STRIKE!

Chicago's ascendancy to the nexus of the nation's rail network also brought about the creation of numerous industries that came to supply the railroads.  The greatest of these was the Pullman Palace Car Company started by George Pullman in 1858.  Pullman's business grew, and by 1879 he decided to build a self-contained factory community far beyond the limits of the city.  Pullman's idea was to create what he considered a 'workers paradise' free of the distractions and vices that might impede worker productivity.  His shrewd business plan was to not only control the complete production process, but to also control the lives of the people who built his cars as well as the families they supported.  In 1883 one Pullman worker famously opined, "We are born in a Pullman house. We are fed from a Pullman shop, taught in a Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman church and when we die we shall be buried in a Pullman cemetery and go to a Pullman hell."

Workers rental homes

1893 was an auspicious year in Chicago's history.  The World's Columbian Exposition had drawn millions of visitors to the 'White City' on the south lakefront.  The fair announced to the nation and the world that Chicago was a city to be reckoned with, risen from the ashes of the Great Fire flexing it's industrial and cultural might for all to see.  But 1893 was also the beginning of an economic depression that would put a damper on the city's great coming out party.  By 1894 the downturn had a deleterious affect on Pullman's business, and he cut his workforce by three quarters.  This had an unintended affect on his bottom line, as well as his paternalistic vision of the Town of Pullman.  To rectify the situation Pullman began to produce new cars at a loss, allowing him to hire back 68% of his workforce.  He also cut the rate of pay by 28% and refused to lower the rents of his worker's homes, expecting to maintain his return on investment.  He made no mention to his workforce that he was operating the business at a loss.

 A labor publication's cartoon portrayal of Pullman

Negative newspaper accounts began to be printed detailing starvation and privation in the 'workers paradise'.  Pullman was unswayed by the negative publicity.  To his mind owning the factory and the town gave him the inalienable right to operate his business without outside interference.  Pullman had weathered an earlier labor dispute in 1886 that led to a short, unsuccessful strike.  On May 4th, 1894 a commitee of workers met with the company's Vice President to request a restoration of wages or a reduction in rents, along with an end to managerial harassment.  Their pleas fell on deaf ears.  Three day later three members of the negotiating committee were fired without explanation.  The stage was now set for the Pullman strike.

Eugene V. Debs

About one third of the Pullman workers had joined the nascent American Railway Union (ARU) led by the charismatic Eugene V. Debs.  At the June ARU convention in Chicago the Pullman members asked for support from the union by declaring a sympathy boycott of all trains carrying Pullman cars.  Debs was cautious about the effects of the boycott on the newly formed union, but in the face of Pullman intransigence the delegates were left with no option but to vote for a boycott.  The battle lines were drawn between the union and Pullman, who was supported by the General Managers Association (GMA) of the various railroads affected.  The ARU was a dangerous adversary to the power of the railroads, and allowing them a victory was anathema to the GMA.  Significantly, the ARU did not receive support from other railroad brotherhoods and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), led by the powerful Samuel Gompers.  Despite these obstacles, the ARU was able to effectively shut down rail traffic in 27 states west of Chicago.

Army encampment in Lake Front Park

In the beginning the strikers had the support of the citizenry as well as numerous civic and political leaders.  The dispute began peacefully, but quickly devolved into a unprecedented spasm of violence and destruction.  The first sign of trouble took place in Blue Island, south of the city.  This was all the provocation necessary for the GMA to call upon the Federal government to step into the dispute.  On July 4th President Grover Cleveland ordered 10,000 troops sent from Fort Sheridan, a military camp north of the city established after the violence of the Haymarket Riots in 1886.  Concurrently, the US Attorney General applied to the courts for an injunction against the strikers for violating provisions of the Sherman Anti-trust Act governing interstate commerce.  The presence of armed federal troops, police and Pinkerton detectives coupled with the action of the courts only inflamed the increasingly tense situation.
 

Panhandle (Pennsylvania) Railroad Yards set ablaze

Cartoon portraying Debs as an obstruction to commerce.

Rail yards, filled with wooden railroad cars typical of the era, were set aflame by working class sympathizers of the strikers.  Trains were blocked, crews pulled from locomotives.  Soldiers clashed with protesters and shots rang out.  The Illinois militia was sent to intervene between the Chicago's working class citizens and the Federals.  Force was employed to bring trains through blockades, and in the end 13 were killed and 53 seriously wounded.  Public opinion, inflamed by lurid press accounts of the violence, turned against the boycott.  Debbs attempted to end the boycott early by asking for a return to arbitration, but the Pullman Company now had the upper hand and he was rebuffed.  Chicago trade unionists called for a general boycott, but a quickly called meeting of the AFL leadership counseled against such a move.  Debs and the ARU leaders were arrested for defying the injunction.  The strike lingered to September when the last 2000 strikers unconditionally gave up their cause.

Federal troops fire on strikers and sympathizers

Troops and Pinkerton guards strike a pose

Workers were rehired on the condition they renounce the union.  The strike leaders were blacklisted.  George Pullman, who had escaped the city during the turmoil, had won.  But is was a pyrrhic victory.  A subsequent federal investigation into the strike placed much of the blame squarely on the Pullman Company and it's unwillingness to negotiate fairly with it's workers.  A year after Pullman's death in 1897, the company would be forced to divest itself of all property not used for industry.  The Town of Pullman would later be annexed and become part of the City of Chicago.  The industrial labor movement was discredited and badly damaged by the strike and boycott.  Decades would pass before it would recover and reassert itself.

Fairgrounds reduced to cinders

In a moment of supreme irony, a number of fires destroyed the now abandoned buildings of the Great White City of the Columbian Exposition within 9 months of it's closing.  The burnt site now seemed to epitomize the end of so many grand visions for the city and the harsh reality of the deep class divisions within American society.