Pullman+Strike+of+1894

Rosemary Soucy and Julia Werth **Pullman Strike of 1894**  __The Company__

George Pullman created the Pullman Palace Car Company, as well as the town of Pullman, Illinois it was located in. The Pullman Company manufactured passenger cars for trains, and was extremeley successful in doing so. However, in order to gain that profit, the company cut workers wages and kept housing rents extremeley high. Since the Company owned all housing and stores in Pullman they were able to charge there workers much more for necessities, like water, than they were actually worth, since they had no competition

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__The Problems__

Before the strike, the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company had already been unhappy with the amount of control George Pullman had over their lives. Employees' only option for housing, food, and other supplies was the company store which charged 20-25% more than what was charged in surrounding areas. There was no competition in Pullman to lower these prices. Pullman also had strict standards for the town, and regulations such as banning alcohol angered those who lived there. Though this unrest did not directly lead to strike, it increased friction between the company and its workers. This tension came to a breaking point during the Panic of 1893. This panic was a result of unregulated market competition which led to a surplus of goods and falling prices and wages. When this triggered bankruptcies and low profits the panic grew into a five-year depression. As a result of this economic downturn, Pullman cut wages by 1/4 without lowering the price of rent, food, and other costs of living. This put tremendous economic strain on his workers, many of whom were members of the American Railway Union, a union centered in Chicago which was one of the largest of its time. As members of a union, Pullman' workers were especially likely to resist what they saw as unfair conditions.

The town of Pullman, Illinois was intended to be a "model" community and an example of welfare capitalism, giving workers certain benefits to satisfy them.

**Testimony of Jennie Curtis (August 16th, 1894)** Jennie Curtis was a seamstress for the Pullman company repair shops and had been living in Pullman for five years. When her father died a year previously, he left debts of unpaid rent which had built up while he was sick and unable to work. The wage cuts during the Panic of 1893 and the burden of these debts made it impossible for her to keep up with her expenses. She had also been a member of the American Railway Union since May 8th, 1893 and was the president of the girls' union locally at Pullman. Part of her role was serving as part of a committee that spoke for the seamstresses, asking for more wages. As a leader in the American Railway Union, Jennie Curtis is clearly in favor of the strike and inclined to make the conditions in Pullman seem bad. Therefore, she is likely to show some bias in the following testimony excerpt.

//(Commissioner Wright) Can you give us how the wages changed from month to month?// //(Jennie Curtis) Whenever the men were cut in their wages the girls also recieved a cut. We were cut twice inside of a week in November, 1893, and in January our wages were cut again; that was the last cut we recieved, and we worked as hard as we possibly could and doing all we could, too. The most experienced of us could only make 80 cents per day, and a great many of the girls only average 40 to 50 cents per day.//

// (Commissioner Wright) You pay board? // // (Jennie Curtis) Yes, sir. My father worked for the Pullman company for thirteen years. He died last September, and I paid off the rent to the Pullman company up to the time he died; I was boarding at the time of my father's death. He being laid off and sick for three months, owed the Pullman company $60 at the time of his death for back rent, and the company made me, out of my small earnings, pay rent due from my father. //

Cutting already small wages without lowering costs made it impossible for some workers to pay their expenses. The company also did little in the way of providing benefits such as insurance and health care to its employees. The combination of these factors led to workers becoming indebted, and subsequently further tied, to the Pullman company.

__Strike__

 On May 11, 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman Illinois went one strike! The American Railway Union, which many of the Pullman Workers were a part of, encouraged the strikers to begin a boycott. They suggested that all the members of the union boycott trains with cars made by Pullman. Only a month later, in June, the boycott had grown so much that 125,000 railroad workers were now participating.

 In an attempt to end the strike, Pullman cars were attached to mail cars, therefore when the workers refused to service the U.S. mail trains, in effect stopping the progress of mail across the country, the government had a reason to come in on the side of the Pullman Palace Car Company. Unfortunately this caused the strike to become violent. In the scuffles 30 strikers were killed by U.S. soldiers, shocking the general public of America. Once the government arrested the president of the American Railway Union, Eugene Debs, the union called off the strike. It officially ended on August 2, 1894.

