129-812: Eugene V. Debs George Pullman ; Grover Cleveland The Pullman Strike was two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman factory in Chicago in spring 1894. When it failed, the ARU launched a national boycott against all trains that carried Pullman passenger cars. The nationwide railroad boycott that lasted from May 11 to July 20, 1894
258-553: A Lower East Side audience at New York City's Cooper Union that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little shorter than the preceding step". It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress". In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW as "purely anarchistic". The Cooper Union speech
387-465: A corporate lawyer for the railroad company. Although it is commonly thought that Darrow "switched sides" to represent Debs, a myth repeated by Irving Stone's biography, Clarence Darrow for the Defense , he had in fact resigned from the railroad earlier, after the death of his mentor William Goudy. A Supreme Court case decision, In re Debs , later upheld the right of the federal government to issue
516-474: A wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He led a boycott by the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike , affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. Purportedly to keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As
645-610: A Corinthian column flanked by curved stone benches, was designed by Solon Spencer Beman , the architect of the company town of Pullman. Pullman was initiated into Freemasonry in Renovation Lodge No. 97 in Albion, New York. He was also member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and received the honorary 33rd degree within that body. Pullman was identified with various public enterprises, among them
774-686: A Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen , Debs led his union in a major ten-month strike against the CB&;Q Railroad in 1888 . Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions . After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized
903-552: A European-style socialist political party with a view to capture of the government apparatus through the ballot box. The June 1898 convention would be the group's last, with the minority political action wing quitting the organization to establish a new organization, the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), also called the Social Democratic Party of the United States . Debs was elected to
1032-456: A commensurate cost of living adjustment. The employees filed a complaint with the company's owner, George Pullman. Pullman refused to reconsider and even dismissed the workers who were protesting. The strike began on May 11, 1894, when the rest of his staff went on strike. This strike would end by the president sending U.S. troops to break up the scene. Many of the Pullman factory workers joined
1161-748: A committed advocate of socialism , helping in 1897 to launch the Social Democracy of America , a forerunner of the Socialist Party of America . He ran for president in 1900 for the first of five times as head of the Socialist Party ticket. Civil as well as criminal charges were brought against the organizers of the strike and Debs in particular, and the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision, In re Debs , that rejected Debs' actions. The Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld
1290-468: A day. He later became a painter and car cleaner in the railroad shops. In December 1871, when a drunken locomotive fireman failed to report for work, Debs was pressed into service as a night fireman. He decided to remain a fireman on the run between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, earning more than a dollar a night for the next three and half years. In July 1875, Debs left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for four years while attending
1419-475: A defeat for labor that convinced Debs of "the need to reorganize across craft lines", according to Joanne Reitano. After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, Debs organized one of the first industrial unions in the United States, the American Railway Union (ARU), for unskilled workers. He was elected president of the ARU upon its founding, with fellow railway labor organizer George W. Howard as first vice president. The union successfully struck
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#17327723898081548-446: A federal prisoner in jail for sedition, though he promised to pardon himself if elected. Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other " sewer socialists " had made in winning local offices. He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in
1677-533: A given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced. After his work with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the American Railway Union , Debs's next major work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On June 27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Bill Haywood , leader of
1806-463: A lead-lined mahogany coffin, which was then sealed inside a block of concrete. At the cemetery, a large pit had been dug at the family plot. At its base and walls were 18 inches of reinforced concrete. The coffin was lowered, and covered with asphalt and tar paper. More concrete was poured on top, followed by a layer of steel rails bolted together at right angles, and another layer of concrete. The entire burial process took two days. His monument, featuring
1935-418: A leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison. In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897), the Social Democratic Party of America (1898) and
2064-547: A legal, constitutional responsibility for the mail; however, getting the trains moving again also helped further his fiscally conservative economic interests and protect capital, which was far more significant than the mail disruption. His lawyers argued that the boycott violated the Sherman Antitrust Act , and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and the subsequent deaths of workers in violence led to further outbreaks of violence. During
2193-576: A local business school at night. Debs joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in February 1875 and became active in the organization. In 1877 he served as a delegate of the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national convention. Debs was elected associate editor of the BLF's monthly organ, Firemen's Magazine , in 1878. Two years later, he was appointed Grand Secretary and Treasurer of
