The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 483 - George Pullman - Part 1

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine rich guy George Pullman.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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bilingual American History podcast where each week I water drinker man with shoes. A lover of cantaloupe. Dave Anthony reads a story from American history to his friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. I remember one time when you'd probably been doing that bit for about say three months we were on the road and we were out somewhere and someone said something about it we were like chilling with a friend of yours or something and someone mentioned it and I go I'm not and I wasn't kidding I go it's fun I go I think it's done now though this is three years ago I was like I

think we finally like are good on it and here we are yeah so I'm later and there's a comedy thing where something starts out rule of 500 funny and then and then keep doing it it gets not funny and then it just gets irritating and then and then people want to kill each other and then it gets crazy and then it gets funny again and then it gets not funny and then people get sad and then I'm not sure where we are slow slow death of the soul and then it gets funny and then it gets hilarious and then it's just I don't I don't know what's happening anymore and then and then it's like do certainly does this person need mental

health help that's where we are yeah yeah this is a this is a cry for help like bi-weekly American oh sorry how have you not seen that I've been just desperately begging for some sort of help like this is a cry like this is a desperate you know what you're like you're like Michael Douglas and falling down if he just didn't like fully like if he if he was just like I'm gonna slowly take it out on society instead of just having one crazy day where you like I want breakfast at lunchtime in this fast-food restaurant how much better with that movie you've been if everyone just called them dugo dugo back out that was actually

what it was called in Australia and called it quote his jam-packed I'm the fucking hippo guy okay my name's Gary my name's Gary wait is it for fun and this is not gonna come to tickly podcast okay now hit him with the puppy you both present sick arguments I want to thank Sarah June who did the research for this March 3rd 1831 year of our Lord Jesus Christ okay George Mortimer Pullman was born in western New York State his father James was a carpenter who invented a way to lift multi-story buildings and put them onto new foundations using jack screws also

known as screw jacks screw jack city screw jack is that that's a porn star have you ever seen screw jack work he is a monster by the way when I hear that technology I'm even now I'm like that's impressive oh no I can't even imagine like it's just the craziest thing to me that they lifted up buildings and move them it's I mean I didn't put it in here well I'll talk about it but so George quit school when he was 14 years old and he got a job as a store clerk and then as a cabinet maker his dad dies in 1853 so he's like 22ish and then George takes over the family business he's contracting with which is moving moving

buildings without bite by screw jack so he's making contracts with cities and and so buildings can be moved so shipping canals can be widened so wait a minute you're telling me this guy's basically screw jackman will he play the Wolverine it's comical to me because the name is near Hugh Jackman's and that is it's it's got me gaffawing it's all right time back in go ahead Dave I just had to point that out that that sorry bud you gave me the you gave me the lot to do it in so they whoo the old downhill from here baby whoo sorry go ahead it's a this is a not great start go ahead so George also

had a very eerie ability to turn a profit it's just a he's a money guy so around 1859 he moves to Chicago and Chicago was built on a low bog and as the city got bigger streets were swamped with mud and that that combined with the open sewers she's just not I mean that's not ideal as a guy who like hates Chicago sports this is just so so they're but I mean it was just a swamp literally they used to be the muddy city people said the mud in the street was so deep that it could drown a horse my god that's very never-ending story so because of that there's cholera there's tuberculosis there's typhoid I can't

imagine being on a street and being like that horse just went under it happens anyway to the cafe you think it happens and anybody who has a horse slash quick sand fetish I mean that's the place to be that's my fetish I always watch that on screwjackman.com so George's construction crews use their dads a jack screw or screwjack to raise these large buildings out of the swamp put them on higher foundations out of the mud and sewage like there's one there's a hotel that he moved while everybody was in it like they didn't have of course yeah no there's no issue with that I mean what what is the problem it's just very

simply and I we just wanted to let everyone know that if there's a fire drill we do need everyone to go outside also the hotel is going to be moving cities while you're here so if you feel it shake at all or anything like that don't worry we're just relocating oh and if you have a car parked where we in our parking lot that you could just go get it and move it to our new spot so that's exciting so yeah just and if you go out and come back and there's not a hotel we moved it so just yeah and the pool will now be across the street yes and the pool is now across the street and again if you don't want to go in the

