The late Mayor Pingree of Detroit came to Chicago with telegrams from
the mayors of over fifty of the largest cities urging that there should
be arbitration. (P. xxxix, Report of Strike Commission.) He was turned
down without ceremony, and afterwards declared that the railroads were
the only criminals and that they were responsible for all the
consequences.
June 22, four days before the strike against the railroads, or, rather,
the boycott of Pullman cars, took effect, there was a joint meeting of
the railroad and Pullman officials. (P. xlii, Report of Strike
Commission.) At this meeting it was resolved to defeat the strikers,
wipe out the American Railway Union, and, to use their exact words,
“that we act unitedly to that end.”
[Illustration:
DEBS’ RELEASE FROM WOODSTOCK JAIL
]
This was the only joint meeting of the kind that had ever been held
between the officials of the railroad companies and the Pullman company.
They mutually determined to stand together to defeat the strike and
destroy the union.
Now, to show what regard these gentlemen have for courts and law and
morals, this incident will suffice: