainly
+endeavoring to retain the dying spark of life.
+
+In order to be more explicit, just as soon as the officers of the
+American Railway Union were incarcerated, reports were circulated by the
+general managers at one point, that men at some distant point had
+returned to work. The men, where these reports would be received, would
+at once wire to the officers at Chicago, asking if it be true. The
+officers of the union were prohibited from sending telegrams, and on
+receiving no reply they would take it for granted that these reports
+were authentic, and apply for work. In short, when they lost the
+guidance of Debs, their ranks became demoralized. This was the real
+cause of the defeat of the American Railway Union. Its first defeat
+after twelve decisive victories, eleven of which were accomplished
+without a strike.
+
+The prostitution of the government--founded on the blood of our
+forefathers--by the organized capital of this country, of which the
+greater part is foreign gold, is something of the most vital importance
+to every workingman in America to-day. This is a matter that demands the
+gravest thought of every American citizen who is loyal to himself, to
+his family and to his country.
+
+The flagrant abuse of the constitution by the plutocratic money power,
+if not checked by the people, will reduce them to a condition beneath
+that of any nation in the known world.
+
+This strike has clearly demonstrated the truth of this assertion. In not
+one instance during the whole course of the trouble, have the
+representatives of the corporations and the representatives of the
+government failed to unite in destroying the constitutional rights of
+the American workingman.
+
+The devilish ingenuity of this corporate power goes still further to
+retain the power they hold over the government. They have conceived a
+plan to disfranchise in a manner all members of the American Railway
+Union and deprive them of the right to vote. In this they have actually
+accomplished their purpose by forcing its members out of employment, and
+driving them from their homes to seek employment in foreign parts of the
+country on the eve of election, where they would not be eligible to
+vote.
+
+The inherent cunning of this blood sucking money power would pale to
+insignificance the most diabolical deeds of the prince of darkness.
+
+Blinded by their victory over the American Railway Union--through the
+assistance of the federal courts--they will stop at nothing to complete
+the work of subjugation and annihilation. They have tested their power
+over the courts and find them so completely subservient to their will
+that they know they would be secure in carrying out any high-handed
+proceeding which they may deem necessary to complete their work of
+demoralization and hounding to death, if need be, the members of this
+order.
+
+This was the very condition of affairs that President Debs anticipated,
+and tried to guard against. This was the impending danger against which
+he warned the men, and for this he filled a felon's cell in Cook county
+jail.
+
+Against these conditions the people must unite and co-operate. We must
+no longer close our eyes to the glaring fact that we are being made
+parties to our own destruction by the corporations and trusts of this
+country, and their allies the Democratic and Republican parties.
+
+These two great political parties are so completely controlled by the
+corporations, that anything asked of them is immediately granted, the
+only difference between the two being their views as to the best method
+by which they can serve these corporations.
+
+The railroads combine and trusts of all kinds furnish the funds for
+campaign purposes, and also incidentally furnish the votes to elect
+their friends. They have in every precinct, ward, town, city, county and
+state, their hirelings who beguile the people into voting as they
+dictate.
+
+The child like confidence of the people could not be shaken in the old
+parties. They were ever ready to place implicit faith in these designing
+politicians, believing that the laws made by them were just what was
+wanted for the people's salvation.
+
+This delusion cannot last, the time is now ripe for action. The masses
+must protect their interests if they would be free to enjoy the rights
+awarded them by the constitution.
+
+The American Railway Union has proven the greatest blessing to the
+working people of this country. It has torn the mask of hypocrisy from
+these plutocratic professional politicians and revealed them in their
+true character.
+
+The working people can no longer afford to be deluded by these old
+parties. They must unite and arise in one grand body and assert their
+independence as freemen and intelligent American citizens, and by their
+ballot take possession of this government of the capitalist, by the
+capitalist, and for the capitalist, and again make it a government of
+the people, by the people and for the people.
+
+President Debs struck the keynote when he said that it was better for
+the government to own the railroads than for the railroads to own the
+government. Our only chance to succeed in obtaining our constitutional
+rights is by legislation and this we must create ourselves. We never can
+obtain it through either of the old parties and therefore must ally
+ourselves to a new party.
