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The Pullman Boycott
A Complete History
of
The Great R. R. Strike.
BY W. F. BURNS.
1894:
THE McGILL PRINTING CO.
ST. PAUL.
COPYRIGHTED 1894
by
W. F. BURNS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I--The American Railway Union, 7
II--The Boycott, 15
III--First Day of the Strike, 26
IV--An Appeal from Debs, 32
V--The Federal Government Sides with the
Managers, 40
VI--Troops at Blue Island, 51
VII--A Protest from Gov. Altgeld, 55
VIII--Incendiarism and Bloodshed, 66
IX--Slaughter of Citizens, 81
X--Business Men's Protest, 92
XI--Indictment of President Debs, 100
XII--A Protest by the Peoples Party, 108
XIII--An Offer of Settlement, 115
XIV--Debs in Jail, 124
XV--Blacklisting Begins, 139
XVI--Trial of Debs, 147
XVII--A Convention of the American Railway Union
Called to Take Action on the Strike, 159
XVIII--The Strike Lost, 167
XIX--The Commission, 176
XX--Altgeld Investigates Pullman, 288
XXI--Conclusion, 310
INTRODUCTORY.
In presenting this work to the public, I beg leave to say that I lay no
claim whatever to literary ability, and will ask the reader to kindly
overlook the crudeness of this my first effort.
My line of work since boyhood has been confined principally to railway
service; in short I am a switchman, and in that branch of the service,
have been frequently confronted with the differences that arise between
the management of the various railroad corporations and their employees.
While I disclaim any credit for ability as a writer, by years of
experience and careful study of the condition of affairs as they have in
the past and do in the present exist, I profess to be able to fairly
present the facts of the Pullman strike. This strike was a matter of
unusual interest to me, not alone because my individual interests were
involved, but because the independence of every man in America who earns
his bread by the sweat of his brow, was in the balance.
The right to organize for mutual protection was questioned, nay more,
the right to be heard, a right granted to the greatest criminal in any
part of the civilized world, was refused by the power representing the
capital of this country. This power fortified by the Federal troops, by
the mandate of the Federal courts, instigated by the chief executive,
the president of the United States, the account of this strike as
presented to the public by the Associated Press, was George M. Pullman's
and the General Managers' side of the question, distorted and colored to
suit their purposes.
My aim in presenting this book, is to disabuse the minds of the people
as far as possible, from the misleading statements given out by the
General Managers' Association through their mouth piece, the Associated
Press.
To this end I have carefully collected facts from the best and most
reliable sources, aside from what personal knowledge I had of this
strike.
I obtained information from telegrams received in our Central Committee
rooms, from all parts of the country, also from committees appointed to
investigate the authenticity of reports received from different parts of
the country where the strike extended.
The general accounts I quote largely from the "Chicago Times," a paper
whose honorable and manly stand throughout that great struggle, gained
for it a world wide reputation for honesty and fairness.
The accounts herein contained are truths pure and simple, and upon these
truths I base the merits of this book.
Very respectfully,
W. F. BURNS.
CHAPTER I.
THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION.
In order to give a clear conception of the greatest strike in the
history of railroad organizations, it will be necessary to go back to
the birth of the American Railway Union.
This organization was instituted on the 17th day of August, 1893, in the
city of Chicago, and owes its existence to its present leader Eugene V.
Debs.
Mr. Debs' connection with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen dates
back to the early seventies, and be the credit due to that organization
for introducing to the laboring people of America, a leader who stands
absolutely without a peer in the labor world to-day, possessed of the
collective traits of some of the greatest men of the past.
I know no better description of Debs than that of Wm. C. Pomeroy in the
Eight Hour Herald, as follows: "I am sitting on the stage of a great
meeting of people, my eyes are closed in dreamy reverie, I hear a voice
whose resonant tones are familiar to my ears, the voice, the words bear
me in imagination back to the days of Rome, and Caius Gracchus is
proclaiming the coming liberty of the people. The words of flaming
eloquence suddenly change into the rugged tones of Cola di Rienzi,
crying: 'Arouse, ye Romans; arouse, ye slaves.' The words are sweet to
the ears, and stir my soul to extacy. Soft, I am no longer in the
Eternal City, but wander among the hills and dales of Judea, and the
voice has changed again. This time 'tis the compassionate tones of Him
of Galilee, beseeching to 'love ye one another,' now swift changing in
its mellifluous harmony, I hear Pandora whisper 'the dawn approaches,
take heart of hope,' and Prometheus answers with the echoed groans of
the suffering, sighing souls. The air is now filled with stirring
martial music, and above its changing cadences pours forth in passionate
appeal the stentor voice of Peter, the Hermit, raising in the bosom of
men, the lethargic love of duty. Aye; on the German hilltops, pulpited
he speaks, and Hermanic in deep-toned thunder hurdles back, 'I come.'
