m PULLMAN STRIKE 
 
 TOWN OF PULLVAN— FBONT VIEW 
 
 TOWN OF PULLMAN — REAR VIEV 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM H. CARWARDINE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST M. E. CHURCH, PULLMAN, ILL. 
 
 Unity Library, 'No.jb. Monthly, $5.00 a year. August, iSq4. 
 
 Entered at the Postoffice, Chicago, as Second-class Mail Matter. 
 
 Charles H. Kerr & Co., Publishers, 175 Monroe St., Chicago. 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM H. CARWARDINE 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST M. E. CHURCH, PULLMAN, ILL. 
 
 ' The laborer is worthy of his hire. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR AND COMPANY 
 
 1894 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 By Charles H. Kexr & Comfamt 
 
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 TO MY 
 
 BELOVED FATHER-IN-LAW 
 
 REV. JOHN WILLIAMS 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST M. E. CHURCH, CRESTON, ILL. 
 
 WHO WAS 
 FOR THIRTY YEARS IN HIS EARLY LIFE COfJNECTED WITH THE 
 DAILY PRESS OF NEW YORK CITY, AND WHO DID 
 LOYAL SERVICE AT THAT TIME IN AROUS- 
 ING PUBLIC SENTIMENT TO THE 
 NEEDS OF THE TOIL- 
 ING MASSES 
 
'^rH«''>.,w- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This book is packed with facts. For these facts 
 the author is not responsible. It is true, his soul was 
 stirred, but cruel facts stirred the soul of even the 
 Son of God. If sometimes the author's spirit flames 
 with indignation, let it be remembered that it is 
 against heartless tyranny, and in defense of long 
 silent and outraged innocence. 
 
 He speaks with authority. He is a resident of Pull- 
 man, and is familiar with almost ever}' face and fire- 
 side in the town. Like his, Master he has gone about 
 doing good, among the rich and poor alike. He 
 knows Pullman and his lieutenants. He knows 
 Debs and his most trusted followers. He knows 
 what both sides have done, when, and how, and 
 why, and with what results. In a sense, therefore, 
 he knows more about the whole conflict than either 
 Debs or Pullman. Each knows his own side only. 
 The author of this volume knows both sides. 
 
 The book is reliable. The author means to neither 
 minify nor magnify. He would be a mere photog- 
 rapher Assuredly he has not fallen into the error 
 of exaggeration. No student, lecturer, preacher or 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 reformer need hesitate in using the statements herein 
 made. They can all be verified again and again. 
 
 With all my heart, I bid this book God-speed! 
 May it be read in a million of homes, from the White 
 House to the dug-out, and from the palaces of mil- 
 lionaires down to the hovels of the humble poor. 
 May its plain, honest facts banish the flagrant misin- 
 formation with which the secular and even the relig- 
 ious press has been teeming for weeks, and may it 
 be the mission of this book to stir the heart of this 
 whole nation until the "white slaves" of industrial 
 tyranny be emancipated and receive the treatment 
 becoming the sons and daughters of the Most High. 
 
 John Merritte Driver. 
 Marion, Ind., July 30th, 1894 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introductory 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 The Town of Pullman , . 15 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 Pullman and Debs 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 History of the Strike 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Character and Incidents of the Strike 38 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Fallacies in Pullman's S fatements 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Cutting Wages 68 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Rents, Water, Gas, etc 93 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Shop Abuses 100 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Personal — Lessons — Remedy 118 
 
 Appendix 127 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Pullman strike is the greatest and most far- 
 reaching of any strike on record in this country. It 
 is the most unique strike ever known. When we take 
 into account the intelligence of the employees, al- 
 ways the boast of the Pullman Company; the wide- 
 spread advertisement of the town as a "model town," 
 established as a solution of the industrial problem 
 upon the basis of "mutual recognition ;" it is no won- 
 der that the world was amazed, when, under such 
 apparently favorable conditions, in the midst of a 
 season of great financial depression, the employees 
 laid down their tools, and, on the i ith of May, walked 
 out of the great shops to face an unequal and appar- 
 ently hopeless conflict. 
 
 After seven weeks of patient waiting, the American 
 Railway Union, having espoused the cause of the 
 Pullman employees, declares a boycott on the Pull- 
 man Palace Cars. This action is repulsed by the 
 11 
 
12 THE PUBLIC DEMANDS THE FACTS 
 
 Railroad Managers' Association. The conflict is trans- 
 ferred at once to the arena of public commerce; or- 
 ganized labor and organized capital are pitted against 
 each other; stagnation of all business interests results; 
 the highways of trade are blocked ; the great unoffend- 
 ing public is the innocent sufferer, riots ensue, the 
 military are ordered out, the foundations of govern- 
 ment are threatened; the strong arm of the law is put 
 forth, the public demand for peace is heard, and the 
 crisis reached. 
 
 Now the public mind reverts to the original cause. 
 What made these intelligent employees at Pullman 
 strike.!" Were they rash and inconsiderate, or were 
 they driven to their course by certain conditions 
 over which they had no control, and which justified 
 them in their action? 
 
 These and a hundred other questions are coming 
 to me by every mail from all parts of our country. 
 Ten days after the employees struck, I delivered a 
 sermon from my pulpit, which created profound in- 
 terest in Pullman and Chicago, and which has since 
 been copied broadcast in newspapers all over the 
 United States. Owing to this fact, I am accosted 
 onallsidesfor information concerning the true condi- 
 tion of things in this model town. 
 
 For two years I have been the pastor of the Pull- 
 man M. E. Church, and closely related to the moral 
 and social life of the town. During that time I have 
 been a silent spectator of the life and character of 
 
THE RIGHT OF THE PULPIT TO CRITICISE 13 
 
 the town. I have studied carefully and with much 
 interest the Pullman system. I have had abundant 
 opportunity to observe the town from the standpoint 
 of a student of the industrial problem. 
 
 I wish to be fair and impartial. I have seen many 
 things to admire as well as many to condemn. My 
 sympathies have gone out to the striking employees. 
 Never did men have a cause more just — never did 
 corporation with equal pretenses grind men more un- 
 mercifully. I contend that I have a right to publicly 
 criticise a public man or a public institution, so long as 
 I do not depart from the path of truth or make false 
 imputations, willfully knowing them to be such. No 
 one has deplored this strike more than myself. I 
 wish that it might have been averted. But so long 
 as the employees saw fit to take this action I believe 
 that it is the duty of all concerned to look the issue 
 squarely in the face, without equivocation or evasion, 
 consider the matter in its true light, and endeavor to 
 bring about a settlement of the difficulty as speedily 
 as possible. 
 
 I make no apology as a clergyman for discussing 
 this theme. As ministers of the gospel we have a 
 right to occasionally turn from the beaten path of 
 biblical truth and consider these great questions of 
 social, moral and economic interest. He who denies 
 the right of the clergy to discuss these matters of great 
 public concern has either been brought up under a 
 government totally foreign to the free atmosphere of 
 
14 PREACHING THE GOSPEL 
 
 American institutions, or else he has failed utterly to 
 comprehend the spirit of the age in which he lives. 
 Sometimes we preachers are told to mind our own 
 business and "preach the gospel." All right; I have 
 preached the gospel of Christ, and souls have been 
 redeemed to a better life under the preaching of that 
 gospel. I contend now that in the discussing of this 
 theme I am preaching the gospel of applied Christian- 
 ity — applied to humanity — the gospel of mutual 
 recognition, of co-operation, of the "brotherhood of 
 humanity." The relation existing between a man's 
 body and his soul are such that you can make very little 
 headway appealing to the soul of a thoroughly live 
 and healthy man if he be starving for food. Christ 
 not only preached to the multitude, but he gave them 
 to eat. And I verily believe that if he came to Chi- 
 cago to-day, as indicated by the erratic yet noble 
 Stead, he would apply the whip of cords to the backs 
 of some of us preachers for not performing our full 
 share of duty to "his poor." 
 
 "Let Qot ambition mock their useful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 
 Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
 The short and simple annals of the poor." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE TOWN OF PULLMAN. 
 
 "The Pullman car solved the problem of long, con- 
 tinuous railway journeys, and the town of Pullman, 
 along new lines, gives a hope of bettering the rela- 
 tions of capital and labor. The issue of this last is 
 a question of the future, butitis at least a legitimate 
 subject of speculation, whether what the car wrought 
 in one direction, with all its attendant and lasting 
 benefits to humanity, may not in some sort, on a 
 broader scale, and with benefits to humanity even 
 more far-reaching and enduring, be repeated in the 
 great field where the town of Pullman now stands as 
 the advance guard of a new departure and a new 
 idea. 
 
 "In brief, the Pullman enterprise is a vast object- 
 lesson. It has demonstrated man's capacity to im- 
 prove and to appreciate improvements. It has shown 
 that success may result from corporate action which 
 is alike free from default, foreclosure or wreckage of 
 any sort. It has illustrated the helpful combination 
 of capital and labor, without strife or stultification, 
 upon lines of mutual recognition." 
 
 The above is taken from a work entitled "The 
 Story of Pullman," referred to in another place and 
 written in the interest of Pullman. In view of the 
 above, it may be well to say a few words concerning 
 the town of Pullman itself. The story as told in 
 15 
 
16 IVHERE El^'ERY PROSPECT PLEASES 
 
 1 894 'is a far different one. There is strife, mutual 
 suspicion and discord. There are strikes, lockouts 
 and the inevitable violence, riots, arson and murder 
 resulting therefrom, which certainly indicates that 
 there must be something wrong in Pullman. I be- 
 lieve that the town itself was established in the hope 
 of bettering the condition of the laboring classes, but 
 it has failed sadly of its original purpose. As seen 
 from the railway by the passing tourist, it presents a 
 beautiful picture. In fact it appears to be a veritable 
 paradise. Beautiful trees and flowers, pretty foun- 
 tains, glimpses here and there of artistic sweeps of 
 landscape, gardens, rows of pretty little brick houses, 
 church in the distance, public buildings of different 
 description, all present a beautiful picture to the 
 passing traveler. 
 
 Mr. Pullman and his lieutenants love to show this 
 beautiful picture to the world. Pullman, the town, 
 is Mr. Pullman's idol, and in many respects he may 
 well be proud of it, but there is another side to the 
 town of Pullman. Like the stage, there is some- 
 thing behind the scenes, and that which is behind the 
 scenes does not harmonize with the effect produced 
 before the curtain. Let us take a short tour around 
 the town. We will enter the Arcade. In this build- 
 ing is the postofBce, stores of different descriptions, 
 the Opera House, offices of the town agent and his 
 clerical force, and on the second story, library and 
 rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association and 
 
THE SUbSCRIPTION LIBRARY 17 
 
 Kindergarten. Also one or two rooms devoted to the 
 use of churches, one room of which the Baptist church 
 occupied up to within a few weeks ago, when under 
 the active administration of the cioble pastor, Rev. 
 Fred Berry, they have succeeded in building a church 
 on the outskirts of Pullman, in Roseland. Another 
 room is rented by the Episcopal church. 
 
 Note for a few moments the library. It is a gem. 
 It is one of the most complete of its kind in the 
 United States. It is small and cozy, but very conven- 
 ient for those who have the privilege of using it. It 
 was the gift of Mr. Pullman to his town. The li- 
 brary is presided over by Mrs. Charles B. Smith, 
 librarian, a lady who is intimately related to Mr. 
 Pullman, entirely in sympathy with all his ideas and 
 one who is regarded with the highest estimation by the 
 people of the entire town. As president of the 
 Woman's Relief Society, she, together with other 
 ladies, has endeared herself to the poor and the suffer- 
 ing in Pullman. The library rooms are luxurious 
 and are regarded by all visitors as the handsomest in 
 this country. It has 8,000 volumes, covering every 
 practical department of knowledge. The whole 
 number of books used in 1893 was 20,900. I note in 
 an enumerated table, the number taken from each 
 department, as printed in the Pullman Journal of 
 last year. Of reference books there were used 5,479; 
 of books for juveniles, 2,343; books of fiction, 3,161, 
 History, 1,406; biography, 1,057; o^ science, 2,245; 
 
18 l^-'HY NOT A FREE LIBRARY} 
 
 travels, 1,245, and of poetry 2,073. Ji^^^ging from 
 the last, it is evident that the artistic effect and influ- 
 ence of Pullman upon the inhabitants causes them to 
 indulge in much poetry. 
 
 While we admire the library and believe that it is 
 doing good work, still it is not producing the practical 
 results demanded of such an institution. The com- 
 plaint of employees is that they are expected to pay 
 25 cents a month or three dollars a year for the use 
 of books, and one dollar per year for every child. 
 This is all right, but with the immense wealth 
 of the Pullman Company they feel that they ought to 
 have an absolutely free library and reading room. 
 The reading room is an adjunct of the library, is very 
 small, and very few of the men, comparatively speak- 
 ing, use it. It is too luxurious for the average work- 
 ing man. It has a tendency to create a spirit of 
 caste in the little town. I should much prefer some- 
 thing on the principle of the Public Library in Chi- 
 cago or any other large city, and above all an insti- 
 tution similar to the Peter Cooper Institute of 
 New York, where everything is plain but neat and 
 clean and where everything is offered free, in the 
 way of library, instruction, lectures, art school and 
 scientific classes. 
 
 I believe such a building as this would accomplish 
 great good, and I believe in connection with an in- 
 stitution of this character there ought to be a room 
 where men may congregate and chat with each other, 
 
COL. DU/1NE DOTY 19 
 
 and where, for the benefit of young men, there should 
 be games such as checkers, chess, etc. Many a young 
 man here would be saved from the influence of the 
 Kensington saloons. Pullman is a prohibition town, 
 and this is a commendable feature, but lying on the 
 outskirts of the town, within a few moments' walk of 
 the Arcade, are to be found thirty or thirty-five saloons. 
 Before we leave the Arcade we might call on Col. 
 Doty, whose office is on the second story. Col. Duane 
 Doty is the editor of the Pullman Journal, and the 
 historian and statistician of the Pullman Company. 
 He has a profound admiration for the system upon 
 which the town, is based. He brings to bear his 
 time and talents in the dissemination of literature 
 complimentary to the Pullman Company; all friends 
 visiting the town, sent by Mr. Pullman, are taken on 
 their tour of inspection by Mr. Doty. Charming as 
 a conversationalist and better acquainted with all 
 the details of the business than any other man in 
 the community, he mvariably sends the visitor away 
 with most delightful im.pressions of the town. "A 
 town," in a word, "from which all that is ugly, dis- 
 cordant and demoralizing is eliminated, and which 
 was built as a solution of the industrial problem based 
 upon the idea of mutual recognition." Passing out 
 of the Arcade building, we move east, along "Arcade 
 Row," composed of a block of very pretty nine room 
 cottages, at the extreme east end of which is the 
 home of Mayor Hopkins. On our right is a beau- 
 
20 THE "GREEN STONE CHURCH" 
 
 tiful little park, tastefully decorated with flowers and 
 shrubbery; in the center of which is the band stand, 
 where the Pullman band on summer evenings dis- 
 courses sweet music, while in the distance can be 
 seen the Florence Hotel, where, we are told by the 
 Evening Post,''''T\\Q, aristocracy of Pullman hold forth." 
 Standing on the corner of Arcade Row, looking east, 
 is the "Green Stone Church," so named on account 
 of the color of the stone out of which the structure is 
 built. As a piece of ecclesiastical architecture it is 
 perfection from the outside, but for practical 
 church purposes it is useless, being composed of one 
 large room, the auditorium, and three small rooms 
 at the rear. It has no separate Sunday School room, 
 parlors, class room or any of the modern conveniences 
 now found in churches. A little story is told in regard 
 to this church which is interesting. In the early his- 
 tory of the town the church stood idle because of the 
 enormous rent. The Methodists, under the pastorate 
 of F. W. Warne, now in India, waited on Mr. Pull- 
 man with the Rev. Dr. Luke Hitchcock and Bishop 
 X. Ninde, to rent the church. Their object was to 
 get the church at a less rental than was asked at that 
 time, which was $300.00 a month. After presenting 
 all their arguments, Mr. Pullman absolutely refused, 
 and furthermore said that "when that church was built 
 it was not intended so much for the moral and spir- 
 itual welfare of the people as it was for the comple- 
 tion of the artistic effect of the scene." When Mr, Pull- 
 
CHURCHES AND RENTS 31 
 
 man built the church, it was his idea that there should 
 be one church in the town and that all should wor- 
 ship there, but that was impossible. The Roman Cath- 
 olics received the right by a lease of ninety-nine years 
 to build a church across the tracks on a large open 
 prairie, the property of the Pullman Company. The 
 Swedish Lutherans were permitted to do the same. 
 The Green Stone Church was finally rented to the 
 Presbyterians for $100.00 per month; water, steam, 
 and gas extra. Next to the church and a part of 
 it is a handsome parsonage, but no minister has 
 ever been able to live in it, on account of the 
 high rent of $65 per month. They have had a varied 
 experience and, are now without a settled pastor. 
 It was in this church that the Rev. Doctor Oggel, 
 then supplying the church, delivered a sermon eulogis- 
 tic of Mr. Pullman's great service to his age, his 
 country, and his town, from the text: "Thou 
 hast made him a little lower than tlie angels, 
 and hast crowned him with glory and honor;" con- 
 cluding with a quotation from a St. Louis paper, 
 that Mr. Pullman is worthy of the nomination to the 
 Presidency of the United States. Dr. Oggel deliv- 
 ered his last sermon on the Sunday after the strike, 
 in which he declared to the men that "a half 
 loaf was better than no loaf," and that in his judgment 
 they were receiving "two-thirds of a loaf." 
 
 The M. E. church worships in a large room in 
 what is known as the Casino building. It is com- 
 
23 TENEMENT BLOCKS 
 
 fortable, seated with 326 opera chairs. In the rear 
 are two small rooms, one of which is used for the 
 pastor's study. For these accommodations we pay 
 the Company $300 in rent, $60 in steam, and gas 
 sufficient to bring the amount up to $480.00; to 
 this janitor's services may be added, making the yearly 
 expenditures over $500. The churches could not 
 afford to pay these enormous rents if the people of 
 Pullman were not generous in their support of 
 them. 
 
 Leaving the Green Stone Church, going eastward, 
 we come to the Market Hall, a building set apart for 
 such stores as general merchandise. All the stores 
 in the town are rented by individuals who are sup- 
 posed to be independent of the Company. You are 
 not compelled to purchase at these stores. 
 
 As we pass through the Market Hall we go toward 
 Fulton Street. The streets are named after the great 
 inventors, Fulton, Stephenson, Watt, Morse, and 
 Pullman. On Fulton Street are the great tenement 
 blocks, lettered from A to J, three stories, where 
 from 300 to 500 persons live under one roof. These 
 blocks are divided into tenements of two rooms, 
 three rooms and four rooms apiece. These tenements 
 are mostly occupied by foreigners. They are com- 
 paratively clean, having air and light; but abundance 
 • of water they have not, there being but one faucet 
 for each group of five families, and in some cases the 
 water is in the same apartment devoted to the clos- 
 
KEEPING BOARDERS IN TIVO ROOMS 23 
 
 ets. There are no yards except a great barren space 
 in common. 
 
 Away toward the south of town is the eyesore of 
 the place, known as the brick yards, four rows of 
 Httle wooden shanties. They are sixteen by twenty 
 feet, ceiling seven feet, a sitting room and two bed- 
 rooms, and a kitchen in a lean-to. These cabins could 
 be built easily for $100.00 apiece, and they rent 
 for $S.oo per month or $96.00 a year. The average 
 population of Pullman is about 1 2, 000. It has reached 
 as high as 14,000. The shops are in the center of 
 the town, a large part of the resident portion extend- 
 ing north of the shops. At this end cf town are the 
 Rolling Mills, Freight Shops and the Foundry. The 
 whole impression of the town, outside of the central 
 part, is that it is crowded and unwholesome. The 
 houses are all built in solid brick rows. The monotony 
 and regularity of the buildings give one the im.pres- 
 sion that he is living in soldiers' barracks. There 
 is no such thing as a home in the American sense 
 of the word; owing to the high rents hundreds of fam- 
 ilies having two or three room apartments, keep 
 boarders and roomers, striving in this way to add to 
 the earnings of the head of the family, to make both 
 ends meet. 
 
 During the past winter it took the earnings of both 
 host and boarder to pay the rent and keep above the 
 plain of destitution. In no community in the world, 
 probably, is there such a small proportion of fam- 
 
24 FAMILY PRIVACY u„r-^:y^iBLE 
 
 ilies which really live in family privacy. In the north 
 end of town there are rows of houses where there is 
 no front door for the family living upstairs. They 
 are required to pass through the alley into the yard, 
 up a back stair to reach their homes. In some parts 
 of the town there are houses where, if you desire to 
 reach the family living upstairs, you are compelled, 
 night or day, to pass through the apartments of the 
 family on the lower floor. This destroys the sanctity 
 of the home and is not conducive to the morality of 
 the town. Indeed, as I know to be a fact, the morals 
 of Pullman are not up to the standard that they 
 might be. 
 
 An unpleasant feature of the town is that you are 
 made to feel at every turn the presence of the corpo- 
 ration. As Peter Quinon, of the Pittsburg Times, well 
 says: "The corporation is everything and everywhere. 
 The corporation trims your lawn and attends to your 
 trees; the corporation sweeps your street, and sends 
 a man around to pick up every cigar stump, every 
 bit of paper, every straw or leaf; the corporation 
 puts two barrels in your back yard, one for ashes and 
 one for refuse of the kitchen; the corporation has 
 the ashes and refuse hauled away; the corporation 
 provides you new barrels when the others are worn 
 out; the corporation does practically everything but 
 sweep your room and make your bed, and the cor- 
 poration expects you to enjoy it and hold your 
 tongue." This is a corporation made and a corpora- 
 
TINSEL AhlD SHOIV 26 
 
 tlon governed town, and is utterly un-American in its 
 tendencies. 
 
