Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1894 — OTHER NEWS ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

OTHER NEWS ITEMS.

PULLMAN SPEAKS. George M. Pullman submitted to an interview at New York, Friday, and reiterated his determination not to arbitrate. t He again stated that his shops were being operated at a loss at the time trouble began. He stated that the average rental of tenements at Pullman was at the rate of $3 per room per month. The rental of houses, Mr. Pullman claimed, had no relation whatever to the business of #e Pullman Car Company’s shops. Many Pullman employes own their own homes in adjacent towns. la- conclusion Mr. Pullman said: “ Strenuous efforts have also been made to create a prejudice against the Pullman company by charges that its stock is heavily watered. The Pullman company was organized twentv-seven years ago With a capital Of f1.00J.000, of which twothirds represented the appraised value of its cars, then held by three owners, and one-third represented the appraised value of its franchises and existing contracts. * The company has grown until its sleeping car service covers 125,000 miles of railway, or about three-fourths of the railway system of the country, and that increase of service has necessitated increase of its capital from time to time until it is now $30,000,000. Every share of this increase has been offered to stockholders and sold to them or to others in the ordinary course of business at not less than par in cash, so that for every share of increase outstanding the company has received SIOO in cash. There are over 4,000 stockholders of the company, of whom more than onelialf are women and trustees of estates, and the average holding of each stockholder is now eighty-six shares, one-lifth of them holding less than six shares each. At a labor demonstration held in Cooper ' Union, pn the 12th inst., Henry George, the single tax theorist, delivered an address In which he denounced President Cleveland in unmeasured terms, for using Federal troops at Chicago against the strikers. He supported the stand taken by Gov. Altgeld. Mr. George said he would rather see all the railroad property

of the country burned up,- all the rails torn up. than to see them preserved by force of arms. The millionaires made their money by robbery and debauchery; by the purchase of judges and legislators, and now they wanted to preserve them hv Die hnvonet.s and the arms of the Federai troops. Mr. (ieorge then entered into a lengthy condemnation of President Cleveland and his employment of Federal troops in the West. Every mention of the President’s name was received with hisses, and when Mr. George asked: ‘•What are you fWing to do about it?” A voice shouted: "Impeach him!*’ “Hang him!” shouted another. Nearly everybody followed with suggestions until tho house was in an upfdar. Mr. George differed from all the remedies proposed by his hearers. The system, ho said, would have to be fundamentally changed. Strikeswere useless and always resulted in failure. At this point tho speaker drifted into his well-known single tax theories, and told his audience things would be better w hen his theories shall have been adopted. Archbishop Ireland, of the Catholic Church, in an interview at Sf. Paul, Sunday, said: I dislike to speak of the Chicago strike Localise iu so doing 1 shall blame labor, - while, because of iny deep„>ympathios with it. I should witdrto have never but . words of praise for it. Yet, in a momentous social crisis, such as tho one through which' we are passing, it is a duty to speak aloud and to make the avowals of truths and principles which will save society and uphold justice. The fatal inistake which has'been made in connection witli this strike is that property has been disproved, the-liberty of citizens interfered with, human lives endangered, social order menaced, and the institutions and freedom of the country put in most serious jeopardy. Only savages, or men who for the time being are turned into savages, will burn or destroy property, whet her it be the factory of the"rich' man or the poor man's cottage, a railroad ear or a National building. More criminal and more inexcusable yet is the act. of murdering human beings or of endangering tiieir lives. Labor, too. must learn the lesson that the liberties of the citizen are to be respected. One man lias tin* right to cease work, but he has no right to drive another man from work. Yes, I approve highly of President Cleveland’s course in the strike. His prompt action brought State and city officials, citizens and strikers to their senses and certainly, so far a« ho wont, ho had legal right with him, Mr. Cleveland deserves well of tlje Nation, and of the people of Chicago in particular.