The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-11-14
Their Report Severely Criticised and
Condemned as Gross Misrepresen-
tatfon OF the Facts.
MANY ERRORS POINTED OUT
WHICH, THE RAILwA AGE SAYS,
ARE ALL ON THE SAME SIDE.
Congress Of Arbitration and Concilia.
tion-Annual Convention Of Sow
ereign's knights OF Labor.

CHICAGO. Nov. 12-The Railway Age in
its next issue will contain a reply to the
report Of the United States strike commits
sioners, addressed to those gentlemen. Is
says. in part:
1.-The personal opinions as conveyed in the
report of the federal strike commission are
invested with unwonted interest to the pub
lie at large, from the fact of the Official
dignity with which they have been clothed.
All good citizens must Of necessity be In
terested in the commissions official conclu-
sions, and it appears to be the part OF
citizenship to call attention to and. IL pos
sble, correct any oversights or misstate-
ments OF facts into which the commission
ers may have fallen. The report says: Tt
should be noted that until the railroads
set the example general union OF railroad
employees was never attempted. The union
had not then gone beyond enlisting the
men upon different systems in separate
trade organizations This statement is
wholly false. The report itself says. in an
other place: The Order of the Knights or
Labor, with an estimated membership OF
from 10000 TO 175.000. has always advocated
the solidarity of labor The history OF
railway labor organizations Of the last
twenty years is largely made up Of what
the report says was never attempted. Again
and again have efforts been made to con-
solidate, federate or asorb various existing
orders 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. Again
and again has the allied labor of several
companies been called on to enforce the
demand of one class of labor against one
company. The ignorance OF this fact, and
of the further fact that it was the repeated
experience of 1t which at length drove the
railways reluctantly to unite also in self
defense. is to anyone at all familiar with
the history Of labor almost incomprehensi-
BILE. The Measurements are made the more
gross by the Importance which the commis-
sion seems to attach to its assertions.
1.-The report, speaking OF the Pullman
phase of the trouble. says: The cut in
wages during this period averaged about
25 per cent This is not true. The amount
Of the reduction was placed in evidence
before the commission in great detail and
with exactitude. The average reduction In
wages for journeymen and mechanics was
% $40 per cent. and the average reduction
for all other shop employees was u1z per
cent. The average reduction for all shop
employees was Is per cent Again the report
says: Under the contracts between rail-
road companies and the Pullman Company
the railroads have paid since 1857 cents
a mile for each mile run by Pullman cars.
This is not fact, nor from the one form
of standard contracts placed in evidence
before the commission was 1t justified in
concluding it to be a fact. The contract
specifically provides for exceptions to this
rate of payment. which enter so largely
into the aggregate business Of the company
with the railways as to totally faisify the
generalization which is made.
GROSS MISUNDERSTANDING
ION page 36S the report says: Through
out the strike the strife was simply over
handling Pullman cars, the men being
ready to do their duty otherwise This is
not only untrue, but is a radical and gross
MISREPRESENTATION of the entire circum-
stances of the strike. 1t is only necessary
to point out that the strike extended,
among other roads, to the Michigan Gen.
trail the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
and the Wabash companies, on which no
Pullman cars were in operation. The
statement quoted shows an amazing and
almost incomprehensible misunderstanding
of the essential elements OF the strike.
to the Pullman t. 1ants: AS the bank is
rent collector, Ii presses for the rent ana
is aided in collecting ii by knowledge on
the part of the tenant that by arrears he
may lose his job On what was this knowl-
edge based? During all the years there
has never been case where any employe
lost his job for nonpayment of rent; and
the employees had knowledge OF that fact.
How is the statement quoted reconcilabie
of the strike $4,000 of unpaid rent had ac-
cumulated' and the debtors still were in
possession OF their jobs The commission
omits also to state the fact clearly placed
in evidence that at the time of the strike
less than one-third of the shop employees
were tenants of the company. and the ques-
tion of rentals could, therefore. have noth-
ing to do with the terms OF employment OF
over two-thirds of them.
Further on the report says: 1t Is in ev-
idence, and uncontradicted that no violence
or destruction of property by strikers or
sympathizers took place at Pullman. and
that until July no extraordinary protec-
ton was had from the police or military
against even anticipated disorder. Ii was
not until July that the service of the mill
itary was called for. even In Chicago it
self, and the commission omits to mention
the extraordinary protection OF the 22l
guards of the Pullman company, who were
in service before the end of June, and who
tthe danger of anticipated disorder being so
great were increased to go in the first
week in July. Moreover. there was vio-
lence at Pullman-physical assaults upon
persons who attempted 10 return TO work.
When the military We're put in the field
they were used at Pullman longer than
have any more difficulty than in protecting
from violence those who wished to resume
work at Pullman Some OF or all OF these
acts were clearly in evidence before your
commission So public and notorious were
they that IL Is a disgrace to the methods
OF the inquiry If all were not
Later on the report says: There Is no
evidence before the commission that the
officers OF the American Railway Union at
any time participated in or advised intimi-
dation, violence or destruction OF property
The evidence before the commission not
only included the testimony as 10 specific
speeches in which the vice president OF the
union. amid much grossly violent and Of
fensive language, recommended the use or
the vice president himself stated to your
commission that the language which he
used on those specific occasions he had also
used at hundreds of other places. Is IL pos
sble that your commission does not regard
the recommendation 10 hit a man with
coupling pin as the advising of intimida-
ton or violsncey
The errors OF fact in the report range
all the way from the inaccurate quotation
OF comparatively trivial figures to false
gene-alzations as TO the whole scope and
essence OF the trouble. There are many
minor points in your report in which
criticism and correction would be easy; as
the remarkable economic calculation by
which the commission adjusts the loss in
ployer and employees; as In the casual esti-
mate of the $4,000 and over railroad en-
ployes in the United States who might be-
long to one organization. and in other
passages il would be equally easy 10 pillory
the cheap levity with which the commits
sion treats the educational institutions and
the aesthetic and sanitary features OF
D..S 49, - - 49,