Grover Cleveland and the Pullman Strike
Grover Cleveland was elected to a second term as president in 1892, becoming the first (and thus far the only) president to win non-consecutive terms in office. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1893 and a year later, he was called upon to deal with a significant labor relations issue that would adversely affect both his and his party's chances for re-election.
It was known as the Pullman Strike, named for a type of railway cars known as Pullman Cars that were built by the Pullman Company (owned by George Pullman) in Pullman, Illinois, a company town on the south side of Chicago. But it was actually a railroad strike across the western United States that began on May 11, 1894. The strike was called by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States. It was a strike that closed down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan.
George Pullman had designed his "company town" of Pullman on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois as his vision of a model community. Pullman hired African-Americans for certain jobs at the company, and used advertising to attract workers into his company. But when the railroad industry took a downturn, the Pullman Company laid off workers and lowered wages. The demand for new passenger cars had dropped significantly and the company's revenue also dropped. This was part of a nation wide depression known as the Panic of 1893. But the company did not reduce rents for those workers living in the homes owned by the company. In protest, the Pullman workers called for a strike. They were protesting not only the increased cost of living in the company town, but also the absence of democracy within the town, the paternalistic control of the workers by the company, the excessively high water and gas rates, and the refusal by the company to allow workers to buy and own houses in the community. When a delegation of workers complained that wages had been cut but not rents at their company housing or other costs in the company town, George Pullman, refused to lower rents or go to arbitration on the issue.
At this point the Pullman workers had not yet formed a union. There was a railway union in existence, the ARU, which had been founded the previous year in 1893 by Eugene V. Debs. It was an organization of unskilled railroad workers. Debs brought in ARU organizers to Pullman and signed up many of the discontented Pullman factory workers. The Pullman Company refused to recognize the ARU as bargaining agent for the workers and also refused to enter into any negotiations. At first, the ARU called a strike against the factory, but this did not result in any movement on the part of the company.
Debs decided that the next step would be to stop the movement of Pullman cars on railroads. He called a massive boycott against all trains that carried a Pullman car. This applied to most rail lines west of Detroit. It affected approximately 250,000 workers in 27 states. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had walked off the job rather than handle Pullman cars. Two other unions, the Railroad brotherhoods and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), opposed the boycott.
The railroads became united in their response through an organization called the General Managers' Association, which had been formed in 1886. It represented 24 railway lines all of which traveled through Chicago. The railroads began hiring replacement workers as strikebreakers. This increased hostilities. Many African-Americans were hired as strikebreakers and crossed picket lines, fearing that if they did not do so, they would never find employment in the railroad industry. This added an element of racial tension to the situation.
The ARU escalated the Pullman strike beginning with the blockade of the Grand Crossing in Chicago on the night of June 26, 1894. On June 29, 1894, Eugene Debs hosted what was intended as a peaceful meeting to rally support for the strike from railroad workers at Blue Island, Illinois. But angry groups within the crowd set fire to nearby buildings and derailed a locomotive.
Throughout a number of western states, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off the job, obstructing railroad tracks, or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. Soon this labor unrest garnered national attention and the railroads as well as their customers called on the government to take federal action to end the strike.
On July 7, 1894, more violence erupted as hundreds of boxcars and coal cars were looted and burned. State and federal troops were used to address the violence. President Grover Cleveland had delegated the handling of the strike to his Attorney General, Richard Olney. Olney had been a railroad attorney, and was still receiving a $10,000 retainer from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. (His salary as Attorney General was only $8,000). Olney went to federal court and obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the strike and requiring the strikers to cease their activities or lose their jobs. In response, Debs and the other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction,
Facing open disobedience of the court's order, President Cleveland called out federal troops to enforce the order. In response, Debs called a general strike of all union members in Chicago. This was opposed by Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL, and other established unions. In the end they had more clout and Debs' call for a general strike was ignored.
In a number of midwestern cities, federal forces ended the ARU efforts to shut down the national transportation system. Thousands of United States Marshals and 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Brigadier General Nelson Miles, were brought in to end the strike. President Cleveland decided that it was imperative for the trains to start moving again so that he could meet his legal and constitutional responsibility for ensuring delivery of the mails. Government lawyers argued that the boycott violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, and represented a threat to public safety.
