Volume 18 , Issue 33

Bloody Pullman Strike of 1894

The Salt Lake Herald, out of Salt Lake City, Utah stated in it's newspaper, 30 June 1894, Saturday, page 1, "It has developed into a contest between the producing classes and the money power of the country - a stand upon the ground that all men are entitled to a just proportion of the proceeds of their labor - railway managers were equally as determined as the strikers, and a long and bitter, if not a bloody, conflict was assured - numerous fruit growers in California would be ruined because of their inability to market their produce - all the new men possible to hire would be put to work at once.



As The Saint Paul Globe, out of Saint Paul, Minnesota, stated 9 July 1894, Monday, on page 5: "Plans were laid for the present uprising, and the Pullman strike offered the desired opportunity. All plans were perfected and funds made ready before a move was made. This strike was the most formidable and deeply planned of any uprising that had ever occurred in a civilized country in a half century. IF its outcome would only serve to convince honest laboring men that they were being used as footballs by a lot of high-salaried officers, and if that conviction would eventuate in the construction of organizations with the scheming leaders conspicuous by their absence, the cost would not be so great as may now appear."

Found on Newspapers.com

the story goes concerning the Pullman strike of 1894, the Attorney General Denis had received orders from Olney to take legal steps to compel the passage of the United States mails. Two switchmen, McHugh and Goldstein, were asked to confer with Denis. They stated that any mail train would be hauled, that a crew had been ready for twenty-four hours, but that the company refused to man the mail car unless it had a Pullman coupled to it. Because of this the union had decided not to change its position.

At the meeting of the railroad men lat in the night a general strike on the Southern pacific system was ordered by the union. All the operators of the great corporation would not wait for dismissal, but would walk out, so that not even local trains would be run. A telegram from president debs was read in the meeting ordering the strike and it was received with enthusiasm. The only answer the men would make as to District Attorney Denis' ultimatum to arrest them if the mail trains were not run as usual was that they had nothing to say.
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