9-27-07, 9:27 am

“It has been my life’s desire to unify railroad employees and to eliminate the aristocracy of labor.” -- Eugene Debs after the creation of the American Railway Union.

On July 6th, 1894, federal troops marched into the Panhandle railroad yards in Chicago. The soldiers had been ordered to the yards by President Grover Cleveland with orders to evict the hundreds of striking railroad workers interfering with the yard. The ragged strikers, into their second week off the job, didn’t take kindly to the presence of hostile federal troops. With a grim determination they fought attempts to move them and this peaceful strike quickly turned into a brawl. By the time the clashes with federal troops had ceased, damage to the yard and nearly 700 railcars was estimated to be $340,000 (nearly $8 million today). So ended one of the most violent days in one of the defining labor struggles of the late 19th century, the Pullman strike.

For all of the 19th century, living conditions for most working-class families were absolutely deplorable. Most lived in crumbling tenement buildings grouped together in large urban ghettos. These neighborhoods had poor sanitation, few social services and high crime rates making the quality of life for their working class residents very poor. Workers labored 10 or 12-hour days just to support their families and, unable to afford anything else, were forced to live in these tenement slums. Living conditions in working-class Pullman, Illinois, were a far cry from conditions found in the tenement ghettos. The 12,000 Pullman residents lived in clean town homes with indoor plumbing, gas and sewer systems. The children went to school free of charge, and the town had its own library. Pullman was attractive with modern architecture, multiple parks and extensive landscaping. Besides a library, the town had a church, shops and various entertainment options. To outside observers the town was a model community vastly better than the dense tenement slums.

The town was the brainchild of welfare capitalist George Pullman, owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company, a railcar manufacturer. Pullman had designs drawn up and had the town built in the 1880’s. He intended to provide housing for the entire workforce of his nearby Pullman factory. The town was seen as highly progressive and was widely admired.

The situation in Pullman differed radically from this perception. The whole town, including housing, stores and even the church was company owned. Alcohol was banned, and despite cheaper rents nearby, Pullman workers were required to live in town. A portion of employees paychecks were in vouchers only redeemable at overpriced company stores. Pullman had a similar monopoly on utilities. A message from the Pullman residents complained that, “Water which Pullman buys from the city [Chicago] at eight cents a thousand gallons he retails to us at 500 percent advance…. Gas which sells at seventy five cents per thousand feet in Hyde Park, just north of us, he sells for $2.25. When we went to tell him our grievances he said we were all his children.” One worker described the situation in Pullman; “We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shop, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman church, and when we die we shall be buried in the Pullman cemetery and go to the Pullman Hell.”

In early 1894, the Pullman company laid off a large percentage of its workforce and cut the salaries of the remaining workers four different time. Each reduction slashed wages 30–70 percent. There was no corresponding reduction in rent or company store prices. Records show that workers living in Pullman at the time were over $70,000 behind in rent ($1.6 million today).

Several delegations of workers approached George Pullman himself to discuss the crisis, but Pullman ignored the delegations. On June 11th wages were again cut 30 percent, the fifth major pay cut that year. In response, the 6,000 remaining Pullman plant employees struck in protest. The strikers quickly sent word to their union, the newly formed American Railroad Union (ARU), and appealed for its support.

A year earlier, in June of 1883, the ARU had been formed during a meeting of Chicago railroad workers. Eugene V. Debs, a former railroad fireman and co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World union, was elected leader of the infant union. Under Debs’ leadership, union membership blossomed; by the time of the Pullman strike, hundreds of ARU locales were in 27 states with overall total of 140,000 members.

The ARU was the first industrial union in the United States, meaning anyone within a particular industry regardless of skill level was eligible for membership. Membership was open to whites only. Despite extensive lobbying by Debs to integrate the union, segregation was approved by a slim majority at the founding meeting. This decision would come to haunt the ARU and lead to be its unraveling.

Soon after receiving news of the Pullman strike, the union leadership quickly voted to support the strikers. A boycott of any trains containing Pullman cars was approved, and the strike started as planned on June 26th.

Immediately workers walked off the job in several large Chicago rail yards. Several other sympathy strikes began around the country, slowing train traffic. Soon, the ARU issued a statement demanding that George Pullman agree to arbitration with the Pullman residents. The ARU promised that once this condition was met, everyone would immediately go back to work.

Pullman quickly responded to the ARU claiming he had been forced to cut wages and that he didn’t know of anything needing arbitration. Hearing his response, the ARU chose to escalate the action. By June 30th, 125,000 ARU members had struck, effecting 29 different railroads. Due to the popularity of Pullman cars, strikers refused disrupted the vast majority of trains. Chicago, a key rail hub, was completely shut down by the strikers and rail yards in many other cities were affected to some degree. Train traffic to the west coast ceased and east coast traffic slowed to a crawl.