 The great trouble with this whole Pullman system 
 is that it is not what it pretends to be. No one can 
 but admire many of the beautiful features of this 
 town. To the casual visitor it is a veritable para- 
 dise — to the passing student of the industrial prob- 
 lem, it has a fascinating appearance; but like the 
 play, there is a good deal of tinsel and show about 
 it. It is a sort of hollow mockery, sham, an institu- 
 tion girdled with red tape, and as a solution of the 
 labor problem a very unsatisfactory one. The great 
 trouble with the town, viewed from the standpoint 
 of an industrial experiment, is that while it possesses 
 some excellent features, still its deficiencies over- 
 balance all its beauties. It belongs to the map of 
 Europe. It is a civilized reHc of European serfdom. 
 We all enjoy living here because there is an equality 
 of interest, and we have a common enemy, the Com- 
 pany, but our daily prayer is, "Lord, keep us from 
 dying here." An eminent writer in Harper's Monthly, 
 in 1884, on "Pullman," declared that at that time, 
 ten years ago, its great faults were: "Bad adminis- 
 tration in respect to the employment, retention and 
 promotion of employees. Change is constant in men 
 and officers, and each new superior appears to have 
 his own friends, whom he appoints to desirable posi- 
 tions. Favoritism and nepotism exist; natural 
 dissatisfaction, a powerful prevalence of petty '"eal- 
 
26 THE LOGICAL OUTCOME 
 
 ousies, discouragements of superior excellence, fre- 
 quent change of residents, and an all-pervading feel- 
 ing of insecurity." The writer further declares that 
 it is not an American idea. It is a species of benev- 
 olent feudalism, and as to its morals, the writer says: 
 "The prevailing tendency at that day was, 'The de- 
 sire to beat the company.'" 
 
 It seems to me that the town has not changed. 
 What a commentary on the present state of affairs! 
 To-day we behold the lamentable and logical out- 
 come of the whole system. If this town was estab- 
 lished with the hope of bettering the relations of Cap- 
 ital and Labor, then I believe it has partially failed 
 in its mission, and will never succeed until some of 
 its conditions are changed. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PULLMAN AND DEBS. 
 
 Suffer a word regarding Mr. Pullman himself, I 
 would like to pay my respects to him. I have noth- 
 ing to say of him that savors of fulsome eulogy or 
 nauseating praise. When I consider him as a man, 
 and hold him up to the youth of our land as an ex- 
 ample, I find many things worthy of consideration. 
 All honor to Mr. Pullman for the magnificent business 
 sagacity in the development of the Pullman palace 
 car idea. Few men are capable of bringing to a'suc- 
 cessful issue such marvelous results. It is no small 
 thing fcr one man to be able to create a vast pro- 
 ductive industry, which is one of the century's civiliz- 
 ing strides, and which, from a small beginning, has 
 reached a market value of $50,000,000. It takes 
 brain to do that sort of thing, and Mr. Pullman as a 
 financier is one of the brainiest men of his day. 
 
 In this age of rapidly increasing fortunes, when 
 men become rich in a day by speculation, weaving a 
 fabric of success upon the ruin of others, I am. willing 
 to accord honor to a man who has become rich as 
 the result of the establishment of a great manufactur- 
 ing industry. As a man of industry, possessed of a 
 27 
 
28 MR. PULLMAN AS A PHILANTHROPIST 
 
 great idea and tenacioulsy clinging to that idea until 
 he has wrought it out to completion, rising as a poor 
 boy in an obscure village, to a great position as a 
 business man, possessed no doubt with a desire to 
 better his fellow-man, retaining a personal charac- 
 ter which, we have every reason to believe, is honest 
 and pure, he is an example in these things that we 
 can hold up before the youth of our land, and bid 
 them imitate. 
 
 But when Mr. Pullman, as a public man, stands be- 
 fore the world and demands of us that we regard him 
 as a benefactor to his race, as a true philanthropist, 
 as one who respects his fellow-men, who regards his 
 employees with the love of a father for his children, 
 and would have us associate him with such men as 
 George Peabody, Peter Cooper and George W. Childs, 
 I confess as a clergyman, delivering this message un- 
 der the shadow of these deserted shops, I fail utterly 
 to see the point. The facts are not in harmony with 
 the requirements demanded. 
 
 No man craves Mr. Pullman's position before the 
 American people to-day. He stands in an unenviable 
 light before the world, an example to others of his 
 kind to beware lest they make the same sad mistake. 
 The very qualities that made him successful in life, 
 have, untempered with nobler elements, placed him in 
 his present predicament before the American public. 
 Determination and resolution have turned into arro- 
 gance and obstinacy. The same disposition that has 
 
"NOTHING TO /1RBITRATE" 29 
 
 kept him aloof in all these months and years of the 
 past from the active life of his town and estranged 
 him from the heart of his employees, is indicated in the 
 cold and arrogant language of his ultimatum when 
 appealed to by President and Mayor and public in 
 general — "Nothing to arbitrate." What a golden 
 opportunity this gentleman has had in the past years 
 of his life to immortalize himself in the hearts of his 
 countrymen, to work out some problem in the solu- 
 tion of the industrial question, to advance the true 
 interest of his city and his country, and yet how ut- 
 terly has he failed! 
 
 As all the facts come to light, it is plain that Mr. 
 Pullman could have prevented the great strike, with 
 its attendant consequences, without sacrificing either 
 his dignity or his money. Appealed to by the city, 
 state, and federal government, while thousands of 
 dollars' worth of property was being destroyed, and the 
 trade of half the country was paralyzed, human lives 
 were being sacrificed, and bloody riot hung like a pall 
 over the city and country, nevertheless this gentle- 
 man, having fled from the scene of action, in his se- 
 cure and comfortable retreat by the seashore, abso- 
 lutely refused to make even a formal concession. 
 
 The odium of his position will never leave Mr. 
 Pullman. So utterly wrong was his attitude that it 
 is no wonder that he has reaped the censure and uni- 
 versal condemnation of the press and public opinion 
 of the country. He can never recover from the 
 
30 ^LDERMy4N MC GILLEN'S CRITICISM 
 
 moral effects of his untenable and unpatriotic action. 
 That the leader may thoroughly understand this 
 matter I quote from the Ne.w York World of July 
 14th, 1894: 
 
 "On Monday a committee of Mr. Pullman's working 
 men, accompanied by members of the city council, 
 and with the approval of Mayor Hopkins, waited 
 upon his representative and offered to submit the 
 question of whether or not there was anything to ar- 
 bitrate to a committee composed of two members 
 chosen by himself (Mr. Pullman), two selected by the 
 circuit judges of Cook County, and one to be chosen 
 by these four. Laboring men were to have no rep- 
 resentative on the committee, yet they pledged them- 
 selves to abide by its decision. This offer, which was 
 practically a surrender b}' the men, was perempto- 
 rily rejected by Mr. Pullman's telegraphic order on 
 the ground that *he will not permit outsiders to run 
 his business. ' 
 
 "Alderman McGillen's criticism upon this arrogant 
 and unpatriotic attitude is perfectly sound. He re- 
 minds Mr. Pullman that the Company and other cor- 
 porations of the land are quasi-public corporations 
 which have enjoyed public benefits from the com- 
 munity. He points out that the principal asset of 
 the Pullman Company is its list of patents, and that 
 that asset has been conferred by the nation. He 
 argues logically that a corporation enjoying millions 
 as the fruit of such public benefit owes something to 
 the public, especially where the preservation of peace 
 is involved." 
 
 As the champion of labor, standing in direct con- 
 trast to Mr. Pullman, is Mr. Eugene V. Debs, Pres- 
 ident of the American Railway Union. Mr, Debs is 
 an American of French parentage, thirty-nine years 
 
ESTIMATE OF EUGENE V. DEBS 31 
 
 of age, born in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is a man 
 of great executive ability and a wonderful organizer. 
 He possesses a rare gift of oratory, good voice and 
 presence, magnetic and earnest. Educated in the 
 public schools of Terre Haute, he has ever retained 
 his love of study and is a great reader. When six- 
 teen years old, he began life as a painter in the Van- 
 dalia Railroad shops. Later he was fireman upon 
 the same road. Entering public life, he was elected 
 to the office of city clerk of Terre Haute, and later 
 served two terms as member of the state legislature. 
 For fourteen consecutive years he filled the office of 
 grand secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of 
 Locomotive Firemen. Always an earnest advocate 
 of a federation of railway men, he conceived the idea 
 of the American Railway Union, which came into 
 existence in this city, June 20th, 1893. I have heard 
 Mr. Debs speak several times, have conversed with 
 him, watched him preside over the deliberations of 
 the late convention of the A. R. U. I believe he is 
 thoroughly sincere in the cause he advocates, a born 
 leader, deliberate and self-possessed, somewhat of an 
 enthusiast, a man of more than ordinary ability. 
 I make no apology for his attitude in the matter of 
 the "boycott, "except that he was forced by the logic of 
 his position into his fight with the Railroad Managers. 
 Mr. Debs needs no word from me. He is fully capa- 
 ble of taking care of himself. Mistaken he may have 
 been as to his methods, but sincere he is as to the 
 
32 THE My^N FOR THE HOUR 
 
 cause of labor. Mr. Pullman was obstinate, Mr. 
 Debs determined. I know that Debs has always 
 counseled moderation, and positively demanded of 
 his followers to commit no violence. Had all the 
 strikers been of like mind, and had the mob ele- 
 ments, the rabble, and cheap foreign labor imported 
 to this country by such gentlemen as the Railroad 
 Managers, not taken advantage of the situation to 
 commit violence, the condition of things would have 
 been different. Until the American people will rec- 
 ognize the true merits of the laboring man's position 
 and demands, until corporations shall cease to be 
 tyrannical and millionaires arrogant, until there shall 
 be more of the love of God and love for fellow-man in 
 the hearts of rich and poor alike, then, and not till 
 then, will society be rid of such men as Pullman and 
 the mission of such as Mr. Debs will cease. 
 
 After the smoke of battle shall have rolled away, and 
 the public mind regains its equanimity, I believe the 
 calm verdict of the American people concerning this 
 man will be very different from that engendered by a 
 rabid and capitalistic press. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE STRIKE. 
 
 Let US review briefly the history of the strike. 
 From August, 1892, to August, 1893, was a season 
 of unwonted prosperity and activity in the Pullman 
 shops. It is safe to say that four hundred new Pull- 
 man cars were added to the service. During the 
 winter of 1893 the magnificent train of Pullman cars 
 exhibited at the World's Fair was built. Work was 
 abundant, wages fair, and the force of employees in 
 creased to between five and six thousand, Then came 
 the reaction and depression of trade. The force was 
 gradually reduced until late in the summer not over 
 900 men were employed. About November of 1893, 
 Mr. Pullman began to secure contracts for new work, 
 and the cars which had been out on the road in the 
 World's Fair traffic were rapidly brought into the 
 shops for repairs. The force was enlarged until, dur- 
 ing the winter, from three to four thousand employees 
 were on the pay roll. Then commenced the cutting 
 of wages, and consequent abuse on the part of the 
 local administration complained of so bitterly by the 
 men. Mutterings of dissatisfaction, discontent and 
 continual resentings of petty abuses were heard on all 
 33 
 
34 PETITION OF THE MEN 
 
 sides during the long and bitter winter. "There will 
 be trouble in the spring," was an expression which I 
 heard on all sides. Destitution prevailed to a great 
 extent. Want and suffering was no uncommon pic- 
 ture. As a pastor I came in contact directly with 
 much suffering. Repeated cutting of the wages with 
 no corresponding reduction of rent exasperated the 
 employees. 1 was aware that the men were being 
 organized into local unions. Hearing of the success 
 of the American Railway Union, and casting about for 
 some one to champion their cause, these unions ap- 
 pealed to Messrs, Debs and Howard of the American 
 Railway Union. 
 
 Meetings were held at Kensington. Messrs. Debs 
 and Howard repeatedly counseled the men not to 
 strike, but to wait until the American Railway Union 
 had acquired strength, and agreed in due season to 
 assist the men in their effort to obtain redress from 
 their wrongs. At this juncture a committee waited 
 on Manager Middleton. Meeting with no favorable 
 response, they appointed a committee and waited on 
 Vice-President Wickes at the city offices. Mr. Wickes 
 received the committee very kindly, listened to their 
 grievances and promised that Mr. Pullman would give 
 them a final answer the following week. On the day 
 appointed, the committee again appeared at the city 
 office, where Mr. Pullman delivered to them his first 
 statement, with which the public is familiar. In that 
 statement he refused to accede to the demand of the 
 
MR. PULLMAN'S ANSIVER 35 
 
 employees for a restoration of the scale of wages for 
 1893, on the ground that he had taken contracts for 
 new work at a loss. As proof thereof he agreed to 
 permit an inspection of his books. He stated further 
 that he could not reduce the rents of his houses. He 
 agreed that none of the committee waiting on him 
 should be discharged, and also stated that their griev- 
 ances should be investigated So far, so good. But 
 the employees were disappointed and chagrined. I 
 well remember that we who were residents of the 
 town, not in the employ of the company, and anxious 
 to see the threatened strike averted, breathed easier 
 that night, but still were apprehensive. Anxiously 
 we awaited the morrow. What caused the disap- 
 pointment and chagrin of the employees? It was 
 this. Mr. Pullman had given out that he had taken 
 contracts for new work at a loss, because out of love 
 for his employees he desired to keep the shops open. 
 Unfortunately the men had never seen any evidences 
 of paternal love on the part of Mr Pullman in his 
 previous dealings with them, and they could not dis- 
 abuse their minds of the thought that perhaps he was 
 keeping the shops open, and taking work at a loss in 
 order to get his returns in rent. Also they felt that 
 his refusal to reduce their rents was unjust. They 
 were suspicious and in no condition to be trifled 
 with. I am sure Mr. Pullman had no idea of the true 
 state of affairs and did not fully realize how unjustly 
 his employees had been dealt with, and the magni- 
 
36 DISCHARGE OF THE GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE 
 
 tude of the petty annoyances to which they had been 
 subjected. 
 
 On the morrow, three men who were members of 
 the committee were "laid off." While it was no un- 
 common thing in the shops for men to be "laid off," 
 still it had come to be looked upon as amounting in 
 many cases to a virtual discharge. 
 
 Cases have been cited to me of employees, who, 
 having incurred the displeasure of those in authority, 
 were "laid off," and returning again and again for 
 work found that they were really discharged. What 
 made the matter worse in this case was that the men 
 laid off discovered that it was the direct action of the 
 acting superintendent's retaliations upon them for 
 complaints uttered by them against him the day pre- 
 vious at the city meeting. The discharge of these 
 men was resented by the whole committee as a vio- 
 lation of Mr. Pullman's agreement with them. 
 
 Furthermore, the grievances were investigated dur- 
 ing the day, but were investigated on an ex parte basis. 
 The committee of investigation was composed, among 
 others, of Vice-President Wickes, General Manager 
 Brown, Manager Middleton, Chief Accountant 
 Wilde, Mr. Campbell of the Repair department 
 and Mr. Russell, leading counsel for the company. 
 No one appeared as a committee of defense for the 
 men, to see that their side was duly represented. 
 The grievances were made light of and treated as 
 trivial and inconsequential. Three men stated to me 
 
HO IV THE STRIKE BEGAN 37 
 
 personally that as they each came out of the Man- 
 ager's ofBce they respectively felt, to use their own 
 language, like a "set of fools." 
 
 In this condition of things, the employees met that 
 night (Thursday) in a secret all-night session com- 
 posed of about forty-six men representing the different 
 local unions. They voted unanimously, in view of 
 the unsatisfactory treatment they had received at the 
 hands of the Company, to strike the following Sat- 
 urday. It seems that in their midst was a spy; their 
 deliberations and decision reached the ears of the 
 company early Friday morning. They went to work 
 at 7 A. M. Abut 9 A. m. , intelligence was conveyed 
 to the leaders that their action was known to the 
 company and that the company had decided to lock 
 up the shops at the noon hour. It is claimed by the 
 men (whether true or not I do not know) that a 
 telegram from the city to lock up, was intercepted by 
 an operator in sympathy with the employees and 
 thus the word was given to them. Rather than have 
 a "lock-out" the men passed the word from one to an- 
 other to "walk out," which they did orderly and delib- 
 erately. About six hundred remained until the noon 
 hour, a few returned until the evening, when notices 
 were posted on the shop gates to the effect that the 
 shops would be closed indefinitely .and the works 
 closed down. Thus began the great Pullman strike. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHARACTER AND INCIDENTS OF THE STRIKE. 
 
 From the nth of May, 1894, until the present 
 writing (July 23rd, 1894) the Pullman strike has been 
 a remarkable exhibition of orderliness and correct 
 deportment. It has been a "model strike" so far as 
 Pullman is concerned. Up to the evening of July 
 5th, in the seventh week of the strike, not the slight- 
 est unusual infringement of law had taken place. The 
 universal comment was complimentary to the de- 
 corun>'of the strikers. For seven weeks the town 
 was quieter than at any other time in its history, 
 less drinking, less roystering, less noise, not even an 
 occasional fisticuffs encounter to enliven the monot- 
 ony of events. Even the patrol forgot to tear madly 
 through our streets as of old. 
 
 No wonder, for the strike leaders gave out repeat- 
 edly at their nightly meetings that order would be 
 positively enforced, and warning was given to keep 
 clear of the saloons in Kensington and Roseland. So 
 determined were the men that the property of the 
 Company should not be molested that they offered to 
 place a cordon of men around the shops to protect 
 them. On the evening of the 5th of July, when the 
 B8 
 
MURDER BY A MARSH/1L 39 
 
 "Boycott" of the American Railway Union against the 
 Pullman cars was at its height, the Illinois Central 
 railway having decided to run the mail train known 
 as the "Diamond Special," some difficulty occurred 
 at the Kensington depot, which resulted in the stop- 
 ping of the train. Later in the evening (about mid- 
 night) a mob of hoodlums and fellows of the "baser 
 sort" arriving from South Chicago, set fire to a num- 
 ber of Illinois Central freight cars about a mile north 
 of Pullman. The next morning a mob of the same 
 character gathered at Kensington, marched past 
 Pullman on the railroad track and overturned box 
 cars. A United States deputy by the name of Stark 
 fired wildly into the crowd. William Anolyn, an in- 
 nocent spectator about 250 feet from the scene, was 
 shot. Falling upon his face, he endeavored to rise, 
 when Stark, according to the deposition of eye wit- 
 nesses, advanced and deliberately fired a shot into 
 the back of the prostrate man. Two days thereafter 
 Anolyn died, as the result of the brutal deed. The 
 deputy is still at large. 
 
 Infuriated by this deed, the mob endeavored to lay 
 hands on the deputy marshal, but he was saved by 
 the interposition of the police. Great excitement 
 prevailed. Threatenings of every description filled 
 the air; rumors of various kinds floated all day 
 through the town. In the afternoon more cars near 
 Burnside were set on fire. In the evening the militia 
 arrived in Pullman and have remained to date. The 
 
40 BAIL Y PLATFORM MEETINGS 
 
 presence of the militia was salutary at the time, but 
 their long continued presence and the martial law to 
 which the town has been subjected, I believe, has 
 had a demoralizing effect upon the community. With 
 all due respect to the noble boys in blue, I yet be- 
 lieve that order could have been sustained by the local 
 authorities, and the moral conservatism of the best 
 elements among the strikers and citizens. 
 
 An interesting feature of the strike has been the 
 regular daily public meeting. For the first two weeks 
 these public gatherings were held afternoon and 
 evening. The afternoon meetings were dispensed 
 with, the meetings confined to the evening. The 
 proprietors of the Turner Hall, capable of accommo- 
 dating an audience of 800 to 1,000 persons, generously 
 donated the use of the room free of charge. As the 
 weather became warmer the meetings were held in 
 the open air, on an adjoining lot, a rude platform 
 having been improvised out of some old dry goods 
 boxes. Here, night after night, immense audiences 
 have gathered to listen to addresses from speakers 
 good, bad and indifferent. It was an open platform, 
 free for all, and many splendid addresses have been 
 delivered to the assembled strikers. All classes of 
 speakers were allowed to address the multitude, 
 among them several clergymen. The chairman, Mr. 
 Heathcote, endeavored as far as possible to curb the 
 utterances of those who became too radical in their 
 fiery denunciation of the wrongs perpetrated upon 
 
tVORK Or THE RELIEF COMMITTEE 41 
 
 the laborer by grinding corporations and monopolistic 
 combinations of wealth. 
 
 Early in the strike, the conduct of affairs was 
 vested in a committee known as the Central Strike 
 Committee, composed of members of each of the 
 local unions. Mr Heathcote is the chairman of the 
 committee, Mr R, W. Brown Vice-President, and Mr. 
 John Berry, Secretary. As chairman of this com- 
 mittee and as the representative spokesman of the 
 strikers, it is no more than fair to bespeak the high- 
 est praise for Mr. Heathcote, for the calm and care 
 ful manner in which he has performed the onerous 
 duties of his office. He and his associates have all 
 earned the good will of the general public of this and 
 the surrounding community, in endeavoring to pre- 
 serve order and decorum in the ranks of their fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 By far the most important feature of the strike has 
 been that of the Relief Committee, organized imme- 
 diately after the strike commenced. It has been in 
 active service ever since, and is the center of attrac- 
 tion to the vast army of strikers and their families. 
 Of this committee Mr. Frank Pollans is the obliging 
 and effective chairman ;Mr. J. J. Maguire the thoroughly 
 competent assistant; Miss May Woods has proved 
 herself to be an untiring and accomplished secretary, 
 and Mr. David V. Gladman, the trusted and efficient 
 treasurer. Associated with these friends has been a 
 well equipped and devoted corps of workers of every 
 
42 DONORS TO THE RELIEF FUND 
 
 description, whose energies have been taxed to their 
 utmost to meet the demands of their hungry and 
 necessitous fellows. 
 
 When the committee was organized, a call was 
 sent forth for food and money. The firm of Secord 
 and Hopkins of Kensington, of which Mayor Hopkins 
 is a partner, was the first to respond with the mag- 
 nificent gift of 25,000 pounds of fiour, 25,000 pounds 
 of meat, and the use for the benefit of the strikers of 
 a room above their store free of rent for the commit- 
 tee on care of the sick so long as the strike lasted. 
 At the same time a committee of ladies interested in 
 the cause of labor, led on by Mrs. Fanny Clarke 
 Kavanagh and Mrs. Dr. Charles D. Bradley of Chi- 
 cago, opened a store donated by the proprietors of 
 the Chicago Daily News, as the city headquarters 
 for the Pullman Strikers' Relief Fund. 
 
