113. The Chicago strike of

1894

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The Germans can replace their shattered ships without great exertion and with comparatively little delay. . . . The United States will have great difficulty in recruiting its naval forces in Apia and taking off the shipwrecked crews. At Panama a vessel cannot be spared: at San Francisco there is not a ship available for the service. There are three antiquated vessels in the Asiatic squadron, one new dispatch boat, the Dolphin, and the Palos, which is hardly better than a tow-boat. In this emergency the only resource is to send some of these venerable relics from China to Hawaii, and leave those important stations bare. Such a situation is humiliating to American pride. The movement for providing the country with a well-equipped modern navy ought to receive a powerful impulse from the Samoan catastrophe.

PROBLEMS OF CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM

The most serious industrial struggle in the history of our country, and the only one in which the troops of the United States have been called upon to fire on United States citizens, was the great railroad strike in Chicago in 1894, arising out of the conflict over wages in the Pullman Palace Car Company. On the day set by the American Railway Union for refusing to handle trains to which Pullman cars were attached, unless the Pullman Company agreed to arbitration with its employees 1 (June 26, 1894), the following statement of its position was published by the company in the Chicago Herald:

1 On July 26, 1894, President Cleveland appointed a commission of three men to investigate the causes of the strike. In his testimony before the commission George M. Pullman, president of the company, said: "Of course there are matters which are proper subjects of arbitration... but as to whether a fact which I know to be true, is true or not, I could not agree to submit to arbitration. The question as to whether the shops at Pullman should be continuously operated at a loss or not, is one which it was impossible for the company, as a matter of principle, to submit to the opinion of any third party."— W. J. Ashley, The Railroad Strike of 1894, p. 3. Cambridge, 1895.

In view of the proposed attempt of the American Railway Union to interfere with public travel on railway lines using Pullman cars, in consequence of a controversy as to the wages of employes of the manufacturing department of the company, the Pullman company requests the publication of the following statement of the facts, in the face of which the attempt is to be made.

In the first week of May last, there were employed in the car manufacturing department at Pullman, Ill., about 3100 persons. On May 7th a committee of the workmen had an interview by arrangement with Mr. Wickes, vice-president, at which the principal subject of discussion related to wages. The absolute necessity of the last reduction in wages, under the existing condition of the business of car manufacturing, had been explained to the committee, and they were insisting upon a restoration of the wage scale of the first half of 1893, when Mr. Pullman entered the room and addressed the committee, speaking in substance as follows:

At the commencement of the very serious depression last year we were employing at Pullman 5816 men, and paying out in wages there $305,000 a month. Negotiations with intending purchasers of railway equipment that were then pending for new work were stopped by them, orders already given by others were canceled, and we were obliged to lay off, as you are aware, a large number of men in every department, so that by November 1, 1893, there were only about 2000 men in all departments. . . I realized the necessity for the most strenuous exertions to procure work immediately . . . and, with lower prices upon all materials, I personally undertook the work of the lettings of cars, and by making lower bids than other manufacturers, I secured work enough to gradually increase our force from 2000 up to about 4200, the number employed, according to the April pay-rolls, in all capacities at Pullman.

This result has not been accomplished merely by reduction in wages, but the company has borne its full share by eliminating from its estimates the use of capital and machinery, and in many cases going even below that and taking work at considerable loss, notably the fifty-five Long Island cars, which was the first large order of passenger cars let since the great depression, and which was sought for by practically all the leading car-builders in the country. My

will

anxiety to secure that order, so as to put as many men at work as possible, was such that I put in a bid at more than $300 per car less than the actual cost to the company. The three hundred stock cars built for the Northwestern Road and the two hundred and fifty refrigerator cars now under construction for the same company, result in a loss of at least $12 per car, and the twenty-five cars just built for the Lake Street Elevated Road show a loss of $79 per car. I mention these particulars so that you may understand what the company has done for the mutual interest and to secure for the people at Pullman and vicinity the benefit of the disbursement of the large sums of money involved in these and similar contracts. ... I can only assure you that if this company now restores the wages of the first half of 1893, as you have asked, it would be a most unfortunate thing for the men, because there is less than sixty days of contract work in sight in the shops under all orders, and there is absolutely no possibility, in the present condition of affairs throughout the country, of getting any more orders for work at prices measured by the wages of May, 1893. Under such a scale the works would necessarily close down and the great majority of the employes be put in idleness, a contingency I am using my best efforts to avoid.

