The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-08-29

Chicago. Aug. 2S.-In the inveStiga-
! ton of the Pullman strike by the ma
tional commission today, Chauncey
Kelsey. of the Chicago & Alton road,
testified that the loss sustained by that
road during the strike was S2S6, 800.
The Chicago e Eastern Illinois re-
ported S21.60O loss; the Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy. $15O,OOO in the de-
not tabulated.
Charles E. Webb chief clerk of the
bank at Pullman. testified that Jennie
Curtis. who claimed that she was COM
PEELED to pay back rent, had paid it
voluntarily.
Vice President WicIses.
Then Vice-President Wickes took the
stand. He said the cost to the COM
pany of building the cars under con-
tract at the time of the strike was
about 100000 The labor would cost
about S240,000. The contracts were talk
en- on a basis of a reduction of 20 per
cent. Thus under the old prices of Ia
Dor they would cost about $4,000.
Wickes admitted that on this basis
the company had reduced the receipts
$50. 900 and the employees wages $780,
ed hardly fair. but he thought it much
better than to throw the men entirely
out Of employment.
In answer to the chairman, Wickes
said the cut in pay had been made to
| fit the depression in business and the
low selling price of cars, and not to
stop any encroachment on the profit
paid the stockholders. The surplus of
S25,00O000 undivided profit, consisted
partly of idle cars whose value was
constantly deteriorating.
Worlds Fair Business.
Mr. Wickes said that the Worlds
| fair. in his opinion, did rot do his
company any particular good. The
company spent 81, 500, 900 in building new
cars for fair traffic. and the traffic was
not nearly so large as was expected.
He thought that the fair work had
something to do with the cause of the
strike. When the rush was over the
prices got down to bed rock and the
men were dissatisfied.
He did not think that voluntary
division of the profits in prosperous
times would be better than the pres
ent system. 1t would not be fair to
the stockholders to so divide the
profits.
Mr.. Wickes said the amount of back
rent due the company from strikers
made. Very little effort had been made
TO collect the rent.
! He said the company had contracts
with the roads it's cars run over
(about three-fourths of all the mileage
in the country. On the territory COW
cred by the contracts the Pullman
company had a monopoly.
No CompuIsion to Rent.
Mr.. Wickes denied that the Pullman
employees were compelled to rent the
company's dwellings,. He said that he
did not believe the principle of arbi-
tration could be applied to a man in
the operation of his business. A mat
ter of opinion was available TO arbitra-
ton. but not in the matter of a man
running his own business. The wit
ness was questioned as to the salaries
paid the officers. but declined to an
Swar
General Nelson A. Miles took the
stand after lunch. He denied fatty
the story that on his arrival here from
Washington he had consulted with the
general managers. On July .. when
the conference was said to have been
held. he was in Washington and he
arrived here July 4. Asked if it were
! true that he had declared that he had
broken the backbone of the strike, the
general said that was not quite ex-
act. What he said was that he had
broken the backbone of the opposition
| to the federal troops.
The commissioners wanted to know
if the troops forced men to work at
the points of bayonets.
General Miles said that while this
might have happened in some instan-
ces he had not been aware of it, and
had issued no orders to that effect He
said he knew nothing about the
strike.
General Superintendent Sullivan, of
the Illinois Central, was the last called
to the witness stand today He de-
clared that many of the striking rail-
road men had committed acts of vio-
lence and backed up it's association
with tangible evidence.
The balarce of his testimony was
similar to that given by preceding
witnesses.