+
+It is time that every intelligent workingman would think and act for
+himself. All semblance to aristocracy in labor must be eliminated, the
+skillful artisan has no more guarantee of just treatment than has the
+common laborer.
+
+Every workingman should endorse the Peoples party. They must unite as
+one, in one common cause and strike for their rights with the only
+effective weapon left to them, "the ballot."
+
+This strike has proven beyond doubt that the protective features in
+railroad organizations, and other organizations as well, is a dead
+letter as long as the federal courts are controlled by capital. Unless
+this is remedied, all labor organizations might just as well send in
+their charters and cease to exist.
+
+I cannot believe that the American people will allow this state of
+affairs to continue. There are many men in public life to-day whose
+motives are pure and unselfish. Such men as Governors Altgeld, Waite,
+Penoyer; Congressmen Kyle, Pfeffer, McGann, Pence, Goldgier; Mayor
+Hopkins of Chicago, Sydney M. Owens, Clarence S. Darrow, Judge Tully,
+Gen. Weaver, W. W. Erwin and hosts of others, who publicly espoused the
+cause of the strikers.
+
+The subsidized press, the most dangerous enemy of labor, and next to the
+courts, the most effective weapon in the hands of the railroad
+corporations in destroying the rights of labor and defeating the
+strikers, has again fallen in line as the champions of the laboring
+classes. With hypocritical pretensions to sympathy for the workingman,
+the organs of the two great political parties have begun to knife each
+other, and unite in denouncing the People's party, all for the benefit
+of the poor farmer, railroader, mechanic and laborer. They are loud in
+their denunciation of trusts, combines and corporations of all kinds
+that have a tendency to crush the poor working people. Their great and
+generous hearts are overflowing with sympathy for the poor oppressed
+toiler.
+
+The question is, can the American workingman be again deluded by these
+organs of organized capital?
+
+The laboring people do not want sympathy, neither do they want charity,
+all they want is simple justice, and this they must and will have.
+
+There are exceptions among the press and these should be remembered by
+the people. Papers that were champions of right and justice and whom the
+general managers could not buy.
+
+And now, kind reader, in conclusion I will quote the words of him, whose
+noble life is devoted to the cause of humanity:
+
+"The strike was not a failure. It will pass into history as a noble
+struggle for a righteous cause, and those who participated in it,
+whatever their immediate sacrifices may be, will in the end feel amply
+compensated for all their losses."
+
+  THE END.
+
+
+
+    +-------------------------------------------------------+
+    |             Transcriber's Note:                       |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the          |
+    | original document have been preserved.                |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:           |
+    |                                                       |
+    | Page    8  Crachus changed to Gracchus                |
+    | Page    8  Pometheus changed to Prometheus            |
+    | Page    8  lethergic changed to lethargic             |
+    | Page   10  rumaging changed to rummaging              |
+    | Page   10  consciousnes changed to consciousness      |
+    | Page   13  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page   14  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page   16  resistence changed to resistance           |
+    | Page   18  grestest changed to greatest               |
+    | Page   18  120 changed to 20                          |
+    | Page   19  averice changed to avarice                 |
+    | Page   20  accomodations changed to accommodations    |
+    | Page   22  averice changed to avarice                 |
+    | Page   28  authoritively changed to authoritatively   |
+    | Page   29  Fourty changed to Forty                    |
+    | Page   38  to changed to too                          |
+    | Page   38  chattle changed to chattel                 |
+    | Page   41  epethets changed to epithets               |
+    | Page   43  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page   44  meetting changed to meeting                |
+    | Page   44  apointed changed to appointed              |
+    | Page   45  Gattling changed to Gatling                |
+    | Page   46  counsles changed to counsels               |
+    | Page   47  Sheriden changed to Sheridan               |
+    | Page   47  attitute changed to attitude               |
+    | Page   47  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   48  intimitation changed to intimidation       |
+    | Page   48  threads changed to threats                 |
+    | Page   48  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   49  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page   50  know changed to known                      |
+    | Page   50  than changed to that                       |
+    | Page   51  spectical changed to spectacle             |
+    | Page   51  depotism changed to despotism              |
