The Pullman Boycott. W. F. Burns
whole, a part of a solid row or block. For this abode there was exacted a monthly rental of $17.00 although the cost would not exceed $1,000. A four room flat rents for $14.50 per month, and if you should want one of these cheap cottages with inside blinds for the front window, you must pay 50 cents per month for that much style. Some tenants have paid 50 cents per month for this luxury for more than thirteen years, which is pretty good interest on the cost of those blinds.
About 100 acres of land is covered with dwellings and the rent derived is about $500,000 annually, which is over 8 per cent per annum on the investment.
In many of these houses families are crowded into attics in order to reduce expenses to enable them to procure the necessaries of life.
Recently a new church was erected in Pullman, known as the Green church and parsonage, for which is demanded a monthly rental of $60.00 and for a good sized audience room, and two smaller ones attached Mr. Pullman charges the Methodist Episcopal society $500 per year. These rents must be paid in advance and are deducted from the wages of the men, and notwithstanding that the wages have been reduced no reductions have as yet been made in the rent.
The manner in which these men have been bled in the matter of rent, is fully equaled in the manner in which money for water and gas has been extorted from them. When the town was built a contract was made with the Village of Hyde Park, to furnish water at the rate of four cents per thousand gallons, and incredible as it may appear, this water was furnished to the Pullman tenants at ten cents per thousand gallons. In other words he charged $3,000 per month for the water which cost him but $1,200. This represents an annual profit on this one item of $21,000.
Could cold blooded heartless avarice go further? Yes; in the matter of gas which was manufactured and furnished to the people by the Pullman company itself, and although the cost is but 33 cents per thousand cubic feet, the tenants pay $2.25 per thousand while the same gas is furnished the residents of Hyde Park for 75 cents per thousand.
This adds from three to four dollars per month to living expenses in the average house at Pullman.
Another source of income which is wrung from the unfortunate victim is for heat, for which the company charges for six months in the year $10.80 per month.
It might be well to state also, that no person is allowed to keep a horse, unless the animal is kept at the company stables for which $3.00 per week is charged.
Such were the conditions of affairs discovered by the investigating committee in this model town, nor was this all. Miss Curtis, a delegate to the convention representing a ladies' lodge of the American Railway Union at Pullman, and whose father died in September, '93, was obliged to work fourteen hours per day in order to earn fifty cents at the same work for which she received prior to the first reduction $2.25 per day, and not satisfied with reducing her wages to this starvation point, the company insisted on the payment of a debt of $60.00 contracted during her father's illness. This is but a sample of the devilish cruelties perpetrated on the employes by the Pullman Company to satisfy their hellish greed for gold.
This corporation cannot plead poverty for thus treating its employes, as its capital stock is $30,000,000 and carries an enormous surplus of $18,000,000 which is termed a reserve fund. Mr. Pullman's personal wealth is estimated at about $25,000,000. Quarterly dividends of not less than two per cent have been paid regularly on the capital stock, and the stockholders receive every three months $600,000 as their share of the earnings. It is to enable them to pay this immense sum every three months, that the wages of its employes have been reduced. Can it be wondered that the American Railway Union took the matter in hand and declared a boycott on Pullman cars. When the report was received every brother present was deeply moved, and it was the unanimous sentiment of the convention to declare a boycott, but before taking action, apprised the various local unions of the state of affairs then existing, and received the sanction of the local bodies. They then decided that if the Pullman Company would not submit the difficulty to arbitration on or before the 26th day of June, to cut off the Pullman cars and refuse to handle them until the matter was settled. This action was taken June 22, and decided action held off until June 26, in hope that committees appointed to wait on Mr. Pullman would be successful in gaining some concessions whereby a peaceable settlement could be arrived at before resorting to the boycott, and, although several committees were sent to the management and every honorable means resorted to in order to bring about an amicable settlement, it was of no avail and there was nothing for the American Railway Union to do but enforce the boycott.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST DAY OF THE STRIKE.
The 26th day of June was awaited with more than ordinary interest by the people of Chicago on account of the proposed boycott.
The first train to leave Chicago handling Pullman cars was the Chicago and Erie Buffalo Express, and hundreds of men gathered to witness the departure at 2:55 P. M.
It started out on time with several Pullmans attached and several Pinkerton detectives on board. This was owing to the fact that it had been made up before the time set for the boycott to go into effect, but drawbars had been chained together and fastened with padlocks as a safeguard against cutting out the Pullman cars. Everyone was anxious to see if the engineer would pull it out. All doubt was soon set at rest however, as the engine backed onto the train and started out on time as usual. The crowd then waited to see if the next train, the Limited Express, on the Grand Trunk, due to leave at 3:10 P. M., would meet with the same success, and after seeing this train also pull out on time, the crowd dispersed.
The trains on the Monon Route, Santa Fe, and Eastern Illinois also departed with their accustomed regularity and without interference, and at 6.00 o'clock, as every train was running on time, Mr. Pullman and the railway officials were quite jubilant at what they considered a complete failure of the American Railway Union to perform the task it had undertaken. But inside of three hours they were doomed to disappointment, for at that time not a wheel was turning on the Illinois Central with the exception of express trains that had been started before the strike was ordered.
The strikers might have stopped the Diamond Special which leaves at 9:00 P. M., but through consideration for the passengers who had already purchased berth tickets, and adhering strictly to the instructions of their leaders to do nothing to discommode the travelers who in all probability were not acquainted with the existing state of affairs, this train was allowed to proceed. The strike that paralyzed the traffic of the entire country was started in this manner. Early in the afternoon a committee of five switchmen, employed on the Illinois Central, made their appearance at the headquarters of the American Railway Union in the Ashland block, to learn authoritatively the nature and purpose of the order issued requiring them to refuse to switch the cars of the Pullman Company, as the instructions received by them through Organizer Meyers of the union, were not sufficiently definite, so they claimed, to warrant their resisting the railroad company, and forfeiting their positions by such action. The switchmen, they said were willing to help the Pullman strikers, but they wished to know to a certainty what was expected of them. The directors of the union immediately held a conference with the delegates the result of which was an order to strike if the company insisted on them switching the Pullman cars. Those who were not members of the American Railway Union were guaranteed equal protection if they joined the strike, and the result was a complete tie up of the Illinois Central R. R.
The Chicago Times, in an article next morning, said that for rapidity of conception and execution this strike which probably involves five thousand men, beats anything of the kind on record, and in the same article says: the efforts to sidetrack the cars of the Pullman company yesterday was carried on with strict conformity to law and order.
With the exception of a crowd attracted out of a curiosity to see what might happen, there