The record-union., 1894-06-30

to lead public opinion perfect candor in
its discussion.
With such clearness and conciseness as
are at my command | beg leave to define
the issue involved. The Pullman Manu-
featuring Company has workshops To-
Gated at severas places in the United
States whore that company is manufact-
uring the sleeping cars used by the rail-
ways of the country,
In the manufacture of these cars it en-
ploys many persons of various trades and
calllngs. They are not railway en-
ployes, but simply artisans engaged in
the wood and iron work necessary to the
construction of the cars. The depressed
financial condition of the country in
duced the conductors of the Pullman Car
Company to suggest reduction of pay to
its employees. With the merit or demerit
of that suggestion 1 have nothing to do.
1t was a question solely between the
Pullman Car Company and the men en-
ployed by it. The employees of that COM
pany, however, refused to accept the
scale of wages offered by the company.
whereupon, according to my best inform
L
simple statement of the fact which con-
stitutes the basis of the present tie-up
practically of all the arteries of inland
commerce in the United States.
| The Pullman Car Company, finding it
Improbable to conduct business. sus-
pended its operations. Neither defense
nor condemnation of its action is ger
maine to the purpose OF this letter. But
recitation of the facts is necessary to a
complete disclosure of the issue underly-
ing the existing controversy.
The employees of the Pullman Car
| Company declared boycott against the
cars manufactured by that company, and
sought the aid and sympathy of the
American Railway Union in the enforce
ment of the boycott.
The organization of labor among the
different crafts and callings of work men
is not new. The boycott, although a
matter of somewhat recent origin in the
history of labor movements, is still not
new. But the application of the boycott
and the argument used for its justifica-
ton in the instance under discussion is
new, and it's successful establishment is
fraught with more serious consequences
to the industries of this country than
have heretofore attended labor move
ments in any form.
The railways of the United States NOV
ing Pullman cars are in no respect parties
to the controversy between the Pullman
Car Company and its employees.
They have entered into contracts with
| the Pullman Company for the use of their
rolling stock as sleeping-cars. The con-
tracts are legitimate in all respects. Nor
are they in any respect menace to the
rights Of the public nor to individual citi-
zens of this country. The public COM
fort and convenience are conserved by
their use. The labor employed in their
manufacture after the cars have left the
shops have no right to control their use.
The railway employees confederated
under the name of the American Railway
Union seek to establish the principle that
no work put out by the Pullman Car
Company's shops shall be used unless the
relation batAAael4-l ) Pullman Car Com
pany and the labor employed by it is
satisfactory.
BY this declaration the American Rail-
way Union is attempting to establish a
precedent which, carried to its logical
conclusion, would become a factor in the
railway transportation of this country
utterly destructive of its efficiency as
conservator of the Industries and COM
merce of the country.
If the railroads are to be denied the use
of Pullman cars because of misunder-
standing between the labor used in their
construction and the corporation con-
structing them, like policy may be ap-
piled to locomotive works
Suppose, for instance, strike occurred
in the Baldwin Locomotive Works and
the American Railway Union declared
that no railroad using Baldwin locomo-
tives should haul their trains with loco
motives produced at that factory. Such a
case would be completely analogous to
the one under consideration. The pur-
chase of a locomotive under such circum-
stances would be attended constantly
with the danger that the factory produc-
ing them would not maintain harmonic
Gus relations with its employees. and the
railroads purchasing such locomotives
would have guarantee of their use only
so long as mechanics engaged in the
manufacture of other locomotives at the
Baldwin works were satisfied with their
wages or hours of labor. Thus the use of
the locomotive would not pass to the
railroad purchasing it, but would remain
subject to the exigencies of the scale Of
wages in the factory producing it. More
over. the policy would logically extend
itself to the carriage of goods produced by
various factories.
A complete analogous case would be
found in a strike at the Studebalxer
Wagon Works at South Bend, Ind.
Should that corporation encounter an
unfortunate disagreement between itself
and its employees as to the rate of wages
or the hours of labor, the American Rail-
way Union in strict consistency with the
policy it is now adopting concerning the
Pullman cars, could demand that no
wagons produced at the Studebaker fac
tory should be carried or delivered to the
merchants who had purchased them, and
tie up every railroad train carrying the
product of that factory to the merchant
and consumer.
In response to such demand the rail-
ways would violate their contracts for
transportation with the Studebaker Com
pany by cutting out the cars carrying the
output of that factory, or suspend the
entire internal commerce of the country.
The logic of the principle sought to be
established extends itself even beyond
this. Suppose the labor employed in or
charding in California should form itself
into labor organization. and that sin
gle fruit-grower like A. I. Hatch should
find himself in Controversy with the or