They were reduced to a condition of slavery beneath that of the black slave of the South prior to the civil war, for while the black slave was clothed, housed and fed, the white slave of Pullman was forced to work for wages entirely inadequate to furnish a sufficient amount of food to keep body and soul together. In this condition, on the verge of starvation, with all hope of justice from the hands of George M. Pullman gone, they revolted. Whether the grievance of these men was a just one, or their resistance to further encroachments on their rights was right or wrong, after reading the report of the committee appointed to investigate and report to the American Railway Union Annual Convention, at that time in session in the city of Chicago, it will be for the reader to decide. The report, as condensed, in one of the Chicago daily papers, copied and commented on by the St. Paul Branch of the American Railway Union, was as follows: After showing by way of contrast, that $30,000,000 worth of Pullman stock paid its holders 9-1/2 per cent in dividends last year, the report goes statistically into a comparison of wages in the past year, with the wages received by the Pullman employees when the strike was inaugurated. A fair example of the general reduction is given in a comparison in the price of labor involved in the construction of a freight car in 1888 and 1893. Lot 1526. Oct. 1888. Nov. 1893. Car carpenter $13.00 $7.00 Truck builder .90 .60 Truck labor .31 .09 Hanging brakes 1.20 .65 Delivering, forging and casting 1.05 .35 Delivering lumber .88 .21 Framing .40 .12 ------ ----- Total $17.74 $9.02 Other comparisons in the same department show that the wages of men employed in building freight cars, have been reduced 49, 57-1/2 and 47 per cent on contract work since 1888 and 89, and a long list of figures from the account of men in the upholstering department, show that cuts have been made in the prices paid for piece work during the last twelve months ranging from 33-1/3 to 50 per cent. The painters, according to the figures given, have been cut 20 per cent since 1893 and were receiving, when the strike went into effect, only 23 cents per hour, while the union men employed by the boss painters in Chicago were all busy under the scale, whereby they are paid 35 cents per hour until June 15th, and 32-1/2 cents during the summer months.