The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-14

Chicago, Nov. 13.-The Railway Age
in its next issue will contain a reply to
the report of the United States strike
/ commissioners, addressed to those gen.
tlemen. 1t says in part:
The personal opinions as conveyed in
the report of the federal strike COM
mission are invested with unwonted in
terest to the public at large, from the
fact of official dignity with which they
have been clothed. All good citizens
must Of necessity be interested in the
commissioners official conclusion, and
it appears to be part of citizenship to
call attention to, and, if possible, cor
rect any oversignts of misstatements of
facts into which the commissioners
may have fallen.
One False Statement.
The report says:
TT should be noted that until the
railroads set the example, a general
union of railway employees was never
attempted. The union has not, then,
gone beyond enlisting men upon differ
ent systems in separate trade organiza-
tons"
This statement is wholly false. The
report says in another place:
| THE order of the knights of Labor,
with an estimated membership of from
10000 to 10000, has always advocated
the qualification of labor
The history of railway labor organ
! zations of the. last twenty years is
| largely made up Of what the repos't
| ffo,N, IN RI
again have efforts been made, to con-
| solidate, federate or absorb various eX-
! listing orders into one. 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 COM
pany. The ignorance of this fact ard
of the further fact that it was the re-
peated experience of it which at length
drove the railways reluctantly to unite
also in self-defense, is to any one at
all familiar with the history of labor,
almost incomprehensible. The mis-
statements are made the more gross
by the Importance which the commits
sion seems 10 attach TO its assertions.
1t is Not True.
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. The amount Of the
reduction was placed in evidence be-
fore the commission in great detail and
with exactitude. The average reduc-
ton in wages for journeymen and me-
chanics was 22S per cent, and the aver
age reduction for all other shop en-
ployees was 111a. The average reduc-
ton of all shop employees was 10 per
cent.
Again the report says: "Under the
contracts between the railway COM
panies and the Pullman company, the
railroads have paid since 1877 two cents
a mile for each mile run by Pullman
cars"
This is not fact, nor from the one
form of standard" contract, placed in
evidence before the commission, was
it justified in concluding it TO be a |
fact. The contract specifically pro-
vides for exceptions to this rate of
payment, which enter so largely in the
aggregate business Of the company
with the railways, as to totally falsify |
the generalization which it made.
Hnndiing Pullman Cars.
On page 36S the report says:
Throughout the strike, the strife |
was simply over handling Pullman cars |
the men being ready to do their duty |
otherwise
This is not only untrue, but is a rad |
zeal and gross Misrepresentation of the |
entire circumstances of the strike 1t is !
only necessary to point out that the !
strike extended among other roads to |
the Michigan Central. Lake Shore & |
Michigan Southern, and Wabash COM
panies, on which no Pullman cars were
in operation. The statement quoted |
shows an amazing and almost incom- |
prehensible misunderstanding of the |
essential clements of the strike.
Further on. the report says in refer |
ence to the Pullman tenants:
LAS the bank is rent collector it |
presses for the rent and is aided in |
collecting it by knowledge on the part |
lose his job"
On what was the knowledge" based? |
During all the years there has never |
been an employee who has lost his |
LOB" for the non-payment of rents. !
and the employees had knowledge of |
it. How is the statement reconcilable |
with the very next sentence, lat the |
time of the strike $4,000 of unpaid |
rent had accumulated"-and the debt |
OiS StIll NclG III pOSSSSS4Oll VI Ii1SiA
jobs.
Violence at Pullman.
Further on the report says:
1T is in evidence and uncontradicted |
that no violence or destruction of prop |
erty by strikers or sympathizers took
place at Pullman, and that until July
8, no extra ordinary protection was had |
from the police or military against even
anticipated disorder
1t was not until July 8 that the SER
vice of the military was called for,
even in Chicago itself. The commission
omits to mention the extraordinary
protection" of the 221 guards of the |
Pullman company who were in SER
vice before the end of June and who
(the danger of anticipat led disorder be-
ing so great, were increased ito $50 in
the first week in July.
Moreover, there was violence at Pull
assaults upon persons
who attempted to return TO work.
When the military were put in the
field, they were used at Pullman longer
than any where else. Nowhere did the
police have more difficulty than in pro-
tecting from violence those who wished
.~o-,,r,a xporlS a Pullman Some mr.