Show PULLMANS STATEMENT to his the company I 1 at a los new 13 there I 1 hardly new to be said as regard the position of the pullman company remarked leoree M pullman evening but I 1 hare 0 o lauy indications ot the facility with which ray expressions and those authorized bv me hare become distorted and ahna misleading to the public and of an entire forgetting of my earnest effort to the strike that perhaps it la as well that I 1 should again make a public assurance rance that the deplorable events of the last few weeks have not been caused by the pullman company taking an obstinate stand in debatable matter and refusing to listen to reason the leaders of disorder have not besl fuated to harass the public by all means in their power because as they say the pullman company would not submit to arbitration and now that disorder seems to be quelled they are reinforced rein forcad I 1 their clamor for arbitration by some prominent newspaper but so far a I 1 know by very few if any basl ness men of the country chatis the demand concealed under the innocently sounding word arbitration little more than a year ago the shops at pullman in a prosperous condition work was plentiful wages were high and the condition of the emo loyes was indicated by the fact that the local savings bank had savings deposited in it amounting to of which nearly all was the property 01 the employed emp loyes our pay rolls for that year show an average earning of over per annum for berv person man or youth on the roil then came the erat panto and depression of last summer many customers topped negotiations and cancelled orders and our working force had to be reduced from nearly to 2000 in november the great business depression existing throughout the country had naturally resulted in a wace depression and the only hope of getting orders was by bidding for work at prices as low or lower than could be made by olber shop and this of course necessitated a reduction in the wages of the employed emp loyes at pullman this was arranged as I 1 supposed and in close competition disregarding all account of capital and machinery I 1 secured enough work to Crada ally increase our force to the number on the roll last april nine weeks ago the car shops at pali man were working at car building contracts on hand enough to keep them going for about sixty days and with business forecasts leading tb the belief that new orders could soon be had the most ini of abo work in hand had been taken by me in competition at prices which were less than the actual cost to tha company of delivering reckoning for tue use of capita noil plant this work was taken to keep the large employed and to postpone and with the hope of avoiding 1 numberless embarrassments to all clayrea of people at pullman and its vicinity of a closing down of the works to prevent which the company considered it a wise policy to operate the shops temporarily at an actual in this condition of abines came the agitation to create a labor organization embracing all railway employed emp loyes and apparently other industries Indu in the early part of mar committee of the employed emp loyes demanded restoration of the wages of a year ago I 1 explained to this committee minutely and laboriously I 1 he facts showing that the company was already paying them amro than it was receiving for their contract work and I 1 offered them for complete assurances and to end all question an inspection of our baks and contracts in hand this and iho at once at pullman of a promised careful investigation of a number of shop complaints to end all trouble but a day later under the excitement of their into the new organization organisation the closed the chops thus themselves I 1 was strenuously trying to prevent aein done and the eup loTes who quit their work have deprived themselves end their comrades of earnings of more than up to this time the demand made before quitting work was that the wage shoals be restored to the scale of last year or in n act that the actual outgoing money losses should be increased to an amount equal to about one fourth of the wadea 01 the employed emp loyes it must be clear to every burines bu iines man and to every thinking work men that no prudent employer could sub ailt to arbitration the question whether he should commit such a piece of folly arbitration always implies acquiescence in tho decision of the arbitrator whether favorable or averse how could I 1 as president of the pullman company consent to agree that if any body 01 men not concerned with the interests of the company shareholders as arbitrators tra tors for any reasons seeming bood to themselves so t decree I 1 would open the shops employ workmen at wages creater than their work could be settled for and this ruinous policy indefinitely or be accused of a breach of faith who will deny that such a question is plainly not a subject of arbitration the should not permit tho real question which has ben before it to be obscured that question was as to the possibility of the creation and duration ot a dictatorship which could make all the industries of the united states and the dally comforts of millions dependent upon them hostages or the granting of any fanatical whim of such a dictator any submission to him would have been a long step in that direction and in the interest of every law abiding citizen of the united states was not to be considered for a moment A few words are pertinent as to some against the company one ot these charges is that rents are exorbitant and it is implied that the pull roan cm aloyes have no choice but to submit the answer is simple the average rental of tenements at pullman Is at the rate of 3 per oer month and the renting of bouses at pullman has no relation to the work in the shops employed Emp loyes may and very many do own or rent their houses outside of the town and and business places in the town are rented to employed emp loyes or others in competition with in short the rent ins business of the pullman company Is governed by the same conditions which bayern any other largo owner 0 real estate except that the company itself does directly some ahinga which in chicado are assumed by the city if therefore it Is not admitted that the rents of any landlords are to be fixed by arbitration and that those of the adjourn ing towns of kensington and goseland Ko seland should alo be fixed itcan hardly be asked that the pullman company alone should abandon the ordinary rules which govern persons in that relation efforts aavo also been made to creat a prejudice against the pullman company by charges that its stock is heavily watered the pullman company was organized twenty seven ago with a capital of of which represented the appraised value of its cars then held by the three owners and one third represented the appraised value of its franchises and existing contracts the company has grown until its sleeping car service cover about miles of railway or about three fourths of the railway systems of the country and that increase ot service has necessitated increase of its capital from time to time until it Is now every share f the increase has been offered to stockholders and sold to them or to others in the ordinary course of business at not less than par so for every share of increase outstanding the company has received in cash there are over stockholders of the company of which more than one half are women and trustees ot estates and the average boldine of each stockholder Is now eighty six shares one fifth of them holding less than six shares each |