pool just swim on the street because the street is basically a river so just go there and I'm trying to think if there's anything else oh continental is six to ten and yeah and the hotel is going to be moving locations and entirely so yep that's it checkouts 11 and if you feel it shaking it's just because the hotel is going to a completely different space okay so there's a ton of contracts to do this George's firm very successful Chicago is a really fast-growing center of industry as railroads are being laid all over the US nearly every single major transcontinental runway railway line goes to Chicago so passenger but

it's just kind of like swampy why was Chicago popular if it was just kind of like I don't I don't know I mean I think just because industry started the deep dish yeah it was the deep dish and the biz you can't you're not gonna find a better deep dish no you are or a better deep deep crazy thing I don't want to find another deep dish pizza because I don't like a like what's matter of cheese you never you don't like to feel like you don't like to go in a coma of dough aka adult no and I would like to be able to shit again also instead of just having your cheese party well that's so if that's on your bucket list then enjoy

it but if you if you're looking for a go bow movements have I got a dinner for you it comes out no I'm yeah thank you it's like watching a dog poop I don't want to watch that well for 15 bucks on screwjackman.com you cannot watch it I know okay okay so so like I said rails being laid all the US they're all coming to Chicago passenger travel has been transformed by the train obviously crossing the country by stage coach took a month now it's a week but it's still a week people still want to do it in comfort and so as George was traveling himself he saw that the sleeping cars on passenger trains were not great they

were dirty they were noisy stuffy very uncomfortable one traveler said it was like quote sleeping on a runaway horse I mean this guy come on you got it we got to put this guy on the back of a horse and be like see it's not that bad do you understand now why that comparison was let's hear you let's hear your runaway horse talk now buddy huh I fell off and then I was trampled well that would not have happened in the sleeping car I'm gonna eat those words so George knew because of what was happening with the rails that that traveling across the country was going to become mainstream everyone was gonna start doing it so

comfortable by the way mainstream was also the main strip in Chicago it's a street water comfortable sleeping cars we're gonna be a huge moneymaker he saw that so by the late 1850s he was working with investors and and mechanics to build a passenger coach car that could be converted into a sleeper car so he's taking he's taking these passenger cars and then jazzing them up converting them into right okay yeah it's like a pimp my sleeping son 1860 George went to Colorado during the Gord Rush Gold Rush do I say gore the Gord Rush was also the Gord Rush was wild did you that happens around Thanksgiving when people are

getting their place settings ready there's people it's like they don't talk about that in the history books like in if you're in school well I tell you there's more Gord's up in this heels there's more I won't be rich I won't be rich I found a good thing we found a bunch of good look there's more gourds in this river than I ever anticipated we got so many gourds we got hordes of gourds I told them there's gourds up in their mouth it's good other Gord Rush imagine society if we had a Gord Rush I think it would be much better so he goes out of Chicago he sets up a little shop in a boom town he he is running a general

store a crushing mill a saloon he just knows like you open a business in a gold rush town and you'll make money and he he raises I opened a lot of businesses in a Gord Rush town tonight yeah that didn't that was a bad move people were not interested in that area so he also raised cattle he got in a real estate he set up a quasi bank that the delton gold does so makes money right in 1863 goes back to Chicago he gets drafted into the Civil War but he has enough money so he hires a substitute to serve for him in the Union Army what a great I didn't were we aware yeah we were aware yeah you could yeah sort of

tag team like wrestlers just hold your hand out like I don't I don't like I'm sorry I'm rich could I not do the war thing I kid I just can't it seems so strange for the elites to really does it's very odd so thank God that's not a thing anymore yeah he so in 1867 he married Harriet Amelia Sanger known as Hattie okay sure that's right her dad was that's what we called him her dad was a very rich Chicago canal builder I've made all these roles where are all the horses these are mine these are yes this is where I drowned ponies have you seen mainstream it's where all the businesses are hopping so he was very ill when they