 From that day to this, from Chicago and all the 
 country, have come daily contributions of relief in 
 cash and provisions. The response of the public to 
 this fund has been remarkable, and has indicated 
 the widespread practical sympathy aroused through 
 the country on behalf of the suffering employees. 
 Among the cash contributions will be found amounts 
 from twenty-five cents to a thousand dollars Among 
 the larger cash contributions may be noted: Typo- 
 graphical Union No 16, $1,000; the A, A. of I. & S. 
 Workers, Lakeside Lodge No. 9, $686; Painters 
 and Decorators Union No. 147, $500; Carpenters' 
 
DONORS TO THE RELIEF FUND 43 
 
 Union No. 23, 100; Carpenter's Union No. r, $100; 
 Thirty-fourth Ward Republican Club,$ioi ; the people 
 of Hammond, Indiana, $500; Carpenters' Union of 
 Englewood, $100; United Turner Societies of Pull- 
 man, Kensington, and Roseland, $400; Western 
 Avenue Sewer Men, $77.50; Chicago Ticket Brokers' 
 Association, $y8; Chicago Typographical Union, 
 $200; Grand Crossing Police, $46; Hyde Park Water 
 Department, $29; Wood's Circus, $30; Picnic at 
 Gardener's Park, $15.38; Milk Dealer's Union, $85; 
 Hyde Park Liquor Dealers, $25; Fourteenth Pre- 
 cinct Police Station, $43; Spiegel's Home Furnish- 
 ing Company, $20; "The Leader," Chicago, $100; 
 "The Hub," Chicago, $200. The most princely gift 
 among the down-town establishments was that of 
 Siegel, Cooper & Co., who gave 200 barrels of flour 
 Brewers and Maltsters' Union No. 18, $50; Sv/edish 
 Concert, $50; Local Union 553, Fernwood, $78.25; 
 Chicago Fire Department, $909.75; German Sing- 
 ing Society, $140; cheque from Anaconda, Mont., 
 $250. 
 
 The donations of provisions have been legion; 
 everything imaginable, from a bottle of ink to a car 
 load of flour. No delicacies or luxuries, but the sub- 
 stantials of life were given in abundance. Among 
 the articles donated may be mentioned innumerable 
 sacks of flour, hams, potatoes, coffee, peas, soap, 
 milk, meat, one caddy of chewing tobacco and seven 
 pounds of smoking tobacco to solace the minds of 
 
44 MINOR FEATURES OF THE STRIKE 
 
 anxious strikers. From two firms came boxes of shirts, 
 and one Oppenheimer, realizing that strikers must 
 not go hatless, donated a box of hats. 
 
 To these gifts of cash and provisions must be added 
 the care of the sick. Three hundred dollars has 
 already been spent for the care of the sick. 
 In case of death the burial expenses aie paid 
 if necessary. Certain physicians of Pullman 
 and surrounding towns have kindly given their 
 services free of charge, and most of the druggists have 
 given donations of medicine. To summarize, the to- 
 tal amount of money (not including provisions) given 
 to the Relief Fund up to July 21st, 1894, was $15,- 
 000.00, the total expenses to same date, $14,000.00, 
 leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,000,00. Be- 
 sides this, Mr. S. Keliher, Secretary of the A. R. U., 
 has another $r, 000 subject to the order of the local 
 Central Committee. In the distribution of provisions, 
 the greatest care has been taken to see that justice is 
 equally dispensed to all. At this writing, 2,700 families 
 are being provided for, counting six to a family. 
 
 Some minor features of the strike may be noted. 
 It has naturally caused endless discussions pro and 
 con among the residents of the "model town." Class 
 distinctions have always been a marked feature of 
 the little community, and the influence of the strike 
 has only served to intensify these distinctions. Out- 
 side of the great mass of the employees and their 
 families there is a little coterie of individuals termed 
 
^VHITE RIBBONS AND FLAGS 45 
 
 in a late edition of the Chicago Evening Post, the 
 aristocratic element of the town, whose headquarters 
 may be called the beautiful little hostelry known as 
 the Florence Hotel, Here the officials and the elite 
 of the community assemble and discuss the situation. 
 Soon after the white ribbons were donned by the 
 striking employees and their sympathizers as sug- 
 gested by Mr. Debs, those who were opposed to the 
 strike wore a miniature American fiag. Does this 
 mean that they who wore the flag indicate thereby 
 that the striking employees are un-American endorsers 
 of lawlessness and anarchy? Does it mean that the 
 Pullman strikers are treasonable in their attitude of 
 a quiet and determined demand for justice and a fair 
 wage? Let it be remembered that no correspond- 
 ing town of its size in the country can boast of more 
 well organized, active, patriotic societies than the 
 town of Pullman,— the G. A. R., the P. O. S. of 
 A., the P. O. D. of A., the Sons of Veterans, etc. 
 There is as much if not more patriotic fervor for the 
 old flag and American institutions to the square inch 
 in Pullman than in any other town in the country. 
 And who is it that compose these organizations? It 
 is these very men and their wives and daughters who 
 are known as the Pullman strikers. As for me, I would 
 rather wear the white ribbon wtih the American flag 
 over it — American labor protected by the stars and 
 stripes in its demand for justice from the inhumanity 
 of grasping corporations. My friend Rev. F. Atch- 
 
46 IVHO ARE THE REAL PATRIOTS? 
 
 ison, pastor of the Hyde Park M. E. Church of 
 Chicago, spoke truly at a late mass meeting when 
 he said, referring to this subject, "The American flag 
 ought to be the best guaranty that an honest day's 
 work should receive an honest day's pay. If any 
 one class more than another was entitled to wear 
 and carry the American flag, it was the workingman. 
 The men who had borne the flag to victory in the 
 late war were American workingmen. They won free- 
 dom for all." The speaker said that if ever he went 
 on a strike he would wear both the white ribbon and 
 the American flag. At Pullman he had seen the white 
 ribbon and the G. A, R. button on the same breast, 
 and both emblems were in good company. These 
 are true words, and it may be well to add that there 
 are thirty-seven old soldiers among the Pullman 
 strikers who wear the Grand Army button. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FALLACIES IN PULLMAN'S STATEMENT. 
 
 So peculiar are the relations of the Pullman Com- 
 pany to the town of Pullman and its employees that 
 it is not an easy task to one unfamiliar with the sit- 
 uation to point out the sophistries and misleading 
 points in Mr, Pullman's statements to the public. 
 A gentleman, well known, a well known writer for 
 the press, remarked to me after carefully looking 
 over the ground, that it would be a very easy matter 
 to write up a strong argument in favor of the Pullman 
 Company, and on the other hand, an easy matter to 
 make out a strong case in favor of the employees. 
 But to give a fair and impartial statement, showing 
 wherein the Company had dealt wrongly with its em- 
 ployees, required a thorough knowledge of the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 This is true. There are three statements before the 
 public from the Pullman Company's standpoint. 
 The first was given on May 9th by Mr. Pullman to 
 his employees, in answer to their committee, who 
 waited on him two days before the strike. 
 
 The second was given to the public on June 12th 
 by the Company, just previous to the putting into 
 
 47 
 
48 EXCUSE FOR PUBLIC PREJUDICE 
 
 effect of the boycott on the Pullman cars by the Amer- 
 ican Railway Union, and the third statement was 
 given on July 13th by Mr. Pullman himself under 
 date of New York, in defense of his attitude in re- 
 fusing to arbitrate. These statements are all so 
 plausible upon their face that I am not at all surprised 
 that so many have been inclined to criticise the ac- 
 tion of the employees and endorse the apparently 
 magnanimous position of the Company. 
 
 Furthermore, the attitude of the Chicago press has 
 been such as to completely bewilder the thoughtful 
 and intelligent citizen who desires to know the truth, 
 and to poison the minds of that element in our midst 
 whose sympathies naturally gravitate to the side of 
 wealth. 
 
 I presume that if I had lived in Chicago instead of 
 Pullman, and knew nothing about the Pullman strike 
 except what I read in three of the leading Chicago 
 newspapers, I would have raised my hand in holy 
 horror against these wicked Pullman strikers and all 
 belonging to their side, and would have sustained 
 Mr. Pullman and his company. 
 
 But living as I do in Pullman, having studied the 
 situation carefully for two years, and being absolutely 
 independent of the company and employees, I know 
 enough to enable me to read between the lines of these 
 beautiful Pullman statements and note the fallacies of 
 their position. 
 
 I hold Mr. Pullman responsible for the whole situ- 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 49 
 
 ation by virtue of his presidency of the company, and 
 the marvelous influence he exercises over the whole 
 Pullman system. He is the King, and he demands to 
 the full measure of his capacity all that belongs to 
 the insignia of royalty. It is about as difficult for an 
 ordinary man, one of his employees, to see Mr. Pull- 
 man as for a subject of Russia to see the Czar. Every 
 official of his company is absolutely subject to his 
 authority. He expects it. He will have it. I have 
 been surprised to hear those who have sat in his 
 presence describe the lordly manner in which he 
 treats even those who are nearest to the throne. 
 Sometimes he meets with gentlemen among his 
 officials who object to this subserviency. Instances 
 have been related to me of gentlemen who have re- 
 belled against Mr. Pullman's absolutism and resigned 
 rather than endure it. Of course this is Mr. Pull- 
 man's right, but it seems to me that imperialism on 
 the part of a gentleman so powerful in influence as Mr, 
 Pullman is unpleasant to say the least, and capable 
 of producing harm whether intentional or not toward 
 those in authority under him. It is unfortunate to 
 work for a corporation realizing that if you once dis- 
 pute the will of the king, off goes your head. Im- 
 perialism on the part of the king, breeds imperialism 
 in the court. Even subordinates become infected 
 with the disease, and great harm is thereby produced 
 among the subjects. If the public will reflect upon 
 this they will see how, under a system like that upon 
 
50 CHE '^REGULAR IVEEKLY LETTER" 
 
 which PuUman is founded, great dissatisfaction can 
 easily be produced among the employees. Upon 
 careful examination I find in conversation with the 
 employees that one half the trouble in the shops has 
 been produced by unfair and tyrannical dealing on 
 the part of certain foremen and others in the local 
 administration. Mr. Pullman certainly must be aware 
 of these things, and, if so, why did he not see that 
 they were remedied long ago? If he did not hear 
 of or know these things, then somebody has either 
 willfully misrepresented the true state of affairs to 
 him, or colored the statements to suit themselves. 
 I am in a position to know that information of every- 
 thing going on in the town of Pullman, social, polit- 
 ical, shop talk, town talk of any importance, and so 
 on, is conveyed by letter every week to headquarters 
 from the town proper. I have no objection to that. 
 But still I don't like it. I accept it as a peculiarity 
 of the system upon which the town is established. 
 For instance, during my first year as pastor a certain 
 unfortunate occurrence took place in connection with 
 a gentleman, a member of my church and an em- 
 ployee. Before the week was out, I was roused from 
 my sleep one night by a gentleman in the employ of 
 the Company, who, in the presence of my wife and 
 myself, took a stenographic report of the affair. The 
 gentleman informed me that it was necessary to have 
 a correct report so that he could embody it in his 
 regular weekly letter to the president. That was 
 
TYRyimilCAL PETTY OFFICIALS 51 
 
 an eye-opener to me. I dislike espionage. But as 
 long as it is a part of the system, it's all right, and 
 I will not complain. But it produces unpleasant re- 
 flections. 
 
 From this standpoint, I hold Mr. Pullman respon- 
 sible for the situation. But while I do so, I am ready 
 to allow that perhaps he was not cognizant of the 
 true state of affairs from the reason assigned above. 
 I do not hesitate, however, to place a large measure 
 of responsibility upon the general and local manage- 
 ment. The authority vested in officials of such a 
 large corporation as this, gives opportunity for the 
 exercise of great power. When a few officials are 
 given the right to employ or discharge men, to set 
 the prices of labor and to decide a thousand questions 
 concerning the details of a vast business indissolubly 
 connected with the welfare and financial prospects of 
 3,000 men, I contend that such officials should be ab- 
 solutely free from favoritism, tyrannical dealing, or 
 unfairness. While I make all allowance for motives 
 of jealousy and anger, still I submit it to the public 
 and to the directors and president of the Company, 
 if it be not reasonable to believe that favoritism, tyr- 
 anny and unfairness do exist in the local manage- 
 men, when 2,000 men universally declare such to be 
 the case. 
 
 Let us note some points in Mr. Pullman's state- 
 ments. Point I. — He says: 
 
 "A little more than a year ago the shops at Pull- 
 
52 AMOUNT OF SAVINGS DEPOSITS 
 
 man were in a prosperous condition; work was plenty, 
 wages were high and the condition of the employees 
 was indicated by the fact that the local savings bank 
 had of savings deposits nearly $700,000, of which 
 nearly all was the property of the employees," 
 
 "A little more than a year ago" would take us back 
 to June, 1893, According to the Report of the Pull- 
 man Loan & Savings Bank for July 25, 1893, as pub- 
 lished in the Pullman Journal, the official organ of 
 the Pullman Company, there was in liabilities, the 
 following: 
 
 Capital stock paid in $ 100,000.00 
 
 Surplus fund 75,000.00 
 
 Undivided profits 27,252.83 
 
 Savings deposits subject to notice... 631,354.25 
 
 Individual deposits subject to check. 368,365.76 
 
 Demand certificates of deposit 2,538.26 
 
 Certified checks 40.00 
 
 Cashier's checks outstanding 2,972.94 
 
 Total. $1,207,524 04 
 
 According to the above, there is a slight difference 
 between Mr. Pullman's $700,000 and the bank state- 
 ment on "Savings deposits." Merely a matter of $68,- 
 645.75. Now the question arises, was the $631,354.25 
 entirely the amount deposited by the employees, 
 mechanics and laborers.? It is a well known fact 
 that some of the officials are depositors in the local 
 bank. The salaries of these gentlemen are large, 
 many of the heads of departments draw good pay, 
 and these naturally deposit in this bank. Further- 
 more, the local storekeepers are depositors also. 
 
l^ALLACIES INMA\ PULLMAN'S ESTIMATES 53 
 
 Many storekeepers in Roseland, Kensington and 
 Gano deposit therein, also treasurers of lodges. One 
 gentleman in the employ of the company is said to 
 have $30,000.00 deposited. I am acquainted with 
 one employee, who informed me that he sold his farm 
 in an adjacent state before coming here, and deposited 
 $3,000.00 therein. If all or any of this was counted 
 as the savings of employees, then it would be com*- 
 paratively easy to make such a glowing statement. 
 While I presume that part of the above enumerated 
 items were credited as "individual deposits subject 
 to check," still I hold that some of them were credited 
 to "savings" deposits. And further, there are many 
 working pe ople not employed by the Pullman Com- 
 pany who place "savings deposits" in the Pullman 
 Bank because of its reliability. 
 
 If, for illustration, I deposit $10.00 to-day on my 
 own account as savings, and to-morrow deposit 
 $200.00 on my own account, money entrusted to 
 me by my church to meet future expenses, it would 
 not be fair to reckon my account as "savings de- 
 posits" of the employees, and base a statement there- 
 on for the general public. As a matter of informa- 
 tion, and an interesting fact connected with the 
 subject under discussion, I am informed by a gentle- 
 man well qualified to speak, that among the employees, 
 the class who save the m.ost money out of their wages 
 are the common laborers. The foreign elemxent in 
 our midst are far more saving than our native Amer- 
 
54 SURPLUS /ih!D ST^Rl^ATIOhl 
 
 ican mechanics. They hve, many of them, as an 
 American mechanic would not wish to Hve, and con- 
 sequently save more money out of their scant earnings 
 than our mechanics. 
 
 Again, if $700,000 indicated the amount actually 
 belonging to the employees in 1893, then how is it 
 that they were in arrears, as the Company elsewhere 
 afiirm, $70,000 on rent at the time of the strike, May 
 1894? If the employees were worth $700,000 in 
 August 1893, and in May 1894 had not only drawn it 
 all out of the bank, but were $70,000 in arrears on 
 rent besides, it certainly proves that their v^^ages were 
 so small that they were gradually moving toward the 
 "starvation wage" point, as affirmed so often by the 
 employees, I make no pretenses as a financier, but 
 I know right from wrong. This statement, thought- 
 fully pondered by the public, from my point of view 
 looks serious, when we remember the vast wealth of 
 this company, the great surplus at its command (for 
 one year only, 1892, $3,250, 389.07), its two per cent 
 quarterly dividend ($600,000) over and above all ex- 
 penses, and then think of its cruel cutting of the 
 wages of its employees. 
 
 A visitor came to this town last summer, made his 
 home at the luxurious Florence Hotel, and forthwith 
 sat down and wrote a little pamphlet entitled, "The 
 Story of Pullman," in which, after eulogizing it as a 
 "town that is bordered with bright beds of flowers 
 and green velvety stretches of lawn, shaded with 
 
JlbLPFbL COMBINATION, MUTUAL RECOGNIIION 65 
 
 trees, and dotted with parks and pretty water vistas, 
 and glimpses here and there of artistic sweeps of land- 
 scape gardening; a town, in a word, where all that 
 is ugly and discordant and demoralizing is eliminated, 
 and all that inspires to self-respect is generously pro- 
 vided," he closes his book stating that the town of 
 Pullman "has illustrated the helpful combination of 
 Capital and Labor without strife or stultification, 
 upon the lines of mutual recognition." This book is 
 endorsed by the company and is handed to every 
 visitor to Pullman who desires a copy. Now if, the 
 times are so depressing as to compel the employees 
 who have been long faithful to the company to eat 
 up their little savings, why, if this company believes 
 in "mutual recognition," do they not themselves bear 
 a little of this burden of "depressing times?" Why 
 does not Mr. Pullman stand before his board of di- 
 rectors, who represent the 3,246 stockholders of the 
 Pullman Company, of which, 1,800 control the funds 
 of educational and charitable institutions, and of 
 which 1,494 are women, among them, as we are told, 
 Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, and demand of them 
 upon the basis of morality and right that instead of 
 declaring a quarterly dividend of 2 per cent in 
 these terribly depressed times, they declare a divi- 
 dend of one and one-half per cent, and place the 
 $114,000, representing the other one-half percent, to 
 the credit of the pay roll? 
 
 This may not be "business," but it would be "mu- 
 
56 IVH/IT THB SPRINGFIELD RCPUBLiCAN S/lYS 
 
 tual recognition." While the PuHman Company claims 
 on the one hand that its whole system is purely finan- 
 cial, with not one ounce of real philanthropic blood 
 flowing through its veins (which is certainly true of 
 its non-arbitrating President), still it has caused thou- 
 sands of dollars' worth of complimentary literature to 
 be scattered abroad for these many years, throughout 
 the country, like the above pamphlet, giving a quasi- 
 endorsement to the alleged fact that the town is estab- 
 lished as a solution of the industrial problem upon 
 the basis of "mutual recognition." In support of 
 my position on this matter, I quote entire an edito- 
 rial taken from the columns of the Daily Repicblican, 
 of Springfield, Mass., under date of Wednesday, July 
 II. It hits the nail on the head. It is gratifying to 
 learn that my position is not altogether Utopian, and 
 is supported by one of the most reliable journals of 
 the country: 
 
 PULLMAN PROFITS AND WAGES. 
 
 "After the smoke of the present battle has cleared 
 away, the merits of the original controversy between 
 Mr. Pullman and his employees will remain as a sub- 
 ject of some public inquiry and discussion. Closely 
 bearing on this point is the financial condition of the 
 Pullman Company. Its operations for the last two 
 full fiscal years, ending July 31, resulted as follows: — ■ 
 
PHENOMENAL PROFITS OP THE COMPANY 57 
 
 1892. 1893. 
 
 Earnings, $8,061,081 $9,200,685 
 
 Royalties, profits, etc., 1,941,275 2,189,211 
 
 Total revenue, $10,002,356 $11,389,896 
 
 Operating expenses, $3,438,863 $3,825,940 
 
 Other expenses, 1,013,104 1,037,508 
 
 Dividends on stock, 2,300,000 2,520,000 
 
 Surplus, $3,250,389 $4,006,448 
 
 "Thus, after declaring a dividend on the stock of 8 
 per cent, the company had left a surplus in 1893 
 large enough to have warranted an extra dividend of 
 over 10 per cent, and in 1892 it could have declared 
 an extra dividend of 8 per cent, above the 8 per cent 
 actually divided. Ever since 1876 this company has 
 paid dividends of from 8 to 9 1-2 per cent, and rare 
 has been the year in which it has not carried a large 
 sum to the surplus account, which in the main has 
 not been invested in the plant of the company, and 
 is presumably available in large part for division 
 among the stockholders — an aggregate sum to date 
 of some $24,000,000, or within $12,000,000 of the 
 entire amount of capital invested from the stock. 
 Mr. Pullman personally is a very wealthy man, said 
 to be worth some $25,000,000. 
 
 "This is a very remarkable showing of profits from 
 manufacturing industry. Its parallel for richness is 
 hardly to be found in the country, outside of the sugar 
 trust and one or two other combinations. It cannot 
 be found among the railroads or among any of the 
 ordinary manufacturing or mercantile enterprises. 
 It is the biggest gold mine probably uncovered in the 
 country before the advent of the 'trust' idea. 
 
 "When the great strike and riots of 1877 were 
 precipitated by a reduction of 10 per cent in the 
 
58 IVHY SHOULD L/IBOR STAND ALL THE LOSS? 
 
 wages of the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 and other roads, Mr. Garrett's company was paying 
 lo per cent on its stock; and The Republican held 
 at the time that the company should have put at least 
 a part of the reduction upon capital^ reducing the 
 dividend rate to, say, 9 per cent, after which wages 
 might be brought into consideration. And at that 
 time 10 per cent on money was far less above the 
 general average of rates than it is to-day. 
 
 "It maybe a question, therefore, for philanthropists 
 and labor reformers to consider, whether Mr. Pull- 
 man, in view of the extraordinary profits he and his 
 company were accumulating, was or was not morally 
 bound to share more generously with his men in the 
 effects of the hard times. He believes in paternalistic 
 methods, and has put them in operation at his works 
 to a degree not equaled anywhere else in America. 
 What could be more in consonance with this policy 
 than at such a time to dip back into the surplus of 
 $4,000,000 made in the single previous year and keep 
 up the wages of employees who are so carefully housed 
 and otherwise looked after as so many dependents 
 at Pullman? It may not be true in other cases, but 
 it is certainl}' true of such a system of paternalism, 
 that wage reductions can not be justified in the face 
 of such profits as the Pullman Company exhibits," 
 
 Point 2. Take another item in Mr. Pullman's 
 statement. He says: "Our pay rolls for that year 
 (1893) show an average earning of over $600 per an- 
 num for every person, man, woman or youth, on the 
 roll." 
 
 Following the reasoning adopted above, it might 
 be asked, Was this estimate based upon the earn- 
 ings of mechanics and laborers alone .-• The local 
 
CONTRACTS TAKEN AT A LOSS 5S 
 
 Pullman pay roll is said to include all except the 
 manager and assistant manager. The pay roll includes 
 the large clerical force, heads of departments, all 
 monthly hands, foremen, etc. Then, again, let the 
 general public remember that included in the earnings 
 of these men for 1893 was the immense amount of 
 money earned for over- time. The winter of 1893 
 was one of the busiest in the history of the company. 
 The employees labored day and night. For weeks 
 at a time I did not see the men connected with my 
 church, except on the Sabbath. The employees, of 
 course, were allowed extra pay for the over-time, and 
 this naturally swelled the amount of the pay-roll. 
 This, of course, would make it easy to estimate the 
 above. 
 
