Midterm #1 Part A: #1) The Pullman strike of 1894 and the election of 1896 both were the cause of a severe depression that lasted from 1893 until 1897 and decades of mistreatment of workers by their bosses. During this depression the unemployment rate was around 18 percent, which was only about 6 percent less than the unemployment rate of the Great Depression. George Pullman was heralded for his creation of Pullman, Illinois. It was at first looked at as a progressive and worker first experiment but then it quickly turned to “model town to a “gilded caged” for works” (Roark, p.531). Pullman owned everything in the town from the houses, to the store to the factory to the library; the only thing missing was a saloon. His workers would live, …show more content…
This Caused the railways to form the GMA (General Managers Association) which used its connections to the US General Attorney, Richard Olney, to get an injunction against the ARU and convinced the president …show more content…
This is extremely evident when you look at the economic issues that were at the forefront of that decade. For instance, the Pullman Strike was caused because workers were tired of George Pullman treating them the way he had been. He paid his workers minimal wage who then would turn around and pay him for rent and groceries. A worker from the town had found that Pullman had automatically deducted rent from his paycheck and left him with only forty-seven cents. “When he went to the bank the teller asked him if he wanted to apply it to his back rent when he then replied “if Mr. Pullman needs that forty-seven cents worse than I do, let him have it.” “(Roark, p. 532). This quote shows the sentiment that the workers had towards someone who had so much money he could build his own town. The already frustrated workers were even more outraged when Mr. Pullman kept paying his stockholders 8% regardless of the economic times and would instead lower wages of the workers. These economic issues pushed the workers to a breaking point. The same is seen in the election of 1896 when people of all wages and walks of life voted for McKinley who ran on the promise of prosperity by backing the gold standard which would make the workers’ pay worth more than if they had supported the silver standard. You can also see the climax of political issues when the current president Grover Cleveland refused