got married and they actually married right beside her father's deathbed which I that's how I want hot we're not saying I do until his eyes are and then once he is dead we're gonna roll him off and consummate this for consummation upon the father so that year after nine years of working on the sleeper cars he incorporated the palace sorry the Pullman Palace car company wow okay that's a long time by the way yeah yeah so it it does great the next 25 years he has incredible success he becomes a household name right Pullman cars were synonymous with just fancy luxury travel and Pullman becomes a noun

wow that's what he's one of the first guys so what would you be what would you you how would you use Pullman as a noun like what like that guy he's a real Pullman like he's doing great or he's fancy yeah that's a good question I mean I guess it's the same way I guess I'm way you use Apple or you know oh okay I see what you're saying I was like you mean Gwyneth Paltrow's child yeah yeah okay I sure yeah it's just I get it and so he he worked really hard he was one of the first people to purposefully build a brand right right so this right he would take reporters on these fancy champagne trips in his newest cars he'd lend them

to presidents the the Pullman company when Lincoln died the company spread a story that Lincoln's body was taken to Springfield in a Pullman car I don't forget it was in a moment is it amazing we've been branding that long yeah like brand identity like it's like brand integration has been like that's right and we even had a little hat space for him to lay down because that's just life in a pull so comfortable dead guys want to ride in it Pullman Abraham Lincoln's dying wish was to be a nothing but a pullman well they he was close with Lincoln and Mary the story was that Mary Todd Lincoln had demanded the Pullman

car so she could ride to the funeral in comfort but that never happened Mary Todd Mary Todd Lincoln didn't go to the funeral so I'm afraid I I could only grieve properly in a Pullman Pullman convenient cars are unbelievable it is how you feel regal no matter what the occasion my husband was just shot in the back of his weird hat by some assassin I tell you when I'm in a Pullman it feels like he's still I forget all about Abraham is still with us I don't even remember that his brains were blown all over somebody else Pullman Pullman I was covered in the fragments of my husband's skull but boy what a cappuccino

Pullman luxury cars the only way to ride or die so that's stories people still I'm John Wilkes Booth the only way I want to be transported to my next prison is in a Pullman now that's a luxury a car Pullman yes so at the story is still around people still believe that that's true today a lot of people didn't expect it was just a lie made up by the Pullman company that's good that's good marketing a Pullman wanted I mean terrible marketing so Pullman wanted middle-class customers to basically upgrade to a fancier train experience than was available on the standard sort of passenger car I'm

selling subprime options for some of the people who would like to get and it's expensive it he charges him twice what like a normal normal laborer would make in a day but but they're getting they're getting value I mean it's a really nice experience and Dave it's a Pullman Pullman the only car to spend a day's wage upon and then the way you would work is you would buy a train ticket and then you would buy from the Pullman company then you would buy directly from them the upgrade so it's it's like clear in this exactly like clear it's the second the secondary business that's able to operate within there wouldn't it

be amazing if we had a government run thing like clear stop stop where they didn't gather your eyeball data biometric scans and then the government had and then you wouldn't have to use clear but Dave then what I feel like we're entering dystopia when I go through airports no so it's a give-and-take yeah no I mean it's that's just crazy that's crazy so the most normal rail cars had eight wheels Pullman's had 16 that's right Pullman it's double the wheels they had rubber dampened springs lighter wheels so it's a smoother ride they're they're lit with gas chandeliers they have insulated windows and doors

air filtered by a modern ventilation system the higher-grade one so there's different there's different levels of Pullman cars so the higher-grade ones would have a dining car with over 80 dishes offered from oyster and lobster to local game elk loin you know it's it's you could get a little bit of that train it's just pure opulence so I mean yes so it's kind of the first time where people are having the option to like genuinely enjoy travel be spoiled and travel yeah yeah exactly before then it was just like you'd be like well we lost two kids it's nice to have the 19 extra so the ultimate was a custom-made

