The Bessemer indicator., 1894-11-17
THE REPORT DENOUNCED.
Statements and Deductions of the strlko
CommIssIon severrIy Criticized.

Chicago. Nov. 13.-Thc Railway Age
In its next issue, will contain II reply
| 10 the report of the United States strike
commissioners. 1t says in part:
The personal opinions MS conveyed
in the report of the federal strike com
| mission are invested with uuwonttl In
terest TO the public mt large from the
fact of the official dignity with which
they have been clothed. All good ci'i-
zens must of necessity be Interested In
the commissioners official conclusion.
| and 1t appears to be the part of citizen
ship TO call attention to. and. If posi-
BILE, TO correct any oversights or mis-
statements OF facts into which the conf
missioners may have fallen. The report
| says:
| 1T should be noted that until the rail-
roads set the example, II general union
| of railroad employees was never n
tempted. The union had not then gone
beyond enlisting men upon different
| systems in separate trade organiza-
tons"
| This statement is wholly false. The
| report says in another place: THE or
| der of the Knights of Labor, with an
estimated membership of from 100000
| to 100000. has always advocated the
solidifcation of labor
The history of railway labor organiza-
| tions of the last twenty years is large
| ly made up of what the report says
was never attempted. Again and again
| have efforts been made TO consolidate,
fedcrate or absorb various existing or
ders into one. Again and again in
strikes have the different classes of
| labor on the same road and the same
classes of labor on different roads,
| stood together
The report, speaking of the Pullman
| phase of the trouble says: 1.-The cut in
wages during this period averaged
! about - per cent" This is not true.
| The amount of the reduction was
| placed in evidence before the commits
| sion in great detail and with cXacti-
| tude. The average reduction in wages
| for journeymen and mechanics was
% $40 per cent, and the average re
duction for all other shop employees was
ll1A. The average reduction for all
shop employees was 10 per cent
ON page 36S, the report says:
throughout the strike. the strife was
simply over hauling Pullman cars, the
men being ready to do their duty 9th
crwiSc''
This is not only untrue but is radl-
cal gross Misrepresentation of the en-
tire circumstances of the strike. 1t is
only necessary TO point out that tho
strike extended among other roads TO
the Michigan Central, Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern. and Wabash com
panies, on which no Pullman ears
We're in operation. The statement
quoted shows an amazing and almost
incomprchensiblc misunderstanding of
the essential elements of the strike.
Later the report says: 'There is no
evidence before the commission that
the officers Of the American Railway
union at any time participated in o.
advised intimidation, violence or de
struction Of property"
The evidence before the commission
not only included testimony as to spe-
cific speeches in which the vice presi-
dent of the union, amid much grossly
violent language, recommended the use
of coupling pins as Il method of argu-
ment. but the vice president himself
stated TO your commission that the Ian
guage which he used on those specific
occasions he had also used at hundreds
of other places The errors in the re-
port range all the way from the mae
curate quotations of comparatively
trivial figures 10 false concentrations.