Arizona weekly citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz) 1880-1901, 1894-07-14
AT PULLMAN TODAY.
Reasons That the Men Give for Their
Action in Striking.
All this is Pullman as it was.

All this is Pullman as it was.
The writer was at Pullman a year ago,
and again today. The fiower-beds and
graveled walks, the velvety stretches of
lawn and the shady trees, the pretty
water Vistas and the artistic sweeps Of
Landscape gardening are still there.
They are the first thing that the visitor
sees as he steps from the train.
But when he gets off Florence boule-
ward and enters Stevenson and Futon
streets, or Watt and Morse avenues,
especially if he goes into the northern
end Of Pullman on Erickson and Cottage
Grove avenues, he will find mOnotol Gus
blocks and brick houses, ard it is here
that some of the operators live. They
are strikers now, and the beauty of
which SO much has been written is q
very little part of their lives.
1t was found today IN conversation
with some of the workingmen that, on
their own representation, many of the
workingmen of Pullman, with their
families, haye for years lived in one or
two rooms IN order to supplement their
earnings by renting the other rooms for
lodgers-single men employed in the
works. Hundreds of families keep
boarders in this way, to add materially
to the earnings of the head of the family.
The men work in the shops and tLeir
wives keep bosrders.
Today one finds at Pullman some pov-
erty. The strikers owe $4,000 of rent, for
which they have not cent to pay.
The writer WAS approached on the
street this morning by O well-dressed
man, who asked for money In order
that he might get something to eat.
After some little conversation, he said,
looking sadly at the closed shops:
"There is no such thing as hope for
US. We are so heavily in debt that it's
useless to think of betteripg things"
A young woman, who before the strike
set in had been employed in the linen
department, said today that all the
girls wanted at Pullman in the shape of
wages was enought to subsist upon.
The story of the employees as to the
cause OF the strike has been gathered by
conversation with them yesterday and
today. In substance cleaned as it is
about as follows:
They say that the company previous
to the strike made as much money as
it always did from the rents OF its
houses and from its car shops and its
other factories. The men maintain that
this is borne out by statement made
in pamphlet distributed last December
by the Pullman Compahy. "Thls day
is near at hand when the S30,000,000
present capital of the Pullman Com
pany will be covered by the value of the
$500 acres of land on which is built the
town of Pullman"
Coupled with this was a statement
that the S30,O00,000 capital stock of the
company had market value of S60,000,
| 600, Rents being an important matter
| for the company as profits from man
ufacture, the employees aver that the
company has manipulated its wages,
hours and selection of employees so to
| give just enough work to enable the en-
| ployes to pay rent. Some Of the men
| declare that it has been the intention OF
the company to force its employees into
debt, or to use the savings of past labor
upon which to live.
The company denies point blank.
The men point out that the 2,5OO
sleeping, dining and buffet cars of the
| company were in constant service dur
ing the Worlds Fair period without any
other repairs than those absolutely
necessary to keep them running. Nearly
all these cars now need repairing. 1t was
being done as fast as they could be
brought in when the men struck. By
the several cuts in wages which the
company made it was able at the time
of the lockout to get work done, the
men say, for from 1925 to go, which,
in ordinary times, would have cost S4
or more. This represents an absolute
profit to the company by the cuts in
piece price and hourly rate of wages
but the loss to the men. they say, was
actually about 30 per cent more than
this by the reduction Of the hours OF
work from 10 to Z.
The allegation is freely made that by
cutting wages the company saved from
40 to 30 cents in the cost of the work
much of which it would have to dc
anyway.
Mr.. Pullman denied this to-day.
u By the cut in hours it was able to
spread its work among enough people,