Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-09-16
TRUE STATE At PULLMAN.
WHAT LIES BEHIND THE BEAuTi-
FuL FALSE FRONT.


Chicago Special To ST. Louis Repub-
lic.-one OF the hardest things to find
out in Chicago during the last six
months has been the actual state Of af-
fairs which has existed in the town Of
/ Pullman. Up TO the time Of the strike
7 the operatives We're afraid to talk
and the company would not When
the strike began the professional labor
agitator appeared and gave out false
information. Then came the rioting,
during which nothing accurate at all
could be learned. During the last ten
days. however. 1t has been fairly quiet
at Pullman and the facts have been
learned
Recent Investigations and the evil
dence before the strike commission
offers convincing proof that the town
Of Pullman is not at all what 1t has
been popularity supposed to be. or what
the Pullman company has advertised
that 1t was. Prosperity and happiness
have never existed there. Unbiased
search for truth reveals state of af-
fairs which forces condemnation OF
the Pullman system" and which dem
onstlates the town to be u place of
tenant slaves. Flower beds and gravel
ed walks and velvety stretches of lawn,
shady trees and pretty vlstas and ar
tistic sweeps OF landscape gardening
are within the view of the visitor as he
steps off the train. The casual sight
seer never gets beyond these. II he
did, popular impressions of Pullman
would be vastly different than they
are. II the traveller would get on
Florence boulevard and visit Stevenson
and Fulton streets. or even two or
three blocks on Watt and Moore
avenues, particularly, II he would go
into the northern end of the town upon
Ericsson and Cottage Grove avenues
he would say little of the beauties of
the place. II he mas any regard for
artistic fitness, the barracks and mo-
notOnous blocks Of ugly brick houses,
contrasting with the barren prairie
which surrounds them would create
melancholy depre 'sion. One of these
blocks of houses Is called Poverty
Row"
Yet It is on these streets that the
operatives live, It Is not on Florence
boulevard nor within sight Of the land
scape gardening nor the pretty water
Nistas that the men who for so long
worked In the shops made their homes.
All this beauty of which so much has
been written is no more part OF their
lives than Michigan avenue and the
Lake Shore drive is OF the people
who live In the tenement district OF
Chicago, In Pullman there is an indie
Unable something which tells the work.
man that his presence is not wanted
where the flowers and fountains and
pretty walks are.
Nor are the houses healthful. The
record shows an unusual number of
lymouc diseases, How much whole
someness and light there has been in
the houses Of thousands Of the work
men Of Pullman may be inferred from
the fact that in whole blocks entire
families have for years lived In one
room IN order that they might exc
out an existence by renting out the
others to lodgers-slngle men employed
In the works. Hundreds of families
having two and TIN ee room Apartments
have kept boarders. striving in this
way to subsist. Not only has the pro-
ductlve energy OF all the men OF fam
lily In the town been directed to the
heavy task OF keeping the rent roll
Of the Pullman company up, but the
whole energy Of tho town has been di-
rected to that end Men worked In
the shops and their wives kept board
ers. II took the earnings Of both host
ana boarder to pay Che rent ana keen
the community above the plane OF
restitution. In no region In the world.
l'NhNAhANf AA1 ouNll a AllNll DEOnOrIlun
OF the families really lived In family
privacy.
Some idea Of the wages paid can be
learned from q statement made by a
common laborer with a family To sun
port. He Ia a sober and industrious
man. and he said that he received for
the days he was given work last win
ter ~ cents a day. His rent for the
month. including water. MAS SS.2l
There was left out of his nay checl,
less than 50 with which to support
his family. one of the blacksmiths
VINO has been at works fo- years, said
that ne, when at work, earned As cents
DAY In six hours. When the pull
man company's ultimatum was given
that the strikers must 20 to work at
the reduced rate or leave Pullman he
declared that he would leave because
II ne had to starve he wouldn't starve
ana wear out his clothes at the same
TINE az Fullman's anvil. He and his
companions, he said, We're the first 10
get out. W
Another man few days before the
strike received pay check for his
mcnth's labor, which came within az
cents OF balancing his rent account
a bill for this balance was made ont
ana collector sent with It to his house
Tor payment. What this man was
going TO live on until mis- next pay
check and next months rant We're due
he didn't know himself, and he didn't
require much persuasion TO quit.
Even In the Arcade, which Is the
center OF life in the evening, a visitor
can hear of any number OF cases where
pay checks were within from is cents
to So or 50 either way OF balancing the
account They We're spoken OF in a
grim, Joking way, as men Will lest
&C neerning the most imminent catas.
strope when the danger Is common 10
them all and, escape is possible only
from chance. '
The blacksmiths, who formerly mad.
from "a day upwards. say that at the
time they went on strike, after three
cuts In their wages In six weeks, they
could not average more than 81 a dav
one OF them. man who IS counted one
OF the best operators in the sion. was
able to make only si.03 IN three davs
Carvers, who are a high grade OF skill
ed artisans and who generally obtain
high wages, at the time OF .he strike
had been cut Down until they received
only 20 cents an hour and strippers
another high grade OF workmen. ON
tanned 20 cents an hour while painters
got only 10 cents. Work was permitted
only seven hours per day.
me company urged that IL vas
ooused 10 cut wages on account Of me
present business depression. Two
months before the strike boura,.,,. "