USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Claiming that the strike violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, Edwin Walker, a special attorney acting for U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney, obtained an injunction that U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland used to dispatch federal troops to address the strike.

Detailed explanation-2: -Workers for the Pullman Palace Car Company already had low wages as well as high rents in the company town of Pullman, Illinois. During an economic depression in 1893, their wages were cut even more and working hours were increased. Jobs were also cut.

Detailed explanation-3: -With the government working to the General Managers’ Association’s ends, Debs felt the only way to force the Pullman Company into arbitration was reaching out to other labor groups to join in a general strike, but his efforts did not succeed. The boycott dissolved in mid-July, and the ARU was defeated.

Detailed explanation-4: -Outbreak of the Pullman Strike In 1893, during a nationwide economic recession, George Pullman laid off hundreds of employees and cut wages for many of the remaining workers at his namesake railroad sleeping car company by some 30 percent.