PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH SOCIAL UNION. 
 
 issued semi-monthly. 
 
 April 15, 1895. 
 
 The Railroad Strike 
 
 OF 1894. 
 
 The [Statements of the Pullman Company and the 
 Report of the Commission, together 
 
 WITH AN ANALYSis OF 
 
 THE Issues, 
 By W. J. Ashley, M. A. 
 
 Professor of Econoniic History in Harvard University, 
 And a Brief Bibliography. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. 
 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, 
 
 3 MASON STREET. 
 1895. 
 
THE CHURCH SOCIAL UNION. 
 
 Objects. — i. To claim for the Christian Law the ultimate authority to rule 
 social practice. 2. To study in common how to arply the moral truths and 
 principles of Christianity to the social and economic difficulties of the present time. 
 3. To present Christ in practical life as the living Master and King, the Enemy of 
 wrong and selfishness, the Power of righteousness and love. 
 
 Membership (entitling to Publications) is open to all communicants of the 
 Episcopal Church upon application to the Secretary and the payment of one dollar. 
 
 Subscriptions to the Publications are received from non-members at two dollars 
 per annum. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 The Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, S. T. D. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D. j 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Reynolds. | 
 
 George E. 
 
 The Rev. Robert A. Holland, S. T. D. 
 Prof. Richard T. Ely, Ph. D. 
 McNeil. 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 The Rev. George Hodges, D. D., 3 
 Mason Street, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 H. Gardiner, 40 State Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 The Rev. J. W. Suter, Chairman. 
 
 Prof. W. J. Ashley, M. A. 
 Edmund Billings. 
 The Rev. W. D.P. Bi.iss. 
 The Rev. C. H. Brent. 
 The Rev. W. L. Bull. 
 
 The Rev. W. B. Frisby. 
 Francis Watts Lee. 
 The Rev. Philo W. Spragub. 
 The Rev. Floyd Tompkins, Jr 
 John W. Wood. 
 
 COUNCIL. 
 
 The foregoing and 
 The Rt. Rev. H. M. Thompson, S.T.D. 
 The Rt. Rev. Davis Sessums, D. D. 
 The Rev. Arthur Brooks, D. D. 
 Prof. James H. Dillard. 
 Miss Helsna S. Dudley. 
 The Rev. Prof. E. P. Gould, D. D. 
 The Rev. Percy S. Grant. 
 James L. Houghteling. 
 William P. Johnston, LL. D. 
 The Rev. J. S. Lindsay, D. D. 
 The Rev. Arthur Lowndes. 
 J. Blehker Miller. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Mottett, D. D. 
 
 The Rev. E. N. Potter, D. D. 
 
 The Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D. 
 
 Miss ViDA D. Scudder. 
 
 Archibald L. Sessions. 
 
 The Rev. H. H. Sleeper, Ph. D. 
 
 The Rev. William Harman Van 
 
 Allen. 
 The Rev. George R. Van De Water, 
 
 D. D. 
 Everett P. Wheeler. 
 The Rev. John Williams. 
 George Zabriskie. 
 
 (S-U'/O?! 
 
THE CHURCH SOCIAL UNION. 
 
 NOTES FOR MEMBERS. 
 
 As announced in the Supplement to the last issue of the Publications, 
 the Annual Meeting of the Union will take place at Boston, Mass., 
 Tuesday, May 14, 1895. The business meeting will take place at 
 the Diocesan House, i Joy Street, at 3 p. m. There will be a 
 public service the same evening in St. Paul's Church at which the 
 Bishop of Massachusetts will preside, and which will be addressed by 
 the Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D., and Mr. John W. Wood of New 
 York. At the business meeting the amendments to the Constitution 
 which were sent out with the last issue will be proposed. 
 
 The attention of the members of the old C. S. U. is called to the 
 fact that in accordance with the vote of the Executive Committee 
 this is the last but one of the Publications which will be sent to those 
 persons who have not joined the reorganized society. It is hoped 
 that the obvious value of the present series and the promise which 
 it gives of a pei'iod of renewed and' fruitful activity will lead the 
 greater number of the 700 old members who have as yet returned no 
 answer to the Executive Committee's circular letter of December the 
 28th to renew their membership without further delay. The society 
 requires liberal support if it is to accomplish its purpose. All mem- 
 bers can render efficient aid by extending a knowledge of the Union 
 amongst Churchmen and endeavoring to secure for it an increased 
 membership and so an increased field of work. 
 
 The Publications thus far arranged for by the Executive Committee, 
 subject to a possible change in the order of their appearance, are as 
 follows : — 
 
 SERIES A. 
 
 The Church of the World. 
 
 Rev. R. A. Holland, S. T. D. 
 The Political Economy of the Ser- 
 mon ON THE Mount. 
 
 Very Rev. C. W. Stubbs, D. D. 
 The Church and Social Problems. 
 
 Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, S. T. D. 
 An Address before Harvard Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D. 
 
 SERIES B. 
 
 The Railroad Strike of 1894. 
 
 Prof. W. J. Ashley. 
 Arbitration and Conciliation. 
 An Eight Hour Day. 
 American Trades Unions. 
 The Sacredness of Property. 
 
 Prof. W. Cunningham. 
 
 These and all other publications of the Union will be carefully pre- 
 pared and edited under the guidance of a Publication Committee of 
 
which Prof. W. J. Ashley of Harvard is Chairman, and will, as a rule, 
 be accompanied by lists of books and articles for further reading pre- 
 pared by Mr. F. W. Lee of the Boston Public Library. 
 
 The attention of the clerical members of the Union is called to 
 Art. IV., Sect. 3, of the Constitution, and they are reminded that 
 they are expected to preach " on topics connected with the Union 
 ... on St. Philip and St. James' day, or the first Sunday in May." 
 
 The Treasurer desires that all unpaid pledges of dues or donations 
 shall be redeemed as soon as possible. 
 
 GEORGE HODGES, 
 
 General Secretary. 
 
THE RAILROAD STRIKE 
 
 OF 1894. , 
 
 The main purpose of the Church Social Union is to stimulate and 
 assist careful study of the present industrial situation. It is fitting, 
 therefore, that it should begin its new season of work by inviting its 
 members to give their quiet and impartial attention to the main facts 
 in the history of the greatest industrial struggle yet seen in this 
 country, — the Chicago strike of last year, — and to ponder soberly 
 the principles involved. For this purpose, there are herewith put 
 into the hands of each of the members, the Report of the U. S. 
 Strike Commission and Mr. Pullman's Statement. 
 
 Whatever criticism may be called for by either of these docu- 
 ments, it is evident that they are each of them at least deserving of 
 consideration. The U. S. Strike Commission had exceptional means 
 of arriving at an accurate knowledge of the facts of the case ; and the 
 reputation of its chairman, the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, as a statis- 
 tician and economic investigator, is so high in America and Europe 
 that his judgment as to the facts must be listened to with respect. 
 
 Mr. Pullman is an extremely able and successful business man, 
 and the statement he has put forward has undoubtedly been prepared 
 with the aid of the most skilful advisers attainable. 
 
 To assist the members of the C. S..U. to arrive at some con- 
 clusions concerning the mass of contentions now put before them, 
 the Committee venture to lay before them certain notes and memo- 
 randa. They would urge their members, however, before going 
 further, first to read rapidly through both the accompanying docu- 
 ments. Each, in its different way, is so forcible that members who 
 have scanty leisure, having read one, will possibly think that there is 
 nothing more to be said, and that it is hardly worth while to read 
 the other. For the purpose, however, which this Society has at 
 heart, it is of the utmost importance that whichever may chance to 
 have been read first, the other should then be read also. And mem- 
 bers are urged not to content themselves with newspaper summaries, 
 but to read both right through. 
 
 Having done this, they will be in a position to go over the subject 
 once more, more critically ; and for this purpose they may find it 
 useful to follow the lines of thought here laid down. It need hardly 
 be said that if this publication is taken up and glanced through, put 
 down and forgotten, as we read newspapers, it will be useless. It is 
 hoped that members will keep it by them, and recur to it again and 
 again for quiet and sustained consideration. 
 
 I. The Sequence of Events. 
 
 Facts and principles are almost inextricably intertwined in real 
 life ; but for clearness of thought it is desirable to attempt to dis- 
 
entangle them. Up to a certain stage, two entirely separate sets of 
 events have to be distinguished, — those in the railroad world in and 
 around Chicago, and those in the Pullman car manufacturing and 
 repairing business. 
 
 1886. Formation of the Genera/ Managers' Assoaa^ion, representing 
 twenty- four roads centring or terminating in Chicago. 
 
 1892. Beginning of its "active life" {Rep07-t^ xxix.). Its main 
 business was to determine a common policy towards the public as 
 to freight rates, etc., but it dealt incidentally with wages. 
 
 1893. Strengthened thus by mutual aid {^Report, xxx.^, various 
 roads made reductions of wages here and there. 
 
 1893, June. Formation (June 20), of the Amerzcan Railway Union 
 (Report, xxiii.). 
 
 1893, Sept. Business depression suggests to the Pullman Company 
 a reduction of employment and a diminution of wages. 
 Quesfiojis of fact : 
 
 (a) As to the effect of depression on the car business 
 {Statement, 6-8). 
 
 {b) No explanation, however, was given to the work 
 people till May {Report, xxxvii.). It might be replied 
 that it was not requested {Statement, 7). 
 Questions of Principle : 
 
 {a) Was the loss " fairly " divided as between 
 labor and capital {Report, xxxii.) ? 
 
 {i>) Was it "fair" to make a uniform reduction 
 in departments differently situated {Report, xxxiv.y. 
 But no change was made in the rentals of Pullman houses. 
 Q,uestio7ts of fact : 
 
 {a) Descriptions of the town of Pullman from different 
 points of view, {Statement, 1-3, 23, 24 ; Report, xxi., xxii). 
 
 {b) Different versions of the relations between occupancy 
 and employment. On one side it is implied that practically 
 all the Pullman workmen live in the Company's houses, with 
 the exception of " exceptional and necessary expert work- 
 men " {Report, XXXV.) . On the other hand it is declared that 
 only one third of the employees were tenants {Statement,^). 
 
 {c) The clearest account is that of Mr. Wickes {State- 
 ment, 21), according to which two thirds of the employees 
 were tenants or lodgers (and as such indirectly affected by 
 the rate of rent ; cf Statement, 28, middle). 
 Question of Principle : 
 
 Ought the Company to have reduced rents while 
 
 reducing wages? Different answers {Statement, 32, 
 
 37; Report, xxxvi.). 
 
 The Pullman policy as a whole. Described on the one side 
 
 as a benevolent attempt to give employment even on unre- 
 
 munerative contracts {Statement, 7) ; on the other, as simply 
 
 the best business policy {Report, xxxiii., xxxv.). 
 
i894> March. Pullman employees join the A. R. U. 
 
 Question of the wisdom of their admission {Report, xxvii.). 
 May 7 and 9. Committee of employees wait upon the management, 
 requesting return to old wage. No concession offered {Statement, 9 ; 
 Report, XXXV a.). 
 
 May 10. Three committeemen discharged {Statement, 10; 
 Report, xxxinii.). 
 
 May to, evg. Local unions of A. R. U. (/. e., the Pullman men) 
 vote to strike. 
 
 Alleged that directors of A. R. U. advised against the 
 
 strike, but were dragged into it by the Pullman men {Report, 
 
 xxvii.). No violence or destruction of property occurred 
 
 at Pullman {Report, xxxviii. ; State}?ie?it, 24). 
 
 June 15 and 22. Pullman Company refuse to receive communication 
 
 from A. R. U. {Report., xxxix.), or to receive a joint committee of 
 
 A. R. U. and Pullman men {Statement, 2,Z). 
 
 From this time to the end of the strike it repeatedly 
 
 refused to consider proposals for arbitration from Civic 
 
 Federation of Chicago, Common Council, Mayors of fifty 
 
 cities, etc. 
 
 June 21. Unanimous resolution of Convention of A. R. U. (under 
 
 instructions from local unions) to stop handling Pullman cars on June 
 
 26, unless Pullman Company acceded to arbitration {Report.^ xxxix.). 
 
 Readiness to strike sympathetically said to have been increased by 
 
 the recent action of G. M. A. {Report, xl.). 
 
 June 25. G. M. A. resolve to disregard the proposed boycott 
 {Statement, 30). 
 June 26. General railroad strike begins. 
 
 The struggle thenceforward is between the A. R. U. and 
 G. M. A. {Report, xliii.). 
 
 Consequent dislocation of commerce. 
 Mob violence, riot, and plunder {Report, xviii.). 
 July 2. Issue of injunction (legality of which is not yet decided) 
 by United States Court enjoining the A. R. U. not to induce rail- 
 road employees to strike. 
 
 July 13. Principal Union officers attached for contempt of Court. 
 Meanwhile, the action of Federal Government in despatching troops 
 had quelled riot ; the strike had been discredited by the violence 
 associated with it; and the strikers had been practically beaten. 
 
 July 13. G. M. A. refuses to receive communication from the 
 A. R. U. 
 
 Reserving for later consideration the question how far the mere 
 fact of the strike necessarily caused violence, and the conclusions 
 to be drawn from such a proposition, it appears that the worst 
 mob violence was due to hoodlums and professional criminals {Re- 
 port, xlvi.), though some railway men undoubtedly were concerned in 
 certain outrages {Report, xlv.). There is no evidence that the officers 
 of the A. R. U. participated in or advised violence, except a cer- 
 tain despatch {Report, xlv.). 
 
2. Important Principles at Issue. 
 
 Several questions of principle, as distinguished from questions of 
 fact, have already been mentioned in their due place above. But 
 there are, in the opinion of the Committee of the C. S. U., some 
 still more important issues, which it would be well to consider apart. 
 
 It may be well to make the preliminary observation that it is, of 
 course, the duty of all good citizens to discountenance violence, what- 
 ever may be the motives or excuses of those guilty of it, and that it 
 is the duty of the proper authorities to act promptly for its prevention 
 or punishment. 
 
 In the opinion of the Committee, the following are the most im- 
 portant issues raised by the strike ; and even those who dissent from 
 that view will agree that they are important. 
 
 I. The Right to Strike. 
 
 It seems to be the case that in America to-day every very 
 considerable strike in a large industrial centre is likely to be 
 attended with violence. There are those who declare that 
 the strike leaders count upon this, and " rely upon having 
 their work done by hoodlums "; there are others who, with- 
 out attributing any such sinister purpose, declare that the 
 Union leaders ought to foresee the probabilit}', and that the 
 evil of probable violence ought, in their minds, to outweigh 
 the possible good of success in the struggle for better terms 
 from their employers. 
 
 Either view results in the conclusion that a strike, on a 
 large scale, ought never to be undertaken. (The fact that 
 in the Chicago case the strike was a sympathetic one does 
 not affect the argument. In any case, a big strike is usually 
 attended by violence.) The men, it will accordingly be 
 concluded, have no moral right to strike ; and the sympathy 
 of decent citizens should always be against strikers as such. 
 
 But it is the opinion of almost every economist of repute, 
 of whatever school, that labor combinations, with a power 
 to appeal in the last resort to the joint refusal to work, i. e., to 
 strike, are, under the present system of competition, the "in- 
 dispensable means of enabling the sellers of labor to take 
 care of their own interests " (J. S. Mill, Principles of Politi- 
 cal Economy, Bk. v., Chap, x., §5, second half). With these 
 words of Mill, may be compared the language of Fawcett 
 {Manual, 6th ed., page 242), Walker (Political Econo7?iy, 
 §468), and Marshall {Elements of Economics, 1892, pages 
 381, 382, 390). These are not writers particularly sympathetic 
 towards Trades Union policy, or particularly hopeful of good 
 •results from such action. They merely state that, even 
 though in very many cases strikes may have been unwise, 
 the right to strike is, in itself, a necessary safeguard of work- 
 ingmen's interests. 
 
No economist, it may be worth while to add, now believes 
 that there is any natural " law " of wages, which work people 
 can in any sense "violate." They all believe that within 
 certain limits (as to which there are, of course, differences of 
 opinion) the rate of wages is determined by the relative 
 strength of the two parties to the bargain, the buyers and 
 sellers of labor. They regard combination on the part of 
 the sellers of labor, common agreement as to the price to 
 be asked, and ability to withdraw temporarily the supply of 
 their labor from the market (/. ^.,to strike) as circumstances 
 which strengthen one party in the bargaining process, just as 
 accumulation of capital and the control of industrial under- 
 takings in few hands strengthen the other party. 
 
 If, therefore, public opinion in America determines to 
 brand every great strike as necessarily wrong, — which, hav- 
 ing regard to the weakness of the forces for the maintenance 
 of order in the large cities, the large number of foreign 
 laborers inclined to violence, the danger from the criminal 
 and semi-criminal classes, the extremes to which even worthy 
 workingmen may be led by passion or starvation, the chances 
 of unwise or corrupt leadership, etc., etc., it may possibly 
 do, — then it will not only be expedient, but also demanded 
 by justice, that the safeguard removed should be replaced by 
 a safeguard of another kind. In other words, public preven- 
 tion of strikes would seem in justice to involve, not, indeed, 
 necessarily direct and immediate public intervention in 
 adjusting the terms of the labor contract, but, at any rate, a 
 public guarantee that the work people shall not be preju- 
 dicially affected by the loss of the right of combination. 
 This is an issue which ought to be squarely faced. It is 
 evident that there are grave difficulties in the way of every 
 proposed means of making that guarantee real ; but the 
 grappling with those difficulties is itself part of the responsi- 
 bility which the public necessarily assumes by discounten- 
 ancing strikes. It may be thought that such a guarantee 
 would lead to intervention to regulate wages ; and that to 
 this even the prevalence of strikes would be preferable. 
 Then freedom to strike must be allowed. Public prevention 
 of strikes clearly involves a certain public responsibility for 
 the result. 
 
 2. The Right to Strike Sympathetically. 
 
 So long as the strike itself is allowed by public opinion, 
 the sympathetic strike would seem allowable. If A, B, and 
 C may strike against Z ; D, E, F may strike against Y, if they 
 deem that thereby they will affect Y's actions in such a way 
 as to exert pressure on Z. If employers are to be allowed in 
 various ways to assist one another in struggles in which they 
 
10 
 
 have no immediate interest, as seems to be the case, it would 
 seem that employees should be likewise allowed to assist one 
 another. But here the danger of affording occasion to vio- 
 lence is often so greatly increased, and public convenience so 
 much more likely to be disturbed, that while recognizing the 
 bare right, the public has a more evident duty to scrutinize 
 the alleged reason. In this case, the motive asserted was to 
 compel the Pullman Company {not to yield to their men's 
 terms, but) to agree to arbitration. The question needs to 
 be considered, then, whether the gain to the working 
 classes generally, from success in inducing a great corpo- 
 ration to accept arbitration, was likely to be such as to out- 
 weigh the probable evils of a struggle to that end. Opinions 
 as to this will vary with opinions on the next issue. 
 
 3. The Social Expediency of Arbitration. 
 
 It will be seen that the Pullman Company, in effect, refused 
 altogether to recognize even the possible desirability of 
 arbitration in industrial warfare. Mr. Pullman distinguishes 
 between "matters of opinion," "e.g., a question of title" or 
 " the settlement of a transaction that has come to an end"(z. e., 
 practically, commercial arbitration as now practised), which 
 may be proper subjects of arbitration, and " matters of 
 fact." " As to whether a fact which I know to be true is 
 true or not, I could not agree to submit to arbitration." 
 
 '' If asked about the application to the case in hand, what I 
 would say is this : That the question as to whether the shops 
 at Pullman should be continuously operated at a loss or not, 
 is one which it was impossible for the Company, as a matter 
 of principle, to submit to the opinion of any third party ; and 
 as to whether they were running at a loss upon contract work 
 in general, as explained to the committee of the men in my 
 interview with them, that was a simple fact which I knew to 
 be true, and which could not be made otherwise by the 
 opinion of any third party" {Statement, 3). 
 
 But the distinction is hardly tenable. For on the one 
 hand, in commercial arbitration, one or both the parties have 
 frequently an equally positive belief that the question at 
 issue is a question of fact about which they are perfectly 
 informed, and yet they judge it better on the whole to 
 accept arbitration than to go to law. And secondly, it is 
 unfortunately the fact that in most great industrial struggles 
 the employers, with an equally clear conscience, declare 
 positively that the conditions of trade will not allow them to 
 make concessions. This was, for instance, the case in the 
 recent great coal strike in England. To have accepted such 
 a contention as that of Mr. Pullman would have made 
 arbitration impossible in very many of those cases in which, 
 
while not agreeable to the parties, it has yet been deemed 
 by public opinion better than a continuance of the 
 struggle, and in which the force of public opinion has in- 
 duced the parties to accede to the proposal. Moreover, 
 the real matter at dispute does not seem in the Pullman 
 case to have been the cost of executing particular contracts, 
 but the industrial policy of the Pullman company as a 
 whole under given conditions. A board of arbitrators might 
 conceivably have reported that, on the whole, the actual 
 policy seemed the best; or they might conceivably have 
 suggested modifications. These modifications might con- 
 ceivably have been accepted by the Pullman Company, 
 not because they thought them better than their own 
 measures, nor even because they despaired of winning in the 
 long run if they held out, but because it seemed expedient 
 for the good of the community at large to make concessions. 
 These are, as a matter of fact, the motives which have influ- 
 enced both sides in accepting arbitrators' awards in many of 
 the best known cases in which arbitration has been success- 
 fully resorted to. 
 
 It cannot be maintained that arbitration is free from grave 
 difficulties, or that the principles upon which awards are to 
 be made are altogether clear. Yet, it has in practice proved 
 in many cases in England better than the pushing of the 
 warfare to the bitter end, and there seems to be no reason 
 peculiar to America why it should not be so in this country 
 also. 
 
 On a minor part of the dispute, — the re?its for the Pull- 
 man houses, — the Statement (pages 32, 37) seems to assume 
 it as self-evident that arbitration was, on such a matter, al- 
 together out of the question. This is, apparently, because 
 no such case has yet arisen in America. It may be noticed 
 that the Irish Land Legislation and the Scottish Crofters' 
 Legislation have in Europe introduced what is practically 
 compulsory arbitration, in cases not wholly dissimilar from 
 those of Pullman. And it can scarcely be granted that 
 there is any distinction in principle between arbitration 
 about wages and arbitration about rents. In each case it 
 would seem to be a question, not of abstract justice, but of 
 social expediency. 
 
 The fact has, indeed, to be recognized that the prmciple 
 of individualism is somewhat more firmly rooted in America 
 than it is in England. Employers are wont to declare here, 
 with even greater self-confidence, that they "propose to 
 manage their business in their own way," and " will not sub- 
 mit to dictation." They are supported by able and sincere 
 writers in the public press, who urge that any concession to 
 proposals for arbitration would be a "countenancing" of 
 the " claims " of labor, which would be dangerous to society. 
 
Without attempting to pass any judgment upon these posi- 
 tions in themselves, it may yet be pointed out that while it 
 is not clear that the acceptance of arbitration would seriously 
 injure the employers, it is clear that such a victory as that 
 at Chicago is not likely to be final. It would seem a very 
 probable forecast that if employers maintain an intransige'ant 
 attitude, there will be even more considerable strikes, with 
 their incidental danger of violence, in the future. And even 
 if the labour-combination movement is, for the time, dis- 
 couraged by non-success, it is only too likely to be replaced 
 by a more revolutionary political socialism. 
 It is not the purpose here to attempt to judge as between these 
 apparent alternatives ; but this seems to be the situation which mem- 
 bers of the C. S. U. ought to bear steadily in mind. 
 
 W. J. ASHLEY, 
 
 For the Economic Sub-Cojntfiitiee of the C. S. U. 
 April, 1895. 
 
 The edition of the Report of the U. S. Strike Commission bound 
 up herewith does not include the appendices containing the testimony, 
 etc. The complete edition containing these may be had upon appli- 
 cation to any Congressman. 
 
THE RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1894. 
 
 A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY, 
 
 Compiled by FRANCIS WATTS Lee, of the Boston Public Library. 
 
 This list, which is not intended to be exhaustive or generally inclusive of news- 
 paper comment, is designed to present only such books and magazine articles in the 
 English language as are readily accessible, and likely to help the members of The 
 Church Social Union to just conclusions upon the questions raised by this strike. 
 It has, however, been thought well to add to the titles of works dealing directly with 
 the strike itself and with the report of the Commission a few others bearing upon 
 the preliminary conditions at Pullman, and upon strikes in general and railroad strikes 
 in particular. 
 
 Carwardine, Wm. H. The Pullman 
 Strike. By the Pastor of the First 
 M. E. Church of Pullman. Chicago, 
 Kerr, 1894. 126 pp. Illus. i2mo! 
 
 — See also his evidence before the U. S. 
 Strike Commission. Report, pp. 
 444-454- 
 
 CoGLEY, Thomas S. The Law of Strikes, 
 Lockouts and Labor Organizations. 
 Washington, Lowdermilk, 1894, xiv, 
 (i)' 211 PP- Svo. 
 
 CooLEY, Thomas M. The Lessons of the 
 Recent Civil Disorders. Forum, Vol. 
 xviii., p. I. September, 1894. 
 
 Debs, Eugene V. United States v. Eugene 
 V. Debs et at., in chancery. Before 
 Hon. Wm. A. Woods, Circuit Judge, 
 etc. Proceedings on information for 
 attachment for contempt. Chicago, 
 Barnard and Hornstein, 1894. 217 
 pp. 8vo. 
 
 — See also Swinton, John. Striking for 
 Life. 
 
 — See also his evidence before the U. S. 
 Strike Commission. Report, pp. 129- 
 180. 
 
 DeWolf, Oscar C. Pullman from a 
 State Medicine point of view. Amer. 
 Pub. Health Assoc. Proc, ix., p. 290. 
 
 Doty, Duane. The Story of Pullman. 
 Chicago, 1894. Issued by The Pull- 
 man Company. 
 
 — See also his evidence before the U. 
 S. Strike Commission. Report pp 
 495-507- 
 
 Adams, Henry C. The Railway Situa- 
 tion. Review of Reviews, Vol. x., p. 
 185. August, 1894. 
 
 Allen, Charles Claflin. Injunction 
 and Organized Labor. American 
 Law Review. Vol. xxviii., p. 828. 
 November-December, 1894. 
 
 Ashley, W. J. The Railroad Strike of 
 1894. The Statements of the Pull- 
 man Company and the Report of the 
 Commission, together with an Analy- 
 sis of the Issues and a brief Bibliog- 
 raphy. Cambridge. The Church 
 Social Union. 1895. 15, liv., 46 pp. 
 [Publications, Series B, No. i.] Svo. 
 
 Bacon, T. R. The Railroad Strike in 
 California. Yale Review, Vol. iii., 
 p. 241. November, 1894. 
 
 Bancroft, Edgar A. The Chicago 
 Strike of 1894. Chicago. Privately 
 printed, 1895. (3), 73 pp. Svo. 
 
 Bech-Meyer, Nico. A Story from Pull- 
 mantown. Chicago, Kerr, 1894. 
 no pp. Illus. i2mo. 
 
 Bible. The Book of Exodus. Chapters 
 i.-xii. 
 
 An account of the causes (i. 8-14; v. 6-19), 
 circumstances (ii. 11, 12; vii. 20; xii. 51), 
 and divinely approved methods (iii. 21, 22; 
 vi. 2-8; xi. 2 ; xii. 35, 36) of the first suc- 
 cessful strike recorded in history. 
 
 Canntff, W. H. The Relation of the 
 Railway to its Employees. Engineer- 
 ing Magazine, Vol. viii., p. 977. 
 March, 1895. 
 
14 
 
 Eaton, Charles H. Pullman and Pater- 
 nalism. Amer. Jour, of Politics, Vol. 
 v., p. 571. December, 1894. 
 
 Ely, Richard T. Pullman : a social 
 study. Illus. Harper's Magazine, 
 Vol. Ixx., p. 452. February, 1885. 
 
 Fletcher, Henry J. The Railway War. 
 Atlantic Montlily, Vol. Ixxiv., p. 534. 
 October, 1894. 
 
 Gary, George. A Proposed Remedy for 
 Railroad Troubles. Amer. Jour, of 
 Politics, Vol. v., p. 641. December, 
 1894. 
 
 GoMPERS, Samuel. The Lesson of the 
 Recent Strikes. North Amer. Rev., 
 Vol. clix., p. 201. August, 1894. 
 
 — See also, Swinton, John, Striking for 
 
 Life. 
 
 — See also his evidence before the U. S. 
 
 Strike Commission. Report, pp. 188- 
 205. 
 
 Grant, Thomas Burke. Pullman and Its 
 Lessons. Amer. Jour, of Politics, 
 Vol. v., p. 190. August, 1894. 
 
 Greene, T. L. The Law of Strikes. 
 Nation, Vol. lix., p. 281. Oct. 18, 
 1894. 
 
 Hampton, Wade. The Lesson of the 
 Recent Strikes. North Amer. Rev., 
 Vol. clix., p. 188. August, 1S94. 
 
 Harte, Walter Blackburn. A Review of 
 the Chicago Strike of '94. Arena, 
 Vol. X., p. 497. September, 1894. 
 
 Hayes, John W. See Swinton, John. 
 Striking for Life. 
 
 HoLST, H. von. Are we Awakened ? Jour, 
 of Political Economy, Vol. ii., p. 485. 
 September, 1894. 
 
 Houghton, W. R. George M. Pullman 
 (In his Kings of Fortune, p. 212. 
 Chicago, 1886.) 
 
 Howell, George. The Conflicts of Cap- 
 ital and Labor Historically and Eco- 
 nomically Considered. 2d ed. Lon- 
 don, Macmillan & Co. 1890. xxxvi., 
 536 pp. Small 8vo. 
 
 Huntington, Frederick Dan. Strikes — 
 the Right and the Wrong. New 
 York, Dutton & Co., 1891. 34, (i) 
 pp. Sq. i6mo. 
 
 Jeans, J. S. The Labour War in the 
 United States. Nineteenth Century, 
 Vol. xxxvi., p. 259. August, 1S94. 
 
 — Same. Eclectic Magazine, Vol. c.xxiii., 
 
 p. 442. October, 1894. 
 Latest Labor Crisis, The. Yale Review, 
 Vol. iii., p. 113. August, 1894. 
 
 Leuf, a. H. p. An Open Letter to the 
 U. S. Strike Commission. To-day, 
 Vol. i., p. 428. October, 1894. 
 
 McDermot, George. The Pullman Strike 
 Commission. Catholic World, Vol. 
 Ix., p. 627. February, 1895. 
 
 McNeil, George E. and others. The 
 Labor Movement. Boston, Bridgman 
 & Co., 1886. xiv, (4), 650 pp. 8vo. 
 
 Mason, J, W. Pullman and its Real Les- 
 sons. Amer. Jour, of Politics, Vol. 
 v., p. 392. October, 1894. 
 
 Means, David McG. The Principles in- 
 volved in the Recent Strike. Forum, 
 Vol. xvii., p. 633. August, 1894. 
 
 Miles, Nelson A. The Lesson of the 
 Recent Strikes. North Amer. Rev., 
 Vol. clix., p. 180. August, 1894. 
 
 Ogden, R. The Report on the Chicago 
 Strike. Nation, Vol. lix., p. 376. 
 Nov. 2.?, 1894. 
 
 Olney, Richard. Oral Argument of the 
 Attorney-General in the Supreme 
 Court, October Term, 1894, £x parte 
 Eugene V. Debs et al., petitioners. 
 No. ir. Original. Habeas corpics. 
 [Washington, Government printing- 
 office, 1894.] 22 pp. Svo. 
 
 — The Pullman Strike. (In the annual 
 
 report of the Attorney-General of the 
 United States for the year 1894. p, 
 xxxi.) Washington. Government 
 printing-office. 1894. 8vo. 
 
 Parsons, Frank. Chicago's Message to 
 Uncle Sam. Arena, Vol. x., p. 494. 
 September, 1894. 
 
