THE DEBS RAILWAY STRIKE

By Harry Thurston Peck.

THE industrial unrest that grotesquely advertised itself early in 1894 by the march of Coxey's "Army" on Washington, was more sternly manifested later in the same year by the great railway strike directed by Eugene V. Debs. As Peck states in his "Thirty Years of the Republic," from which this account is taken, by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, the strike had its inception in a wage disagreement between the arbitrary Pullman Company and its employees. The Pullman workers were backed up by the American Railway Union, of which Debs was the head, and in the clash that followed between the strikers and Federal troops many lives were lost.

Debs was indicted and jailed for contempt, because of his management of the strike, which failed. Subsequently the indictments for conspiracy found by a Federal Grand Jury were dismissed. Five times he became the Socialist candidate for President. In 1918 Debs was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for violation of the Espionage Act.

IN 1886, the capitalists who controlled or owned the twenty-four railways which then entered the city of Chicago, had formed a voluntary association known as the General Managers' Association. This body had for its main purpose the effective and arbitrary control of all persons employed by the railways it represented in the association. Wages were cut down according to a general agreement, Discharged workmen were "blacklisted," so that they could not easily get new employment. With no standing whatever in law, the Managers' Association was establishing a complete control of the independence and even of the livelihood of thousands of railway employees.

To offset this combination of the owners, the men had organized, in 1893, the American Railway Union. The two bodies, antagonistic as they were in their special interests, came into conflict early in 1894, over a question which did not in its origin directly concern either of them.

The Pullman Palace Car Company was not a railway corporation, but was engaged in manufacturing cars which it operated through written contracts with the railways. It was a highly prosperous concern, and George M. Pullman, its president, had won much commendation from philanthropic sociologists for having built the pretty little village of Pullman, near Chicago, where employees of the company could at moderate rentals find houses that were clean, well lighted, and supplied with admirable sanitary arrangements. Lakes, parks, and well-kept streets made the place appear to be a poor man's paradise. On the other hand, those who lived in Pullman saw another side. Not many residents stayed there long. While they stayed, they seemed to be under a singular constraint. If they spoke of the company, they did so in a half-whisper, and with a furtive glance behind them very much "as a Russian might mention the Czar." Every one felt that he was spied upon, and that an incautious word might lead to his discharge and get his name upon the "black list."

In May, 1894, the Pullman Company dismissed a large number of its workmen. The wages of such as were retained were lowered by some twenty percent. Many were now employed for less than what was usually regarded as full time. A committee of employees waited upon Pullman to ask that the old wages be restored. Pullman refused this request, but promised that he would not punish any member of the committee for having presented the petition. This promise he apparently violated ; for on the very next day three of the committee were discharged. Pullman, in fact, evidently regarded himself as a personage so sacrosanct as to make even a respectful petition to him a serious offense. Indignant at his action, five-sixths of his men went out on strike. Pullman promptly discharged the other sixth, who had remained faithful to his interests.

To justify the Pullman management, a general statement was given out on its behalf, that the close of the Columbian Exposition and the existing business depression had checked the demand for its cars ; that it had been employing men at an actual loss; that it could not afford to continue them at work and at the old scale of wages. In reply to this, the fact was pointed out that while the wages of the men had been cut, the salaries of the officers remained as large as ever; and that rents in the town of Pullman had not been lowered. Moreover, the stock of the company was selling above par ; its dividends for the preceding year on a capital of $36,000,000 had been $2,520,000, while it had a surplus of undivided profits amounting to $25,000,000.

About 4,000 Pullman employees were members of the American Railway Union. In June, a convention of the union was held in Chicago, and this body took up the question of the Pullman strike, although the men on strike were not railway employees at all. A committee of the union wished to confer with the Pullman management, but were not allowed to do so. The Civic Federation of Chicago, with the approval and support of the mayors of fifty cities, urged the company to submit the matter to arbitration. The company answered: "We have nothing to arbitrate." Then, on June 2d, the Railway Union, finding no settlement possible, passed a resolution to the effect that unless the Pullman Company should come to an agreement with its men before June 26th, the members of the Railway Union would refuse to "handle" Pullman cars. The company remained obdurate; and therefore, on the 26th, the Union fulfilled its promise. From that day on, all the roads running out of Chicago, no train to which Pullman cars were attached could move.

The president of the Railway Union was Eugene V. Debs. He had formerly been a locomotive engineer and afterward a grocer. Going into politics, he had served a term in the Indiana Legislature. He was a very shrewd, long-headed strategist. He understood the strength of his organization. He was equally well aware of the one weak point in all the great labor demonstrations of the past. The 150,000 men whom he controlled could, by acting together, completely paralyze the railway system centering at Chicago. Local public sentiment was, on the whole, favorable to the Pullman employees. That sentiment would, however, be alienated if violence and general disorder were to follow on the strike. It was vital that the Railway Union should employ no lawless means.

The peaceable strike which was begun upon the 26th proved at once to be remarkably effective. Switchmen refused to attach Pullman cars to any train. When they were discharged for this, the rest of the train's crew left it in a body. By the end of the fifth day after the strike began, all the roads running out of Chicago were practically at a standstill. The Railway Managers' Association was facing absolute defeat. Its resources in the way of men were exhausted, and its trains could not be operated. Yet all this had been accomplished by peaceable means. There was no sign of violence or disorder. But the men who made up the Managers' Association were very able. They had at their command unlimited money, and legal advisers who could conceive daring plans.