2322-484: A machine using jack screws that could move buildings or other structures out of the way and onto new foundations and had patented it in 1841. By that time, packet boats carried people on day excursions along the canal, plus travellers and freight craft would be towed across the state along the busy canal. Pullman attended local schools and helped his father, learning other skills that contributed to his later success. In 1853, Lewis died, and George took over his business at
2451-404: A means of settling differences. The brotherhood had never authorized a strike from its founding in 1873 to 1887, a record which Debs was proud of. Railroad companies cultivated the brotherhood and granted them perks like free transportation to their conventions for the delegates. Debs also invited railroad president Henry C. Lord to write for the magazine. Summarizing Debs's thought in this period,
2580-564: A memorial obelisk in the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio in honor of four soldiers of the 5th Artillery killed in a Sacramento train crash of July 11, 1894, during the strike. The train wrecked crossing a trestle bridge purportedly dynamited by union members. Graham's monument included the inscription, "Murdered by Strikers", a description he hotly defended. The obelisk remains in place. In
2709-504: A number of lesser-known ministers also voiced support for workers and claimed that Christ would not neglect those who were suffering. Debs was arrested on federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct the mail as well as disobeying an order directed to him by the Supreme Court to stop the obstruction of railways and to dissolve the boycott. He was defended by Clarence Darrow , a prominent attorney, as well as Lyman Trumbull . At
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#17327723898082838-532: A running mate and received 901,551 votes, which was 6.0 percent of the popular vote, which remains the all-time highest percentage of the vote for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Though Debs won no state's electoral votes, in Florida, he came in second behind Wilson and ahead of President William Howard Taft and former President Teddy Roosevelt . Finally, in 1920, running with Seymour Stedman , Debs won 914,191 votes (3.4%), which remains
2967-437: A single stroke. The writings of [Edward] Bellamy and [Robert] Blatchford early appealed to me. The Cooperative Commonwealth of [Laurence] Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of [Karl] Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance – and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light. Additionally, Debs
3096-476: A small vicinity to keep workers from having to move far. Using company-run shops and housing took away competition leaving areas open to exploitation, monopolization, and high prices. These conditions were exacerbated by the Panic of 1893. George Pullman had reduced wages 20 to 30% on account of falling sales. However, he did not cut rents nor lower prices at his company stores, nor did he give any indication of
3225-539: A subsidized press. Quit and remain firm. Commit no violence. American Railway Union will protect all, whether member or not when strike is off. Debs wanted a general strike of all union members in Chicago, but this was opposed by Samuel Gompers , head of the AFL, and other established unions, and it failed. United States Marshall John W. Arnold told those in Washington that “no force less than regular troops could procure
3354-457: A task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class". Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit , became irritated with speeches by Haywood. In December 1911, Haywood told
3483-538: A wife who rejects the very values he holds most dear" was the basis of Irving Stone 's biographical novel Adversary in the House . The Social Democracy of America (SDA), founded in June 1897 by Eugene V. Debs from the remnants of his American Railway Union, was deeply divided between those who favored a tactic of launching a series of colonies to build socialism by practical example and others who favored establishment of
3612-556: Is a soul in prison, I am not free. Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States , the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully worded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act of 1917 , the Court found he had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things,
3741-497: Is now designated as an historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In 1894, in an effort to conciliate organized labor after the strike, President Grover Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday in contrast with the more radical May Day . Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the strike ended. Samuel Gompers, who had sided with
3870-459: The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs , which supported their strike by launching a boycott in which ARU members refused to run trains containing Pullman cars. At the time of the strike approximately 35% of Pullman workers were members of the ARU. The plan was to force the railroads to bring Pullman to compromise. Debs began the boycott on June 26, 1894. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had " walked off "
3999-644: The Great Northern Railway in April 1894, winning most of its demands. In 1894, Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike , which grew out of a compensation dispute started by the workers who constructed the rail cars made by the Pullman Palace Car Company . The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893 , had cut the wages of its employees by twenty-eight percent. The workers, many of whom were already members of
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4128-506: The Illinois Central Railroad for $ 800,000. Pullman hired Solon Spencer Beman to design his new plant there. Trying to solve the issue of labor unrest and poverty, he also built a company town adjacent to his factory; it featured housing, shopping areas, churches, theaters, parks, hotel and library for his factory employees. The 1300 original structures were entirely designed by Solon Spencer Beman . The centerpiece of
4257-425: The Indiana General Assembly . He served for one term in 1885. Debs married Katherine "Kate" Metzel on June 9, 1885, at St. Stephen's Episcopal church. Their home still stands in Terre Haute, preserved on the campus of Indiana State University . The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and services rather than on collective bargaining. Their motto
