But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently became such a power, was by no means the offspring of a premature conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union, before taking active steps to organize. He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and, Kelliher, this union was founded. The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in wages in all departments on that system. This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway Union. Then it was that the true principles of this organization were recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came pouring in from all parts of the country. CHAPTER II. THE BOYCOTT. The American Railway Union is in every sense an American Institution, whose aims and objects as previously stated are to protect and shield its members from the grinding power of railroad corporations. Its motto is unity: "One for all and all for one." The Pullman employes were admitted to this organization and consequently entitled to the protection guaranteed to all members, therefore when they walked out, after every honorable means to avert a strike was exhausted, the American Railway Union was in duty bound to sustain them. The strike was ordered on the 11th day of May, after an all night session by a committee of forty-six members representing every department in the Pullman works. When the word was given four thousand employes responded to the call, and this proved to be the beginning of the most gigantic strike in the history of organized labor. The wrongs of the Pullman people were not generally known to the public, the cruel and inhuman treatment they were subjected to, was kept strictly from the public ears.