The Helena independent., 1894-11-14
CHOCK FULL OF ERRORS.
Railway Ago Picks Flaws in the
Report Of the Strike Com
mission.
Declares IL Full OF Misinformation
ana Errors tho Most
Inexousablo.
Worthless as Public Document aud Dis.
crsdltsbis 10 the Com missioaers
and the Country.


Chicago. Nov 1s.-The Railway Age,
In its next Issue, will contain reply 20
the report OF the United states strike
commissioners. addressed 10 those gem
tlemen. IL says In part: "The personal
opinions as conveyed In the report OF
the federal strike commission, are In
vested with unwonted interest TO the
public at large from the fact OF the
official dignity with which they have
been clothed. All good citizens must,
OF necessity, be Interested in the COM
mlssloners' official conclusion, and II
appears TO be n part OF citizenship to
call attention TO, and. II possible, cor
rect any oyersights or misstatements
OF facts into which the commissioners
may have fallen. The report says:
II should be noted that until railroads
set the example. a general union OF
railrond employees was never attempted
The union has not then gone beyond en-
listing 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 estI-
mated membership OF from 10000 10
l75,OOO, has always advocated the solid
incation of labor The history of rail-
way labor organizations OF the last
twenty years is largely made up Of
what the report says was never at
tempted. Again and again have efforts
been made To consolidate, federate, or
absorb the various existing orders into
one. Again and again, In strikes, have
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 la
Dor against one company. The ignor-
ance OF this fact and of the further fact
that IL was repeated experience OF IL
which at length drove the railways re-
luctantly TO unite also in self defense,
is 10 any one familiar with the history
OF labor, almost incomprehenslble. The
misstatements are made the more gross
by the importance which the com
mission seems to attach TO its asser-
tions
Again the report says: Under con-
tracts between railway companies and
the Pullman company, the railroads
have paid. since 1887, two cents a mile
for each mile run by Pullman cars.
This Is not fact, nor from the one
form of standard contract placed I'm
evidence before the commission was IL
justified In concluding IL 10 be a fact.
The contract specifically provides for
exceptions to this rate of payment,
which enter so largely In the aggregst te
business of the company with railways
as to totally falsify the generalization
which IL made.
"On page 1858 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 radical and gross misrepresenta-
tion Of the entire circumstances of the
strike. II is only necessary TO point
out that the strike extended, among
other roads. TO the Michigan Central,
the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern,
and the Wabash companies, on which
no Pullman cars were In operation. The
statement quoted shows an amazing
and almost incomprehensiblc misunder-
standing OF the essential elements of
the strike.
Further on the report says: 1T is
evidence uncontradicted that no Vio-
lence or destruction of property by
strikers or sympathizers took place at
Pullman, and that until July no ex-
traordinary protection was had from
the police of military against even an
ticlpated disorder II was not until
July that the service Of the military
was called for, even in Chicago. The
/ ~ aaiDVa ntflitu Fnanfinfa tho
traordlnary protection OF the POI guards
OF the Pullman guards. who were in
service before the end OF June. and who
were increased to 250 in the first week
I'm July.
Moreover, there was violence at Pull
man. physical assaults upon persons
who attempted To return To work.
When the military were put In the field
they were used at Pullman longer than
anywhere else. Nowhere did the police
have more difficulty thnn in protecting
| from violence those who wished To re-
sumo work at Pullman. Some or all OF
these acts We're clearly In evidence be-
fore the commission. The errors in the
report range all the way from iuaccu-
rate quotations Ia comparatively triV-
lal figures in false gencraliIations.
There are many other minor points i'm
the report I'm which criticism and cor
rection would he easy IL would be
equally easy 90 plllory the cheap levlty
with which the commission treats the
educational institutions and the es-
thetic and sanitary features of Pull
man. But these things-crrors OF taste
or fallncies in theory will be apparent
enough Ia the generQl reader.
"The curious accidents that the mis-
statements OF facts are all on the same
sidc-all tending to throw discrrdt up
on the corporations and to Increase the
bitterness of the laboring clnsses
against capitals an accident from
which one would prefer not 20 draw TN
fercnccs one conclusion only may be
drawn. which In. that no matter on
what side the errors are. the mere eN-
isirnce OF snch errors. though many
aud OF such cnormity. alone sntllccs 10
make the report entirely worthless aud
ldiscrcdltnblc ns public document dis
crcdltahle to the commissioners them
selves aud to the country
wouidn't Heed waFaiar
Sierra Leone. Nov son the 7th n IL