The Pullman Strike of 1894

1479 Words3 Pages

The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
Because of an economic depression in 1893, the Pullman employee’s wages were cut, and quite a few of them lost their jobs.3 Most were getting paid too little to live on. One lady that was interviewed said “I received [one dollar] day and paid [seventeen dollars seventy one cents] per month rent for one of the companies houses”.1 She needed either higher pay or lower rent in order to have the means to pay for housing. Multiple cases of this were reported when the strike went to court. Another example was when J. B. Pierson, another employee of Pullman was questioned as to the price of the Pullman houses he was quoted as saying that “the Pullman houses averaged from one-third to one-half higher than similar houses in the surrounding suburbs”.1 Pullman...

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...nd Speeches. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908. http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/content/DebsMemoriesPullman.cfm.
5. Ladd, Keith, and Greg Rickman. "The Pullman Strike." Kansas Heritage. http://www.kansasheritage.org/pullman/.

Bibliography

Andrea Rohde. "The Pullman Strike of 1894." University of St. Francis. http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/PullmanStrike.htm.
Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908. http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/content/DebsMemoriesPullman.cfm.
“Heathcote Recalled the Chairman of the Pullman Strike Committee Has More to Tell About." Bismarck Tribune, August 20, 1894, p. 1.
Ladd, Keith, and Greg Rickman. "The Pullman Strike." Kansas Heritage. http://www.kansasheritage.org/pullman/.
OSU. "Pullman Strike." http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/content/pullman.cfm

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