car that was basically just for really really really rich they had it had a stateroom a parlor a smoking lounge a kitchen in this is in the one yeah this is one car that's just fancy as shit for the really really huge it's like an apartment it's a car it's a car apartment it's a car apartment it's a compartment or it's a park car so really really rich people would it was basically a mansion on wheels they would they would outfit it themselves they would put in gold-plated plumbing marble baths jewel safes Venetian mirrors like it was just like a marble bath a train yeah you imagine they got a tree well

there's nothing better than being in your marble bath and looking out and seeing the poor suffering people just makes the water feel that much more refreshing so George was big into luxury himself he wore a Prince Albert coat even in the summer vest trousers patent leather shoes that's a coat that you have pierced that's right that's right he rode around in a polished carriage that was pulled by the best horses his driver was in livery his home in Chicago had a 200 seat theater a billion room a bowling alley a pipe organ oh come on and a palm room with a leaded glass dome what he ate lunch pretty much every day at the

Chicago Club with other rich guys at a table that became known as the millionaires table that would sound so like that wouldn't sound like much today but what he's just a million he and his wife through parties like 400 people local politicians presidents and Civil War heroes like it was like the thing right sure George and had he had a pretty good marriage not not great because he was away from home so much even when they were in New York he would stay at his mom's apartment and had he would stay at a hotel hmm yeah that's pretty sexy he wasn't fucking other people Dave why'd you have to ruin it

for a second I was like I could see my oh okay mr. it's another thing that's bad huh had he became a hypercontract and started taking very frequent trips to very fancy spas and just getaways well I think that you're just right you're spoiled I have this terrible syndrome where I must see how doctor it's just I must have massages constantly what's wrong with me George is me he became easily annoyed and he would erupt in anger and so he was rich the accusations against had he and their four kids so they had four kids twin boys and two daughters now the girls were raised by governess tutors and at boarding

schools but the boys were pampered and ignored pretty much and then they got into a lifestyle of excess sure sure wow it's just so just I've never heard anything like this with rich they were according to historian Jack Kelly quote self-indulgent fobs and huge disappointments to their father I mean the list of like political children being disappointments in my lifetime as far as it just goes on it's like I mean it's because the politicians aren't heroes either they're just kind of put up on these pedestals but it's always funny when the kids are like it's like we're talking with Billy Carter yeah a little

bit you're like my dad's the president yeah pretty much so a lot of the a lot of the quotes in this come from Jack Kelly's book the edge of anarchy so George was a Republican he donated to black causes he hired black coachmen and household help which was not the norm for Chicago in Chicago the rich usually hired English servants he allowed black customers to ride his cars but segregated but it's still upset southern whites and then so it's it's it there was a time when our racism trumped our capitalism that's right yeah a Pullman car and then eventually we're like you know what money's so good like

businesses were just like you know a Pullman car was the subject of the the landmark segregation case Plessy versus Ferguson so oh wow yeah that's crazy Pullman we are going to dictate the future of race in this country Pullman in the only cart where we will sell anyone access to it Pullman not as racist as everywhere else Pullman so Pullman hired former slaves as the porters for the cars so so this is very this is very progressive yeah sort of in a terrible case so he's right he's making money he's hiring people who couldn't get jobs elsewhere and he becomes the largest employer of black workers in the country

but and but okay there it is hit me hit me daddy no blacks were allowed to work in manufacturing in the company only these porter jobs okay now there's a reason for that so so they they can't be promoted to conductors on the train they're just porters and oh here's something George didn't pay them I'm sorry that was a big part of what okay they worked for tips how oh my god what the fuck so he so okay so he is fully just doing it because I mean he starts paying them he's doing a bit but yeah he's based I mean I can't think he's just finding the cheapest possible as we go through this story everybody should

be thinking about Bezos a hundred percent and by by 1879 these black porters made $10 a month working 90-hour weeks Wow Wow while at the same time conductors who just took tickets made $65 a month white white guys I'm aware of there so working for tips leads to a degrading situation it encourages the porters to just cringing deference and to perform extra duties like shining shoes they were all called George oh my god what is what that's like it's so much worse they that is they were called George because it was a American custom during slavery to call the slaves by the names of their oh no that is