 Pullman, George M. The Strike at Pull- 
 man. Statements of president Geo. 
 M. Pullman, and second vice-presi- 
 dent T. H. Wickes, before the U. S. 
 Strike Commission. Also published 
 statements of the company during the 
 continuance of the strike. Chicago. 
 Pullman's Palace Car Co. 1894. 46 
 pp., Svo. 
 
 — See also their evidence before the U. S. 
 
 Strike Commission. Report, pp. 
 
 528-630. 
 Reed, Chester A. Peaceable Boycotting, 
 
 Annals of Amer. Acad, of Political 
 
 and Social Science, Vol. v., p. 28. 
 
 July, 1S94. 
 
 Mr. Reed discusses the attitude of the United 
 States Courts in the recent railway strike 
 cases, and endeavors to show that their 
 almost uniform decisions against the em- 
 ployees do not always rest on a good legal 
 basis. 
 
>5 
 
 Robinson, Harry P. The Lesson of the 
 Recent Strikes. North Amer. Rev., 
 Vol. clix., p. 195. August, 1894. 
 
 — The Humiliating Report of the Strike 
 
 Commission. Forum, Vol. xviii., p. 
 523. January, 1S95. 
 
 Sanborn, Frank B. The Year of Strange 
 Events. A Report as Secretary of the 
 Amer. Social Science Assoc. 1894. 
 
 This report was not printed in the Journal of 
 Social Science, Number xxxi., but may be 
 found entire in the Spriyigfield Republican, 
 of Sept. 7, 1894. 
 
 ScHLOSS, David F. Report of the Chi- 
 cago Strike Commission. Economic 
 Journal, Vol. v., p. 83. March, 1895. 
 
 Shaw, Albert. Editorial article in the 
 Review of Reviews. Illus. Portrs., 
 Vol. X., p. 131. August, 1894. 
 
 Stead, William T. If Christ Came to 
 Chicago. Part I. Chap. iv. Chi- 
 cago, Schulte. 1894. 
 
 — How Pullman was Built. (Reprinted 
 
 from the above.) Social Economist, 
 Vol. vii., p. 85. August, 1894. 
 
 — Chicago To-day ; or the Labour War 
 
 in America. Lond. Review of Re- 
 views Office, 1894. 287 pp. Illus. 
 Portrs. Map. Sm. 8vo. 
 
 — Incidents of Labour War in America. 
 
 Contemporary Review, Vol. Ixvi., p. 
 65. July, 1894. 
 
 — Same. Eclectic Magazine, Vol. cx.xiii., 
 
 p. 228. August, 1894. 
 
 Stoddard, W. O. George M. Pullman. 
 (In his Men of Business, p. 246. New 
 York. Scribners, 1893.) 
 
 ySwiNTON, John. Striking for Life; or. 
 Labor's Side of the Labor Question. 
 Philadelphia, Keller, 1894. 499 pp. 
 Illus. Portrs. i2mo. 
 An account of the Chicago Strike, containing 
 special articles by Samuel Gompers, Presi- 
 dent of the American Federation of Labor; 
 Eugene V. Debs, President of the American 
 Railway Union; John W. Hayes, General 
 Secretary of the Knights of Labor, etc. 
 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. The History 
 of Trade Unionism. London. Long- 
 mans, 1894. xvi, 558 pp. 8vo. 
 
 Warman, Cy. Relations of the Employee 
 to the Railroad. Engineering Maga- 
 zine, Vol. viii., p. 985. March, 1895. 
 
 White, H. The Pullman Boycott. Na- 
 tion, Vol. lix., p. 5. July 5, 1894. 
 
 Wright, Carroll D. May a Man Conduct 
 his Business as he Please ? Forum, 
 Vol. xviii., p. 425. December, 1894. 
 
 — Steps toward Government Control of 
 
 Railroads. Forum, Vol. xviii., p. 704. 
 February, 1895. 
 
 — The Chicago Strike. Publications of 
 
 the Amer. Economic Assoc. Vol. ix, 
 Pt. 5-6. 
 
 — The Significance of Recent Labor 
 
 Troubles. Inter. Jour, of Ethics. 
 Vol. v., p. 137. January, 1895. 
 
 — Third Annual Report of the Commis- 
 
 sioner of Labor, 18S7. Strikes and 
 Lockouts. Washington. Gov't print- 
 ing-office, 1887. 1172 pp. 8vo. 
 Wright, Carroll D., and others. An at- 
 tractive industrial experiment. Mas- 
 sachusetts Labor Report, 1885. Part 
 I., pp. 1-26. Boston, 18S5. 
 This paper is based upon a three days' so- 
 joiirn of the " annual convention of the 
 chiefs and commissioners of the various 
 bureaus of statistics of labor in the United 
 States," at Pullman in September, 1884, and 
 is signed by thirteen heads of State labor 
 bureaus. It "is published contempora- 
 neously with a similar part in the reports of 
 the other bureaus of the country." 
 
 — Same. See also the following State 
 
 Labor Reports: Illinois, 1883-84; 
 Missouri, New Jersey, New York, 
 Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, 18S4; 
 Iowa, 1884-85 ; Kansas and Michigan, 
 1885. 
 
 — Report on the Chicago Strike of June 
 
 and Jiily, 1894, by the U. S. Strike 
 Commission, with appendices contain- 
 ing testimony, proceedings, and rec- 
 ommendations. Washington. Gov't 
 printing-office, I S95. liv, 68ipp. 8vo. 
 
 — Same. Without appendices. Wash- 
 
 ington, 1895. liv. pp. 8vo. 
 
THE STRIKE AT PULLMAN. 
 
 STATEMENTS OF 
 
 President GEO. M. PULLMAN 
 
 AND 
 
 Second Vice-President T. H. WICKES, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 U. S. STRIKE COMMISSION. 
 
 STATEMENT OF GEORGE M. PULLMAN. 
 
 Preliminary. 
 
 It is my desire that the company shall furnish the commis- 
 sion all the facts in its possession bearing upon the causes of 
 the strike; and with that purpose in view the second vice- 
 president, Mr. Wickes, who was in direct charge during all the 
 time of the strike, has prepared a statement covering all the 
 ground of the controversy, and he is ready to appear before 
 the commission, for the purpose of testifying, whenever called. 
 
 I am very glad to give testimony as to the general policy of 
 the company in relation to what has been done at Pullman; 
 and for that purpose I have made a brief statement, which, 
 with the permission of the commission, I will read and submit 
 as my testimony, together with the statements which I made 
 during the pendency of the strike, and which are published in 
 pamphlet form. 
 
 Statement. 
 
 The object in building Pullman was the establishment of a 
 great manufacturing business on the most substantial basis 
 possible, recognizing as we did, and do now, that the working 
 people are the most important element which enters into the 
 successful operation of any manufacturing enterprise. 
 
 We decided to build, in close proximity to the shops, homes 
 for workingmen, of such character and surroundings as would 
 prove so attractive as to cause the best class of mechanics to 
 seek that place for employment in preference to others. We 
 also desired to establish the place on such a basis as would 
 
exclude all baneful influences, believing that such a policy would 
 result in the greatest measure of success, both from a com- 
 mercial point of view, and also, what was equally important, or 
 perhaps of greater importance, in a tendency toward con- 
 tinued elevation and improvement of the condition not only of 
 the working people themselves but of their children growing 
 up about them. 
 
 Accordingly the present location of Pullman was selected. 
 That region of the county was then very sparsely populated, a 
 very few hundred people, mostly farmers, living within a radius 
 of perhaps a mile and a half of the site selected, where there 
 are now living some 25,000 people. 
 
 It was not the intention to sell workmen homes in Pullman^ 
 but to so limit the area of the town that they could buy homes^ 
 at convenient distances from the works, if they chose to do so. 
 If any lots had been sold in Pullman it would have permitted 
 the introduction of the very baneful elements which it was the 
 chief purpose to exclude from the immediate neighborhood of 
 the shops and from the homes to be erected about them. 
 
 The plan was to provide homes in the first place for all 
 people who should desire to work in the shops, at reasonable 
 rentals, with the expectation that as they became able, and 
 should desire to do so, they would purchase lots and erect 
 homes for themselves within convenient distances, or avail 
 themselves of the opportunity to rent homes from other people 
 who should build in that vicinity. As a matter of fact, at the 
 time of the strike, 563 of the shop employes owned their 
 homes, and 461 of that number are now employed in the shops; 
 560 others at the time of the strike lived outside, and in addi- 
 tion an estimated number of from 200 to 300 others employed 
 at Pullman were owners of their homes. The company neither 
 planned nor could it exercise any municipal powers in Pullman, 
 It was in fact within the boundaries of what was legally called 
 the village of Hyde Park; was several miles distant from the 
 actual village as settled at that time. The people lived there 
 first under the ordinances of the village of Hyde Park, and now 
 live under the ordinances of the city of Chicago, and not at 
 any time under the regulations of the company. The relations 
 of those employed in the shops are, as to the shops, the rela- 
 tions of employes to employer, and as to those of them and 
 others living in the homes, the relations are simply and only 
 the relations of tenant to landlord. The company has not 
 now and never has had any interest whatever in the business 
 of any of the stores or shops in the town; they are rented to 
 and managed by outside parties, free of any control by the 
 company. The people living in the town are entirely free to 
 buy where they choose, and as a matter of fact the large dis- 
 
bursements in wages at Pullman, amounting to an average of 
 $2,360,000 a year from September, 1880, to July, 1894, has 
 created a great competition for the trade of Pullman in the 
 small surrounding towns, as well as in Chicago, the natural 
 result of which would be to bring the prices of all merchandise 
 down to a minimum. 
 
 In carrying out this general plan, every care was taken in 
 making perfect sanitary conditions by a water supply and an 
 extensive and scientific system of sewerage, paved and well 
 lighted streets and open places properly ornamented with trees 
 and shrubbery, all of which are kept in perfect repair and 
 cleanliness by the company, and at its expense. Due attention 
 was paid to the convenience and general well being of the resi- 
 dents by the erection of stores and markets, a church, public 
 schools, a library and public halls for lectures and amusements; 
 also a hotel and boarding houses. The basis on which rents 
 were fixed was to make a return of 6 per cent, on the actual in- 
 vestment, which at that time ( 1881 ) was a reasonable return to 
 be expected from such an investment; and in calculating what, 
 for such a purpose, was the actual investment in the dwellings 
 on the one hand and the other buildings on the other, an allow- 
 ance was made for the cost of the streets and other public im- 
 provements, just as it has to be considered in the valuation of 
 any property for renting anywhere, all public improvements 
 having to be paid for by the owner of a lot, either directly or 
 by special taxation, and by him considered in the valuation. 
 
 The actual operations have never shown a net return of 6 
 per cent., the amount originally contemplated. The invest- 
 ment for several 5'ears returned a net revenue of about 4^ per 
 cent., but during the last two years additional taxes and heavier 
 repairs have brought the net revenue down to 3 82-100 per cent. 
 
 Arbitration. 
 
 Of course there are matters which are proper subjects of 
 arbitration. A matter of opinion may often be a proper subject 
 of arbitration, for instance, a question of title. What 
 settlement shall be made as to a transaction which has 
 come to an end, may be a proper subject of arbitration, 
 and the affair be put at rest by it, but as to whether a fact 
 which I know to be true, is true or not, I could not agree to 
 submit to arbitration. 
 
 If asked about the application to the case in hand, what I 
 would say is this: That the question as to whether the shops 
 at Pullman should be continuously operated at a loss or not, is 
 one which it was impossible for the company, as a matter of 
 principle, to submit to the opinion of any third party, and as to 
 
whether they were running at a loss upon contract work in 
 general, as explained to the committee of the men in m}' inter- 
 view with them, that was a simple fact which I knew to be true, 
 and which could not be made otherwise by the opinion of any 
 third party. 
 
 Disbursements in Wages and Value of Materials. 
 
 From September, 1880, to July 31, 1894, there has been paid 
 to wage earners in Pullman $32,847,934.44, and there has been 
 consumed in materials used in the manufacturing business in 
 that time $73, 457,000.68. 
 
 Proportion of Employes who are Tenants. 
 
 In connection with the rents, I may say that only one-third 
 of the shop employes at the time of the strike were tenants of 
 the Pullman company. 
 
 Surplus OF Company. 
 
 The surplus of the company has been accumulating through 
 a period of twenty-seven years, in conformity with a policy of 
 conservatism adopted to keep the company at all times finan- 
 cially strong, so that its owners would be assured a regular and 
 permanent income, and confidence in the intrinsic value of the 
 company's securities would be so established as to make them 
 at all times negotiable in the market, and furthermore to enable 
 the company to meet just such conditions as exist at this 
 time. 
 
 Offer to Show Books. 
 
 I have noticed that "hearsay" testimony has said that I did 
 not intend to show our books and papers in relation to con- 
 tracts for work that had been taken below cost. As to this I 
 desire to say that the offer was made in good faith, and was 
 not, nor would have been, repudiated by me. 
 
 II STATEMENT OF T. H. WICKES. 
 
 We have thought that in considering the relations of the 
 Pullman company to the recent strike, the commission would 
 deem pertinent a statement, as brief as possible, of the situ- 
 ation of the manufacturing affairs of the company for a short 
 period prior to last May, to precede what we shall think 
 it of consequence to say respecting the strike itself, and 
 
5 
 
 any other matters which have been alluded to before the com- 
 mission. 
 
 The commission no doubt is aware that the principal busi- 
 ness of the company is the operation of its sleeping car ser- 
 vice, which covers about 125,000 miles of railway, being about 
 three-fourths of the railway system of the country. Its manu- 
 facturing business consists primarily of the manufacturing and 
 repairing of the company's own cars, to which is added the 
 manufacture, for sale, of railway cars of every sort. The com- 
 pany has shops v/hich are operated exclusively for the repairs 
 of its own cars, at Wilmington, Del., where there are ordinarily 
 engaged about 700 employes; at St. Louis, Mo., where there 
 are ordinarily engaged about 360 employes, and at Ludlow, 
 Ky., where are ordinarily engaged about 130 employes. It has 
 also a large manufacturing plant at Detroit, Mich., which has 
 been operated until about a year ago for the manufacture of 
 passenger and sleeping cars. The Detroit shops were closed 
 in August, 1893, in consequence of the great depression in 
 business, and in order to concentrate all car building at Pull- 
 man, and they have not been reopened. The number of 
 employes ordinaf-ily engaged at the Detroit shops was 800 or 
 900. 
 
 The principal manufacturing and repair shops of the com- 
 pany are located at Pullman, and have been in operation about 
 twelve years. The largest number of employes engaged at any 
 one time in those shops alone was about 4,800. Besides the 
 employes of the car shops at Pullman there are about 1,000 
 other employes of the company at Pullman who have been in- 
 cluded in some of the totals given in the published statements 
 of the company; there is no occasion to refer to them at this 
 time, and all the statements I am about to make refer to the 
 car shop employes only, and, unless otherwise stated, to those 
 employed at Pullman. 
 
 The average number of names on the pay roll for the shops 
 at Pullman for our fiscal year ending July 31, 1893, was 4,497, 
 and the amount of earnings paid was $2,760,548.99, making an 
 average amount for each employe, for the year, of $6 13.86. 
 
 On July I, 1893, 2,425 employes of the company at Pullman 
 (including some employes outside of the shops) were 
 depositors in the savings department of the Pullman Loan & 
 Savings bank at Pullman, the aggregate of the amounts to their 
 credit being ^582, 380.39, or nearly nine-tenths of the total sav- 
 ings deposits then on hand — $657,347.64. On May i, 1894, such 
 depositors numbered 1,679, ^'""^ their aggregate credits wove 
 $422,834.34, or nearly nine-tenths of the total savings deposits 
 then on hand — $489,028.18. 
 
 It has been stated before the commission that nine-tenths 
 
of the work at the shops is Pullman work, leaving only one- 
 tenth for contract work. If such a statement happened to be 
 true for any given period, it would be because practically no 
 contract work was obtainable. The facts are that Pullman 
 car repair work requires a force of about 800 at the Pullman 
 shops. In a normal year like 1891, about the same number in 
 addition would be kept at work building Pullman cars, but that 
 work has come to a practical stop, as the company has about 
 400 Pullman cars in storage for which there is no need under 
 existing conditions of travel. In such a normal year also there 
 would be about 2,800 employed on contract work. Therefore, 
 instead of 10 per cent, of the force being employed normally 
 on contract work, the proportion should be about 64 per cent. 
 Of course, the percentage of those employed on contract work 
 would keep running down as fast as contract work was finished, 
 if the company was prevented by the scale of wages from 
 making acceptable proposals for new work to railway com- 
 panies, or in the absence of any demand for new work. This 
 is practically illustrated by the figures which Mr. Pullman, the 
 president of the company, gave the committee of employes 
 last May. 
 
 The great business depression of the summer of 1 893 affected 
 us at once. We closed our Detroit shops ; we stopped building 
 new cars for ourselves, for we had a large surplus of them, and 
 that fact laid off a great many employes. Negotiations with 
 intending purchasers of railway equipment that were pending 
 for new contract work were stopped by them ; orders already 
 given by others were cancelled ; and during the month of 
 August, 1893, the company was not invited to make a bid on a 
 single proposal for new work, large or small. By October i, 
 we had the opportunity of making six bids for new work at 
 prices aggregating $211,465.50, and these bids showed an aggre- 
 gate net loss of nearly $1,700 over the shop cost, one of them 
 being made at a loss of over $3,200. Only three of our six bids 
 were accepted. On the bid showing the greatest loss, which 
 was for 300 freight cars, constituting three-fourths of all the 
 work we bid for, we were underbid, and the contract was 
 awarded elsewhere. 
 
 In giving these figures and the figures which I am going on 
 to give, I desire to say distinctly and explicitly, that by "shop 
 cost" I mean the cost of any work spoken of, excluding any 
 element of charge for depreciation of machinery or plant, or 
 for interest on the value of machinery or plant, or for interest 
 on the capital invested or employed in any way. The esti- 
 mated shop cost, or the shop cost ascertained after the com- 
 pletion of any work, contains no such element in any case in 
 this statement. 
 
During October, the experience of the company was similar. 
 Only eleven chances for bidding occurred, and they aggregated 
 -;S253, 804.34. Among them were 100 cars bid for at an estimated 
 loss over shop cost of $1,966, and 100 cars bid for at cost, the 
 bids aggregating $142,875, all of which w^ent to lower bidders. 
 In all, we got in that month seven contracts under our bids, 
 showing an aggregate net profit of only $1,141.94 over shop 
 cost. We had thus in six weeks been underbid on $300,000 
 worth of freight car work in three lots, besides other work of 
 less importance. Of passenger car work, only ten street cars 
 had been offered, on all of which we were underbid. The result 
 was that, including our employes engaged on repairs, there 
 were on November i, not 1,100 employes in all departments of 
 the shops. The president of the company realized the neces- 
 sity for the most strenuous exertions to procure work imme- 
 diately, without which there would be great embarrassment, 
 not only to the employes and their families at Pullman, but 
 also to those living in the immediate vicinity, including between 
 500 and 600 employes who had purchased homes, and to whom 
 -employment was actually necessary to enable them to complete 
 their payments. 
 
 He canvassed the matter thoroughly with the manager of 
 the works, and instructed him to cause the men to be assured 
 that the company would do everything in its power to meet 
 the competition which was sure to occur because of the great 
 number of large car manufacturers who were in the same con- 
 dition, and who were exceedingly anxious to keep their men 
 employed. We knew that if there was any work to be let, bids 
 for it would be made upon a much lower basis than ever before. 
 The result of this discussion was a revision in the day rate of 
 wages, and consequently also in piece work prices, making 
 reductions which, in the absence of any information to the 
 contrary, were supposed to be acceptable to the employes, 
 under the circumstances. Under these conditions, and with 
 lower prices upon all materials, Mr. Pullman personally under- 
 took the work of getting contracts for building cars, and by 
 making lower bids than other manufacturers, we secured work 
 enough to gradually increase our force from 1,100 up to nearly 
 3,300, the number employed according to the April pay-rolls 
 in all capacities at the shops. 
 
 Under what difficulties this was done may be seen from a 
 further generalization of the statement which we have made 
 from our records, showing for the period beginning August i, 
 1893, every work offered the company, its estimated (and, 
 where possible, the actual) cost, our bid thereon, and the profit 
 or loss over shop cost in each case. This table I present to 
 the commission. It shows the effort the company was making 
 
to keep its employes at work, and it shows, at a mere glance^ 
 tliat for the period beginning February 13 and ending April 12, 
 every bid (except as to one insignificant job) was made by the 
 company at a loss, often very large. 
 
 In November, we got an order for 250 cars at an estimated 
 profit of less than Si,000 on the job; and for 25 passenger cars 
 at a loss of nearly $2,000. We were underbid on 100 provision 
 cars, although our bid was at a loss of over $2,000. 
 
 In December, we got an order for 300 stock cars at an 
 estimated loss of $8 per car, whicl\ on completion showed an 
 actual loss of $12 per car. We got also an order ^or 55 pas- 
 senger cars, of which 25 had been completed just before the 
 strike, showing an actual loss of $399 per car. VVe were undei- 
 bid on 103 freight cars, and on 10 street cars offered by us £t 
 less than shop cost. It is to be remembered that these thing > 
 occurred on bids based upon the reduced scale of wages. 
 
 In January, 1894, we were underbid on 200 refrigerator car?, 
 and 100 provision cars, although each of our bids was at a loss, 
 the aggregate loss being $5,893. In that month we took orders, 
 some at a loss, some at a profit, but the net loss was $3,584.66 
 over the shop cost. 
 
 In February, we were underbid on 51 street cars, bid for by 
 us at a loss of $37 per car, and on lOO refrigerator cars bid for by 
 us at a loss of $66 per car, and we got only three orders, two of 
 them showing a profit of $927.48, and the other, for lOO- 
 elevated road cars, showing a loss of $148 per car. 
 
 Our bids for March were all at a loss, excepting in one case 
 where the estimated profit is $37.74. The aggregate loss on 
 all the other bids was $23,061.11 and the contracts taken show 
 a loss of $15,044.92. We were underbid on 100 street cars 
 where our bid showed a loss of over $70 per car. 
 
 In April, we were underbid on 272 street cars and got con- 
 tracts for 75 at a loss of over $1,500. We were underbid ort 
 six passenger cars and got contracts for six at an aggregate- 
 loss of $1,759.99. 
 
 To sum up: From August i, 1893, to May i, 1894, our net 
 loss on accepted bids was $52,069.03, and the net estimated loss 
 on unaccepted bids was $18,303.56. We had tried to get work 
 for our employes by bidding for work the estimated shop 
 cost of which was $2,775,481.81, and we only got contracts 
 for work, the estimated shop cost of which is $1,421,205.75, 
 We had been underbid on work, the estimated shop cost of 
 which was $1,354,276.06, notwithstanding that our bids on 
 $1,057,355.97 of that amount not only excluded all profit, but 
 showed a loss, based though they were on the reduced scale of 
 wages. 
 
 The irregularity of business was such that during this period 
 
we could keep no constant force employed, and we could not 
 possibly keep all employed who had become used to looking 
 to us for work. It was hoped that affairs would improve, and, 
 therefore, rather than discharge absolutely a large number of 
 men, we tried to give all of them some work. The result is 
 one portion of the complaints that have been laid before the 
 commission. 
 
 Take the case of the witness Coombs, for example. By a 
 table which I will present to the commission later, in another 
 connection, it will be seen that his rate of earnings in April, 
 1893, was 25 cents per hour, and for the last four months he 
 worked it was 211^ cents per hour. It will be seen, however, 
 that for the year ending April, 30, 1894, the number of hours 
 in which he was employed was scarcely more than half work- 
 ing time, so that his earnings in gross were $345.68, an amount 
 which of course is not to be judged as though he had been 
 working full time. Such things were impossible to be avoided. 
 There was simply not work enough to go around. 
 
 In this condition of affairs, on the 7th of May last, a com- 
 mittee of the workmen had an interview, by arrangement, with 
 myself. This committee numbered about forty and was under- 
 stood to embrace representatives from all departments of the 
 shops. The principal subject presented by the committee tor 
 discussion was that of the existing scale of wages, but minor 
 grievances, as to shop administration, were also presented, and 
 it was agreed that another meeting should be held two days 
 later, at which all the shop grievances should be presented in 
 writing. At the second meeting it was arranged that as to the 
 complaints on all matters except wages a formal and thorough 
 investigation should be made by myself, to be begun the next 
 day, and full redress was assured to the committee as to all 
 complaints proved to be well founded. I had explained to the 
 committee the absolute necessity of the reductions in wages 
 under the existing conditions of the business of car manu- 
 facture, and they were insisting upon a general restoration of 
 the wage scale of the first half of the year 1893, when the 
 president of the company entered the room and addressed the 
 committee in terms the substance of which was published at 
 the time, and is a part of the statement at page one of the 
 compilation of statements of the company, a copy of which I 
 present to the commission to show what was said and published 
 by authority of the company during the strike. 
 
 I may observe here that the president of the company 
 wishes me to say emphatically that there is no foundation for 
 the statements made before the commission that he in any way 
 repudiated the offer he made to the men in addressing them, 
 that to satisfy themselves as to the condition of affairs which 
 
he presented to them they imj,^ht have an inspection of our 
 contracts in hand and the books relating to them. This would 
 have been cheerfully given, but the subject was never brought 
 up afterward by our workmen in consequence of the strike 
 being almost immediately declared. 
 
 On the lOth of May, the day after the second conference, 
 work went on as usual at the shops, and I, assisted by Mr. 
 Brown, the general manager of the company, began at Pullman 
 the promised formal investigation of the shop complaints, and 
 we devoted a half of that day to the work, and we there 
 publicly stated our intention to so continue from day to day, 
 devoting a half of each working day to that business until 
 completed. A large meeting of the employes had been held at 
 Kensington the night before, which, as was understood by the 
 officers of the company, accepted the necessity of the situation 
 as preventing any increase in wages, but at a meeting of the 
 local committee of the American Railway Union, held during 
 the night of May lO, a strike was decided upon, and accord- 
 ingly, early the next day about 2,500 of the shop employes 
 quitted their work, leaving, besides the supervising and clerical 
 force, about 600 at work, among whom very few were skilled 
 workmen. As it was found impracticable to keep the shops in 
 operation with a force thus disorganized, the workmen remain- 
 ing were the same day necessarily laid off and the shops re- 
 mained idle until August 2nd, instant. 
 
 We took the necessary steps at once to provide for 
 ourselves the protection for the company's property, usual 
 under such circumstances. We do not know of guards for the 
 works having been put on by the strikers, as has been testif^.ed 
 by several witnesses, but we would understand that any of 
 their men claiming to be so acting would really be engaged in 
 what is called picketing against the employment of new men. 
 As we did not try to get new men, that work, if performed, 
 was useless. 
 
 Testimony has been given before the commission that the 
 immediate cause of the strike was the discharge of three 
 employes contrary to the assurance I had given to the committee 
 of workmen that none of them should be affected by their serv- 
 ing on the committee. I gave such an assurance upon request, 
 and with entire willingness, and it was not violated, and no such 
 complaint was ever made, I think, to any official of the company. 
 There were forty-three members of the committee at the con- 
 ference'on May 9, and on May 10 it happened that in tempor- 
 arily "laying off" men for whom there was no immediate 
 work, three men were included who were said to have been on 
 the committee, as to each of whom the subordinate officials 
 concerned deny that they at the time knew he was on the 
 
committee and say that the layini^ off was caused by nothing 
 but the ordinary course of business. I present the sworn state- 
 ments of the subordinate officials on the subject, and they are 
 themselves present for such examination as the commission 
 may desire to make. 
 
 We have heard, in a vague way, of another or different 
 alleged cause for the strike. The rumor as to this was that 
 some of the leaders in the agitation claimed to have learned 
 from a telegraph operator that in the night of May lo he over- 
 heard passing on the wire a telegraphic order from an officer 
 of the company in Chicago to the local manager at Pullman, 
 ordering a " lockout" at noon the next day; that this informa- 
 tion was circulated, and that the strikers went out the next 
 morning in order to establish the status of a " strike " instead 
 of a " lockout," 
 
 As to this rumor I can only say that no such order was 
 ever made or thought of by any officer of the company. 
 
 We learned in various ways that soon after the beginning of 
 the strike at Pullman the American Railway Union officials 
 sent emissaries to our shops at Wilmington, Del., at St. Louis, 
 Mo., and at Ludlow, Ky., to recruit our employes at those 
 places, so far as possible, into the American Railway Union 
 organization, our information being that it was the intention of 
 those officials to cause strikes to be declared at each of those 
 places as soon as the strength of their local organizations at 
 those shops, which they were endeavoring to create, should be 
 sufficient. The results were as follows: 
 
 According to our information only about 50 of our employes 
 at Wilmington joined the American Railway Union, and the 
 body of our employes apparently took very little interest in 
 the matter, and the prosecution of our ordinary business was 
 not in any way interrupted. The rates of wages are substantially 
 the same at our Wilmington and other shops as at the Pullman 
 shops. 
 
 At our St, Louis shops the recruiting of the American Rail- 
 way Union was more successful, and a strike took place on 
 June 25th. There were then 371 men at work, and of this 
 number 291 went out, it being our information that about 275 
 of them had become members of the American Railway Union. 
 The work at these shops continued with the reduced force, and 
 we began immediately to recruit it and secured all the employes 
 we needed within about two weeks. About 60 of the striking 
 employes were reemployed. No disorder occurred about our 
 shops there, and we have no information of any assaults or 
 indignities upon those who entered or remarned in our employ- 
 ment. 
 
 At our Ludlow shops a strike took place on the same date, 
 
June 25, under the auspices of the American Railway Union, 72 
 men going out of our force of 1 26 men. These shops are adjacent 
 to the yards of the Cincinnati Southern railway company. 
 We recruited our force somewhat and continued operations 
 there until July 3, at which time there was a strike in progress' 
 in those yards, also under the auspices of the American Rail- 
 way Union. We had then about lOO men at work, but in con- 
 sequence of the intimidation of our men and owing to the lack 
 of public protection, it was decided to close the shops on July 
 3, and they remained closed until July 16, when work was 
 resumed with a force of lOO men, which was almost immedi- 
 ately increased to the full complement by the engagement of 
 new men. If any of the striking employes afterward applied 
 for reemployment, there was no room for them. 
 
 Reverting to the strike at the Pullman shops on May il, 
 the only incidents which occurred thereafter which I consider 
 worthy of note, were as follows: On June i two members of 
 the civic federation called upon me to consider some methods 
 of conciliation and arbitration. I explained the situation to 
 them and informed them that we did not consider there was 
 any proper subject for arbitration. On the next day two Other 
 members of the civic federation called, and we had a similar 
 discussion. 
 
 On the 15th of June, twelve persons calling themselves a 
 committee from the American Railway Union, called upon me 
 to request that there should be an arbitration. I informed 
 them in reply that the company declined to consider any com- 
 munication from the American Railway Union as representing 
 the former employes of the company. 
 
 On the next day a committee of six of our former employes 
 called upon me and requested that there should be an arbitra- 
 tion. I informed them that we did not consider that there was 
 any proper subject for arbitration. 
 
 On the 22d of June, Messrs. F. E. Pollans, B. W. Lovejoy 
 and C. A. Timlin, claiming to be a committee of three of the 
 American Railway Union, called upon me and stated that they 
 were instructed to notify the Pullman company that unless it 
 agreed to arbitration a boycott would be declared to stop the 
 running of Pullman cars, taking effect at 12 o'clock noon, 
 Tuesday, the 26th day of June. I replied to this statement 
 that the company declined to consider any communication 
 from the American Railway Union on the subject. 
 
 This threatened action by the American Railway Union was 
 made known widely through the public press, and Mr. Pullman 
 deemed it proper to make public a statement of all the circum- 
 stances. Accordingly such a statement was published in the 
 
13 
 
 daily newspapers of Chicago on the morning of June 26, the 
 day set by the American Railway Union delegates for the mak- 
 ing of their threatened attempt. This statement is the first 
 paper in the compilation of statements, a copy of which I 
 have already presented to the commission. 
 
