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The Problem with Pullman
Grace Lemmon George Mortimer Pullman was a staunch businessman. Pullman was also a perfectionist. When he started Pullman Palace Car Company in February of 1867, Pullman believed he would make a fortune. Little did he know that the poor workers he hired would find him to be extremely brutal. Pullman hired people who would work for long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay For this labor source, he hired freed slaves and immigrants. These workers were not thought of as deserving fair treatment, according to one historian. Pullman would have laughed in their faces if they asked for workers' retirement and unemployment insurance. Many worked at the company because they thought that they would not work in factories until death, but they often did. In order to be successful in Pullman's business you had to think like Pullman. You had to be able to take control. Also, you had to oversee every detail. After all, to advance to a manager was the goal for every Pullman worker. Pullman thought that in order to take control of people, you had to have them at your call. George Pullman also believed that a town with every detail laid out for the workers would bring more wealth and fame to him. In 1881 George Pullman founded his own town named after him—Pullman, Illinois. He built schools, stores, even churches in this town. Pullman owned whatever he built. His town was a model community; everything ran efficiently. It gave Pullman the satisfaction of running his own little world. He was like an uncrowned king. Pullman's town also created a vicious cycle. Pullman decided on how much rent to pay. To figure that out he simply charged more with every increase of salary, but never lowered. With all the profits in hand, he became more powerful than ever. Immigrants and other poor people were so impressed by the town they started to work for Pullman. About ten thousand people lived in Pullman. He got most of his population by applying one simple rule: If you're a Pullman employee, you must live in Pullman. Pullman town was among many labor problems that Pullman had. Pullman did not have enough food, and all the houses did not have heat in the winter. It was a feat to survive a day at work, because a laborer could easily have been burned or injured severely from faulty equipment at the factory. The boilers often exploded, bridges collapsed, and rails were worn out. Most workers accepted that. However, many thought that was wrong. These workers resorted to strikes. There were warnings of the Pullman Strike of 1894, although Pullman did not pay any attention to them. In March 1884 nearly 150 men refused to work because of a wage cut. They fought the battle for lit-
tie gain because they were often replaced with someone more desperate. The other main cause of the strike was the men felt that they could not support their families with the wages that they earned. Pullman encountered other strikes like this. He simply went department by department cutting prices; this made the overall salary cut less noticeable. Another tactic was to refuse to recognize a strike and make sure that the men fired from the strike were never to find work. He told all the shops that the men had been strikers and not to hire them because of that. In March 1894 Pullman Palace Car Company employees began joining the American Railway Union (ARU). Pullman had been going through a hard time with his company and had cut wages. This was a major mistake. Perhaps the hero of the Pullman workers was a man named Eugene V. Debs. He was the dedicated worker who helped organize Pullman employees into the ARU. He had a unique interest in the railway industry. Debs wanted better pay, working conditions, and to do away with Pullman town. Debs helped start the ARU. He wanted to open a union for skilled and unskilled workers. Debs invited the Pullman workers to the ARU convention in June 1894. There he decided to start a nation-wide boycott. They would not move any train with a Pullman car. His main goal of the boycott was to keep federal troops out of Chicago. Debs wanted to keep violence to a minimum and to make sure no damage was done to the railway. Also, he did not block the mail. Debs ordered that the mail keep moving. The Pullman Strike escalated quickly. The newspapers painted vicious pictures of strikers and their radical leader, Debs. The public was cautioned that this affair might turn out to be another Haymarket Riot. The General Managers Association was worried that this riot would turn out to be the biggest upset in railway history. Eugene Debs tried to win support in Chicago for the Pullman Strike. On June 29, 1884, he delivered a moving speech to workers from Blue Island. Apparently the message struck them the wrong way. They wanted to get back at their bosses for treating them wrongly. Angrily, they destroyed railway yards and burned engines. The attorney general sent for help from President Grover Cleveland. The president considered the strike dangerous and unlawful. Cleveland said it should be crushed without mercy. Pullman workers leave the plant after a hard day's work.
On July 4, 1894, federal troops arrived in Chicago. The troops patrolled the streets. They were not qualified as police, but needed the money; hence, they did the job. Soon after the troops arrived, people started to burn more Pullman property. The fighting spread like wildfire. On July 10, 1894, Eugene Debs was blamed for the fighting and was jailed. Meanwhile the troops crushed the workers, but a lot of property was destroyed. The ARU fell apart, but there was some victory for Pullman workers: George Pullman was held to blame. Another good thing that came out of the Pullman Strike were different unions. The Brotherhood of Pullman Porters resulted. They "laid out the foundation to a great success in the future of all porters," according to one historian. Pullman died in 1897. He was not popular. Pullman also did not make wise decisions. But, at times he was a good businessman.—[From Linda Jacobs Altman, The Pullman Strike of 1894; Linston Leyndecker, Palace Car Prince; Almont Lindsey, The Pullman Strike; Patricia and Frederick McKissak, The Story of the Pullman Porter, Jack Santino, Stories of Black Pullman Porters; Conrad Stein, The Story of the Pullman Strike.]
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