 Point J. Mr. Pullman also says in his statement 
 that he took certain contracts for building cars at a 
 loss and that he did so simply to keep his men em- 
 ployed. 
 
 There is no doubt and never has been in the 
 minds of his employees that he took certain contracts 
 at a loss. Behind this statement, which has gone forth 
 all over the country, Mr. Pullman has maintained 
 an apparently impregnable position; and the public 
 naturally says: "How can Mr. Pullman pay the wages 
 of 1893, while at the same time he is losing money on 
 certain contracts for building cars.?" 
 
 But it must be borne in mind that the great bulk 
 of work done in the Pullman shops was the repairing 
 
60 MOST OF THE WORK REPAIRS 
 
 of old cars shipped in from all over the country; cars 
 that had been doing service for fhe World's Fair 
 traffic. It is safe to say that sixty per cent of the 
 work done in the shops at the time of the strike was 
 repair work, and not new work. The repair work 
 was Mr. Pullman's own work, done by him under con- 
 tract with the railroad corporations running his cars. 
 When their employees were cut 33 1-3 per cent, in 
 some cases 40 per cent and in others 50 per cent, it 
 was for work done not only on the comparatively small 
 amount of new contracts in the shops, but principally 
 on the repairing of old cars. Furthermore, I under- 
 stand that a certain amount of this repair work is 
 done at the expense of the railroads running the cars. 
 Of course the company, while it cuts wages, does 
 not repair cars foV the roads at a less figure than 
 heretofore on account of "hard times." 
 
 Let the public also bear in mind that while the 
 girls employed in the laundry department of the 
 great shops (no small part of the business) were cut 
 in their wages, nevertheless the price of berths on 
 the Pullman Palace cars was not reduced to the gen- 
 eral public. If you ate your dinner in a Pullman 
 Palace Car, and wiped your mustache upon a Pull- 
 man napkin, laundered by these girls, you did not 
 have to pay less for your dinner as a result of their 
 reduction in wages! 
 
 It seems that there is another side of this loss of 
 money on contracts. An interview with one of the 
 
Wis BY MISM/fNAGEMENT 61 
 
 brightest men ever in the employ of the Pullman 
 Company, indicates to me that while money has been 
 lost on a few contracts, and wages thereby cut, still 
 thousands of dollars were squandered in the shops last 
 year by mismanagement. For instance, suppose 
 there was a loss per car of a certain amount. It is 
 thought that the system of keeping tally on all lum- 
 ber used in car construction is faulty. Word comes 
 to change the whole system. That change does not 
 remedy the evil, is, on the contrary, productive of a 
 lot of useless red-tape, and the result is that there is 
 a change that involves a practical loss of $9 to $10 
 per car. My informant further states that during the 
 winter of 1893, when the shops were running night 
 and day in certain departments, machinery would 
 run for hours without any actual work, merely be- 
 cause of some notion from headquarters. Changes in 
 machinery and constructions of machinery were 
 made, regardless of cost and, in the estimation of 
 my practical informant, unnecessarily. Further, he 
 declares that the engineer's office, departments of 
 estimate and figures on construction of cars, is a useless 
 expense (as it was then run), entailing a drain of 
 $2,000 per month at least on the Company's 
 exchequer. Probably these losses may have had 
 something to do with the reduction of wages. If so, it 
 would have been more just to have laid the responsi- 
 bility where it belonged and cut gentlemen with high 
 salaries rather than take it out of the "wage-earners." 
 
62 SEN/fTOR SHERMAN "5 OPINION 
 
 So peculiar are the methods of the Pullman Com- 
 pany in transacting its business, that the attention of 
 Congress was not long ago called to it by no less a 
 personage than Senator Sherman, of Ohio. To 
 quote the language of a Washington correspon- 
 dent of the Inier Ocean, it seems that the movement 
 was "initiated in the Senate before the strike began, 
 and it had been a subject of serious consideration by 
 Mr. Sherman for many years. He proposes, in short, 
 that the Pullman Company shall be brought within 
 the provisions of the interstate commerce act, and 
 that Congress shall enact a law requiring that cor- 
 poration to give the public better accommodations at 
 lower rates. He would require the Pullman Company 
 to keep the upper berths up if not sold, and would 
 reduce rates one half. The subject is one as to 
 which there is very likely to be a unanimity of senti- 
 ment in Congress, The Pullman Company has so 
 widely advertised its disposition to charge extortionate 
 rates and to refuse to accommodate the public, that if 
 Mr. Sherman shall press his measure, that corporation 
 will find that it will not have a state legislature to 
 deal with." 
 
 Senator Sherman said to this correspondent: 
 
 "I regard these rates as simply infamous. It is 
 outrageous for us to be compelled to pay such high 
 prices for such poor accommodations as we receive 
 in our trips to and fro about the country. They 
 give you a short, narrow berth, so close and uncom- 
 fortable that in many cases one would rather sit up 
 
A MOST OUTRAGEOUS MONOPOLY G3 
 
 all night than submit to the inconveniences of the 
 compartment. If you get a lower berth and no one 
 has the upper, the porter insists upon putting down 
 the lid and so increasmg your misery rather than 
 giving you the benelit of the air. I do not know why 
 this is so, unless it is an effort on the part of the com- 
 pany to make their prestige all the greater and the 
 more unendurable. 
 
 "I regard the Pullman Company and the sugar 
 trust as the most outrageous monopolies of the day. 
 They make enormous profits, and give their patrons 
 little or nothing in return in proportion. It is per- 
 fectly clear to me that there is a way to reach the 
 sleeping-car problem with ease through government 
 action. States have in many instances adopted reg- 
 ulations intended to reduce the evil of extortionate 
 charges on the railroads, but there are few, if any, 
 railroads that run sleepers through but one state, 
 and thus these laws are of no avail, for nc state can 
 regulate any corporations beyond its own limits. 
 
 "The United States can easily control the charges 
 for sleepers, just as the railway fares have been reg- 
 ulated by means of the interstate commerce law. I 
 believe that that act has been amply enforced without 
 very much trouble, and I can see no reason why a 
 similar act should not be passed with reference to the 
 sleeping-car problem. A bill of a dozen lines would 
 suffice, fixing the rate per mile to be charged by these 
 companies and providing a penalty for overcharging. 
 I think the rates should be reduced one-half. The 
 Pullman Company, for instance, is very rich, made so 
 by the enormous and disproportionate profits on its 
 cars. With half that profit the company could make 
 a great deal of money and give the public better 
 service. 
 
 "Perhaps you do not know, but it is nevertheless 
 a fact, that the Pullman Company charges each 
 
64 A SPECIMEN OF PETTY EXTOR TION 
 
 railroad running its cars a cent a mile for every car, and 
 this goes into the pockets of Pullman in addition to 
 the rates paid by the passenger. For instance, be- 
 tween New York and Chicago the railroad pays about 
 $io for each sleeper run, and the Pullman Company 
 gets several times that sum in addition from the pub- 
 lic. That $10 paid by the railroad is counted into 
 the running expenses of the road, and is eventually 
 paid by the passenger in the fare he gives for his ride. 
 So the traveler pays twice, in reality, for his ques- 
 tionable accommodations on board a sleeper, I feel 
 these heavy rates myself frequently, for when we go 
 out to our home in Ohio we have to pay, for my wife, 
 my daughter and myself, as much for sleeper rates as 
 for the entire railroad fares. The berths are so close 
 and uncomfortable that we have to spread out over a 
 good deal of space in order to avoid being made ill by 
 the journey." 
 
 The Senator also referred to the question of tip- 
 ping as a species of petty extortion. He continued: — 
 
 "It is a small matter in the individual case, but 
 it is an extortion to pay the porter for each trip you 
 take. The trouble is that these men are not paid 
 enough by the company. If they were paid adequate 
 salaries the passengers would not be obliged to come 
 forward to help them out. I really think the men 
 need the money in most cases, and I always give, be- 
 cause I do not want to feel or to appear mean about 
 the matter. There is a sort of compulsion about it, 
 though, that is very disagreeable, and it could all be 
 avoided." 
 
 Another matter referred to by the Senator is inter- 
 esting reading: 
 
 "There is one matter that should not be overlooked 
 in this consideration. The main patents on these 
 
RAILROADS SHOULD MAKE THEIR OIVN CARS 65 
 
 sleepers have expired, and there is no reason why the 
 railroads should not begin now to make and run their 
 own cars. I was acquainted with the original inventor 
 of the sleeping car, who is now dead. He was obliged 
 to sell out to the Pullman Company and they have held 
 the monopoly with great care. The first patents have 
 now, I believe, run out, and although the Pullmans 
 have taken out letters for some improvements, I think 
 it would be perfectly easy for the monopoly to be 
 broken. I think that this abuse can be reached, and 
 I propose to press this matter to some sort of conclu- 
 sion. It seems to me that the American people l^ave 
 suffered uncomplainingly long enough, especially as 
 there is a remedy at hand." 
 
 I may be regarded as presumptuous in quoting as 
 freely from Senator Sherman's interview. The same 
 sentiments have been expressed by the Pullm.an 
 strikers individually and upon the public platform. 
 But when uttered by a United States Senator they 
 carry with them a weight of influence far beyond that 
 given to them by the poor wage-earner. It is pleasant 
 to have a United States Senator on your side. And, 
 moreover, it is good to quote that powerful journal 
 the Inter Ocean, as uttering sentiments in harmony 
 with those entertained by the Pullman strikers. So 
 cruel and fearfully unjust has been the attitude of this 
 newspaper to the labor man and the Pullman em- 
 ployees in particular, during the past nine weeks, 
 that it is like an oasis in the desert to quote it against 
 this grinding and "nothing to arbitrate" corporation. 
 
 It seems to me that even if Mr. Pullman did take 
 contracts for new work at a loss, this did not, in 
 
G6 NO NEED TO INSPECT THE BOOKS 
 
 view of the foregoing facts, form a valid excuse for 
 the continual cutting of wages. Money was lost, I 
 have no doubt, in prosperous times, not on the net 
 labor and material, but "because afterward a snug 
 sum of 'general expense' — cf a fancy plant, salaries 
 of clerks, superintendents, and all attaches of the 
 general office— were thrown into the bill of contract," 
 to say nothing about the immense losses and waste 
 in experimenting. But the company can take con- 
 tracts — "lose money" — and miake it back in money 
 through rental. 
 
 Point 4.. Mr. Pullman offered to allow the em- 
 ployees the privilege of inspectmg his books. 
 
 This is true, but the employees had no need to con- 
 sult his books. There may have been a few who did 
 not believe he lost money on certain contracts, but 
 the majority of them accepted his statement as cor- 
 rect. There were those, however, who believed that 
 in some way or other the books were "doctored" to 
 suit the Company's side of the question, and still 
 others that there was a double set of books kept by 
 the company which would make it impossible to get 
 at the facts in the case. While this may not be true, 
 still it indicates the suspicious condition of mind en- 
 gendered by the Company's past treatment of its em- 
 ployees. ' And further, wdth such a complicated and 
 intricate system of bookkeeping as that of the Pullman 
 Company, how could working-men be expected to 
 arrive at conclusions therefrom .'' 
 
MR. PULLMAN'S INGENIOUS EP'ASION 67 
 
 Point s. In his final statement Mr. Pullman re- 
 fers to the question of arbitration, and very ingeni- 
 ously evades the whole question at issue. He says: 
 
 "How could I, as president of the Pullman com- 
 olny, consent to agree that if any body of men not 
 mocerned with the interests of the company's share- 
 aeders shou!d, as arbitrators, for any reasons seem- 
 g% good to them, so decree, I would open the shops, 
 nnploy workmen at wages greater than their work 
 tould 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 sub- 
 ject of arbitration? Is it not, then, unreasonable 
 that the company should be asked to arbitrate whether 
 or not it should submit such a question to arbitration ?" 
 
 Now, it was never asked of Mr. Pullman that he 
 consent to arbitration with the condition attached that 
 he open his shops and employ his men at wages 
 greater than their work could be sold for. Nor was 
 he asked to continue his ruinous policy indefinitely. 
 When approached by the Committee of the Com- 
 mon Council, all that was asked of him was arbitra- 
 tion on the question as to whether or not there was 
 anything to arbitrate. If his position was right, 
 then he had nothing to fear. It is absurd to attempt 
 to treat the relation between a giant corporation and 
 its army of organized workmen quite on the old 
 simple footing of one employer and his one hired 
 man. Arbitration alone can settle these difficulties. 
 I submit if here is not a basis of arbitration: i. 
 Less cut in wages. 2. Reduction of rents. 3. 
 Equalization of wages. 4. Reform of abuses prac- 
 ticed in the shops. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CUTTING WAGES. 
 
 Let the general public remember one thing which 
 has caused the Pullman employees to stand in a wrong 
 light before the world. They are quoted as wanting 
 the wages of '93 for work done at a loss. When the 
 employees agreed to ask for the wages of '93 they did 
 what a great many people do, they intended to ask for 
 a certain thing and failing in that t o compromise on 
 what they really did want. They felt their cause 
 was just and if they failed to get the restoration of the 
 scale of 1893, they expected that the Company would 
 agree to lessen the severity of the cut in wages (say 
 to make it about 25 per cent, instead of 33 1-2 per 
 cent), and then to reduce their rents, equalize their 
 wages, and change the innumerable petty abuses to 
 which they were being subjected in the shops. Mr. 
 Pullman, however, was too sharp for them, and in- 
 stead of generously and openly deciding to do what 
 every just person agrees ought to have been done, he 
 found it very convenient to take the men at their 
 word and, without any compromise, evade the main 
 issue under the specious plea of not being able to 
 
 68 
 
lVy4GES yIND RENTS ABOUT EQUAL 6& 
 
 pay wages of '93 on the basis of losing contracts. 
 
 It is generally agreed that the maximum average 
 wage paid at the time of the strike was $1.90, As 
 to the lowest wages, it is dif^cult to average. The 
 wages are paid every two weeks. Two checks are . 
 given to each employee — one a rent check, the other 
 a pay check. Wages are paid at the bank. When 
 they go to the bank to receive their two weeks' pay 
 the half month's rent is taken out, and the pay check 
 cashed. The scenes enacted at the bank during last 
 winter were pitiable. Not only was the current rent 
 urgently demanded, but back rent was asked for under 
 circumstances in many cases entirely uncalled for. 
 After deducting rent the men invariably had only 
 from one to six dollars or so on which to live for two 
 weeks. One man has a pay check in his possession 
 of iivo cents after paying rent. He has never cashed 
 it, preferring to keep it as a memento. He has it 
 framed, Another I saw the other day, iox seven cents. 
 It was dated September, '93, The man had worked 
 as a skilled mechanic at ten hours a day for twelve 
 days, and earned $9.07. He keeps a widowed mother, 
 and pays the rent, the house being in his name. His 
 half month's rent amounted to $9.00, The seven cents 
 was his, but he has never claimed it. Another em- 
 ployee had 47 cents coming to him on his pay check, 
 and then was asked if he would not apply that on his 
 back rent. He was indignant. He replied: "If Mr. 
 Pullman needs that 47 cents worse than I do, let him 
 have it," He left it. 
 
W NO REDUCTION IN RENTS 
 
 Many employees took advantage of the present law 
 governing wages, and retained a part and sometimes 
 all their rent money to sustain their families. Thus 
 it was that the employees fell in arrears in rent to the 
 extent of $70,000. 
 
 The average cut in wages was 33 1-3 per cent; in 
 some cases it was as much as 40 per cent, and in 
 many was fifty per cent. These cuts in wages with- 
 out corresponding reduction in rents were very severe, 
 and largely produced the dissatisfaction which re- 
 sulted in the strike. 
 
 As for those who had always earned good wages 
 and were living in the better class of houses,these cuts 
 bore down upon them with increasing severity. One 
 man, an expert in certain kinds of work, not neces- 
 sary to mention, as it might injure him, v/as cut from 
 thirty-five cents an hour to twenty-three cents, and 
 was about to be cut lower. These wages, even when 
 cut, were not so bad, but the great trouble in so many 
 cases was they could not put in full time. This man, 
 all through the winter,earned just barely enougli each 
 pay day to meet his rent. His wife, taking in board- 
 ers and room,ers,was thus able to keep the wolf from 
 the door. A first-class mechanic worked ten hours 
 a day for two weeks and then only earned $9.90. 
 Laborers in the fall and winter earned nine cents an 
 hour shifting lumber. 
 
 In this whole question of wages the public must 
 bear in mind that the wage difficulty was not the 
 
IVAGES NOT THE IVHOLE TROUBLE 71 
 
 whole trouble. Other things being equal, the men 
 could have borne with more grace the' reduction of 
 wages. But there was personal abuse and tyrannical 
 dealing in the shops, no reduction of rents, the 
 loss of time, and a hundred minor abuses inherent in 
 the system, that make the question of wages in Pull- 
 man different to that found in any other place. There 
 is but one town of Pullman in America, and that is 
 sui generis. 
 
 While all the employees were cut in wages, many 
 were still able to live, gentlemen as they are, who 
 on principle, were willing to bear almost anything 
 rather than complain. A goodly number had no 
 particular complaint at all, but while opposed to the 
 strike, they were in hearty sympathy with those upon 
 whom the burden of the cut was most severe. The 
 cuts seemed to fall unequally on different classes of 
 employees, the scale was changed so often that the 
 men were in a constant condition of wonderment as 
 to what would be the next move. The worst feature 
 was that while the most of the work was done by 
 piece work rather than time work, they did not have 
 the opportunity to put in full time. For two or three 
 months in the winter the hours of labor were seven 
 hours a day. Later, as work increased, the time in- 
 creased to ten hours per day. The employees com- 
 plained bitterly of their loss of time, all through the 
 winter. I heard it on every side. In a large estab- 
 lishment like the Pullman Shops there must necessa- 
 
73 INSPECTORS AND MORE INSPECTORS 
 
 rily be a large force of foremen, under foremen, sub- 
 bosses, as well as heads of departments and higher 
 officials. Instead of decreasing these foremen and 
 under bosses, while cutting wages, these sub-bosses 
 and inspectors were increased to such an extent as 
 to make it positively unbearable in certain depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The employees were cut on an average of 33 1-2 
 per cent in their wages, many of them 40 per cent 
 and not a few 50 percent. Trimmers were compelled 
 to work on a car by contract so low, that after the 
 wages was worked out, it would take three to five days 
 to finish the car, and not one cent allowed to them 
 thereon. First-class mechanics would work ten 
 hours a day for two weeks and receive $9 90. La- 
 borers were known to labor for nine cents an hour 
 for ten hours' work, and earn the glorious sum of 
 ninety cents per day. Inspectors or sub-bosses were 
 placed over little gangs of men, to see that the same 
 quality of work was squeezed out of the already cruelly 
 reduced employees, as they had always been doing. 
 It was, therefore, not surprising in many cases that 
 the wages were so low that with the high rents they 
 could not live. 
 
 Let me illustrate by the case of a mechanic em- 
 ployed in the iron department He works on a cer- 
 tain machine. 
 
 He earned $1.40 per day. If he has full time 
 (which he has not) he earns $36.40 in one month. 
 
FORTY-NINE CENTS A DAY 73 
 
 We will say that he is a married man and occupies a 
 flat of five rooms, for which he pays $14. 50 per month. 
 This leaves him $21.90 to clothe, feed and otherwise 
 provide for his family, or about eighty-four cents per 
 day. He can get another flat for $12 50, in a house 
 having four flats to the building, on another street. 
 He can live in the tenement blocks for $9.00 
 or $7.00. But what man who desires to bring up 
 his family aright desires to live there? 
 
 You can make the same calculation upon the basis 
 of $1.85, which all agree was the average wages paid 
 at the time of the strike. Out of that $1.85 per day 
 you must deduct rent and water rate, on the basis 
 of $18.50 plus/i cents, $17.00 plus 7i>cents, $14.50 
 plus 50 cents, $12.50 plus 50 cents, $6.50 plus 50 
 cents, $8.60 plus 50 cents, brickyards $8.00, Before 
 drawing conclusions, read chapter on rents, and see 
 what your intelligent American mechanic gets in re- 
 turn for the above rents, and which kind of rent he 
 will be most likely to come under. 
 
 One man, a common laborer with a family to sup- 
 port, said he received for the days he was given work 
 forty-nine cents a day. His rent for the month, in- 
 cluding water rates, was $8.21. There was left out of 
 his pay check less than $3 with which to support his 
 family. 
 
 One of the blacksmiths who was at the works for 
 years says he, when at work, earned forty-five cents 
 in six hours. When the Pullman Company's ultima- 
 
74 A BLACKSMITH STARVED OUT 
 
 turn was given that the strikers must go to work at the 
 reduced rates or leave Pulhnan, he declared that he 
 would leave, because if he had to starve he wouldn't 
 starve and wear out his clothes at the same time at 
 Pullman's anvil. He and his companions, he said, 
 were among the first to get out. 
 
 Another man, a few days before the strike, got a pay 
 check for his month! s labor which came forty-five 
 cents short of balancing his rent account. A bill for 
 its balance was made out and the collector was sent 
 with it to his house for payment. What this man was 
 going to live on until his next pay check and riext 
 month's rent were due, he didn't know, and he did not 
 require much persuasion to quit. 
 
 The blacksmiths, who formerly made from $4 a day 
 upwards, say that at the time they went on strike, 
 after three cuts in their wages within six weeks, they 
 could not average more than $1 a day. One of 
 them, a man who is counted one of the best opera- 
 tors in the shop, was only able to make $1.03 in 
 three days. 
 
 Carvers, who are a very high grade of skilled arti- 
 sans and who generally receive high wages, had been, 
 at the time of the strike, cut down until they received 
 only twenty-five cents an hour. 
 
 Stripers, another high grade of workmen, got twenty 
 cents an hour, while painters got only nineteen cents. 
 A part of the winter they were only permitted to 
 work seven hours. 
 
HO IV THE IVOMEN /IRE TREATED 75 
 
 It seems that these cuts were worse in some de- 
 partments than in others; and even in the sam.e de- 
 partments there would be a strange lack of equaliza- 
 tion. 
 
 I will quote here a letter written by Miss Jennie 
 Curtiss, an employee of the Company, which will give, 
 in her own language, a description of the Company's 
 treatment of the employees in the women's depart- 
 ment. I have read this letter to a young woman, 
 an employee in the "New Work" department, who is 
 very conservative and reliable, and well qualified to 
 testify on these points. She corroborates everything 
 written herein: 
 
 "Being an employee of the Pullman Company for 
 the past five years, I can truthfully state the follow- 
 ing. There are two sewing rooms in the Pullman 
 works; one is where all the new work is done, such 
 as new carpets, window curtains, silk, satin, velvet, 
 and plush draperies made for parlor, dining and 
 chair cars only. We also sew the plush and tapestry 
 with which the seats and backs of the sleepers are up- 
 holstered, and make all the sheets, pillow-slips, table- 
 cloths, towels, napkins and linen of all descriptions 
 used in the dining cars and sleepers. We also make 
 all kinds of berth curtains. 
 