4386-467: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States. Early in his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party . He was elected as
4515-548: The Pennsylvania Railroad trunk lines. The French social scientist Paul de Rousiers (1857–1934), who visited Chicago in 1890, wrote of Pullman's manufacturing complex, "Everything is done in order and with precision. One feels that some brain of superior intelligence, backed by a long technical experience, has thought out every possible detail." In 1880, Pullman bought 4,000 acres (16 km ), near Lake Calumet some 14 mi (23 km) south of Chicago, on
4644-570: The President and the Delmonico and subsequent Pullman sleeping cars offered first-rate service. The company hired African-American freedmen as Pullman porters. Many of the men had been former domestic slaves in the South. Their new roles required them to act as porters, waiters, valets, and entertainers, all rolled into one person. As they were paid relatively well and got to travel the country,
4773-618: The Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town in Chicago for the workers who manufactured it. This ultimately led to the Pullman Strike due to the high rent prices charged for company housing and low wages paid by the Pullman Company . His Pullman Company also hired black men to staff the Pullman cars, known as Pullman porters , who provided elite service and were compensated only in tips. Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he halved wages and required workers to spend long hours at
4902-568: The Socialist Labor Party in 1899 unified forces at a Socialist Unity Convention held in Indianapolis in mid-1901 – a meeting which established the Socialist Party of America (SPA). Debs was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in 1904 , 1908 , 1912 , and 1920 (the final time from prison). Though he received increasing numbers of popular votes in each subsequent election, he never won any votes in
5031-594: The Socialist Party of America (1901). Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times: 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the popular vote), 1904 (3.0 percent), 1908 (2.8 percent), 1912 (6.0 percent), and 1920 (3.4 percent), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native state Indiana in 1916. Debs was noted for his oratorical skills, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He
5160-606: The Supreme Court of Illinois forced the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town, which was annexed to Chicago. On October 19, 1897, Pullman died of a heart attack in Chicago, Illinois. He was 66 years old. Pullman was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. George and his wife Hattie had four children: Florence, Harriett, George Jr. and Walter Sanger Pullman. Fearing that some of his former employees or other labor supporters might try to dig up his body, his family arranged for his remains to be placed in
5289-530: The Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town, which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago. Pullman was born in 1831 in Brocton, New York , the son of Emily Caroline (Minton) and carpenter James Lewis Pullman (known as Lewis). His family moved to Albion, New York , along the Erie Canal in 1845, so his father could help widen the canal. His father had invented
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5418-564: The Western Federation of Miners ; and Daniel De Leon , leader of the Socialist Labor Party , held what Haywood called the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class". Debs stated: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support;
5547-548: The plantation South had the right combination of training to serve the businessmen who would patronize his "Palace Cars". Pullman became the biggest single employer of African Americans in post-Civil War America. In 1869, Pullman bought out the Detroit Car and Manufacturing Company. Pullman bought the patents and business of his eastern competitor, the Central Transportation Company in 1870. In
5676-495: The "rule of terror." In comparison to his $ 8,000 compensation as Attorney General, Olney had been a railroad attorney and had a $ 10,000 retainer from the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. Olney got an injunction from circuit court justices Peter S. Grosscup and William Allen Woods (both anti-union) prohibiting ARU officials from "compelling or encouraging" any impacted railroad employees "to refuse or fail to perform any of their duties". Grosscup later remarked that he opposed
5805-452: The ARU convention urging people to strike. As the Panic of 1893 weakened much of the economy, railroad companies ceased purchasing new passenger cars made by Pullman. The company laid off workers and reduced the wages of retained workers. Among the reasons for the strike were the absence of democracy within the town of Pullman and its politics, the rigid paternalistic control of the workers by
5934-529: The ARU or any negotiations, ARU called a strike against the factory, but it showed no sign of success. To win the strike, Debs decided to stop the movement of Pullman cars on railroads . The over-the-rail Pullman employees (such as conductors and porters) did not go on strike. Debs and the ARU called a massive boycott against all trains that carried a Pullman car. It affected most rail lines west of Detroit and at its peak involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) opposed
6063-477: The ARU, appealed for support to the union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois. Debs tried to persuade union members, who worked on the railways, that the boycott was too risky given the hostility of the railways and the federal government, the weakness of the union, and the possibility that other unions would break the strike. The membership ignored his warnings and refused to handle Pullman cars or any other railroad cars attached to them, including cars containing
6192-477: The Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning. Debs was sentenced on September 18, 1918, to ten years in prison and
6321-543: The American Railway Union would lock them out of another labor market. This added racial tension to the union's predicament. On June 29, 1894, Debs hosted a peaceful meeting to rally support for the strike from railroad workers at Blue Island, Illinois . Afterward, groups within the crowd became enraged and set fire to nearby buildings and derailed a locomotive. Elsewhere in the western states, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off
