ng fellow employees
to quit work. So utterly lacking any basis in law had these injunctions
that the Federal Commission reported: "It is seriously questioned, and
with much force, whether the courts have jurisdiction to enjoin citizens
from 'persuading' each other in industrial matters of common interest."
But the injunctions were enforced. Debs and his comrades were convicted
of contempt of court and, without jury trial, imprisoned at a critical
juncture of the strike. And what was their offense? Nothing more than
seeking to induce other workers to take up the cause of their striking
fellow-workers. The judges constituted themselves as prosecuting
attorney, judge and jury. Never had such high-handed judicial usurpation
been witnessed. As a concluding stroke, President Cleveland ordered a
detachment of the United States army to Chicago. The pretexts were that
the strikers were interfering with interstate commerce and with the
carrying of mails.

VAST PROFITS AND LOW WAGES.

That the company's profits were great at the identical time the workers
were curtailed to a starvation basis, there can be no doubt. The general
indignation and agitation caused by the summary proceedings during the
strike, compelled President Cleveland to appoint a commission to
investigate. Cleveland was a mediocre politician who, by a series of
fortuitous circumstances, had risen from ward politics to the
Presidency. After using the concentrated power of the Federal Government
to break the strike, he then decided to "investigate" its merits. It was
the shift and ruse of a typical politician.

The Special Commission, while not selected of men who could in the
remotest degree be accused of partiality toward the workers, brought out
a volume of significant facts, and handed in a report marked by
considerable and unexpected fairness. The report showed that the Pullman
Company's capital had been increased from $1,000,000 in 1867 to
$36,000,000 in 1894. "Its prosperity," the Commission reported, "has
enabled the company for over twenty years to pay two per cent. quarterly
dividends." But this eight per cent. annual dividend was not all. In
certain years the dividends had ranged from nine and one half, to
twelve, per cent. In addition, the Commission further reported, the
company had laid by a reserve fund in the form of a surplus of
$25,000,000 of profits which had not been divided. For the year ending
July 31, 1893, the declared dividends were $2,