The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-07-19
PULLMAN EXPLAINS.
FULL STATEMENT OF THE COM
pANY'S CONDUCT.
Claims That Car Building Was Being
Carried On at Loss to Keep the
Men Employed-To Continue
Would Be Ruinous

NEW YORK, July 13-"There i
hardly anything new to be said as II
the Pullman company" said Geo. M
Pullman this evening. But | have 81
many indications of the facility which
my expressions and those authorized
by me have been distorted and thu:
misleading to the public and of an en-
tire forgetting of my earnest efforts tc
prevent the strike that perhaps it il
well that l should again make pub
lie assurance that the deplorable
events of the last few weeks have
not been caused by the Pullman
company taking an obstinate stand
| in a debatable matter, and refused to
| listen to reason, The leaders Of dis
order have endeavored to harrass the
public by all means in their power, be-
cause, as they say, the Pullman COM
pany would not submit to arbitration,
and now that disorder seems to be
uuelled they are reinforced in their
| clamor for arbitration by some prom
inent newspapers, but so far as know
| they are endorsed by very few, If any,
| business men in the country.
What is the demand concealed un =
| der the innocently sounding word, ar
| bitratiop? A little more than year
ago the shops at Pullman were in "a
prosperous condition; work was
plenty, wages were high ami the con
dition of the employees was indi-
Gated by the fact that the
local savings banks had saving
deposited of nearly 100000, of which
nearly all was the property OF EN-
ployes. Our pay rolls Tor that year
show an average earning OF over S6UO
woman or youth ON the roll. Then
came the great panic and depression
of last summer. Many customers
and our working force had to be dis
minished from nearly 5000 to 1000 in
November, 1898.
1.-THE great business depression eX-
isting throuS hout the country had
naturally resulted in wage depres-
sion and the only hope of getting
orders was by bidding for work at
prices as low or lower than could De
made by other shops, and this OF
course necessitated a reduction in the
wages of the employees at Pullman. This
was arranged satisfactorily as | sup
posed and in close competitions disre.
gar6ing all account of capital aud ma
chinery, | secured enough work to
gradually increase our force to 1000,
the number on the roll last April.
Mine weeks ago the car shops at
Pullman were making car bGilding
contracts on hand enough to keep
them going for about 60 days and
when all business forecasts leading to
the belief that no considerable new
orders could be had, the most impor-
tant of the work in hand had been
taken by me in competition at prices
that were less than actual cost to the
company of delivering without any
recompense Of the use OF the capital and
plant This work was taken to keep the
large force of men employed and TO
postpone, and with the hope of avoid
ing the numberless elm barrasSments to
ali classes of people at Pullman and
vicinity by closing down tor weeks, to
prevent which the company consid
cred it. wise tn operate the shops TEN
pOrariiy at an actual loss.
In this condition of things came
the agitation seeking to create labor
organization embracing all railway
employees and apparently other indus
tries. 1t is my belief that the control
versy excited at Pullman was merely a
move IN the greater scheme, these
shops being selected, not on account of
discoptept in them, but because of
their promise in various ways and
because Of the chance of a show of
justification for simultaneous escape
less attack upon the railroads of the
country for the use for long time con
tracts by three~tourths of them Of the
Pullman sleeping car system, branch
of the compaDy's business totally dis
tinct from it's manufacturing OF cars for
sale.
sin the early part Of May COM
mittee of the employees demanded
restoration of the wages OF year ago.
| explained to this committee infinitely
and Iaboriously the facts, showing that
the company was already paying them
more than ii was receiving for its con-
tract work, and | offered hem, for
complete assurance to end the Ques
tion, an inspection of our books
and contracts in hand. This
and the beginning at once
at Pullman of promised care
full investigation of a number Of shop
complaints seemed to end all trouble,
but a day later, under the excitement
of the recruiting organ, the workman
closed the shops by abandoning their
work, thus themselves doing what l
was strenuously trying to prevent be-
ing done by the depression of the car
building business, and the employees
have deprived themselves and their
companions OF earnings of more than
100000 up to this time.
The demand made before quitting
work was thai the wages should be re-
stored to the scale of last year, or in
effect that the outgoing money losses
then being daily incurred by the com l.
pany in car building should be DELHI
erately increased to an amount equal
to about one-fourth of the wages
of the employees. Il must be clear
to every business mal and TO every
thinking mau thai TO prudent en-