Show THE STRIKE the great railway strike inaugurated by the american railway union ie as burning great proportions and it looks now if the american railway union will tie up the earth and throw string over abo moon there is a good deal of objection among men who do not earn bread by the sweat of the brow concerning this wholesale attempt to force the pullman company to time and this objection ie based principally upon ignorance every man who tally understands the situation and is inclined to justice and fair dealing must admit the original strike against pullman ia justifiable the only difference of opinion that can exist ie as to the justice of aba boycott against the pullman company and all the railroads that will persist in aiding pullman against the strikers it ia stated that the boycott ia a war measure that only in time of war ia the friend aider and abettor of the enemy punished now admit both of these propositions and the question then arises what is the trouble between alie pullman keople and the army of men whose wadea have been reduced 30 per cent in four months Is is not war war can bo bloodless and still be war people readily call the whole trouble a fight a battle why is it not then war Is it not a fact that when the general managers met at chicago and organized themselves to fight abo war to the bitter end that they called it war then let us look at the proposition from its real standpoint let us see what caused the strike the boycott and now the war to the finish the pullman company are the pat and promoters of all the pullman cars and the facilities that build them several miles from chicago pullman purchased a large tract of ground and located on it the city of pullman the company built all the housos in the city and own them they ell no lots in pullman all the stores are owned and conducted by the company every employed of the company must rent a house and home from the pullman company and buy all they con ahmo from the name stores donao years ago when the company first started they dealt fairly with their employed emp loyes and paid them fair wages but as the company became independently rich it also became tyrannical and oppressive fifteen to twenty dollars was the rental charged for each licusea lio rather high price for a working man to pay even on fair working mens wages company manufactures its own gas at a cost of 30 cents per feet but it cli argea its em aloyes per thousand feet the pullman company receives water at 80 cents per 1 gallons and charges ite employee for the bame it ie an actual fact that the profits of the pullman water system after furnish ini the great pullman works with water free makee a borly profet of or 2000 per month A great deal has been eaid about pullmans areat generosity in building a church for bis city but it turns out that the people must pay per month rental for the ue of the church and it is with all the actions of the pullman company they appear generous to the outside world but the em aloyes foot the bills four months ago tho company made a cut in wages and bince then has made more so eliat the total amounts to a reduction of algoet one third of the entire wages finally a truce was effected and a contract made between the company and its employed emp loyes but no sooner was the contract made than the pullman company broat it claiming it was losing money and hence must break the contract notwithstanding thy statement eliat they were losing money pullman at the same time issued a quarterly dividend of 2 per cent on its capital stock of now alien it ie taken into consideration that of thia stock ie commonly called watered eatock it will be wen that the dividend amounts to between 20 and 24 per cent per annum on alie original now it must be taken into consideration that while the employee wadea were reduced one third the pullman company did not reduce the rent one third nor did it reduce the gas alie water or church rentals nor did it reduce the coet of alie goods in the stores in ehart the pullman company bad it fixed blat at ahe end of alie month the ac of the employee of tire company abbat balanced some times taire was a dollar or two coming and often nothing now under these circumstances the employed emp loyes aenon a strike they ached all people employed by the company anywhere in the united states to aid them but the great pullman company coolly shuts down its works and save the pullman sleepers elee pers now in are making a sufficient profit to suit them and that they dont care about making any more pullman sleepers at present header what would you have done under these circumstances member pullman city is a town of about people most all of them employee of alie company these people have lived from band to mouth with large families after having worked for years they have not been able to save enough money to take their families out of town they cannot live on alie wages offered they a not live at all 1 without the wages have they a right to enlist the sympathy of their fellow laborers have they a right to play every card in their power would the reader if be had the power and was one of these strikers order a boycott on all of the pullman cars and on all the aid ers and ab aters of the pullman corn pany we think h would then the only question we have to consider is have the strikers exhausted every other resource to bring the pullman people to time if so then the american railway union must and will win but if the american people believe that the pullman em aloyes have used arbitrary power and have used the extreme measures first which should have been last then the strike and boycott will fail the success of the strike will in a great measure depend antho action of the men who are ordered out if their conduct is such as to merit the sympathy and approval of the brotherhood of locomotive engineers then the american railway union has already won the battle for it the engineers walk out then the roads must lay aside the pullman cars if the present peaceful methods are continued the boys ought to win and we hope they will |