Monday, September 19, 2016

Labor vs Ownership: The Pullman Palace Car Strike

The growth of industry led to many opportunities for those in control of capital and resources to makes LOTS of money. Unfortunately, human nature often gets the best of us and greed kicks into high gear.

One of the best examples of a successful business, in the face of hard times, exploiting its workers is George Pullman's Palace Car Company. His seemingly uncaring tactics led to a major strike run by the A.R.U. This type of episode signifies the struggle between the people who own companies (management) the people who run companies (labor).

Watch this 9:00 video to get a very clear understanding of what happened in the Pullman Strike. For the comments, answer ANY THREE of the following questions. Remember, your answer must be at least 200 words and you lose -15 points if the word count is not included.

Choose Three:
1-What was a Pullman Palace Car?

2-Why caused the workers to strike in 1894?

3-What response did the government, including President Cleveland, have to this strike?

4-What happened to some of the labor leaders after the strike ended? Did their appeal to the Supreme Court work?

5-What were some of the results of the strike?

16 comments:

  1. 1. The Pullman Palace Car was created by George Pullman in New York. It was a railroad sleeping car, which means it was obviously used on a railroad. Around the time this car was created, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln took place. In April 1865, one of Pullman’s sleeping cars was used to transport Lincoln’s corpse from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. Pullman created his own company in 1867 called the Pullman Palace Car Company.
    2. The strike in 1894 started with Eugene Debbs. He thought that there was a need for a more unified approach of tackling the economic standing of the large railroad companies. He organized the American Railway Union in 1893. This focused on workers getting appropriate accommodation from their employers. The American Railway Union and many of its followers rose up to strike against the Pullman Car Company. Federal judges issued a injunction that ordered the officers of the American Railway Union to stop obstructing the traffic of male. Rioting continued to rage in the area of Pullman. Workers for the Pullman Palace Car Company resigned from their jobs. Eugene was held for violating the injunction and was sentenced for 3-6 months in a county jail that was located in Woodstock, Illinois.
    (204 words)

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  2. 5. As a result of the strike, workers gained more respect from their bosses. They were provided with more comfortable living and working conditions. The division between workers and bosses (which was very distinct before) grew closer in terms of social power. This means that there was less violence. Labor Day was designated as a federal holiday in 1894, after the strike. This holiday helped recognize and celebrate organized labor. (70 words)

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  3. 1.George Pullman formed a partnership with former New York senator Bejamin C.Field, one of his close friends and neighbors from Albion, to build and operate several sleeping cars. Pullman built the first Spingfield named after the town it was built in and President Lincolns hometown, and the pioneer. The pioneer alone cost $18,000 to build. In 1868 he launched the Delmonico the worlds first sleeping car devoted to fine cousine.
    2. The Pullman strike started in the Pullman district in the south side of Chicago during 1894 and spread across the country. Following the economic depression caused by the panic of of 1893, George Pullman increased working hours, cut wages and cut jobs. George Pullman and the railroads gained the support of president Cleveland for the use of US troops who used harsh methods to suppress strikers. Debs was sent to jail and the strike was broken by July 17, 1894.
    3. President Cleveland Stated that he wouldn't send troops unless a governor requested intervention. The governor of Illinois, John Atgeld stated that he believed managers and workers should have the same employee rights and so he declined to request federal intervention.
    202 words

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  4. 1. The Pullman Palace car was created in 1864, it was a railroad sleeping car. After lincolin passed away his body was transported on his sleeping car from DC to Springfield, Illinois. And a few years later he established his company.
    2. The strike began on May 11,1894 in Illionlis. Pullmans workers were infuriated that he was lowering wages and lifting the rent on the houses they stayed in during He depression (as if they didn't have it hard already.) The ARU on June 26th rose up against the Pullman company and refused to move any cars, resulting in an almost complete boycott of the company.
    3. President Cleveland sent troops under the order of Nelson Miles to quell the strike and get things back to normal. They would do anything it took to get things back to how they were and not to loose money or business. They didn't like that people were rising up against them and violating the junton that was earlier put into action. The employees looked at Pullman as a control freak and believed he made his own bed, the strike was what he deserved. The strike was the in Incident that finally brought the conflict between labor and Capitol with the railroad into headlines. (211)

