he company reserved the right to deny labor organizers and radical speakers rental or use of public halls. And, a spy system sought out any sign or word critical of the authorities. The Pullman Corporation tried and succeeded in dominating every aspect of its workers’ lives. The company owned land, plants, houses, tenements, hotel, stores, bank, school, library, church, water and gas systems. “As employer, George Pullman determined wages, as landlord he fixed rents, as banker he collected savings,” (Meltzer 150).George Pullman knew how to make a profit. He made his business highly profitable, and was running his town the same way. The town obtained its water from Chicago for four cents, but Pullman charged his workers ten. As for the gas he paid 33 cents for, he charged his workers $2.55. One worker said, “We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shop, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman church, and when we die we shall be buried in the Pullman cemetery and go to Pullman hell,” (Meltzer 151). Pullman managed to keep business good, even in the depression of 1893. In that year, he managed to earn a surplus of $4 million. He managed that by cutting wages 25 to 40 per cent while keeping rents and prices the same. In the first winter of the depression, every single Pullman worker was in debt. They felt they had taken all they could. The new American Railway Union, recently organized by Eugene V. Debs, was encouraging the workers to join them. The fact that Pullman ran a small railroad made the eligible. They managed to have secret meeting in adjacent town to avoid company spies. A year and a half after the start of the depression a committee was organized and sent to the company to ask that their wages be restored. The company claimed that they had lost a lot of money and were only keeping the plant going to give the men work. The men reluctantly returned to work...
