The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strikeBurns, W. F.
History
The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strike
Burns, W. F.
Pullman Strike, 1894
All employes must rent their houses from this slave driving corporation.
There is now in the city of St. Paul a gentleman who formerly worked in
Pullman, and growing tired of paying so much rent for such poor
accommodations, moved to the adjoining hamlet, and rented a better house
for $8.00 per month. He was at once informed that if he wished to retain
his situation he would have to move back, and he did so. The house was
of the average kind and was called a cottage, consisting of two rooms
down stairs, each 10 × 14 feet, and three rooms up stairs, one of which,
the front room, was 10 × 12 and the two rear rooms each 8 × 10 feet,
lighted front and back, with no bath room or other convenience, and the
whole, a part of a solid row or block. For this abode there was exacted
a monthly rental of $17.00 although the cost would not exceed $1,000. A
four room flat rents for $14.50 per month, and if you should want one of
these cheap cottages with inside blinds for the front window, you must
pay 50 cents per month for that much style. Some tenants have paid 50
cents per month for this luxury for more than thirteen years, which is
pretty good interest on the cost of those blinds.
About 100 acres of land is covered with dwellings and the rent derived
is about $500,000 annually, which is over 8 per cent per annum on the
investment.
In many of these houses families are crowded into attics in order to
reduce expenses to enable them to procure the necessaries of life.
Recently a new church was erected in Pullman, known as the Green church
and parsonage, for which is demanded a monthly rental of $60.00 and for
a good sized audience room, and two smaller ones attached Mr. Pullman
charges the Methodist Episcopal society $500 per year. These rents must
be paid in advance and are deducted from the wages of the men, and
notwithstanding that the wages have been reduced no reductions have as
yet been made in the rent.
The manner in which these men have been bled in the matter of rent, is
fully equaled in the manner in which money for water and gas has been
extorted from them. When the town was built a contract was made with
the Village of Hyde Park, to furnish water at the rate of four cents per
thousand gallons, and incredible as it may appear, this water was
furnished to the Pullman tenants at ten cents per thousand gallons. In
other words he charged $3,000 per month for the water which cost him but
$1,200. This represents an annual profit on this one item of $21,000.
Could cold blooded heartless avarice go further? Yes; in the matter of
gas which was manufactured and furnished to the people by the Pullman
company itself, and although the cost is but 33 cents per thousand cubic
feet, the tenants pay $2.25 per thousand while the same gas is furnished
the residents of Hyde Park for 75 cents per thousand.
This adds from three to four dollars per month to living expenses in the
average house at Pullman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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