Pullman Strike Outline

Words: 152
Pages: 1

The Pullman Strike started in Pullman, Illinois during 1894. It involved a model industrial suburb of Chicago owned by the Pullman Palace Car Company, which made passenger train cars called “Pullmans” or “sleeping cars”. Following the economic depression caused by the Panic of 1893, Pullman laid off 3,000 of his 5,800 employees and cut wages 25 to 40 percent for the rest. Despite all of this, Pullman did not lower rent for housing or the price of food in the company store (America: A Brief History, 653). The workers, who now belonged to the American Railroad Union founded by Eugene V. Debs protested and started the Pullman Strike on May 11, 1894 and violence broke out. Pullman and the railroads gained the support of President Cleveland for