6450-457: The BLF and editor of the magazine in July 1880. He worked as a BLF functionary until January 1893 and as the magazine's editor until September 1894. At the same time, he became a prominent figure in the community. He served two terms as Terre Haute's city clerk from September 1879 to September 1883. In the fall of 1884, he was elected as a Democrat to represent Terre Haute and Vigo County in
6579-464: The Court cited Debs's praise for those imprisoned for obstructing the draft. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. stated in his opinion that little attention was needed since Debs's case was essentially the same as that of Schenck v. United States , in which the court had upheld a similar conviction. George Pullman George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured
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#17327723898086708-483: The Electoral College. In both 1904 and 1908, Debs ran with running-mate Ben Hanford . They received 402,810 votes in 1904, for 3.0 percent of the popular vote and an overall third-place finish. In the 1908 election, they received a slightly higher number of votes (420,852) than in their previous run, but at 2.8 percent, a smaller percentage of the total votes cast. In 1912, Debs ran with Emil Seidel as
6837-471: The Ely and Smith partnership to raise the six storey high Tremont House . Pullman contracted to raise these and many other large buildings in Chicago, and his firm raised the buildings on average six feet without causing them any damage and often times while the buildings were still fully operational, with people entering and exiting them and conducting business within. Pullman developed a railroad sleeping car ,
6966-475: The Matteson House, a large brick built hotel. Pullman and Moore went on to raise several more Chicago buildings before becoming part of a consortium that raised the entire ninety-eight metre long block of four and five storey brick and stone buildings on the north side of Lake Street between Clark and La Salle Streets, a feat depicted by Edward Mendel in a large lithograph. In 1861 Pullman contracted with
7095-493: The National Executive Board, the five-member committee which governed the party, and his brother, Theodore Debs , was selected as its paid executive secretary, handling day-to-day affairs of the organization. Although by no means the sole decision-maker in the organization, Debs's status as prominent public figure in the aftermath of the Pullman strike provided cachet and made him the recognized spokesman for
7224-696: The Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell. The Pullman community is a historic district that has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In the 1930s, Hotel Florence, named for Pullman's daughter, was one of the most popular brothels in the city. Marktown , Indiana, Clayton Mark 's planned worker community, was developed nearby. In 1894, when manufacturing demand fell off, Pullman cut jobs and wages and increased working hours in his plant to lower costs and keep profits, but he did not lower rents or prices in
7353-402: The Pullman Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages. Most of the factory workers who built Pullman cars lived in the " company town " of Pullman just outside of Chicago. Pullman was designed as a model community by its namesake founder and owner George Pullman . Jennie Curtis who lived in Pullman was president of seamstress union ARU LOCAL 269 gave a speech at
7482-402: The Pullman sleeper or "palace car". These were designed after the packet boats that travelled the Erie Canal of his youth in Albion. The first one was finished in 1864. After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Pullman arranged to have his body carried from Washington, D.C., to Springfield on a sleeper, for which he gained national attention, as hundreds of thousands of people lined
7611-547: The South". On May 12, 1894, the workers went on strike. The American Railway Union was led by Eugene Victor Debs , a pacifist and socialist who later founded the Socialist Party of America and was its candidate for president in five elections. Under the leadership of Debs, sympathetic railroad workers across the nation tied up rail traffic to the Pacific. The so-called "Debs Rebellion" had begun. Arcade Building with strikers and soldiers Debs gave Pullman five days to respond to
7740-497: The U.S. mail. After ARU Board Director Martin J. Elliott extended the strike to St. Louis, doubling its size to eighty thousand workers, Debs relented and decided to take part in the strike, which was now endorsed by almost all members of the ARU in the immediate area of Chicago. On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race". Strikers fought by establishing boycotts of Pullman train cars and with Debs's eventual leadership
7869-524: The United States from Colmar , Alsace, France. His father, who came from a prosperous Protestant family, owned a textile mill and meat market. Debs was named after the French authors Eugène Sue and Victor Hugo . Debs attended public school, dropping out of high school at age 14. He took a job with the Vandalia Railroad cleaning grease from the trucks of freight engines for fifty cents
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#17327723898087998-538: The Wilson administration and the war earned the enmity of President Woodrow Wilson , who later called Debs a "traitor to his country". On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio , urging resistance to the military draft. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition . His trial defense called no witnesses, asking that Debs be allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual request
8127-628: The aftermath of the Pullman Strike, the ARU was disbanded and the state ordered the company to sell off its residential holdings. Many pullman workers would go on to join the AFL after the collapse of the ARU. Following the death of George Pullman(1897) the pullman company would be lead by Robert Todd Lincoln and Thomas Wickes would become the companies vice president. With this change the company would shift its focus away from its environmental strategy of having superior living and recreational accommodations to keep workers loyal, but would instead use
