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Everything seemed so perfect. Pullman, Illinois was a company town on the outskirts of Chicago, founded in 1880 by George Pullman, president of the railroad sleeping car company. Pullman advertised his town as a model community that included everything from parks to libraries and was filled with satisfied, well paid workers. Each resident worked for the Pullman company, which manufactured railroad cars, and by 1894 it operated "first class" sleeping cars on almost every one of the nation's major railroads.
The name Pullman was a household word. (Pennock, P 1) Their paychecks were drawn from Pullman bank, and their rent, set by Pullman, was deducted automatically from their weekly paychecks. The town and the company operated smoothly and successfully for more than a decade. (Lehrer, P 2) However, in 1893, the residents got angry, and with very good reason. Orders for railroad sleeping cars declined, and Pullman was forced to lay off hundreds of employers. Pullman cut wages an average 25 percent for the workers who continued to work, and refused to lower rent. So the employees walked out, demanding lower rents and higher pay. At the same time, the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs was trying to organize rail workers all across the United States.
The former Pullman workers needed people who cared, and joined the union. Now Debs became the leader of the Pullman strike. The ARU had great influence among the workers who operated trains. To put pressure on Pullman, the union got trainmen to refuse to run trains on which Pullman sleeping cars were attached.
This seriously disrupted the American railroad service, and railroad executives got nervous. Mail trains got interrupted, which caused the strike to become a national issue. It was time for the government to get involved. An Omnibus injunction was issued against the leaders of the ARU, which denied them the right to convince railway employees to follow their disruptive requests, such as not operating any trains with Pullman cars.
When the Pullman management still had not changed its position, violence broke out. There was rioting, pillaging, and burning of railroad cars. This wasnt only being done by those who were part of the union; mobs of non-union workers joined in too. The strike and boycott rapidly expanded. Attorney General Richard Olney, who disliked unions, heard about the violence and arranged to send federal troops to suppress the strike.
It was only with the help of the United States Army that the strike came to an end. Although Governor Altgeld from Illinois disapproved, President Grover Cleveland still sent the troops in. When the strikers saw the troops, they became furious. The chaos that was already going on seemed like nothing compared to the uproar that was about to break out. Mobs of people set off fireworks and were tipping railcar's. Blockades were built.
It was complete pandemonium, and the Aru's leaders couldnt even communicate with the strikers because of federal indictments. The rioting continued to grow, and eventually a huge fire consumed seven buildings at the Worlds Colombian Exposition in Jackson Park. Fires that were being set off by the mobs destroyed 700 railcar's. Although there were 6, 000 federal and state troops, 3, 100 police, and 5, 000 deputy marshals in the area at the time, the violence still continued to grow. After being assaulted, national guardsmen fired into the crowd killing and wounding bystanders. Debs and four other ARU leaders were arrested for violating the indictment.
The ARU turned to the other prominent union, the AFL, for help. But the AFL refused. The workers were losing hope. The ARU offered to compromise if the workers would be rehired without prejudice. However, the General Managers Association turned down the offer. The strikers were helpless.
So the strike continued to lessen, and trains began to move with increased frequency. The strike became untenable for the workers, and the Pullman works eventually reopened. (Ladd, P 4) The results of the strike were devastating. The railroads lost a great amount of money. Because the entire rail labor force of the nation would walk away from their jobs at some point to support the strikers, so many people lost wages. There were many strikebreakers involved also. 1, 936 federal troops, 4, 000 national guardsmen, about 5, 000 extra deputy marshals, 250 extra deputy sheriffs, and the 3, 000 policemen in Chicago for a total of 12, 186 strikebreakers. Twelve people were shot and killed, and seventy-one people were arrested and jailed.
In addition, while Debs was in jail, he read writings by Karl Marx and other socialists. He realized that the lives of American workers would never improve unless they gained control of the government. Once he was released from jail in 1895, Debs became Americas most popular socialist leader. The Pullman strike was the first national strike in Americas history. The results of the Pullman Strike were both enormous and inconsequential. (Ladd, P 5) I am deeply bothered by the outcome of the strike. The workers did not accomplish their original goal, which was to lower rent.
However, they still managed to do immeasurable damage; so much property was destroyed, and life was disrupted for quite a while. The strike did show the power of unified national unions and the damage that they were able to do. But this wasnt a good thing; there was already a negative attitude by the public towards unions, and this just made their views stronger. The public was extremely upset with the labor problem that the strike represented. The events of the strike caused other Americans to look for better ways to have peace between management and their labor force while protecting public interest. The strike also showed the willingness of the federal government to intervene and support the capitalist against unified labor.
Overall, the Pullman strike can be characterized as a loss by the union that caused irreversible damage to the public. Works Cited Strikes. Microsoft Encarta. Encyclopedia 1999. 1998. Cleveland's Stormy Second Term.
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe. Encyclopedia 1999. 1998. Ladd, Keith. The Pullman Strike. web March 3, 1998. Lehrer, Jim.
The Origins of Labor Day. Online Focus. web day 9 - 2. html. September 2, 2001. Pennock, Pamela E.
Pullman Strike. Ohio Historical Study. web
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