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  5. 1)The Pullman strike started in the Pullman district in the southern part of Chicago during 1894. It was after the economic depression that was caused by the panic of 1893, George Pullman unfairly cut wages, increased labor hours and cut people from their jobs. Pullman and the railroads had the support of president Cleveland who said if necessary would send troops to put down a strike. The strike was over by July 17, 1894.
    2)The Pullman Palace Car was created by George Pullman. It was used on the railroad. It was a sleeping car. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated not too long before the new car was invited and a sleeping car transported Lincolnshire body to Springfield Illinois. After this the sleeping car became more popular. Pullman then created his own company the Pullman Palace Car Company and made stacks.
    3)President Cleveland and the federal government said that they would not send troops unless the governor requested. John Atgield who was the governor at the time said that he believed all employees should have the same rights and so he did not request for the national government to intervene. However Cleveland actually seemed like he thought it was necessary and maybe wanted too.(202 words)

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  6. 1. A Pullman Palace Car was a newer and more comfortable way of traveling by train. It was invented and developed by George Pullman after experiencing an awful train ride from Buffalo to Westfield, NY. They were designed to be more luxurious, clean, and efficient. A Pullman Palace Car was even used as the transportation of President Lincoln's body after his assasination, famously named "The Pioneer". People watched as the train traveled, and this famous trip is probably the most noteable out of all. It helped make the Pullman Car buisness a household name, and encouraged people everywhere to travel more.
    2. The workers for Pullman went on strike because of the way they were treated. Their hours were messed up, and they weren't being paid fairly. The Pullman Car Company cut their already low wages by 25%. Many families faced starvation, were forced into poor living situations, and worked sixteen-hour workdays. The Pullman workers walked off the job on May 11, 1894.
    3. By early July, the federal government had already acted on the situation. President Cleveland treated the strike as a federal issue by ordering troops in on July 3rd. He continued to send in troops against the governors outrage. Around July 6th, there were around 6,000 federal and state troops.
    (214)

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  7. The Pullman Palace car was a much nicer and newer vehicle compared to the train. It provided much more comfort to the inventor George Pullman and they ended up being a much more efficient way to travel. Mr. Pullman invented this new and luxurious ride after he had one of the worst train experiences from Buffalo to Westfield in New York. Many witnessed the first time he drove this new way of transportation as he rode out on the new way of travel. 2. The Pullman strike all occurred because of the way that the company he owned treated their workers very poorly. The working conditions were bad enough as it was already and to pile it on they were overworking their employees as well as greatly underpaying them. But of all these things, what really caused this great uprising was the fact that Pullman cut their wages due to the first depression by 25% and increased the housing wages. The people were greatly outraged by this and decided to just stop working and start a strike. 3. The Pullman car company issue caused so much panic that the US GOVERNMENT decided to get involved to help stop these strikes from going any longer. On July 3rd, 1894, President Grover Cleveland decided to send in troops to the companies home in Chicago. There, these troops were sent into the city to help keep the peace of Chicago. By July 6th, 6,000 troops had all flooded into the city of Chicago because of the Pullman Strikes. (239 words)

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  8. 1)The Pullman Palace car was created in 1864, it was a railroad sleeping car. When lincoln passed away his body was transported on his sleeping car from Washington DC to Springfield, Illinois.
    2)The Pullman strike started in the Pullman district in the southern part of Chicago during 1894. It was after the economic depression that was caused by the panic of 1893, George Pullman unfairly cut people's wages, increased labor hours and cut people from their jobs. Pullman and the railroads had the support of president Cleveland who said if necessary he would send troops to put down a strike. The strike was over by July 17, 1894.
    3)The strike started with Eugene Debbs. He thought that there was a need for a more unified approach of tackling the large railroad companies. He organized the American Railway Union in 1893. The American Railway Union and many of its followers rose up to strike against the Pullman Car Company. judges issued an injunction that ordered the officers of the American Railway Union to stop obstructing the traffic of mail. Rioting continued to rage on in the area of Pullman. Workers for the Pullman Palace Car Company resigned from their jobs. Eugene was held for violating the injunction and was sentenced for 3-6 months in a county jail that was located in Woodstock, Illinois.(225 words)

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  9. 1 The Pullman Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. It was basically a railroad sleeping car.
    2 The workers for Pullman went on a strike because of how they were treated. They didn't get paid fairly at all and their hours were all messed up. Pullman and the railroads had the support of the president at the time, President Cleveland. The strike ended by July 17, 1894. A pull man car was also used as transportation of President Lincoln's body after his assassination. Pullman later then created his own company and made a lot of money from it.
    3 by early July the federal government had already done something about this situation. President Cleveland treated this strike as a federal problem by ordering troops in on July 3. John Atgield who was governor at the time said that he believed that all of the employs should have the same rights. He did not request for the National Government to intervene. 200

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  10. The Pullman Palace Car was a sleeping car and sometimes even called that. One of these sleeping cars even carried the dead body of the president Abraham Lincoln. In 1867 George Pullman made this sleeping car into an official business. Then he made a town after himself that way he could control everything in it and make more money, the town name was Pullman, Illinois. The Pullman sleeping car was basically a way to travel in royalty at that time compared to being cramped up in a normal car.