 Itmaybesaid herethattheGeneral Managers' association had 
 met on the day before in consequence of the public knowledge 
 of the threatened attempt of the American Railway Union, and 
 had adopted the resolutions which are shown on page six of 
 the compilation of statements which I have mentioned. I 
 happened to have, after June 22, a conference on an ordinary 
 matter of business with one of the members of the General 
 Managers' association, and he told me of the intended meet- 
 ing and invited me to be present at the meeting. I was there- 
 fore present, but of course without taking any part in it. I 
 may say here that from the beginning to the end of the strike 
 the General Managers' association acted throughout in entire 
 independence of our company, as we did in entire independ- 
 ence of the association, and that there was at no time any con- 
 ference or suggestion as to the matter fixjm the association to 
 our company or from our company to the association. 
 
 From this time on public attention was chiefly attracted by 
 the conflict of the American Railway Union with the railway's 
 of the country attacked by it. 
 
 On July 5, there appeared in the Nevi' York Siifi an author- 
 ized "interview" with Mr. Pullman, a copy of which is at page 
 seven of the compilation of statements to which I ha\'c 
 referred. 
 
 On July 7, Mr. Lawrence, a director of the First National 
 bank, Chicago, called upon me to confer as to bringing about 
 a meeting at my office between myself and a committee of the 
 former employes of the company. I told him that I would be 
 very glad to receive such a committee, but I never heard of the 
 matter afterwards. 
 
 Two days later, Aldermen McGillen, Marrener, Mulhoeffer 
 and Powers, with three delegates from labor unions, called upon 
 me to discuss the matter of arbitration. I told them that we 
 were not able to consider the question of arbitration. 
 
 On the nth of July, Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, and Mayor 
 Hopkins and Mr. Erskine Phelps, of Chicago, called upon me, 
 also to discuss the matter of arbitration. A protracted friendl)^ 
 discussion of the matter followed between us, in which I set 
 forth to these gentlemen our reasons for believing that the 
 question at issue, which was simply that of reopening the shops 
 at Pullman, and carrying them on at a ruinous loss, was not a 
 proper subject for arbitration. 
 
 On July 14, the principal newspapers of the country pub- 
 
14 
 
 lished a statement by Mr. Pullman, of which a copy is at page 
 eleven of the compilation of statements to which I have 
 referred. 
 
 By this time the measures taken to restore public order had 
 put an end to all serious disturbance of railway travel, and the 
 disorders which had been so violent in different parts of 
 Chicago for more than two weeks had so far come to an end, 
 that the propriety of making an effort to end the abnormal 
 situation at Pullman, by resuming work at the car shops, was 
 taken up and considered, and in consequence on July i8, the 
 management caused to be posted on the gates of the Pullman 
 shops the following notice : 
 
 "These shops will be opened as soon as the number of 
 operatives taken on is sufficient to make a working force in all 
 departments." 
 
 The receiving of applications for employment proceeded 
 gradually from that time on until the 24th of August, at which 
 time the number of employes on the rolls at the shops was 
 2,337, of whom 1,778 were former employes of the company 
 and 559 were new employes. The first opening for work was 
 August 2, in the repair department ; the other departments of 
 the shops were opened gradually, as the respective forces 
 became sufficient. 
 
 It is proper that I should say that no injury of any sort was 
 done or attempted upon the company's property at Pullman 
 during the strike. For a few days after the opening of the 
 shops, there were personal indignities and assaults committed 
 upon a number of our employes ; but a quiet condition" of 
 affairs was soon brought about by the efficient action of the 
 police, under the command of Inspector Hunt, Captain Powers 
 and Lieutenant Bassett, supported by the presence of several 
 companies of the First Regiment of the National Guard of 
 Illinois. 
 
 I will now add to this statement of general facts some state- 
 ments upon some details of the affairs of the company upon 
 which the commission has heard testimony. 
 
 It is clearly an economical impossibility that the manufac- 
 turing of any given class of cars for sale can be carried on at 
 Pullman for any length of time, if the wages of car builders 
 there are such that the actual cost of labor and material for 
 that class of cars is higher than at reputable competing shops. 
 It is idle to talk of the company carrying on the business of 
 building and selling cars at a loss, and paying the losses out of 
 the income from a distinct business. The bidding for and 
 taking of contracts at a loss, which I have detailed, were done 
 in the hope that we could bridge over an emergency and keep 
 
15 
 
 our force together until work could be had at prices based 
 upon ordinary business principles. The company cannot long 
 go on rtiaking proposals for less than cost. If by the rate of 
 wages the cost is kept too high for successful competition in 
 car building, the result is inevitable ; contracts are not made, 
 work ceases, and the men must be laid off indefinitely. The 
 economic law is inexorable, and on a falling market producers 
 must do one of two things — lower their prices or cease to 
 produce, which means Simply that plants must lie idle and 
 workmen go without work. 
 
 To show the general reduction in the selling prices of 
 various kinds of cars in recent years, I present a statement 
 showing such prices, from which it will be seen that there has 
 been a reduction in every class, which varies from more than 
 28 per cent, down to 18 per cent., the average reduction on all 
 classes taken together being 24 per cent. 
 
 The average reduction in wages has not been so much. I 
 present two statements, one for the month of April, 1893, and 
 the other for the month of April, 1894, showing for each class 
 of journeymen mechanics the number of men employed, the 
 number of hours employed, and the actual wages earned and 
 paid. From this it will be seen that for the month of April, 
 
 1893, the average pay of all the journeymen mechanics in the 
 shops was at the rate of ^2.63 per day of ten hours, and that 
 for the month of April, 1894, the average pay per day of ten 
 hours to each journeyman mechanic was S2.03, and not $1.50, 
 as testified by the witness Heathcote. This statement shows 
 that the reduction of the average daily rate of earnings of 
 journeymen mechanics between April, 1893, ^^^ April, 1894, 
 was 22 8-10 per cent. 
 
 I present also similar tables for all other shop employes, 
 excluding superintendents, foremen and the shop office force, 
 showing an average reduction between April, 1893, and April, 
 
 1894, of 1 1 ^ per cent. 
 
 Considering all the shop workmen together — that is, exclud- 
 ing from the pay-roll all the superintendents, foremen and shop 
 office force — the reduction of the average daily rate of earnings 
 between April, 1893, and April, 1894, was 19 per cent. 
 
 Miss Curtis, as a representative of the sewing women, has 
 made especial complaint before the commission in respect to 
 the reduction in the piece price on carpets for sleeping cars, 
 the proportionate reduction in the piece price for that work 
 being very large. She complains that a carpet, for the making 
 of which the piece price in 1893, was $8.10, was so reduced that 
 in 1894 it was ^1.80. 
 
 The explanation is this. Piece prices are based upon a 
 reasonable rate per hour for work done. It was discovered, and 
 
i6 
 
 admitted by Miss Curtis herself in an interview with an ofificer 
 of the company, that she is a slow worker, but could make one 
 of these carpets in i6 hours work, which at a piece price of 
 SS.io would give earnings at the rate of 50 cents per hour. 
 This showed a manifest error in the price assigned, and the 
 piece price was reduced so as to make the rate of wage on that 
 work correspond to the reasonable rate of wages in that depart- 
 ment, one dollar per day. 
 
 In establishing the rate of wages for piece work over so large 
 a force of workmen, the principle adopted is that the day's 
 wage is to be a reasonable wage for 10 hours at that particular 
 work for a competent workman, not an expert; and by experi- 
 ence it is ascertained what a faithful, competent workman can 
 do on a given kind of work, as to quantity in a given time; the 
 piece price is thereupon based upon that performance. The 
 competent, faithful workman will earn the reasonable day's 
 wage at it; the less competent, or less industrious workman 
 will necessarily make less than the reasonable day's wage; on 
 the other hand, the expert and more industrious workman will 
 earn more than the reasonable day's wage; he gets the just 
 benefit of his superior energy and skill. If by experience in 
 operation, it is discovered that at the piece price fixed, the known 
 less competent and less industrious workmen are regularly 
 making an unreasonable day's wage, it becomes apparent that 
 the piece price allotted is too large. It is not the less apparent, 
 although at the same time the most competent workmen are 
 not making a very excessive wage, because it is well known 
 that this matter is watched by them, so that they themselves 
 limit their own output upon a piece of work excessively priced, 
 in order to prevent an amount of wages accruing which would 
 attract special attention, and cause a reduction of the piece 
 price to a proper amount. 
 
 As another illustration of the propriety and reasonableness 
 of changes in what is called piece work, the following instance 
 may be given: 
 
 In 1893 the piece price for remaking an elliptic spring was 
 Si. 12^. It was found that this had been rated too high, it 
 being observed that the amount habitually earned at that work 
 at that price made an excessive day's rate, and such reductions 
 were made in the piece price that in May, 1894 it was 81 cents. 
 The striking workman on this job did not apply again for his 
 job until after his place had been filled by a stranger. This new 
 employe was first given this work at day's wages of S2.80,; after 
 working six days he asked that it be made piece work, and it 
 was given to him at 80 cents per spring, and in the next six 
 days he made 29 springs, so that by day's wages for the first 
 six days he made $16.80 and for the next six days at piece 
 
17 
 
 work on the same job, he made $23.20, or at the rate of 38 7-10 
 cents an hour. At the old excessive rate, his pay would have 
 been over 54 cents an hour. 
 
 If I understand the record correctly, the commission 
 accepted as evidence of the reduction of wages at our shops, 
 the schedules and isolated statements made by Mr. Carwardine 
 in his pamphlet, he stating that he had compiled them from 
 information given him by "two or three gentlemen." I shall 
 not attempt to enumerate all the errors and incorrect state- 
 ments in respect to wages in his book, but they are sufificient 
 in number and character to make it wholly and utterly untrust- 
 worthy; originating as it does it could not be otherwise. Per- 
 haps a few examples will be sufificient to show this. 
 
 At page 70, he says that the average cut in wages was 33^ 
 per cent. As I have shown by the tables from our actual pay- 
 ments made, the average reduction of wages between April, 
 1893, and April, 1894, for journeymen mechanics was 22 8- 10 
 per cent, and the average reduction for all other shop employes, 
 excluding all the superintendents, foremen and shop office 
 force, was 1 1 5^ per cent. The average reduction for all shop 
 employes, excluding all the superintendents, foremen and shop 
 office force, was, as I have already said, 19 per cent. 
 
 At page 85, it is stated that just before the strike, black- 
 smiths were receiving between $1.50 and JS2.50 per day. There 
 v/ere 99 blacksmiths on the roll in April, 1894, and the average 
 daily wages earned and paid them -in that month was $2.39. 
 On page 74, it is stated that stripers were reduced to 20 cents 
 and painters to 19 cents per hour. In fact, the average rate 
 paid stripers and other ornamental painters during the first four 
 months of 1894, was 25 cents an hour for stripers and 23 cents 
 an hour for ornamental painters. The remarks of the book on 
 reductions in the street car department, show the following 
 misstatements. 
 
 Alleged Actual 
 
 reductions, reductions, 
 Per cent. Per cent. 
 
 Body builders, inside finishers and trimmers. . 33 20 
 
 Cabinetmakers 5° -9 
 
 Blacksmiths 60 25 
 
 Iron machinists 85 21 
 
 On page 85 it is stated that the female employes working 
 in the carpet department, the linen room, the glass embossing 
 department and the laundry, were all paid, before May, 1893, 
 at the rate of 22>^ cents per hour and that the company 
 reduced this to lO cents per hour. 
 
 Our records show that the average wages earned and paid 
 
i8 
 
 female employes for the month of April, 1893, were as 
 follows: 
 
 Carpet, upholstery and linen department 14 cents per hour 
 
 Glass embossing department 10 " " " 
 
 Laundry gU " " " 
 
 For the month of April, 1894, the average wages earned and 
 paid female employes were as follows: 
 
 Carpet, upholstery and linen department 1234; cents per hour 
 
 Glass embossing department 11 " " " 
 
 Laundry 113^ " " " 
 
 The book says of workmen in the wood machine shops, that 
 they suffered in some instances a cut of 40 per cent, and that 
 in no case has it fallen below 33^3 per cent. The actual aver- 
 age hourly wages paid the wood machine men in April, 1894, is 
 less than 16 per cent, reduction from the actual average hourly 
 wages paid them in April, 1893. At page 90, the book speaks 
 of a fireman laboring 428 hours per month, or about 16 hours 
 per day, and receiving therefor ^40 per month pay. The truth 
 is that the firemen from the nature of their occupation, work 
 12 hours per day at monthly wages, and there is not, and has 
 not been a fireman whose monthly wages are less than $50 per 
 month. The firemen sometimes work overtime, but if so, it is 
 by arrangement of their own, to divide among themselves the 
 work of an absent man, and the wages which he would have 
 received, if on duty, they divide among themselves by arrange- 
 ment between themselves. At page 69 of the book, Mr. Car- 
 wardine states that he knows of a man who had worked as a 
 skilled mechanic for 10 hours a day for 12 days, and earned 
 $g.oy, of which $g was paid for a half month's rent, the check 
 for his pay being dated in September, 1893. T. R. Davis, a 
 painter on the shop rolls, received in the month of September, 
 1893, checks for his earnings, at a semi-monthly pay day, 
 amounting to $9.07, and there is no other workman on our rolls 
 the amount of whose earnings was the same, paid in that 
 month, and the half month's rent of T. R. Davis was $g. He 
 must therefore be the man described in the book; but instead 
 of his earnings being the result of 12 days' labor at 10 hours a 
 day, as stated by Mr. Carwardine, his wages were the result of 
 43% hours labor at 20 73-100 cents per hour. At page 82, Mr. 
 Carwardine's book gives the average of earnings in 1889 as 
 ;S2.oo per day, and the average of earnings in 1894, at 91 
 cents per day. The absurdity of this statement needs no com- 
 ment. 
 
 It would be tedious to go into the numerous inaccuracies 
 of a number of the witnesses who ha\'c testified as to their 
 
ig 
 
 earnings in the Pullman shops, but I present to the commission 
 a table in respect to the witnesses Heathcote, Rhode, Coombs 
 and Curtis, for the period beginning May, 1893, and ending 
 April, 1894, that is, one year, up to the strike, showing for each 
 month, for each person, the number of hours employed and 
 the wages earned and paid. The table shows, what is of course 
 true, that the number of hours of employment which the com- 
 pany was able to give in the early part of the year was in excess 
 of the number of hours of employment which it was able to give 
 in the latter part of the year; and it shows the variance in the 
 rate of wages at the beginning of the year and at the end of 
 the year for each of these persons. 
 
 I will only specify for examples of the recklessness of many 
 statements made to the commission, that the witness Heath- 
 cote is reported as testifying that he had no employment what- 
 ever in the month of October, 1893. He had, in fact, 114 hours 
 employment, for which he was paid $26.92. The witness 
 Coombs is reported as testifying that for the month of Febru- 
 ary he had only $3.50 on which to support his wife and two 
 children after paying his rent. His rent is $15 and the water 
 charge is 71 cents. It will be seen by the table that in the 
 month of February he had nearly full employment, 240 hours, 
 and was paid $60. He is reported as testifying that in March, 
 1894, piece work prices had been cut so that he could not 
 make more than 68 cents a day. The table shows that in 
 March, 1894, he worked 125 hours and was paid therefor S30. 80, 
 or at the rate of $2.46 per day, nearly four times the amount 
 stated by him. 
 
 The witness Rhode is reported as testifying as to his wages 
 substantially as follows: "Then the cuts came and work 
 for which we used to get $9 we got $4.25. We cannot make 
 $1.25 a day. My wages in April were $12 to $15 each two 
 weeks." 
 
 The table shows that for the four months ending April 30, 
 1894, Rhode was almost fully employed, and in that time he 
 earned and was paid $218.30, making his average earnings $2. 21 
 per day. Instead of his getting as he says, from Si 2 to $15 for 
 each two weeks for his wages in April, he got for the whole 
 month of April $48.65, more than double the sum of $12 each 
 two weeks, mentioned by him. 
 
 It will also be seen from the same table that the impression 
 easily to be derived from the fragmentary statements of the 
 witnesses Heathcote and Rhode as to their earnings during a 
 part of the last year, is wholly incorrect. The former earned 
 and was paid in the year ending y\pril 30, 1894, S634.S6, and 
 the latter $642.19. Miss Curtis earned in the year $346.82. 
 
 It may be added, as to Miss Curtis, that her reported testi- 
 
20 
 
 mony that she was forced to pay $4$ of an indebtedness of ^6o 
 of her deceased father is not borne out by our records. Her 
 father died Sept. 9, 1893, and his indebtedness was ;§I7.52 and 
 not g6o. She herself after her father's death, incurred an 
 indebtedness of $32.14. I am told that she volunteered to pay 
 her father's debt, but however that may be, our records show 
 that her total payments since her father's death are $32; a trifle 
 less than her own indebtedness, so that instead of paying $45 
 for her father's debt, she has paid nothing, and has not quite 
 paid her own personal debt. 
 
 The statements made to the commission that at the shops 
 workmen are made to suffer the loss of labor expended in the 
 removal and replacing of defective material are wholly without 
 foundation. If such a necessity occurs in work done by the 
 day, the time spent in such work is merely a part of the ordi- 
 nary earnings of the workmen and is paid for as such. If it 
 occurs in a job paid for as piece work, the time spent in remov- 
 ing and replacing defective material is paid for by an allowance 
 for the time so spent, in addition to the piece work price. In 
 every such case, the loss of the value of the workman's labor 
 falls wholly upon the company. 
 
 There has been a good deal said before the commission 
 about what is called blacklisting. If by that term is meant 
 receiving from other employers the names, or lists of names 
 of workingmen considered by them undesirable, or, on the 
 other hand, the sending such names or lists to any other 
 employers, no such thing is done by the Pullman company. 
 Of course, we do not employ undesirable workmen known to 
 us to be undesirable by our own experience of them; but we 
 do not receive or seek information in such matters from other 
 employers or give it to them. 
 
 I will not go into shop complaints at this time unless it is 
 desired by the commission. The only presentation of them 
 ever made was just before the strike, and I at once began in 
 person the investigation of them on the spot, in conjunction 
 with the general manager of the company. We were prevented 
 from going on by the sudden strike, as I have already related. 
 I think it probable that as a result of that investigation, I 
 should have found some cases of local administration, in which 
 the action of local subordinates had not been in accordance 
 with the policy of the company, and I would have applied the 
 necessary correction. It is not the policy of the company that 
 men shall not have access for the redress of grievances, and I 
 have never refused to see any of our workmen. 
 
 In the matter of rents, comparisons have been made before 
 the commission between the rent of houses in Pullman and the 
 rent of houses in the adjacent towns of Kensington and Rose- 
 
21 
 
 land, it being made to appear that the rents at Pullman are 
 slightly higher than they arc in those adjacent towns. 
 
 As to this it is to be said that the Pullman houses are built 
 of brick, with a thorough system of drainage, with modern im- 
 provements, such as gas, water closets, faucets and sinks in 
 every house; and that these houses are situated on broad, paved 
 and shaded streets, with sidewalks, parks and lawns, all of 
 which are cared for by the company, the whole town being 
 kept in thorough cleanliness. The dwellings in the adjacent 
 towns with which they are compared are almost wholly frame 
 structures on streets which have sidewalks, but are not paved 
 or cleaned, and are without sewers; and the houses themselves 
 are without water closets or drainage provision therefor. They 
 are no doubt to be had at a lower rent than dwellings in Pull- 
 man because they could not compete with dwellings m Pullman 
 except at a lower rent. 
 
 I may call the attention of the commission to the fact that 
 at the time of the strike less than one-third of the shop em- 
 ployes were tenants of the company. 
 
 There were 3,284 shop employes on April 30, 1894, and of 
 these 563 owned their own houses and 560 others lived outside 
 of the town of Pullman; 1,026 were tenants in the town and 
 1,135 were lodgers in the town. 
 
 Of the force of 2,337 '^ow employed in the shops 461 own 
 their own homes and 871 others live outside of the town of 
 Pullman; 466 are tenants in the town and 539 are lodgers in 
 the town. 
 
 These facts serve also to make a sufficient answer to the 
 statement made to the commission by the witness Heathcote 
 that living in the town of Pullman has now or at any time 
 been made a conditon of getting employment. This was not 
 and has not ever been the case. 
 
 The chairman of the commission interrogated Mr. Carwar- 
 dine as to the statement made by him in his book that the com- 
 pany paid four cents a thousand gallons for water and retailed 
 it to the tenants for 10 cents per thousand gallons, to which 
 Mr. Carwardine replied that the statement was true so far as 
 he could find out; and in response to an inquiry whether the 
 cost to the Pullman company was not now six cents instead of 
 four, Mr. Carwardine added that he believed the city's charge 
 was now higher, and that he believes Mr. Pullman is not 
 making as much on water as he had done, but that no 
 change had been made in the water rates since the readjust- 
 ment with the city. 
 
 The witness Heathcote "from hearsay," makes tiie profit 
 on water supplied the tenants, $32,000 a year. 
 
 The facts in the matter are as follows: Until last January, 
 
n 
 
 the company took its water from the works of the village of 
 Hyde Park, paying therefor four cents per thousand gallons, and 
 distributing it through the mains of the company. Water 
 meters were put in the town last March, and it has since been 
 practicable to ascertain accurately the amount of water con- 
 sumed by tenants in Pullman, and this consumption has been 
 ascertained to be for the period which has since elapsed, at the 
 average rate of 22,211,842 gallons per month. In negotiating 
 with the city as to the charge the city should make under the 
 new arrangement, an accurate statement was made of the 
 amount paid to the village and the amount charged to tenants 
 by the company for water, for the period beginning with 
 August, 1889, and ending with July, 1893; the amount charged 
 the tenants is almost exactly the same for each month (the 
 rate being unvarjnng and the trifling difference arising from 
 the varying number of empty houses), which shows a substanti- 
 ally unvarying consumption, and the average monthly charge 
 for the period is $1,006.04 per month. 
 
 At four cents per thousand gallons, the cost to the company 
 for the 22,211,842 gallons per month, paid to the village of 
 Hyde Park, was $888. 47. To this must be added the expense 
 to the company of distributing the water, which is arrived 
 at as follows: 
 
 The statement above mentioned shows for the same period 
 beginning with August, 1889, and ending with July, 1893, dur- 
 ing which period the water was supplied under the arrange- 
 ment with the village of Hyde Park, that the average annual 
 amount paid to the village for the water was $21,847.1 1, and 
 that the average annual expense to the company in maintaining 
 and operating the distributing system of the town was $2,132.60. 
 This shows the percentage of the cost of maintenance and 
 operation of the distributing system to be 9 76-1 00 per cent, 
 on the cost of the water. This percentage, $86.71, added to 
 the amount paid the village for the water supply to the tenants 
 per month, brings the cost to the company to $975.18 per 
 month, which is less than the average amount, $1,006.04, charged 
 to tenants, by the insignificant sum of $30.86. It would be 
 difficult to have a more exact agreement, and the facts thus 
 show that Mr. Carwardine's statement that the company was 
 charging the tenants 2}^ times the cost of the water was utterly 
 reckless and untrue. 
 
 Under the new arrangement, which went into effect with 
 the city of Chicago in January last, the company takes from 
 the city all the water fof its works and the town of Pullman, 
 except the water used for steam boilers and mechanical pur- 
 poses (which is drawn by the company from Calumet Lake). 
 The rate paid for the monthly supply is graduated from 10 
 
23 
 
 cents per thousand gallons down to 6% cents per thousand gal- 
 lons, for all over 5,000,000 gallons per month. The average 
 rate paid by the company is about 68-10 cents per thousand 
 gallons. As above stated, the amount consumed by the tenants 
 is 22,21 1,842 gallons per month. At the rate now paid the 
 city, the average cost of this per month to the company is 
 $1,510.40, to which must be added the average monthly cost of 
 distribution, $86.71, making the total monthly cost to the 
 company for water supplied the tenants, $1,597.1 1, and as above 
 stated, the average monthly charge to tenants being $1,006.04, 
 there is an average excess of cost monthly to the Pullman 
 company of $591.07. 
 
 The house water rates charged in the town of Pullman were 
 fixed by the civil engineer of the company upon the completion 
 of the houses and street improvements, in exact agreement with 
 the scale of water rates prescribed by the ordinance of the vil- 
 lage of Hyde Park, of which the town of Pullman was legally 
 a part, and they have never been changed. 
 
 The amount of gas used by all tenants at Pullman is not 
 quite 1-5 of the output of the works. Only 228 house tenants 
 use gas, and of these only 122 are wage workers, out of over 
 1,000 tenant wage workers living in Pullman. The average 
 revenue to the company from each wage worker using gas, in- 
 cluding foremen, is approximately $1.67 per month, so the 
 question is not of interest to many people, and of slight conse- 
 quence to those who have any interest in it. 
 
 The company's gas works were e'rected primarily for the 
 use of the works, and could in any event have but a small 
 clientage; and the price to be charged for gas by such a plant 
 is not to be compared with the price at which a company hav- 
 ing the population of the city of Chicago for a clientage can 
 afford to furnish it. It should be compared with the gas rates 
 of country towns, and it is believed that upon such comparison 
 the Pullman rate will be found to be less than their rates. It 
 can not be compared with Kensington or Roseland, for gas is 
 not supplied there. 
 
 As a mention has been made of the library at Pullman, it is 
 perhaps worth while to say that it is a circulating library, con- 
 sisting of about 8,000 books, a gift to the association. A 
 charge of 25 cents a month for adults and one-third that 
 amount for young persons, is made for membership, not for 
 profit, but to give subscribers a sense of ownership. The fund 
 thus created is currently exhausted in buying the regular issues 
 of about a hundred magazines and papers, and in partly repair- 
 ing book binding. All other expenses are paid by the company. 
 
 It is quite true that building lots are not offered for sale in 
 Pullman. The town is of restricted area, and designedly so, 
 
H 
 
 in order that workmen can, if they wish, live outside of it, and 
 still be near their work, and the buying by them of homes 
 near by has been hoped for and always encouraged. 
 
 The purpose of the town was to give such employes as 
 chose to live in it, dwellings of varying sizes and accommoda- 
 tions, well built and kept in good repair, and with perfect sani- 
 tary arrangements; with streets well paved and kept in perfect 
 order as to repair and cleanliness; and proper open spaces, 
 with trees and grass; with the other requisites of civilization, 
 a church, a market, and an arcade for shops, schools and a 
 library, and a place for amusement; all to be so arranged and 
 built under the most competent architectural and engineering 
 skill as to be not only comfortable and healthy, but to have as 
 high a character for beauty as was practicable. This could 
 only be accomplished under a single control of plan and ex- 
 penditure, which would have failed if a single lot had been sold. 
 Such a sale would also have opened the way to dram shops 
 and other disreputable places, which are excluded from the 
 town. No paternalism has ever been in the plan. Reasonable 
 rents were fixed which were not increased in times of increased 
 wages, nor have they been lowered to the level of those in un- 
 pleasant parts of Chicago, or to the level of those charged in 
 the adjacent country for cheaply built houses without sewer- 
 age, and on streets unpaved and uncleaned. 
 
 It was the hope and belief of the management that the 
 character of the buildings, and houses and streets at Pullman, 
 and the order in which they are kept, would raise the standard 
 of desire of working people for such surroundings; and that 
 such surroundings would improve their character as citizens, 
 and the quality of their work, and whatever has happened, 
 there is gratification at so much of a result as was shown by 
 the ease with which order was maintained there during the 
 recent deplorable disturbances so violent in many other places. 
 
THE STRIKE AT PULLMAN. 
 
 PUBLISHED STATEMENTS OF THE COMPANY 
 MADE DURING ITS CONTINUANCE. 
 
 [Fro;n the Chicago Herald, June 26, /5(?/.] 
 PULLriAN COnPANY'S STATEHENT. 
 
 In view of the proposed attempt of the American Railway 
 Union to interfere with public travel on railway lines using 
 Pullman cars, in consequence of a controversy as to the wages 
 of employes of the manufacturing department of the company, 
 the Pullman company requests the publication of the following 
 statement of the facts, in face of which the attempt is to be made. 
 
 In the first week of May last, there were employed in the 
 car manufacturing department at Pullman, 111., about 3,100 
 persons. On May 7th, a committee of the workmen had an 
 interview by arrangement with Mr. Wickes, vice-president, at 
 which the principal subject of discussion related to wages, but 
 minor grievances as to shop administration were also presented, 
 and it was agreed that another meeting should be held on the 
 9th of May, at which all the grievances should be presented in 
 writing. The second meeting was held. As to the complaints 
 on all matters except wages, it was arranged that a formal and 
 thorough investigation should be made by Mr. Wickes, to be 
 begun the next day, and full redress was assured to the com- 
 mittee as to all complaints proved to be well founded. 
 
 The absolute necessity of the last reduction in wages, under 
 the existing condition of the business of car manufacturing, had 
 been explained to the committee, and they were insisting upon 
 a restoration of the wage scale of the first half of 1893, when 
 Mr. Pullman entered the room and addressed the committee, 
 speaking in substance as follows: 
 
 "At the commencement of the very serious depression last 
 year we were employing at Pullman 5,816 men and paying out 
 in wages there $305,000 a month. Negotiations with intending 
 purchasers of railway equipment that were then pending for 
 new work were stopped by them, orders already given by others 
 were canceled, and we were obliged to lay off, as you are aware, 
 a large number of men in every department, so that by No- 
 
2U 
 
 Vember l, 1893, there were only about 2,000 men in all depart- 
 ments, or about one-third of the normal number. 1 realized 
 the necessity for the most strenuous exertions to procure work 
 immediately, without which there would be great embarrass- 
 ment, not only to the employes and their families at Pullman, 
 but also to those living in the immediate vicinity, including 
 between seven hundred and eight hundred employes who had 
 purchased homes and to whom employment was actually 
 necessary to enable them to complete their payments. 
 
 "I canvassed the matter thoroughly with the manager of the 
 works and instructed him to cause the men to be assured that 
 the company would do everything in its power to meet the 
 competition which was sure to occur because of the great num- 
 ber of large car manufacturers that were in the same condition, 
 and that were exceedingly anxious to keep their men employed. 
 I knew that if there was any work to be let, bids for it would 
 be made upon a much lower basis than ever before. 
 
 ( Note : The selling^ prices of passenger, baggage, box, refrigerator and 
 street cars in the last two years have fallen by percentages, varying in the 
 separate classes from 17 to 28, the average reduction taking the five classes 
 together, being 24 per cent.) 
 
 "The result of this discussion was a revision in piece-work 
 prices, which, in the absence of any information to the contrary 
 I supposed to be acceptable to the men under the circumstances. 
 Under these conditions, and with lower prices upon all 
 materials, I personally undertook the work of the lettings of 
 cars, and by making lower bids than other manufacturers, I 
 secured work enough to gradually increase our force from 2,000 
 up to about 4,200, the number employed, according to the 
 April pay-rolls, in all capacities at Pullman. 
 
 Says Company Bears Its Share. 
 
 "This result has not been accomplished merely by reduction 
 in wages, but the Company has borne its full share by eliminating 
 from its estimates the use of capital and machinery, and in 
 many cases going even below that and taking work at con- 
 siderable loss, notably the fifty-five Long Island cars, which 
 was the first large order of passenger cars let since the great 
 depression and which was sought for by practically all the 
 leading car-builders in the country. My anxiety to secure that 
 order so as to put as many men at work as possible, was such 
 that I put in a bid at more than $300 per car less than the actual 
 cost to the company. The three hundred stock cars built for 
 the Northwestern Road and the two hundred and fifty refrig- 
 erator cars now under construction for the same company, will 
 result in a loss of at least $12 per car, and the twenty-five 
 
"^1 
 
 cars just built for the Lake Street Elevated Road show a loss 
 of ^79 per car. I mention these particulars so that you 
 may understand what the company has done for the mutual 
 interest and to secure for the people at Pullman and vicinity 
 the benefit of the disbursement of the large sums of money in- 
 volved in these and similar contracts, which can be kept up 
 only by the procurement of new orders for cars, for, as you 
 know, about three-fourths of the men must depend upon con- 
 tract work for employment. I can only assure you that if this 
 company now restores the wages of the first half of 1893, as 
 you have asked, it would be a most unfortunate thing for the 
 men, because there is less than sixty days of contract work in 
 sight in the shops under all orders and there is absolutely no pos- 
 sibility, in the present condition of affairs throughout the 
 country, of getting any more orders for work at prices measured 
 by the wages of May, 1893. Under such a scale the works 
 would necessarily close down and the great majority of the 
 employes be put in idleness, a contingency I am using my best 
 efforts to avoid. 
 
