The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-07-07

why does not Mr.. Pullman do some
thing for the moral and educational de-
velopment of this placer Why does he
extort such exorbitant rents from the
churches of this communityg Whv
does he not assist the Young Mems
Christian Association Just a little2
Why does he not give US an emergency
hospital, of which we stand so much in
need? And last, not least, why, let me
ask, does he not, as a man of flesh aud
blood like ourselves, bring himself into
little closer contact with public life
OF our town, cheer his employees with
his fatherly presence and allow the
calloused hand of labor occasionally to
grasp the gentle hand of the man who
Processes to be so intensely interested
in our welfare?
"Never until George Pullman can
give satisfactory answer to these
questions will account him a beue.
factor to his race, lover of his kind,
philantrophist or one who has done
anything for posterity which will cause
mankind, when his dust slumbers be-
meath the sod, to rise up and call him
blessed.
Thou eternal God what poison has
crept into human nature ana the spirit
OF true democratic simplicity that can
cause this man, who himself was once
poor mechanic at the bench, but who
is now a pampered millionaire, in
trenched behind his gold, to deny
these just requests of those whose
hands have made him rich, and who
heed not the tears of wives and chill
dren who have been simply existing
upon the crumbs which fell from the
rich mans tablet
81 am told that the average wages
paid by the company are $1.s7 day.
l doubt 1t much. 1t is claimed that the
men are not receiving starvation
wages. l know many of which this is
true, but they are the exception and
not the rule. know a man who has
had, after paying $14.5O rent for four
small rooms and II cents for water
rent, but rs cents day left to feed and
clothe his wife and children When
we remember that this is an average
/ case, that 1t is on the basis of full time,
then, in the name of all that is just and
right, say God help that man if his de-
pendent be many or if sickness invades
his home. And cry shame upon the
rich corporation that dares to insult
the American workingman with such a
wage as that. No, no; it is wrong
eternally wrong
at is mans lot to labor, and the
chimneys of great factories rise like
the steeples of churches and call US to
the battle of life. But allthese temples
of labor will be turned into the slaught-
er houses of anarchy and the music of
hammer and anvil become discordant
with the raging elements of Infatuated
conflicts If, in the days to come, justice
is not meted out to the laborer and
capital ceases to be tyranical.
"The great trouble with this whole
Pullman system is that it is not what
it pretended to be. To a casual visitor
it is veritable paradise, but it is a hol-
low mockerY, a sham, an institution
girdled with red tape, and as a solution
of the labor problem most unsatisfac-
tory.
1.-THE great trouble with the town of
Pullman, viewed from the standpoint of
an industrial experiment, is that it's de-
hciences overbalance all it's beauties.
1t is the most un-American town in all
America. 1t belongs to the map of Eu-
rope. 1t is a civilized relic of old world
serfdom Today we behold the lamen-
table and logical outcome of the whole
system"
Mr.. Cawardine went exhaustively into
the causes of the strike and held the
officials of the company to be culpably
negligent in permitting only partial
investigation of grievances to be made
and in allowing members of the com
mittee from the workmen to be dis
charge.
II am with you to the end" he said
in closing. 81 hope you will get your
just demands. shall always in the
future count it as the proudest moment
of my life that could say word Of
comfort at this crisis and take my
stand beside you in this great and ap
parently unequal contest"