oken supporters of the eight-hour movement lived and worked were raided without warrant. Oscar Neebe, Adolph Fisher, August Spies, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Carl Engel, and Albert Parsons were charged with the trumped up charge of accessory to murder for the riot. They were all brought to trial, even though many of the men were not even at Haymarket Square at the time of the melee. With a jury of twelve men found all of the defendants guilty. After an appeal to the Supreme Court, Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel were sentenced to hang. Neebe, Fielden and Schwab were given life sentences. Louis Lingg most likely would have served a life sentence as well, however, he committed suicide. "[Pullman] is, in fact, philanthropy made practical; humanity, founded on business principles; sobriety, art music, clean living, refined homes, self-respecting independence of character without paternalism; a vindication of the theory that there is an economical value in beauty, and that the workingman is capable of appreciating and wisely using the highest ministries of art and beauty."--Chicago Times, 10 January 1891The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in United States history. George Pullman of Pullman Rail Cars founded the town of Pullman as a place where his workers could live. A problem arose that galvanized Eugene Debs and the American Railway Union when the workers of Pullman received several wage cuts. These cuts were bad enough in themselves, but when coupled with Pullman's actions of not lowering the rents for the company owned homes in Pullman, the laborers began to unite and organize under Debs and the ARU. The workers formed a committee and asked Pullman to lower the rent in the company owned housing but their requests were refused. Three of the committee members were then terminated. This unjustified act set the workers in motion and they were intent on striking, and on May 10, 1894 they walked off of ...