8256-482: The age of 22. Pullman was a clerk for a country merchant. Pullman took over the family business . In 1856, Pullman won a contract with the State of New York to move 20 buildings out of the way of the widening canal. During the 1850s, the streets in Chicago often resembled a swamp, as the city had been built to too low an elevation on the shore of Lake Michigan. The city undertook to re-engineer its sewage system to clear
8385-475: The all-time high number of votes for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Notably, the Nineteenth Amendment passed in 1920, granting women the federal right to vote across the country, and with the expanded voting pool, his vote total accounted for only 3.4 percent of the total number of votes cast. The size of the vote is nevertheless remarkable since Debs was at the time
8514-429: The amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be obeyed. Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion despite their perceived differences over IWW tactics. Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The reformists in the Socialist Party attributed
8643-439: The army was enough to break the strike. Overall, thirty strikers were killed in the strike, thirteen of them in Chicago, and thousands were blacklisted. An estimated $ 80 million worth of property was damaged and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison. Debs was represented by Clarence Darrow , later a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, who had previously been
8772-442: The blame for the strikes on Altgeld. Media coverage was extensive and generally negative. News reports and editorials commonly depicted the strikers as foreigners who contested the patriotism expressed by the militias and troops involved, as numerous recent immigrants worked in the factories and on the railroads. The editors warned of mobs, aliens, anarchy , and defiance of the law. The New York Times called it "a struggle between
8901-409: The boycott because the ARU was trying to take its membership. The high prestige railroad brotherhoods of Conductors and Engineers were opposed to the boycott. The Fireman brotherhood—of which Debs had been a prominent leader—was split. The General Managers' Association of the railroads coordinated the opposition. Thirty people were killed in riots in Chicago alone. Historian David Ray Papke, building on
9030-585: The boycott, most notably Reverend Englebert C. Oggel pastor of the Presbyterian church in Pullman. Oggel voiced his opposition to the strikes and supported the recent actions of George Pullman. In response, members of the congregation left in large numbers. Conversely, Reverend William H. Cawardine, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Pullman, was a well-known supporter of the ARU and the striking workers. In addition to Cawardine,
9159-469: The boycott. Federal forces broke the ARU's attempts to shut down the national transportation system city by city. Thousands of US Marshals and 12,000 US Army troops, led by Brigadier General Nelson Miles , took part in the operation. After learning that President Cleveland had sent troops without the permission of local or state authorities, Illinois Governor John Altgeld requested an immediate withdrawal of federal troops. President Cleveland claimed that he had
9288-441: The companies saw it as civil war, while the ARU proclaimed it was a crusade for the rights of unskilled workers. President Cleveland did not think Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld could manage the strike as it continued to cause more and more physical and economic damage. Altgeld's pro-labor mindset and social reformist sympathies were viewed by outsiders as being a form of ‘German Socialism’. Critics of Altgeld worried that he
9417-494: The company town. The workers eventually launched a strike. When violence broke out, he gained the support of President Grover Cleveland for the use of United States troops. Cleveland sent in the troops, who harshly suppressed the strike in action that caused many injuries, over the objections of the Illinois governor, John Altgeld . In the winter of 1893–94, at the start of a depression, Pullman decided to cut wages by 30%. This
9546-405: The company, excessive water and gas rates, and a refusal by the company to allow workers to buy and own houses. They had not yet formed a union. Founded in 1893 by Eugene V. Debs , the American Railway Union (ARU) was an organization of railroad workers. Debs brought in ARU organizers to Pullman and signed up many of the disgruntled factory workers. When the Pullman Company refused recognition of
9675-682: The complex was the Administration Building and a man-made lake. The Hotel Florence , named for Pullman's daughter, was built nearby. Pullman believed that the country air and fine facilities, without agitators, saloons and city vice districts, would result in a happy, loyal workforce. The model planned community became a leading attraction for visitors who attended the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. It attracted nationwide attention. The national press praised Pullman for his benevolence and vision. According to mortality statistics, it
9804-516: The conspiracy trial Darrow argued that it was the railways, not Debs and his union, that met in secret and conspired against their opponents. Sensing that Debs would be acquitted, the prosecution dropped the charge when a juror took ill. Although Darrow also represented Debs at the United States Supreme Court for violating the federal injunction, Debs was sentenced to six months in prison. Early in 1895, General Graham erected
9933-503: The course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Property damage exceeded $ 80 million. The strike affected hundreds of towns and cities across the country. Railroad workers were divided, for the old established Brotherhoods, which included the skilled workers such as engineers, firemen and conductors, did not support the labor action. ARU members did support the action, and often comprised unskilled ground crews. In many areas, townspeople and businessmen generally supported
10062-559: The dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own. When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross , burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points
10191-529: The decline to the departure of the "Haywood element" and predicted that the party would recover, but it did not. In the election of 1912, many of the Socialists who had been elected to public office lost their seats. Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion. Howard Zinn opined that "Debs