To further benefit the people of Pullman and vicinity, we concentrated all the work that we command at that point, by closing our Detroit shops entirely, and laying off a large number of men at our other repair shops, and gave to Pullman the repair of all cars that could be taken care of there.

Also for the further benefit of our people at Pullman, we have carried on a large system of internal improvements, having expended nearly $160,000 since August last in work, which, under normal conditions, would have been spread over one or two years. The policy would be to continue this class of work to as great an extent as possible, provided, of course, the Pullman men show a proper appreciation of the situation by doing whatever they can to help themselves to tide over the hard times which are so seriously felt in every part of the country. . . .

At a meeting of the local committee held during the night of May 10 a strike was decided upon, and accordingly the next day about 2500 of the employes quit their work, leaving about 600 at work, of whom very few were skilled workmen. As it was found impracticable to keep the shops in operation with a force thus diminished and disorganized, the next day those

remaining were necessarily laid off, and no work has since been done in the shops.

The pay-rolls at the time amounted to about $7,000 a day, and were reduced $5,500 by the strike, so that during the period of a little more than six weeks which has elapsed the employes who quit their work have deprived themselves and their comrades of earnings of more than $200,000. . . .

While deploring the possibility of annoyance to the public by the threats of irresponsible organizations to interrupt the orderly ministration to the comfort of travelers on railway lines aggregating 125,000 miles in length, the Pullman company can do no more than explain its situation to the public. It has two separate branches of business, essentially distinct from each other. One is to provide sleeping cars, which are delivered by it under contract to the various railway companies, to be run by them on their lines as a part of their trains for the carriage of passengers, over the movements of which this company has no control.... The other, and a distinct branch of the business of the Pullman company, is the manufacture of sleeping cars for the above-mentioned use of railway companies, and the manufacture for sale to railway companies of freight cars and ordinary passenger cars, and of street cars, and this business is almost at a standstill throughout the United States.

The business of manufacturing cars for sale gives employment to about 70% of the shop employes. The manufacture of sleeping cars for use by the railway companies under contract gives employment to about 15% of the shop employes....

It is now threatened by the American Railway Union officials that railway companies using Pullman sleeping cars shall be compelled to deprive their passengers of sleeping-car accommodations, unless the Pullman company will agree to submit to arbitration the question as to whether or not it shall open its manufacturing shops at Pullman and operate them under a scale of wages which would cause a daily loss to it of one-fourth the wages paid.

The economic aspect of the strike, however, was not the only one, nor perhaps even the chief one. Early in

July, after the mob in Chicago had begun the destruction of railroad property, President Cleveland, in accordance with the authority given him by the laws of the United States,1 ordered federal troops to the scene of action to preserve order. The controversy which arose between President Cleveland and Governor Altgeld of Illinois over this procedure is described by the former in his article, "The Government in the Chicago Strike of 1894":

I must not fail to mention here as part of the history of this perplexing affair, a contribution made by the governor of Illinois to its annoyances. This official not only refused to regard the riotous disturbances within the borders of his State as a sufficient cause for an application to the Federal Government for its protection against domestic violence" under the mandate of the Constitution,2 but he actually protested against the presence of Federal troops sent into the State upon the General Government's own initiative and for the purpose of defending itself in the exercise of its well-defined legitimate functions.

९९

On the 5th day of July, twenty-four hours after our soldiers had been brought into the city of Chicago, pursuant to the order of July 3d, I received a long despatch from Governor Altgeld, beginning as follows:

I am advised that you have ordered Federal troops to go into service in the State of Illinois. Surely the facts have not been correctly

1 Section 5298 of the Revised Statutes of the United States reads: "Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, it shall become impracticable in the judgment of the President to enforce, by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws of the United States within any State or Territory, it shall be lawful for the President to call forth the militia of any or all of the States, and to employ such parts of the land or naval forces of the United States as he may deem necessary to enforce the faithful execution of the laws of the United States, or to suppress such rebellion, in whatever State or Territory thereof the laws of the United States may be forcibly oppressed or the execution thereof be forcibly obstructed."

2 Constitution, Article IV, sect. IV.