 "To further benefit the people of Pullman and vicinity, we 
 concentrated all the work that we could command at that 
 point, by closing our Detroit shops entirely, and laying off a 
 large number of men at our other repair shops, and gave to 
 Pullman the repair of all cars that could be taken care of there. 
 
 "Also, for the further benefit of our people at Pullman, we 
 have carried on a large system of internal improvements, hav- 
 ing expended nearly $160,000 since August last in work, which, 
 under normal conditions, would have been spread over one or 
 two years. The policy would be to continue this class of work 
 to as great an extent as possible, provided, of course, the Pull- 
 man men show a proper appreciation of the situation by doing 
 whatever they can to help themselves to tide over the hard 
 times which are so seriously felt in every part of the country. 
 
 "There has been some complaint made about rents. As to 
 this, I would say that the return to this company on the capi- 
 tal invested in the Pullman tenements for the last year and the 
 year before was 3jW per cent. There are hundreds of tene- 
 ments in Pullman renting for from $6 to $9 per month, and the 
 tenants are relieved from the usual expenses of exterior clean- 
 ing and the removal of garbage, which is done by the company. 
 The average amount collected from employes for gas con- 
 sumed is about $2 a month. To ascertain the exact amount of 
 water used by tenants, separate from the amount consumed by 
 the works, we have recently put in meters, by which we find 
 that the water consumed by the tenants, if paid for at the rate 
 of 4 cents per 1,000 gallons, in accordance with our original 
 contract with the village of Hyde Park, would amount to about 
 
28 
 
 Si.OOO a month, almost exactly the rate which we have charged 
 the tenants, this Company assuming the expense of pumping. 
 At the increased rate the city is now charging us for water, we 
 are paying about $500 a month in excess of the amount charged 
 to the tenants. The present pay rolls at Pullman amount to 
 about $7,000 a day." 
 
 On the question of rents, while, as stated above, they make 
 a manifestly inadequate return upon the investment, so that it 
 is clear they are not, in fact, at an arbitrarily high figure, it may 
 be added that it would not be possible in a business sense so to 
 deal with them. The renting of the dwellings and the employ- 
 ment of workmen at Pullman are in no way tied together. The 
 dwellings and apartments are offered for rent in competition 
 with those of the immediately adjacent towns of Kensington, 
 Roseland and Gano. They are let alike to Pullman employes 
 and to very many others in no way connected with the com- 
 pany, and, on the other hand, many Pullman employes rent or 
 own their homes in those adjacent towns. The average rental 
 at Pullman is at the rate of ^3 per room per month. There are 
 1,200 tenements of varying numbers of rooms, the average 
 monthly rental of which is $10 ; of these there are 600, the 
 average monthly rental of which is $8. In very many cases, 
 men with families pay a rent seemingly large for a workman, 
 but which is in fact reduced in part, and often wholly repaid, 
 by the sub-rents paid by single men as lodgers. 
 
 Why the Shops Shut Down. 
 
 On May loth, the day after the second conference above 
 mentioned, work went on at Pullman as usual, and the only 
 incident of note was -the beginning by Mr. Wickes, assisted by 
 Mr. Brown, the general manager of the company, of the prom- 
 ised formal investigation at Pullman of the shop complaints. 
 A large meeting of employes had been held the night before at 
 Kensington, which, as was understood by the company, ac- 
 cepted the necessity of the situation preventing an increase of 
 wages; but at a meeting of the local committee held during the 
 night of May loth, a strike was decided upon, and accordingly 
 the next day about 2,500 of the employes quit their work, 
 leaving about 600 at work, of whom very few were skilled 
 workmen. As it was found impracticable to keep the shops in 
 operation with a force thus diminished and disorganized, the 
 next day those remaining were necessarily laid off, and no 
 work has since been done in the shops. 
 
 The pay-rolls at the time amounted to about ^7,000 a day, 
 and were reduced $5,500 by the strike, so that during the 
 period of a little more than six weeks which has elapsed, the 
 
29 
 
 employes who quit their work have deprived themselves and 
 their comrades of earnings of more than ;^200,000. 
 
 It is an element of the whole situation worthy of note, that 
 at the beginning of the strike the Pullman Savings Bank had 
 on deposit in its savings department $488,000, of which about 
 nine-tenths belonged to employes at Pullman, and that this 
 amount has since been reduced by the sum of $32,000. 
 
 While deploring the possibility of annoyance to the public 
 by the threats of irresponsible organizations to interrupt the 
 orderly ministration to the comfort of travelers on railway 
 lines aggregating 125,000 miles in length, the Pullman com- 
 pany can do no more than explain its situation to the public. 
 It has two separate branches of business, essentially distinct 
 from each other. One is to provide sleeping cars, which are 
 delivered by it under contract to the various railway companies, 
 to be run by them on their lines as a part of their trains for the 
 carriage of their passengers, over the movements of which this 
 company has no control. Contract arrangements provide for 
 the making of all repairs to such cars by the railway companies 
 using them — as to certain repairs absolutely, and as to all 
 others upon the request of the Pullman company, which ordi- 
 narily finds it most convenient to use its own manufacturing 
 facilities to make such repairs. The other, and a distinct 
 branch of the business of the Pullman company, is the manu- 
 facture of sleeping cars for the above-mentioned use of railway 
 companies, and the manufacture for sale to railway companies 
 of freight cars and ordinary passenger cars, and of street cars, 
 and this business is almost at a standstill throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 The business of manufacturing cars for sale gives employ- 
 ment to about 70 per cent, of the shop employes. The manu- 
 facture of sleeping cars for use by railway companies under 
 contract, and which, under normal conditions, gives employment 
 to about 15 per cent, of the shop employes, cannot be resumed 
 by the company to an important extent for a very long time, 
 for out of the provision made for the abnormal travel last year 
 the company now has about 400 sleeping cars in store ready 
 for use, but for which there is no need in the existing conditions 
 of public travel. 
 
 It is now threatened by the American Railway Union offi- 
 cials that railway companies using Pullman sleeping cars shall 
 be compelled to deprive their passengers of sleeping-car 
 accommodations, unless the Pullman company will agree to 
 submit to arbitration the question as to whether or not it shall 
 open its manufacturing shops at Pullman and operate them 
 under a scale of wages which would cause a daily loss to it of 
 one-fourth the wages paid. 
 
30 
 WILL FIQHT THE PULLMAN BOYCOTT. 
 
 General Managers of all Chicago Terminal Lines Adopt Resolutions. 
 
 At a fully represented meeting of the General Managers' 
 Association, held yesterday afternoon, the following resolutions 
 were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Whereas, We learn through the public press that the American Rail- 
 way Union will declare a boycott on all Pullman palace cars; and 
 
 Whereas, Said boycott is in relation to matters over which we have no 
 control, and in which we have no interest whatever; and 
 
 Whereas, It is stated that the object and intent of the said boycott is to 
 discommode the traveling public and embarrass the railroads, in the belief 
 that the public and railroads affected will influence the settlement of the 
 question as the American Railway Union desires; and 
 
 Whereas, It is necessary that these companies determine for them- 
 selves what cars they shall or shall not handle ; and 
 
 Whereas, It is important that the traveling public should understand 
 the position of the railroads in this matter ; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, i. That it is the sense of this meeting that the said proposed 
 boycott, being confessedly not in the interest of any employes of said rail- 
 road companies, or on account of any grievance between said railroad com- 
 panies and said employes, is unjustifiable and unwarranted. 
 
 2. That the employes of said railroad companies cannot, nor can any 
 of them, with propriety, embarrass said companies or discommode the 
 traveling public because of their sympathy with the supposed wrongs of 
 employes engaged in a wholly different class of labor. 
 
 3. That we hereby declare it to be the lawful right and duty of the 
 said railway companies to protest against said proposed boycott ; to resist 
 the same in the interest of their existing contracts and for the benefit of the 
 traveling public, and that we will act unitedly to that end. 
 
 Every railway system in Chicago was represented at the 
 meeting which adopted the foregoing resolutions without a 
 dissenting vote; not only the general managers, but presidents, 
 vice-presidents and other general officers attested the import- 
 ance of the occasion by their presence. 
 
 Sitting in the assembly, by direct invitation, was Thomas H. 
 Wickes, the second vice-presidept of the Pullman company, 
 who was throughout an interested listener. Mr. Wickes said 
 afterwards that he viewed the result obtained by the meeting 
 as affording the only possible solution of the difficulty, which 
 threatened not the Pullman company so much as the right of 
 the railroads to govern themselves. 
 
31 
 
 {^From the New York Sun, Jnh' j, i8q4.\ 
 Mr. PULLMAN TALKS FREELY. 
 
 The Efforts He Made To Keep The Shops Running. 
 
 Orders Taken at a Loss in the Interest of His Workmen. — 
 The Present Situation Entirely Outside of His Con- 
 trol. — His Relationship to the Workmen at 
 Pullman Described in a Letter Written 
 TO A Friend, 
 
 A Sim reporter visited Mr. George M. Pullman at his Long 
 Branch cottage yesterday. When he was seen by the same 
 reporter on Tuesday evening Mr. Pullman was not disposed to 
 talk at all for publication, but yesterday he talked freely about 
 the strike. Only on one point did he decline to speak. That 
 was the social and political meaning of such a situation as has 
 been developed in so short a time in Chicago. 
 
 "Of course," said Mr. Pullman, "this frightful state of 
 affairs is portentous with meaning to the social and political 
 philosopher, and must come to be considered from that point 
 of view by all, sooner or later. But I have been so engrossed 
 with the details of the affair that I have not had time to phil- 
 osophize about it yet. The Sun must excuse me on that point. 
 Those who are watching this with no personal interest, or with 
 much less personal interest than I have in it, are better able to 
 discuss what the big meaning of it is." 
 
 But Mr. Pullman has, at least in one instance, given a calm 
 and well-considered opinion on some of the questions involved 
 in this controversy. During the course of his talk with the 
 writer he referred to a letter he wrote to a prominent resident 
 of Chicago in answer to a letter concerning the strike at Pull- 
 man. The reporter saw a copy of Mr. Pullman's reply, and 
 persuaded Mr. Pullman to permit it to be published, as in it he 
 plainly gives his views of the situation as it is affected by his 
 relation to Pullman workmen as employer and landlord. He 
 also logically discussed in it some other important matters 
 involved which were referred to by his correspondent. The 
 Pullman strike began on May nth, and Mr. Pullman's letter 
 was written after the strike had been on six weeks. Mr, Pull- 
 man declined permission to have the name of the correspond- 
 ent published, as he had not obtained the correspondent's 
 
consent, but the name, it can be stated, is well known through- 
 out the United States. The reply was as follows: 
 
 " Pullman's Palace Car Company, ) 
 
 'Office of the President, [ 
 
 Chicago, June 22, 1894. ) 
 
 " My Dear : Your note of the 20th instant reaches me only this 
 
 morning'. I have read it with interest, and ot course concur with you in 
 wishing a termination of the present condition of affairs at Pullman, but I 
 must frankly say to you that the solution suggested by you is not practicable. 
 
 " You are perhaps not aware that the renting of houses at Pullman has 
 no relation to the work in the shops. Employes may, and very many do, 
 own or rent their houses outside of the town; and the buildings and busi- 
 ness places in the town are rented to employes or to others, in competition 
 w'th neighboring property. In short, the renting business of the Pullman 
 company is governed by the same conditions which govern you, for 
 instance, or any other large owner of real estate, except that the company 
 itself does directly some things which in Chicago are assumed by the city. 
 If, therefore, it is not admitted that the rents of any landlord are to be fixed 
 by arbitration, and that those of the adjoining towns of Kensington and 
 Roseland should also be so fixed, it can hardly be asked that the Pullman 
 company alone should abandon the ordinary rules which govern persons 
 in that relation. 
 
 " I notice that you lay much stress on the fact that there has been no 
 violence or destruction of property at Pullman. I should be sorry to think 
 that such things could in any event be the outcome of all that has been 
 done there since the establishment of the town, thirteen years ago, the wel- 
 fare of which in every aspect has always been, as I think you know, the 
 most constant object of my solicitude as president of this company. If the 
 fact you note is really to be deemed remarkable, may not, perhaps, some 
 credit be given to the administration of the company, which prohibits 
 drinking saloons, and provides various sources of elevation of character? 
 
 " I regret very much that the employes of the company have permitted 
 themselves, under the instigation of persons almost unknown to them, and 
 wholly ignoring essential facts in their desire to make their places of seem- 
 ing importance, to be subjected to the distress and loss of wages (now 
 amounting to about a quarter of a million dollars) which have occurred; 
 and I am especially sorry for those, who, themselves willing to continue in 
 their useful work, are compelled to be idle by the inaction of their com- 
 rades. 
 
 " I am afraid that I cannot encourage you to look for any solution 
 except as a result of those who wish to be employed at the Pullman shops 
 realizing and acting upon the rule of business that the aggregate cost of a 
 piece of work must not exceed its selling price. A continuous violation of 
 that rule must wreck the Pullman shops, or any other shop, and perma- 
 nently stop all work of its employes. This company cannot control the 
 selling price of cars, and it cannot pay more for making them than it can 
 contract to sell them for. It is impossible to submit to arbitration whether 
 or not it shall do so, and that it shall do so is the only demand made upon 
 the company. 
 
 " This consideration must govern the opening of the shops for the 
 manufacturing of cars for sale to other companies, employing normally 
 about four-fifths of the employes. Believe me, very sincerely yours, 
 
 "George M. Pullman. 
 
 " P. S.— I enclose the Tribunes report of the facts I gave to the em- 
 ployes two days before they quit work, and which you may not have seen." 
 [This report was reprinted in the Sun on July 3d.] 
 
The reporter then said to Mr. Pullman : 
 
 "This morning's dispatches report that Mr. Studebaker will be present 
 at the proposed compromise conference, representing the Pullman com- 
 pany; is that so? " 
 
 " Mr. Studebaker's action in this matter is entirely unauthorized by any 
 one connected with the Pullman company," replied Mr. Pullman. "The 
 Pullman company has not been asked by any railway manager or other 
 person to participate in any conference." 
 
 "Would the Pullman company send a representative to such a 
 conference?" 
 
 To this question Mr. Pullman replied : 
 
 "The original cause of the boycott bears no relation to the principles 
 involved in the state of affairs as they have now been developed. The 
 questions to be considered by any conference are now entirely under the 
 control of the railway companies, and could not be influenced by the action 
 of the Pullman company in any way." 
 
 The reporter next asked : " Has there been any suggestion from any 
 of the railway companies concerning a suspension or modification of their 
 contracts with your company pending the settlement of the strike?" 
 
 " No request or suggestion of such a nature has been received by us," 
 said Mr. Pullman. "Our contracts are not the question involved now, 
 either, for the American Railway Union not only seeks to dictate to the rail- 
 way systems of this country what cars they shall use, or rather what kind of 
 cars they shall not use, but they have even gone beyond that, and stopped 
 the operations of railway companies which have no contract with the Pull- 
 man company, and no business relations with us of any nature." 
 
 " It has been repeatedly charged that you refused to receive a com- 
 mittee of Pullman workmen at their request." 
 
 "That is not true," said Mr. Pullman. "These are the facts: At the 
 time of the American Railway Union convention we were asked to receive 
 a joint committee of members of the union and of our workmen. We 
 declined to receive any committee from the American Railway Union, but 
 said we would, of course, receive a committee composed of our workmen. 
 We did, in fact, then receive a committee of our workmen, and the manner 
 of their resuming relations with us was discussed and fully understood." 
 
 " What was the result of your refusal to arbitrate with a committee 
 from the American Railway Union?" 
 
 " We were notified that unless we consented to arbitrate with the 
 American Railway Union they would boycott railways using our cars." 
 
 " What had the American Railway Union to arbitrate with the 
 Pullman company? " 
 
 Mr. Pullman replied laconically : " Nothing that I am aware of." 
 
 Concerning the events preceding the strike Mr. Pullman said : " There 
 were two causes which combined to suddenly and greatly reduce the 
 amount of work at the Pullman shops. A great many railways placed 
 extra orders with us for rolling stock to accommodate their World's Fair 
 business, and consequently, with those orders filled, we could not expect 
 more orders from those roads soon, as they were well stocked, and then 
 came the financial panic, and I realized that even those roads which had 
 not recently contracted for new rolling stock, and in the natural order of 
 events would soon place new orders, would not under the existing financial 
 conditions do so. They simply could not pay for new stock. I knew that 
 here and there throughout the United States there would be roads which 
 would place small orders for absolutely necessary stock, and that those 
 orders, small in each case, but aggregating a considerable amount, might, if 
 we could secure them, enable us to keep our shops running. I said to our 
 managers : ' We will make a strong effort to secure this scattered work. 
 Our bids will be based on the lowest possible estimates, eliminating the 
 
6^ 
 
 question of profit and the interest on investment, and if the workmen will 
 contribute some help in the way of accepting some reduction of wages 
 while the conditions remain in the state described, we can hope to keep 
 running.' 
 
 " On one order for 250 refrigerator cars we had prepared a bid which 
 was figured down to actual cost, and then I told the manager before send- 
 ing in the bid to cut off $10 on the price of each car, as I. was willing to 
 contribute $2,500 to get the work and keep the shops running. As the 
 manager was leaving the room I said: 'Make that cut $15 on each car.' 
 Then we secured the order, and were only $1 below the next highest 
 bidder. We had to meet competition at points which had a great advan- 
 tage over us in the matter of the cost of transportation to the point where 
 the cars were to be delivered. For instance, on the order for fifty-five cars 
 for the Long Island Railroad it cost us $go a car to deliver them, and our 
 bid was $24 lower than the next highest bidder, who could deliver at much 
 less cost. 1 mention these things to show the effort the company was 
 making to secure work, and it was just about the time these orders were 
 completed, and we were eagerly searching the whole country for more 
 work, even under such conditions, that the strike occurred." 
 
 [ From tJie New 1 'ork Tribune, Jiihl 14, iSg^.^ 
 MR. PULLMAN'S STATEflENT. 
 
 He Explains the Position of His Company. 
 
 There Was Nothing to Arbitrate — Demands Made by 
 
 THE Workmen Were Unreasonable — Charges 
 
 Against the Company Answered. 
 
 There is hardly anything new to be said as to the position 
 of the Pullman company, but I have so many indications of 
 the facility with which my expressions and those authorized by 
 me have become distorted, and thus misleading to the public, 
 and of an entire forgetting of my earnest efforts to prevent the 
 strike, that perhaps it is well that I should again make a public 
 assurance that the deplorable events of the last few weeks have 
 not been caused by the Pullman company taking an obstinate 
 stand in a debatable matter and refusing to listen to reason. 
 The leaders of disorder have not hesitated to harass the public 
 by all means in their power, because, as they say, the Pullman 
 company would not submit to arbitration, and now that dis- 
 order seems to be quelled, they are reinforced in their clamor 
 for arbitration by some prominent newspapers, but, so far as I 
 know, by very few, if any, business men in the country. 
 
35 
 
 Why Wages Were Reduced. 
 
 What is the demand concealed under the innocently sound- 
 ing word arbitration? A little more than a year ago the car 
 shops at Pullman were in a most prosperous condition, work 
 was plenty, wages were high and the condition of the employes 
 was indicated by the fact, that the local savings bank had of 
 savings deposits nearly $700,000, of which nearly all was the 
 property of the employes. Our pay rolls for that year show an 
 average earning of over $600 per annum for every person — man, 
 woman or youth — on the roll. Then came the great panic and 
 depression of last summer. Many customers stopped negotia- 
 tions and canceled orders, and our working force had to be 
 diminished from nearly 6,000 to about 2,000 in November, 1893. 
 The great business depression existing throughout the country 
 had naturally resulted in a wage depression, and the only hope 
 of getting orders was by bidding for work at prices as low as, 
 or lower than could be made by other shops, and this, of course, 
 necessitated a reduction in the wages of the employes at Pull- 
 man. This was arranged satisfactorily, as I supposed, and in 
 close competitions, disregarding all account of capital and 
 machinery, I secured enough work to gradually increase our 
 force to 4,200, the number on the rolls last April. Nine weeks 
 ago the car shops at Pullman were working with car-building 
 contracts on hand enough to keep them going for about sixty 
 days, and with all business forecasts' leading to the belief that 
 no considerable new orders could soon be had. The most im- 
 portant of the work in hand had been taken by me in competi- 
 tion at prices which were less than the actual cost to the com- 
 pany of delivering the cars, without any reckoning for the use 
 of capital and plant. This work was taken to keep the large 
 force of men employed and to postpone, and with the hope of 
 avoiding, the numberless embarrassments to all classes of 
 people at Pullman and its vicinity of a closing down of the 
 works, to prevent which the company considered it a wise 
 policy to operate the shops temporarily at an actual loss. 
 
 In this condition of things came the agitation seeking to 
 create a labor organization embracing all railway employes and 
 apparently other industries. It is my belief that the contro- 
 versy excited at Pullman was merely a move in the greater 
 scheme, those shops being selected, not on account of discon- 
 tent in them, but because of their prominence in various ways, 
 and because of the chance of justification for a simultaneous 
 and causeless attack upon the railways of the country, for the 
 use under long-time contracts, by three-fourths of them, of the 
 Pullman sleeping-car system, a branch of the company's busi- 
 ness totally distinct from its manufacturing of cars for sale. 
 
36 
 
 Affairs Explained to the Employes. 
 
 In the early part of May a committee of the employes de- 
 manded a restoration of the wages of a year ago. I explained 
 to this committee minutely and laboriously the facts, showing 
 that the company was already paying them more than it was 
 receiving for their contract work, and I offered them, for com- 
 plete assurance, and to end all question, an inspection of our 
 books and contracts in hand. This, and the beginning at once 
 at Pullman of a promised careful investigation of a number of 
 shop complaints, seemed to end all trouble, but a day later, 
 under the excitement of their recruiting into the new organiza- 
 tion, the workmen closed the shops by abandoning their work, 
 thus themselves doing what I was strenuously trying to pre- 
 vent being done by the depression of the car-building business, 
 and the employes who quit their work have deprived them- 
 selves and their comrades of earnings of more than $300,000 up 
 to this time. 
 
 The demand made before quitting work was that the wages 
 should be restored to the scale of last year, or, in effect, that 
 the actual outgoing money losses then being daily incurred by 
 the company in car-building should be deliberately increased 
 to an amount equal to about one-fourth of the wages 
 of the employes. It must be clear to every business 
 man, and to every thinking workman, that no prudent employer 
 could submit to arbitration the question whether he should 
 commit such a piece of business folly. Arbitration always im- 
 plies acquiescence in the decision of the arbitrator, whether 
 favorable or adverse. How could I, as president of the Pull- 
 man company, consent to agree that if any body of men not 
 concerned with the interests of the company's shareholders 
 should, as arbitrators, for any reason seeming good to them so 
 decree, I would open the shops, employ workmen at wages 
 greater than their work could be sold for, and continue this 
 ruinous policy indefinitely ; or be accused of a breach of faith ? 
 Who will deny that such a question is plainly not a subject of 
 arbitration ? Is it not then unreasonable that the company 
 should be asked to arbitrate whether or not it should submit 
 such a question to arbitration ? Removing the original and 
 fundamental question one stage does not help the matter; the 
 question would still remain : Can I, as a business man, know- 
 ing the truth of the facts which I have stated, bind myself that 
 I will, in any contingency, open and operate the Pullman car 
 shops at whatever loss, if it should happen to be the opinion of 
 some third party that I should do so ? The answer seems to 
 be plain. 
 
 The public should not permit the real question which has 
 
37 
 
 been before it to be obscured. 1 hat question was as to the pos- 
 sibility of the creation and duration of a dictatorship which 
 could make all the industries of the United States and the daily 
 comfort of the millions dependent upon them, hostages for the 
 granting of any fantastic whim of such a dictator. Any sub- 
 mission to him would have been a long step in that direction, 
 and in the interest of every law-abiding citizen of the United 
 States was not to be considered for a moment. 
 
 Charges Met and Answered, 
 
 A few words are pertinent as to some industriously spread 
 charges against the company. 
 
 One of these charges is that rents are exorbitant, and it is 
 implied that the Pullman employes have no choice but to sub- 
 mit. The answer is simple. The average rental of tenements 
 at Pullman is at the rate of $3 a room a month, and the renting 
 of houses at Pullman has no relation to the work in the shops. 
 Employes may, and ver}^ many do, own or rent their homes 
 outside of the town; and the buildings and business places in 
 the town are rented to employes or to others in competition 
 with neighboring properties. In short the renting business of 
 the Pullman company is governed by the same conditions 
 which govern any other large owner of real estate, except that 
 the company itself does directly some things which in Chicago 
 are assumed by the city. If, therefore, it is not admitted that 
 the rents of any landlord are to be fixed by arbitration, and 
 that those of the adjoining towns of Kensington and Roseland 
 should also be so fixed, it can hardly be asked that the Pullman 
 company alone should abandon the ordinary rules which gov- 
 ern persons in that relation. 
 
 As to the charges for water, the company until lately had 
 a contract with the village of Hyde Park, under which it paid 
 4 cents a 1,000 gallons, and pumped the water itself. The 
 gross amount paid the village monthly for the water consumed 
 by the tenants was almost exactly the gross sum paid by the 
 tenants therefor. Since the inclusion of Hyde Park and Pull- 
 man within the city of Chicago the company pays the city 
 about 7 cents a 1,000 gallons, and not having increased the 
 charge to the tenants, is paying for the water consumed by 
 them about $500 a month more than is charged to them. The 
 company has made repeated efforts to dissociate itself from 
 the supplying of water to tenants, but the city of Chicago has 
 as yet failed to apply the ordinary frontage rates to the houses 
 and shops in Pullman, although it is done in the adjacent towns. 
 
 The Pullman company was organized twenty-seven years 
 ago with a capital of $1,000,000, of which two-thirds represented 
 
38 
 
 the appraised value of its cars, liicii held by three owners, and 
 one-third represented the appraised value of its franchises and 
 existing contracts. The company has grown until its sleeping- 
 car service covers 125,000 miles of railway, or about three- 
 fourths of the railway system of the country, and that increase 
 of service has necessitated increase of its capital from time to 
 time until it is now $36,000,000. There are over 4,000 stock- 
 holders of the company, of whom more than one-half are 
 women and trustees of estates, and the average holding of each 
 stockholder is now eighty-six shares, one-fifth of them holding 
 less than six shares each. 
 
 [^Notice posted o?i the gates of the Pullman shops, at Pnlhna/i, July 
 18, 1894.1^ 
 
 " These shops will be opened as soon as the number of 
 operatives taken on is sufficient to make a working force in all 
 departments." 
 
39 
 PRESIDENT PULLMAN'S STATEMENT 
 
 At the Stockholders' Annual Meeting, October i8, 1894. 
 
 The strike at the car works, which occurred May 11, 1894, 
 in consequence of which the works were idle for the remainder 
 of the fiscal year (about twelve weeks), and the temporary 
 disturbance of railway travel account for some part of the 
 large differences between the figures of this and the preceding 
 year, above given. 
 
 Several public statements made on behalf of the company 
 and also those made before the United States Strike Commis- 
 sion, giving in much detail the circumstances and events of the 
 strike and the position of the company therein, have been 
 embodied in a pamphlet, a copy of which was duly sent to 
 each shareholder. 
 
 The depression in the car-building business, which began in 
 1893, manifested itself not only in a falling off in the prices for 
 cars, averaging in all classes 24%, but in such stagnation that 
 the force in the Pullman shops on November ist, 1893, was 
 less than 1,100, while the average number employed in the 
 fiscal year ending July 31st, 1893, was 4,497. In the months of 
 August and September, 1893, we had an opportunity of making 
 only six bids for work, of which but three were accepted. 
 
 In order to procure car-building contracts a reduction of the 
 wages of April, 1893, of the car shop employes, averaging 19% 
 was made, to make them correspond with those paid by other 
 car manufacturers, and by making bids at shop cost and less, 
 we secured work aggregating about $1,500,000, and were under- 
 bid on bids for nearly the same amount. On the accepted bids 
 our net loss was over $50,000. By taking this course we had 
 been able by last May to secure work enough to raise the 
 number having employment to nearly 3,300. 
 
 Although these conditions were carefully explained to a 
 large committee of the shop employes, three- fourths of them 
 were persuaded to enter upon the strike, because the company 
 declined to restore wages to the scale of the prosperous times 
 of the early part of 1893. Several suggestions were made to 
 the company that it should consent to arbitration as a means 
 of ending the strike, but it declined to do so upon the ground 
 that it being an ascertained fact that even at the existing rates 
 of wages, car building contracts could only be procured for 
 execution at actual and serious losses, the company could not 
 possibly submit to the discretion of any person, not responsible 
 to its shareholders, the question whether or not it should 
 
40 
 
 increase its manufacturing lubi,es by any increase of wages, or 
 even whether or not it should continue the manufacturing of 
 cars at current prices, at the wages complained of. 
 
 On June 22d a demand for arbitration was presented to the 
 company by a committee of the American Railway Union, 
 accompanied by the threat of an attempt to stop the operation 
 of Pullman cars. This attempt began on June 26th, and after 
 much public discomfort had been caused and great disorders 
 had been inspired, of such violence and extent as to require the 
 intervention of the United States military forces, it was prac- 
 ticall)^ overcome by about the middle of July. 
 
 We then began receiving applications for employment at 
 the shops, and were able to open the repair department on 
 August 2d, and gradually the other departments; but the busi- 
 ness to be done has justified the employment of little more 
 than three-fourths of the number employed at the time of the 
 strike. 
 
 There has been no substantial change in the condition of 
 the car building business, and the contracts taken by us before 
 the strike, and those taken since the strike, are being executed 
 at prices which give no profit, and such contracts are taken 
 because the shops are being kept in operation for the repairing 
 of the company's own cars, and to give as much employment 
 as is possible in the present condition of business.. 
 
 I have learned in various ways that a good many persons 
 during the strike lost sight of its true origin, and gained the 
 impression that it was influenced by the house rents at Pullman 
 not being lowered when wages were reduced from the high 
 scale of the spring of 1893. That this is not true is shown by 
 the fact that more than two-thirds of the employes who began 
 the strike, were not tenants of the company; indeed, between 
 500 and 600 of them owned their own homes. It is true that 
 frame houses, at slightly lower rents, may be had in the adja- 
 cent towns by such employes as do not consider the small 
 difference in rent to be much more than made up by the advan- 
 tages of well built brick houses, with gas and water and drain- 
 age connections, situated on paved and shaded and cleaned 
 streets, and in attractive surroundings. These things being 
 taken into account, the rents in Pullman are really cheaper. 
 When it is considered that there are more than 1,800 tenements 
 in Pullman, and that there have been, in the fourteen years 
 since the town was founded, only about six forcible evictions 
 of undesirable tenants, it is clear that the relations of the com- 
 pany with its tenants have been free from dififlculty in a most 
 extraordinary degree. 
 
 The number of men now employed at the shops is 2,640, 
 and the scale of wages now is the same as that existing at the 
 
41 
 
 time of the strike, and rents are promptly paid. As to the 
 tenants who were not reemployed, none of them have been 
 evicted, or unduly pressed for their arrearages of rent; there 
 has been a gradual voluntary departure of unemployed tenants 
 going on, as they have found work elsewhere, and there are 
 now 279 of them remaining. 
 
 The real cause of complaint during the autumn of 1893 and 
 the succeeding winter was not altogether on account of the 
 scale of wages, but largely because there was not enough work 
 to give an opportunity for anything like full earnings by all 
 the men. 
 
