The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-11-14
REPLY OF THE PULLMAN COMPANY.
Cub bling Denisls and Criticisms Of the
Commiaaioners' RepoFt-

hEfLI De IN 3 ~ LII NAN SOAk - y II
Oufbblfng Deninls and Criticisms Of the
mmfssionerS Report
CHICAGO. Nov. l3-The Railuay Age in
its next issue will contain reply 10 the
report Of the United States strike commits
sioners. addressed to those gentlemen. 1t
says in part:
THE personal opinions, a. conveyed In
the report of the Federal strike commits
sion. are invested with unwonted interest
to tho public at large from tho fact of the
official dignity with which they have been
clothed. All good citizens must OF neces-
sity be interested in the commissioners
official conclusion, and it appears 10 DO
the part of good citizensh p to call attention
to and, If possible, correct any oyersighis
or misstatements of facts into which the
commissioners may have fallen.
"Tne 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 enlisting men upon different
systems in separate trade organizations
This statement Is wholly false. The report
says IN another place: The order Of the
knights of Labor. with an estimated mem-
hership of from 150. 900 TO l35.00o, has al
WAYS advocated the solid ficalion Of labor
The history of the railway labor organi-
cations of the last twenty years is largely
made up of what the report says was never
attempted. Again and again have efforts
been made to consolidate. federate or
absorb various orders into one.
Again and again instances have
shown that 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 en-
force the demand of one class OF labor
against one company. The Ignorance OF
this fact and of the further fact that il
was the repeated experience of IL which
ut length drove the railways reluctantly to
unite, also IN self-defensc, 10, TO any one
at all familiar with the history of labor,
almost incompreheusible. The misstaee-
ments are made the more gross by the inn
portance which the commission seems to
attach to its assertions.
"The report, speaking Of tho Pullman
phase of the trouble. says: The cut in
wages during this period averaged about
25 per cent This Is not true. The aver
age reduction for all shop employees was 10
per cent. Again the report says: Under
the contracts between railway companies
end the Pullman company the railroads
have paid since 1877 cents q mile for
each mile run by Pullman car This
Is not fact, nor, from the one form of
standard contract placed in evidence
before the commission. was ii justified in
concluding IL to be fact. The contract
specifically provides for exceptions to this
rate of payment, which enter so largely
into the aggregate business Of the company
With the railways as TO totally falsify the
generalization which IL made.
ION page 3es the report says: Through
out the strike the strife was simply over
handling Pullman cars, the men being
= hatw Apt at ap g.
not only untrue, but Is radical and gross
MISREPRESENTATION of the entire circum-
stances of the strike. 1t is only necessary
TO point out that the strike extended
among other roads--to the Michigan Gen.
trial. Lake Shore, Michigan Southern and
Wabash companies. on which no Pullman
cars were in operation. The statement
quoted shows an amazing and almost in-
comprehensive misunderstanding of the
essential elements of the strike.
Further on the report saws, in reference
To the Pullman tenants: AS the bank is
rent collector, it presses for the rent and is
aided in collecting IL by the knowledge on
she part of the tenant that by arrears he
NAV lose his job On what was this
'knowledge' based ? During all the years
there has never been an employe who lost
his JOB for the non-payment OF rents, and
the employe. had knowledge of IL. How
Is the statement reconcilabie with the very
next sentence. AT the time OF the strike
$40. 0o0 of unpaid rent had accumGlsted'--
and the debtors were stiGl in possession of
their iobsg
Further on the report says: st Is In
evidence. and uucontradicted, that no
violence or destruction OF property by
strikers or sympathizers took place at
Pullman, and that until July no extra
ordinary protection was had from the
police or military against even anticipated
disorder IL was not until July 3 that the
service of the military was called for, even
in Chicago itself. The commission omlts
20 mention the extraordinary protection
Of the ri guards OF the Pullman COM
pany. Who were In service before the
end OF June, and then, the danger
Of anticipated disorder being so
great were increased 90 20 in
the first week in July. Moreover. there
was violence az Pullman; physical assaults
upon persons who attempted 10 return TO
work. " hen the military we're pat in the
aed they were used at Pullman longer
than anywhere else. Nowhere did the
police have more trouble than in protect
ing from violence those who wished to
resume work az Pullman. Some OF these
alleged acts we're clearly IN evidence before
your commission.
Later the report saws; There is no
evidence before the commission that the
officers Of tbs a. K. L. At any time par
ticipsisa in or advised tntirni9s tion, vlo-
leace or destruction OF property The
evidences before the commission not only
taeluaed testimony IS 20 specific speeches
in which the very president OF the union,
amid much grossly violent Language, re-
commended the use of coupling pins as a
method Of argument; but the vice presi-
dent himself staiea 10 yonr commission
saas The language De used on those spe-
esuc occasions he had also used az hun
Gre6s ct other places. The errors in the
report range al the way from the sHaccR-
rate quotations of comparatively trivial
hgares TO false genevalIzAEions There are
naay cther minor points in your report
IN which criticism and correction would
es easy. liz would Re equally easy TO
pillory the cheap leyttv s4th which the
coramSsSioB treats the educational instiiG-
GoHS aad ESghetSe ana sanitary features
Of Pullman. Bar these sAinEx-errors Of
taste ~ fsslscies u iheoTy-Nill ns ap-
parent ea92xh TO the general rezGer. The
estrsoas accident that the measurements
q iacss are al ca the same sIds--aiG tend
ing 70 throw asScredit upoa the CORPORA
noEs and 10 Increase the bitterness OF the
4ADcF2Hz c.aSxeS against C2psta4--is an Ac-