Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-11-16
FA Y $: !. | ], A|B:'0)R,
Report Of the Government
4 Strike Commission to
i the President.
PULLMAN: COMPANY SCORED
And the General Managers
Association Shown Up -
In a Bad Light.

CHICAGO, Nov. 13.-The United
States government report on the great
railway strike in connection with the
Pullman trouble was made public dur
ing the day. The report, which is
signed by the federal labor commits
sioner, Carroll D. Wright, and hisfel
low investigators. John D. Herman Of
New York and Nicholas E. Worthing'
:. ton of Illinois, is addressed to President
Cleveland and abounds in passages
which will attrac<F;ide attention, par
ticularly the portion referring to the
now famous General Managers asso'
ciation,' the organization of high
railway officials that encompassed the
memorable defeat of the American
Railway Union.
The report says the capitalization Of
the "a railroads directly represented
in the General Managers association
was 81, 10S, 552,6l7. The number of
employees was 2,09?. The commits.
sion continues:
A. Strike Fighter.
This voluntary unincorporated asso-
citation was formed in 1886. but until
June, 1894, the associations POSSIBLE
ties as strike fighter and wage arbi-
traitor lay rather dormant. Its roads
fixed a ''Chicago scale" for switchmen,
covering all lines at Chicago. In
March, 1898, the switchmen demanded
more pay from each road. The asso-
citation concluded that they were paid
enough-if anything, too much. The
roads so informed the men, The
Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association
of North America wrote to Mr.. St.
John, as chairman, acquiescing. He,
as chairman Of the General Managers
association, concluded his reply as fol-
lows:
1.-THE association approves the course
taken by your body and desires to deal
fairly with all employees, and believes
that our switchmen are receiving due
consideration.
Working for Combine.
This seems to show, the report says,
that employees upon association roads
are treated as under subsection to the
General Managers association, and the
report, after detailing the action Of the
association in establishing agencies and
employing men, adds: .l1x III -
This was the first time when men
upon each line were brought sharply
face to face with the fact that in ques-
tons as to wages, rules, etc., each line
was supported by "a combined rail-
roads. This association likewise pre-.
pared for it's use elaborate schedules of
the wages paid upon the entire lines Of
it's ~ members. These schedules were
distributed to members in November,
1898. This distribution alone enabled
the report to be used with efficiency as
an "equalizer.' AS the result, during
1898 reductions were here and there
made on the different roads, the ten
dency apparently being to equalize the
pay on all lines.
Has No Legal Existence.
The commission questions whether
any legal authority, statutory or other
wise, can be found to justify some of
the features of the association which
have come to light in this Investigation.
If we regard it's practical workings
rather than it's professions as expressed
in it's constitution, the General Man.
ayers association has no more standing
in law than the old Trunk line pool. It
cannot incorporate because railroad
charters do not authorize roads to form
corporations or associations to fix rates
for services and wages, nor to force
their acceptance, nor to battle with
strikers. It is an usurpation of power
not granted. If such an association is
necessary, from business or economic
standpoint, the right to form and main.
tain it must come from the state that
granted it's charter.
The Government Should Interfere.
The association is an illustration Of
the persistent and shrewdly devised
plan of corporations to overreach their
limitations and to usurp indirectly pow
ers and rights not contemplated in
their charters and not obtainable from
the people or their legislators. An ex-
tension of this association as above sug-
gested and the proposed Equalization Of
"pooling'' would result in an aggrega-
ton of power and capital dangerous to
the people and their liberties as well
as to employees and their rights. The
question would then certainly arise as
to which shall control, the government
or the railroads, and the end would in
evitably be government ownership.
Unless ready for that result and all
that it implies, the government must
restrain corporations within the law,
and prevent them from forming unlaw-
full and dangerous combinations.
A Roast For Pullman.
Taking up the subject of the Pullman
Palace Car company the report says:
This is a corporation organized in
1897. with a capital of $1,000. GOO tt
-es --7-E2 u.Sli it's present palG TT
capital is $36, OOO,OOO. Its property has
enabled the company for over 30 years
to pay per cent quarterly dividends,
and, in addition, to lay up surplus of
nearly s25, O0o,o0o of undivided profits.
Speaking of the town of Pullman, of