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__Court Ruling__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> Attorney general Richard Olney then brought the American Railway Union to trial for violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. This act was meant to stop the growth of monopolies and declared any business combination that hindered trade or commerce illegal. He claimed that the act could be applied to labor unions and that the boycott of Pullman train cars carrying U.S. mail was restraining commerce. Federal courts granted the injunction against the strike and the president of the American Railway Union, Eugene Debs, was sent to jail for violating it.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 24px;">Eugene V. Debs, president and founder of the American Railway Union.

<span style="color: #080707; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**David Brewer, ruling of the** **Supreme Court** **on Eugene Debs** **and the Pullman Strike** **(May 27th, 1895)** David Brewer was a judge appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1889. He was a conservative who particularly resisted the socialist movement and made speeches in favor of inequality. It was also his belief that it was a natural law for wealth to accumulate in the hands of a few who exercise self-denial and thrift over time. When the case against the American Railway Union and Eugene Debs came before the Supreme court in 1895, they ruled in favor of the Pullman Company. In this source, Brewer is explaining why he refused the American Railway Union's appeal of the court's decision. Based his beliefs, Brewer is prone to favor the Pullman Company over its workers. This means he will likely twist the facts slightly in their favor.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">//It is obvious that while it is not the province of the government to interfere in any mere matter of private controversy between individuals, or to use its great powers to enforce the rights of one against another, yet, whenever the wrongs complained of are such as affect the public at large, and are in respect of matters which by the Constitution are entrusted to the care of the nation, and concerning which the nation owes the duty to all the citizens of securing to them their common rights, then the mere fact that the government has no pecuniary interest in the controversy is not sufficient to exclude it from the courts or prevent it from taking measures therein to fully discharge those constitutional duties.//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">//The national government, given by the Constitution power to regulate interstate commerce, has by express statute assumed jurisdiction over such commerce when carried upon railroads. It is charged, therefore, with the duty of keeping those highways of interstate commerce free from obstruction, for it has always been recognized as one of the powers and duties of a government to remove obstructions from the highways under its control.//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brewer claimed that while it is not the duty of the federal government to get involved with private controversy and enforce ones rights over the other, when such conflict interferes with the rights of the general public, the government must take measures to fulfill their constitutional duty of securing the public’s rights. Regulating interstate commerce is part of the federal government’s duties. As a part of this duty, they must ensure that interstate commerce remains free from obstruction. Therefore, the supreme court rules against Eugene Debs and the Pullman Strike.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">__Changes__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Immediately after the strike ended on August 2nd, it did not appear that the workers had accomplished much through their efforts. The president of their union was still imprisoned and they no longer were able to protest Pullman's unfair treatment. However, in the long term their strike did change their lives for the better. Pullman was eventually forced to hand over control of the town, and the town of Pullman was incorporated by Chicago.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;"> Federal troops guard a train against Pullman strike workers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Though the strike did benefit the workers of the Pullman company, it did little to help the cause of other unions. As railroad owners had done in the Pullman strike, factory owners would appeal to courts against unions in the coming years. Courts would regularly approve these appeals and refuse to recognize unions as legally protected organizations. This would limit union gains for over 30 years.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">References __

Schneirov, Richard, Stromquist, Shelton, and Salatore, Nick. //The Pullman Strike and The Crisis of the 1890s, Essays on Labor and Politics//. University of Illinois: Board of Trustees, 1999.

Reply of the Pullman Company, U.S. Strike Commission, //Report and Testimony on the Chicago Strike of 1894// (Washington D.C. Government Printing Office, 1895) 578-80. Reprinted in Thomas G. Manning, //The Chicago Strike of 1894// (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960), 4-7.

Brewer, David. "Ruling of the Supreme Court on Eugene Debs and the Pullman Strike." (May 27th, 1895). <span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApullman.htm

Curtis, Jennie. "Testimony of Jennie Curtis." (August 16th, 1894). <span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;">http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1850/voices/curtis/jennie.htm.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;">"Pullman Strike." // American History. // ABC-CLIO, 2011. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif;">http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/445660?terms=pullman+strike.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Pictography __

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;">Pullman Strike Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgX0PW0ij_w

Town of Pullman and Workers: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tBqi5ja-dgs/TUYM7Fm3MTI/AAAAAAAADko/Hlh1KsIgzeU/s1600/pullman_works. jpg

Eugene V. Debs: http://www.basicfamouspeople.com/pictures/3607.jpg

Pullman Strike Workers attack a train: http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4048/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4048-7567.jpg