10320-505: The economic hardships he created for workers in the town of Pullman. "The aesthetic features are admired by visitors, but have little money value to employees, especially when they lack bread." The State of Illinois filed suit, and in 1898 the Illinois Supreme Court forced the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town, as its company charter did not authorize such operations. The town was annexed to Chicago. Much of it
10449-548: The elected officials in Lawrence , Massachusetts, to send police, who subsequently used their clubs on children, disgusted Haywood, who publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified. Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW. Debs was probably
10578-677: The election, a disappointed Debs decided for certain that the future for socialist policies lay outside the Democratic Party. In June 1897, the ARU membership finally joined with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to form the Social Democracy of America . Debs's wife Kate was opposed to socialism and was "hostile" to Debs's socialist revolutionary activism as "it threatened her sense of middle-class respectability". The "tempestuous relationship with
10707-544: The end of his sentence a changed man. He spent the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause. After Debs and Martin Elliott were released from prison in 1895, Debs started his socialist political career. Debs started agitating for the ARU membership to form a Social Democratic organization. In 1896, Debs supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election following Bryan's Cross of Gold speech . After Bryan's loss in
10836-418: The federal government in its effort to end the strike by the American Railway Union, spoke out in favor of the holiday. Eugene V. Debs Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist , political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of
10965-465: The form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means. ... I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in
11094-452: The greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital." President Cleveland and the press feared that the strike would foment anarchy and social unrest. Cleveland demonized the ARU for encouraging an uprising against federal authority and endangering the public. The large numbers of immigrant workers who participated in the strike further stoked the fears of anarchy. In Chicago, some established church leaders denounced
11223-507: The historian David A. Shannon wrote: "Debs's desideratum was one of peace and co-operation between labor and capital, but he expected management to treat labor with respect, honor and social equality". Debs gradually became convinced of the need for a more unified and confrontational approach as railroads were powerful forces in the economy. One influence was his involvement in the Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888 ,
11352-448: The incident. The national commission report found Pullman's paternalism partly to blame and described Pullman's company town as "un-American". The report condemned Pullman for refusing to negotiate and for the economic hardships he created for workers in the town of Pullman. "The aesthetic features are admired by visitors, but have little money value to employees, especially when they lack bread." The State of Illinois filed suit, and in 1898,
11481-491: The injunction. At the time of his arrest for mail obstruction, Debs was not yet a socialist . While serving his six-month term in the jail at Woodstock , Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country. Debs recalled several years later: I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at
11610-587: The involvement of the judiciary system as he believed labor disputes to be a “partisan action”. After hearing the injunction was put in place, railway operators telegrammed Olney to request their own injunction in anticipation of strikes. The injunction was disobeyed by Debs and other ARU leaders, in a telegraph to the western ARU branch, Debs responded "It will take more than injunctions to move trains, get everybody out. We are gaining ground everywhere". After handing out injunctions to other states, federal forces were dispatched to enforce it. Debs had been hesitant to start
11739-484: The job rather than handle Pullman cars. The railroads coordinated their response through the General Managers' Association, which had been formed in 1886 and included 24 lines linked to Chicago. The railroads began hiring replacement workers ( strikebreakers ), which increased hostilities. Many African Americans were recruited as strikebreakers and crossed picket lines, as they feared that the racism expressed by
11868-414: The job, obstructing railroad tracks, or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. This increased national attention and the demand for federal action. The strike was handled by US Attorney General Richard Olney , who was appointed by President Grover Cleveland . A majority of the president's cabinet in Washington, D.C., backed Olney's proposal for federal troops to be dispatched to Chicago to put an end to
11997-424: The mail. On July 8, soldiers began shooting strikers. That was the beginning of the end of the strike. By the end of the month, 34 people had been killed, the strikers were dispersed, the troops were gone, the courts had sided with the railway owners, and Debs was in jail for contempt of court. Pullman's reputation was soiled by the strike, and then officially tarnished by the presidential commission that investigated
12126-431: The middle class". In 1867, Pullman introduced his first "hotel on wheels," the President , a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day and the service was impeccable. A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico , the world's first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York's famed Delmonico's Restaurant . Both
12255-528: The only person who could have saved Haywood's seat. In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president, but times had changed and Debs, facing a split in the party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing anarchy. Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed
12384-429: The party in the newspapers. Along with Elliott, who ran for Congress in 1900, Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year. Debs and his running mate Job Harriman received 87,945 votes (0.6 percent of the popular vote) and no electoral votes. Following the 1900 Election , the Social Democratic Party and dissidents who had split from
