THE CAUSE (?)
THE CAUSE (?)
THE CAUSE (?)
THE STRIKE AND ITS EFFECT.
AS the tiny stream that wends its course down the mountain slope on the way to the sea grows gradually larger and deeper by the successive uniting with it of similar streams until at last it becomes the mighty river in which its identity is completely lost, so a small labor movement springing up in a little town named Pullman in the vicinity of Chicago, and spreading out westward and southward, became larger and greater at each successive juncture with it of the employees of the railroad until at last, when its progress was stopped by the cool waves of the Pacific, it had grown to be a movement of gigantic proportions, stupendous in its effects, in which the primal cause of the movement was lost. California was particularly affected. Never before in the history of the State had she experienced such a movement as this. Traffic was completely stopped. Business was paralyzed. Goods could neither be received nor sent away. Merchants were laying off their employees and getting ready to close up their houses. Not a wheel of the Southern Pacific Company was turning in the State.
This movement had its source in a disagreement between the managers and the employees of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company. By successive reductions the wages of the employees had become greatly reduced, far below that which the existing condition of affairs would seem to justify.This, considered with certain other circumstances, caused a great deal of dissatisfaction among the men of the works. The accompanying circumstances, which served to intensify the dissatisfaction, were of a nature peculiar to the town of Pullman itself. A fair estimate would place the inhabitants of this town at about four thousand, all of whom are directly or indirectly dependent for subsistence upon the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company. Not only are they connected with the company by bond of employer and employee, but also are they related as landlord and tenant, and as creditor and debtor. Pullman has been nicknamed “the model town.†But there is more than one way of looking at this model town, just as there is more than one way of looking at a model jail. To a man like Carlyle, who had no sympathy for transgressors of the law, a jail like the famous Cherry Hill prison of Pennsylvania would be a model jail; for here a prisoner is confined in a single cell for the entire term of his confinement, with no other occupation than that of picking jute. But to the prisoner himself who is incarcerated there, it is a model jail, where he “who once enters leaves all hope behind.†So with the town of Pullman. To the stockholders of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company, who see in its organization innumerable opportunities for enriching themselves at the expense of the workman, it is a model town. But to the poor employees, who encounter at every turn the grasping hand of the monopoly, it is a model town symbolical of all that characterizes slavery. In the hands of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company resides the entire property of the town. They not only own the water and gas works, and the houses, but also sell to their employees the very necessities of life. All the inhabitants of the town are tenants; none are freeholders. From this it is easy to imagine the situation when a large cut was made in the wages. The corporation, you may be sure, never thought of making a corresponding reduction in the rent of the houses, or in the water and gas rates, or in the price of food. With greatly reduced wages, reduced to considerably less than what the artisans engaged in similar crafts were getting in the adjacent municipality of Chicago, and with rents and water, and gas rates correspondingly higher, the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company expected its employees to adjust themselves to the new condition of affairs. The chasm, however, was altogether too wide to be bridged. The men were compelled by the force of necessity to resist the reduction.
About the beginning of May, 1894, a committee of thirty-nine, representing every department in the works, waited upon Mr. Pullman, president of the company, and laid the case before him. They asked that the old rates, which were one-third higher than the present rates, be re-established. In spite of the fact, that at about the time the committee waited upon Mr. Pullman the company was paying large dividends, and had an enormous reserve fund, and further still, in spite of the fact, that Mr. Pullman had enough of spare cash to donate one hundred thousand dollars to a church, the petition was denied. The plea given was, that the state of business would not stand the increase of wages. The matter did not stop here. The car company was very indignant at the apparent intrusion of the workmen into the affairs of their business. How dare employees suggest to them how they shall conduct their business. The outcome of it was, that the men who formed the committee were individually discharged from their service. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The entire body of workmen struck. This was the direct strike.
A new element now enters into the strike. The employees of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company, as a body, were affiliated with an organization known as the American Railway Union. The constitution of this latter organization was of such an elastic character as to be capable of being stretched so far as to include not only those who worked for the railroad proper, but also all who were employed upon any kind of railroad work whatsoever. The strike was referred by the workmen of Pullman to this higher body for settlement. The American Railway Union investigated the grievances of the men, and concluded that the strike was a just one; one worthy of their support. On June 23d, after having tried for a period of six weeks to adjust the difficulties between the men and their employers without success, the Executive Board of the Union gave notice to the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company, that, unless they agreed to the terms of settlement by the 27th of June, a boycott would be placed upon all Pullman cars. In other words the members of the union would refuse to handle any trains to which were attached Pullman cars. The 27th of June coming around with no signs of compliance on the part of the Pullman Company the threat of the union was put into execution. The entire Santa Fé System, comprising about seventeen different linesand operating throughout that part of the country southward of Chicago to the Gulf and westward to the Pacific, was affected. This new phase of the strike, known as the sympathetic strike, was destined to be the greatest labor movement that America had ever experienced.
