their jobs. The following day the Pullman Plant closed.ARU switchmen refused to switch trains with Pullman cars. In response, the General Managers Association began to fire the switchmen for not handling the cars. The strike and boycott heated up, the Chicago rail yards and most of the rail lines were crippled. A federal injunction was issued against the leaders of the ARU. This Omnibus Indictment prevented ARU leaders from "...compelling or inducing by threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence, railway employees to refuse or fail to perform duties..."(U.S. Strike Commission Report pp. 179).Pullman began coupling his cars to trains with mail cars. When the ARU and rail workers refused to do any work on these trains President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to insure that these trains would not be delayed. The reaction of the strikers to the appearance of the troops was that of outrage. The violence began with mobs of people setting off fireworks and tipping over rail cars. The workers tipped over railcars and built blockades to show their contempt towards the troops. The aggressive behavior accelerated when two federal troops were assaulted and began to fire in to a crowd of people, killing at least four and wounding as many as twenty. All this violence started to cause the strike to slow. Eugene Debs and four other ARU leaders were arrested for violating the indictment. The strike was failing rapidly, the ARU attempted to abandon the strike, on the grounds that workers would be rehired without prejudice except those convicted of crimes. The General Managers’ Association refused this offer. The strike continued to fail, and trains began to move without impediment. The strike became unjustifiable for most of the workers and the Pullman works reopened."About the only difference between slavery at Pullman and what it was down South before the war, is that there the owners took care of the slaves when they were sick an...
