Huntsville gazette., 1894-08-25
DEBS ON THE STAND.
The President of the American
Railway Union
Gives His Views on the Various Matters
Pertaining to the Late Disastrous
Strike and How to Pre-
vent Future Trouble.

CHICAGO, Aug. 21.-President e. V.
Debs, of the American Railway union,
occupied the stand for nearly four
hours yesterday before the National
Labor commission. He advocated a CO.
operative commonwealth, the abolition
of the wage system, and the govern
ment ownership of railroads. He told
his side of the strike as a connected
narrative, which was frequently inter
rupted by applause from the laboring
element present.
T. H. Morrissey, first vice-grand
master of the Order of Railway Train
men, and Grand Chief Clark, of the Or
der of Railway Conductors, also testi-
fed.
Mr.. Debs said:
Il twice went to George NJ. Pullman
and to the town of Pullman to thor
ghly investigate the conditions ex-
isting at the car shops. l found the
employees were not only not getting
wages enough upon which to live, but
were daily getting deeper into the debt
of the Pullman company. No matter how
offensive the conditions were there the
men were obliged to submit to them.
When found out all these things /
Immediately determined that the
American Railway union should go to
the assistance of these unfortunate
people. We believed that any fair
board of arbitration would have decid-
ed in favor of the employees, and all we
asked was arbitration. This the Pull
man company refused. Not only this,
but when we asked them to examine
into the question to see whether or not
there was anything to arbitrate they
also refused this.
Very much has been said about an
alleged conspiracy against the rail-
roads and against hauling the mails. l
want to call the attention of the COM
mission to the fact that every meeting
of the American Railway union was
held with open doors, and that repre-
sentativeS of the press were allowed to
be present. If there had been any con-
spiracy contemplated we certainly
would have been more secret about it. +"
Mr. Debs then told of the several
failures of the American Railwa,
union to secure arbitration from the
Pullman company and the subsequent
Inauguration of the strike.
Not only did the employees of the
various railroads strike because of the
injustice being done to the Pullman
employees, but because the various
roads had grievances Of their own
which shall proceed in time to show.
We used our influence to prevent
strikes during the Worlds fair,
as we did not believe it
just to the public to inaugurate strike
at such a time. 1t was all that could
be done by the leaders of the labor
unions to prevent a strike. In view of
the mems working throughout the fair
the railway managers, on many of the
roads, promised an increase of wages
after the fair was over. Instead of do
ing this they began Immediately after
the fair closed to begin systematic
reduction of wages throughout the
country. No two companies reduced
wages at the same time. This, to me,
was very significant action. 1t
showed me that there was a concert of
action among the various roads, and
that they did not wish to arouse the
antagonism of too many railway en-
ployes at the same time
President Debs said, moreover, no
railroad reduced the wages of all its
men at the same time, but reduced
them by sections. He declared the
American Railway union viewed these
reductions with the greatest appre
hension. The organization felt that
the time had come to act. He con-
tinued:
when the American Railway union
met in convention in Chicago, on June
21, it was confronted by these condi-
tions, as well as the state of affairs at
Pullman"
WAS this convention called to con-
slider the reduction of wages or the
Pullman matter?' asked Commissioner
Wright.
The convention. was called for no
specific purpose. 1t was the regular
quadrennial convention, provided for
by the constitution"
The witness then enumerated the
failures of the old labor organizations
to gain redress for the grievances of
the employees, and asserted that they
felt their only hope lay in the American
Railway union, to which they finally
turned for help. When asked what
the outcome of the convention which
declared the boycott against Pull
man cars would have been had
it not been for the grievances of
Pullman employees, Mr.. Debs said there
would have been no strike but for the
Pullman trouble, as the American
Railway union, owing to the depressed
condition of the country, deemed it an
inauspicious time to strike.
Il would like to state" said Mr..
Debs, that the railroad companies
have never raised wages of their own
accord Every increase in wages has
been wrung from them by organized