 "Then there is the Repair shop sewing room, where 
 all of the repairing is done. I have worked in both 
 departments, three years and a half in the new sew- 
 ing room, and one year and a half in the Repair shop 
 sewing rooms. The work in these sewing rooms is 
 made mostly piece work and some day work. I will 
 state some of our prices. 
 
 893 carpet, 90 cents a section. 
 
 carpet, 20 cents a section, 
 
16 PRICES PAID FOR JVORK ON CARPET S 
 
 "It is true we were making these carpets (under the 
 reduction) by machine, that is about half of them, and 
 the other half of them had to be finished by hand, 
 and the machine sewing did not save ten per cent of 
 the work, and I have known girls that made these 
 carpets by machine at twenty cents a section, to only 
 make five cents an hour. These carpets are cut and 
 made in sections. The carpet is all in one, but it is 
 cut in such odd shapes and slashes made to fit the 
 cars that from one cut to the other we call a section. 
 These carpets are large and small, they run from four 
 to nine sections; therefore a nine section carpet that 
 we received ninety cents a section for in 1893, 
 would be $8.10; in 1894 at twenty cents a section, 
 only $1.80. There have been a great many mistakes 
 made about the prices of these carpets in the state- 
 ments of the papers, and that is why I have tried to 
 explain as much as possible in regard to them. 
 
 1893 A three window drapery. $1.50 
 
 1894 " " " " 80 
 
 1893 A two window drapery 1.25 
 
 1894 *' " " " 48 
 
 1893 A one window drapery i.oo 
 
 1894 " " " . " . 45 
 
 1893 I enclosed section curtain 35 
 
 1894 " " " " 15 
 
 1893 I mattress tick, folding (37 1-2), 40 
 
 1894 I " '' '' • 18 
 
 1893 I " " single (27), 25 
 
 1894 I " " " 10 
 "These prices are in the Repair shop sewing room, 
 
 in which place I worked last. They get the same 
 price for the same work in the new room, but the 
 prices on the linen and several other things I can not 
 give. There are numerous other kinds of work we 
 make for the cars, which would take too much time 
 and space to mention, which has all been cut from 
 
/INNOV/INCES SUFFERED FROM A FOREWOMAN 77 
 
 time to time to the very lowest standard. For four 
 years we were allowed to make $2.25 a day at the 
 prices of 1893, which was very good wages for a girl, 
 but which we well earned, as it was very tedious and 
 confining, and long hours. At the time the shops 
 closed on account of the strike, I was earning on an 
 average eighty cents a day, at the prices of 1894. 
 It was very hard to have to work for such small 
 wages as that, which would afford a person a mere 
 existence. But the tyrannical and abusive treatment 
 we received from our forewoman made our daily cares 
 so much harder to bear. She was a woman who had 
 sewed and lived among us for years, one, you would 
 think, who would have some compassion on us when 
 she was put in a position to do so. When she was 
 put over us by the superintendent as our forewoman, 
 she seemed to delight in showing her power in hurt- 
 ing the girls in every possible way. At times her con- 
 duct was almost unbearable. She was so abusive to 
 certain girls that she disliked, that they could not 
 stand it, and would take their time and leave, who 
 would otherwise have been working there to-ddy. If 
 she could make you do a piece of work for twenty- 
 five cents less than the regular price, she would do 
 so every time. In fact she cut a great deal of work 
 down herself. I have had many a dispute with her 
 myself about cutting down our prices just to get the 
 work done cheaper, thinking she would stand jn bet- 
 ter with the Company. She was getting $2.25 a day 
 and she did not care how much v/e girls made, whether 
 we made enough to live on or not, just so long as she 
 could figure to save a few dollars for the Company. 
 When a girl was sick and asked to go home during 
 the day, she would tell them to their face they were 
 not sick, the cars had to be got out, and they could 
 not go home. She also had a few favorites in the 
 room, to whom she gave all the best work, that they 
 
78 SICKNESS. DEATH AND RENT 
 
 could make the most money on. We would com- 
 plain of her to the foreman and general foreman, but 
 they all upheld her, and if you were not willing to 
 take her abuse you could go. There is now lying in 
 Mr.Wickes' office in Chicago a petition signed by fif- 
 teen girls in the sewing room, requesting her removal. 
 There are only eighteen girls working under her. No 
 doubt she will remain in the employ of the Pullman 
 Company, as that is just the kind of people they want 
 at the heads of their departments — one who will 
 help grind down their laborers. My father worked for 
 the Pullman Company for ten years. Last summer 
 he was sick for three months, and in September he 
 died. At the time of his death we owed the Pull- 
 man Company about sixty dollars for rent. I was 
 working at the time and they told me I would have 
 to pay that rent, give what I could every pay-day, 
 until it was paid. I did not say I would not pay, 
 but thought rather than be thrown out of work I 
 would pay it. Many a time I have drawn nine and 
 ten dollars for two weeks' work, paid seven . dollars 
 for my board and given the Company the remaining 
 two or three dollars on the rent, and I still owe them 
 fifteen dollars. Sometimes when I could not possibly 
 give them anything, I would receive slurs and insults 
 from the clerks in the bank, because Mr. Pullman 
 would not give me enough in return for my hard labor 
 to pay the rent for one of his houses and live. 
 
 Jennie Curtiss." 
 
 Here is another letter, written by an employee in 
 the freight department. Some pitiable tales are told 
 by the freight-car builders, concerning their hardships 
 during the past winter. I have the man's name and 
 address, but will not use it, for fear of retaliation: 
 
STORY OF A FREIGHT-CAR BUILDER 71 
 
 "Pullman, 111., July 22, '94. 
 Rev. W. H. Carwardine. 
 
 Dear Sir: — I will try and give you a few facts. 
 I am a freight-car builder, have worked for the Pull- 
 man Co. since the loth of January, 1S92, and I don't 
 think we asked too much when v/e asked our wages 
 restored to what they were in 1893, as we did not 
 make any more than a fair living at that time. The 
 highest pay that I made for two weeks in 1893 was 
 $34 72, and I can truly say that m.y wages for the 
 year did not exceed $1.80 per pay. Up to the be- 
 ginning of the strike, I had run in debt about one 
 hundred dollars; one half of this for rent, the rest for 
 groceries and meat. I have reported for work every 
 day that the shops were open for work, up till the 
 strike began, and never missed even one hour, except 
 when I moved my family here. I have a wife and 
 four children, and it was for them that I struck, as I 
 think that when a man is sober and steady, and has 
 a saving wife, one who is willing to help along, and 
 after working two and a half years for a company he 
 finds himself in debt for a common living, something 
 must be wrong. Some folks have said that we should 
 have been satisfied. So v/e would have been, if we 
 had been assured that this cut of fifty per cent was 
 only temporary, and the Company had done the fair 
 thing on the rent at the same time. But no ! I was 
 told just before the strike by one of the foremen that 
 the Company had work for six months, and if we had 
 kept on the Company would have owned us by that 
 time. So with a prospect of \vorking an indefinite 
 length of time at these prices and under an overbear- 
 ing and profane foreman, we struck and will stay out 
 until the battle is fairly won, or we have to step out 
 for good, and I believe if we do have to move out, 
 the Pullman Company will rue the day, because I 
 never saw a better class of mechanics than there are 
 
90 NO ANARCHISTS IN THE FAMILY 
 
 in Pullman to-day, and I never lived in a more orderly 
 town in my life, and I don't believe there would have 
 been one single dollar's worth of property destroyed 
 in this town if the Company hadn't gone to the ex- 
 pense that they have, as well as the city and state. 
 I don't think that George M. Pullman is as well ac- 
 quainted with his children as he pretends to be, or he 
 would have known that there was not one single 
 anarchist in his whole family. Leaving you to use 
 any part of this, or all if you wish, I remain. 
 
 Very respectfully yours." 
 
 "P. S. I was born in the United States, as were 
 my parents before me and as were their parents before 
 them." 
 
 The following statement will give some definite 
 idea to the general reader as to the reduction of wages 
 in the Freight Department: 
 
 "Pullman, July 23, 1894. 
 Rev. W. H. Carwardine. 
 
 Dear Sir: — I have been employed as car-builder in 
 the freight department of the PullmanPalace Car Com- 
 pany for the past twelve years. The best wages that 
 I ever averaged as car-builder was $2. 10 per day, and 
 when the strike began my wages averaged seventy 
 cents per day. I have paid $11,57 per month rent for 
 the past eight years. The treatment we have re- 
 ceived from the foreman of the Company has been 
 worse than the slaves ever received in the south. 
 
 "I shall give you some prices paid. These figures 
 I take from a ledger secured from the general time- 
 keeper from the freight shops. 
 
FIGURES SHOWING THE EXylCT REDUCTIONS 81 
 
 Lot 1 5 15 Oct., 1888 
 
 Car-builder $13.00 
 
 Truck builder 90 
 
 Truck labor 31 
 
 Hanging brakes 1.20 
 
 Delivery forgings 1.05 
 
 Delivery lumber 88 
 
 Framing 40 
 
 Total $17.74 
 
 "The same car with latest improvements, in Novem- 
 ber, 1893. 
 
 Car-builder $7 . 00 
 
 Truck * ' 60 
 
 Truck labor 09 
 
 Hanging brakes 65 
 
 Delivery forgings ." 35 
 
 Delivery lumber 21 
 
 Framing 12 
 
 Total $9.02 
 
 Average wages in 1888 $2.26 
 
 Average " " 1893 $1.03 
 
 "I shall show figures of the car that we struck on, 
 the Wickes Refrigerator, in 1889. 
 
 Car-builders $36.00 
 
 Truck " 90 
 
 Truck labor 32 
 
 Hanging brakes 1.20 
 
 Delivery forgings i . 3 1 
 
 Delivery lumber i .46 
 
 Framing 85 
 
 Total $42.04 
 
82 FIGURES SHOWIhlG THE EXACT REDUCTIONS 
 
 "The same car, 1894, with the latest improvements. 
 
 Car builder $19.50 
 
 Truck " 60 
 
 Truck labor 10 
 
 Hanging brakes 60 
 
 Delivery forgings 56 
 
 Delivery lumber 64 
 
 Framing 26 
 
 Total $22.26 
 
 Reduction of $19 78 
 
 Average of wages 1 889 $2. 00 per day 
 
 Average" " 1894 91 per day 
 
 Respectfully." 
 
 The following table will indicate the reductions 
 in the upholsterers' department. The list of reduc- 
 tions here used throughout the chapter, are taken 
 from the statement of the Strikers' Central Commit- 
 tee in their report to the A. R. U. Convention. 
 They claim that they are taken from the official books 
 of the Company. I have submitted them for cor- 
 roboration to a gentleman who has been for many 
 years a trusted employee of the Company, who is 
 an entirely disinterested party and is in a position 
 to know, and he says that they are correct: 
 
Tufted head rests, with springs. . . 
 Tufted head rests, without springs. 
 
 Spring-edge backs 
 
 Spring-edge seats, tufted 
 
 Spring-edge seats, plain 
 
 Aisle ends 
 
 Wall ends 
 
 Scroll ends 
 
 Mann boudoir seat, tufted 
 
 Mann boudoir seat, plain 
 
 Mann boudoir back 
 
 Dining car plush seats 
 
 Dining car leather seats 
 
 Dining car plush back 
 
 Dining car leather back 
 
 Drawing-room sofa seats 
 
 Smoking room sofa seats 
 
 Extra long sofa seats 
 
 Round-end sofa seats 
 
 Drawing-room sofa backs, plain . . 
 Drawing-room sofa backs, tufted. . . 
 Smoking-room sofa backs, double. 
 Smoking-room sofa backs, single.. 
 
 Sofa panels, tufted 
 
 Sofa panels, with arms 
 
 Plush panels, per car 
 
 Sofa rolls 
 
 Large car chairs 
 
 Detroit chairs 
 
 Wicker chair, square 
 
 Wicker chair, round 
 
 Wicker chair. No. 369 
 
 Wicker chair, No. 1,036 
 
 Wicker sofa 
 
 Cutting carpets, dining car 
 
 Cutting carpets, sleeping car 
 
 Cutting carpets, Wilton 
 
 Laying carpet and oil cloth 
 
 Mattresses, new folding 
 
 Mattresses, double 
 
 Mattresses, smoking-room 
 
 Mattresses, old single 
 
 Mattresses, tourist. 
 
 Loose cushions 
 
 Spring-edge seats, day coaches 
 
 Hard-edge seats, day coaches 
 
 Backs, day coaches 
 
 Day work 
 
 Day work 
 
 Day work , 
 
 Day work 
 
 Day work, laborers 
 
 1893. 
 
 $ .85 
 
 $ .41 
 
 .65 
 
 41 
 
 .67 
 
 .48 
 
 1. 10 
 
 •79 
 
 .90 
 
 .65 
 
 .70 
 
 •47 
 
 .65 
 
 •47 
 
 1.25 
 
 .70 
 
 3.00 
 
 1.70 
 
 2.75 
 
 1.51 
 
 4.00 
 
 2.85 
 
 •37 
 
 .34 
 
 •43X 
 
 •34 
 
 .85 
 
 .54 
 
 •95 
 
 •54 
 
 350 
 
 2.40 
 
 3.50 
 
 2.75 
 
 4.00 
 
 2.75 
 
 2.75 
 
 2.10 
 
 .60 
 
 ■39 
 
 2.00 
 
 123 
 
 4.00 
 
 2.88 
 
 2.00 
 
 1.28 
 
 .60 
 
 •42 
 
 •75 
 
 .42 
 
 1.02 
 
 •79 
 
 1.40 
 
 .90 
 
 5.75 
 
 4.00 
 
 5- 50 
 
 3.60 
 
 4-50 
 
 3.20 
 
 4.50 
 
 2.90 
 
 3.00 
 
 1^75 
 
 1. 00 
 
 .70 
 
 10.00 
 
 5.00 
 
 2.00 
 
 .90 
 
 2.00 
 
 1. 10 
 
 2.50 
 
 1.50 
 
 1.25 
 
 .80 
 
 .30 
 
 .20 
 
 .25 
 
 .15 
 
 .40 
 
 .22 
 
 .20 
 
 .15 
 
 .23 
 
 •15 
 
 •25 
 
 20 
 
 •79 
 
 .6i 
 
 •43 
 
 •35 
 
 ■30 
 
 • 27 
 
 2.75 
 
 1.90 
 
 2.50 
 
 1.90 
 
 2.25 
 
 I 80 
 
 2.00 
 
 1.50 
 
 1.50 
 
 1.30 
 
84 COMP/IRATlyE WAGES IN PULLMAN AND ELSEWHERE 
 
 Among the painters the following table will give 
 some idea as to their reductions: 
 
 Ornamental painters 
 Ornamental pamters. 
 Hardwood finishers. , 
 Hardwood finishers. 
 Rubbers 
 
 1S93. 
 
 $ 2.75 
 2.50 
 2.35 
 
 2.2c 
 
 1894. 
 
 2.30 
 2.30 
 2.00 
 1-75 
 I50 
 
 Piece work prices have been so reduced that the 
 men can with the utmost difficulty make their day 
 rate. The ornamentation of a Pullman sleeper was 
 reduced from $40 to $25.30, rubbing rough stuff from 
 $22 to $15, and all other work in the same proportion. 
 It must be borne in mind that the painters in Chi- 
 cago have by their recent strike secured for them- 
 selves thirty-five cents an hour for eight hours' work 
 until June 15, and 32 1-2 cents an hour thereafter. 
 The men in Pullman have extraordinary skill, but are 
 paid at the rate of twenty-three cents an hour, a differ- 
 ence to-day of twelve cents. In other words, the 
 Chicago brotherhood men are getting nearly fifty- 
 two per cent more than the members of the Ameri- 
 can Railway Union. If it be asked why the men do 
 "hot leave Pullman, it can only be answered that many 
 of them have already, and that more will follow. But 
 they demand justice where they are. 
 
 The machinists (Bolt Headers' Dept.) are asking for 
 the same scale of wages as paid by the Chicago Forge 
 and Bolt Company for precisely the same work. The 
 differences are startling, the Pullman men since the 
 cutting, for example, getting only six and one-fourth 
 cents a hundred for three-quarter bolts, while the Chi 
 cago concern is paying eleven and three-fourth cents. 
 The reduction in this department amounts to nearly 
 fifty per cent. The threaders, millwrights, punch 
 handlers, drill hands, and tool-makers ask for the 
 wages of 1893. These last, who make tools, are cut 
 
P^Y OF MOLDERS, FOUNDR YMEN AND BLACKSMITHS 85 
 
 in some cases to $i 75 a day, from $2.75 paid last 
 December. In addition, the superintendent of this 
 department is a bookkeeper, merely, and has frequently 
 admitted that he knows nothing whatever about ma- 
 chinery or the requirements of the work. 
 
 Among the Foundrymen, the brass molders have 
 been cut from twenty to twenty-five cents a day, and 
 the laborers and furnace men twenty cents. The 
 brass finishers lost from twenty-five to fifty cents a 
 day. The molders in the wheel shop were cut five 
 cents a wheel, amounting to $1 and $1.20 a day, 
 while the helpers have fifty cents a day less and the 
 laborers ten to thirty-five cents. In the last year the 
 men in this department have only been given twenty- 
 eight days' actual employment. The machine de- 
 partment men were reduced twenty-five cents a day. 
 The iron foundrymen who do piece work were re- 
 duced from forty to seventy-five cents for ten hours' 
 work, the day workmen forty cents, coremakers from 
 twenty to eighty cents, men in the chipping room 
 twenty to seventy-five cents, and the yardmen twenty 
 cents. 
 
 The blacksmiths suffered a cut between thirty 
 and fifty per cent. Smiths making from $3. 50 to $4.00 
 a day were cut down to between $1.50 and $2.50, 
 the helpers suffering accordingly. 
 
 Among the employees of the PullmanCompany there 
 are a number of young women working in the carpet 
 department, the new linen-room, the linen repair 
 room, the glass-embossing department, and the 
 laimdry. Before May, 1893, the various departments 
 were all paid at the rate of twenty-two and one- 
 half cents an hour. The cut reduced this to ten cents 
 an hour, a scaling down of sixty-eight per cent. 
 
P^Y OF STREET CAR tVGRKERS 
 
 Many girls providing for invalid mothers or small 
 sisters or brothers have been able to make but six 
 cents an hour. The Illinois statutes compel an eight- 
 hour day for women. 
 
 The special grievance of the wood-machine hands 
 seemed to lie in their opposition to piece work. 
 They have suffered in some instances a cut of forty 
 per cent, and in no case has it fallen below thirty- 
 three and one-third per cent. Some reductions are 
 appalling. Work on parlor cars formerly worth $35 
 went down to $5, and on day coaches from $6 to 
 $1.75. 
 
 The following are the reductions made in the 
 Street Cars department since May ist, 1893: — 
 
 Body Builders, Inside Finishers and Trimmers, from 
 $3 per day to $2 per day. Cabinet makers were cut 
 fifty per cent. Wood machinists from $2.75 and $2.25 
 per day to $2.40 and $1.60 per day. Blacksmiths 
 were cut sixty per cent. Iron Machinists were cut 
 eighty-five per cent. In this shop if a man made a 
 complaint the foreman discharged him, telling him 
 that he would bring one of his own countrymen over, 
 who would do as much work as any six Americans. 
 The shop laborers were cut from $1.50 to $1 30 per 
 day. Painters were cut from $3.00 per day to $2. 10. 
 Stripers and ornamenters cut about sixty per cent. 
 This is a sample of prices for a standard closed car: 
 
 
 1892. 
 
 1893. 
 
 1894. 
 
 gO(jy 
 
 $ 41.00 
 30.00 
 
 $33 50 
 27.00 
 17.00 
 
 % 25.00 
 
 
 22.00 
 
 Trimming 
 
 12.00 
 
 In view of these extensive and repeated cuttings of 
 wages, it is no wonder that sometimes pay checks 
 showed laborers, rated at $1.35 per day, often get- 
 
HOIV TO LiyE TIVO IVEEKS ON EIGHT CENTS 87 
 
 ting but ninety-one cents for seven hours' work, and 
 finishers or trimmers making but $13.70 or even $6. 57 
 for two weeks' work, out of which, by the terms of 
 the leases, the rents had to be deducted. As I have 
 said before, there were any number of cases contin- 
 ually, where the pay check amounted to less than five 
 dollars, and in some instances but a few cents left 
 after paying the rent. 
 
 Imagine how a workman must feel after laboring 
 two weeks, to step up to the bank, and have either 
 two cents, seven cents, eight cents, or forty-seven cents 
 handed to him to keep his family on for the follow- 
 ing two weeks. Not much "mutual recognition" in 
 that! 
 
 In connection with the cutting of wages it must 
 be remembered that the failure to equalize wages pro- 
 duced great injustice and many hardships among the 
 employees. I have it on good authority that after the 
 Annual Meeting of last year the Company decided 
 upon a general policy of reorganization throughout 
 the whole shops. In view of this, work was slackened 
 in all departments, no new work was taken, the em- 
 ployees were laid off until, along in September,! was 
 told by the manager that there were not more than 
 900 to 1,200 men on the list. I understand that the 
 "general policy" adopted was to take advantage of the 
 "hard times," and open up later with a view to cut- 
 ting wages. It was supposed that the employees, be- 
 ing in debt to the Company in rent, would be glad of 
 
88 STATEMENTS TO MR. PULLMAN COLORED 
 
 work, and accept "cuts" with better grace than if the 
 shops had not been practically shut down for two 
 or three months. I believe Mr. Pullman and Mr. 
 Wickes were desirous of putting this policy into force 
 gradually and evenly, and 1 have reason to know that 
 Mr. Pullman did not wish the men to be crowded 
 more than they were willing to endure. His orders 
 were, "Go slow." His managers "drove fast." Driven 
 to desperation by repeated slashings and cuttings of 
 the managerial whips, the employees took the bit in 
 their teeth, and upset the coach in the ditch. Mr. 
 Pullman, absent half of his time from the city, scarcely 
 coming to the town more than five or six times during 
 the winter, knew nothing about the true state of 
 affairs. Statements from every department, weekly 
 and so forth, were sent to him, but before reaching 
 him there is no doubt that they were colored with 
 such a roseate hue that he naturally believed all was 
 well. What an easy thing for him to drop down un- 
 expectedly, post himself on the real state of affairs, 
 and act accordingly! For failure to do that, I hold 
 that he is responsible for the present state of affairs. 
 A word as to equalization. First of all, when the 
 wages of the employees were cut, why did he not cut 
 the salaries of the officials, the clerical force, the heads 
 of departments, the foremen, inspectors, etc..!* True, 
 some of the foremen, when they were taken back to 
 work last fall, did so at less pay than when they went 
 out, but they were the only ones, and that was not 
 
CABlhlET-M/iKERS AND UPHOLSTERERS 89 
 
 a "cut" similar to that received by the employees later 
 
 on. 
 
