Editing George Pullman (section)

===Pullman Strike===
{{main|Pullman Strike}}
In 1894, when manufacturing demand fell off, Pullman cut jobs and wages and increased working hours in his plant to lower costs and keep profits, but he did not lower rents or prices in the company town. The workers eventually launched a strike. When violence broke out, he gained the support of President [[Grover Cleveland]] for the use of United States troops. Cleveland sent in the troops, who harshly suppressed the strike in action that caused many injuries, over the objections of the Illinois governor, [[John Altgeld]].

In the winter of 1893–94, at the start of a depression, Pullman decided to cut wages by 30%. This was not unusual in the age of the robber barons, but he didn't reduce the rent in Pullman, because he had guaranteed his investors a 6% return on their investments in the town. A workman might make $9.07 in a fortnight, and the rent of $9 would be taken directly out of his paycheck, leaving him with just 7 cents to feed his family. One worker later testified: "I have seen men with families of eight or nine children crying because they got only three or four cents after paying their rent." Another described conditions as "slavery worse than that of Negroes of the South".

On May 12, 1894, the workers went on strike.

The American Railway Union was led by [[Eugene V. Debs|Eugene Victor Debs]], a pacifist and socialist who later founded the Socialist Party of America and was its candidate for president in five elections. Under the leadership of Debs, sympathetic railroad workers across the nation tied up rail traffic to the Pacific. The so-called "Debs Rebellion" had begun.

Arcade Building with strikers and soldiers Debs gave Pullman five days to respond to the union demands but Pullman refused even to negotiate (leading another industrialist to yell, "The damned idiot ought to arbitrate, arbitrate and arbitrate! ...A man who won't meet his own men halfway is a God-damn fool!"). Instead, Pullman locked up his home and business and left town.

On June 26, all Pullman cars were cut from trains. When union members were fired, entire rail lines were shut down, and Chicago was besieged. One consequence was a blockade of the federal mail, and Debs agreed to let isolated mail cars into the city. Rail owners mixed mail cars into all their trains however, and then called in the federal government when the mail failed to get through.

Debs could not pacify the pent-up frustrations of the exploited workers, and violence broke out between rioters and the federal troops that were sent to protect the mail. On July 8, soldiers began shooting strikers. That was the beginning of the end of the strike. By the end of the month, 34 people had been killed, the strikers were dispersed, the troops were gone, the courts had sided with the railway owners, and Debs was in jail for contempt of court.

Pullman's reputation was soiled by the strike, and then officially tarnished by the presidential commission that investigated the incident. The national commission report found Pullman's paternalism partly to blame and described Pullman's company town as "un-American". The report condemned Pullman for refusing to negotiate and for the economic hardships he created for workers in the town of Pullman. "The aesthetic features are admired by visitors, but have little money value to employees, especially when they lack bread." The State of Illinois filed suit, and in 1898, the [[Supreme Court of Illinois]] forced the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town, which was annexed to Chicago.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_pullman.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021217115309/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_pullman.html| archive-date = 2002-12-17| title = American Experience {{!}} Chicago: City of the Century {{!}} People & Events| website = [[PBS]]}}</ref><ref name=Archaeology>{{cite journal|author=Arthur Melville Pearson |date=January–February 2009|title=Utopia Derailed|journal=Archaeology|volume=62|issue=1|pages=46–49|issn=0003-8113 |url=http://www.archaeology.org/0901/abstracts/pullman.html|access-date=September 15, 2010}}</ref>