The daily worker., 1924-05-19
BY ELSA BLOCH.


Z f. CARRY, president Of the Pull
L. man Company, has forgiving
spirit. Let's all forget about the
strike" he says in a message to the
DAILY WORKER. TITS over, and
we're all going to be good friends
again"
E. F. Carry can forget about the
strike. l understood why wAen 1 went
to see him at his home at 1919 Lake
Shore Drive. The door of the huge
white building was opened for me by
an obsequious butler in blue uniform.
A white-gloved attendant took me up
stairs, growing more diffident at
every step. "Mr. Carry must be a
great man." he confided to me in an
awed undertone. Hes got to be to
live in place like this"
How Garry Lives.
Even now the preliminaries were not
over. found that still had Mr.. Car
rvs butler and his many maids to
reckon with. And after all these
formalities had been attended to,
did not see Mr.. Carry. But was per-
mitted to get glimpse of vista of
large, cool rooms, tapestried, expen-
sively carpeted, charmingly furnish
ed. Here was an atmosphere of aban-
doned luxury, of perfect ease, that
made me, too, forget, for few mo-
ments at least, that strike had been
going on in Pullman.
How the Workers Live.
The strike was recalled to me, vivid
ly enough, when l went back to Pull
man that afternoon. A few blocks
from the factory l found the homes
which shelter large proportion of
the Pullman workers. Long rows of
dirty, broken gray stone houses,
crowded together so that no single
fiat could have more than one side
open to the light, face on lawns"
filthy with tin cans, torn paper, heap
ed-up garbage. Wash-lines are strung
from one house to another, and mot
ley-colored clothes flap grotesquely
over barefoot children who, in their
efforts to get little space in which
to play, crowd one another into the
streets, in front of wagons and motor
cars. In the Pullman houses-there
are three flats in every story, and five
to six stories to every house-families
of six and seven persons gather in two
or three rooms, dark, unclean, foul
smelling. There is no division Of liv-.
ing quarters, and it would be almost
impossible to say which is kitchen
and which bedroom. for stove and bed
jostle each other in corners. There is
no water in any of these apartments.
One tap in the hallway is made to
serve three families. On many floors
there is a leakage from the. common
toilets; there are of course no private
bathrooms. a.
Florence Raiae 1xhs Rents.
Where the workers in Pullman have
succeeded in buying their own homes,
conditions are much better. The
houses 1 describe are those owned by
Florence Pullman and leased out to
the slaves in the factory. These houses
are the ones on which the rent has
been raised within the past few
months from seven to nine and then
to eleven dollars. The company
knows that the workers have no place
else to go.
1t will be hard for these men and
their families to forget about the
strike.
The Brass Check.
And the Pullman Company will not
forget about the strike either. Already
steps are being taken to prevent an
other outbreak of active discomfort
among the more militant workers.
When the men go to work in the morn
ing, each one is expected to hang up
his employment tag--a small brass
check-on a hook at the entrance.