+    | Page   51  wanta changed to wont                      |
+    | Page   51  contagous changed to contagious            |
+    | Page   55  waving changed to waiving                  |
+    | Page   56  where changed to were                      |
+    | Page   57  coroborated changed to corroborated        |
+    | Page   57  occurrance changed to occurrence           |
+    | Page   58  Waving changed to Waiving                  |
+    | Page   59  ignor changed to ignore                    |
+    | Page   59  assistence changed to assistance           |
+    | Page   61  importaut changed to important             |
+    | Page   61  hour's changed to hours'                   |
+    | Page   61  interferance changed to interference       |
+    | Page   65  clearely changed to clearly                |
+    | Page   70  art changed to are                         |
+    | Page   73  grievences changed to grievances           |
+    | Page   77  intimitated changed to intimidated         |
+    | Page   77  their changed to there                     |
+    | Page   79  aud changed to and                         |
+    | Page   81  ensconsed changed to ensconced             |
+    | Page   82  occured changed to ccurred                 |
+    | Page   83  occurance changed to occurrence            |
+    | Page   83  promisciously changed to promiscuously     |
+    | Page   83  surpressed changed to suppressed           |
+    | Page   84  wonton changed to wanton                   |
+    | Page   88  interupted changed to interrupted          |
+    | Page   89  criminalty changed to criminality          |
+    | Page   89  discrimation changed to discrimination     |
+    | Page   89  subservent changed to subservient          |
+    | Page   92  guize changed to guise                     |
+    | Page   93  Wicks changed to Wickes                    |
+    | Page   93  contented changed to contended             |
+    | Page   94  acceeded changed to acceded                |
+    | Page   94  interupting changed to interrupting        |
+    | Page   96  ignor changed to ignore                    |
+    | Page   96  hear changed to here                       |
+    | Page   97  vengence changed to vengeance              |
+    | Page   99  independant changed to independent         |
+    | Page  101  counciled changed to counseled             |
+    | Page  101  device changed to devise                   |
+    | Page  102  farcial changed to farcical                |
+    | Page  102  Kelleher changed to Kelliher               |
+    | Page  103  eminated changed to emanated               |
+    | Page  104  inflamable changed to inflammable          |
+    | Page  104  aggrivating changed to aggravating         |
+    | Page  104  surpressing changed to suppressing         |
+    | Page  105  peacable changed to peaceable              |
+    | Page  105  contenting changed to contending           |
+    | Page  106  coporations changed to corporations        |
+    | Page  106  inflamatory changed to inflammatory        |
+    | Page  108  parlimentary changed to parliamentary      |
+    | Page  109  Ammerican changed to American              |
+    | Page  109  busiuess changed to business               |
+    | Page  109  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  109  Roger's changed to Rogers'                 |
+    | Page  110  endeaver changed to endeavor               |
+    | Page  111  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page  112  uprisal changed to uprising                |
+    | Page  112  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  113  alligns changed to aligns                  |
+    | Page  115  demagogery changed to demagougery          |
+    | Page  116  Wicks changed to Wickes                    |
+    | Page  119  propositiou changed to proposition         |
+    | Page  119  extented changed to extended               |
+    | Page  120  calamaties changed to calamities           |
+    | Page  121  propisition changed to proposition         |
+    | Page  121  Gibralter changed to Gibraltar             |
+    | Page  121  unmoveable changed to unmovable            |
+    | Page  122  interuption changed to interruption        |
+    | Page  122  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  124  effect changed to affect                   |
+    | Page  125  persuation changed to persuasion           |
+    | Page  128  traiters changed to traitors               |
+    | Page  129  intent changed to intend                   |
+    | Page  129  blocade changed to blockade                |
+    | Page  132  requst changed to request                  |
+    | Page  132  concievable changed to conceivable         |
+    | Page  135  pinacle changed to pinnacle                |
+    | Page  136  seperate changed to separate               |
+    | Page  136  intestate changed to interstate            |
+    | Page  137  firey changed to fiery                     |
+    | Page  137  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  139  Wilkenson changed to Wilkinson             |
+    | Page  140  anihilation changed to annihilation        |
+    | Page  140  semblence changed to semblance             |