12513-403: The passage of mail trains or enforce the orders of federal court”. Federal troops were dispatched and arrived in Chicago the night of July 3rd. Debs first welcomed the military, believing that they would help to keep the peace and allow the strike and boycott to continue peacefully. The military was not, however, impartial; they were there to ensure that the trains ran, which would eventually weaken
12642-419: The people against aggression and oppressive corporations," he said party leaders were "the pliant tools of the codfish monied aristocracy who seek to dominate this country." Billings remained quiet but, on July 10, soldiers reached Lockwood, Montana , a small rail center, where the troop train was surrounded by hundreds of angry strikers. Narrowly averting violence, the army opened the lines through Montana. When
12771-407: The plant, but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898,
12900-420: The position became considered prestigious, and Pullman porters were respected in the black communities. Pullman believed that if his sleeper cars were to be successful, he needed to provide a wide variety of services to travelers: collecting tickets, selling berths, dispatching wires, fetching sandwiches, mending torn trousers, converting day coaches into sleepers, etc. Pullman believed that former house slaves of
13029-607: The railroads, while farmers—many affiliated with the Populists —supported the ARU. In Billings, Montana , an important rail center, a local Methodist minister, J. W. Jennings, supported the ARU. In a sermon, he compared the Pullman boycott to the Boston Tea Party , and attacked Montana state officials and President Cleveland for abandoning "the faith of the Jacksonian fathers." Rather than defending "the rights of
13158-430: The remorseless grasp of Mammon , and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul. ... Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see
13287-524: The route in homage. Lincoln's body was carried on the Presidential train car that Lincoln himself had commissioned that year. Pullman had cars in the train, notably for the President's surviving family. Orders for his new car began to pour into his company. The sleeping cars proved successful although each cost more than five times the price of a regular railway car. They were marketed as "luxury for
13416-481: The significance of the strike, many state agencies and non-profit groups are hoping for many revivals of the Pullman neighborhoods starting with Pullman Park, one of the largest projects. It was to be a $ 350 million mixed used development on the site of an old steel plant. The plan was for 670,000 square feet of new retail space, 125,000 square foot neighborhood recreation center and 1,100 housing units. Following his release from prison in 1895, ARU President Debs became
13545-489: The spring of 1871, Pullman, Andrew Carnegie , and others bailed out the financially troubled Union Pacific ; they took positions on its board of directors. By 1875, the Pullman firm owned $ 100,000 worth of patents, had 700 cars in operation, and had several hundred thousand dollars in the bank. In 1887, Pullman designed and established the system of " vestibuled trains ," with cars linked by covered gangways instead of open platforms. The vestibules were first put in service on
13674-427: The strike came to be known as "Debs' Rebellion". The federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the grounds that the strikers had obstructed the U.S. mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work. President Grover Cleveland , whom Debs had supported in all three of his presidential campaigns, sent the United States Army to enforce the injunction. The presence of
13803-677: The strike ended, the railroads fired and blacklisted all the employees who had supported it. In California, the boycott was effective in Sacramento , a labor stronghold, but weak in the Bay Area and minimal in Los Angeles . The strike lingered as strikers expressed longstanding grievances over wage reductions, and indicated how unpopular the Southern Pacific Railroad was. Strikers engaged in violence and sabotage;
13932-427: The strike, due to his worry that violence would undermine the strikes progress as well as provide reason for military intervention. Despite these worries, Debs decided to put all of his efforts into the strike. He called on ARU members to ignore the federal court injunctions and the U.S. Army: Strong men and broad minds only can resist the plutocracy and arrogant monopoly. Do not be frightened at troops, injunctions, or
14061-484: The strikers and stopped the Chicago Police from interfering before the strike turned violent. Governor Altgeld, a Democrat, denounced Cleveland and said he could handle all disturbances in his state without federal intervention. The press took the side of Cleveland and framed strikers as villains, while Mayor Hopkins took the side of strikers and Altgeld. The New York Times and Chicago Tribune placed much of
14190-468: The surface of the unwanted and often pathogenic standing water. This project necessitated the raising of the street level an average of over a metre. As the streets rose above the front doors of the adjacent buildings, the latter needed to be demolished and rebuilt or else physically raised so as to meet the newly raised level of the street. In 1859 Pullman and his fellow Albion-based business partner Charles Moore moved to Chicago to raise one such building,
14319-436: The town of Pullman for more industrial purposes building storage and repair shops in place of fields. While the Pullman company continued to grow, monopolizing the train car industry, the town of Pullman struggled with deteriorating housing and cramped living spaces. It remained the area's largest employer before closing in the 1950s. The area is both a National Historic Landmark as well as a Chicago Landmark District. Because of
14448-431: The trains. Violence broke out in many cities, and the strike collapsed. Defended by a team including Clarence Darrow , Debs was convicted of violating a court order and sentenced to prison; the ARU then dissolved. Low wage, expensive rent, and the failing ideal of a utopian workers settlement were already a problem for the Pullman workers. Company towns , like Pullman, were constructed with a plan to keep everything within