    The workers went on strike because of what George did. He cut the wages of his workers but he kept the price of the rent the same, so there cost of living increased and they couldn't afford to live there. Then the American railway Union became involved. This was sort of led by Eugene V Debs who brought all of the people on strike together. So all that were on the strike wanted was for George to Negotiate a deal with them whether that be lower the rent or increase the salary, they weren't trying to wreck the United States.

    Some of the results of the strike were better relationships between the workers and their bosses. They weren't treated as "slaves". (210)

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  11. 1. The Pullman palace car company was founded by George Pullman and manufactured railroad cars during around the middle and end of the 19th century. Pullman was inspired to make an improved passenger rail car that has sleeper berths for all of its passengers on board.
    2. The Pullman workers decided to go on strike since they saw how poorly they were being treated, they didn't like this structure of work since the pay was far low for the amount of hours they were putting in. Eventually though the protest ended in 1894 of July, I think they were just in going on strike because of this as well.
    5. Some strikers went back to work after the strikes, but were required to give up their union cards and sign a pledge not to join any Union while employed for the Pullman company. A man by the name of Theodore Rhodie stated, "I do not like to walk up there and hand my membership to the American railway Union because when a man asks me to give up my principles, my rights as an American citizen, he might as well ask for my life." I think this shows how determined American citizens were for their rights. (206)
    - Matthew Mettendorf

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  12. 1.The Pullman Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Its workers initially lived in a planned worker community (or "company town") named Pullman. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s. Pullman did not just manufacture the cars: He also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States, paying railroad companies to couple the cars to trains.
    2.The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States on May 11, 1894 and a turning point for US labor law. It pitted the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States under President Grover Cleveland. The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan. The conflict began in Pullman, Chicago, on May 11 when nearly 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages.
    3.Under direction from President Grover Cleveland, the US Attorney General Richard Olney dealt with the strike. Olney had been a railroad attorney, and still received a $10,000 retainer from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, in comparison to his $8,000 salary as Attorney General. Olney obtained an injunction in federal court barring union leaders from supporting the strike and demanding that the strikers cease their activities or face being fired. Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called up to enforce it. While Debs had been reluctant to start the strike, he threw his energies into organizing it. He called a general strike of all union members in Chicago, but this was opposed by Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL, and other established unions, and it failed.(324)

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  13. The Pullman car company was founded by George Pullman. It was a company that made railroad cars that had sleeping quarters in them. They where designed to be more clean and a better train ride then sitting up the whole time with everyone squished together.
    2. The strike was a nation wide strike in the U.S. May eleventh, 1894. The strike and boycott shut down much of the traffic west of Detroit. And some of the freight. The strike began in Pullman, Chicago when nearly four thousand employees began a strike in response to recent reduction in the money they where paid.
    3. Under president Grover Cleveland the United States attorney general Richard only handled the strike. Only was a railroad man. Who made 10,000 dollars as a railroad man but only made 8,000 from his attorney general job. He got an injunction in court barring the union leaders from approving the strike while trying to not make it obvious. He demanded that the strikers stop what they were doing or they would be fired. But Eugene debs didn't care what he had to say and went ahead and with others did his own thing . He got together a general Union strike in Chicago. (203)

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  14. The Pullman Palace car was a railroad sleeping car that was made by George Pullman in 1864. The Pullman Car Company manufactured these train cars from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. These cars were made to be far more comfortable than normal passenger train cars. They even transported Lincoln's dead corpse in one of these cars after he was assassinated. (64)
    The Pullman strike happened on may 11, 1894. It was a nationwide event that set the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company. This strike was pretty successful; shutting down almost all railway west of Detroit, Michigan. Salary deduction was the main reason that all of the commotion even started in the first place. (54)
    President Cleveland sent troops under the order of Nelson Miles to quell the strike and get things back to normal. They didn't like that people were rising up against them and violating the junton that was earlier put into place. Most of the employees thought that Pullman got what was coming to him and he deserved to have the uprising set against him. This particular labor strike was what put railroad workers and their employers on the same playing field. (75)

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  15. First Post: Allie Halloran
    Best Post: Matthew Mettendorf

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