The arrival of the military and their efforts to end the strike resulted in the death of a number of workers in the resulting violence, and this in turn led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Property damage exceeded $80 million. The strike affected hundreds of towns and cities across the country. Railroad workers were divided in the issue. Many of the more established unions included the skilled workers such as engineers, firemen and conductors. These groups did not support the labor action. The ARU members were largely the unskilled railroad workers. In many areas, townspeople and businessmen generally supported the railroads because they relied on them for their livelihood. Conversely, many farmers, especially those affiliated with the Populist Party, supported the ARU and opposed the railroads, seeing them as an elite class.
But as Cleveland was aware, public opinion was mostly opposed to the strike. Cleveland also had the support of many Republicans and eastern Democrats, while southern and western Democrats as well as Populists generally opposed him on this issue. Illinois Democratic Governor John Peter Altgeld was also critical of Cleveland and said that he could handle all disturbances in his state without federal intervention.
In the press, news reports and editorials depicted those supporting the strike as foreigners and malcontents. Their articles portrayed the militia and troops as courageous and patriotic. The New York Times referred to the Pullman Strike as "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital." On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race."
Later that month, Debs was arrested on federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct the mail as well as disobeying an order directed to him by the Supreme Court to stop the obstruction of railways and to dissolve the boycott. His defense lawyers were Clarence Darrow and Lyman Trumbull. At the conspiracy trial Darrow argued that it was the railways, not Debs and his union, that met in secret and conspired against their opponents. The argument seemed popular with the jury. When a juror took ill, the prosecution used the opportunity to drop the conspiracy charges against Debs. Darrow also represented Debs at the United States Supreme Court on the charge of violating the federal injunction. This time Debs was sentenced to six months in prison.
The government action ended the strike, but the state of Illinois ordered the Pullman company to sell off its residential holdings. The community of Pullman became absorbed into the south side of Chicago, though Pullman still remained the area’s largest employer until it closed in the 1950s.
Following his release from jail in 1895, Eugene Debs became a committed advocate of socialism. In 1897 he was one of the founders of the Social Democracy of America, a forerunner of the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president in 1900 for the first of five times as the Socialist Party candidate.
President Cleveland appointed a national commission to study the causes of the 1894 strike. The commission's report concluded that George Pullman's paternalistic style of management was part of the cause. Later in 1894, in an effort to conciliate organized labor after the strike, President Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the strike ended. Samuel Gompers, who had sided with the federal government in its effort to end the strike, gave his support for the creation of the holiday. After the strike was ended, the ARU formally dissolved.
It was known as the Pullman Strike, named for a type of railway cars known as Pullman Cars that were built by the Pullman Company (owned by George Pullman) in Pullman, Illinois, a company town on the south side of Chicago. But it was actually a railroad strike across the western United States that began on May 11, 1894. The strike was called by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States. It was a strike that closed down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan.
George Pullman had designed his "company town" of Pullman on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois as his vision of a model community. Pullman hired African-Americans for certain jobs at the company, and used advertising to attract workers into his company. But when the railroad industry took a downturn, the Pullman Company laid off workers and lowered wages. The demand for new passenger cars had dropped significantly and the company's revenue also dropped. This was part of a nation wide depression known as the Panic of 1893. But the company did not reduce rents for those workers living in the homes owned by the company. In protest, the Pullman workers called for a strike. They were protesting not only the increased cost of living in the company town, but also the absence of democracy within the town, the paternalistic control of the workers by the company, the excessively high water and gas rates, and the refusal by the company to allow workers to buy and own houses in the community. When a delegation of workers complained that wages had been cut but not rents at their company housing or other costs in the company town, George Pullman, refused to lower rents or go to arbitration on the issue.
At this point the Pullman workers had not yet formed a union. There was a railway union in existence, the ARU, which had been founded the previous year in 1893 by Eugene V. Debs. It was an organization of unskilled railroad workers. Debs brought in ARU organizers to Pullman and signed up many of the discontented Pullman factory workers. The Pullman Company refused to recognize the ARU as bargaining agent for the workers and also refused to enter into any negotiations. At first, the ARU called a strike against the factory, but this did not result in any movement on the part of the company.
Debs decided that the next step would be to stop the movement of Pullman cars on railroads. He called a massive boycott against all trains that carried a Pullman car. This applied to most rail lines west of Detroit. It affected approximately 250,000 workers in 27 states. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had walked off the job rather than handle Pullman cars. Two other unions, the Railroad brotherhoods and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), opposed the boycott.
