Part 4 (1/2)
The peaceable and law abiding city of Chicago was feeling the effects of a reign of terror. Innocent men, women and children were being shot down or bayoneted by the tools of railroad corporations in a most cold blooded and heartless manner. According to the statements of eye witnesses some young fellows under the age of sixteen years, and therefore not strikers, threw stones at the soldiers who at once began to shoot indiscriminately into a crowd composed of men, women and children who had no connection whatever with the affair, then with fixed bayonets charged upon the people, and those who were unfortunate enough to be caught were severely dealt with. One old man, a Pole, who was standing in his own door yard, and seeing the people run took fright and started into his house, was pursued by a soldier who saw him run and stabbed in the back. The old man fell shrieking to the ground, begging for mercy, when the brutal fiend plunged the bayonet twice more into the helpless form and left him in a dying condition.
One young lady was shot while standing on the roof of her own house, and fell a corpse in her brother's arm.
Still another victim was a man who was shot while standing in the doorway of his home and a rioter by the name of Burke was shot and killed in the charge.
In an editorial the Chicago Times says: ”Let us examine the net results of the activity of the troops on Sat.u.r.day; results of which the amateur soldier Brigadier General Wheeler remarked: ”I am glad that the troops made a stand and that blood was shed.” There is some conflict in the reports of the day's carnage, but the salient facts seem to be these:
”Three persons in all were shot dead, one of these, an eighteen year old girl, was standing on a distant house top watching the fray, when a bullet pierced her heart. Of course she was not a striker nor was her continued life a menace to American inst.i.tutions.
”John Burke, identified by the police as a professional crook, was another victim and his presence in the mob adds evidence to the claim of the Times that the rioting was the work of chronic toughs and criminals and not of workingmen. Joseph Warzouski, the third to fall before a military bullet, was sitting smoking before his house door when wantonly shot down by a regular. He was not a striker, and not within one hundred yards of railroad property when murdered.
”Of the wounded five were women, one of whom looses an arm and another a leg. Six were boys under nineteen years of age, and one was a baby.
”The points which these facts demonstrate, is that the rioting is not the work of members of the American Railway Union, or in fact of workingmen of any organization, but the acts of toughs and pluguglies and boisterous boys, with whom this city like other large cities, abound. Though the crowd looks large and dangerous, the actual number of combatants is comparatively small, and the clubs of the police instead of the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers, would have been the proper weapons to use. Then Chicago would not have been disgraced by shedding the blood of women and children and taking innocent lives.”
On July 6, Mr. Debs issued the following clear and succinct statement of the causes and status of the present condition of affairs:
”To the public:--So many misleading reports have been given currency in reference to the great railroad strike now in progress that I am prompted, in the interest of justice and fair play, to give the public an honest, impartial statement of the issues involved and the facts as they actually exist. My purpose in this is to have the great American public--the plain people--in every avenue of life conversant with the situation as it really is, that they who const.i.tute the highest tribunal we know, may pa.s.s judgment upon our acts, condemn us if we are wrong, and uphold us if we are right.
”First of all let it be said that the Pullman employes who struck May 6th, last, did so entirely of their own accord.”
”Their action in so doing was spontaneous and unanimous. They simply revolted against a series of deep-seated wrongs of long standing, and no power could stay them. It has been charged, and the charge has been widely accepted, that they were induced to strike by their ”leaders” and labor agitators; that if left alone they would have remained at work.
The charge is wholly untrue.
”The fact is that the officers of the American Railway Union used all their influence to pacify the employes and advised them repeatedly not to strike, but to bear patiently their grievances until a peaceable settlement could be effected. To the truth of this statement the employes themselves will bear willing testimony.
”But the grievances of the employes, men and women, had become so aggravated, so galling, that patience deserted them, and they abandoned their employment rather than to submit longer to conditions against which their very souls revolted. Whether they were right or not, let only those judge who comprehend the conditions under which these faithful employes toiled and groaned. Let us avoid sentiment. The bare facts will suffice, and they are haggard enough to excite the sympathy of every good citizen, rich or poor, employer or employed.
