Part 18 (1/2)

Commissioner Kernan: ”Then there is no system of obtaining a hearing from the officials concerning any grievance?”

Mr. Lungren: ”No there is no system and it is very difficult to see any of the officials to obtain redress.”

Commissioner Kernan: ”What were the conditions of your re-employment with the company?”

Mr. Lungren: ”I had to leave the American Railway Union.”

Commissioner Kernan: ”Were you obliged to sign any contract relating to your members.h.i.+p in any labor organization?”

Mr. Lungren: ”Yes. There was a written contract which I signed. It stated that I would have nothing to do with the American Railway Union.”

Mr. Lungren also testified that he did not vote to strike. He did not attend the meetings; said he quit work in accordance with the notice posted by the company that the works would be closed down.

Dr. John W. McLean was the next witness. He said he had been a practicing physician since 1863, and had been in the employ of the Pullman company since 1894. He thought the strike had been brought about by the general depression in business throughout the country. Did not think the rents exorbitant in Pullman. Said he attended the Pullman employes who were injured, free of charge. When asked by Commissioner Kernan if he thought intemperance one cause of the Pullman strike, he said:

”Yes, I think all labor troubles are directly due to this cause.”

General Manager E. St. John of the Rock Island road was the next witness examined. His testimony, which would fill several pages, was in brief a general contradiction of all evidence offered by the reporters, and American Railway Union witnesses. He charged the rioting to the strikers. He was opposed to the government owners.h.i.+p of railroads and also thought arbitration impracticable. He admitted that a greater reduction of wages was liable to follow unless the present depressed condition of business was soon remedied. Regarding the losses incurred by his road on account of the strike he said it was his impression that they would be somewhere between $800,000 and $1,000,000. When the question of communications from the officers of the American Railway Union came up Commissioner Kernan asked why the General Managers a.s.sociation declined to receive it.

Mr. St. John: ”Because we considered such an organization unworthy of consideration.”

Commissioner Kernan: ”Were you determined not to recognize any union?”

Mr. St. John: ”Not exactly, but the American Railway Union least of all.”

Commissioner Kernan: ”Were not the roads united sympathetically? Now what had the Lake Sh.o.r.e road to do with the Rock Island road?”

Mr. St. John: ”What had the Rock Island to do with the Lake Sh.o.r.e?”

Commissioner Kernan: ”Is it not true that the roads were united sympathetically?”

Mr. St. John: ”Let me ask you a question.”

Commissioner Kernan: ”No, I am not on the stand. I may be some day and then you can question me.”

Mr. St. John: ”When a neighbor's house burns we all unite to fight the blaze. When an a.s.sault is made on all the roads, they unite to resist it.”

When General Manager St. John resumed the witness stand, he had with him one of the twenty-six sets of books mentioned by Mr. Howard, containing the scale of wages and rules of employment of all cla.s.ses of railway employes on the roads represented in the General Managers' a.s.sociation.

When questioned by Commissioner Kernan he admitted that a committee had been appointed to formulate from these a schedule of what was a fair rate of wages for all cla.s.ses of employes and uniform rules of employment. That committee reported, but the report was never acted on.

This committee was appointed under a resolution pa.s.sed February 15, 1894. Its report was made in March, and if adopted would have affected 125,000 men at least. One or two roads, he admitted, might have reduced wages about this time, but there was no agreement with the other roads concerning it. It became known that Mr. Wright, chairman of the commission, had an annual Pullman pa.s.s. He said concerning it that he and Mr. Pullman had been personal friends for several years, and it was to him as a personal friend that the pa.s.s was given several years ago and had been renewed annually since. He deemed that it was for the glowing reports of Pullman, made by Mr. Wright and others in 1884, for he did not know Mr. Pullman then. He said that he had not used it since the appointment of the commission.

Following Mr. St. John, John M. Eagan took the stand.

Mr. Eagan admitted that as the manager of the General Managers'

a.s.sociation he was authorized to incur any expense to secure force to crush the strike, but was not authorized to do anything to settle it peaceably. Of his connection with the General Managers' a.s.sociation he said that he was requested to take charge of the a.s.sociation during the strike.

Commissioner Worthington: ”Did you have anything done in relation to the appointment of deputy marshals?”

Mr. Eagan: ”Each road appointed an official to select the men they wanted to act as deputy marshalls and turned 'em over to me. I sent them to Arnold to be sworn.”