Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-14
PULLMAN'S SIDE.
r., ,s+t tHat f.
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Continued from LIST page.
ready paying them more than it was receiv
ing for contract work, and I offered them
more for complete assurance and to end
all question. an inspection of the books and
contracts in hand. This and the beginning
at Pullman of the proposed careful investi-
CATION of the number of shop complaints
seemed to end all trouble, but few days
later, under the excitement of their
recruiting into new organization the work
men closed the shops by abandoning
work, thus themselves doing what l was
strenuously trying to prevent being done
by the depression of the car building bust
ness. and the employees who quit work have
deprived themselves and comrades of earn
ings of more than $1,000 up to this time.
The demand made before quitting work
was that wages be restored to the scale of
last year, or in effect actual the outgoing
money losses then being daily occurred by
the company in car building be deliberately
increased to an amount equalling about one
fourth of the wages of the employees. 1t
must be clear to every business man and
every thinking workman that no prudent
employer could submit to arbitration of
question whether he should commit such a
business folly. Arbitration always implies
an acquiescence in the decision of arbitra-
tor whether favorable or adverse.
How could l, as president of the Pullman
Company, consent to agree if any body of
the men not concerned with the interests of
the company's shareholders, should, as ar
bitrators, for any reasons seeming good to
them, decree that | would open the shops
4 ~
than the work could be sold for and con-
linue this ruinous policy indefinitely or be
accused of breach of faith? Who will
deny that such question is plainly not
subject for ar arbitration? Is it not then I'M
reasonable that the company be asked to
srbtrate whether it should submit such a
question to arbitration.
Removing the original and fundamental
question one stage does not help the mat
ter; the question would still remain; can
|, as a business man, knowing the truth of
the facts which have stated, bind myself
that will, in any contingency, open and
operate the Pullman car shops at whatever
loss, if it should happen to be the opinion
of some third party that l should do SO?
The answer seems to be plain.
The public should not permit the real
obscured. That question was as to the po,-
sibility of the creation and duration of
dictatorship which would make all indus
tries of the United States and the daily
comfort of the millions dependent upon
them, hostages for the granting of any fan
tastic whim of such dictator. Any sub
mission to him would have been long step
in that direction, and in the interest of ev-
Law n;f Of ru;f oil
it was not to be considered for a moment.
| A few words are pertinent as to some in
dustriously spread charges against the COM
pany. One of these charges is that rents
are exorbitant and implied that Pullman
employees have no choice but to submit
The average of rentals at Pullman is So
per room per month and the renting of
houses at Pullman has no relation to work
in the shops. The employees may, very
many do, own or rent houses outside of the
town; and buildings and business places in
town are rented to employees or others in
competition with Deighboring properties.
In short the renting business of the Pull
mae Company is governed by the same con-
diti0ns which govern any other large owner
of real estate, except that the company it.
self does directly some things which in Chi
IL
admitted that rents of any landlord are to
be fixed by arbitration, and those of the ad-
joining towns of Kensington and Roseland
should also be fixed, it can hardly be asked
that the Pullman Company alone should
abandon the ordinary rules which govern
person in that relations.
As to the charges for water, the company
until lately had contract with the village
of Hyde Park, under which it paid nts
per 1000 gallons and pumped the water it.
self. The gross amount paid the
village per m onth for water consumed
by the tenants wss almost exactly the
gross sum paid by the tenants therefor
Since the inclusion of Hyde Park and Pull
man in the city of Chicago, the company
| pays the city about seven cents per 1000 gal
Ions, and not having increased the charge
to tenants, is paying for the water consume
by them about $500 month more than 9
charged to them. The company made re-
peated efforts to dis-associate itself from
the supplying of water to its tenants,
but the city of Chicago as yet hiss failed to
apply the ordinary frontage rates to the
houses and shops in Pullman, although it is
dore in adjacent towns.
Strenuous efforts are made to create
PlfJeuttc against tHe uiiiudu company
BY charges that its stock is heavily wa.ered
The Pullman Company was organized
p years ago, with capital of 81 ZOO, 900,
of which two-thirds is represented by the
appraised value of cars, and one-third rep
resented by the appraised value of us fran
chises and existing contracts The
company has grown until its sleep
ing car service covers 125 600
miles of railway, about three
fourths the railway system of the country,