Part 21 (1/2)

Mr. Hopkins: ”Yes, sir. Several times Mr. Eagan telephoned that trouble was occurring at some point. When officers would investigate they would find no trouble at all. There are 2,100 miles of railway in the city limits; there are 1,360 trains daily, 160 railroad crossings, and 3,000 surface railroad crossings. The police force for this year is scheduled at 1,928 patrolmen. There are 186 square miles of territory in the city and you can readily see that every point could not be covered at once.

The amount of violence was not very great. In Pullman not one pane of gla.s.s was broken in the three months of the strike. I live in Pullman myself.”

Mr. Worthington: ”You may state whether at any time you advised the American Railway Union or its members to strike?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”No, sir.”

Mr. Worthington: ”Did the General Manager's a.s.sociation either during or since the strike request the city to arrest any individual strikers or suggest such arrest?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”No, sir; I think that President Newell swore out a warrant for a man named Hall, but the information was furnished by the city.”

Mr. Worthington: ”Has the American Railway Union brought in any information of this character?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”Yes, sir; in the case of Hall, who was charged with turning over cars; also in other cases, which upon investigation we concluded not to take up.”

Mr. Worthington: ”Then the disposition of the American Railway Union appears to have been to a.s.sist the city?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”Yes, sir.”

Mr. Worthington: ”During or before the strike were there any overtures made in regard to arbitration?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”I met Mr. Pullman at lunch in the Chicago club one day and he told me of a meeting his employes had held. Then July 3, there was a further talk about protecting the works on the following day when trouble might be expected. There was some talk about a settlement, but the company seemed to regard the strikers as law breakers. Then a committee of the council was appointed, and word sent to Mr. Eagan, but he said he couldn't come. Then the committee called at Mr. Pullman's office to discuss the question of arbitration--or if there was anything to arbitrate. The answer received there was that the company refused to arbitrate. July 11, I received a telegram from Mayor Pingree of Detroit, asking if I would act with him in endeavoring to settle the strike. He had communications from fifty other mayors giving their views on the question. We saw Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown, and had a long interview. Mayor Pingree took the point that arbitration should be tested, and made a strong argument. He is a member of a shoe manufacturing firm and related his own experience in a strike of nine months' duration. Mr. Wickes, Mr. Runnels and Mr. Brown withdrew and prepared a statement giving the position of the company and declining the proposition. On July 13, Mr. Debs, Mr. Howard, and Mr. Kelliher prepared a communication to the railway managers offering to settle the strike if the railroads would re-instate the men as individuals or such men as had committed no overt acts. With Mr. McGillen I went over with the doc.u.ment to Mr. St. John. What occurred there has been published.

Now, while I think of it, I want to say that the statement published in some papers that Mr. St. John told me I should not act as a messenger boy for the American Railway Union is false. I deny most emphatically that Mr. St. John used those words. I should not have allowed it. This was the last action on my part to bring about a settlement.

”It has been said that I protested against the presence of the federal troops in the city. I do say that the railways had never complained that the civil authorities were unable to protect the roads. I have never protested against the federal troops and think they did some good.”

Mr. Worthington: ”It has been stated in the press that you applied to Mr. Debs to move trains.”

Mr. Hopkins: ”That is not true. A man named Brenock has a contract with the city to remove dead animals, the place where they are rendered being over the Indiana state line. He called upon me and said that there was a train load of dead animals at the stock yards which could not be pulled out; the men had quit work. I said I thought a volunteer crew of trainmen could be procured which would do the work. I sent my secretary to the American Railway Union with that request. A crew went down to the yards and manned the train. When it proceeded some distance it was discovered that a train load of dressed beef had been subst.i.tuted and the train crew abandoned the cars. The dead animals then remained where they were for several days.”

Mr. Kernan: ”Then this action was simply a plan to guard the public health?”

Mr. Hopkins: ”Yes, sir; simply to remove the dead animals from the city limits.”

At the conclusion of Mayor Hopkins' testimony, President Carroll D.

Wright arose and declared the commission formally adjourned until Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

CHAPTER XX.

ALTGELD INVESTIGATES PULLMAN.

In response to a piteous appeal for help from a committee of Pullman strikers, John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois, came in person to the town of Pullman and made an investigation of the condition of the people in order to satisfy himself regarding their complaints of suffering and dest.i.tution. After only a partial investigation the governor returned to his hotel satisfied with the correctness of the reports.

He said the starvation at Pullman was as bad if not worse than had been reported by the Times that 1,600 families in Pullman and vicinity were starving.

”Not only starving,” said the governor, ”but they are without fuel and in rags. They must not starve and I will remain in Pullman until some means can be devised for their relief.

”I went to Pullman in response to an invitation by the strikers'