 The average daily pay to journeymen mechanics at the time 
 of the strike was $2. 03, and charges of insufficient wages have 
 for their foundation chiefly the misleading statements of three 
 mechanics to whom full employment could not be given, but 
 two of whom nevertheless earned $634.00 and $642.00 respect- 
 ively, in the year, and the other earned $345.00, working hardly 
 more than half time. The wages paid were in fact current 
 wages in such trades, and substantially the same as at our 
 Wilmington shops, where the attempt of the American Railway 
 Union to cause a strike met with no concurrence on the part of 
 the employes. 
 
 If the men had continued at work instead of remaining idle 
 for nearly three months, wages amounting to more than 
 $350,000.00 would have been paid them, a sum to be contrasted 
 with the. total value of contributions made for them, which so 
 far as we are advised, did not exceed $50,000.00. 
 
 I may observe also, that there have been indications of a 
 feeling in some quarters that this company ought to have 
 maintained the scale of wages existing in the car manufactur- 
 ing department in April, 1893, without regard to the current 
 selling prices for cars, paying the consequent increased losses 
 in the car-building business out of the company's earnings in 
 the independent business of operating sleeping cars, and thus 
 sharing the sleeping-car earnings with the car-building em- 
 ployes, who, to use the language of one questioner, "had been 
 working for a long time." Such a principle of business would 
 as well require the mechanics to be kept on the roll at full pay, 
 even if there was no work for them. It must also be remem- 
 bered that the company's business of operating sleeping cars is 
 the growth of twenty-seven years, and the entirely independent 
 business of car manufacturing, for sale, at Pullman, has been 
 going on only one-half that time. At what point did a prin- 
 ciple take effect that the latter business must be kept going by 
 the former, regardless of their independence or of the discrep- 
 ancy between the cost and selling price of cars? At the time 
 of the strike 227 of the shop employes had been in the employ- 
 
42 
 
 Tnent of the company for less than a year, and more than half 
 the entire force had been with the company less than five 
 years. Had all of them earned a guaranty of uninterrupted, 
 undiminished wages? And if not, where was the line to be 
 drawn, and what was to be done in respect to shop employes, 
 of varying terms of service, who were laid off in the summer 
 of 1893 fo^ l^ck of work, and who have not been reemployed? 
 
 Of the present force at the car shops only about 300 are 
 new employes, and the remainder have returned to their former 
 work with, I believe, a widely prevailing feeling, that they have 
 learned by experience that this company was earnest in 
 befriending them in seeking work for them when little was to 
 be had, and in giving them work at wages which the selling 
 prices of their product did not justify, and that the genuine- 
 ness of the interest of this company in their welfare is far 
 more to be trusted than the promises of the agitators who 
 misled them. 
 
 By increased attention to their work the mechanics have 
 under the same scale of piece-work prices increased their 
 average daily earnings from $2.03 in last April, to $2.16 in the 
 last half of September, the latest report received. 
 
43 
 
 [From Harper's Weekly, Nov. 24, iSg^..'] 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY STATESMANSHIP. 
 
 The report of the President's Commission to investigate the 
 causes and the history of the trouble known as "the Pullman 
 strike" of last summer has been for several days before the 
 public. The comments which it has elicited have been of 
 peculiar interest, as revealing the mental attitude upon social 
 questions, and the habits of thought concerning them, of the 
 men who aspire to lead or at least to forecast public opinion. 
 The leaders of the war against law and order, who undertook 
 to coerce the community into disregard of its own laws, now 
 laud the report, and exult in its conclusions as the final vindi- 
 cation of their own motives and methods. The more thought- 
 ful members of the press treat it with qualified and formal 
 respect, accepting its detailed statements of evidence, but 
 exposing its summaries of fact and generalized assertions as 
 grossly inaccurate and partial, and wholly rejecting its pro- 
 posed remedial measures as absurdly inadequate if not wholly 
 useless. Other journals generally content themselves with 
 an abstract of the Commission's views as the end of the 
 controversy, and a substantial victory for what they call 
 •"organized labor." 
 
 But there is nothing in these comments which can satisfy 
 the intelligent and patriotic citizen wh'o reads the report and 
 feels its astonishing spirit and character. Every such reader is 
 startled by finding in a state paper a system of thought, a kind 
 of reasoning, a quiet assumption of principles, such as no 
 •document of similar high official origin ever expressed before. 
 If Messrs. Carroll D. Wright, John D. Kernan, and Nich- 
 olas E. Worthington represent in these principles and this 
 reasoning the government which appointed them, and if 
 that government represents in these things the people of the 
 United States, then the civilized society in which we live, with 
 its present laws and customs, with the rights they recognize, 
 and the machinery of jurisprudence to define and enforce them, 
 is an anachronism, for all these have lost their place in the 
 convictions and affections of the people. The most moment- 
 ous stage in every revolution is that which takes place silently 
 in the popular mind, and of which all that follows in upturning 
 institutions and reconstituting society is but the necessary 
 sequence and expression. If the mass of our citizens think as 
 these commissioners think, this first chief stage in a socialistic 
 revolution is already far advanced, and the transformation of 
 our nineteenth-century civilization into something widely dif- 
 
44 
 
 ferent, and as yet wholly unimagined, is a process which can- 
 not long be dela)^ed. 
 
 In reaching this conclusion it is not needful to question any^ 
 of the assertions of fact made by the report. True, these are 
 challenged in many points by men who know the truth, and 
 the labored and persistent effort in them to relieve from 
 reproach the strikers, rioters, and friends of disorder, and to^ 
 .exhibit as unwise or questionable every principal step taken to 
 oppose them, is the characteristic feature of the commissioners* 
 statement. I3ut the amazing nature of their reasoning is far 
 more important. Admit the strict accuracy, the absolute 
 impartiality, of every assertion they have made, in general 
 and in detail, and still the conclusions they draw are such as no^ 
 other tribunal in Christendom would have drawn, such as 
 can be entertained only by those who first reject the accepted 
 principles of political economy and the entire doctrine of 
 rights and of remedies in our common law. 
 
 One or two examples of their method of reasoning will 
 sufifice. The report shows clearly that for about eight months- 
 prior to May I, 1894, the Pullman company had kept its men 
 at work on contracts for building cars which cost them, for 
 materials and labor at the yards, $52,069 more than they 
 received for them, or 3.66 per cent. That is to say, for the 
 sake of keeping its hands employed, it paid them every dollar 
 their labor added to the value of the material used, and $52,000- 
 besides. The company avowed its policy to make this sacrifice 
 for the sake of its workmen, and as a public service. But the 
 commissioners go out of their way to argue that the loss in 
 question was incurred for purely selfish reasons — "that its plant 
 might not rust; that its competitors might not invade its terri- 
 tory; that it might keep its cars in repair," etc. This entire 
 argument on the company's motive is irrelevant, and is only 
 introduced as a cover and diversion to the extraordinary bit of 
 logic which it follows. The substantial fact is that the com- 
 pany kept its men at work to its own direct loss of about $300^ 
 each working day for many months. Now the report compares, 
 the aggregate wages paid during this time with the wages, 
 which would have been paid had the rates paid in the preced- 
 ing time of great prosperity and large profits been maintained. 
 At the scale of wages in use up to June, 1893, the company 
 would have paid during the eight months in question $6o,000' 
 more than it actually paid. What is the conclusion? Simply 
 that the company lost $52,000, but that its men lost $60,000, an 
 unfair division of the loss! These practical economists delib- 
 erately suggest that the company ought to have borne "three- 
 quarters of the loss," instead of less than a half; it ought to 
 have paid wages to the amount of $32,000 more, and reduced 
 
45 
 
 the "loss" of its workmen to $28,000. In other words, it is 
 severely censured for having given its laborers a pure gratuity 
 of $52,000, at a time when its entire capital was earning nothing, 
 because it did not give them $84,000. 
 
 What is the state of mind of men who sign such a report? 
 What are the silent assumptions which underlie this reasoning? 
 Simply that the rights of property are not worthy of regard; 
 that the trustees of the thousand or more investors who hold 
 the stock of the Pullman company have no duty to these stock- 
 holders which does not vanish before the sentimental dictates 
 of a fanciful charity; that the property of countless families 
 may be given away by their agents without consulting the 
 principals. It is futher assumed that the private business of 
 corporations is of its nature a public eleemosynary institution, 
 and the principles implied by the report would shame all 
 honest labor into dependence, and turn the face of industry 
 towards beggary. But, worst of all, the commissioners parade 
 in this argument their utter indifference to the claims of the 
 numberless laboring men who in these times could find no 
 employment and earn nothing. Thousands of them stood 
 ready at all times to take the places of the strikers, and would 
 have entered the workshops at the actual wages paid as a sort 
 of paradise. Yet the unorganized and voiceless multitude are 
 forgotten, and the Commission would have the discontented 
 group of the employed selected to be fed, clothed and housed 
 at a rate far beyond the value of their work, by a forced levy, 
 primarily upon the stockholders, and therefore ultimately upon 
 the community at large, and especially upon the unemployed. 
 Thus the first principles of economical science are outraged by 
 the assumptions of the report. 
 
 Again, the commissioners show that the American Railway 
 Union violated its own constitution: first, by admitting the car- 
 builders as- members; secondly, by sustaining their clearly 
 "unjustifiable demand" for the wages of June, 1893; and 
 thirdly, by pj-oclaiming a sympathetic strike against the rail- 
 roads, the commerce of the country, and the peace and welfare 
 of the nation to enforce this demand. They further make it 
 clear that the union exercised no restraint upon its members in 
 their acts of violence, but by its constitution and the acts of 
 its leaders encouraged them to many forms of crime. But its 
 elaborate comments on the admitted facts throw all the blame 
 for the resulting disorder and loss upon those who combined 
 for no purpose but to restore order and protect life and prop- 
 erty. Proclaiming, with emphasis, that the striking unions had 
 " no grievances against the railroads," they go on severely to 
 censure the roads as having caused all the trouble by refusing 
 to arbitrate the dispute. And they reserve their highest strains 
 
46 
 
 of eulogy for the " dignified, manly, and conservative conduct'" 
 of the Pullman strikers, in that they did not burn the shops 
 and destroy the machinery by which they hoped thereafter to 
 live. This abstinence from the most foolish and wicked of 
 crimes is to the Commission the bright and promising feature 
 of this sad history, and " worthy of the highest type of Amer- 
 ican citizenship." Indeed, the fact that most of the Pullman 
 workmen refrained from arson and murder in their own towa 
 is hailed by the report as an earnest of " the lawful and orderly 
 redress of labor wrongs." Can the fatuous defiance of all the 
 foundations of morality and law go further than this ? 
 
 It is needless to follow the reasoning of the commissioners, 
 on other subjects. The principles silently assumed by them 
 throughout the report are the negatives of all those on which 
 civilized society has hitherto rested. Economics, in their 
 minds, are not science, but sentiment. Law, to them, is not 
 the permanent definition and enforcement of rights, but an 
 antiquated mass of traditions, to be brushed aside or re- 
 moulded by a temporary and apparent expediency. The 
 society to which they look is not the Christian and industrial 
 civilization which embodies all that history has achieved for 
 man, which reverences the moral law, and applies it by guard- 
 ing vested rights as sacred, but is a vague dream of a socialistic 
 community, in which every man 'has an undefined claim upon 
 the property and labor of every other. These principles, we 
 firmly believe, need but to be disentangled from the specious 
 disguises of irrelevant fact and plausible thought which fill this 
 report to be rejected by the strong sense of the American 
 people. If the Commission is a body of statesmen, their 
 statesmanship is revolutionary. But they stand too" nearly 
 alone among our public men to form a danger signal. The 
 nation is not yet ready to give up all its standards of morality 
 and law. 
 
REPORT 
 
 CHICAGO STEIKE 
 
 JUNE-JXJLY, 1894, 
 
 UMTED STATES STRIKE COMMISSION, 
 
 APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT JULY 26, 1894, UNDER THE 
 
 PROVISIONS OF SECTION 6 OF CHAPTER 1063 OF 
 
 THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 PASSED OCTOBER 1, 1888, 
 
 APPENDICES CONTAINING TESTIMONY, PROCEEDINGS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 WASHINGTOIT: 
 
 GOYEKNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 1895. 
 
G'^- 
 
UNITED STATES STRIKE COMMISSION. 
 
 com:m:issioner?5. 
 
 CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Ex-officio Chairman Reading, Mass. 
 
 JOHN D. KERNAN Utica, N. Y. 
 
 NICHOLAS E. WORTHINGTON Peoria, III. 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 EUGENE B. HASTINGS Utica, N. Y. 
 
 WILLIAM H. RAND Keene, N. H. 
 
 STENOGRAPHERS. 
 
 CHARLES P. WATSON Peoria, III. 
 
 CYRUS L. WATSON '. Peoria, III. 
 
 CHARLES W. MORRIS, JR Harrisburg, Pa. 
 
 U. S. DEPUTY MARSHAL (IN ATTENDANCE). 
 H. BARTLETT LINDLEY Chicago, III. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Message of the President IX 
 
 Letter of Transmittal XIII 
 
 Introduction XV-XVIII 
 
 Losses and Crimes XVIII, XIX 
 
 Troops, Military, etc XIX, XX 
 
 Pullman's Palace Car Company XXI-XXIII 
 
 The American Eailway Union XXIII-XX VIII 
 
 The General Managers' Association XXVIII-XXXI 
 
 The Pullman strike : Its causes and events XXXII-XXXIX 
 
 Wages XXXII-XXXV 
 
 Rents XXXV, XXXVI 
 
 Shop abuses XXXVI 
 
 The strike XXXVII-XXXIX 
 
 Railroad strike XXXIX-XLVI 
 
 Action of federated unions XL-XLII 
 
 Action of the General Managers' Association XLII, XLIII 
 
 Violence and destruction of property and military proceedings.. . XLIII-XLVI 
 
 Conclusions and recommendations XLVI-LI V 
 
 Appendix A. — Testimony and proceedings 1-653 
 
 Testimony on behalf of the railway employees 4-212 
 
 Testimony of George W. Howard 4-58 
 
 Testimony of James R. Sovereign 59-71 
 
 Testimony of George W. Lovejoy 71-77 
 
 Testimony of Sylvester Keliher 78-94 
 
 Testimony of B. B. Ray 94-101 
 
 Testimony of E. M. Goodwin 101, 102 
 
 Testimony of H. F. Griswold 102, 103 
 
 Testimony of James B. Couners 101-108 
 
 Testimony of Franklin R. Mills 108-110 
 
 Testimony of Charles Naylor 111-114 
 
 Testimony of Frank Wells 114, 115 
 
 Testimony of Martin J. Elliott 115-117 
 
 Testimony of Frank T. McDonald 117-126 
 
 Testimony of Charles B. St. Clair 126-128 
 
 Testimony of Eugene V. Debs 129-180 
 
 Testimony of P. H. Morrissy 180-185 
 
 Testimony of Edgar E. Clark 185-187 
 
 Testimony of Samuel Gompers 188-205 
 
 Testimony of John T. Norton 206, 207 
 
 Testimony of W. F. Guyon 207-212 
 
 Testimony on the part of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway 
 
 Company .• 212-324 
 
 Testimony of Everett St. John 212-269 
 
 Testimony of John M. Egan 269-282 
 
 Testimony of Charles Dunlap 282-285 
 
 V 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Appendix A.— Testimony and proceedings— Contirmed. 
 
 Testimony on the part of the Chicago, Rock. Island and Pacific Railway 
 Company — Concluded. Ta^e. 
 
 Testimony of F.W.McKee 285-288 
 
 Testimony of S. C. Wade 288-295 
 
 Testimony of William Richard Mooney 295-309 
 
 Testimony of 11. R. Saunders 309-311 
 
 Testimony of L. A. Camp 311 
 
 Testimony of W. G. Fuller 312 
 
 Testimony of G. D. Cruely 313-315 
 
 Testimony of W. J. Kruse 315, 316 
 
 Testimony of Frank Conroy 316-318 
 
 Testimony of D. Braham 318 
 
 Testimony of John Digan - 318 
 
 Testimony of George Furlong 318, 319 
 
 Testimony of Owen O'Keefe 319 
 
 Testimony of Fred Daumbach 319 
 
 Testimony of Joseph Rippet 319 
 
 Testimony of George Davis 320 
 
 Testimony of Otto Morling 320 
 
 Testimony of James Simmons 320, 321 
 
 Testimony of Alexander Quasso 321 
 
 Testimony of Henry Lusson 321 
 
 Testimony of J. H. Cady 322,323 
 
 Testimony of John Clancy 323 
 
 Testimony of M. Kubelsky 323 
 
 Testimony of Charles Keck -. 323, 324 
 
 Testimony of J. C. Klein 324 
 
 Testimony of Paxil Clausen 324 
 
 Testimony of John Clausen 324 
 
 Testimony on the part of the Illinois Central Railroad Company 325-338 
 
 Testimony of Albert W. Sullivan 325-338 
 
 General testimony relating to the strike 339-408 
 
 Testimony of Gen. Nelson A. Miles 339, 340 
 
 Testimony of John C. Donnelly 340-344 
 
 Testimony of John P. Hopkins 344-353 
 
 Testimony of Michael Brennan 353-360 
 
 Testimony of Malcomb McDowell , 360-368 
 
 Testimony of Ray Baker 368-370 
 
 Testimony of Harold I. Cleveland 370-374 
 
 Testimony of Victor M. Harding 374-380 
 
 Testimony of William H.T. Sliiide 380-383 
 
 Testimony of W. C. Roberts 383, 384 
 
 Testimony of William K. McKay 384, 385 
 
 Testimony of Nicholas Hunt 385-389 
 
 Testimony of John E. Fitzpatrick 389, 390 
 
 Testimony of John Fitzgerald 390-392 
 
 Testimony of Joseph L. Kenyou 392-395 
 
 Testimony of Benjamin H. Atwell 396-399 
 
 Testimony of N. D. Hutton 399-402 
 
 Testimony, of Hubert F. Miller 402-408 
 
 Testimony of witnesses with reference 1o raihoad losses during the 
 
 strike, called by the commission on its own motion 408-416 
 
 Testimony of Chauncey Kelsey 408, 409 
 
 Testimony of William McFaddeu 409, 410 
 
CONTENTS. VII 
 
 Appendix A. — Testimony and proceedings— Concluded. 
 
 Testiiiiouy of witnesses with reference to railroad losses during the strike, 
 called by the commission. on its own motion — Concluded. Page. 
 
 Testimony of E. P. Bronghton 410,411 
 
 Testimony of John D. Besler 411, 412 
 
 Testimony of William O. Johnson..,. 412,413 
 
 Testimony of J. M.Whitman 413,414 
 
 Testimony of W. N. D. Wiune 414, 415 
 
 Testimony of Arthur G. Wells 415 
 
 Testimony of E. St. .John 416 
 
 Testimony on the part of striking employees at the town of Pullman. . . 416-468 
 
 Testimony of Thomas W. Heathcoate 416-433 
 
 Testimony of Jennie Curtis 43.3-435 
 
 Testimony of Theodore Rhodie 435-438 
 
 Testimony of R. W. Coombs 438-441 
 
 Testimony of Merritt Brown w 441-444 
 
 Testimony of Rev. William H. Carwardine 444-454 
 
 Testimony of Mary Alice Wood 454-457 
 
 Testimony of Arthur M. Wilson 457, 458 
 
 Testimony of Myrtle Webb 458, 459 
 
 Testimony of Michael J Carroll 459-462 
 
 Testimony of Rev. Morris L. Wickman 462-465 
 
 Testimony of Andrew W. Pearson 466-468 
 
 Testimony on the part of Pullman's Palace Car Company 468-641 
 
 Testimony of Frank W. T. Glover 468-473 
 
 Testimony of Paul E. Hearnes 473-476 
 
 Testimony of L. H. Johnson 476-480 
 
 Testimony of Axel Lundgren 480-483 
 
 Testimony of John. McLean 483-492 
 
 Testimony of Isaiah Campbell 492-495 
 
 Testimony of Duane Doty 495-507 
 
 Testimony of Charles Cor-kery 507, 508 
 
 Testimony of Edward F. Bryant 508-526 
 
 Testimony of Charles H. Eaton .526-528 
 
 Testimony of George M. Pullman , . . 528-569 
 
 Testimony of Thomas H. Wickes 570-630 
 
 Questions submitted by Enoch Harpole 630-633 
 
 Testimony of Charles E. Webb 633 
 
 Testimony of William P. Hoornbeek 633-636 
 
 Testimony of James L. Walker 636-638 
 
 Testimony of Henry O. Lindeblad 638-641 
 
 Miscellaneous testimony; also proceedings at adjourned meeting at 
 
 Washington, D. C, September 26, 1894 641-653 
 
 Testimony of Edward W. Bemis 641-645 
 
 Testimony of Jane Addams 645-648 
 
 Statements of A. I. Ambler 648-651 
 
 Testimony of Gustav Augerstein 651-653 
 
 Appendix B. — Recommendations to the commission 655-681 
 
 Arbitration, compulsory or otherwise 657-661 
 
 Comments and general suggestions 661-667 
 
 Commission to be created by United States Statutes 667 
 
 Defects in our financial system a source of present depression 667, 668 
 
 Divers proposed measures of legislation for the benefit of labor 668-671 
 
 Governmental ownership or control of railroads 671-673 
 
 Judicial methods of various kinds suggested 674 
 
VlII CONTENTS. 
 
 Appendix B. — Recommendations to the Commission — Concluded. I»ag6. 
 
 To license railroad employees 674, 675 
 
 Matters relating solels' to the conditions at Pullman 676 
 
 Methods ot prevention of labor troubles, not statutory 676-678 
 
 Railroad employees to be pensioned 678 
 
 Single-tax theory 678, 679 
 
 Views of non-union employees and others advocating non-unionism 679,680 
 
 Wages, statutory regulation of 680, 681 
 
 Communications bearing upon the relations of capital to labor 681 
 
MESSAGE 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 TRANSMITTING 
 
 The report of tJie Stril-e. Commission on the Chicago strile of Jiine-July, 
 
 1894. 
 
 D-ECEMBER 10, 1894— Ordered to lie on the table and be printed. 
 
 To the Senate and. House of Representatives. 
 
 1 transmit herewith the report on the Chicago strike of June-July, 
 1894, forwarded to me by the Strike Coinmission appointed July 20, 
 1894, under the provisions of section 6 of chapter 1003 of the laws of 
 the United States, passed October 1, 1888, 
 
 The testimony taken by the commission and the suggestions and 
 
 recommendations made to it accompany the report in the form of 
 
 appendices. 
 
 Geover Cleveland. 
 Executive Mansion, 
 
 December 10, 1894, 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 
 
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 United States Strike Commission, 
 
 Washington, J). 6\, November 14, 1894. 
 Sir: We have the honor to hand you herewith our report upon the 
 controversies which arose between the Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
 pany and the Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific Eailway Company and 
 certain of their employees in June last. This report is made in accord- 
 ance with your directions of the 2Gth of July and under the provisions 
 of section 6 of chapter 1063 of the laws of the United States passed 
 October 1, 1888. 
 
 The appropriation ai^plicable to the investigation which Ave have 
 conducted was $5,000, a sum which has proved amply sufficient for all 
 the expenses of the commission. 
 
 In addition to our report covering our consideration, conclusions, 
 and recommendations, we hand you herewith a copy of the testimony 
 taken at the hearings conducted by the commission, a digest of the 
 suggestions made in writing to the commission, and various other 
 matters which have been submitted to it, all bearing upon the difficul- 
 ties and controversies considered. These matters are iu the form of 
 appendices. 
 
 We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 
 Carroll I). Wright. 
 John D. Kernan. 
 Nicholas E. Worthington. 
 The President. 
 
 XIII 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 Upon the -!6th of July, 18*J4, the President of the Uuited States 
 issued the following, viz : 
 
 GrEOVER Cleveland, 
 President of the United States of America. 
 To all to whom these i)reseuts shall come, greeting : 
 
 Know ye, that whereas controversies have arisen between the Illi- 
 nois Central Eailroad Company, and the Chicago, Eock Island and 
 Pacific Kailway Company, two corporations engaged in the transporta- 
 tion of property and passengers between two or more States of the 
 United States, and certain of their employees, which controversies may 
 hinder, impede, obstruct, interrupt or affect such transportation of 
 passengers or property; 
 
 And, whereas the premises and the representations on behalf of said 
 employees being considered, the conditions in my opinion justify and 
 require the creation of a temporary commission to examine the causes 
 of said controversies, the conditions accompanying the same and the 
 best means of their adjustment, as authorized by section (> of chapter 
 1063 of the laws of the United States passed on the first day of Octo- 
 ber, 1888; 
 
 Kow, therefore, by authority of the statute aforesaid, Carroll D. 
 Wright, Commissioner of Labor of the United States, who is desig- 
 nated in said statute, and John D. Kernan, of the State of New York, 
 and Nicholas E. Worthiugton, of the State of Illinois, hereby appointed 
 by the President of the United States commissioners under said act, 
 shall pursuant to the provisions of said act, constitute a temporary 
 commission for the purposes therein specified. 
 
 The said commission is hereby directed to visit the State of Illinois 
 and the city of Chicago, and such other places in the United States as 
 may appear proper in the judgment of the commission, to the end 
 that it may make careful inquiry into the causes of any pending dis- 
 pute or existing controversies and hear all persons interested therein 
 who may come before it; and said commission shall exercise all the 
 powers, perform all the duties and be subject to all the obligations 
 conferred and enjoined by the statute aforesaid upon temporary com- 
 missions created pursuant to its provisions. 
 
 In witness whereof I have subscribed my name hereto and caused the 
 
 seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed this twenty- 
 
 . 1 ^i^th day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
 
 1^ 'J hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the 
 
 Uuited States of America the one kundred and nineteenth. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 By the President: 
 W. Q. Gresham, 
 
 Secretary of State, 
 
 XV 
 
XVI CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 Section 6 of chapter 1063 of the laws of the United States passed 
 October 1, 1888, reads as follows : 
 
 That the President may select two commissioners, one of whom at 
 least shall be a resident of the State or Territory in which the contro- 
 versy arises, who, together with the Commissioner of Labor, shall 
 constitute a temporary commission for the purpose of examining the 
 causes of the controversy, the conditions accom])anying, and the best 
 means for adjusting it; the result of which examination shall be imme- 
 diately reported to the President and Congress, and on the rendering of 
 such leport the services of the two commissioners shall cease. 
 
 "The controversy" referred to is defined in section 1 of said chapter 
 1063 as follows: 
 
 Whenever dilferences or controversies arise between railroad or other 
 transportation companies engaged in the transportation of property or 
 pasgeugers between two or more States of the United States, between 
 a Territory and State, within the Territories of the United States, or 
 within the District of Columbia, and the employees of said railroad 
 companies, which differences or controversies may hinder, impede, 
 obstruct, interrupt, or affect such transportation of property or passen- 
 gers. 
 
 At its first meeting in the city of Washington, D. C, held on the 31st 
 day of July, 1894, the commission adopted the following preamble and 
 resolutions : 
 
 Whereas the President of the United States has appointed the under- 
 signed a commission to visit Chicago, 111., and such other places in the 
 United States as may be proper, in the judgment of the commission, to 
 the end that it may make careful inquiry into the causes of any pending- 
 dispute or existing controversies between the Illinois Central Eailroad 
 Company and the Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific Railway Company 
 and certain of their employees, and to hear all persons interested therein 
 who may come before it; and 
 
 Whereas section 6 of chapter 1063 of the laws of the United States 
 passed October 1, 1888, makes it the duty of said commission to exam- 
 ine the causes of said controversies, the conditions accompanying and 
 the best means of adjusting the same, and to report the results of such 
 examination to the President and to Congress; and 
 
 Whereas the questions involved in such controversies affect all 
 interstate railroads and their employees ; and 
 
 Whereas it is desirable that the report of this commission and 
 future legislation, if any, upon the questions at issue between labor, 
 whether organized or unorganized, and employers thereof, should be 
 based upon all facts having any legitimate bearing upon such ques- 
 tions, and should be the result only of clear and well-defined public 
 opinion: Therefore, 
 
 Resolved (1) That this commission will meet at the United States 
 post-office building in the city of Chicago, 111., on the 15th day of 
 August, 1894, at 10 a. m., for the purpose of taking testimony in rela- 
 tion to said controversies, and to hear and consider all facts, sugges- 
 tions, and arguments as to the causes thereof, the conditions accompa- 
 nying, and the best means of adjiisting the same, and as to any legis- 
 lation or measures which ought to be recommended in regard to similar 
 controversies hereafter. 
 
 (2) That all railroads, labor organizations, and citizens having either 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XVII 
 
 a personal or patriotic interest in tlie right solution of these questions, 
 and who can not conveniently attend such public hearing as aforesaid, 
 are requested to present their views and suggestions in writing to the 
 commission at any time prior to the date of such public hearing. 
 
 (3) That copies of this resolution be given to the press and be sent 
 to all railroads engaged in the transportation of property and passen- 
 gers between two or more States of the United States and to all labor 
 organizations. 
 
 (4) That all communications be addressed to the chairman of the 
 United States Strike Commission, Washington, D. C. 
 
 In accordance with the above resolution the commission met at the 
 United States district court room in the city of Chicago, 111., on the 
 15th day of August, 1894, when the chairman made the following 
 announcement: 
 
 By the act recited in the commission of the President that has just 
 been read, this commission is directed to examine the causes, contro- 
 versies, and diiBculties existing between the roads named and their 
 employees at the time the commission of the President was issued. The 
 board is constituted as a temporary commission 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 to hear, first, all the 
 witnesses on behalf of the employees, and, afterward, those on behalf of 
 the corporations named in the commission, and all such witnesses are 
 requested to hand their names to the clerk of the commission. Under 
 the law parties may appear in person or by counsel, as they may see 
 fit, and examine and cross-examine witnesses. 
 
 After all the witnesses have given their testimony the commission 
 will then consider arguments and suggestions to be made bearing upon 
 the questions before it. All such suggestions and arguments presented 
 in writing will be filed and considered by the commission; but the 
 question as to how far the commission will hear parties who desire to 
 be heard orally will depend upon the time left at the disposal of the 
 commission, and will be determined after the testimony is concluded. 
 This commission, by the act creating it, possesses all the powers and 
 authority which are possessed by and belong to United States commis- 
 sioners appointed by the circuit courts of the United States. The 
 hours of sitting of the commission will be from 10 a. m. to 12,30 p. m. 
 and from 1.30 p. m. to 4 p. m. Parties and their counsel and witnesses 
 attending will find seats within the rail. The commission is now ready 
 to proceed to business, and the marshal will preserve order, limiting 
 the attendance to the comfortable capacity of the room. The clerk 
 will now call the first witness. 
 
 During the session of thirteen days at Chicago the commission exam- 
 ined 107 witnesses, who were either presented by the parties or cited to 
 appear. At an adjourned session, held in Washington, September 26, 
 2 witnesses appeared, making a total of 109. 
 
 At the first hearing it developed that the Pullman employees very 
 generally became members of the American Eailway Union in March 
 and April, 1894, and that the 19 local unions which they had formed 
 had declared a strike at Pullman; *also that the railroad companies 
 named in the President's commission were members of the General 
 Managers' Association. 
 S. Ex. 7 U 
 
XVIII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 The contest was chiefly between these two organizations, and hence 
 nothing relating to the strike at PuUman or Chicago that affected 
 members of either organization could be excluded as not germane to 
 the subject under investigation. As a matter of discretion, the com- 
 mission believed it wise to permit the broadest latitude of inquiry, 
 inasmuch as the directions to the commission were " to examine the 
 causes of and the conditions accompanying the controversies." 
 
 LOSSES AND CRIMES. 
 
 According to the testimony the railroads lost in property destroyed, 
 hire of United States deputy marshals, and other incidental expenses, 
 at least $685,308. The loss of earnings of these roads is estimated at 
 $4,672,916. (a) Some 3,100 employees at Pullman lost in wages, as esti- 
 mated, at least $350,000. {b) About 100,000 employees upon the 24 rail- 
 roads centering at Chicago, all of which were more or less involved in 
 the strike, lost in wages, as estimated, at least $1,389,143. {a) Many of 
 these employees are still adrift and losing wages. 
 