horrible from the get but then to have that happening in a man I can't demand you really had me up for a minute there I was like all right so this is a guy who understands that you need to be given a chance in order to you're like no it's actually he's the well it's super complicated because you know very hard to get a job after slavery as a black guy so in there in their communities it's awesome to get a job a poll on a Pullman car but at the same time it's so fucked like it's not like they're being treated in any way to perform close to equal to anybody else it's just taking advantage of a a group of people who are are having

a really difficult time desperate yeah yes and by the way it's great that we've turned that into a broad it gets worse passengers sometimes insisted a porters sing or perform a dance especially southern passengers oh just yeah you could just picture it it makes me sick it literally makes me sick George also in order to get a proper chill just like oh George also had spies that worked throughout his his workplace they would test the loyalty of workers they were reported on people's behavior wait this guy was ahead of him he hated unions he hated organized labor sure I'm sure he did so profit margins at the Pullman

company were often over 50% which is insane it's come that is insane company was valued at $60 million now then in in 1880 George goes and buys a really big piece of land in an open prairie 14 miles south of Chicago oh dear he hires a designer and a landscaper and they design and build a planned community George called the town Pullman okay so we're we're hitting that we're hitting it early I guess it opens up in 1882 it grows very quickly with over 8600 residents in 1885 so the residents are section it's 150 acres of tenements flats single-family homes workers got homes according to their jobs so houses

to form now cottages to workers tenements for brick workers and they get these are white these are white people I I really tried the it was very difficult to determine if any of the black porters were living here it sounds like mostly they were living in Bronzeville in Chicago and I I think it was segregated but it was very murky sort of thing to research so he he opened a pretty much all white power living structure city named after yeah I mean yeah as you would do and you there's no way there's no way Bezos isn't trying to think of how to do this and to circumvent this historical

precedent I mean I'm sure so he rented I might need a sick bucket so Pullman you know he's renting to the his employees it's between four and in his city it's between four dollars and fifty cents to over a hundred dollars a month the streets are all named after the the gilded age industrial giants perfect the homes they have modern stuff there they got gas they got water they get into a plumbing we had sewer sewage they got garbage removal so it's it's like top notch as far as that stuff goes right in Chicago that's not the norm at all right that's so this is advanced in that way there's a 14-room school there's a

firehouse there's stables parks playing fields only one bar and that bar was inside the hotel Florence which was named after his oldest daughter there's two buildings with retail stores meeting rooms the Pullman bank I can't get over the Pullman banks everyone okay Jesus everyone uses the Pullman Bank which is owned by Pullman and then there's a huge 1000 seat theater a library but you had to pay to use it and then he built the Greenstone Church it could hold 600 congregants and but George expected all denominations to share the church that's that's the that's the first thing I've heard that everything

is owned maintained and leased by the Pullman company so it is a pure company town that's just crazy oh my god that's so weird is that is that has that has that have I mean even when I did the one on Domino's like the dude opened his own little weird city but it wasn't like I mean this is the first time this is this is to the extreme I mean it's happened before in smaller versions but this is the biggest the the biggest right I mean this guy opened like six flags yeah I mean essentially he created more of a city than like a company town so yeah it's like if you're yeah you're like I'm gonna take over this town yeah I'll

actually just build one so there's a man-made lake Lake Vista which separates the residential section for the manufacturing side I mean basically he he didn't want he didn't want people taking the train to work he wanted them to be able to walk to work in like a couple minutes so the factory the factory is built the Pullman Palace cars towns power came from a giant 350 ton engine and then the exhaust would go into Lake Vista hmm by building 14 miles from Chicago he thought it would be isolated from the Union radicals in Chicago which in Chicago we're talking Lucy Parsons time like it's really hey market affair

like it's I like that you think 14 miles I don't think they're I don't think they're quest for equality will travel how could they get here there's a river so he George really sees Pullman it's like a he thinks it's the answer to the all the problems between labor and capital right I mean if you're a millionaire right that's right and he because he right he doesn't think there should be any conflict at all because yes no it's pretty simple just work for me poor for me poor's he he thinks by making this clean healthy environment that that could be profitable and part of his brand he's also trying to expand