This is the method by which the American Railway Union undertook to bring the Pullman corporation to terms. In their letter to the public they stated that it was not their intention to tie up the railroads. They were willing to handle trains, provided Pullman cars were left off. This was, they said, the only means they had of striking the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company. In case a quarrel arose between them and the railroad companies it would be a quarrel that was forced upon them, and not one of their choosing. The railroad companies, on the other hand, were unable to separate their interests from the interests of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company, so they took the quarrel upon their own shoulders. They were determined to send trains out with Pullman cars attached, or else they would not send any at all. On the 27th of June, the day that the boycott was placed upon Pullman cars, traffic over the entire Santa Fé system came to a standstill. The railroad employees, that is, those employees who were engaged in the strike—the firemen, switchtenders and switchmen—refused to move trains with Pullman cars attached, and the railroad companies refused to send out trains without them. And so began the sympathetic strike.
Every State, in which the lines of the above-mentioned system operated, was severely affected. In the East the unique position held by Chicago with regard to the different lines of railroads made it the hotbed of the strike. Seventeen different lines meet in Chicago. These being tied up, Chicago became the congregating point for many thousand strikers, some of whom were exceedingly desperate characters. Chicago, in the course of the strike, was the scene of many aggressive operations, and numerous were the conflicts between the troops and strikers, of which some resulted in fatalities. In the West the strike presented some features which were not manifested in the East. No State suffered more severely from the strike than did California. That the effect was so severe on California was due probably to its isolation; to its entire dependence upon railroad transportation, and to the fact that a great part of its produce consisted of fruit, which hasto find a ready market in the East. These facts, coupled with the fact that the tie-up came at that time in the year when the fruit was ripe and ready for shipping, and thus dependant upon rapid transportation for its value, are evidence enough of the injurious effects of the strike upon California. And yet, in spite of the ruinous consequences, it is strange to say that the sympathy of the people was almost unanimously with the strikers. The press of California has been severely criticised by the Eastern press for the manner in which it espoused the cause of the strikers. Yet the California press was only reflecting the opinions of the people.
The first scene of act one of the strike in California took place on the 27th of June. The overland trains, which are the only trains that carry Pullman cars with the exception of the Yosemite, did not leave the Oakland mole that day as usual. Throughout the 27th and part of the 28th all other trains ran as usual. But on the 28th President Debs of the American Railway Union telegraphed from Chicago to the heads of the local unions to tie up the entire Southern Pacific Company. The strike now began to operate in California with full force.
In such railroad centers of California as Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento the strike assumed threatening aspects. In Sacramento the aspect was particularly alarming. Los Angeles and Sacramento are the two controlling centers for all lines that leave the State. The strike in neither Los Angeles nor Oakland reached the importance or received the attention that it did in Sacramento. This was due to the fact that in Los Angeles it was brought under control before it gained much headway. While in Oakland, though Oakland was invested by a large number of strikers who managed to do a good deal of mischief and damage, such as cutting the air-brakes on freight trains, and even going so far as to stop the entire local system, thus compelling the residents of the bay towns to resort to a provisional ferry; yet even while they did all this, it made little practical difference to the outcome of the strike whether the strikers reigned there or not as long as Sacramento or Los Angeles remained under their control. Sacramento and Los Angeles therefore were the backbone of the strike in California.
As the time wore on a peaceful settlement of the strike seemed to grow less. The railroad company, on the one hand, was determined not to yield. The strikers, on theother hand, were getting impatient and angry at the rigidness of the railroad officials, and with this, growing more conscious of their power, seemed ready to set aside all legal restraints and resort to violent deeds to force an acquiescence to their will. Sacramento, where the strikers held forth in full sway, was the point toward which the attention of the people was directed. Speculation became rife as to what would be the outcome. That things could not continue in such a state much longer was universally conceded. The seriousness of the affair, however, kept rolling on. Complaints of people tied up at the different places in the State were increasing every day. Baggage and freight was accumulating with wondrous rapidity. Delayed mail—and here is where the strikers came in conflict with Uncle Sam—was piling up on every hand. It was only a question of time when the dam would break.
It was on June 29th that the first rumors were heard about calling out the State troops. A situation like this cannot fail to be other than closely related to the life of the National Guard. While California had been hitherto practically free from movements of this kind the Eastern States had not been so fortunate. It seems next to an impossibility for a railroad strike of any size to occur without its being accompanied by violence and crime. Time after time had the Eastern National Guard been called out to suppress strikers, who had finally deteriorated into rioters. The one seemed to follow the other as effect follows cause. As soon as a strike was inaugurated the people of the East looked for the effect, namely the calling out of the National Guard. This mode of thinking influenced the thought of California. The people now began to look to the State troops. The members of the National Guard were especially interested in the situation, for when they joined they little thought that they would be called upon to face any real danger. A sham battle at camp was about as near as they ever expected to get to an actual engagement. But as things began to look serious, their interest in affairs grew in intensity. “Great Heavens! we might be called out.†So they anxiously awaited further developments.