14577-419: The union demands but Pullman refused even to negotiate (leading another industrialist to yell, "The damned idiot ought to arbitrate, arbitrate and arbitrate! ...A man who won't meet his own men halfway is a God-damn fool!"). Instead, Pullman locked up his home and business and left town. On June 26, all Pullman cars were cut from trains. When union members were fired, entire rail lines were shut down, and Chicago
14706-474: The work of Almont Lindsey published in 1942, estimated another 40 were killed in other states. Property damage exceeded $ 80 million. The federal government obtained an injunction against the union, Debs, and other boycott leaders, ordering them to stop interfering with trains that carried mail cars. After the strikers refused, President Grover Cleveland ordered in the Army to stop the strikers from obstructing
14835-411: Was "Benevolence, Sobriety, and Industry". As editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs initially concentrated on improving the brotherhood's death and disability insurance programs. During the early 1880s, Debs's writing stressed themes of self-uplift: temperance , hard work, and honesty. Debs also held the view that "labor and capital are friends" and opposed strikes as
14964-433: Was a turning point for US labor law . It pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company , the main railroads, the main labor unions, and the federal government of the United States under President Grover Cleveland . The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit , Michigan. The conflict began in Chicago, on May 11 when nearly 4,000 factory employees of
15093-551: Was allowed. He prohibited private charitable organizations. In 1885 Richard Ely wrote in Harper's Weekly that the power exercised by Otto Von Bismarck (known as the unifier of modern Germany), was "utterly insignificant when compared with the ruling authority of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman". We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in
15222-422: Was also disenfranchised for life. Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing: Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there
15351-423: Was besieged. One consequence was a blockade of the federal mail, and Debs agreed to let isolated mail cars into the city. Rail owners mixed mail cars into all their trains however, and then called in the federal government when the mail failed to get through. Debs could not pacify the pent-up frustrations of the exploited workers, and violence broke out between rioters and the federal troops that were sent to protect
15480-619: Was convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918 and sentenced to a 10-year term. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926, not long after being admitted to a sanatorium due to cardiovascular problems that developed during his time in prison. Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute , Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich Debs, who immigrated to
15609-628: Was granted, and Debs spoke for two hours. He was found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on September 14, he again addressed the court and his speech has become a classic. Heywood Broun , a liberal journalist and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most beautiful and moving passages in the English language. He was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it." Debs said in part: Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to
15738-485: Was incensed at Cleveland for putting the federal government at the service of the employers, and for rejecting Altgeld's plan to use his state militia rather than federal troops to keep order. Cleveland's administration appointed a national commission to study the causes of the 1894 strike; it found George Pullman's paternalism partly to blame and described the operations of his company town to be "un-American". The report condemned Pullman for refusing to negotiate and for
15867-564: Was not unusual in the age of the robber barons, but he didn't reduce the rent in Pullman, because he had guaranteed his investors a 6% return on their investments in the town. A workman might make $ 9.07 in a fortnight, and the rent of $ 9 would be taken directly out of his paycheck, leaving him with just 7 cents to feed his family. One worker later testified: "I have seen men with families of eight or nine children crying because they got only three or four cents after paying their rent." Another described conditions as "slavery worse than that of Negroes of
15996-579: Was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906: I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition. Debs's speeches against
16125-568: Was one of the most healthful places in the world. The industrialist still expected the town to make money as an enterprise. By 1892, the community, profitable in its own right, was valued at over $ 5 million. Pullman ruled the town like a feudal baron. Pullman prohibited independent newspapers, public speeches, town meetings or open discussion. His inspectors regularly entered homes to inspect for cleanliness and could terminate workers' leases on ten days' notice. The church stood empty since no approved denomination would pay rent, and no other congregation
16254-481: Was the beginning of a split between Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party and the other to Haywood. The rift presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the Lawrence Textile Strike . The decision of
16383-512: Was usually on the side of the workers. Outsiders also believed that the strike would get progressively worse since Altgeld, "Knew nothing about the problem of American evolution." Public opinion was mostly opposed to the strike and supported Cleveland's actions. Republicans and eastern Democrats supported Cleveland (the leader of the northeastern pro-business wing of the party), but southern and western Democrats as well as Populists generally denounced him. Chicago Mayor John Patrick Hopkins supported
16512-563: Was visited in jail by the Milwaukee socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger , who in Debs's words "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard". In his 1926 obituary in Time , it was said that Berger left him a copy of Capital and "prisoner Debs read it slowly, eagerly, ravenously". Debs emerged from jail at
16641-465: Was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations." Heywood Broun noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself". Although sometimes called "King Debs", Debs himself
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