The railroads became united in their response through an organization called the General Managers' Association, which had been formed in 1886. It represented 24 railway lines all of which traveled through Chicago. The railroads began hiring replacement workers as strikebreakers. This increased hostilities. Many African-Americans were hired as strikebreakers and crossed picket lines, fearing that if they did not do so, they would never find employment in the railroad industry. This added an element of racial tension to the situation.
The ARU escalated the Pullman strike beginning with the blockade of the Grand Crossing in Chicago on the night of June 26, 1894. On June 29, 1894, Eugene Debs hosted what was intended as a peaceful meeting to rally support for the strike from railroad workers at Blue Island, Illinois. But angry groups within the crowd set fire to nearby buildings and derailed a locomotive.
Throughout a number of western states, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off the job, obstructing railroad tracks, or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. Soon this labor unrest garnered national attention and the railroads as well as their customers called on the government to take federal action to end the strike.
On July 7, 1894, more violence erupted as hundreds of boxcars and coal cars were looted and burned. State and federal troops were used to address the violence. President Grover Cleveland had delegated the handling of the strike to his Attorney General, Richard Olney. Olney had been a railroad attorney, and was still receiving a $10,000 retainer from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. (His salary as Attorney General was only $8,000). Olney went to federal court and obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the strike and requiring the strikers to cease their activities or lose their jobs. In response, Debs and the other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction,
Facing open disobedience of the court's order, President Cleveland called out federal troops to enforce the order. In response, Debs called a general strike of all union members in Chicago. This was opposed by Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL, and other established unions. In the end they had more clout and Debs' call for a general strike was ignored.
In a number of midwestern cities, federal forces ended the ARU efforts to shut down the national transportation system. Thousands of United States Marshals and 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Brigadier General Nelson Miles, were brought in to end the strike. President Cleveland decided that it was imperative for the trains to start moving again so that he could meet his legal and constitutional responsibility for ensuring delivery of the mails. Government lawyers argued that the boycott violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, and represented a threat to public safety.
The arrival of the military and their efforts to end the strike resulted in the death of a number of workers in the resulting violence, and this in turn led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Property damage exceeded $80 million. The strike affected hundreds of towns and cities across the country. Railroad workers were divided in the issue. Many of the more established unions included the skilled workers such as engineers, firemen and conductors. These groups did not support the labor action. The ARU members were largely the unskilled railroad workers. In many areas, townspeople and businessmen generally supported the railroads because they relied on them for their livelihood. Conversely, many farmers, especially those affiliated with the Populist Party, supported the ARU and opposed the railroads, seeing them as an elite class.
But as Cleveland was aware, public opinion was mostly opposed to the strike. Cleveland also had the support of many Republicans and eastern Democrats, while southern and western Democrats as well as Populists generally opposed him on this issue. Illinois Democratic Governor John Peter Altgeld was also critical of Cleveland and said that he could handle all disturbances in his state without federal intervention.
In the press, news reports and editorials depicted those supporting the strike as foreigners and malcontents. Their articles portrayed the militia and troops as courageous and patriotic. The New York Times referred to the Pullman Strike as "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital." On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race."
Later that month, Debs was arrested on federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct the mail as well as disobeying an order directed to him by the Supreme Court to stop the obstruction of railways and to dissolve the boycott. His defense lawyers were Clarence Darrow and Lyman Trumbull. At the conspiracy trial Darrow argued that it was the railways, not Debs and his union, that met in secret and conspired against their opponents. The argument seemed popular with the jury. When a juror took ill, the prosecution used the opportunity to drop the conspiracy charges against Debs. Darrow also represented Debs at the United States Supreme Court on the charge of violating the federal injunction. This time Debs was sentenced to six months in prison.
The government action ended the strike, but the state of Illinois ordered the Pullman company to sell off its residential holdings. The community of Pullman became absorbed into the south side of Chicago, though Pullman still remained the area’s largest employer until it closed in the 1950s.
Following his release from jail in 1895, Eugene Debs became a committed advocate of socialism. In 1897 he was one of the founders of the Social Democracy of America, a forerunner of the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president in 1900 for the first of five times as the Socialist Party candidate.
President Cleveland appointed a national commission to study the causes of the 1894 strike. The commission's report concluded that George Pullman's paternalistic style of management was part of the cause. Later in 1894, in an effort to conciliate organized labor after the strike, President Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the strike ended. Samuel Gompers, who had sided with the federal government in its effort to end the strike, gave his support for the creation of the holiday. After the strike was ended, the ARU formally dissolved.