the brand so he wants to prove that he was a good way to do it people who people are really influenced by their environment quote that decency propriety and good manners are not unattainable luxuries for them so he's basically saying the filthy the filthy people can have yeah I mean Dave he's essentially open I mean he's really he's really like look the filthy the filthy peoples can also have a decent place and then they'll be better cogs in my machine I mean that's what he's right so look you know that that sort of opinion that like if you take people out of the muck are you so he basically did it with Pullman

cars a lot of people thought that you know travelers would just make the the fancy cars really filthy by tracking in mud and spitting tobacco but then when people got the opportunity to be in a nice thing they didn't do that so he he thinks well that'll work with the town right so he thinks it's gonna create civilized workers and that would that would mean more money for him that's what he thinks what a good heart well I mean it is a little bit different thinking because at this time most people think the the way you are when you're born it's just locked in and so he's kind of saying well if you give

people a better environment then if you give people a better environment they'll be better workers yeah I mean that's that's the part where it's they'll be decent employees which is perfect for me it's I'm looking it's not utopia it's my topia yeah I mean he's basically he's he's almost there he gets to the he gets the right part which is like he's the close anybody given the right opportunity and and equal footing can can be something better but he's not doing that can they can change and when they change they'll work for me they'll be locked into my awesome environment and then they have to stay in my factory

and they still slowly start questioning authority and they'll just do what I tell them to so George I mean he's just like one thing he's doing is he's selling residence water at a $500 markup gas it is will be there soon don't worry history we plan on you turning five or we're coming five percent markup gas 300% I mean Chicago is selling the water to him for almost nothing and then he's just jacking it up so wow wood shavings from the the Pullman shops fuel the boilers that power the engine in winter the the company would cut ice off the lake and serve it to passengers in the cars so a more ice sir yes I'd love

another bit of ice oh what a luxury this is the sewage from the town has pumped to a farm where it's used for fertilizer and then that's where he buys vegetables so it's all this just do you understand people when you're pooping on the car you're actually getting the agriculture into your mouth is it that an exciting little when you shit in your toilet in your Pullman house I want you to think I'm making carrots those are future potatoes the Pullman is also an amazing publicist he didn't know chance was missed to use the town to advertise itself the company and build up his own brand he built the the train

station in Pullman so travelers would see the town from the best angle when they rolled in wow good lord can you imagine not having the amount of money to like be able to have like that is just like the it's an unrelatable fucking insane like to be like I will try to think of how they'll best see the town when they come in from the train you know Pullman the city not the man any new building that was started he you know press releases a widely reported it becomes a tourist attraction how long until he starts stealing buildings in the night just like here come on get those screwjacks it so the town becomes a

tourist attraction and by 1893 62 trains were stopping there every day so people could look at this they'd see a town where garbage is picked up or lawns were mowed their sidewalks as backyards one reporter wrote the George quote might be the messiah of a new age oh good good good good good good good well done there's another good referee good could call by the ref again a love the great journalism is this the new jesus good helpful really good really good so I mean people people are seeing it the surface the outside of it right they're not seeing anything else so in 1893 12,000 people live in Pullman 6,000 of

them are Pullman employees 40% of all company employees are now living in Pullman most Pullman workers are immigrants like I said the better the job the better your house the better the house but to workers it's a company town Pullman is deducting rent from paychecks but Illinois bans that so he started giving workers two checks one that was exactly equal to rent and then one that was what was left over after the rent was taken out so he found a loophole by the way two checks is one of them so the company would they give them the two checks and then the company would pressure the employee right there to

sign the check back over oh my god that's fine that's a normal that's a fine city that's a fine town if the worker didn't and took it to the bank well the bank was owned by Pullman and then they'd be harassed at the bank good good really comfortable that seems fine that's how it works that's how the gun all right we'll see you at the bank motherfucker yeah no seriously look who's in line at the bank finally look who's finally in line at the bank after he lied he lied he's liar he's in line at the bank cash that check here soon to be fired guy or no yes oh you are well this will be your last check that you you should have given