In response to the railway shutdown, Pullman ordered his cars to be added to federal mail trains the obstruction of which was a federal offense. He also contacted Attorney General Richard Onley, a railroad owner himself, in the hopes of further involving the federal government. The Attorney General agreed using the vandalism of a Chicago rail yard by strikers as an excuse. Onley issued injunctions against the ARU leadership. The injunctions cited the strike leaders in “compelling or inducing by threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence, railway employees to refuse or fail to perform their duties.”

Pullman also appealed to President Grover Cleveland for federal intervention, claiming the strikers were obstructing federal mail trains and that the injunctions were being ignored by the ARU leadership. On July 3rd, a day after the injunctions were issued, Cleveland ordered federal troops to Chicago. This move was met by fierce protests from the mayor of Chicago, John Hopkins, and pro-labor Illinois governor John Altgeld who opposed the forceful breakup of the strike. Altgeld’s support of the Pullman strikers would later cost him his career.

The injunctions inhibited communication between the ARU leadership and the strikers, and as communications broke down the ARU leadership began to lose control of the nationwide strike. With federal pressure mounting, order at the strike spots began to unravel. The strikes had been peaceful up to this point but the appearance of hostile federal troops outraged the strikers further. Peaceful demonstrations escalated into riots as federal soldiers attempted to disperse the crowds of strikers forcefully at the rail yards. The violence reached it peak on July 6th and riots broke out at the Chicago Panhandle yards when federal troops appeared to disperse the crowd. The ensuing melee caused massive property damage. The next day was also exceedingly violent. Following suspected arson at the Columbian exposition in Chicago, soldiers fired into a demonstrating group of strikers nearby killing between four and 30 people.

Soon after violence broke out in Chicago, Debs and other ARU leaders were arrested and charged with contempt of court. A second appeal was made to Pullman for arbitration, but this was refused. Pullman and the railroads brought in black strikebreakers to move the trains and work in the Pullman factory. Federal soldiers protected the African American workers, who felt no loyalty to the ARU. Bending under immense pressure, the strikes began to dissolve; the strikers began returning to work. On August 2nd, the Pullman factory reopened. The next day, the ARU officially declared the strike over.

Soon after the ARU capitulation, Pullman forced his employees to sign pledges stating they would never re-unionize. He also fired large numbers of union leaders and strike organizers. Debs and seven other ARU leaders were convicted of mail obstruction and contempt of court. They all were sent to jail, and in their absence the ARU quickly dissolved.

Much of the mainstream press was unsympathetic to the strike and boycott, some going so far as calling it “the insurrection.” A June 31st Chicago Tribune headline read, “Debs strikers Begin Work of Destruction, Guns Awe Them Not, Drunken Stockyard Rioters Defy Uncle Sam’s Troops, Mobs Invite Death.” A July 8th New York Times article described Debs as “A law Breaker and an Enemy to the Human Race.” Political opinions were also hostile. When Minnesota Senator Davis was asked whether he would support a pro-union bill in Congress affirming the boycott’s legality, his caustic response was recorded by the Brooklyn Eagle: “[voting for the bill] would be a blow at the security, peace, and rights of millions of people who have never harmed the railroad employees or their associates.”

While vocal public support of the Pullman strike was rare, Chicago Mayor John Hopkins and Illinois Governor John Altgeld supported the strikers and vehemently opposed federal involvement. Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor, voiced support for the strikers but concrete action from his union never materialized. James H. Kyle, a Populist Senator from South Dakota and Chairman of the Committee of Education and Labor, introduced a controversial bill affirming the strikers’ right to boycott Pullman cars. The strikers also received considerable support from other unions and pro-labor organizations, especially in Chicago. Editorials in a few mainstream papers were also sympathetic. This editorial from the Brooklyn Eagle is a good example: Mr. Pullman cries poverty to his starving employees and then retreats to his princely summer mansion on Pullman Island, in the St. Lawrence river…. If the present strike is lost to labor it will retard the progress of civilization and reduce the possibilities of labor ever emancipate itself from the thralldom of greed.



The Pullman strike was a watershed event in the history of the labor movement. It showed the power unions held if organized and run effectively and also demonstrated how extensively business interests had infiltrated the press and federal government. The Pullman strike set the stage for the passage of protective labor laws and for successful strike action in the future. Without the Pullman strike, legislation we take for granted like the eight-hour workday, minimum wage and workplace safety standards might not exist.

Debs used six-month jail sentence to read the works of Karl Marx. Combined with his Pullman experience, Marx radicalized his politics. After leaving jail, he became an outspoken social activist, pacifist and socialist politician for the rest of his life. He eventually founded the American Socialist Party and ran for president five times on a socialist ticket. He died on October 20th, 1926 in Elmhurst, Illinois.

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