The Pullman Strike: The Chicago Tribune And The Chicago Times

In the nineteenth century, transportation, most importantly the railroads, became the height of American life. With the rise in business national transportation and communication networks were created and became part of the new transformation of the American economy. However, the rise in business also brought some downfall because several railroad workers did not agree with what was happening. The Pullman Strike resulted and became a pivotal moment in history. The strike was covered by two newspapers: the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Times. The Tribune was an opponent of the boycotts while the Chicago Times was a supporter. Therefore, from the start of the strike, the views of the people influenced the way the two newspapers portrayed

Debs. It was on the sixth day of the boycott when both newspapers talked about the situation with a man named James Mervin, a man who pulled a switch on a train. "Debs' Strikers Begin a Work of Destruction" and "Dictator Debs" is in charge and responsible for all the lawlessness happening. Debs was villainized by the Tribune to turn the public away from siding with him. It is evident that most of the blame was put to the leaders of the strikes and they were the ones who suffered the consequences of the actions that were taken in the strike and the boycott. Some were arrested and also some died for being in the fights but not a lot of ARU members were arrested. Unlike the Tribune, the Times said "all was excitement" in the situation that occurred when the switch was thrown because everyone wanted to see "if a bloody conflict would follow." In some situations the public, as seen in the Times perspective, seemed to be interested by the conflicts happening and wanted to see all the action. The Tribune used bias in these conflicts to depict the strikers in negative

"Between 1880 and 1931, by one count, nearly two thousand injunctions were issued prohibiting strikes and labor boycotts." Even with all the action taken there are some things that cannot be stopped. The Tribune described Debs defiance "like the last flicker of a candle that is almost burned out." The Tribune did not agree with the actions from Debs or the strikers and this demonstrates that they knew that the conflict was coming to an end. The end of the nineteenth century also brought the period of yellow journalism. As a result, people bought more newspapers and the bias changed a lot of people's opinions of which side was right. The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Times were not an exception to this. Their writing differed and their depiction of the violent incidents is noticeable because the Tribune was Republican and the Times was Democrats which influenced who they supported. Each had their own way of describing the events occurring during those