 Beyond these amounts very great losses, widely distributed, were 
 incidentally suffered throughout the country. The suspension of trans- 
 portation at Chicago paralyzed a vast distributive center, and imposed 
 many hardships and much loss upon the great number of people 
 whose manufacturing and business operations, employment, travel, and 
 necessary supplies depend upon and demand regular transportation 
 service to, from, and through Chicago. 
 
 During the strike the fatalities, arrests, indictments, and dismissals 
 of charges for strike offenses in Chicago and vicinity were as follows {o) : 
 
 Number shot and fatally wounded 12 
 
 Number arrested by the police 515 
 
 Number arrested under United States statutes and against wbom indictments 
 Avere found 71 
 
 Number arrested against wbom indictments were not found 119 
 
 The arrests made by the police were for murder, arson, burglary, 
 assault, intimidation, riot, inciting to riot, and lesser crimes. The cases 
 passed upon by the special United States grand jury, which convened 
 on July 10, 1894, related to obstruction of the mail, forbidden by sec- 
 tion 3995 of the United States Ee vised Statutes; conspiracy to commit 
 offenses against the United States, forbidden by section 5440 of the 
 Eevised Statutes; conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among 
 the several States, forbidden by chapter 647 of the United States, laws 
 
 a Made up from evidence of and statements furnished by the twenty-four com- 
 panies comprising the General Managers' Association. 
 
 6 As to number of employees, see testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, page 586; aa 
 to loss of wages, see testimony of George M. Pullman, question 348. 
 
 c Made up from testimony of Superintendent of Police Brennan and further data 
 gathered from the police and court records by the United States deputy marshal in 
 attendance upon the commission. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XIX 
 
 of 1890; conspiracy to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate citizens 
 in the free exercise and enjoyment of their rights and privileges iTnder 
 the constitution and laws of the United States, forbidden by section 
 5508 of the United States Kevised Statutes. 
 
 Several indictments were found against Eugene V. Debs, George W. 
 Howard, L. W. Rogers, and Sylvester Keliher, officers of the American 
 Eailway Union, under these different statutes. Neither indictments 
 nor proceedings were had under the act to regulate commerce, approved 
 February 4, 1887, as has been sometimes stated. 
 
 These great losses and many crimes; the vast numbers, strength, and 
 resources of the labor that contended under the leadership of the Amer- 
 ican Railway Union upon the one side and Pullman's Palace Car Com- 
 pany and the General Managers' Association upon the other; the 
 attitude of labor toward capital, disclosed in its readiness to strike 
 sympathetically; the determination of capital to crush the strike 
 rather than to accept any peaceable solution through conciliation, arbi- 
 tration, or otherwise; (a) the certainty with which vast strikes let loose 
 the disreputable to burn, plunder, and even murder; the conversion 
 of industrious and law-abiding men into idlers, lawbreakers, or associ- 
 ates of criminals; the want brought to many innocent families; the 
 transformation of railroad yards, tracks, and stations, as well as the 
 busy marts of trade, into armed camj)s; the possibilities of future 
 strikes on more extended lines of union against even greater combina- 
 tions of capital — are all factors bearing upon the present industrial 
 situation which need to be thoroughly understood by the people and to 
 be wisely and prudently treated by the government. 
 
 TROOPS, MILITARY, ETC (b). 
 
 For the protection of city, state, and federal property, for the sup- 
 pression of crime and the preservation of order, the city, county. State, 
 and federal forces were utilized as shown in the following statement: 
 From July 3 to July 10 the number of Uuited States troops sent to and used 
 in Chicago to protect the United States mail service and federal buildings, 
 and to sustain the execution of the orders of the United States courts was. 1, 936 
 Between July 6 aud July 11 the State militia was ordered on duty at Chicago 
 
 and remained so long as needed, to the number of about 4, 000 
 
 Extra deputy marshals, about 5, 000 
 
 Extra deputy sheriff's 250 
 
 Police force of Chicago 3, 000 
 
 Total 14,186 
 
 a See testimony of John M. Egan, questions 15 to 80; also see resolutions of Gen- 
 eral Managers' Association, testimony of Everett St. John, question 290. 
 
 bAs to United States troops, see testimony of Mayor Hopkins, question 13, subse- 
 quently verified at number given : as to State militia, see testimony of Mayor Hop- 
 kins ; as to deputy marshals, see testimony of Deputy Marshal Donnelly, question 4 ; 
 as to police force, see statement furnished to John M. Egan, attached to testimony 
 of Superiutendpnt pf Police Brennan, page 358, 
 
XX CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 Section 4 of Article! V of the federal coustitiition reads as follows : 
 
 The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a 
 republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against 
 invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive 
 (when the legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence. 
 
 United States troops were not sent into Illinois upon the application 
 of the legislature, nor of the executive, against domestic violence; i. e., 
 violence affecting the State and its government as such. The Presi- 
 dent ordered the troops to Chicago — 
 
 (1) To protect federal property. 
 
 (2) To prevent obstruction in the carrying of the mails. 
 
 (3) To prevent interference with the interstate commerce; and 
 
 (4) To enforce the decrees and mandates of the federal courts. 
 
 He did this under the authority of section 5298 of the Revised 
 Statutes of the United States, which provides : 
 
 Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations, or 
 assemblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, it shall become impracticable, in the 
 judgment of the President, to enforce, by the ordinary course of judicial 
 proceedings, the laws of the United States within any State or Terri- 
 tory, it shall be lawful for the President to call forth the militia of any 
 or all of the States, and to employ such parts of the land or naval 
 forces of the United States as he may deem necessary to enforce the 
 faithful execution of the laws of the United States, or to suppress such 
 rebellion, in whatever State or Territory thereof the laws of the United 
 States may be forcibly opposed, or the execution thereof forcibly 
 obstructed. 
 
 And of section 5299, which provides : 
 
 Whenever insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combinations, or 
 conspiracies in any State so obstructs or hinders the execution of the 
 laws thereof, and of the United States, as to deprive any portion or 
 class of the people of such State of any of the rights, privileges, or 
 immunities, or protection, named in the constitution and secured by 
 the laws for the protection of such rights, privileges, or immunities, 
 and the constituted authorities of such State are unable to protect, or, 
 from any cause, fail in or refuse protection of the people in such rights, 
 such facts shall be deemed a denial by such State of the equal protection 
 of the laws to which they are entitled under the constitution of the 
 United States; and in all such cases, or whenever any such insur- 
 rection, violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, opposes or 
 obstructs the laws of the United States, or the due execution thereof, 
 or impedes or obstructs the due course of justice under the same, it 
 shall be lawful for the President, and it shall be his duty, to take 
 such measures, by the employment of the militia or the land and naval 
 forces of the United States, or of either, or by other means, as he may 
 deem necessary, for the suppression of such insurrection, domestic vio- 
 lence, or combinations. 
 
 Other statutes tend to confer authority in the same direction. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXI 
 
 PULLMAN'S PALACE CAR COMPANY. 
 
 This is a corporation organized in 1S67, Avith a capital of $1,000,000. 
 It lias grown until its present paid-up capital is $30,000,000. Its pros- 
 perity has enabled the company for over twenty years to pay 2 per cent 
 quarterly dividends, and, in addition, to lay up a surplus of nearly 
 $25,000,000 of undivided profits. From ISof to 1871 dividends ranging 
 from 9^ to 12 per cent per annum were paid. For the year ending July 
 31, 1893, the dividends were $2,520,000, and the wages $7,223,719.51. 
 For the year ending July 31, 1894, the dividends were $2,880,000, and 
 the wages $4,471, 701.39. («) 
 
 The business of the compan}' is — 
 
 (1) The operation of its cars upon about 125,000 miles of railroad, 
 being about three-fourths of the railway mileage of the country, under 
 contracts similar to that in evidence.(&) 
 
 (2) The manufacture and repair of such cars. 
 
 (3) The manufacture of cars of all kinds for the general market. 
 
 (4) The care and management, as owner and landlord, of the town 
 of Pullman. 
 
 In 1880 the company bought 500 acres of land, and upon 300 acres 
 of it built its plant and also a hotel, arcade, churches, athletic grounds, 
 and brick tenements suitable for the use of its employees. The town 
 is well laid out and has a complete sewerage and water system. It is 
 beautified by well-kept open spaces and stretches, flower beds, and 
 lakes. The w^hole is at all times kept in neat order by the company. 
 The main object was the establishment of a great manufacturing busi- 
 ness upon a substantial and money-making basis. Efficient workmen 
 were regarded as essential to its success, and it was believed that they 
 could be secured, held in contentment, and improved as snch for their 
 own sakes and for the benefit of the company by the accommodations 
 and surroundings that were provided. 
 
 The principal church and its parsonage are very attractive structures, 
 but often are not occupied because the rental required to be paid is 
 higher than any church society is willing to pay to obtain the gospel 
 privileges to be thereby secured. (c) In the arcade is a tasteful library of 
 books, carefully selected and cared for by the company. Three dollars 
 per year is charged for its use, and as many as 250 persons a year out 
 of from 4,000 to 5,000 employees and residents have at times, as stated 
 by the capable librarian in charge, availed themselves of its opportuni- 
 ties. It is possible that the air of business strictly maintained there, 
 as elsewhere, and their exclusion from any part in its management 
 
 a See testimony of George M. Pullman, questions i, 5, 32 to 34 inclusive, 135 to 
 138 inclusive, and 216; as to wages paid, see "memorandumof pay rolls" in testimony 
 of George M. Pullman, question 148. 
 
 b See testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, page 571. 
 
 c See testimony of Kev. W. H. Carwardine, question 54. 
 
XXII 
 
 CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 prevent more universal and grateful acceptance of its advantages by 
 employees. Men, as a rule, even when employees, prefer independence 
 to paternalism in such matters. 
 
 The company provides and pays a physician and surgeon by the year 
 to furnish to injured employees necessary treatment and drugs. It is, 
 however, also a part of his employment to secure from the injured party 
 a written statement as to the causes of injury, and it is his custom 
 to urge the acceptance of any offered settlement. If suit follows, the 
 doctor is usually a witness for the company. (a) We have no evidence 
 that the doctor has ever abused his confidential relation toward the 
 injured employees; but the system is admirably conceived from a busi- 
 ness standpoint to secure speedy settlement of claims for damages upon 
 terms offered by the company and to protect the company from litiga- 
 tion and its results. 
 
 Prior to June, 1893, all went well and as designed; the corporation 
 was very prosjDerous, paid ample and satisfactory wages, as a rule, and 
 charged rents which caused no complaint. During this period those 
 defects in the system which have recently come to the surface and 
 intensified differences, such, for instance, as the refusal to permit the 
 employees to buy land in Pullman and build homes there, caused no 
 disturbance. 
 
 From the evidence presented by the Pullman Loan and Savings 
 Bank, it appears that prior to Julj^ 1, 1893, the wages paid enabled 
 prudent employees to lay by considerable savings. Upon these the 
 bank has paid, uniformly and without any recent reduction, 4 per cent 
 per annum. The statement of the bank is as follows : 
 
 DEPOSITS IN PULLMAN LOAN AND SAVINGS BANK. 
 
 About one-half of the accounts are under $100 and five-sixths under 
 $500. These figures illustrate how seriously the cutting down of wages 
 and the strike ate into savings. 
 
 As the result of the Pullman system and its growth, when the depres- 
 sion of 1893 came, morally calling for mutual concessions as to wages, 
 rents, etc., we find on the one side a very wealthy and unyielding corpo- 
 
 a See testimony of Dr. John McLean, generally; but more especially from question 
 59 to the end. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXIIl 
 
 ration, and upon the other a multitnde of employees of comparatively 
 excellent character and skill, but without local attachments or any inter- 
 ested responsibility in the town, its business, tenements, or surroundings. 
 The conditions created at Pullman enable the management at all 
 times to assert with great vigor its assumed right to fix wages and rents {a) 
 absolutely, and to repress that sort of independence Avhich leads to labor 
 organizations and their attempts at mediation, arbitration, strikes, etc. 
 
 THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION. 
 
 This is an association of about 150,000 railroad employees, as alleged, 
 organized at Chicago on the 20th of June, 1893, for the purpose of 
 including railway emjjloyees born of white parents in one great brother- 
 hood. 
 
 The theory underlying this movement is that the organization of dif- 
 ferent classes of railroad employees (to the number of about 140,000) 
 upon the trade-union idea has ceased to be useful or adequate; that 
 pride of organization, petty jealousies, and the conflict of views into 
 which men are trained in separate organizations under different lead- 
 ers, tend to defeat the common object of all, and enable railroads to use 
 such organizations against each other in contentions over wages, etc. ; 
 that the rapid concentration of railroad capital and management 
 demands a like union of their employees for the purpose of mutual pro- 
 tection; that the interests of each of the 850,000 {b) and over railroad 
 employees of the United States as to wages, treatment, hours of labor, 
 legislation, insurance, mutual aid, etc., are common to all, and hence all 
 ought to belong to one organization that shall assert its united strength 
 in the protection of the rights of every member. 
 
 The American Federation of Labor, composed of affiliated unions, 
 with a membership of over 500,000, also tends in the direction of 
 broader union for labor. The order of the Knights of Labor, with an 
 estimated membership of from 150,000 to 175,000, has always advocated 
 the solidarity of labor. 
 
 In the American Eailway Union there are departments of literature 
 and education, legislation, cooperation, mediation, insurance, etc. The 
 organization consists of a general union and of local unions. The gen- 
 eral union is formed by representatives of local unions, who elect a 
 board of nine directors quadrennially. This board has authority to 
 "issue such orders and adopt such measures as may be required to 
 carry out the objects of the order." Any ten white persons employed 
 in railway service, except superintendents, etc., can organize a local 
 
 a See testimony of Thomas H. Wickes quoted on pages xxv aud xxvi ; also, near 
 close of his testimony, as to rentals; see also pamphlet of George M. Pullman intro- 
 duced in evidence by Mr. Wickes. 
 
 & These figures were obtained from the last statistical report of the United States 
 Interstate Commerce Commission. Witness George W. Howard fixes figures at 
 upwards of 1,000,000, but he includes other territory than the United States. 
 
XXIV CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 uniou. Each local union has its board of mediation, and the chairmen 
 of the various local boards upon a system of railroads constitute a 
 general board of mediation for that system. 
 The constitution provides that — 
 
 All complaints and adjustments must be first taken up by the local 
 union ; if accepted by a majority vote, it shall be referred to the lociil 
 board of mediation for adjustment, and, if failing, the case shall be 
 submitted to the chairman of the general board of mediation, failing 
 in which, they shall notify the president of the general union, who shall 
 authorize the most available member of the beard of directors to visit 
 and meet with the general chairman of the board of mediation and 
 issue such instructions as will be promulgated by the directors. 
 
 Under these provisions it is claimed that no strike can be declared 
 except by order of a majority of the men involved. This is a com- 
 mendable feature of the union. So long as strikes are resorted to, the 
 power to order them should never be vested anywhere except in a 
 majority of the employees concerned. If a two-thirds or three-quarters 
 vote were required it would be still better. After a strike is ordered 
 the board of directors of the general union practically directs its con- 
 duct. 
 
 In its profession of principles and purposes in its general and local 
 constitutions the American Eailway Fuion proposes to protect and 
 promote the interests of its members as wage earners through organi- 
 zation and legitimate cooperation. Its constitution reads : 
 
 First. The protection of all members in all matters relating to wages 
 and their rights as employees is the principal purpose of the organiza- 
 tion. Eailway employees are entitled to a voice in fixing wages and in 
 determining conditions of employment. Fair wages and proper treat- 
 ment must be the return for efficient service, faithfully performed. 
 Such a policy insures harmonious relations and satisfactory results. 
 The order, while pledged to conservative methods, will protect the 
 humblest of its members in every right he can justly claim; but while 
 the rights of members will be sacredly guarded, no intemperate demand 
 or unreasonable propositions will be entertained. Corporations will 
 not be permitted to treat the organization better than the organization 
 will treat them. A high sense of honor must be the animating spirit, 
 and evenhanded justice the end sought to be obtained. Thoroughly 
 organized in every department, with a due regard for the right wherever 
 found, it is confidently believed that all differences may be satisfac- 
 torily adjusted, that harmonious relations may be established and main- 
 tained, that the service may be incalculably improved, and that the 
 necessity for strike and lockout, boycott and blacklist, alike disastrous 
 to emx)loyer and employee and a perpetual menace to the welfare of the 
 public, will forever disappear. 
 
 It is encouraging to find that public opinion and a regard for their 
 own best interests now demand from labor organizations such a plain 
 recognition of conservative principles as the foregoing. The great 
 inherent weakness of such organizations at present is that in conten- 
 tions with emploj^ers these j)rinciples are forgotten and that strikes are 
 often ordered in hasty and disorderly ways, and are frequently con- 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXV 
 
 ducted with attendant violence and lawlessness. As an instance, it 
 appears from the evidence that the strike on the Rock Island road was 
 ordered at a meeting at Blue Island, attended by both railroad employees 
 and by persons not in the employ of the road, and that a rising vote 
 was taken without confining it to employees, and that amidst confusion 
 and uncertainty as to what the vote was or who the voters were, a 
 strike ui)on a great railroad system was inaugurated. 
 
 A recognition of the principle that under this Government wrongs 
 must be corrected in lawful and orderly ways is absolutely indispen- 
 sable 5 a practical denial of this principle in the conflicts incident to 
 strikes woald be fatal to both business and society and is unendurable 
 under any government. Wage earners can not deny that this would 
 be equally true were this Government one entirely "of labor, by labor, 
 and for labor." 
 
 The omission of a direct provision in the constitution of the Ameri- 
 can Railway Union for the punishment or disqualification of a member 
 who commits or instigates violence toward persons or projDerty in strikes 
 is a usual and a grievous omission, and deserves severe condemnation. 
 Until labor organizations take hold of this question vigorously and 
 control their own members effectually they are certain to lose sympa- 
 thy in their contentions and to be defeated, even though their cause be 
 just and deserve success. 
 
 In March, 1894, the employees of Pullman's Palace Car Company, 
 being dissatisfied with their wages, rents, and shop treatment for the 
 first time in the history of the town, sought organization, and joined 
 the American Railway Union in large numbers, {a) Their meetings were 
 held outside of Pullman, because the town has no facilities for such 
 purposes. (6) 
 
 The PuUman company is hostile to the idea of conferring with organ- 
 ized labor in the settlement of differences arising between it and its 
 employees. The position of the company in this respect is clearly stated 
 in the testimony of Mr. Wickes, its second vice-president, which is here 
 cited : 
 
 Q. 222. Has the company had anj^ policy with reference to labor 
 unions among its help? — Ans. 'So; we have never objected to unions 
 except in one instance. I presume that there are quite a number of 
 unions in our shops now. 
 
 Q. 223. What are they !— Ans. I couldn't tell you, but I have heard of 
 some of them. 1 suppose the cabinetmakers have a union, and I sup- 
 pose the car builders have a union, and the carvers, and the painters, 
 and other classes of men. We do not inquire into that at all. 
 
 Q. 224. That is, unions among themselvesin the works'? — Ans. Mem- 
 bers of the craft, belonging to other unions; that is, the cabinet union 
 might have its headquarters in Chicago and our men would be mem- 
 bers of it; but we did not object to anything of that kind. 
 
 a See testimony of ThomasW, Heathcoate, question 3; also page 432. 
 6 See above reference; also testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, questions 230 to 234, 
 quoted on page xxvi. 
 
XXVI CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 Q. 225. The only objection you ever made was to the American Eail- 
 ■way Union, wasn't it"? — Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 226. What is the basis of your objection to that union? — Ans. Our 
 objection to that was that we would not treat with our men as mem- 
 bers of the American Eailway Union, and we would not treat with 
 them as members of any union. We treat with them as individuals 
 and as men. 
 
 Q. 227. That is, each man as an individual, do you mean that? — 
 Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 228. Don't you think, Mr. Wickes, that it would give the corpora- 
 tion a very great advantage over those men if it could take them up 
 one at a time and discuss the question with him? With the ability that 
 you have got, for instance, where do you think the man would stand 
 in such a discussion? — Ans. The man has got probably more ability 
 than I have. 
 
 Q. 229. You think that it would be fair to your men for each one of 
 them to come before you and take up tlie question of his grievances and 
 attempt to maintain his end of the discussion, do you ? — Ans. I think so ; 
 yes. If he is not able to do that, that is his misfortune. 
 
 Q. 230. Don't you think that the fact that you represent a vast con- 
 centration of capital, and are selected for that because of your ability 
 to represent it, entitles him, if he pleases, to unite with all of the men of 
 his craft and select the ablest one they have got to represent the cause? — 
 Ans. As a union? 
 
 Q. 231. As a union. — Ans. They have the right; yes, sir. We have 
 the right to say whether we will'receive them or not. 
 
 Q. 232. Do you think you have any right to refuse to recognize that 
 riglit in treating with the men? — Ans. Yes, sir; if we chose to. 
 
 Q. 233. If you cliose to. Is it your policy to do that? — Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 234. Then you think that you have the right to refuse to recognize 
 a union of the men designed for the purpose of presenting, through the 
 ablest of tlieir members, to your company the grievances which all com- 
 plain of or which any complain of ? — Ans. That is the policy of the com- 
 pany; yes, sir. If we were to receive these men as representatives of 
 the unions they could probably force us to pay any wages which they 
 saw fit, and get the Pullman company in the same shape that some 
 of the railroads are by making concessions which ought not to be 
 made. 
 
 Q. 235. Don't you think that the opposite policy, to wit, that all 
 your dealings with the men, as individuals, in case you were one who 
 sought to abuse your power, might enable you to pay to the men, on 
 the other hand, just what you saw fit? — Ans. Well, of course a man in 
 an official position, if he is arbitrary and unfair, could work a great 
 deal of injustice to the men; no doubt about that. But then it is a 
 man's privilege to go to work somewhere else. 
 
 Q. 236. Don't you recognize as to many men, after they have become 
 settled in a place at work of that kind, that really that privilege does 
 not amount to much? — Ans. We find that the best men usually come to 
 the front; the best of our men don't give us any trouble with unions 
 or anything else. It is only the inferior men — that is, the least compe- 
 tent—that give us the trouble as a general thing. 
 
 Since the strike, withdrawal from the American Eailway Union is 
 required from those seeking work, (a) The company does not recognize 
 
 a See testimony of George M. Pullman, question 319. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXVII 
 
 that labor organizations have any place or necessity in Pullman, where 
 the company fixes wages and rents, and refuses to treat with labor 
 organizations. The laborer can work or quit on the terms offered; 
 that is the limit of his rights. To join a labor organization in order to 
 secure the protection of union against wrongs, real or imaginary, is 
 overstepping the limit and arouses hostility. This position secures all 
 the advantage of the concentration of capital, ability, power, and con- 
 trol for the company in its labor dealings, and deprives the employees 
 of any such advantage or protection as a labor union might afford. 
 In this respect the Pullman company is behind the age. 
 
 To admit the Pullman shop employees, however, into the American 
 Eailway Union as "persons employed in railway service" was not wise 
 or expedient. The constitution can not fairly be construed to include 
 as eligible members those who build cars and run them in and out 
 over private switches. Such loose construction of a labor constitution 
 is certain to involve any organization in such an infinite variety 
 of conflicting positions and to force it into so many contests demanding 
 different and perhaps apparently inconsistent treatment at the same 
 time as to curtail its usefulness and threaten its existence. To reach 
 out and take in those so alien to its natural membership as the Pullman 
 employees, was, in the inception of the organization at least, a mistake. 
 This mistake led the union into a strike purely sympathetic and aided 
 to bring upon it a crushing and demoralizing defeat. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that the officers and directors of the Ameri- 
 can Eailway Union did not want a strike ' at Pullman, and that they 
 advised against it, (a) but the exaggerated idea of the power of the 
 union, which induced the workmen at Pullman to join the order, led 
 to their striking against this advice. Having struck, the union could 
 do nothing less, upon the theory at its base, than support them. 
 
 The union was as yet young; its membership was not as extensive 
 as it hoped to obtain; its workings had the roughness of incipient 
 effort in a new direction; it had recently attained some success in a 
 strike upon the " Great Korthern," and had thus aroused extravagant 
 expectations among its members generally; great business depression 
 prevailed; large numbers were idle and stood ready to accept almost 
 any offer of work. For these reasons the ofiicers and directors of the 
 union knew that the times were inopportune for striking and did not 
 advocate it. 
 
 A union embracing all railroad employees, even, is as yet a doubtful 
 experiment. Such a union will have great dififlculty in moulding itself 
 to the complex character, nationalities, habits, employments, and 
 requirements of its vast and varied membership. 
 
 The trade unionists argue that their strength lies largely in their 
 
 a See testimony of George W. Howard, questions 21 and 22; testimony of Frank 
 T. McDonald, latter part of question 5 and question 6; testimony of Eugene V. Debs, 
 questions 8 and 22, 
 
XXVIII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 comparative freedom from these objections; and they insist that the 
 basis of the membership of a successful labor organization must be 
 substantial similarity in interests among the members. Trades unions 
 have a record of success both here and abroad, especially in England, 
 which largely sustains their position. They have promoted concilia- 
 tion, arbitration, conservatism, and resijonsibility in labor contentions 
 and agreements. 
 
 To preserve the integrity of associations designed to unite and organ- 
 ize labor on such a broad basis as that of the American Eailway 
 Union but two courses seem open : 
 
 (1) To take a position against all strikes, except as a last resort for 
 unbearable grievances, and to seek the more rational methods of con- 
 cihation and arbitration. To this object the power of public opinion 
 would lend aid to an extent not now api)reciated. 
 
 (2) Conservative leadership, legal status, and the education of mem- 
 bers in governmental matters, with the principle in view that in this 
 country nothing can accomplish permanent protection and final redress 
 of wrongs for labor as an entirety except conservative progress, lawful 
 conduct, and wise laws enacted and sustained by the public opinion of 
 its rulers — the people. 
 
 THE GENERAL MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 This voluntary, unincorporated association was formed in 1886, and has 
 as members the 24 railroads centering or terminating in Chicago. The 
 following facts relating to these roads for the year ending June 30, 
 1894, have been furnished by the Interstate Commerce Commission : 
 
 Number of miles operated a 40, 933 
 
 Number of stockholders ft 52, 088 
 
 Capitalization : 
 
 Capital stock a $818, 569, 004 
 
 Poinded debt a$l, 210, 235, 702 
 
 Current liabilities a $79, 747, 911 
 
 Total a $2, 108, 552, 617 
 
 Gross earnings c $325, 825, 726 
 
 Net earnings c $102, 710, 917 
 
 Number of employees d 221, 097 
 
 a Data for the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company are from Poor's Manual of 
 Railroads, 1894. 
 
 &Not including the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company and the Chicago and 
 Northern Pacific Railway. 
 
 c Data for the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company and the Pittsburg, Fort 
 Wayne and Chicago Railway are from Poor's Manual of Railroads, 1894. Those for 
 the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway are for the year ending December 
 31,1893. 
 
 d Not including the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company, the Chicago and 
 Northern Pacific Railway, and (except general officers) the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne 
 and Chicago Railway. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXIX 
 
 In its constitution the object of the association is stated to be " the 
 consideration of problems of management arising from the operation 
 of railroads terminating or centering at Chicago." It further provides 
 that "all funds needed shall be raised by assessments divided equally 
 amoug the members." There are no limitations as to " consideration 
 of problems" or "funds" except the will of the managers and the 
 resources of the railroad corporations. 
 
 Prior to the recent strike the association was chiefly concerned with 
 matters other than wages. It dealt with all questions concerning trans- 
 portation centering at Chicago in which the roads had a common inter- 
 est. It thus determined the policy and practically fixed the relations 
 of all of the roads toward the public as to switching, car service, load- 
 ing and unloading cars, weights of live stock, rates, etc, and sustained 
 each road in maintaining the position of the association as to these 
 matters, (a) 
 
 Until June, 1894, the association dealt incidentally and infrequently 
 with wages. There were few railroad controversies as to wages during 
 its active life, dating from January 20, 1892. (&) Hence its possibilities 
 as a strike fighter and wage arbiter lay rather dormant. The following 
 are instances of its action as to wage questions. Its roads fixed a 
 "Chicago scale" for switchmen, covering all lines at Chicago. In 
 March, 1893, the switchmen demanded more pay from each road. The 
 association concluded that they were paid enough — if anything, too 
 much. The roads so informed the men. The Switchmen's Mutual Aid 
 Association of North America wrote to Mr. St. John, as chairman, 
 acquiescing. He, as chairman of the General Managers' Association, 
 concluded his reply as follows : 
 
 The association approves the course taken by your body and desires 
 to deal fairly with all employees and believes that our sicitchmen are 
 receiving due consideration. 
 
 This seems to show that employees upon association roads are treated 
 as under subjection to the General Managers' Association. Mr. St. 
 John, the president of the association, testifies as follows: 
 
 The result of this declination on the part of the various companies 
 directly to their own committees was a threat on the part of some that 
 a strike would occur, and in times of trouble of tbat kind, or antici- 
 pated trouble, it would be the most natural thing in the world for the 
 association, or any line member of it, to arrange to protect the interests 
 of the company he represented. He could not do otherwise. Arrange- 
 ments were made by which agencies were established and men employed 
 to come to Chicago in case of necessity. 
 
 Q. 256. Were those agencies established by the Managers' Associa- 
 tion? — Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 257. And they were designed for the purpose of protecting any 
 line in the association? — Ans. That was a member of it. 
 
 a See testimony of Everett St. Jolin, pages 242 and 243. 
 i See testimony of Everett St. John, pages 244 and 245, 
 
XXX CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 Q. 258. Against anything tliey deemed to be an attempt to enforce an 
 unjust demand? — Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 259. Was that the first occasion the managers ever took action in 
 that direction? — Ans. That was the first occasion it took action during 
 any period I was chairman of it. 
 
 This was the first time when men upon each line were brought sharply 
 face to face with the fact that in questions as to wages, rules, etc., 
 each line was supported by 24 combined railroads. On several other 
 occasions similar action was taken; for instance, when some baggage 
 agents of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway wanted 
 higher wages, a committee of the association disposed of the matter. 
 Mr. St. John was asked : 
 
 Q. 286. Why was not that application disposed of by the Lake Shore 
 road instead of by the General Managers' Association? — Ans. In order 
 that it might receive the attention due to the application, and so the 
 pay of other roads could be determined, and see if we were under- 
 paying them. There has been quite a number of cases where the prayer 
 of tlie petition has been granted by this committee, and quite a number 
 where it has been declined, but only after the most careful investigation. 
 
 This answer is ingenious and suggestive. 
 
 This association likewise prepared for its use elaborate schedules of 
 the wages paid upon the entire lines of its 24 members. The proposed 
 object of these schedules was to let each road know what other roads 
 paid. Finding that the men upon some lines urged increase to corre- 
 spond with wages paid elsewhere, a committee of the association pre- 
 pared and presented a uniform schedule for all membership roads. It 
 was deemed wise not to act upon the report. It was distributed to 
 members in November, 1893. This distribution alone enabled the 
 report to be used with efficiency as an '^equalizer." As the result, 
 during 1893 — it being then well understood that as to wages, etc., it 
 was an incident of the General Managers' Association to "assist" each 
 road in case of trouble over such matters, one form of assistance being 
 for the association to secure men enough through its agencies to take 
 the jjlaces of all strikers (a) — reductions were here and there made on 
 the different roads, the tendency and effort apparently being to equalize 
 the pay on all lines. 
 
 It is admitted that the action of the association has great weight 
 with outside lines, and thus tends to establish one uniform scale 
 throughout the country. (6) The further single step of admitting lines 
 not running into Chicago to membership would certainly have the 
 effect of combining aU railroads in wage contentions against all 
 employees thereon. 
 
