Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-08-29
WICKES TESTIFIES.
Pullman's Second Vice Presi.
dent on the Stand,
LOADED WITH FACTS AND FIGURES

As They Appear on the Records of the
Great CorporatiOn-wages at the Time
of the Strikc-Efrect of the Worlds Fair
As to Division of Profits with En-
ploycs-His View of the Uses of Arbi-
trat!on.
man who had come before the national
labor commission had undoubtedly been
Manager St. John. until Vice President
Wickes, of the Pullman company, took
the stand. Then st. John had rival. St.
John had all his facts in black and white.
dated, numbered, and official. Wickes
mad also his in ink, copied from the books,
reports, and records of the Pullman cor.
poration. He distinctly coutradicted about
every material statement made by the wit
nesses for tie side of the strikers. One
statement he maize. which he said was
taken from the payrolls, was that at the
time of the strike the average daily wages
at Pullman were S203
Weekly Wages Before the Strike.
This was reduction of 63 cents from
the wages paid in 1898. He was not asked
whether this meant that the average earn
Ing of the men was over S12 for six days,
so that the statement did not throw as
much light on the case as it might have
done. But other testimony shows that
the men worked about half time, so if
Nlckes' statement is correct the average
weekly wages was about S. Questioned
by Chairman Wright, he said that the cost
to the company OF building the cars under
contract at the time OF the strike was
about 81 400 900 The labor would cost
about S2s0,000. Under tine old prices the
labor would cost about S3fO, COO. On this
basis Wright said that, according to the
testimony OF Wickes, the company had
contri bsted So, ,OJ0 for the purpose OF Sc
curing these contracts and keeping the
people employed and the wage -earners
$780, 900.
Wickcs Differs with Wright.
Wright said it might have been better
Tor the company to have suffered the loss
OF $4,000 additional rather than what it
suffered from the strike. Wickes did not
think 1t better, as a matter of policy for
the reason that the company would be
virtually shut out from operating its own
business. The company must operate its
own business as it sees tit. The Pullman
ties were receiving more wages than other
workingInen in fhe vicinity The division
of the contribution, s50,000 by the COM
pany, SG0000 by the employees, was not
fair, but then there was no reason why the
company should pay more wages than
other manufacturers. The stockholders
had been paid their per cent. quarterly
dividend, but that WIS mainly from the
operating department.
Question OF Selling Houses.
The chairman osEpi 1yberher II r-opI5
no thave been better to have sold homes to
the men. Wickes answered that it would
not he wise to sell houses near the plant.
They could buy homes near by, outside of
the town. Had the lots been sold iudis-
criminately the company would have no
control over the place. Had the country
been built up it might have been well TO
sell homes to the people, but not when the
country was wild. The Pullman idea was
to hold control OF the property in the town
in order to prevent any of the houses be-
ing made brouhels. saloons and unsavory
resorts. That was the extent nearly of
the alleged ''paternalism" carried on at
Pullman. The cut ii pay had been made
to fit the depression in business and the
low selling price of cars, and not to stop
any encroachments on the profits that
We're paid to the stockholders.
Some Fiction in the Surplus.
The surplus of S2a,00O,0O0 undivided
profits, consisted partly of idle cars whose
value was constantly deteriorating. The
cost of the cars was counted i'll the surplus,
50 that there was, to some extent, fiction
in the figures of the surplus The Worlds
fair, in his opinion, did not do his COM
pany any particular good. The company
spent 81, 5OO,O00 in building new cars for
fair traffic, and the traffic was not nearly
50 large was expected. There were now
nearly 400 cars lying idle. There should
be only $50. He thought that the fair
work had something to do with the cause
of the strike. While building these cars
for the fair the men had all the work they
could do, and earned very large wages.
When the rush was over the prices got
down to bed rock and the men were dis
satisfied