The 1894 Pullman Strike was one of the most significant labor disruptions in the latter 19th century. Coinciding with a particularly depressed economy, the strike led to increased fears of anarchism which enabled the “law and order” Republican Party to achieve a spectacular victory in the mid-term election and go on to win the presidency in 1896. Finally, the Pullman Strike formalized Eugene Debs’ socialism, propelling him into national prominence for several decades.
Causes of the Pullman Strike
The last years of Mark Twain’s Gilded Age were marked by ever increasing unionization, strikes, and violence between workers and factory owners. Often, as in the Haymarket strike or the violence at the Homestead Steel plant in Pennsylvania, violence was blamed on socialist agitators and foreign anarchists.
The Panic of 1893 was severe. Hundreds of banks failed and businesses closed. Unemployment soared even as some immigrants prepared to leave America and return to Europe. Businesses like the Pullman Palace Car Company were forced to lay off workers, cut production and wages, and sell existing inventories at a loss.
George Pullman, viewed by Chicago society as enlightened, built a company town outside the city for his employees. Although he reduced wages by 25% percent and laid off half of his workforce, he refused any rent reductions and continued to overcharge his employees for city water.
The strike began after Pullman fired worker representatives that had aired grievances. Pullman closed down operations and laid off the rest of the workforce. The American Railway Union, representing the workers, called for a strike that included a national boycott of all Pullman cars on national rail lines.
Response to the Pullman Strike
Railroad owners comprising the General Managers’ Association hired hundreds of men that were given police powers to suppress the strike. Illinois Governor John Altgeld, attempting to forestall federal intervention, called out the state militia as riots in Chicago turned to violence. Across the nation, strikers were stopping rail traffic, holding up vital shipments of raw materials and threatening to further worsen the economic downturn.
President Grover Cleveland, under pressure from Attorney General Richard Olney, a former railroad attorney with many high level contacts in the industry, finally authorized the use of federal troops. At issue was the delivery of mail, held up by the strike, and a convenient legal excuse to intervene. “If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card will be delivered,” Cleveland declared.
Aftermath of the Pullman Strike
The looting and property destruction in Chicago was front page news across the nation. At a time the print media was capitalizing on any event in order to sensationalize it, the Pullman Strike was a perfect vehicle. Newspapers warned of the growing threat of anarchism. Millions of law-abiding middle-class Americans saw the threat as an attack on capitalism. The November election would weaken both the Democrats and the western Populists.
Debs was arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison. In prison, the union leader became more acquainted with socialism, speaking to other socialist inmates. Upon his release, he was a committed socialist and spent the rest of his life pursuing socialist goals.
The Pullman Strike forced Americans to confront the war between labor and capital. With the exception of some labor leaders like Samuel Gompers, unionists were viewed as anathema and a threat to American prosperity. The elections of 1894 and 1896 clearly demonstrated that Americans chose law and order within a capitalist system over Populism and anarchy.
Sources:
- Page Smith, The Rise of Industrial America: A People’s History of the Post-Reconstruction Era Volume 6 (Penguin Books, 1984)
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (on-line edition)
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