+    | Page  140  immaginable changed to imaginable          |
+    | Page  143  Valpraiso changed to Valparaiso            |
+    | Page  144  poisening changed to poisoning             |
+    | Page  148  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  149  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  150  defendents changed to defendants           |
+    | Page  150  counselled changed to counseled            |
+    | Page  154  interupted changed to interrupted          |
+    | Page  155  or changed to on                           |
+    | Page  156  draw changed to drawn                      |
+    | Page  156  aid changed to add                         |
+    | Page  157  irrevelant changed to irrelevant           |
+    | Page  157  persued changed to pursued                 |
+    | Page  160  pronunce changed to pronounce              |
+    | Page  160  biggotted changed to bigoted               |
+    | Page  160  affective changed to effective             |
+    | Page  160  savory changed to savour                   |
+    | Page  161  inuendoes changed to innuendoes            |
+    | Page  161  precedure changed to procedure             |
+    | Page  162  chariman changed to chairman               |
+    | Page  164  it changed to is                           |
+    | Page  165  destinction changed to distinction         |
+    | Page  167  STIKE changed to STRIKE                    |
+    | Page  171  assistence changed to assistance           |
+    | Page  172  condecend changed to condescend            |
+    | Page  173  bycotting changed to boycotting            |
+    | Page  183  extented changed to extended               |
+    | Page  186  extent changed to extend                   |
+    | Page  189  restoring changed to resorting             |
+    | Page  190  frivilous changed to frivolous             |
+    | Page  194  compulsary changed to compulsory           |
+    | Page  194  corporotions changed to corporations       |
+    | Page  197  give changed to given                      |
+    | Page  197  "there" inserted between "and" and "would" |
+    | Page  199  content changed to contend                 |
+    | Page  201  compulsary changed to compulsory           |
+    | Page  203  accomodations changed to accommodations    |
+    | Page  205  tyranical changed to tyrannical            |
+    | Page  207  "you" inserted between "do" and "mean"     |
+    | Page  207  divident changed to dividend               |
+    | Page  208  "I" inserted between "family," and "have"  |
+    | Page  210  their changed to there                     |
+    | Page  214  things changed to thing                    |
+    | Page  214  made changed to make                       |
+    | Page  222  Terry changed to Terre                     |
+    | Page  225  convenion changed to convention            |
+    | Page  227  Chatanooga changed to Chattanooga          |
+    | Page  233  inflamatory changed to inflammatory        |
+    | Page  234  otherwis changed to otherwise              |
+    | Page  237  avoides changed to avoids                  |
+    | Page  238  degredation changed to degradation         |
+    | Page  239  phenominally changed to phenomenally       |
+    | Page  241  contradicture changed to contradiction     |
+    | Page  241  concilliation changed to conciliation      |
+    | Page  244  on changed to one                          |
+    | Page  244  governtal changed to governmenetal         |
+    | Page  246  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  247  occured changed to occurred                |
+    | Page  249  drunkeness changed to drunkenness          |
+    | Page  252  decribed changed to described              |
+    | Page  254  grievence changed to grievance             |
+    | Page  266  lenghty changed to lengthy                 |
+    | Page  272  vic changed to vice                        |
+    | Page  272  Epethets changed to Epithets               |
+    | Page  272  epethets changed to epithets               |
+    | Page  273  taylor changed to tailor                   |
+    | Page  275  intolerence changed to intolerance         |
+    | Page  277  attenting changed to attending             |
+    | Page  278  Sprinfield changed to Springfield          |
+    | Page  281  resistence changed to resistance           |
+    | Page  285  committe changed to committee              |
+    | Page  287  voltneeer changed to volunteer             |
+    | Page  290  superintendant changed to superintendent   |
+    | Page  292  havn't changed to haven't                  |
+    | Page  303  so changed to to                           |
+    | Page  310  preceeding changed to preceding            |
+    | Page  313  elligible changed to eligible              |
+    | Page  314  immediatedly changed to immediately        |
+    | Page  315  hypocracy changed to hypocrisy             |
+    | Page  316  artesan changed to artisan                 |
+    | Page  317  pretentions changed to pretensions         |
+    | Page  317  Peffer changed to Pfeffer                  |
+    +-------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pullman Boycott, by W. F. Burns
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