When the American Railway Union went on strike against the Pullman
Palace Car Company in 1894, it set into motion a chain of events
whose repercussions are still felt today. The strike pitted
America's largest industrial union against twenty-four railroads,
paralyzed rail traffic in half the country, and in the end was
broken up by federal troops and suppressed by the courts, with
union leader Eugene Debs incarcerated. But behind the Pullman case
lay a conflict of ideologies at a watershed time in our nation's
history.
David Ray Papke reexamines the events and personalities
surrounding the 1894 strike, related proceedings in the Chicago
trial courts, and the 1895 Supreme Court decision, In re Debs,
which set important standards for labor injunctions. He shows how
the Court, by upholding Debs's contempt citation, dealt fatal blows
to broad-based unionism in the nation's most important industry and
to any hope for a more evenhanded form of judicial involvement in
labor disputes-thus setting the stage for labor law in decades to
come.
The Pullman case was a defining moment in the often violent
confrontation between capital and labor. It matched wealthy
industrialist George Pullman against Debs and gave a stage to
Debs's fledgling attorney Clarence Darrow. Throughout the trial,
capital and labor tried to convince the public of the justice of
their cause: Debs decrying the company's treatment of workers and
Pullman raising fears of radical unionists. Papke provides an
analytically concise and highly readable account of these
proceedings, offering insight into the strengths and weaknesses of
the law at the peak of industrial capitalism, showcasing Debs's
passionate commitment to workers' rights, and providing a window on
America during a period of rapid industrialization and social
transformation.
Papke shows that the law was far from neutral in defending
corporate interests and suggests what the Pullman case, by raising
questions about both the legitimacy of giant corporations and the
revolutionary style of industrial unions, can teach us about law
and legal institutions in our own time. His book captures the
passions of industrial America and tells an important story at the
intersection of legal and cultural history.
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