Now there is a silence for a space, and the changing draperies of
imagination disclose a newer scene. I am in the meeting of the Virginian
Burgesses, and the voice has taken on the tones of Patrick Henry. It
says: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and, 'he who would be
free himself must strike the blow.' Now 'tis Thomas Jefferson giving
utterance to, 'we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are
born free and equal.' And lo! even as the soft tones of the 'chosen son'
die into the distance, the voice of Andrew Jackson hurls forth the edict
'each man and every man in this country, by the eternal, must and shall
be free.'
"The echoing ages take up the dictum and it becomes mingled with the
tones of him who at Gettysburg spoke the immortal flaming words: 'This
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and the government
of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from
the earth.' Scarce had the utterance of the martyr ceased to fill the
air when Lowell softly says:
"'He's true to God, who's true to men, whenever wrong is done.
To the humblest and the weakest of all the beholding sun;
That wrong is also done to us, and they are slaves most base,
Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all the race.'
"My brain is puzzled. How comes it, I ask myself, that these heroes dead
and gone are near me here to-day?
"What power permits them to quit their abiding places within the crusty
bosom of mother earth, and visiting again the haunts of mortal man, pour
forth their immortal utterances? My rummaging mind takes on a newer
consciousness. Reverie lifts her leaden hand from off my brow, my eyes
open and gaze upon a vast multitude of people--men, women and children.
Men are standing on the seats and hurling their hats in the air; women
are weeping in joy and waving handkerchiefs, all, all shout in clamorous
accord. Their eyes are riveted upon the stage, and upon a man who is
gracefully bowing acknowledgement to the thunders of applause. I am near
him, I gaze in his face. 'Tis the face of Eugene V. Debs."
To my mind the above beautiful comparisons are not overdrawn.
In 1874 he was admitted to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and in
1877 his brother members of the local lodge, recognizing his superior
ability, sent him to the Indianapolis convention to represent them. The
next year he was a delegate to the Buffalo convention. Here he was
chosen associate editor of the Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, and three
years later he was elected editor, and assumed full control.
In September, 1880, he was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer in
Chicago, and to prove the confidence placed in him by this organization,
he was unanimously elected to that office for thirteen consecutive years
without a dissenting vote, and at the last convention, held in San
Francisco, he was again nominated after making a speech, courteously but
firmly declining, and was finally forced to refuse the nomination before
his declinature would be accepted.
When Mr. Debs assumed control of this office, the Brotherhood was on the
verge of disruption.
From this condition he, by his untiring devotion and wonderful executive
abilities, elevated the Brotherhood to one of the most powerful
organizations of the age, and thus it was through the instrumentality of
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen he was brought before the
laboring people. Some few years ago he saw that class organization would
not be successful, owing to the petty jealousy existing between the
different orders, and that in every instance where one organization had
a grievance with a railroad corporation, the management would use one or
all the others to crush the one having the grievance.
In order to remedy this, he promulgated a plan of federation whereby all
the different organizations, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen
and switchmen would stand as a unit in case of a grievance.
This federation was accomplished, but owing to the treachery of some of
the chiefs, proved unsatisfactory and was finally dissolved.
But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more
determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of
railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American
Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the
trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently
became such a power, was by no means the offspring of a premature
conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully
considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages
and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union,
before taking active steps to organize.
He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true
principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his
associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and,
Kelliher, this union was founded.
The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was
that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in
wages in all departments on that system.
This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of
eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents
in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the
grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was
settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway
Union.
Then it was that the true principles of this organization were
recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came
pouring in from all parts of the country.