This is the method by which the American Railway Union undertook to bring the Pullman corporation to terms. In their letter to the public they stated that it was not their intention to tie up the railroads. They were willing to handle trains, provided Pullman cars were left off. This was, they said, the only means they had of striking the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company. In case a quarrel arose between them and the railroad companies it would be a quarrel that was forced upon them, and not one of their choosing. The railroad companies, on the other hand, were unable to separate their interests from the interests of the Pullman Car Manufacturing Company, so they took the quarrel upon their own shoulders. They were determined to send trains out with Pullman cars attached, or else they would not send any at all. On the 27th of June, the day that the boycott was placed upon Pullman cars, traffic over the entire Santa Fé system came to a standstill. The railroad employees, that is, those employees who were engaged in the strike--the firemen, switchtenders and switchmen--refused to move trains with Pullman cars attached, and the railroad companies refused to send out trains without them. And so began the sympathetic strike. Every State, in which the lines of the above-mentioned system operated, was severely affected. In the East the unique position held by Chicago with regard to the different lines of railroads made it the hotbed of the strike. Seventeen different lines meet in Chicago. These being tied up, Chicago became the congregating point for many thousand strikers, some of whom were exceedingly desperate characters. Chicago, in the course of the strike, was the scene of many aggressive operations, and numerous were the conflicts between the troops and strikers, of which some resulted in fatalities. In the West the strike presented some features which were not manifested in the East. No State suffered more severely from the strike than did California. That the effect was so severe on California was due probably to its isolation; to its entire dependence upon railroad transportation, and to the fact that a great part of its produce consisted of fruit, which has to find a ready market in the East. These facts, coupled with the fact that the tie-up came at that time in the year when the fruit was ripe and ready for shipping, and thus dependant upon rapid transportation for its value, are evidence enough of the injurious effects of the strike upon California. And yet, in spite of the ruinous consequences, it is strange to say that the sympathy of the people was almost unanimously with the strikers. The press of California has been severely criticised by the Eastern press for the manner in which it espoused the cause of the strikers. Yet the California press was only reflecting the opinions of the people.