 The commission questions whether any legal authority, statutory or 
 otherwise, can be found to justify some of the features of the associa 
 
 a See testimony of Eugene V. Debs, pages 132 and 133 ; testimony of Everett St. 
 John, quoted on pages xxix and xxx ; testimony of John M. Egan, question 4. 
 i See testimony of Everett St. John, question 280. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXXI 
 
 tion which have come to light in this investigation. If we regard its 
 practical workings rather than its professions as expressed in its con- 
 stitution, the General Managers' Association has no more standing in 
 law than the old Trunk Line Pool. It can not incorporate, because rail- 
 road charters do not authorize roads to form corporations or associa- 
 tions to fix rates for services and wages, nor to force their acceptance, 
 nor to battle with strikers. It is a usurpation of power not granted. 
 If such an association is necessary from a business or economic stand- 
 point, the right to form and maintain it must come from the State that 
 granted its charter. In theory, corporations are limited to the powers 
 granted either directly or by clear inference. We do not think the 
 power has been granted in either way in this case. 
 
 The association is an illustration of the persistent and shrewdly 
 devised plans of corporations to overreach their limitations and to 
 usurp indirectly powers and rights not contemplated in their charters 
 and not obtainable from the people or their legislators. An extension of 
 this association, as above suggested, and the proposed legalization of 
 " pooling " would result in an aggregation of power and capital dan- 
 gerous to the people and their liberties as well as to employees and their 
 rights. The question would then certainly arise as to which shall con- 
 trol, the Government or the railroads, and the end would inevitably 
 be Government ownership. Unless ready for that result and all that 
 it implies, the Government must restrain corporations within the law, 
 and jjrevent them from forming unlawful and dangerous combinations. 
 At least, so long as railroads are thus permitted to combine to fix 
 wages and for their joint protection, it would be rank injustice to deny 
 the right of all labor upon railroads to unite for similar purposes. 
 
 It should be noted that until the railroads set the example a general 
 union of railroad employees was never attempted, (a) The unions had 
 not gone beyond enlisting the men upon different systems in separate 
 trade organizatious.(&) These neutralize and check each other to some 
 extent and have no such scope or capacity for good or evil as is possi- 
 ble under the imiversal combination idea inaugurated by the railroads 
 and followed by the American Eailway Union. The refusal of the 
 General Managers' Association to recognize and deal with such a com- 
 bination of labor as the American Eailway Union seems arrogant and 
 absurd when we consider its standing before the law, its assumptions, 
 and its past and obviously contemplated future action. 
 
 a See testimony of Eugene V. Debs, pages 132 and 133; testimony of Everett 
 St. John, question 228 ; testimony of George W. Howard, question 49. 
 
 b See testimony of George W. Howard, pages 12 to 14 ; see also constitution of 
 American Railway Union, published in connection witb testimony of George W. 
 Howard, and such portions of constitution of the Knights of Labor as are published 
 in connection with the testimony of James E. Sovereign; see also testimony of 
 Everett St- John, question 91. 
 
XXXII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 THE PULLMAN STRIKE : ITS CAUSES AND EVENTS. 
 
 Pullman's Palace Car Company is in the market at all times to 
 obtain all possible contracts to build cars. Its relations with railroads, 
 its large capital and surplus, its complete and well-located plant and 
 efficient management enable it at all times to meet all competitors on 
 at least equal terms. Prior to the business depression of 1893, the* 
 company was unusually active in building new cars for itself and for 
 railroads to meet the expanded demands of general business, and for 
 the expected requirements of the Columbian Exposition traffic. Its 
 repair department was also full of work. An average number of 4,497 
 workmen, during the year ending July 1, 1893, earned $2,7(30,548.99, or 
 an average of IG13.S6 each. The wages paid were about the same as 
 paid elsewhere in the business, Mr. Wickes thinks possibly a little 
 higher. 
 
 The depression of 1893 naturally affected the business at once, and 
 to a greater extent in some departments than in others. Matters grew 
 worse until, in the fall of 1893, the company closed its Detroit shops, 
 employing about 800, and concentrated its contract and repair business 
 at Pullman. The company and the railroads had a surplus of cars for 
 the decreased traffic obtainable, and hence pending orders were can- 
 celed and car building stopped, except as occasional straggling con- 
 tracts were obtained at prices which averaged less than shop cost, 
 exclusive of interest upon capital or any charge for depreciation of 
 plant or machinery. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 From September 18, 1893, until May 1, 1894, the company did con- 
 tract work at the price of $1,421,205.75, which was $52,069.03, or 3.663 
 per cent below shop cost for labor and materials. (a) Against this the 
 loss to labor by the reduction of wages paid on this work was over 
 $60,000, making the wages of June, 1893, the basis of comparison. (6) 
 It also had $1,354,276.06 of unaccepted bids, upon which its similar 
 loss would have been $18,303.56, or 1.35 per cent, (a) Assuming that 
 the analysis submitted as to the cost of several lots of cars affords a 
 fair basis for averaging the whole of the contracts, it appears that the 
 average percentage of cost of material in this contract work was about 
 75 per cent. Hence while the amount of loss was nearly equally 
 divided, it seems that the percentage of loss borne by labor in the 
 reduction of wages was much greater than that sustained by the com- 
 pany upon material. Three-quarters of the loss for the company and 
 the balance for labor would have more fairly equalized the division of 
 loss on these contracts. 
 
 a See testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, page 577. 
 
 i See testiuiouy of Thomas H. Wickes, questions 45 and 46. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXXIII 
 
 Some justification for the determinatiou of the company as to the 
 division of loss is claimed from the fact that in addition to its loss the 
 company received no interest upon its capital, etc. On the other hand, 
 it is an economic principle generally recognized that the shutting down 
 of such a plant and the scattering of its forces usually result in a 
 greater loss than that exhibited here by the continuance of business. 
 The Pullman company could hardly shut down for seven and a half 
 months at a cost and loss of less than 1 per cent upon its capital and 
 surplus. To continue running was for its obvious and unfair advan- 
 tage so long as it could divide losses equally with its labor. 
 
 The cut in wages during this period averaged about 25 per cent and 
 was reached in two ways (a) — 
 
 First, by reducing the price paid for piecework, upon which 2,800 
 men are normally employed. This price is claimed to be based upon 
 what a competent workman can do in a day. By testing the men the 
 prices are thus fixed so that a man, if neither an expert nor a laggard, 
 can earn an amount which is regarded by the company as fair wages. 
 The men at Pullman claim that the company during 1893-94 set the 
 pace through experts, so that with their forced loss of time an average 
 man could earn little more than the rent of his home, owned by the 
 company. (6) The company alleges that it simply readjusted piecework 
 prices to suit the necessities of the times. The letting of piecework 
 and the readjustment of prices therefor is largely in the hands of the 
 "foremen," and hence sometimes subject to abuses, unknown to the 
 management. 
 
 Second, by reducing the pay in the repair shops, employing about 
 800, to correspond with the contract-work prices, (c) The main reason 
 given for this reduction was that wages must be kept uniform. Under 
 the contracts between railroads and the company the railroads have 
 paid, since 1887, 2 cents per mile for each mile run by Pullman cars.(<?) 
 This is to pay the Pullman company for keeping the cars in repair, as it 
 agrees to do, and is exclusive of the unreduced charges paid to the 
 company for the use of berths, seats, etc. The depression of 1893 
 caused no change in this mileage rate under existing contracts. The 
 company claims, and it is true, undoubtedly, that the dejjression some- 
 what reduced this fund by reason of the larger number of idle cars 
 than usual to be repaired and stored at some expense, and caused 
 
 a See testimony of George M. Pullman, page, 537; also questions 225, 226, and 246; 
 also the testimony generally of all employees at Pullman sworn on hearing; also 
 the various tables submitted by Thomas H. Wickes bearing on the matter, including 
 the table of comparison of April, 1894, with April, 1893. 
 
 b See testimony of Thomas W. Heathcoate, latter part of answer to question 18 ; 
 testimony of Merritt Brown, question 26; testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, questions 
 148 to 154 inclusive. 
 
 cSee testimony of George M. Pullman, questions 227, 228, 234, and 235; also testi- 
 mony of Thomas H. Wickes, question 274. 
 
 d See testimony of Thomas H, Wickes, questions 268 to 273, 
 S, Kx, 7^— XXI 
 
XXXIV 
 
 CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 some losses from ftiiling roads. The testimony of the Pullman com- 
 pany, however, has left its claim in this regard in such loose and 
 indefinite shape as to compel the conclusion that the reduction in the 
 repair department was not made with reference to these depression 
 results, but was part of a plan designed to reduce wages in every 
 department to the lowest point possible to be reached in the depart- 
 ment most seriously affected by the depression. Some reduction of 
 wages in all departmentswasof course proper under the circumstances, 
 but a uniform reduction as between departments so differently situated 
 in reference to revenue as the car-building and repair departments 
 was not relatively just and fair toward the repair-shop employees. 
 
 The earnings of employees at Pullman Avere reduced bj'' these meaas 
 and by lessening the amount of work, as appears in the fable imme- 
 diately following: 
 
 EARNINGS OF CERTAIN EMPLOYEES AT PULLMAN, 1893-94. 
 
 May 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 August ... 
 September . 
 
 October 
 
 November . 
 Decenibor . 
 
 January ... 
 February . . 
 
 Marcb 
 
 April 
 
 Total 
 
 T.W. Heathcoate, 
 inside finislier. 
 
 T. Rhodie, 
 painter. 
 
 R. W. Coombs, 
 car builder. 
 
 Jennie Curtis, 
 seamstress. 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 252i 
 
 $78.00 
 
 244i 
 
 $65. 66 
 
 196i 
 
 $47. 42 
 
 235J 
 
 $39.85 
 
 280i 
 
 96.85 
 
 241i 
 
 65.28 
 
 92 j 
 
 21.00 
 
 212i 
 
 31.24 
 
 233i 
 
 69.12 
 
 216 
 
 57.05 
 
 170 
 
 38.75 
 
 181 
 
 27.72 
 
 244* 
 
 62.75 
 
 242 
 
 65.14 
 
 173 ' 
 
 36.91 
 
 197S 
 
 30.18 
 
 167i 
 
 44.77 
 
 232 
 
 62.62 
 
 94 j 
 
 21.50 
 
 147i 
 
 23.90 
 
 114 
 
 26.92 
 
 2301 
 
 62.04 
 
 42i' 
 
 7.39 
 
 2304 
 
 34.62 
 
 119 
 
 29.05 
 
 1251 
 
 32.58 
 
 91 
 
 20. 54 
 
 151 
 
 24.39 
 
 229| 
 
 43.85 
 
 52i 
 
 12.52 
 
 j 
 
 18.37 
 
 1801 
 
 28.18 
 
 261 
 
 49.30 
 
 279J 
 
 66.84 
 
 1921 
 
 34.00 
 
 216 
 
 34. 21 
 
 238J 
 
 44.95 
 
 227i 
 
 51.69 
 
 240 i 
 
 60.00 
 
 184 
 
 25.47 
 
 262J 
 
 51.53 
 
 254 
 
 51.12 
 
 125 
 
 30.80 
 
 212 
 
 .24.92 
 
 185i 
 
 37.77 
 
 226J 
 
 48.65 
 
 60 
 
 9.00 
 
 197J 
 
 22.14 
 
 2,588i 
 
 634. 86 
 
 2,572 
 
 641. 19 
 
 1, 616J 
 
 345. 68 
 
 2, 345J 
 
 346. 82 
 
 The total amount of wages paid for the years ending July 1, 1893, 
 and July 1, 1894, has been stated. 
 
 The above table is presented by the company. Some witnesses 
 swear that at times, for the work done in two weeks, the employees 
 received in checks from 4 cents to $1 over and above their rent, (a) The 
 company has not produced its checks in rebuttal. 
 
 During all of this reduction and its attendant suffering none of the 
 salaries of the officers, managers, or superintendents were reduced. (/>) 
 Reductions in these would not have been so severely felt, would have 
 shown good faith, Avould have relieved the harshness of the situation, 
 and would have evinced genuine sympathy with labor in the disasters 
 of the times. 
 
 «See testimony of Thomas \V. Heathcoate, qnestious 88, 107, and X08, 
 & Seo testimouy of George M. Pullman, questions 358 and 359. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. . XXXV 
 
 In its statements to the public, which are in evidence, the company 
 represents that its object in all it did was to continue operations for 
 the benefit of its workmen and of trades people in and about Pullman 
 and to save the public from the annoyance of interrupted travel. The 
 commission thinks that the evidence shows that it sought to keep run- 
 ning mainly for its own benefit as a manufacturer, that its plant might 
 not rust, that its competitors might not invade its territory, that it 
 might keep its cars in repair, that it might be ready for resumption 
 when business revived with a live plant and competent help, and that 
 its revenue from its tenements might continue, {a) 
 
 RENTS. 
 
 If we exclude the {esthetic and sanitary features at Pullman, the 
 rents there are from 20 to 25 per cent higher than rents in Chicago or 
 surrounding towns for similar accommodations.(&) The jesthetic features 
 are admired by visitors, but have little money value to employees, 
 especially when they lack bread. The company aims to secure 6 
 per cent upon the cost of its tenements, which cost includes a propor- 
 tionate share for paving, sewerage, water, parks, etc. It claims now 
 to receive less than 4 per cent. It has some brickmakers' cottages 
 upon which, at $8 per month, it must obtain at least 40 per cent 
 return u])on their value, (c) These are, however, exceptional. The com- 
 pany makes all repairs, and heretofore has not compelled tenants 
 to pay for them. Under the printed leases, however, which tenants 
 must sign, they agree to pay for all repairs which are either necessary 
 (ordinary wear and damages by the elements not excepted) or which 
 the company chooses to make. 
 
 The company's claim that the workmen need not hire its tenements 
 and can live elsewhere if they choose is not entirely tenable. The fear 
 of losing work keeps them in Pullman as long as there are tenements 
 unoccupied, because the company is supposed, as a matter of business, 
 to give a preference to its tenants when work is slack. The emjjloyees, 
 believing that a tenant at Pullman has this advantage, naturally feel 
 some compulsion to rent at Pullman, and thus to stand well with the 
 management, ((i) Exceptional and necessary expert workmen do not 
 share this feeling to the same extent and are more free to hire or 
 own homes elsewhere, {e) While reducing wages the company made no 
 
 a See testimony of George M. Pullman, questions 350 to 357. 
 
 Z*See testimony of Isaiah Campbell, questions 22 to 35 inclusive; testimony of 
 L. H. Johnson, questions 50 to 52; testimony of Duane Doty, questions 12 to 16; 
 testimony of Andrew W. Pearson; testimony of Rev. M. L. Wickman, questions 8 
 and 15. 
 
 cSee testimony of Duane Doty, questions 1, 2, 8 to 23, and 28 to 36 inclusive; tes- 
 timony of George M. Pullman, page 530; testimony of L. H. Johnson, questions 53 
 and 54. 
 
 d See testimony of Thomas W. Heathcoate, questions 75 and 76 ; testimony of Bev. 
 M. L. Wickman, questions 9 to 12 inclusive, and 21 and 22. 
 
 eSee testimony of Rev, M. L, Wickman, questions 12 and 13. 
 
XXXVI CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 reduction iu rents. Its position is that the two matters are distinct, 
 and that none of the reasons urged as justifying wage reduction by it 
 as an employer can be considered by the company as a landlord. 
 
 The company claims that it is simply legitimate business to use its 
 position and resources to hire in the labor market as cheaply as possi- 
 ble and at the same time to keep rents up regardless of what wages 
 are paid to its tenants or what similar tenements rent for elsewhere; to 
 avail itself to the full extent of business depression and competition in 
 reducing wages, and to disregard these same conditions as to rents. 
 No valid reason is assigned for this position except simply that the 
 company had the power and the legal right to do it. 
 
 Prior to the so-called "truck" law in Illinois, rent was deducted 
 from the wages. («) Since then a check is given for the amount of the 
 rent and another for the balance due for wages. (&) There is nothing 
 to prevent the payee of the check from cashing it outside of the bank, 
 but as the bank is rent collector it presses for the rent and is aided in 
 collecting it by knowledge on the part of the tenant that by arrears he 
 may lose his job. (c) At the time of the strike about $70,000 of unpaid 
 rents had accumulated, (r/) It is fair to say that this accumulation of 
 unpaid rent was due to leniency on the part of the company toward 
 those who could not pay the rent and support their families. Neither 
 have any actual evictions taken place. The company has held these 
 matters in abeyance pending wage reductions and strike difficulties. 
 
 SHOP ABUSES. 
 
 Shop abuses also played some part in the controversy. The employees 
 claimed that foremen were arbitrary and oppressive and mistreated the 
 men in various. ways, (e) It is likely that this arose largely from the 
 friction caused by wage reductions and the more stringent shop rules 
 needed to repress growing discontent. In times of depression the 
 oflBcers, directors, managers, superintendents, and foremen of large 
 corporations are forced by their representative positions to bear down 
 on labor with such weight, in order to protect stockholders against 
 loss, that labor becomes sore and sensitive in small matters that might 
 otherwise be overlooked. When these minor grievances were presented 
 to the management a sjjeedy investigation and correction were promised. 
 The investigation was promptly begun before the employees struck. 
 
 a See testimony of Edward F. Bryant, question 69. 
 
 6 See testimony of Edward F. Bryant, pages 515 and 516. 
 
 cSee testimony of Edward F. Bryant, pages 515 and 516; also questions 77 to 79 
 inclusive, and 140; also testimony of Thomas \V. Heathcoate, question 87. 
 
 dSee testimony of George W. Howard, in question 32; testimony of Thomas W. 
 Heathcoate, question 73; also testimony of Edward F. Bryant, questions 126 to 131 
 inclusive. 
 
 eSee testimony of R, "W. Coombs, question 27; testimony of H. O. Lindeblad, in 
 qaestiou 5, 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXXVII 
 
 THE STRIKE. 
 
 The reductions at Pullman after September, 1893, were the result of 
 couferences among the managers; the emxjloyees for the first time knew 
 of them when they took effect. No explanations or couferences took 
 place until May 7 and 9 in regard thereto between the employees and 
 the officers of the company. For the reasons stated the employees at 
 Pullman were during the winter in a state of chronic discontent, (a) 
 Upon May 7 and 9 a committee of 40 from all the departments waited 
 upon the management and urged the restoration of wages to the basis 
 of June, 1893. The company refused this, and offered no concession as 
 to wages whatever, maintaining and explaining that business condi- 
 tions did not justify any change. The company based its entire con- 
 tention as to every department upon the facts in reference to car build- 
 ing (&) to which we have alluded, and offered to show its books and figures 
 as to the cost and selling prices of cars. This offer, on account of the 
 strike intervening, was not acted upon. Had it been, it would have 
 resulted in the figures we have noted as to car-building contracts. 
 The purpose of the management was obviously to rest the whole matter 
 upon cost, etc., in its most seriously crippled department, excluding 
 from consideration the facts as to wages in the repair department, to 
 which we have alluded. 
 
 The demand of the employees for the wages of June, 1893, was clearly 
 unjustifiable. The business in May, 1894, could not pay the wages of 
 June, 1893. Eeductiou was carried to excess, but the company was 
 liardly more at fault therein than were the employees in insisting upon 
 the wages of June, 1893. There was little discussion as to rents, the 
 company maintaining that its rents had nothing to do with its wages 
 and that its revenue from its tenements was no greater than it ought 
 to receive. Miss Curtis testified as to this as follows : 
 
 We stated our grievances to Mr. Wickes and told him we wanted 
 our wages raised; he said it was impossible to raise them, as the com- 
 pany was losing money on its contracts and it could not possibly raise 
 our wages a cent. We then asked if they did not think they could lower 
 rents a little. He said, " No ; it was utterly impossible to lower the rents 
 one penny, as they were only receiving about 3 per cent on their 
 investment now, and were losing money on contracts just to enable 
 their men to have work." Mr. Wickes then appointed another inter- 
 view with us the following Wednesday, and we went down again and 
 saw Mr. Pullman; he said he could not raise our wages nor lower the 
 rents. 
 
 The company had a legal right to take this position, but as between 
 man and man the demand for some rent reduction was fair and reason- 
 
 rtSee testimony of Axel Lundgren, questions 4 to 12 inclusive; testimony ol Pull- 
 inaii employees generally; also statement of Pullman employees attached to testi- 
 mony of Sylvester Keliher. 
 
 fcSee pamphlet introduced by Thomas H. Wickes in his testimony, pages 578 to 
 586; testimony of George M. Pullman, question 45, etc.; see also note c, pagexxxiil. 
 
XXXVIII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 able under all the circum stances. Some slight concession in this regard 
 would probably have averted the strike, provided the promise not to 
 discharge men who served upon the committee had been more strictly- 
 regarded. 
 
 The next day, May 10, three of the committee were laid oft" by fore- 
 men for alleged lack of work, (o) not an unusual proceeding. Those who 
 made the promise had nothing to do with this action and deny knowl- 
 edge of it at the time. The foremen who did it are suspected by the 
 employees of concluding that some laying off of committeemen just at 
 that crisis would have a good effect and would accord with the policy 
 and general views of the company. The foremen, however, deny this. 
 This incident was inopportune and unfortunate, to say the least, and 
 ought to have been more carefully guarded against by the company. 
 An explanation of this occurrence was not asked for by the employees, 
 as it ought to have been, before striking. 
 
 On the evening of May 10 the local unions met and voted to strike 
 at once. The strike occurred on May 11, and from that time until the 
 soldiers went to Pullman, about July 4, three huudred strikers were 
 placed about the company's property, professedly to guard it from 
 destruction or interference. ' This guarding of property in strikes is, as 
 a rule, a mere pretense. Too often the real object of guards is to pre- 
 vent newcomers from taking strikers' places, by persuasion, often to 
 be followed, if ineffectual, by intimidation and violence. The Pullman 
 company claims this was the real object of these guards. The strikers 
 at Pullman are entitled to be believed to the contrary in this matter, 
 because of their conduct and forbearance after May 11. It is in evi- 
 dence, and uncontradicted, that no violence or destruction of property 
 by strikers or sympathizers took placeat Pullman, {b) and thatuntil July 
 3 no extraordinary protection was had from the police or military 
 against even anticiiiated disorder, (c) 
 
 Such dignified, manly, and conservative conduct in the midst of 
 exeiteuient and threatened starvation is worthy of the highest type of 
 American citizenship, and with like prudence in all other directions 
 will result in due time in the lawful and orderly redress of labor 
 wrongs. To deny this is to forswear patriotism and to declare this 
 Government and its people a failure. 
 
 As soon as the strike was declared the company laid off its 600 
 emi)loyees who did not join the strike, and kept its shoi)S closed until 
 August 2. During this period the Civic Federation of Chicago, com- 
 posed of eminent citizens in all kinds of business and from all grades 
 of respectable society, called upon the company twice to urge concili- 
 
 aSee testimony of George W. Howard, question 22; also statement of W. C. Phil- 
 pott in testimony of Thomas H. Wickes, page 587. 
 
 1) See testimony of Axel Lundgren, questions 41, 43, 46, and 47 ; also statement of 
 Thomas H. Wickes, page 591. 
 
 c See testimony of Thomas W. Heathcoate, page 417. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XXXIX 
 
 ation and arbitration. The company reiterated the statement of its 
 position, and maintained that tliere was nothing to arbitrate; that the 
 questions at issue were matters of fact and not proper subjects of 
 arbitration. The Civic Federation suggested that competition should 
 be regarded in rents as aycII as in wages. The company denied this. 
 Wages and rents were to it separate matters; tlie principles applicable 
 to one had no relation to the other. Later it gave the same answer to a 
 committee of its employees. Upon June 15 and 22 it declined to receive 
 any communication from committees of the American Railway Union, 
 one proposition of that body being that the comj)any select two arbitra- 
 tors, the court two, and these four a fifth, to determine Avhcther there 
 was anything to arbitrate. The company also refused to consider any , 
 arbitration at the solicitation of the common council of Chicago, and 
 repeated its stereotyped answer that there was nothing to arbitrate 
 when appealed to by Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, himself a large manu- 
 facturer, whom Mayor Hopkins accompanied to Pullman. At that 
 interview Mayor Pingree claimed to have telegrams from the mayors 
 of over fifty of the largest cities, urging that there should be arbitra- 
 tion. 
 
 RAILROAD STRIKE. 
 
 Between June 9 and June 2G a regular convention of the American 
 Eailway Union was held with open doors at Chicago, representing 465 
 local unions and about 150,000 members, as claimed. The Pullman 
 matter was i)ublicly discussed at these meetings before and after its 
 committees above mentioned reported their interview s with the Pull- 
 man company. On June 21 the delegates, under instructions from 
 their local unions, unanimously voted that the members of the union 
 should stop handling Pullman cars on June 26 unless the Pullman 
 company would consent to arbitration. On June 26 the boycott and 
 strike began. The strike on the part of the railroad employees was a 
 sympathetic one. No grievances against the railroads had been pre- 
 sented by their employees, nor did the American Eailway Union declare 
 any such grievances to be any cause whatever of the strike. To simply 
 boycott Pullman cars would have been an incongruous step for the 
 remedy of complaints of railroad employees. Throughout the strike the 
 strife was simply over handling Pullman cars, the men being ready to 
 do their duty otherwise. («) The contracts between the railroads and 
 the Pullman company as to Pullman cars created such close relations 
 between them as to increase the natural sympathy of organization 
 between the members of the American Eailway Union ui)on railroads 
 and their brothers at Pullman. It is also apparent that the readiness 
 
 a See testimony of Eugene V. Debs, questions 29 and 74; preamble and resolution 
 of General Managers' Association, adopted June 25, 1894, in testimony of E. St. John ; 
 testimony of George W. Howard, question 100; testimony of Frank T. McDonald, 
 question 14. Other witnesses on behalf of employees give testimony of a like char- 
 acter. 
 
XL CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 to strike sympathetically was promoted by the disturbed and apprehen- 
 sive condition of railroad employees resulting from wage reductions on 
 different lines, blacklisting, etc., and from the recent growth and develop- 
 ment of the General Managers' Association, which seemed to them a 
 menace, {a) Hence therailroad employees were ripe to espouse thecause 
 of the Pullman strikers. In some instances they struck in disregard 
 of existing contracts between their different organizations and the rail- 
 roads, notably upon the Illinois Central. They evaded the responsi- 
 bility of their organizations for this conduct by claiming to act as 
 individuals. They justified themselves under the idea of balancing 
 wrongs. 
 
 After June 26 the officers and. agents of the union managed and 
 urged on the strike at every available point upon the railroads center- 
 ing at "Chicago until it reached proportions far in excess of their 
 original anticipations, and led to disorders beyond even their control. 
 Urgent solicitations and appeals to strike and to stand firm continued 
 in the many public meetings held each day in and about Chicago, and 
 appear in the telegrams sent about the country. 
 
 On July 7 the principal officers of the American Eailway Union were 
 indicted, arrested, and held under $10,000 bail. Upon July 13 they 
 were attached for contempt of the United States court in disobeying 
 an injunction issued on July 2 and served on the 3d and 4th, enjoining 
 them, among other things, from compelling, or inducing by threats, 
 intimidation, persuasion, force, or violence, railroad employees to refuse 
 or fail to perform their duties. It is seriously questioned, and with 
 much force, whether courts have jurisdiction to enjoin citizens from 
 "persuading" (&) each other in industrial or other matters of common 
 interest. However, it is generally recognized among good citizens 
 that a mandate of a court is to be obeyed until it is modified and cor- 
 rected by the court that issued it. 
 
 ACTION OF FEDERATED UNIONS. 
 
 Upon July 12, at the request of the American Railway Union, about 
 25 of the executive oflicers of national and international labor unions 
 affiliated with the American Federation of Labor met at Chicago. The 
 situation was laid before them. The conference concluded that the 
 strike was then lost; that a general sympathetic strike throughout the 
 country would be unwise and inexpedient, and, at the time, against the 
 best interests of labor. This conference issued a strong and temperate 
 address to members, expressing sympathy with the purposes of the 
 American Eailway Union, advising those on strike to return to work, 
 and urging that labor organize more generally, combine more closely, 
 and seek the correction of industrial evils at the ballot box. To some 
 
 ttSee testimony of Eugene V. Debs, pages 132 to 134. 
 
 b See decision of Mr. Justice Harlan in re I\ M. Arthur et al. v. Thomas F. Oakes et 
 al. in the circuit court of the eastern district of Wisconsin, October 1, 1894. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XLI 
 
 extent the trade unions of Chicago had struck in sympathy, but this 
 movement was checked by the action of the conference of the 12th and 
 extended no farther. This action indicates clearer views by labor as 
 to its responsibilities, the futility of strikes, and the appropriate 
 remedies in this country for labor wrongs. 
 
 Upon July 13 the American Kailway Union, through the mayor of 
 Chicago, sent a communication to the General Managers' Association 
 offering to declare the strike off. provided the men should be restored 
 to their former positions without prejudice, except in cases where they 
 had been convicted of crime. The General Managers' Association in 
 advance advertised that it would receive no communication whatever 
 from the American Railway Union, and when received returned it 
 unanswered. With reference to this, John M. Egan, strike manager of 
 the General Managers' Association, testified as follows : 
 
 A few days later I was out of the office for awhile, and on my return 
 I found the mayor and Alderman McGillen talking to Mr. St. John. 
 I went into the room and Mr. St. John told me the mayor had come 
 there with a letter signed by the officers of the American Kailway 
 Union. I told the mayor I thought he should not have permitted him- 
 self to be a messenger boy for those parties, and that I further consid- 
 ered that the General Managers' Association should not receive any 
 such document. The document w^as left there, and during the after- 
 noon I was requested to take the document back to the mayor. 1 
 endeavored to find him, but found he had gone to Kensington. I 
 endeavored to reach him by telephone, but, as it was growing late and 
 1 could not locate him, I took the document back to the city hall and 
 gave it to the chief of police, with the request that he place it on the 
 ii'.ayor's desk, so he would receive it early the next morning. I wrote 
 a letter in which I stated to the mayor that the General Managers* 
 Association did not consider they should receive any such document. 
 On my return to the office I was able to locate the mayor at Kensing- 
 ton, but they told me he had retired for the night, but I telegraphed 
 the contents of the letter, with a request to the party who received it 
 that he deliver it to the mayor that night. That is all I know about 
 any overtures. 
 
 Q. 18, Was there anything in the document itself that was offensive 
 or insulting to you? — Ans. The document was printed in the papers 
 that afternoon and the next morning, and I think it speaks for itself. 
 
 Q. 19. Did you consider it offensive or insulting? — Ans. I considered 
 that any party who attacked railway companies as the American Rail- 
 way Union had done, and were whipped, as I considered they were, it 
 was displaying considerable cheek to dictate the terms of their surrender. 
 
 Q. 20. You do not answer my question; I asked you if there was any- 
 thing in the document itself that was offensive or insulting to youf — 
 Ans. I don't know as I would be the judge of that. 
 
 Q. 21. What is your opinion about it? — Ans. I have not the authority 
 to say whether it was insulting to the general managers or anything 
 of that kind. 
 
 Q. 22. Did you return it on that account, because the terms of the 
 document were offensive or insulting to you or to the managers? — 
 Ans. Well, the managers requested it to be returned. 
 
 Q. 23. Was that the reason you returned it? — Ans. That was the 
 reason I returned it; yes, sir. , 
 
XLII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 Q. 24. Is it Dot a fact that instead of being offensive in its character 
 so far as the composition was concerned, it was a document courteously 
 composed and looking toward the settlement of a great and destructive 
 strike that was then in progress? — Ans. Well, as I said, the document 
 speaks for itself. I considered that the matter was settled then, prac- 
 tically. 
 
 In reply to this Mayor Hopkins testified : 
 
 I want to say in this connection that the papers quote Mr. Egan as 
 saying in his testimony tliat he told the mayor lie should not be a jnes- 
 senger boy for those men. I want to say emphatically that Mr. Egan 
 never said that to me; I don't think I would have allowed him to say it. 
 