me the option come and this is it for you thank you for working for Pullman you were a great why you gave me the choice it's illegal so the housing looks like barracks there's no there's no meeting places like we said no bars there's that one bar there's there's one hotel right I'm manned you would you would see me there a lot if I was no you wouldn't because it's off limits to workers oh my god it's only for visiting businessmen who are staying at the hotel god wow so so it to me it feels like it is first of all a great I mean see the lawns but yeah the unbelievable there's not a blade of

crabgrass so but you're creating there's not much for people to do outside of sort of purposefully yeah right purposefully right a reporter fun a reporter goes there and he learned that the people don't want to talk to him because they're worried about quote company spotters spies have we not told you about that that's oh yeah there's also spies in our town boy you really got to raise a family yeah so there's spies all over this town worker what a comfortable place it's great I can't wait so workers because they can't go to the Sloan and George doesn't want them drinking so they would go to Sloan's in the nearby

town of Kensington could they have like booze in their house I'm sure they could have booze in their houses but so George but then you'd like it pour a shot and you'd see like a little man inside the bottle like Mars all that George could evict tenements sorry George could evict tenants on ten days notice for any reason he wanted sure that's fine that's why they're called tenants and there's no-town government I don't like the way you looked at me so believe my sir goodbye I hope you enjoyed living here you don't live here anymore why I don't know get your ass out of this city but while you're doing it

shouldn't you do it in a Pullman luxury car Pullman luxury cars the perfect place to rest your weary head after a day of being evicted from Pullman Pullman it's also a city Pullman and a man Pullman there's no-town government company officials by the way company officials make all decisions the school board is all Pullman executives Foreman company Foreman would take workers to the voting polls to make sure they voted the way the company wanted sure it's like our banking system in Pullman if it were an election system Pullman it's all rigged Pullman don't step out of line we'll stab you Pullman hey Ramley

the church is empty because no congregation could afford the $300 monthly rent well it's how the Lord intended it to be you know the Lord created humans but he really referred to them as tennis didn't remember that part do you a reporter from Harper's called the town un-American well-wishing feudalism so now okay okay yes some people are getting a gist of what's going on right meanwhile in Chicago it's it's just disgusting the the river is covered in Greece I mean the river just looks like a rainbow from you know you know Greece looks like a rainbow that's where we put the onion rings beef that's

how you get the crispy outside factories coal smoke just covers the city in the film of soot there's tons of slaughterhouses meat packing plants the poorer parts of town have open sewers typhoid outbreaks in 1891 2000 people have died of typhoid one reporter called Chicago the cesspool of the world which you probably still think applies I was it's more cesspool than the windy city so let's just come up with an appropriate name is what some of us are saying an English visitor an English visitor said Chicago had quote unrelieved ugliness that is definitely an English person so I mean that's why if the town

of Pullman looks good right because yeah because it's next to yeah it's like following like it's like following an ugly person on a date you know you look better your second it's better you know you're like we've set the palette we've reset the palette and that is a great idea for dating app guarantee that an ugly person will be in front of you in the that is that they that is what because I remember when I was on Tinder they would have things where you could be like I'm a gold status or whatever that is totally a fee that should apply on there you should pay like $2.99 a month and just like 50% of the time you're

gonna follow a low rate so you're just gonna be like oh that guy's gross and then you see me like he's better than the last one so yeah probably so so while all this is this is the Chicago situation right but then there's total just disgusting opulence of the rich like George's mansion which we talked about on Prairie Avenue and and then on May 1st the world's Colombian exposition opens there's a hundred thousand visitors come to see modern technology like light bulbs and oddities like two-headed pigs and a US map made out of pickles I'm Jesus Christ Wow did you a two-headed pig a two-headed it's

unbelievable it is quite a it's really hard to see what's did you get there before that guy no I got there after he ate it but it was really I could still tell that there was a lot of it was was pretty good you know but yeah he'd eaten a bunch of it I mean that's the that's a bit and then the pig looked like it had one head stapled on that seemed and it didn't look like it was another no either to me it looked like a bird head so it looked like a pig it looked like a pig with a part bird yeah it was a crow I thought it was a crow I would thought it was a crow it was either a raven or a crow so it was a it was