 Then, again, here is what I mean by equalization. 
 Blacksmith laborers, required to do the hardest kind 
 of work, were reduced from $1.50 to $1.30 per day. 
 Now, on the Passenger Car department a laborer 
 whose work was comparatively light and easy, was 
 cut just the same, $1.50 to $1.30. I contend, in jus- 
 tice, that the blacksmith's laborer ought to have been 
 cut less than the other laborer. 
 
 Again, cabinet-makers and upholsterers were cut 
 about the same, say from $2.75 to $1.85; some as 
 low as $1.55 to $1.50 day rate. Now, a cabinet-maker 
 should not be cut as low as an upholsterer, for the 
 cabinet-maker nas to provide himself with a kit of 
 tools valued from $75.00 to $100.00, with the danger 
 of loss by breakage, etc., oesides years of preparation 
 for his special work. While the upholsterer's work 
 is important and requires skilled labor, yet it is not as 
 high grade work as the cabinet-maker's. Yet they 
 are cut the same, without regard to skill, etc. Even 
 if they are on piece work, they are not allowed to 
 make more than day rate. In some cases they were 
 both cut so low that they could not even make day 
 rate. Then, again, it must be remembered that in 
 all departments through the shops the scale of wages 
 paid, even in 1893, was below the Union scale in 
 vogue throughout Chicago and elsewhere. During 
 the past year in Pullman, skilled mechanics could not 
 
90 FOUR AND ONE-HALF CENTS AN HOUR 
 
 make as much as day laborers made in 1893, with 
 a few exceptions. 
 
 Another case in point. A fireman employed in 
 heating the great boilers of the Corliss engine, hard 
 and laborious employment, works the first two weeks 
 of the month for eighty-six hours per week, and the 
 next two weeks for one hundred and twenty-six 
 hours per week, seven days in the week. He thus 
 labors 428 hours per month or about sixteen hours 
 per day, and receives therefrom $40.00 per month 
 
 pay- 
 or again, an employee in the iron machine shop 
 is given a job consisting of fifty pieces of iron, each 
 with four holes, which are to be squared and trimmed. 
 It takes him just one hour to finish one piece, 
 and according to the scale given to him by the under- 
 foreman, he will receive four and one-half cents per 
 piece; four and one-half cents for one hour's work, and 
 he a good mechanic, capable of earning $3.00 per 
 day. He appeals to the superintendent, a good 
 man, a practical man; he sees the injustice of the 
 case, agrees to have it remedied, and when the man 
 was paid, he found he had been allowed twenty cents 
 for them instead of four and one-half cents. Now, 
 this man was fortunate in getting justice, but all over 
 the shops men were imposed upon and mistreated in 
 this way, who got no redress. 
 
 Mr. Pullman says "nothing to arbitrate." I ap- 
 peal to the public if there was not "something to ar- 
 
PUTTING ON THE SCREIVS 91 
 
 bitrate" here — less reductions, and equalization of 
 wages. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, I would add that two- 
 thirds of the abuses practiced in the shops arose over 
 this unmerciful cutting of wages. It seemed to be 
 the policy from high official down to sub-boss, to 
 see how often and how much they could "cut" their 
 men. Employees who occupied positions of influence, 
 were seemingly discharged because they did not "cut" 
 to suit those over them; the imported gentlemen who 
 took the places of those vacated, in order to sustain 
 their reputation for reducing expenses, must necessa- 
 rily "cut" and grind those beneath them. Apparently 
 when gentlemen who had been in the employ of the 
 Company seven, eleven and twenty years, all ca- 
 pable and practical men, of irreproachable character, 
 had pressure brought to bear on them to resign, and 
 their places filled with men, not practical, some not as 
 irreproachable in character as they might be, but 
 whose sole claim to position was that they would not 
 hesitate to put the screws on the already reduced 
 employees, then it seems to me that the Pullman Com- 
 pany has forgotten about its "mutual recognition" the- 
 ory, and prefers to have just' such as these latter at 
 the head of the affairs. And these are the gentle- 
 men who at the first alarm of violence cry to the 
 government for military protection, fill the town on 
 the slightest provocation with the police, and who 
 themselves are so afraid of their mortal existence 
 
92 THE REGULAR QUARTERLY DIVIDEND 
 
 that they move about armed to the teeth, and in 
 quick communication with the militia. tejnpora! 
 O mores! 
 
 Let the reader place beside this sad picture ihat 
 other one that men love so v^^ell to contemplate, the 
 Pullman Palace Car Company, $27,000,000 surplus. 
 Capitalization of $30,000,000. Two per cent quar- 
 terly dividend of $600,000 in three months! 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RENTS, WATER, GAS, ETC. 
 
 When Mr. Pullman said that he had "nothing to 
 arbitrate" he evidently must have forgotten for the 
 time being the high rents and exorbitant, prices de- 
 manded for water and gas in his "model town." Mr. 
 Pullman in his final statement says: 
 
 "A few words are pertinent as to some industri- 
 ously spread charges against the Company, One of 
 these charges is that rents are exorbitant, and it is 
 implied that the Pullman employees have no choice 
 but to submit. The answer is simple: The average 
 rental of tenements at Pullman is at the rate of 
 $3 per room per month, and the renting of houses at 
 Pullman has no relation to the work in the shops. 
 Employees may, and very many do, own or rent 
 their houses outside of the town, and the buildings 
 and business places in the town are rented to em- 
 ployees or to others, in competition with the neigh- 
 boring properties. In short, the renting business of 
 the Pullman Company is governed by the same con- 
 ditions 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 lents 
 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 
 93 
 
94 AVERAGE RENT PER ROOM 
 
 asked that the Pullman Company alone should 
 abandon the ordinary rules which govern persons in 
 that relation." 
 
 Let us examine this carefully. He says that $3.00 
 per room is the average rental. According to page 
 fifty-one of Mr. Duane Doty's book on the Town of 
 Pullman, there are 1,855 tenements in Pullman. A 
 few have been added, however, since the publication 
 of Mr. Doty shook. Averaging five rooms to a house, 
 that would make it $3.71 per room. But it must be 
 remembered that at least one-half the tenements are 
 now empty, and about one-third of them have always 
 been emipty. Last year, on account of the World's 
 Fair, was about the only year in the history of the 
 town when the houses were all practically occupied. 
 If we should base an average on the actual rents paid 
 and the actual number of houses occupied, we would 
 find a much higher rental than $3 00 per room. But 
 look at facts, not averages. I occupied a flat of four 
 rooms on Watt Ave., and paid $14,50 rent; at $3.00 
 per room, I lost $2,50 per month. I next rented a 
 five room cottage on Morse Ave., for $17. 50; at $3.00 
 per room, lost $2.50 per month. I am now renting 
 a five room cottage on same street, but a better loca- 
 tion, for $18. 50; at $3.00 per room, I am losing $3. 50 
 per month. 
 
 In Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, published in 
 New York, July 26, '94, Mr. John T. Bramhall truth- 
 fully says: 
 
RENT OF FLA TS A ND CO TTAGES 95 
 
 "I had read that the rents of houses here range 
 from $5 to $50 per month, the average being $14; 
 but there are hundreds of tenements ranging from $6 
 to $9 per month. These rents are considerably less 
 than for similar tenements anywhere else in Chicago. 
 
 "The above was written several years ago, when 
 rents were higher than they are now. Briefly this 
 is what I found, as verified by the rent receipts, the 
 odd cents standing for the water rate: Flat, seven 
 rooms and bath, $28.96; the same in other Chicago 
 suburbs, $18 to $20. Flat, five rooms, $15.60; flat, 
 four rooms, $14.71; apartments in "block," a three 
 story tenement building in the middle of a square, 
 containing from seventeen to fifty-four families — 
 three rooms, $9.10; two rooms, $7.60." 
 
 I quote from Mr. Doty's book, written in the in- 
 terest of the company: "Single five room cottages 
 rent from $16 to $19 per month, while single houses 
 of from six to nine rooms vary from $22 to $10 per 
 month." While these are cottages, it must be re- 
 membered that they are not detached, but are built 
 side by side with other brick houses in rows. I pay 
 $18. 50 for a five room cottage and seventy-one cents 
 for water, with the use of only one faucet, and no 
 bath-room. Four and five room apartments in two- 
 story flats rent from $14 to $15 per month, plus the 
 water at 60 to 71 cents per month. Four room apart- 
 ments on the first, second and third floors of three- 
 story flats rent from $1 1 to $1 3. 50 per month, plus the 
 water at sixty cents per month. 
 
 In the large tenement blocks, where from 300 to 
 500 people live under one roof, you can get two rooms 
 
96 "EVERYTHING PAYS RENT' 
 
 on third floor in the rear for $6. 50 plus sixty cents 
 for water, or four rooms for $8. 50 plus sixty cents for 
 water. On the second floor of same building you pay 
 $8.50, plus sixty cents, for three rooms. In the brick 
 yards, a place not fit for any decent human being to 
 live in, you can rent a three room cottage for $8.00. 
 The water is free; one outdoor faucet for every 
 four houses. There are some very high-priced houses 
 in town. Taking all cottages, tenements and flats 
 together,! should judge that the average rental would 
 be more likely to be $18.00 than $14.00, 
 
 The town of Pullman is estimated to be worth 
 $10,000,000. Everything pays rent. The "Green- 
 stone Church," as I have already intimated, pays 
 $1,200, the Methodist Church, in the Casino 
 building, pays nearly $500. The Y. M. C. A. 
 pays $180 per year. The 1,800 dwellings pay $325,- 
 000 or more. The market, the arcade, and the stores 
 bring in a good rental besides. 
 
 Mr. Pullman further says that "the renting of 
 houses in Pullman has no relation to the work in the 
 shops." Now, what does he mean.? Was not the town 
 built principally to rent to the employees .!* That is 
 the very theory upon which it is established. The em- 
 ployees are positively expected to live in Pullman. 
 Last winter, when work was slack, the shops picked 
 up, and the men were re-employed. The orders then 
 were, as told me by the manager himself, first to take 
 on men renting in Pullman, second those who own 
 
EMPLOYEES EXPECTED TO RENT 97 
 
 their own homes in adjoining towns, and third those 
 who do not rent in Pulhnan or own homes elsewhere. 
 That was right. The renters should have first choice. 
 When the shops were filled up, and the houses well 
 taken, then employees could be free to live elsewhere. 
 Sometimes there are certain mechanics whom the 
 Company are compelled to have; they can live where 
 they please. If necessary, I can give names of men 
 who have told me that they were urged and re-urged 
 to move to Pullman, or be "laid off," The employees, 
 as a rule, are expected to rent the Company's houses. 
 There are many exceptions, it is true, but this is the 
 unwritten if not the written law of the Company. I 
 know many men who would prefer not to live here, 
 but are practically expected to. If the employees 
 should all move out of town some fine morning when 
 work is in full blast, the Company would soon tes- 
 tify to its position on that point. 
 
 Mr. Pullman further states in regard to rent that 
 he charges rents in Pullman in competition with 
 rents in adjoining towns. Here is a letter written 
 by a Kensington real estate dealer to the Chicago 
 Times on this question. I quote: 
 
 "Kensington, 111,, July 17, — George M. Pullman, 
 Esq., Long Branch, N, J.— Sir: In the publishment 
 of a recent interview with you it is stated that your 
 renting department charges rents in Pullman in com- 
 petition with rents in the adjoining towns of Ken- 
 sington, Roseland, and Gano. If you sincerely 
 believe this to be true, it would be well for you to 
 peirsonally investigate, as with my six years' experi- 
 
98 RENTS MORE THAhl IN ADJOINING TOIVNS 
 
 ence in the renting business in the said towns of Ken- 
 sington, Roseland, and Gano, I know it to be a 
 positive fact that flats and cottages containing parlor, 
 dining-room, two bedrooms and kitchen, with use of 
 water and yard, have been and are rented for $io 
 and $12, for which similar accommodations you charge 
 $i6 and $i8 at least. 
 
 "My statement, undoubtedly, will be verified at any 
 time by the other renting agents of this district. 
 
 "Respectfully, Cornelius G. Boon, 
 
 Real estate and renting agent." 
 
 There is no question whatever but that better flats 
 and cottages, with pretty garden, and bath-rooms, 
 can be hired at the neighboring towns of Roseland 
 and Kensington at fully twenty per cent less. 
 
 The water tax has always been a burden upon the 
 people. Bought under contract for four cents per 
 i,ooo gallons, it was retailed to the tenants for ten 
 cents per i,ooo gallons. The rates to the tenants 
 individually are given above. Since Mayor Hopkins 
 took office the price to the town of Pullman has been 
 increased, and now this company is said to be mak- 
 ing little if anything on the water. As to the gas, 
 it is a well known fact that we all pay $2.25 per 
 thousand feet, while in Chicago it is sold for $1.25 
 and $1.00. 
 
 A few interesting details might be added concern- 
 ing the town. A recent table of the nativity of the 
 wage-earners at Pullman shows the following: 
 
 American i.,796 
 
 Scandinavian 1,422 
 
 German 824 
 
 British and Canadian 796 
 
 Dutch 753 
 
 Irish 402 
 
 Latin 170 
 
 All others 161 
 
 6,324 
 
TAXES ONE MILL ON THE DOLLAR 99 
 
 The town controls 3,500 acres of land, formerly 
 swamp land, in its original native state worth prob- 
 ably not over $15-00 per acre. About one hun- 
 dred acres is covered with dwellings and other build- 
 ings, valued at about $5,000,000, and two hundred 
 more given up to factories, foundry, shops, steel 
 mills, etc., equaling no doubt about $1 1,000,000, all 
 told. It is a fact that has been stated repeatedly with- 
 out denial that this vast property only brings into 
 the city of Chicago a pittance of $15,000.00 annually 
 by taxes, less than one-tenth of one per cent of its 
 estimated value. It is assessed apparently per acre 
 rather than by lot. What is the matter with the 
 
 assessor.-* 
 
 Mr. Pullman objects to the arbitration of his rents 
 and compares himself and company to the ordinary 
 real estate dealer. This is not a fair comparison. 
 The Pullman Palace Car Company is so established 
 that all its interests are clearly related one to an- 
 other. The town of Pullman and the shops are in- 
 separable. They are intimately related to each other. 
 The demand of the men for reduction of rents is 
 reasonable and ought to be heeded; above all, when 
 they are expected to live in his houses, he should be 
 willing while cutting their income, to reduce their 
 expenses. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SHOP ABUSES. 
 
 In this chapter we deal with one of the vital causes 
 of the Pullman Strike. Shop abuses and mismanage- 
 ment have had no little to do with the present con- 
 dition of affairs. Mr. Pullman spent much money in 
 building his ideal city, but laid it out in accordance 
 with the feudal system, everything belonging to the 
 lord of the manor. It was an experiment, on Amer- 
 ican soil. Mr. Pullman thought he would make a 
 success of it. But it has practically failed. 
 
 He got the best class of workmen to be found, 
 and paid the highest wages. They earned them, for 
 they were experts; his laboring people, owing to a 
 surplus, were poorly paid. 
 
 Soon the cutting of wages began, and American 
 foremen and workmen [,^radually made way for cheaper 
 priced men. These foremen, to curry favor with the 
 manager, have tried every means, honest or dishonest, 
 to lessen the expenses of their departments. Among 
 these foremen were good, bad, and indifferent men. 
 These men do not want American workmen. One 
 foreman was commonly quoted assaying, "I have no 
 100 
 
PRACTICES OF CER TAIN FOREMEN 1 01 
 
 use for American workmen; they are too d d in- 
 dependent." Complaints of ttie brutality of these 
 men were carried to the central office without any re- 
 dress whatever, the complainant taking the chance 
 of discharge for so doing. 
 
 A very intelligent communication, evidently writ- 
 ten by one in a position to know, appeared in the litter 
 Ocean about two weeks ago, by one who signed him- 
 self '*Fair Play." He tells the truth and puts it very 
 clearly. He takes the ground that the principal 
 cause of trouble is the abuses practiced in the shops. 
 He says: 
 
 "Here are some facts about the treatment of the 
 men that can be easily substantiated: 
 
 " I . Certain foremen borrow money from their men, 
 from $5 to $30, and when men complain, discharge 
 them or lay them off. 
 
 "2. One foreman near foundry induced his men to 
 buy lots near Burnside.by telling them the owner was 
 a friend of Pullman and would see they were kept at 
 work. Said foreman received commission from real 
 estate man. 
 
 "3. One department is notorious for its drinking and 
 profane superintendent and corps of clerks. It is a 
 fact that they are all sometimes too "tired" to do 
 business properly. 
 
 "4. Some of the foremen having charge of the for- 
 eign laboring classes use the vilest epithets toward 
 them, and even attempt to kick them. 
 
 "5. All foremen who attempt to gain the good will 
 of the men by just treatment are discharged as be- 
 ing, in the words of the manager, 'too good to the 
 men.' " 
 
102 LETTER FROM A CABINET-MAKER 
 
 In this connection I will give here a letter written 
 to me by an employee whose name I withhold, but 
 can produce it if necessary. He states the case clearly, 
 and is evidently an intelligent and thoughtful man: 
 
 "Rev. W.H. Carwardine, Dear Sir: — In the cab- 
 inet shop (construction department), where all except 
 laborers are employed on piece-work, the principal 
 trouble is the reduction of prices of December last 
 averaging thirty-three and a third per cent. Some 
 articles twere reduced as much as fifty per cent at 
 that time. i. Saloon doors. Lots 2040 and 2041. 
 Previous to August '93 prices were gradually reduced 
 as often as a man made over the limit, which at that 
 time was under thirty cents per hour. Cabinet-makers, 
 at this time, were rated at from twenty to twenty-two 
 cents per hour, for a basis to pay on account where 
 jobs were partially completed at close of the half 
 month. At time of resuming work in December, 
 cabinet-makers were rated at seventeen to nine- 
 teen cents, and prices for piece work were supposed 
 to be made to enable men to make that rate; wherever 
 a man made over one or two cents per hour above 
 day rate, that particular job was again pruned in 
 price. 2. The writer on seat ends, lot 2040, 
 earned twenty-two cents per hour (March '94); next 
 lot, 2041, were cut twelve and one half per cent. On 
 the other hand, where prices were so low that some 
 men occasionally earned less than one dollar per day, 
 
 prices were not raised. 3. Mr. on doors 
 
 earned less than nine cents per hour. 
 
 ' 'The prices paid for work in '93 were lower than the 
 year previous, and the same may be said of each pre- 
 ceding year, so long as the writer can remember the 
 shop, which is upwards of seven years. In support 
 of this may be mentioned vestibule doors, the prices 
 of which have been revised so many times, each in 
 
LIVELY COMPETITION .-IMONO FG.iLi.icN 103 
 
 the same direction, that they have ranged from $5 oo 
 to $2.40 per pair. 
 
 "It should be noted aoout three fourths of the work 
 done since last fall has been repair work on Pull- 
 man Co. 's cars, and the reduction in price has been 
 as great on that as on contract work. 
 
 "Besides the reduction in prices, the mismanage- 
 ment is apparent everywhere. The foreman has been 
 known to set a price on a piece of work before he 
 knew what was needed, before he saw the drawing 
 in fact. New shelves for a folding table (M. O. 21,- 
 176). In one case a price was set at $3.00 each for 
 some partitions; after completion the workman 
 made complaint of the price, which was raised to $5. 00, 
 and at this price the job paid under twenty-four 
 cents per hour. This price was May '92. Partition 
 E. lot 1 919, Lately the foreman informed the men 
 he no longer set prices for new work, this being done 
 in the manager's office. During the past winter the 
 shop has depended principally on repair work, and on 
 this the foreman's assistants have been entrusted to 
 fix prices. This is the result: one man gets $2.00 
 for scraping a door, another man receives $1.75 for 
 the same work, and the assistant foreman paying the 
 highest price is reprimanded, after which he endeav- 
 ors to meet prices of the other petty foreman, and it is 
 easy to see who feels this merry war. 
 
 "While in this department, during the past year 
 the number of employees have been reduced about 
 seventy per cent; the number of foremen and assist- 
 ants remains the same. According to figures given by 
 Mr. Wickes, rather more than one-third of the men 
 in this department averaged for the month of April, 
 '94, twenty cents per hour and upwards; in this one 
 third was included the assistants of the foreman to the 
 number of about seven. This shows how the averages 
 of the workmen are manufactured by the Company. 
 
104 LETTER FROM A CAR BUILDER 
 
 "During slack times it seems an injustice some men 
 should be kept continuously at work while others 
 work much less than half time. Truly some are bet- 
 ter qualified than others, and probably the Company 
 would make such excuse; but these men who work 
 such short time the Company think sufficient of to 
 keep them on the pay rolls for the sake of paying 
 rent." 
 
 Again, I will insert another letter, which tells its 
 own sad story. 
 
 "Pullman, July 21, '94. 
 Rev. W. H. Carwardine. 
 
 Dear Sir: — I think it my duty to explain my case. 
 My family consists of myself, wife and four children. 
 We live in three small rooms with only a back en- 
 trance, for which I pay $9.00 per month, and fifty 
 cents for water. I am considered a first-class car 
 builder, and am a sober and industrious man and 
 have always reported for work, whether day or piece 
 work. I was worse off at the time of the strike by 
 $250.00 than when I came to Pullman. In regard 
 to wages of '93, with strict economy we barely eked 
 out an existence, but the first part of '94 new trouble 
 began. The Company, not satisfied, began the war 
 by reducing our wages to a starvation point. At the 
 time we laid down our tools, we were building a car 
 for $19.50 that we should have got $36 for. After 
 the second cut in our wages the stores refused to 
 give us credit, as they knew we could not pay in full 
 from one pay day to another. More trouble began. 
 The Company would not give us our checks at the 
 shops as usual, but sent us to the Company's bank, 
 where they would have a better chance to squeeze us 
 for the rent it was impossible to pay. I have seen 
 myself and fellow workmen pleading with the rent 
 agent to leave us enough to buy some member of the 
 
TOO HUNGR Y TO WALK HOME 105 
 
 family a pair of shoes or some other necessity. Then 
 when our last cut came, that was the straw that 
 broke the camel's back; we could not stand it any 
 longer; I, like a good many others, had to stop carry- 
 ing my dinner, as what I had to carry would have 
 run through the basket. I have seen one of my com- 
 panions on the next car to mine, so weak from the 
 lack of proper food, that he would have to rest on 
 the way going home. 
 
