Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-11-14
CRITICIzES THE COMMISSION.
What The Railway Age Thinks of the
Strike Investigators Report.

CHICAGO, Nov. II The Railway Age
contains reply to the report of the
United States strike commissioners, adj
dressed To those gentlemen. 1t says in
part: The personal opinions as con
veycd in the report of the federal strike
commission are invested with unwontci
interest 20 the public at large from the
fact of the official dignity with which
they have been clothed. All good citi-
zcns must Of necessity be interested in the
commissions official conclusions and IL
appears to h. the part Of citizenship tc
call attention To and if possible correct
any ovcrsights or misStatcments of facts
into which the board may have fallen.
The report says: 1t should be noted
that until the railroads set the example a
general union of railroad employees was
never attempted. The union had not then
gone beyond cnlisting the men upon diff.
fercnt systems in separate trade organi-
cations This statement is wholly false.
The report itself says in another place:
The order of the Knights of Labor. with
an estimated membership of from 150O1C
to l15.G0J has always advocated the
solidarity of labor The history of rail.
way labor organizations of the last twenty
years i largely made up of what the r..
port says was never attempted. 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
frfr b,.. f,,t h,~ II
perience of it which at length drove tn,
railways reluctantly to unite also in self
defense. Is 10 any one at all familiar with
thc history OF labor almost incolnprehcnsi-
bic. The MEASUREMENT is madc the more
gross by the Importance which the com.
mission seems TO attach to its assertion.
The report, speaking Of the Pullman
phase of the trouble says: The cut in
wages during this period averaged about
- per cent This is not true Tho
amount of the reduction was placed in
evidence before the commission in great
detail and with cXac;itudc The average
reduction in wages for journeymen and
mechanics was - $40 per cent, and the
average reduction for all other shop en-
ployes was II = per cent The average re
duction for all shop employees was 10 per
cent.
Further on the report SAYS in reference
TO the Pullman tenants: As the bank l.
rent collector it presses for the rent. and
is aided in collecting it by knowledge on
the part of the tenant that by arrears ne
may lose his job On what was this
knowlcdge' based? During all the years
there has never been a ease where any en-
ploye lost his job for non-pavrncnt Of
rental; and the employees had knowledge
of that. How is the statement quoted
reconcilabe with the very next sentence:
At the time of the strike S1O.OOO of unpaid
rent had ACKNOWLEDGEMENT the debtors
still We're 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-thrd of the
shop employees Were tenants of the COM
pany.
Further on the report says: 1t is in
evidence and uncontradicted that no yio-
lcnce or destruction OF property by stril-
ers or sympathi2ers took place at Pull
man.. There was violence at Pullman
physical assaults upon persons who at
tempted to return to work. When the
military were put in the field they were
used at Pullman longer than anywhere
else Nowhere did the police have more
difficulty than in protecting from vio-
lencc those who wished to resume work at
Pullman. Some or all of these facts were
clearly in evidence before the commits
sion
1.-The errors of fact in the report range
all the way from the inaccurate quotation
OF comparatively trivial figures to falsr
CONCENTRATIONS as to the whole scope and
essence of the trouble There are many
minor points in the report of which crit
icism and correction would be easy. IL
would be equally easy to pillory the cheap
lcvity with which the commission treats
the educational institutions and the ses-
thetic and sanitary features of Pullman.
But these things-errors of taste or falla-
cies in theory-will be apparent enough To
the general reader.
1.-The curious accident that the misstate-
ments of facts are all ON the same side
all tending to throw discredit upon the
corporations and to increase the bitterness
of the laboring classes against capitals
AN accident from which one would prefer
to draw no differences. One conclusion
only may be drawn, which is that no mat
ter on what side the errors are, the mere
existence of such errors, SO many and
some of such enormity alone sufiices to
make the report entirely worthless and
discrcditable as public document
The foregoing is vigorous summary of
the views of railway managers and own
crs generally on the commissions report
They Tried to Clean Him Out.
LlTcHFIELD, Ills, Nov. 1i.-Myers Mil