The Portland daily press., 1894-07-02

Atnerlcan Ral way Un10n demanded OF
them-discarded their Pullman cars and
agreed never to buy any more of the
Pullman Company or permit any
more to be hauled over their tracks,
what would have been the result? MIR.
Pullman would have had to go out of
business. His works would have had
to close down permanently, and the
thousands of men who have gained
their livelihood by making cars in his
shops would have had to leave their
homes and seek employment elsewhere.
Of course President Debss idea was that
before Mr.. Pullman would allow his bus
mess to be thus permanently destroyed
he would accede to the demands of his
workmen. Perhaps he would run were it
not for the fact that to accede to the de-
mands of the men meant ruin. also, and
worse kind of ruin. The result of an effec-
tive boycott would be simply the going
out of business of the Pullman establish
ment. The result of compliance with
the demands of the workmen under x
listing circumstances would be the prac-
tlcal surrender of the control of the bus
mess to the American Railway Union,
an organization that knows nothing
about it and has no stake in it. Mr..
Pullman can much better afford to have
the works shut up forever and never
| make another car while he lives, than
have the management of a business in
which his capital is invested taken out
OF his hands and placed in the hands
OF irresponsible persons; and that in all
probability is the view he will take of
it. or would take of it if the boycott
were likely to be successful to the point
OF sweeping every Pullman car off the
face of the earth.
Now let us inquire who are bearing the
loss and suffering consequent upon this
plan of bringing Mr.. Pullman to terms?
1t is pretty evident that Mr.. Pullman is
suffering neither loss nor hardship at
present He was running his works at a
loss, and to shut them down was money
in his pocket Most of the railroads are
under contract with him to haul his
cars, and whether they actually haul
them or not is of little consequence to
him. If they break their contracts they
will be liable to him in damages. Of
course the owners of the railroads are
suffering some loss, but in most cases
they are people who are able to bear it
without much real hardship. The great
burden of the suffering and loss will
rest upon workingmen 1.-The very
people whom the boycott is intended to
benefit The striking railroad men will
lose their wages and many of them their
| places, and some of them will be led
into violations of the law that may re-
suit in severe punishment and lasting
disgrace. Bat this is not the worst of
| it, These men are SUI ffering voluntarily.
But there are thousands already. and
| II the boycott continues but a little
longer the number will run up into tens.
and very likely hundreds of thousands.
entirely innocent of all response bility for
this unfortunate controversy, who are
offering vicarious punishment on ac-
count of it. Already provisions, have
taken great bound upward in Chicago.
| Ihls means distress to every poor family
! in the city. Industrial establishments
which depend upon the railroads to furn-
| lsh the fuel for their motive power and
the raw material of their product, are
| already shutting down. This means en-
| forced idleness to thousands OF men.
whose wages at the best are barely suffice
lent to support themselves and their
families. This boycott cannot continue
| long without hundreds of thousands of
innocent men being affected by it. And
this want and suffering, all this loss of
wages, all this Encouragement of bust
ness are for what? To enable President
Debs to carry out IA plan that he has
conceived to restore the wages of 5000 or
1000 men in the town of Pullman. Even
were the plan well devised and likely
| to be successful, the cost of executing
it would be entirely disproportionate to
the benefits it will bring. But it is not
well devised. The boycott it seeks,
if made effective, would close Mr.. Pull
mans works forever. His surrender
might open them for time, but under
conditions which would eventually de-
stroy them.