 "We could see plainly it was either work and starve, 
 or strike and depend on charity until we could win, 
 which we are bound to do. The good Lord is always 
 on the side of justice, and I am sure he will see jus- 
 tice done us. Yours Truly." 
 
 Much complaint is made in regard to the placing of 
 incapable men in positions of authority. Men are 
 often placed in these positions who have no practical 
 idea of the nature of their work. They may be 
 adepts in something else, but not in the duties en- 
 trusted to them. Prof. Ely's criticism of ten years 
 ago on nepotism and favoritism throws much light 
 on these abuses. 
 
 One of the most abominable abuses practiced in 
 these shops is that known as "blacklisting." To my 
 own knowledge,! have seen some cruel effects of this 
 vile practice. 
 
 One man, whose wife was an esteemed member of 
 my church, and who himself was highly respected by 
 all who knew him, having long held a good position 
 in the service of the Company, was discharged 
 for a trivial offense, and blacklisted. I am acquainted 
 with all the details of the case. A strong temperance 
 
106 A CRUEL CASE OF BLACKLISTING 
 
 man, very industrious, and yet "blacklisted!" It was 
 one of the most cruel cases of the kind I have ever 
 known. 
 
 Fortunately for the strikers, they have a piece of 
 splendid evidence against the Company, to prove this 
 charge. About December, 1893, there was some 
 trouble among the steamfitters, which resulted in 
 the blacklisting of the following forty men. I will 
 copy here the order, as sent out by the local manager. 
 
 Pullman, 111., December 23, 1894. 
 To ALL Foremen: In connection with the recent 
 trouble we have had with steamfitters, both in the 
 construction and repair departments, I give below 
 the names of the men who have left our employ and 
 I hereby instruct that none of these men be em- 
 ployed in these works. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT. 
 
 No. 1703 Joseph Cohan. 
 
 1705 Frank McKevilt. 
 
 1706 William O'Meara. 
 
 1707 James H. Matthews. 
 171 1 Edward Sweeney. 
 1715 John Guthardt. 
 
 1721 Martin Tracey. 
 1720 Tice Mastenbrook. 
 
 1722 Charles G. Duffy. 
 1740 Frank Vincent. 
 1743 Michael McNuIty. 
 1753 William H. Danaher. 
 1764 Edward M. Barrett. 
 4500 Jacob Stockman. 
 4516 Robert Goebbels. 
 
 4563 James A. Brown. 
 
 4564 Louis Moss. 
 
 4565 Thomas Hamilton. 
 
A SPECIMEN BLACK LIST 
 
 107 
 
 Daniel J. McCarthy. 
 John A. Smith. 
 Frank Pohl. 
 Ambrose J. Hough. 
 George Elwell. 
 
 "] These men were hired, 
 
 but would not go to 
 
 V work when they 
 
 found the other 
 
 J men had quit. 
 
 REPAIR DEPARTMENT 
 
 No. 6976 Frank Engle, Steam fitter. 
 
 6977 B. Jones, " 
 
 78 Thomas Johnston, •' 
 
 80 Wm. J. Connell, 
 
 83 Chas. R. McGinnis, " 
 
 85 C. Patton, 
 6985 P. McCai^fery, 
 6988 Martin Craig, 
 
 go J. C.Warburton, <' 
 
 95 B. O. Gara, 
 7002 Josh Jones, Helper. 
 
 7 William Mack, " 
 
 15 Mike Carroll, " 
 
 16 Frank Oberreich, " 
 35 Dave Burrows, / " 
 
 24 M. Cunningham, " 
 
 25 James Payne, «« 
 82 August Berghofer, " 
 
 H. MiDDLETON, Manager. 
 
 Another case. A blacksmith, said to be one of the 
 very best ever employed by the Company, left his 
 vi^ork one afternoon for some good reason. An in- 
 cipient strike took place in his absence. After the 
 strike was over, applying for work, he found his name 
 among the "blacklisted." Went to headquarters, mana- 
 ger was sorry, but could not reinstate him. Later was 
 ordered out of his house. Still on the blacklist. I 
 have inquired carefully into the case, and from the 
 best authority believe it to be a case of injustice. I 
 have his name. 
 
108 COhlTRACTS FOR ROLLING MILL REFUSED 
 
 This whole matter of blacklisting is worthy of Si- 
 beria. It is a disgrace to American labor. It is a 
 boycott on labor. Capital complains of strikes and 
 boycotts. I deprecate strikes,, and I believe a boy- 
 cott to be wrong, and a poor way to win good re- 
 sults for labor, but capital boycotts a man when she 
 "blacklists" him. The "blacklisted" man can not only 
 not get employment in all of the Pullman shops, and 
 Pullman interests; but cannot even get a recommen- 
 dation of good character to another employer. 
 
 A complaint of another nature comes from the Roll- 
 ing Mill operatives. Why does Mr. Pullman continue 
 the policy of refusing profitable contracts for his 
 rolling mill — contracts for work outside of that done 
 for the car system — and thereby keep in idleness for 
 weeks at a time, to the detriment of their families, 
 the best class of skilled rolling mill operatives to 
 be found in the country? These men are mostly En- 
 glishmen, and all are splendid workmen, who make 
 good wages while there is employment, but are idle 
 half the time because of this peculiar policy of the 
 Company. 
 
 It has been denied that there is political intimi- 
 dation. 
 
 We all know how futile is that denial. Since the 
 Australian ballot system came into vogue, the em- 
 ployees have voted about as they please, but previous 
 to that, and at present in local elections, foremen talk 
 very positively to their men about voting, and give 
 
THE COMPANY IN LOCAL POLITICS 109 
 
 them to understand what the consequences will be. 
 I had an experience in this direction myself, in the 
 late aldermanic election, when a certain official of 
 the Company went to a foreman and gave him to un- 
 derstand that he was to withdraw his name as a can- 
 didate for a certain office, and "would in all proba- 
 bility be expected to settle it within that day." This 
 roused the independence of the man, he resisted the 
 threat and continued running for the nomination; he 
 lost the nomination, but defeated the chances of the 
 Company's candidate. The candidate opposed by 
 the Company was elected. In a few weeks, the in- 
 dependent foreman was asked to resign. He had 
 been years in the employ of the Company, and was 
 one of its most efficient men. Two other employees 
 interested in his candidacy were also asked to resign. 
 Theoretically the Pullman Company never interferes 
 with the politics of its employees, but practically 
 there have been strong evidences the other way. 
 
 There is absolutely no recognition of merit in the 
 policy of the Company. Changes are constant, A 
 peculiarity of the town of Pullman is the evanescent 
 character of its life. It seems to be inherent in the 
 system. Many men remain in the employ of the 
 company for years; but no one is safe. There is a 
 constant feeling of insecurity. Men have put in years 
 of hard, laborious work, only to be dismissed with- 
 out a moment's warning, and then scarcely to receive 
 a word of thanks. This is the strangest thing to me 
 
110 INVENTORS DEPRIVED OF RECOGNITION 
 
 in the whole system. I have been surprised to see 
 how quick, and on what slight ground faithful men 
 are discharged. 
 
 In such a vast system, perfection is impossible, 
 and injustice may be occasionally done without in- 
 tent. But there is no reason why true merit should 
 not be appreciated and encouraged. Such a Com- 
 pany as this can afford to be generous and sincere 
 in its treatment of its men. Promotion and recogni- 
 tion is reciprocal in its effect. Nothing is lost there- 
 by. And in this connection we might add that the 
 pensioning of its old and tried employees is an un- 
 known factor in the daily life of this Company. 
 
 Again, the Company is greatly enriched by inven- 
 tions of its employees, for which they give the employee 
 neither money nor credit. Many ingenious inventions 
 and devices are scattered throughout the shops that 
 bring in good returns, but not to their inventors, Mr. 
 Pullman, said to be one of the greatest inventors of 
 the age, instead of encouraging a spirit of invention 
 among his employees, and giving them the credit 
 thereof, on the contrary, enforces the law upon them, 
 by which, if they do invent anything in his shops, 
 they shall relinquish all title to the same. 
 
 A grievous charge made by the employees against 
 those in authority in the shops is that of personal 
 abuse. Foul and abusive language on the part of a 
 foreman or the head of a department, or even by an 
 official, should not be tolerated for a moment. I do 
 
WORKING UNDER A BRUTAL FOREMAN 111 
 
 not wonder that men whose wages have been re- 
 duced to such a low ebb, should retaliate when in- 
 sult and abuse is added to low wages, I well remem- 
 ber, when an orphan boy in the city of New York, 
 having to work for six years under an abusive fore- 
 man in the composing room of the Nezu York 
 Evening Post. Of all the men I have ever met, he 
 was the embodiment of tyranny. A man of consid- 
 erable ability, but foul in language and despotic in 
 authority, the daily terror of all who were under his 
 influence. He treated men like dogs, swore at them 
 and abused them without stint. In those days there 
 was engendered in my soul a hatred against tyran- 
 nical foremen and abusive treatment of men which 
 has never left me, and which daring the past months 
 of our long and sad winter, made my very blood boil 
 with indignation at what I have seen and heard. 
 Then it was that I declared if ever the opportunity 
 presented itself to defend the true rights of laboring 
 men, and smite those who unmercifully oppressed 
 them, I would lift up my voice and cry aloud, in the 
 name of the God of Israel. 
 
 One other charge of selfish evasion of duty I would 
 prefer against this great Pullman Palace Car Com- 
 pany is that it does not give damages unless abso- 
 lutely compelled to, to those who are injured or die 
 in its service. 
 
 There are numerous cases in the town of Pullman 
 illustrative of this. A lady whose husband had long 
 
112 EVASION OF JUST CLAIMS 
 
 been in the employ of the Company, is now a widow. 
 Her husband died from the effects of the breakage of 
 the machine on which he was working, the name of 
 which I will not mention for fear of injuring her 
 case. She has been making every effort to get a 
 settlement from the Company for many months. But 
 procrastination and evasions have met her at every 
 turn, until now she is heartily discouraged. 
 
 The public will doubtless remember the case of 
 the colored porter who had been seriously injured 
 in the service of the Company, and applied repeatedly 
 for satisfaction. At last when McPherson, the Com- 
 pany's lawyer, secured a strap from him in the Com- 
 pany's city offices, the best evidence he had, in sheer 
 desperation he turned and fired three shots from a 
 revolver, neither of them producing any serious 
 damage. 
 
 Many cases might be enumerated showing how a 
 great and wealthy corporation resorts to every pos- 
 sible method to avoid settling claims of those who 
 have a right to receive help from them. 
 
 Pitiful are the stories told of the sick and injured 
 who receive little or no compensation for injuries 
 done. There is an ofBcial Doctor and Surgeon, who 
 gives a certain amount of medical service to the 
 injured. It used to be that a sick man was allowed 
 for a certain time $2.00 a day; then gradually it was 
 reduced to $1.00 a day, and that only paid when he 
 could report for work and pick up screws from a heap 
 
STATEMENT OF MRS. IVOOD 113 
 
 of different sized screws on the floor. 
 
 I will conclude this point with the quotation of a 
 letter giving a statement of the treatment by the 
 Company of a certain Mrs. Wood, a member of my 
 church, whose husband died as the result of wounds 
 inflicted while in the performance of duty as a watch- 
 man. She is responsible for her own statement. 
 The case is a well known one in Pullman and cre- 
 ated g;reat interest at the time. The writer says: 
 
 "Buckley \A'ood,of 312 Stephenson Street, watch- 
 man at the Fulton Street gate, was assaulted July 15, 
 1886, by a man named Pearson, who tried to take a 
 box of tools through the outer gate without a pass, 
 which was required by the rules of the Company, 
 and which Mr Wood asked for, when Pearson struck 
 him in the face with a hatchet, knocking out two of 
 his teeth and knocking him down so that he fell strik- 
 ing the back of his head on a stone. He was unable 
 to give an account of the assault for over a week. 
 
 "Pearson was arrested by a policeman named Thos. 
 Kane and was locked up in the Kensington Station 
 until transferred to Hyde Park. When the case was 
 called, Mr. Wood was not able to appear, and police- 
 man Kane prevailed upon Mrs. Wood not to leave 
 her husband to attend the trial, as the police would 
 see to it that justice was done, which they did by 
 letting the defense choose the jury, which brought in 
 a verdict of 'not guilty.' They held that Mr. Wood 
 had no right to stop Pearson from taking his own 
 tools from the shops. In which case I think the Pull- 
 man Company should have been responsible, inas- 
 much as they gave him strict orders not to allow any 
 one to take anything from the shops without a pass 
 from their foreman. Police Captain Hunt went with 
 
114 KILLED IN THE COMPANY'S SERVICE 
 
 Mrs. Wood and witnesses to the city to get an indict- 
 ment for the man, but when they arrived the grand 
 jury had adjourned for six weeks, and when they re- 
 turned, Pearson, having been notified of their inten- 
 tions through some source, had decamped for parts 
 unknown, until it was learned he was arrested and 
 convicted, and sent to state prison for two years in 
 the state of Ohio for assaulting an old man about a 
 year afterward. 
 
 "Mr. Wood was employed afterward in the Paint 
 department, not through kindness of the Pullman 
 Company, but rather that of Mr, Thomas Kennedy, 
 who was then superintendent of the paint depart- 
 ment, and knew that Mr. Wood was not really able 
 to do any work. He let him put in his time doing 
 any little odd jobs he could do; as the Pullman Com- 
 pany did not consider him as being in good enough 
 health to resume his position as watchm.an, and the 
 books of the Pullman Company will show how many, 
 many days he was not even able to walk to the shop, 
 as through the kindness of Mr. Kennedy, if he once 
 got to the shop, he was not compelled to do any work 
 as long as the higher ofBcials did not see him doing 
 nothing. In that way he lived until the 30th of 
 May following, when he died as surely from the effect 
 of his injuries of the previous July as if he had died 
 the same day. 
 
 "Mrs. Wood, thinking it altogether useless for a 
 poor widow to try and fight a corporation like the 
 Pullman Company, did not act on advice she re- 
 ceived from many friends to bring suit against them, 
 but tried to make some arrangement with Mr. Sessions, 
 then manager of the works in Pullman, whereby she 
 could have the use of the house in which she lived, 
 but he said he had no authority to let her have the 
 house without paying rent for it. She wrote several 
 times, once through her minister, pastor of the first 
 
SIX WEEK'S' RENT FOR A LIFE 115 
 
 M. E. church, who registered a letter to Mr. Pull- 
 man, but did not receive an answer. She decided to 
 pay the rent and did so, with the exception of six 
 weeks' rent($26. 56)at the time of her husband's death, 
 which they gave her as a free gift in recompense for 
 the life of her husband. At three different times since, 
 when she has been unable to m.eet the rent bills 
 promptly, she has had notice of eviction, and been 
 compelled to borrow enough money to pay the rent to 
 keep from having her goods put out into the street, 
 once in December, 1893, when she had got behind 
 in the rent, but made arrangements with the town 
 agent to pay the old rent as she could, and let her 
 daughter take the responsibility of the house from 
 January i, 1894. She did, and paid a rental of $17.- 
 71 per month from a salary of $r.oo (one dollar) per 
 day, having the remainder to support herself and 
 mother. The January rent she paid cash and for 
 February, March and April she paid it from her pay 
 checks, paying for the four months rent $70.84 
 and receiving in payment not over $25.00 above rent 
 for the same four months. On the third of May it 
 seems that after Miss Wood had been out of work 
 over a week they made the startling discovery that 
 they had credited $12,71 (which she had paid in 
 January)to the account of the old bill (with which she 
 had no connection, as she paid her board until Jan- 
 uary i), but instead of correcting their mistake, gave 
 her notice to vacate the house on the 3rd of May, for 
 a bill of $12.71 due on January rent, while she held 
 receipts for February, March and April, and when 
 she remonstrated in the Pullman bank the clerk said 
 he had credited it as he saw fit and would not change 
 it, and she would be compelled to pay it over or 
 leave the house. 
 
 "Mrs. Wood told the agent she would go to head- 
 quarters, when he flew into a passion, and told her if 
 
116 NOT ALL SUNSHINE IN PULLMAN 
 
 she dared go to Mr. Wickes she would be made to 
 suffer for it. She did go to see Mr. Wickes, who told 
 her that something should have been done for her be- 
 fore if he had known of her case, of which he claimed 
 he knew nothing. He told her she should go home 
 and rest contented, that she would not be troubled. 
 Mr. Middleton, the present manager of the works, told 
 her that her daughter would not be troubled for the 
 rent, that she should draw what money was coming 
 to her; after which, on May 21st, ten days after the 
 strike, when she went to draw the money due her, 
 $3.53, she was asked to sign it over for rent, which 
 she refused to do and does not know whether or not 
 she will be compelled to move for non-payment of 
 rent when the strike is over." 
 
 Now, in view of these facts, the great true-hearted 
 public, believers in fair play, will see that it is not all 
 sunshine in Pullman. This great undercurrent of 
 dissatisfaction, culminating in the strike of May nth, 
 had some underlying causes back of it. Some of the 
 things I have mentioned may seem trivial, but like 
 the lesser streams emptying into the greater, and 
 swelHng the impetus thereof, so these countless 
 lesser abuses and tyrannies have wrought out their 
 awful and disastrous results. How long will great 
 corporations continue to deal thus inhumanly with 
 employees? 
 
 I do not and never have hesitated to place the re- 
 sponsibility of the strike upon the Company. The 
 public must bear in mind that while the action of the 
 employees seemed hasty, still they had great cause for 
 action. To say that it was produced entirely by the 
 
THE STRIKE NOT IDIOTIC 117 
 
 "labor agitator" is to insult the intelligence of the 
 finest body of mechanics gathered together in any 
 one place in the United States. I contend that when 
 a body of men such as we have here, lay down their 
 tools and leave the work bench, as did these men, 
 that they are actuated by some great underlying mo- 
 tive, and that it will not do to call them idiots and 
 fools. 
 
 These employees were in a very sensitive and sus- 
 picious state of mind. A long winter, with its count- 
 less causes for grievance and dissatisfaction, was just 
 behind them. They had been so ground between 
 the upper mill stone of "low wages" and the nether 
 mill stone of "high rents," the continued oppression 
 of the "straw bosses," the smothered but still unsup- 
 pressed dislike of the general and local management, 
 which has added to rather than sought to alleviate 
 their troubles, and a system of surveillance that seems 
 to be indigenous to the very atmosphere of the place, 
 that they were in no condition to be trifled with by 
 the Company. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERSONAL — LESSONS — REMEDY. 
 
 Suffer a few words of personal allusion. When I 
 delivered my sermon on "The Pullman Strike," ten 
 days after its employees walked out of the shops, I 
 had no idea that it would have created the interest 
 that it has. 
 
 It was rather an audacious act to perform, because, 
 owing to the peculiarity of the paternalistic govern- 
 ment of Pullman, no one feels like openly criticising 
 the Company. The time having arrived, I spoke out, 
 what were my honest, candid convictions, without 
 thought of fear or favor. My position was peculiar. 
 I did not endorse the strike, and never have. I did 
 not endorse the boycott. Repeatedly have I said this. 
 But I stood for justice. If the workingmen believe 
 in strikes and boycotts, all right. They have found 
 that strikes may do, but boycotts will not do. But 
 these working men use the weapons seemingly most 
 useful, as they think, for their purpose. But I look 
 back of all this, and say, "Let us unearth the cause!" 
 Strike at the root. Don't revile and curse these em- 
 ployees ! Vituperation of strikers will do no good. Study 
 the situation, and give them in their demand for jus- 
 tice your sympathy and moral support. Stir up one 
 118 
 
PUBLIC SYMPATHY AND PREJUDICE 119 
 
 half of society to behold the wrongs of the other half. 
 If you have a theory that will solve their problem, 
 bring it forth, and let them see it — don't cry anarchy 
 and run away from them, or leave them to the tender 
 mercies of the militia and the police. 
 
 Quell the mobs — shoot all law-breakers in time of 
 awful peril. But do not call all "strikers" anarchists. 
 
 Holding this position, I was surprised to find how 
 the fear of anarchy and mob rule blinded the eyes of 
 true men and women to the injustice that had wrought 
 all these things. We had better look at the evil 
 calmly, and remedy it; or the evil in the future will 
 break forth again in awful fury, with far more disas- 
 trous results. I have found my position has not been 
 altogether a pleasant one. While I am commended 
 on all sides by the better classes, who daily deluge 
 ms with letters, interviews, questions, etc., and 
 while I am regarded with infinite kindness by the 
 striking employees, still I find plenty who are ready 
 to chide me. 
 
 I must not forget here to acknowledge with great- 
 ful appreciation the sympathy and co-operation of 
 my beloved friend and brother pastor, the Rev. Wil- 
 bur F. Atchison, pastor of the Hyde Park M, E. 
 Church, and his talented wife, Mrs, Rena-Michaels 
 Atchison, formerly Dean of the Women's College at 
 Evanston, and now Secretary of the State Woman's 
 Suffrage Society of Illinois. In them I have found 
 true sympathy for the cause of the laborer. 
 
 We have fallen on serious times. 
 
120 THE COLLAR OF SERVITUDE 
 
 The inequalities of life as indicated in the social 
 fabric of modern society are simply fearful. In many 
 respects we are living in the grandest age this old 
 world has ever seen. And yet, with our boasted prog- 
 ress and advancement, I realize that something is 
 radically wrong in a condition of society that permits 
 some to be so poor and others to be so rich. It 
 certainly looks as though the poor were growing 
 poorer and the rich becoming richer. 
 
 No person who has ever read Sir Walter Scott's 
 wonderful story of " Ivanhoe" can forget the picture of 
 Gurth, the Swineherd. Describing him, Scott says: 
 "One part of his dress only remains, but it is too re- 
 markable to be suppressed. It was a brass ring, re- 
 sembling a dog's collar, but without any opening, 
 and soldered fast round his neck, so loose as to form 
 no impediment to his breathing, yet so tight as to 
 be incapable of being removed excepting by the use 
 of the file. On this singular gorget was engraven in 
 Saxon characters an inscription of the following pur- 
 port: 'Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born 
 thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood.' " 
 
 What a picture! 
 
 What a change to-day! 
 
 And yet, while we have moved some little distance 
 from the day that lives again in the glowing pages of 
 Sir Walter, nevertheless Gurth, the son of Beowulph, 
 is with us yet. 
 
 While he wears not the collar of Cedric of Rother- 
 
THE GROli/TH OF CLASSES 121 
 
 wood, yet he is to all intents and purposes the chattel 
 or "White Slave," of the "corporation," "trust" or 
 "millionaire lords," many of whom it may be said 
 are in these days of growing social inequality, the 
 Cedrics of Rotherwoodof modern society. 
 
