The Pullman Strike and Boycott

A graphic example of the often-tumultuous relationship between American capitalist enterprise and organized labor, the Pullman Strike began after the economic panic of 1893, when the Pullman Palace Car Company of Chicago, Illinois, cut workers' wages without also lowering food and housing costs in its company town. When union representatives were fired for protesting the company's decision, the head of the American Railway Union, former Indiana state legislator Eugene V. Debs, ordered a general strike in the servicing of Pullman cars. Some 50,000 workers heeded his call, and soon rail traffic throughout much of the country virtually ceased. Desperate, railroad owners turned to United States Attorney General Richard Olney, director of the Burlington and Santa Fe lines, who quickly issued a blanket injunction declaring the strike illegal. Two days later, on July 4th, President Grover Cleveland ordered Federal troops to Chicago. During the resulting violence, several strikers were killed. Riots erupted as far away as Oakland, California, but ultimately the government's actions were successful. With trains moving again under armed guard, the boycott broke down, and its leaders, Eugene Debs and three others, were jailed for disobeying the injunction.