ipl-logo

What Happened To George Pullman's Case?

500 Words2 Pages

Imagine not being able to feed your family, afford a place to live, and your employer does not care. This was reality for the citizens of Pullman town. George Pullman was the creator of the Pullman Car, a luxury sleeper car manufacture company. He created Pullman Town where he made all of his workers live. In 1894, when the depression hit, Pullman cut wages by 25% and refused to reduce rents, which caused the employees to be in debt and not able to pay off any dues. According to a testimony from Jennie Curtis, who said, “my father owes the Pullman company $60 at the time of his death for back rent, and the company made me, out of my small earnings, pay the rent due from my father.” Thus, Jennie Curtis was not able to mourn properly due to not being able to pay off her father 's debt. But at the same time the payments to the stockholders …show more content…

George Pullman might say that he wanted to listen the worker’s demands by inviting them to share their complaints with him. However, his actions showed that his true intentions were not to arbitrate the disputes, but to declare that he will fire anyone who complains about the wages. When Pullman was visited by 43 workers asking for lower rents or higher wages, he, in return, fired three members of the grievance committee, while claiming that he had no more use for their services. Workers were kicked out for simply explaining their financial difficulties to him, while others decided to quit because of the way Pullman treated the workers that he fired. Not only was this an irrational response, Pullman was not even trying to listen to these people. He refused to make any fair agreements, wanting to keep his money to himself. And this resulted in 125,000 workers losing their job. In other words, Pullman did not care about the workers. The question is, How can a “fair response” be made by someone who does not care about the victims of the economic

Show More
Related
286 Words | 2 Pages

In these two different historian viewpoints on the Pullman Striek, it seems as though Historian A is the most convincing. Historian A's viewpoint is backed by more statistics, while Historian B seems to take it from the viewpoints of the very few people who enjoyed living in Pullman, Illinois. The first historian mentions the various different ways that Pullman was making money from the city, including the difference in how much he bought things like water vs. how much he sold it to the residents for. For example, while Pullman's company paid $0.33 on natural gas, he sold it to the residents at $2.25. This was higher than most cities charged people for their natural gas (Chicago charged $1.00-$1.25).

Read More
1292 Words | 6 Pages

Two years later the Pullman Company agreed to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters terms but Randolph eventually removed the company from the American Federation of Labor because they failed to fight discrimination. He went on to the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organization. The change did not improve how African Americans were treated so Randolph warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt he would lead a march of thousands of black men in Washington.

Read More
1358 Words | 6 Pages

Firestone, like many other southern companies, controlled its employees using different wage standards for different races, but ultimately keeping wages at half of what the workers were making up North. The company would push racial separation, often instilling in the white workers, the fear of the black man getting to unionize. If the black man could unionize (through the CIO), then he could go after the white man 's job. This would keep many whites from joining the CIO, and the fight to unionize Firestone, but many still joined because of the "hardships of work (154)." George Bass, an United Rubber Workers ' organizer, would help take the charge of unionizing Firestone.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).

Read More
950 Words | 4 Pages

The Pullman breakout was caused by the overwhelming control of the Pullman business. The control of the private business Pullman showed how governmental regulation and intervention was needed. Government interaction between its citizens would help restrict and regulate society, allowing for a better suited society and

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

We were persuaded to vote the Republican ticket four years ago that our wages might be maintained.” This shows that mostly employees were really upset on the part of manufactures toward the reduction of wages. Under the management of Mr. Henry Clay Frick, the employees had wiped out organization in the coke regions. The relationship between management and labor became extremely stressful. That was the reason why the capitalist had to lower steel and coke prices, because the construction was really low.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

Among the many issues they wanted resolved, some were like many other workers’ union goals. They were fighting

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

They would have no nails, they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan. There were men who worked in the cooking-rooms...in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years.” These suffering Americans appealed to the government and labor unions for help, but they did not receive it due to lack of union organization, big business ties, and laissez-faire economic ideals. During the Gilded Age, the U.S. government suppressed the average industrial worker, and labor unions, though created for laborers’ aid, accomplished little and were futile when facing big business and government.

Read More
408 Words | 2 Pages

The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).

Read More
1380 Words | 6 Pages

On May 11, 1894 a widespread strike lead by railroad workers brought business to a complete cessation; only willing to discontinue until the federal government took unprecedented action to end the strike. The Pullman Strike began “as a peaceful labor protest against a single Chicago employer (54)”, and later ended up “into a national labor boycott of more than twenty railroads and then into a violent confrontation between the federal government, the railroad companies, and American workers (55.)” With the “mix of employer resistance, government aggression, worker bitterness, and general economic desperation (54)”, the Pullman Strike presented questions towards the “rights of employers and workers in an industrialized democracy and about the role

Read More
1399 Words | 6 Pages

The workers gather to listen to several speakers over the five days near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company among those giving the speaks there was both a pled from those who discouraged violence and encourage the crowd to join together against the companies; however, this was also a pled from those who urge worked to take action of violent revolution. The Haymarket Riot turned into a violent event resulting in a controversy trial that supported the discrimination against union members. Perhaps the greatest lasting effect of the riot was that it created a widespread revulsion against union, which caused membership to decline and reduce union influence; because unions became lined to radical ideas and violence in the popular mind. (Avial,2011)

Read More
224 Words | 1 Pages

Likewise, John Rockefeller forced his workers to work long hours for low pay. He also discouraged union activity in his corporation. It seems oddly unfair the he donated millions of dollars to many different causes but

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

Labor strikes and riots were common during the time. Policies were put into place to prevent individuals from gaining this much power ever again. In todays’ modern Gilded Age loopholes have been exploited and the rich are becoming just as powerful as they have ever been. Individuals such as the Koch Brothers have taken up the plutocratic mantle, they “buy politicians” in order to further their agenda and business

Read More
2149 Words | 9 Pages

During the Progressive Era, most employers were not concerned with workers rights and focused more on profit than human rights or safety. The poor working class, as well as immigrants who had worked in the United States for a while, became infuriated over the unfair treatment and working conditions of which they suffered. Hugh Rockoff explains, “…industrialization had alienated the workingman…” (Rockoff 747).

Read More
2131 Words | 9 Pages

Of getting treated how they deserved. Of getting paid what their labor was worth. Not miniscule payment that they would barely live off of, while their employers got rich. Also in Labor in America it states that,”... the great Pullman strike…the uprising of railway workers…”(Dulles 166).

Read More

More about What Happened To George Pullman's Case?

Related Topics

Open Document