 We as a nation are dividing ourselves, like ancient 
 Rome, into two classes, the rich and the poor, the 
 oppressor and the oppressed. And on the side of 
 the oppressor there is power and protection, class 
 legislation and military support. Should this policy 
 continue for a generation or two, there can be no 
 doubt at all that working men who in times of war 
 and invasion are the protectors of our liberties and 
 homes, would refuse to take up arms in their de- 
 fense. We are following in the tracks of ancient Rome, 
 instead of learning useful lessons from her failures 
 and defeats. No country can prosper, no govern- 
 ment long perpetuate itself and its institutions, which 
 does not administer judgment and justice alike to all 
 of its people. Napoleon said God w^as always on 
 ihe side of the heaviest battalions, but God Himself 
 has said that He is on the side of righteousness and 
 justice for the poor and needy, and that He will avenge 
 their cause against the oppressor. 
 
 The oppressed of to-day are white laborers and 
 mechanics who, evidently, though without a Su- 
 preme Court decision, have no rights which million- 
 aires and moneyed corporations are bound to respect. 
 And with the oppressor there is power. But as is 
 
133 DEEP UNREST IN SOCIETY 
 
 invariably the case, proven by ancient and modern 
 history, the oppressor is the heaviest loser. Men 
 and nations sometimes oppress to their own hurt. 
 An estimate of the money losses in the present strike 
 up to July 9, '94, puts them at $6,560,500, of which 
 the laborers have lost in wages $1,500,000. And 
 this does not include the loss to the business and 
 commerce of the country, nor the cost to the federal 
 and state governments of the military occupation. 
 And all this grows out of the oppression of one man 
 who was once a poor mechanic. He has gained wealth, 
 and risen into power on it so that he can now take ad- 
 vantage of the necessities and poverty of his fellow- 
 men to crush and oppress them. 
 
 Whatever the fathers who organized this govern- 
 ment intended it to be, we, their successors, have 
 evidently drifted very far away from the original in- 
 tention of the founders. It is no longer a govern- 
 ment of equal rights for all. The present strike may 
 be overcome by federal bayonets and bullets, but 
 the trouble will not end here. There is deep unrest 
 in the lowest strata of society, the real burden-bearers 
 of our country, which augurs ill for capitahstic op- 
 pression in the future. The United States is to be the 
 theater for the presentation of the best possible re- 
 sults oi human government. We are giving an object 
 lesson in government to the world. And these results 
 are to be developed within a very few years, too. I 
 therefore deprecate, though necessary, the use of fed- 
 
COURTS OF /IRBITRATION SUGGESTED 123 
 
 eral troops in this strike as a precedent, pregnant with 
 evil in years to come. Capital seems to be organ- 
 ized to destroy the independence of labor and defeat 
 its efforts at elevation; and labor is organized not 
 only to protect itself, but to retaliate on capital. 
 These conditions can not be perpetuated. One force 
 or other must yield or be destroyed, or a common 
 ground of reconciliation must be found for both. 
 
 Can there not be found a common ground of agree- 
 ment between capital and labor.^ If they are to ex- 
 ist at all, they must live as husband and wife, each 
 the counterpart of the other, each for the other's 
 interests and welfare. My suggestion is that there 
 should be National and State Courts of Arbitration; 
 the former in cases of appeal, receiving the decisions 
 of the latter, and having final jurisdiction in all cases 
 whether of review or original. I say courts, not com- 
 mittees of inquiry. If international disputes can be 
 thus settled, why should not national or local be? 
 The strong arm of the law should compel the auto- 
 cratic millionaire as well as the dependent mechanic 
 to submit his case and abide by the decision. And 
 where, as in this strike, there is an obstinate refusal 
 to arbitrate, then the federal or state governments 
 should take possession of the railroads, the telegraph, 
 the coal mines, or the manufacturing plants, and run 
 them in the interest of the whole people, and not in 
 the interest of obstinate corporations. The public 
 good and the peace of the country demand this. 
 
124 USE YOUR BALLOT ARIGHT 
 
 The man or body of men, corporation or labor 
 union which refuses to arbitrate their differences are 
 traitors to their country's best interests, violators of 
 her laws, instigators to riot, and enemies of every 
 principle that is good and pure and holy and peace- 
 able. They should be dealt with to the utmost extent 
 and with utmost rigor of the law. 
 
 Among other lessons impressed upon the mind of 
 the American people by the great crisis through which 
 we have narrowly passed, is that of the power and 
 dangers of combined labor, the inhumanity of corpora- 
 tions, the unrest of society, the necessity of some 
 new legislation, and the expediency of independent 
 political action. 
 
 I appeal to the great body of the laboring classes, 
 in view of the developments of the past few weeks, 
 hereafter and forever to use your ballot aright. It 
 is the God-given privilege of every American citizen, 
 purchased at the sacrifice of blood, tears and prop- 
 erty, and which is the birthright of 4,000 years of 
 slow and painful evolution from degradation, slavery 
 and tyranny to the liberty of this latter nineteenth 
 century. A ballot unknown in ancient days, in the 
 Mosaic economy, and Roman history; a ballot that 
 first began to make its appearance when the Barons 
 at Runnymede demanded the rights of Magjia Charta 
 from King John of England, when Oliver Cromwell 
 rose against the despotism of Charles L, with his 
 Star Chamber, and when Martin Luther blew a blast 
 
RESTORE A FREE GOVERNMENT 125 
 
 that awoke all Europe to the dawn of the Reforma- 
 tion; a ballot that was not born until the urgent de- 
 mands of a home government once more created a 
 rebellion, and the American Colonies were estabhshed, 
 and that m.asterpiece of human composition, the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, given to the world; a ballot, 
 forsooth, that did not reach its majority until Abra- 
 ham Lincoln broke the manacles that enslaved 3,000,- 
 000 black men, and signed that Magna Charta of 
 human liberty, the Act of Emancipation; a ballot that 
 represents a government of the people, by the people, 
 and for the people, free homes, free schools, free 
 press, a united people, the right of every man un- 
 molested to worship God according to the dictates 
 of his own conscience; the greatest gift given by God 
 to man outside of his blessed Son, our Lord and 
 Savior Jesus Christ, and one that can give us, if we 
 use it right, the grandest type of government under 
 the sun! 
 
 O, workmen of America, use this gift aright, for 
 principle, not party, for men who are patriots and 
 who are able to represent your best interest! Love 
 your country. There is no better in this world. 
 Love and uphold our constitution, and ever protect 
 the flag for which our fathers, my father, died. 
 
 Go forth, little book, like a piece of driftwood 
 tossed out on the watery main of life, and may God's 
 blessing go with you. You have been written in the 
 true spirit of my blessed Master, who scourged when 
 
120 MISSION OF THIS BOOK 
 
 it was necessary, whose soul burned with heated 
 indignation against the oppressors of the poor, who 
 compared false prophets to whited sepulchers, and 
 yet who spoke words of loving kindness to the down- 
 trodden, and helped to smooth the weary way of life to 
 burdened souls. Yours has been a labor of love. 
 May you reach the homes of wealth, and awaken 
 them to their duty, may you fire the hearts of reform- 
 ers to greater deeds, may you stir the minds of legis- 
 lators to the need of better laws, and may you, above 
 all, help to bring the great mass of the laboring mil- 
 lions to realize that the secret of their greatest hap- 
 piness and the settlement of all our industrial troubles 
 lies in the upholding of the true principles of that 
 Christianity, irrespective of creed, which was given 
 to the world by Him who not only said, "Do unto 
 others as ye would that they should do unto you," 
 but also that 
 
 ^\xt gab0Xiix i0 ^0vUxti^ iff gi^ ^ive, 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 By permission of Mr. Carwardine, the publishers 
 here append extracts from a few letters selected from 
 a great number addressed to him by thinking men all 
 over the country, whose attention has been attracted 
 by published reports of his sermon on the Pullman 
 strike. The letters are interesting, not only for the 
 clear thinking and forcible expression contained, but 
 also for the indication which they afford of the 
 powerful trend of popular sympathy with the Pullman 
 strikers, not only among workingmen so-called, but 
 among independent and intelligent citizens every- 
 where. 
 From D. T. Averill, Madison, Wis. 
 
 I write to you to thank you for the stand you have 
 taken, because it is right. I wish there were more 
 ministers of the gospel that would stand for God and 
 the right and the common people who heard our 
 Saviour gladly. 
 
 From Charles H. Barrows, Attorney and Counselor at Law, 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
 I wish I knew the facts from the employees' point 
 of view, and if there is any statement or point, would 
 be greatly obliged if you could send it to me. Mr. 
 Debs said, "The men might as well starve idle as at 
 work." We at the east have no means of knowing 
 what this means. The public would welcome a can- 
 did investigation. 
 
 127 
 
128 STRIKES ARE MEREL Y A S YMP TOM 
 
 From John Black, 8i, 92nd Street, Chicago, 111. 
 
 I read your sermon of last Sunday evening, to-day 
 for the first time. Tears of delight burst from my 
 eyes on its perusal. If I had been there I would have 
 extended to you the right hand of fellowship, but as 
 it is I ask you to accept of my sincere thanks for your 
 brave and manly utterance and withal so timely. 
 Such a discourse as you delivered last Sunday even- 
 ing is unique in its rarity from such a source. It 
 should not be so. This particular rebuke emanated 
 from the proper source. Would to God they came 
 more often. Why should crime in high places go 
 unrebuked by the church, and the most contemptible 
 of all crime at that, robbery of the poor.? But it is 
 so common and frequent that we all expect it and 
 cease to wonder. Our so called civilization is a 
 march to a precipice. If something is not done soon 
 to inaugurate a reign of justice, the end will be 
 dreadfuL 
 From F. D. Butler, Chicago, 111. 
 
 I commend you most heartily for your fearlessness 
 in your recent utterances from your pulpit. I am 
 in hearty sympathy with the laboring people, of 
 whom I am one (as are you), though not in the com- 
 mon sense of the word. I3ut, I look upon strikes 
 merely as a symptom (together with the Coxey move- 
 ment, the vast, wide-spread destitution afflicting the 
 masses contrasted with the luxurious, unearned idle- 
 ness of the few) of the great evil in our social system, 
 landlordism. 
 From M. E. Conger, Manager "The Educator" Pub. Co., 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Your position as teacher and preacher in the pres- 
 ent Pullman Strike, is noticeable and commendable. 
 It is no more than we have a right to expect of every 
 professional man or woman, but it is quite the op- 
 
GLAD SOME CLERGYMEN DARE SPEAK 129 
 
 posite of the realities which we are compelled to ac- 
 cept year in and year out, from the great majority of 
 our leaders. As we read and understand you from 
 newspaper reports, you have said and done no more 
 than your duty, no more than common manly justice, 
 and are we not all bound to be just? Think of the 
 mighty change that would take place in this great 
 city of Chicago if every clergyman would see his duty, 
 privilege, and act upon it as you have. One hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand workers in this city respond 
 to your noble position and thank you with prayers 
 and blessings that are free from hypocrisy. They are 
 real and genuine prayers. 
 From Rev. J. D. Coverston, Bremen, Ind, 
 
 I notice in the Chicago Daily Tribune of the 
 2 1st inst., your Sunday evening sermon on the Pull- 
 man Strike. You come out in plain terms against 
 the millionaire, Mr. Pullman, I am glad that some 
 clergymen have the courage to speak out in no un- 
 certain sound for the rights of labor. If more would 
 do as you have done, some of the conditions in this 
 country would change. I most heartily commend 
 your heroic utterance about Mr, Pullman, not that I 
 want a rich man abused, because he is rich, but be- 
 lieving you knew the truth and spoke it. Let the 
 truth be told all round. The truth is reformation. 
 The labor movement ought to ask for equal power 
 in the law making body of America. It is not right 
 that money sharks make all the laws to govern labor. 
 We ought to have the "Referendum" in this country, 
 both in church and state. 
 From James Dangerfield, Elgin, III. 
 
 It was the report of your fearless sermon a few 
 weeks ago that attracted us to you. We are with 
 you in your efforts to show up iniquity, and trust and 
 believe you are with us in our efforts to obtain jus- 
 
130 THE CHURCH AND THE POOR 
 
 tice, not for the poor, but for all. The Creator has 
 provided abundance for all, yet from apathy and ig- 
 norance of economic truths, there are right here in 
 Elgin, hundreds in want of the necessities of decent 
 existence Why must we pinch and starve while 
 Nature is so lavish? Rev. Mr. Fawcett, a grand 
 young broad gauge Methodist Minister, addressed our 
 club last night on "Should Economics be spoken of in 
 the Pulpit.^" It would please and encourage our club 
 if I could read them, some time at your convenience, 
 a few words from you on this great fundamental ques- 
 tion: The right of every human being to the use of the 
 earth. 
 
 From Eugene V. Debs, President American Railway Union. 
 
 It does me good to receive your encouragement, 
 and I thank you for it.. You know that I feel that 
 the poor and labor have been neglected by the 
 churches, and this is the reason for my keen appreci- 
 ation of your friendship, for you have suffered perse- 
 cution and realize with what the poor have to contend. 
 Not until the powers which at present control our 
 legislation, national and state, are eradicated, how- 
 ever, will such as you and I be allowed to rest. 
 
 From Rev. John Merritte Driver, Pastor First M. E. 
 Church, Marion, Ind, 
 
 I want to thank you for your very great kindness in re- 
 plying so fully and intelligently to my letter of inquiry. 
 You have acted heroically, and if I am not entirely 
 mistaken you have exalted Christ's spirit and the 
 heroism and humanity of Methodism as very few of 
 us, if any, have ever done. I believe our beloved 
 church and our beloved religion will forge forward in 
 Pullman now, through your instrumentality, as they 
 have never done before. 
 
WHAT A PHYSICIylN HADSEEN 131 
 
 From John W. Howe Ssc'y, Union No. 164, A. R. U., 
 Dubuque, Iowa. 
 At a meeting held in Dubuque of the Ameri- 
 can Railway Union, your sermon was read on 
 the subject "The laborer is worthy of his hire, " 
 as reported in the Chicago Herald of the 2ist 
 inst., and immediately afterward a motion was offered 
 that a vote of thanks be tendered you for the very 
 able and fearless way in which you referred to the 
 abuses existing at Pdllman, the petty tyrannies that 
 are imposed on the employees, and the many injus- 
 tices that you so ably presented and criticised and 
 condemned. It was ver}^ refreshing and pleasant to 
 us as laboring men to know that we have such warm 
 and able advocates as you proved to be in this case, 
 and we sincerely pray that you will always be able 
 to maintain the position you now occupy on this 
 matter. We, the members of the Local Union, 164 
 of the A. R. U., heartily thank you and wish you 
 God-speed. 
 
 From A. L. Hunt, M. D., Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 I have read with great satisfaction an extract from 
 a sermon you delivered at Pullman recently. Allow 
 me to congratulate you upon your courage and stand, 
 taken under the existing circumstances. If more men 
 would take the same stand and come out in the in- 
 terest of Justice and Truth, we would soon get on to 
 the right track. I have been led to my convictions 
 through my professional duties as a physician; many 
 times every week visiting families who need food 
 rather than medicine. Often I have brought infants 
 into the world where their parents were unable to 
 provide clothes to dress them. We need more men 
 to proclaim the same Truth, and need them badly. 
 From Charles K. Ladd, Kewanee, III. 
 
 I have read with much interest notes of your ser- 
 mon in to-day's Chicago Herald. I would like to get 
 
134 GREETINGS FROM EAST AND IVEST 
 
 small practical contribution to the relief fund for the 
 suffering unemployed at Pullman. 
 From Charles H. Keeler, Jr., Reading, Pa. 
 
 I but voice the sentiments of many people in this 
 city when I say that we view your standing in the 
 matter of the wage earners of Pullman as highly com- 
 plimentary to yourself as a man, and also doing a 
 noble duty in pointing out the errors of this man, Pull- 
 man, that others, following in his footsteps, may rec- 
 tify their error ere it is too late. 
 From B. R. Phelps, East Orange, N. J. 
 
 I have read with interest your indictment of G. M. 
 Pullman, and am glad you have had the courage to 
 speak out on the subject, for I should think it would 
 require that quality to express oneself so unfavorably 
 to a powerful person, when in his vicinity and some- 
 what in his power. Of course a person at a distance 
 cannot form so intelligent an opinion of the contro- 
 versy. I write to ask if you will kindly give me some 
 information about the place, if I am not troubling you 
 too much. 
 From Ii. R. Sidwell, Chicago, 111 
 
 Allow me to congratulate you on the manly course 
 you took in your sermon yesterday, I have just read 
 the purport of your sermon in the morning Herald. 
 I would to God we had more public men that would 
 stand for justice at all times. Go on, Brother, in your 
 good work, I am not a day laborer at present Jus- 
 tice is what I want to see. The old flag we fought 
 for and under, floats proudly in the breeze, denoting 
 liberty and freedom. 
 From J. A. Stocking, 274 Lincoln Ave., Chicago, 111, 
 
 Having read a few extracts from your sermon of 
 last Sunday, as reported in the Herald of Monday, I 
 desire to thank you for your manly words, and con- 
 gratulate you for your bravery in taking the part of 
 the "under dog in the fight." Would that there were 
 
THE BR O THERHOOD OF MAN 135 
 
 more men like you in our pulpits. You and I would 
 not agree on religious matters, for of far more im- 
 portance than the Fatherhood of God is, in my esti- 
 mation, the Brotherhood of Man. My ideal Christ 
 would have taken the same stand as you have. Again, 
 I thank you. 
 
 From Noah Shupert, Pres. St. Joseph County Sunday School 
 Union, S^uth iie.nd, Ind. 
 
 I wish to give you my highest compliments as a 
 member of the church and a laboring man of modest 
 means for your excellent sermon to your congregation 
 last Sunday evening, as reported in Chicago Herald. 
 Would be glad to have it in full. 
 From A. Sterling, Plainfield, N. J. 
 
 In the Journal of the "Knights of Labor, "June 28, 
 1894, there is a quotation from a sermon of yours. 
 Your words give me hope that you have taken up the 
 cry of the people. My heart has long been heavy 
 with their cry in my ears. But I have a reasonable 
 hope of better things. The working people, always 
 the poor people, bear the burden of taxation now; by 
 putting the whole burden upon the value of land, 
 each would bear his just share. I am in the order 
 of the Knights of Labor. Why do you not join us.^* 
 
 From Joseph W. Tantum, Second National Bank, Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. 
 
 If you are correctly reported, you have startled 
 Pullman with the sight of a man. 
 From Frank Voight, Labor Exchange, Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Your sermons preached in defense of the poor have 
 been read in Atlanta, God bless you for your stand 
 by the poor. I read in yesterday's paper that the 
 strike is over. If so, it will only show that the ques- 
 tion between capital and Pabor has not been solved 
 by this fearful loss of life and property, and we may 
 look for more such calamity, if a plan be not formed 
 to give men bread. 
 
Asleep and Awake, 
 
 A Realistic Story of Chicago. 
 
 Raymond Russell is the name on the title page. Ray- 
 mond Russell is the hero of the story, or rather the lover 
 of the heroine. The real author is a Chicago writer who 
 has published other well known books, but whose iden- 
 tity the publishers are not yet at liberty to disclose, 
 
 Leonore, the heroine, is a girl living in a country town, 
 whose intellectual nature is awakened by a chance meet- 
 ing with Raymond Russell. She comes to Chicago 
 without his knowledge, and having a remarkable voice, 
 aims at a musical career. But she finds every door 
 closed to her. Her money is gone, and after a vain 
 wandering in search of work, she faints on the crowded 
 street. The one person who takes pity on her is Adel, 
 a "fallen" woman of Custom House Place. Here the 
 scene of the remainder of the book is laid, and the read- 
 er follows the story with breathless interest up to the 
 tragic climax. 
 
 The author comments unsparingly on the double 
 standard of morals applied to the male and the female 
 frequenters of the scenes described, yet refutes the indis- 
 criminate charges of Count Tolstoi against men. 
 
 Every one who read the Kreutzer Sonata should read 
 "Asleep and Awake," where after the worst has been 
 said, new ground is given for faith in a pure love, not in 
 woman alone but in man. 
 
 i2mo, handsome clotli blading, one dollar postpaid. 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, Publishers, 
 175 Monroe Street, Chicago, 
 
S'i^ 
 
 
Do' YOU KNOW that hard times come from scarcity of money and 
 that this scarcity is the result of hundreds of mi'ilions of dollars 
 being all the time hidden in safes,, pockets, safety depositories, 
 and the people's stockings? 
 
 Yes, true, but why is money so universally hidden? 
 
 Because people, through the enormous number of bank failures, 
 have lost' confidence in banks — as was the case in the early part of 
 1893, when 714 banks failed. No wonder that the people were panic 
 stricken and drew out of the banks in June and July of that year over 
 400 millions of dollars. 
 
 Mark the result. At that time over 800 manufacturing institutions 
 shut down and turew out of employment over 467,000 workmen. 
 That number has increased to millions of enforced idlers and here we 
 are. Idleness, destitution, crime; and the rich buying up the, peo- 
 ple's little properties at their own price, while the poor become 
 poorer, and the rich, taking advantage of the disturbed conditions, 
 rapidly becom'e millionaires. 
 
 Do-yau want to know how to stop bank failures, financial panics, 
 shuttingdbwn of business and the throwing of millions of people out 
 of work?' Then read 
 
 I I 
 
 by the Hon. Thos. E Hill, author of Hill's Manual, who clearly 
 shows. how the government may own and safely operate the banks to 
 the advantage of all the people instead of their few wealthy stock- 
 holders. 
 
 Added to the book is a glossary of financial terms and explanations 
 relating to monetary affairs which makes the work, in reality, a dic- 
 tionary of finance. 
 
 This glossary comprises many statistical tables, and readily answers 
 hundreds of perplexing financial questions never before explained in 
 any book, relating to alloys in coins, banks, how organized, difference 
 between state and national banks, bimetallism, bills of exchange, 
 bullion, checks, clearing house certificates, coins and coining, coins 
 of all nations and their values, currency, currency certificates, deben- 
 ture bonds, demonetization, drafts, fiat, financial history of the 
 country, free coinage, funding, gold, where obtained, amounts in ex- 
 istence, where it is, government bonds, interest in different stales, 
 legal tender, letters of credit, money and dmount for each person on 
 earth, monometallism, National bank failures, public debt, seignior- 
 age, silver, where obtained and in what amounts, stocks," subsidiary sil- 
 ver coins, treasury notes. United States notes, etc., etc. 
 
 Price: paper, 25 cents; cloth, 75 cents; leather, $1.00. Sent post- 
 paid on receipt of price. 
 
 Charles H. Kerr & Company, Publishers, 175 Monroe Street, Chicago.