 
the real issue of the strike of course had not been simply the wages of 
the workers at pullman. 
george pullman defined the issue as "the principle that a man should have 
the right to manage his own property." 
the secret minutes of the general managers" association suggested that the 
question was whether the railroads would "determine for themselves" what cars 
they would or would not handle on their lines. 
or, as vice-president george howard of the a.r.u. put it, "i always 
contended that the men had a right to handle or not handle anything they 
pleased," whereas the company announced publicly that "they would haul such 
cars as they chose regardless of what the delegates to the a.r.u. convention 
might say, or what their own employees might say." 
the real issue was the issue of power; it was understood that this in turn 
would determine the other questions of wages, working conditions, and the 
like. 
the pullman strike showed that merely by making a non-violent strike 
against an industry, if the strike seriously challenged corporate power, 
workers would bring down upon themselves the entire organized force of 
society, including military force. 
as debs put it, 
we have only got a number, and a limited number, of poorly paid men in our 
organization, and when their income ceases they are starving. 
we have no power of the government behind us. 
we have no recognized influence in society on our side... 
on the other side the corporations are in perfect alliance; they have all 
of the things that money can command, and that means a subsidized press, that 
they are able to control the newspapers, and means a false or vitiated public 
opinion. 
the clergy almost steadily united in thundering their denunciations; then 
the courts, then the state militia, then the federal troops; everything and all 
things on the side of the corporations. 