”The Pullman company, be it understood owns the town of Pullman, owns the houses, the homes of employes, controls the light and water, and other necessaries of life, and wages are so adjusted to living expenses that in a large majority of cases the employes are barely able to support their families. Proof overwhelming can be furnished. One instance will suffice. At the time they struck the employes were in arrears to the Pullman company $70,000 for rent alone. Wages had been repeatedly reduced but rent and other expenses had remained the same.
”At this rate it would be a question of a short time only until the employes would have been hopelessly involved in debt, mortgaged soul and body to the Pullman company.
”The employes from the beginning, have been willing to arbitrate their differences with the company. That is their position to-day. The company arrogantly declares that there is nothing to arbitrate. If this be true why not allow a board of fair and impartial arbitrators to determine the fact?
”At this point we appeal to the public as to whether the position of the employes is ent.i.tled to the sanction of the public conscience. If the employes were to a.s.sume the position of the Pullman company and defiantly declare they had nothing to arbitrate, and arbitrarily demand unconditional surrender as the only basis of settlement they would merit the condemnation of the public and it would certainly and swiftly fall upon them with crus.h.i.+ng severity. Committee after committee waited upon the officials of the Pullman company with the vain hope of effecting a settlement. They were willing to make concessions, to compromise in the interest of peace. All their advances were repelled.
”The company was, and is, unyielding as adamant. Finally, June 12th, the delegates of the American Railway Union, representing 425 local unions of railway employes located on the princ.i.p.al lines of American railways, met in convention at Chicago. The Pullman trouble had been discussed at their local meetings. Many of the delegates came instructed. The grievances of the Pullman employes were taken under consideration, and two separate committees were sent to the officials.
”Not the slightest satisfaction could be obtained. As a last resort the delegates by a unanimous vote determined that unless the Pullman company would agree to do justice to their employes within five days, the members of the order would refuse to haul Pullman cars. This action be it remembered, was not taken until the strike had been on six weeks, and every conceivable effort to obtain redress had failed because of the obstinacy of the company.
”Up to this time the trouble had been confined to the Pullman company and its employes. How, then, did the strike extend to the railways? Let the answer be given in accordance with the facts. The day before the order of the delegates declining to haul Pullman cars, went into effect, the General Managers' a.s.sociation, representing the princ.i.p.al Western railways, met and pa.s.sed a series of resolutions, declaring in substance that they would uphold the Pullman company in its fight upon the employes, that they would haul Pullman cars and that they would stand together in crus.h.i.+ng out the American Railway Union. The resolutions in question were published in the city papers and can be referred to in substantiation of this averment. It will thus be seen that the railway companies virtually joined forces with the Pullman company, went into partners.h.i.+p with them so to speak, to reduce and defeat their half starved employes. In this way the trouble was extended from line to line, and from system to system until a crisis has been reached. The business of the country is demoralized to an extent that defies exaggeration.
”To say that the situation is alarming is entirely within the bounds of prudent statement. Every good citizen must view the outlook with grave concern.
”Something should, something must be done. The American people are a peace-loving people--they want neither anarchy or revolution. They have faith in their inst.i.tutions, they believe in law and order, they believe in good government, but they also believe in fair play. Once aroused they will not tolerate arbitrary and dictatorial defiance, even on the part of an alliance of rich and powerful corporations.
”What can be done to dispel the apprehension that now prevails, and restore peace and confidence? The American Railway Union on whose authority and in whose behalf this statement is made, stands ready, has from the beginning stood ready, to do anything in its power, provided it is honorable to end this trouble.
”This, briefly stated, is the position the organization occupies. It simply insists that the Pullman Company shall meet its employes and do them justice. We guarantee that the latter will accept any reasonable proposition.