Question

“I do not like to walk up there and hand up my membership in the American Railway Union because when a man asks me to give up my principles, my rights as an American citizen, he might just as well ask for my life.”

To which result of the Pullman strike is Theodore Rhodie referring?

Answer 1

Theodore Rhodie seems to be referring to the dissolution of the American Railway Union as a result of the Pullman Strike.

The Pullman Strike was led by Eugene Debs and the American Railway Union against Pullman Railroads and the Pullman housing conditions. Many Pullman workers were upset that their wages did not increase but the rent, and utilities bills on the housing provided by Pullman costs increased. After people were killed, President Cleveland called in the Army to order strikers to stop blocking transport and strikers refused. Eugene Debs was charged with violating a court order, sent to jail, and the ARU was ordered to disband.