Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-14
'PULLMAN'S SIDE. !
His Statement of How Strike
was Brought About.
Ran Works at a Loss to Give His Men
Employment,
And Was Rewarded by their Going inio
This Strike.

Nrw YoRK, July Is. - This evening
George NJ. Pullman issued the following
statement There is hardly anything new
to be said as to the position of the Pullman
Company. have so many indications of
the facility with which my expressions and
those authorized by me become distorted,
thus misleading to the public and of the
entire forgetting of my earnest efforts to
prevent the strike, that perhaps ii is well
that should again make public assurance
that the deplorable events of the last few
weeks were not caused by the Pullman
Company taking an obstinate stand in n
debatable matter, and refusing to listen to
reason.
The leaders of the disorder have not
hesitated to harrass the public by all the
means in their power, because, as they say,
the Pullman Company would not submit to
arbitration, and now that the disorder
seems to be quelled they are reinforced in
the clamor for arbitration by some
prominent newspapers, but SO far as
know by. very few, if any, business
men in the country. What is the demand
concealed under the innocently sounding
word arbitration? Little more than year
ago the car shops at Pullman were in
most prosperous condition. work was
plenty, wages high, the condition of em-
ployes being indicated by the local savings
bank having deposits of nearly 500, 900, of
which nearly all was the property of the
employees. Our pay rolls for that year
show an average earning of over 5000 per
snnum for every person, man, woman and
youth, on the roll.
"Then came the great panic and dcpres-
sion of last summer. Many customers
stopped negotiations and cancelled orders,
and our working force had to be din.in-
ished from nearly G000 to about 2000, in
November, 1898. The great business de-
preston existing throughout the country
naturally resulted in wage depression,
and the only hope of getting orders was by
bidding for work at prices low or lower
than could Re made by other shops, and
this of conrse necessitated a reduction in
wages of the employees at Pullman. This
was arranged satisfactorily, as / supposed,
and in close competitions, disregarding all
account of capital and machinery, ! Sc
cured enough work to gradually increase
the force to 1900, the number on the rolls
last April.
Nine weeks ago the car shops at Pullman
we're working with car building contracts
enough on hand to keep them going about
| go days. with all business forecasts leading
to the belief that no considerable new or
ders could soon be bad. The most impor-
tant of the work in hand was taken by me
in competition at prices less than the actual
cost to the company of delivering the cars,
without any accounting for the use of the
capital and plant. This work was taken to
keep the large force Of men employed and
postpone and with the hope Of avoiding the
numberless hardships to the classes Of peo-
pie at Pullman and vicinity of the closing
of the works, TO prevent which the company
| considered it wise policy to operate the
shops temporarily at an actual loss.
"In this condition of things came the aei-
tation seeking TO create the labor organiza-
tion embracing all the railway employees
and apparently other industries. II is my
! belief that the controversy excited at
Pullman was merely a move in a greater
scheme, these shops being selected not
on account of discomfort in them, but
because of their prominence in various
ways, because Of the chance to show justi-
fication of Simultaneous and causeless at
tack upon the railways of the country, for
there was in use under long contracts by
three-fourths of them, of the Pullman
sleeping car system, branch of the COM
psny's business totally distinct from its
manufacturing of cars for sale.
"In the early part of May committee of
The employees demanded restoration of the
wages of a year ago. / explained to the
committee minutely and laboriously the
facts, showing that the company was al
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