 At this date, July 13, and for some days previous, the strikers had been 
 virtually beaten. The action of the courts deprived the American Rail- 
 way Union of leadership, («) enabled the General Managers' Association 
 to disintegrate its forces, and to make inroads into its ranks. The mobs 
 had worn out their fury, or had succumbed to the combined forces of the 
 police, the United States troops and marshals, and the State militia. 
 The railroads were gradually repairing damages and resuming traffic 
 with the aid of new men and with some of those strikers who had not 
 been offensively active or whose action was laid to intimidation and 
 fear. At this juncture the refusal of the General Managers' Asso- 
 ciation to treat with the American Railway Union was certainly not 
 conciliatory; it was not unnatural, however, because the association 
 charged the American Railway Union with having inaugurated an 
 unjustifiable strike, laid at its door the respousibility for all the disor- 
 der and destruction that had occurred, and, as the victor in the fight, 
 desired that the lesson taught to labor by its defeat should be well 
 learned. 
 
 Tlie policy of both the Pullman company and the Railway Managers' 
 Association in reference to applications to arbitrate closed the door to 
 all attempts at conciliation and settlement of ditferences. The com- 
 mission is impressed with the belief, by the evidence and by the 
 attendant circumstances as disclosed, that a different policy would 
 have prevented the loss of life and great loss of property and wages 
 occasioned by the strike. 
 
 ACTION OF THE GENERAL MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION (h). 
 
 On June 22 an officer of the Pullman company met the general man- 
 agers by invitation, and the general managers, among other things, 
 resolved : 
 
 That we hereby declare it to be the lawful right and duty of said 
 railway companies to protest against said proposed boycott; to resist 
 the same in the interest of their existing contracts, and for the benefit 
 of the traveling public, and that we will act unitedly to that end. 
 
 a See testimony of Eugene V, Debs, questions 77 and 78. 
 
 h See testimony of E. St. .John, page 250, as to resolution above quoted; as to the 
 association generally, see testimony of E. St. John, pages 241 to 260; also see testi- 
 mony of John M. Egan, commencing on page 269. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XLIII 
 
 From June 22 until the practical end of tbe strike the General Man- 
 agers' Association directed and controlled the contest on the part of the 
 railroads, using the combined resources of all the roads to sui^port the 
 contentions and insure the protection of each. On June 20 we find in 
 the proceedings of the association the following statement: 
 
 A general discussion of the situation followed. It was suggested 
 that some common plan of action ought to be adopted in case employees 
 refused to do switching of passenger trains with Pullman cars, but were 
 willing to continue allot their other work, and it was the general expres- 
 sion that in case any man refused to do his duty he would be discharged. 
 
 Headquarters were established ; agencies for hiring men opened ; as 
 the men arrived they were cared for and assigned to duty upon the 
 different lines : a bureau was started to furnish information to the press ; 
 the lawyers of the different roads were called into conference and com- 
 bination in legal and criminal proceedings; the general managers met 
 daily to hear reports and to direct proceedings; constant communica- 
 tion was kept up with the civil and military authorities as to the move- 
 ments and assignments of police, marshals, and troops, {a) Each road did 
 what it could with its operating forces, but all the leadership, direction, 
 and concentration of power, resources, and influence on the part of the 
 railroads were centered in the General Managers' Association. That 
 association stood for each and all of its 24 combined members, and all 
 that they could command, in fighting and crushing the strike. 
 
 VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION OF PKOPERTY AND MILITARY PRO- 
 CEEDINGS. 
 
 The figures given as to losses, fatalities, destruction of property, and 
 arrests for crime tell the story of violence, intimidation, and mob rule 
 better than it can be described. Chicago is a vast metropolis, the cen- 
 ter of an activity and growth unprecedented in history, and combining 
 all that this implies. Its lawless elements are at present augmented 
 by shiftless adventurers and criminals attracted to it by the Expo- 
 sition and impecuniously stranded in its midst. In the mobs were also 
 actively present many of a certain class of objectionable foreigners, who 
 are being precipitated upon us by unrestricted immigration. ISTo more 
 dangerous place for such a strike could be chosen. 
 
 The strike, as a strike and as is usual with strikes, presented an 
 opportunity to these elements to burn and plunder, and to violate the 
 laws and ordinances of the city, State, and nation. Superintendent of 
 Police Brennan swears as follows : 
 
 On the 26th of June the mayor directed me to use the whole police 
 force in preserving the peace, protecting property, and i^reventing vio- 
 lence, and from that time on until the arrival of the troops I think I suc- 
 ceeded pretty well. So far as I understand, there had not been very 
 much violence or depredations committed prior to the 3d of July, when 
 
 a See testimony of .Johu M. Egan, question 4. 
 
XLIV CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 the troops arrived. At that time the indications looJced bad and the 
 arrival of the troops, I think, was opportune. 
 
 Q. 7. Why do you say the situation was threatening then? — Ans. At 
 that time my police force had been on duty constantly for nine or ten 
 days and the calls from the railway companies were so numerous and 
 became so frequent that it more than absorbed the whole police depart- 
 ment to supply all calls and demands. I had, at that time, 3,000 or 3,100 
 men in service, and every one of them was engaged in that particular 
 business of preventing violence. 
 
 Q. 8. Did you have to keep pait of that force in other portions of the 
 city? — Ans. Yes, sir; this trouble extended all over the city; this city 
 ispractically a network of railways, and the territory being quite large— 
 about 195 square miles, I believe — and to cover that territory, which is 
 tilled with railway tracks, yards, towers, switch houses, and freight 
 houses, it can readily be seen that it would absorb the whole police 
 force. 
 
 This appears to be a correct statement of the situation prior to July 
 3. The police force of Chicago, including tlie reserves, is not more 
 than sufficient for the protection of the city under normal conditions, 
 and it was during the strike placed under excessive and unusual strain. 
 As a body, the police were courageous and efficient. We have in the 
 evidence the authority of railroads for this statement. Some railroads 
 charged the police with inefficiency and with failing to discharge their 
 duties through sympathy with strikers. These charges have not been 
 proved. The mayor directed suspension and discharge for any such 
 cause, and some suspensions occurred on charges, but investigation dis- 
 closed no evidence to sustain them. The disorders at Blue Island were 
 outside the city of Chicago. Appropriate orders for the police to coop- 
 erate with the troops were issued. That policemen sympathized with 
 strikers rather than with the corporations can not be doubted, nor 
 would it be surprising to find the same sentiment rife among the mili- 
 tary. These forces are largely recruited from the laboring classes. 
 Indeed, the danger is growing that in strike wars between corporations 
 and employees, military duty will ultimately have to be done by others 
 than volunteers from labor ranks. 
 
 The military and police confined themselves to their duty of arrest- 
 ing criminals, dispersing mobs, and guarding property. United States 
 deputy marshals, to the number of 3,600, were selected by and appointed 
 at request of the General Managers' Association, and of its railroads, {a) 
 They were armed and paid by the railroads, and acted in the double 
 capacity of railroad employees and United States officers. While oper- 
 ating the railroads they assumed and exercised unrestricted United 
 States authority when so ordered by their employers, or whenever they 
 regarded it as necessary. They were not under the direct control of 
 any Government official while exercising authority. This is placing 
 
 a See testimony of John M. Egau, questions 4, and 8 to 12 inclusive; testimony of 
 E. St. John, page 233; testimony of Deputy United States Marshal Donnelly, ques- 
 tions 2 to 7 inclusive, and 22 to 28 inclusive. 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XLV 
 
 officers of the Government under control of a combination of railroads. 
 It is a bad precedent, that might well lead to serious consequences. 
 
 There is no evidence before the commission that the ofticers of the 
 American Eailway Union at any time participated in or advised intimi- 
 dation, violence, or destruction of property. They knew and fully 
 appreciated that as soon as mobs ruled the organized forces of society 
 would crush the mobs and all responsible for them in the remotest 
 degree, and that this meant defeat. The attacks upon corporations 
 and monopolies by the leaders in their speeches are similar to those to 
 be found in the magazines and industrial works of the day. 
 
 Much stress has been laid upon the following dispatch, which Mr. 
 Debs denies sending. It went, however, from the headquarters of the 
 union, and that body is responsible for whatever it means: 
 
 Chicago, July 5, 1894. 
 To CouRTHEAD, Soutli Butte, Mont: 
 
 The G. M. are weakening. If strike not settled in forty-eight hours 
 complete paralysis will follow. Potatoes and ice out of sight. Save 
 your money and buy a gun. 
 
 E. V. Debs. 
 
 The union insists that a young clerk named Benedict sent this dis- 
 patch to a friend; that the expression "buy a gun" was one used 
 between them and had no reference to the strike. Nothing like this 
 is found elsewhere among the dispatches before the commission. 
 
 The participation of strikers in riotous proceedings is another and 
 more serious matter. As to this, the commission has before it not 
 only the evidence of parties interested for or against the strikers, but 
 a vast amount of testimony from disinterested sources. Among these 
 are the mayor and the officials of the police and fire departments of 
 Chicago and the reporters of the newspapers of that city representing 
 all shades of opinion as to the strike question. These latter witnesses 
 were in the midst of the occurrences from day to day and observed 
 events with keenly trained faculties. From this testimony it is fair 
 to conclude that strikers were concerned in the outrages against law 
 and order, although the number was undoubtedly small as compared 
 with the whole number out. The strikers' experience and training 
 were to be seen in the spiking and misplacing of switches, removing 
 rails, crippling of interlocking systems, the detaching, side tracking, 
 and derailing of cars and engines, placing of coupling pins in engine 
 machinery, blockading tracks with cars, and attempts to detach and 
 run in mail cars. The commission is of opinion that offenses of this 
 character, as well as considerable threatening and intimidation of those 
 taking strikers' places, were committed or instigated by strikers. 
 
 The mobs that took possession of railroad yards, tracks, and cross- 
 ings after July 3, and that stoned, tipped over, burned, and destroyed 
 cars and stole their contents, were, by general concurrence in the tes- 
 timony, composed generally of hoodlums, women, a low class of for- 
 
XLVI CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 eigners, and recruits from the criminal classes. Few strikers were 
 recognized or arrested in these mobs, which were without leadership, 
 and seemed simply bent upon plunder and destruction. They gathered 
 wherever opportunity offered for their dastardly work, and, as a rule, 
 broke and melted away when force faced them. In the view that this 
 railroad strike was wrong; that such mobs are well known to be inci- 
 dental to strikes, and are thereby given an excuse and incentive to 
 gather and to commit crime, the responsibility rests largely with the 
 American Eailway Union; otherwise that association, its leaders, and 
 a very large majority of the railroad men on strike are not shown to 
 have had any connection therewith. Labor advocates contend that 
 strikes are the last resort; that they are the industrial war measures 
 of labor to assert and obtain the rights which humanity, morality, and 
 changed conditions demand; that labor can not otherwise arouse inter- 
 est in its demands, and that, hence, labor is no more responsible for the 
 public disorders and calamities that attend strikes than are the employ- 
 ers who provoke them. Many impartial observers are reaching the 
 view that much of the real responsibility for these disorders rests with 
 the people themselves and with the Government for not adequately 
 controlling monopolies and corporations, and for failing to reasonably 
 protect the rights of labor and redress its wrongs. None assert that 
 laws can completely remedy contentions as to wages, etc., but many do 
 insist that something substantial can be accomplished in this direction 
 if attempted honestly, reasonably, and in good faith. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 The commission has tried to find the drift of public opinion as to strikes, 
 boycotts, and labor disputes upon railroads, and to find their remedy. 
 The invitation freely extended in this direction has brought before the 
 commission many expressions of views, orally and by written communi- 
 cations. A condensation of these latter is presented with this report. 
 In reaching its conclusions the commission has endeavored, after care- 
 ful consideration, to give due weight to the many suggestions and argu- 
 ments jjresented. It is encouraging to find general concurrence, even 
 among labor leaders, in condemning strikes, boycotts, and lockouts as 
 barbarisms unfit for the intelligence of this age, and as, economically con- 
 sidered, very injurious and destructive forces. Whether won or lost is 
 broadly immaterial. They are war — internecine war — and call for prog- 
 ress to a higher plane of education and intelligence in adjusting the rela- 
 tions of capital and labor. These barbarisms waste the products of both 
 capital and labor, defy law and order, disturb society, intimidate capi- 
 tal, convert industrial paths where there ought to be plenty into high- 
 ways of poverty and crime, bear as their fruit the arrogant flush of 
 victory and the humiliating sting of defeat, and lead to preparations 
 for greater and more destructive conflicts. Since nations have grown 
 to the wisdom of avoiding disputes by conciliation, and even of settling 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XLVII 
 
 them by arbitration, why should capital and labor in their dependence 
 upon each other persist in cuttiug each other's throats as a settlement of 
 differences ? Official reports show that much progress has been made in 
 the more sane direction of conciliation and arbitration even in America. 
 Abroad they are in advance of us in this policy. Were our population 
 as dense and opportunities as limited as abroad, present industrial 
 conditions would keep us much more disturbed than we now are by 
 contests between capital and labor. 
 
 In England, prior to 1824, it was conspiracy and felony for labor to 
 unite for purposes now regarded there by all classes as desirable for 
 the safety of the Government, of capital, and for the protection of the 
 rights of labor. All industrial labor is there, as a rule, covered by 
 unions trained to greater conservatism through many disastrous con- 
 flicts under harsh conditions and surroundings. Capital abroad pre- 
 fers to deal with these unions rather than Avith individuals or mobs, 
 and from their joint efforts in good faith at conciliation and arbitra- 
 tion much good and many peaceful days have resulted. In fifteen of 
 our States arbitration in various forms is now provided bylaw; the 
 United States and eleven States have sanctioned labor organizations 
 by statute. Some of our courts, however, are still poring over the law 
 reports of antiquity in order to construe conspiracy out of labor unions. 
 We also have employers who obstruct progress by perverting and mis- 
 applying the law of supply and demand, and who, while insisting upon 
 individualism for workmen, demand that they shall be let alone to 
 combine as they please and that society and all its forces shall protect 
 them in their resulting contentions. 
 
 The general sentiment of employers, shared in by some of the most 
 prominent railroad representatives we have heard, is now favorable to 
 organization among employees, {a) It results in a clearer presentation 
 and calmer discussion of differences, instils mutual respect and forbear- 
 ance, brings out the essentials, and eliminates misunderstandings and 
 immaterial matters. To an ordinary observer, argument to sustain the 
 justice and necessity of labor unions and unity of action by laborers is 
 superfluous. 
 
 The rapid concentration of power and wealth, under stimulating legis- 
 lative conditions, in persons, corporations, and monopolies has greatly 
 changed the business and industrial situation. Our railroads were 
 chartered upon the theory that their competition would amply protect 
 shippers as to rates, etc., and employees as to wages and other conditions. 
 Combination has largely destroyed this theory, and has seriously dis- 
 turbed the natural working of the laws of supply and demand, which, 
 in theory, are based upon competition for labor between those who 
 " demand" it as well as among those who supply it. The interstate 
 commerce act and railroad-commission legislation m over thirty States 
 are simply efforts of the people to free themselves from the results of 
 
 testimony of Albert W, SuUivau, questjous 42 to 52 inclusive. 
 
XLVIII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 this destruction of competition by combination. Labor is likewise 
 affected by this progressive combination. While competition among 
 railroad employers of labor is gradually disappearing, competition 
 among those who supply labor goes on with increasing severity. 
 For instance, as we have shown, there is no longer any competitive 
 demand among the 24 railroads at Chicago for switchmen. They have 
 ceased competing with each other; they are no longer 24 sepajrate and 
 competing employers; they are virtually one. To be sure, this combi- 
 nation has not covered the whole field of labor supply as yet, but it is 
 constantly advancing in that direction. Competition for switchmen's 
 labor still continues with outside employers, among whom, again, we 
 find a like tendency to eliminate competitive demand for labor by 
 similar combination. In view of this progressive perversion of the laws 
 of supply and demand by capital and changed conditions, no man can 
 ■well deny the right nor dispute the wisdom of unity for legislative and 
 protective purposes among those who supply labor. 
 
 However men may differ about the propriety and legality of labor 
 unions, we must all recognize the fact that we have them with us to 
 stay and to grow more numerous and powerful. Is it not wise to fully 
 recognize them by law; to admit their necessity as labor guides and 
 protectors, to conserve their usefulness, increase their responsibility, 
 and to prevent their follies and aggressions by conferring upon them 
 the privileges enjoyed by corporations, with like proper restrictions and 
 regulations? The growth of corporate power and wealth has been the 
 marvel of the past fifty years. Corporations have undoubtedly bene- 
 fited the country and brought its resources to our doors. It will not be 
 surprising if the marvel of the next fifty years be the advancement of 
 labor to a position of like power and responsibility. We have hereto- 
 fore encouraged the one and comparatively neglected the other. Does 
 not wisdom demand that each be encouraged to prosper legitimately 
 and to grow into harmonious relations of equal standing and responsi- 
 bility before the law? This involves nothing hostile to the true inter- 
 ests and rights of either. 
 
 A broad range of remedies is presented to the commission as to the 
 best means of adjusting these controversies, such as Government con- 
 trol or ownership of railroads; compulsory arbitration ; licensing of 
 employees; the single-tax theory; restriction of immigration and exclu- 
 sion of pauper labor; protection of American industries; monetary 
 legislation; suppression of trusts and combinations; written contracts 
 requiring due notice of discharge by employers and of leaving service 
 by employees; United States labor commission to investigate and fix 
 hours of labor, rates of wages, etc.; a fixed labor unit; authority to 
 courts to settle these questions; insurance departments and pensiouing 
 of employees ; fixing hours of labor and minimum rates of wages by 
 statute; change in law of liability of master to servant; and various 
 suggestions for relief, outside of my legislative action, through educa- 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. XLIX 
 
 tional methods tending to the inculcation of mutual forbearance and 
 just consideration of each other's rights in the premises. 
 
 The commission deems recommendations of specific remedies prema- 
 ture. Such a problem, for instance, as universal Government owner- 
 ship of railroads is too vast, many-sided, and far away, if attempted, to 
 be considered as an immediate, practical remedy. It belongs to the 
 socialistic group of public questions where Government ownership is 
 advocated of monopolies, such as telegraphs, telephones, express com- 
 panies, and municipal ownership of waterworks, gas and electric 
 lighting, and street railways. These questions are pressing more 
 urgently as time goes on. They need to be well studied and consid- 
 ered in every aspect by all citizens. Should continued combinations 
 and consolidations result in half a dozen or less ownerships of our rail- 
 roads within a few years, as is by no means unlikely, the question of 
 Government ownership will be forced to the front, and we need to be 
 ready to dispose of it intelligently. As combination goes on there 
 will certainly at least have to be greater Government regulation and 
 control of quasi-public corporations than we have now. 
 
 Whenever a nation or a state finds itself in such relation to a rail- 
 road that its investments therein must be either lost or protected by 
 ownership, would it not be wise that the road betaken and the experi- 
 ment be tried as an object lesson in Government ownership? The 
 Massachusetts Railroad Commission, which is noted for its eminent 
 services as a conservative pioneer in the direction of Government con- 
 trol of railroads through the force of public opinion, for several years 
 urged that the experiment of State ownership be tried with the Fitch- 
 burg system, because of the large State investment in the Hoosac Tun- 
 nel. We need to fear everything revolutionary and wrong, but we 
 need fear nothing that any nation can successfully attempt in direc- 
 tions made necessary by changed economic or industrial conditions. 
 Other nations under their conditions own and operate telegraphs and 
 railroads with varying results. Whether it is practicable for this 
 nation to do so successfully when it becomes necessary to save an 
 investment or when the people determine it shall be done, is an open 
 and serious question which can not be answered fully except by actual 
 experiment. 
 
 We ought now to inaugurate a permanent system of investigation 
 into the relations between railroads and employees in order to prepare 
 to deal with them intelligently, and that we may conservatively adopt 
 such remedies as are sustained by public opinion for defects or wrongs 
 that may from time to time appear. In the long contest between ship- 
 pers and railroads penal and specific legislation proved inadequate. 
 The lessons of this period of legislation need to be well remembered 
 by labor. Hasty, revcHgeful, and retaliatory legislation injures every 
 interest, benefits nobody, and can not long be entorced. 
 
 The question of the right of Congress to legislate in regard to the 
 S. Ex. 7 IV 
 
L CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 conditions of employment and service upon railroads engaged in inter- 
 state commerce is a most important one, and the right seems by analogy 
 bo exist. Similar power as to rates, discriminations, poolings, etc., has 
 been exercised in the act to regulate commerce, and has been sus- 
 tained by the courts. The position of railroads as quasi-public cor- 
 porations subjects them and their employees to this power, and imposes 
 its exercise upon Congress as a duty, whenever necessary for the 
 protection of the people. The question of what shall be done is there- 
 fore one of expediency and not of power. When railroads acted as 
 udge and jury in passing upon the complaints of shippers, the people 
 demanded and Congress granted a Government tribunal where ship- 
 pers and railroads could meet on equal terms and have the law adjust 
 their difierences. In view of the Chicago strike and its suggested 
 dangers, the people have the same right to provide a Government com- 
 mission to investigate and report upon differences between railroads and 
 their employees, to the end that interstate commerce and public order may 
 be less disturbed by strikes and boycotts. Public opinion, enlightened 
 by the hearings before such a commission, will do much toward settling 
 many difficulties with out strikes, and in strikes will intelligently sustain 
 the side of right and justice and often compel reasonable adjust- 
 ments. Experience, however, has taught that public opinion is not 
 alone powerful enough to control railroads. Hence power to review and 
 enforce the just and lawful decisions of the commission against rail- 
 roads ought to be vested in the United States courts. There can be no 
 valid objection to this when we bear in mind that we are now dealing 
 simply with quasi-public corporations and not with either individuals 
 or private corporations. What is safe and proper as to the former 
 might be unsafe and unjust for the latter. That which is done under 
 the act to regulate commerce as to rates can safely and ought properly 
 to be done as to railroad wages, etc., by a commission and the courts. 
 
 Some stability and time for conciliation and amicable adjustment of 
 disi)utes can also be secured by providing that labor unions shall not 
 strike pending hearings which they seek; and that railroads shall not 
 discharge men except for cause during hearings, and for a reasonable 
 time thereafter. A provision may well be added requiring employees 
 during the same period to give thirty days' notice of quitting and for- 
 bidding their unions from ordering or advising otherwise. 
 
 Many assert with force that no law can be justly devised to compel 
 employers and employees to accept the decisions of tribunals in wage 
 disputes. It is insisted that while the employer can readily be made 
 to pay under an arbitration decision more than is or than he thinks is 
 right, the employee can not practically be made to work. He can quit, 
 or at least force his discharge, when the decision gives him less than 
 he demands. Hence nothing reciprocal can be devised, and without 
 that element it is urged that nothing just cau be enacted of a compul- 
 sory nature. This may be true in general industries, but it has less 
 
CHICAGO STRIKE. LI 
 
 weight as between railroads and their labor. Railroads have not the 
 inherent rights of employers engaged in private business; they are 
 creatures of the state, whose rights are conferred upon them for public 
 purposes, and, hence, the right and duty of Government to compel them 
 to do in every respect what public interest demands are clear and free 
 from embarrassment. It is certainly for the public interest that rail- 
 roads shall not abandon transportation because of labor disputes, and, 
 therefore, it is the duty of the Government to have them accept the 
 decision of its tribunals, even though complete reciprocal obligations 
 can not be imposed upon labor. The absence of such reciprocal obli- 
 gations would rarely affect railroads unjustly, if we regard the question 
 in a practical light. 
 
 Railroad employment is attractive and is sought for. There has 
 never been a time in the history of railroads when men did not stand 
 ready to fill a labor vacancy at the wages fixed by the roads. The 
 number is constantly increasing. If railroads can thus always get the 
 men that they need at what they offer, is there any doubt that the 
 supply will be ample at any rates fixed by a commission and the courts? 
 A provision as to notice of quitting, after a decision, would be ample 
 to enable railroads to fill vacancies caused in their labor departments 
 by dissatisfaction with decisions. To go further, under present con- 
 ditions, at least, in coercing employees to obey tribunals in selling their 
 labor would be a dangerous encroachment upon the inherent, inaliena- 
 ble right to work or quit, as they please. 
 
 When railroad employees secure greater certainty of their positions 
 and of the right to promotion, compensation for injury, etc., it will be 
 time enough to consider such strict regulation for them as we can now 
 justly apply to railroads, whose rights are protected by laws and 
 guarded by all the advantages of greater resources and more concen- 
 trated control. 
 
 In solving these questions, corporations seldom aid the efforts of the 
 people or their legislators. Fear of change and the threatened loss of 
 some power invariably make them obstructionists. They do not desire 
 to be dealt with by any legislation ; they simply want to be let alone, 
 confident in their ability to protect themselves. Whatever is right to 
 be done by statutes must be done by the people for their own protec- 
 tion, and to meet the just demand that railroad labor shall have public 
 and impartial hearing of all grievances. 
 
 The commission does not pretend to present a specific solution of these 
 questions. Its effort is simply to present the facts; to point out that 
 the relations of cai)ital and labor are so disturbed as to urgently demand 
 the attention of all thinking and patriotic citizens; to suggest a 
 line of search for practical remedial legislation which may be followed 
 with safety, and, finally, to urge and invite labor and railroads to hearty 
 cooperation with the Government and the people in efforts to substi- 
 tute law and reason in labor disputes for the dangers, sufferings, 
 
LII CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 uncertainties, and widespread calamities incident to strikes, boy- 
 cotts, and lockouts. 
 
 To secure prompt and efficient data for the formation of correct 
 j)ublic sentiment in accordance with this line of thought, the commission 
 contends that law should make it obligatory upon some public tribunal 
 promptly to intervene by means of investigation and conciliation, and 
 to report whenever a difficulty of the character of that occurring dur- 
 ing the past season at Chicago arises. This intervention should be 
 provided for, first, when the tribunal is called upon to interfere by 
 both of the parties involved; second, when called upon by either of the 
 parties, and, third, when in its own judgment it sees fit to intervene. 
 The proper tribunal should have the right, in other words, to set 
 itself in motion, and rapidly, too, whenever in its Judgment the public 
 is sustaining serious inconvenience. If the public can only be edu- 
 cated out of the belief that force is and must always remain the basis 
 of the settlement of every industrial controversy, the problem becomes 
 simplified. A tribunal, however, should not intervene in mere quar- 
 rels between employer and employed, unless the public peace or con- 
 venience is involved; but where it is a clear case of public obstruction, 
 whether caused by individuals or by a corporation, a tribunal should 
 not wait until called on by outside agencies to act. All parties 
 concerned should be notified that the tribunal proposes, upon a 
 certain day — and the earlier the day the better — to be at a given 
 place, there to look into the cause of the trouble, to adjust the difficul- 
 ties by conciliation, if possible, and, in the event of failure, to fix the 
 responsibility for the same. Proceeding in this way the report of such 
 a commission would cause public opinion promptly to settle the ques- 
 tion, or, at least, to fix the responsibility where it belonged, and to 
 render successful opposition to the conclusions reached an improba- 
 bility. To carry out this idea involves no complicated legislation. 
 
 As authorized by statute, the commission has decided upon certain 
 recommendations and certain suggestions, growing out of its study of 
 the Chicago strike and boycott. These recommendations and sugges- 
 tions are upon three lines: First, for Congressional action; second, for 
 State action; and third, for the action of corporations and labor organ- 
 izations. It readily sees the impropriety to a certain extent of making 
 any recommendation for State action, yet feels it a duty, as a result 
 of its investigations, to make such suggestions as will enable citizens 
 interested in State legislation to benefit by its experience, and also to 
 make such suggestions to corporations and labor organizations as shall 
 tend to harmonize some of the existing difficulties. The commission 
 therefore recommends : 
 
 I. 
 
 (1) That there be a permanent United States strike commission 
 of three members, with duties and powers of investigation and 
 recommendation as to disputes between railroads and their employees 
 
CHICAGO STEIKE. LIII 
 
 similar to those vested in the Interstate Commerce Commission as to 
 rates, etc. 
 
 a. That, as in the interstate commerce act, power be given to the 
 United States courts to compel raihoads to obey the decisions of the 
 commission, after summary hearing unattended by technicalities, and 
 that no delays in obejdng the decisions of the commission be allowed 
 pending appeals. 
 
 ft. That, whenever the parties to a controversy in a matter within the 
 jurisdiction of the commission are one or more railroads upon one side 
 and one or more national trade unions, incorporated under chapter 567 
 of the United States Statutes of 1885-86, or under State statutes, upon 
 the other, each side shall have the right to select a representative, who 
 shall be appointed by the President to serve as a temporary member of 
 the commission in hearing, adjusting, and determining that particular 
 controversy. 
 
 (This provision would make it for the interest of labor organizations 
 to incorporate under the law and to make the commission a practical 
 board of conciliation. It would also tend to create confidence in the 
 commission, and to give to that body in every hearing the benefit of 
 practical knowledge of the situation upon both sides.) 
 
 c. That, during the pendency of a proceeding before the commission 
 inaugurated by national trade unions, or by an incorporation of 
 employees, it shall not be lawful for the railroads to discharge employees 
 belonging thereto except for inefficiency, violation of law, or neglect of 
 duty; nor for such unions or incorporation during such pendency to 
 order, unite in, aid, or abet strikes or boycotts against the railroads 
 complained of; nor, for a period of six months after a decision, for such 
 railroads to discharge any such employees inw^hose x)laces others shall 
 be employed, except for the causes aforesaid ; nor for any such employees, 
 during a like period, to quit the service without giving thirty days' 
 written notice of intention to do so, nor for any such union or incor- 
 poration to order, counsel, or advise otherwise. 
 
 (2) That chapter 567 of the United States Statutes of 1885-86 be 
 amended so as to require national trade unions to provide in their arti- 
 cles of incorporation, and in their constitutions, rules, and by-laws that 
 a member shall cease to be such and forfeit all rights and privileges 
 conferred on him by law as such by participating in or by instigating 
 force or violence against persons or property during strikes or boycotts, 
 or by seeking to prevent others from working through violence, threats, 
 or intimidations; also, that members shall be no more personally liable 
 for corporate acts than are stockholders in corporations. 
 
 (3) The commission does not feel warranted, with the study it has 
 been able to give to the subject, to recommend positively the establish- 
 ment of a license system by which all the higher employees or others of 
 railroads engaged in interstate commerce should be licensed after due 
 and proper examination, but it would recommend, and most urgently, 
 
LIV CHICAGO STRIKE. 
 
 that this subject be carefully and fully considered, by the proper com- 
 mittee of Congress. Many railroad employees and some railroad officials 
 examined and many others who have filed their suggestions in writing 
 with the commission are in favor of some such system. It involves too 
 many complications, however, for the commission to decide upon the 
 exact plan, if any, which should be adopted. 
 
 II. 
 
 (1) The commission would suggest the consideration by the States of 
 the adoption of some system of conciliation and arbitration like that, 
 for instance, in use in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That 
 system might be reenforced by additional provisions giving the board 
 of arbitration more power to investigate all strikes, whether requested 
 so to do or not. and the question might be considered as to giving labor 
 organizations a standing before the law, as heretofore suggested for 
 national trade unions. 
 
 (2) Contracts requiring men to agree not to join labor organizations 
 or to leave them, as conditions of employment, should be made illegal, 
 as is already done in some of our States. 
 
 III. 
 
 (1) The commission urges employers to recognize labor organiza- 
 tions; that such organizations be dealt with through representatives, 
 with special reference to conciliation and arbitration when difficulties 
 are threatened or arise. It is satisfied that employers should come in 
 closer touch with labor and should recognize that, while the interests 
 of labor and capital are not identical, they are reciprocal. 
 
 (2) The commission is satisfied that if employers everywhere will 
 endeavor to act in concert with labor; that if when wages can be 
 raised under economic conditions they be raised voluntarily, and that 
 if when there are reductions reasons be given for the reduction, much 
 friction can be avoided. It is also satisfied that if employers will con- 
 sider employees as thoroughly essential to industrial success as capital, 
 and thus take labor into consultation at proper times, much of the 
 severity of strikes can be tempered and their number reduced. 
 
tin