BUSINESS MEN'S PROTEST.
The town of Danville, Ill., was now visited by martial law with the
result that two women were killed and two men fatally wounded. A
non-union brakeman fired three shots into a crowd that was jeering him,
whereupon some one in the crowd returned the fire hitting him in the
neck. The militia then opened fire, killing a Mrs. Glennon who was
standing in her own yard and Miss James seated at the organ in her own
house. This was the effect of federal troops in Danville, and so it was
in every town and city where Grover's minions were stationed. The
damnable outrages perpetrated on the people of the commonweal by the
federal troops under the guise of law and order was goading the citizens
to a state of open rebellion. The business men of Chicago fearing a
general outbreak determined on sending a committee to the Pullman
company with a view to reaching a settlement whereby this dire calamity
would be averted. A committee was formed composed of representative
business men, members of the city council, and members of the various
trades of the city. The committee met with no success.
Mr. Wickes, who represented the Pullman company, informed them that the
company had nothing to arbitrate and wished to see no committee. The
proposition they wished to submit to Mr. Wickes as the representative of
the Pullman company was this: That Mr. Pullman had said there was
nothing to arbitrate while the men contended that there was. Let the
Pullman company appoint two men and the circuit court two men. Let these
four select a fifth, if necessary, to determine if there was anything to
arbitrate and in case there was, that would take care of itself later.
If not, the strike would end just as soon as the decision was reached.
Surely this proposition was fair and manly but speaking for the Pullman
company Mr. Wickes flatly refused to entertain it for an instant.
Alderman McGillen, who acted as spokesman, then made an eloquent plea
for the Pullman company to take steps, which he considered would go far
toward settling the strike. He said: "Mr. Wickes we received a request
from the trades-unions--their representatives who are now here you have
already met--to see if some means to settle this strike peaceably could
not be found.
"It has been demonstrated that your company had no subject for
arbitration, that the request of the employes for arbitration could not
be acceded to?"
Mr. Wickes: "Yes, sir."
Ald. McGillen: "We are here to suggest that it might be possible to
obviate all differences between the company and the men--strikers,
ex-employes, or whatever you wish to call them. We would suggest a
committee to ascertain whether there is any matter needing arbitration
as you are a quasi public."
Mr. Wickes, interrupting: "Do you come as representatives of the city
instructed by the mayor? We have nothing to arbitrate, the Pullman
company cannot recede from its position."
Ald. O'Brien: "There must be some trouble?"
Mr. Wickes: "Our men made complaint, we promised to investigate, but
before we had time to do so they struck."
Ald. O'Brien: "But that will not settle the matter."
Mr. Wickes: "Unfortunately not."
Ald. McGillen: "We suggest that this committee be made up of
representative men, the best men in Chicago, men who occupy positions of
honor."
Here attorney John S. Runnell appeared and was closeted with Mr. Wickes
for a quarter of an hour.
On his return to the room Mr. Wickes said that neither the Pullman
company or the railway manager's association created the situation of
to-day. When our men went out we told them that we could not do the work
at the scale of wages we were paying. We had contracts to fill then,
some of them we let out and some we retained. No men can arbitrate this,
you, as business men would let no man say how that business should be
conducted.
Ald. McGillen then said: "You require protection from us. You call on
the police, on the county, on the state, and on the nation for
protection. Your only valued assets are the patents which the nation
gives you in recognition of the genius which built the Pullman car.
Remove that asset and you are ruined. You utterly ignore our request. It
is not dishonorable men we ask to investigate your affairs. Think of the
sickness, starvation, want, disaster and bloodshed which is coming if
the strike assumes larger proportions. The climax is fast approaching
and who will be to blame. I am here for the common weal, and I hope and
beg of you not to refuse."
Mr. Wickes: "There is a principle involved. Every business should have
the right to dictate to its own labor, we will brook no interference,
national, state, county or municipal."
Ald. McGillen: "Compulsory arbitration is not a law but it will be if
this strike does not stop."
Mr. Wickes: "We have nothing to arbitrate."
Ald. Warreinner: "We are not asking for arbitration, we want a committee
appointed to see if there is need of it. Will you consent to that?"
Mr. Wickes: "No."
Ald. McGillen: "In the name of humanity let me beseech you to reconsider
your negation."
Mr. Wickes: "Gentlemen, the Pullman company has nothing to arbitrate, we
want to see no committee, the Pullman company cannot recede from its
position. This is final."
When the committee met again at 4:30 to make its final report, it was
completely discouraged. Mr. Elderkin stated the proposition that had
been made to the Pullman company and its direct refusal. The alderman
begged the labor representatives not to strike and cause widespread
suffering.
The general manager's and Pullman's position was so clearly defined that
it would be impossible for the public to fail to see it in any but its
true light.
The companies were losing millions of dollars but the general managers
had determined if necessary to bankrupt every system in the United
States in order to crush labor organizations out of existence. The
Pullman matter was something of the past, with them they were after the
labor organizations, and they were after them with a vengeance.
The government was backing them. The attorney general of the United
states,--a corporation attorney as well,--had pledged himself to disrupt
every labor organization in the country. President Cleveland, another
railroad attorney, had encouraged and abetted them to the same end.
With the subsidized press, the bankers unions, the moneycrat
manufacturers and the federal courts arrayed against them, what in the
name of justice could they expect?
Surely the martyred president and savior of mankind, the immortal
Lincoln, must have anticipated the present deplorable condition when in
his message to the second session of the thirty-seventh congress,--to be
found in the appendix to the Congressional Globe of the thirty-seventh
congress, second section, page 4--when he said: "Monarchy itself is
sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people.
In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit
raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It
is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in
favor of popular institutions, but there is one point with its
connections not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief
attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with,
if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that
labor is available only in connection with capital, that nobody labors
unless somebody else owning capital somehow by the use of it induces him
to labor. * * * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is
only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not
first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the
higher consideration. * * * No men living are more worthy to be trusted
than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch
aught which they have not earned. Let them beware of surrendering a
political power which they already possess and which, if surrendered,
will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as
they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of
liberty shall be lost."