Why Did Pullman Kill His Worker

At the age of fourteen, Mr. Pullman, had dropped out of school and proceeded to invest in a job as a clerk. He was an engineer for most of his life. He was a manufacturer and produced sleeping cars for railroads. But later on, Pullman had treated his workers extremely poor. However, Pullman acted as if his workers would not direct their attention to their cut wages or longer work hours. To sum it up, Pullman was irresponsible and carless towards his workers and took advantage of them. In this cartoon, Pullman seems to be killing his worker with “low wages” and “high rent.” He had lowered their wages, which decreased their chances of being able to pay for anything. Then Pullman raised their rent, so they were being paid less and charged more.
After reading all of the things Pullman had done, you really cannot completely understand it unless it is put in a visual perspective. This is what I believe this cartoons hidden message is. Pullman was damaging his workers emotionally. But this cartoon shows Pullman literally, physically killing his workers. It brings a stronger message when portrayed this way. Another thing this cartoon portrays is that Pullman takes all. There were a variety of corrupt politicians and people during this time. Pullman had created his own town for his employees. There was a sewer system and a church but he
had charged them to use the church.
Labeled on the top also include, capitalism, monopoly, and wage slavery (etc.). So not only are the workers dealing with Pullman, but also with all of the other problems that are inevitable. Seeing those words is from the point of view of an angry employee who is also against Pullman’s monopolistic ways. There is money falling out of the workers when Pullman is crushing him. Because that is literally what Pullman is doing, crushing his workers emotionally leaving them with unfair circumstances.
Pullman in this cartoon is dressed in a nice tuxedo and is the one with his hands on the spinner.
This cartoon also tells us that Pullman is completely responsible for this. His only intentions were to increase profit and capital. Although Pullman had seen himself as philanthropist since he had made a town for them and believe he did a lot for them. Pullman is squeezing the employees’ life and money out of him. But the money falling out of the worker represents how in the end, Pullman is obtaining all the money. Regardless if it was fair or not, he winded getting all the money anyways, leaving the workers with nothing left to do, but
strike. In the end, the strike ended the same year it began. The aftermath had a permanent effect on the course of the labor movement in the United States. Many workers had belonged to the American Railroad Union (ARU). Eugene V. Debs founded that. But near the end, Debs was sent to prison and the strike was broken in July.