just a pig with a raven head but to be fair I'd never seen that neither and also technically two-headed two-headed pig it doesn't say what kind of head so yeah that's true that's true you could get around that legally for sure I mean I don't have a leg to stand on but yeah pickle map and then that thing that bowl that was did not and did not hit what's the point when we have candles and fire and stuff we have candles and gas chandeliers this is as good as it gets enough so George Pullman takes part in a lot of the fairs events he had put a hundred thousand dollars into the corporation that put on the the fair

and then we're people like oh my god he's such a charity based person he's so great because he gave him point four percent of his wealth away well it's just such a good it's just such a great example you compare you know what's happening in Chicago and he's giving a hundred thousand dollars to for people to look at pickle maps like it's yeah and meanwhile he's like just making a handover fist because of the city so basically the fair the exposition is it's for the rich by the rich that's what it is it should be called an unfair well done sir I'm gonna lay down for a little bit I mean like most workers are making in

America are making under ten dollars a week they're working 60 hours while three-quarters of the wealth was in the hands of 200,000 Americans if you can imagine that being the case I just trying trying to put my brain in that sort of I can't very difficult because it's just that the wealth has spread so in equally so unequally so it's just sort of hard yeah I just it's hard to picture it's hard to picture what that would look like I find it pretty I better be fine though so George George is not sixty-three years old he's getting sick a lot he's always tired he's always working I need to eat more money feed me

more money to make me better I'm hungry for more buckaroos his his family is telling him to slow down not work so much just give me money put it in my pants and my mouth stuff me with bills you idiots on I'm a walking bank on May 4th 1893 the stock market crashed this this would start a four-year depression within months George lays off two-thirds of Pullman employees he also spreads work out any cuts wages to those he didn't fire he does not reduce rents and Pullman sure why would he I mean everything just all the money's gone why would that change the economy and while cutting wages he doesn't make

any cuts to his own salary or the executives of the church well Dave Dave he put on a fare so can we kind of remember that for a minute the guy put a hundred grand into a fair so so what if he's evicting everybody and his salary remains the same I mean come on so that year the Abraham Lincoln wrote in a Pullman card jerk off get it I can't know you make a good point get it what I don't understand how many more times we have to go through this he deserves this money he did now fuck everyone else fuck them all what are you gonna understand this one guy made he won he won he's winning the game

money he's showing he's getting he's got all the money and screw everyone else he's the guy who made the money gets to do what he wants you're supposed to get all the points then you win thank you man it's just so that year the Pullman company made 9.6 million and had a profit rate of 54 percent so while he's cutting all these workers while he's slashing wages he's just making hand over fucking fist money shareholders get dividends perfect and the company has no system for workers to file grievances or even talked up or management there's no no communication whatsoever yep and by the way who needs union on me

so people start taking in borders to help with rents and Pullman which now creates a overcrowded situation and here's how here's how bad it is one worker was left with $3.56 for two weeks work after rent was paid he has a family they are only eating bread and water because that's all they can afford well you're gonna have to cut that water budget eventually he becomes so weak and sick that he can't work so his wife borrows 15 cents to buy a soup bone and liver sausage I'm sorry David some people like me are not familiar with the term soup so it's really you said soup bone so a soup bone is like you cut up

the you cut up a piece of meat you you take all the meat off and then there's just a bone left yeah and and that bone with like some scraps not even scraps you boil it in water to create like a broth so basically what dog just a different way of preparing that's right right okay have you guys tried pigs ears stew also a favorite of the canine that I think could easily transfer to humans another man said workers were dry that's like if you turned a dog into a chef what it would make you know what it like you be like hey dog we just turned into a person what do you want to cook or I'll make a bone soup okay stupid dog little

brained animal okay another man said workers were dropping besides cars while working because they had no food to eat come on remember remember when he remember when George said he was gonna set up his town where everyone would have a great environment to live in and then and then it would increase profit yeah okay yes it's perfect people are dying from not being able to but I apparently bone soup doesn't have a ton of nutrition to it so water heavy did so more and more employees start signing up for a new union called the American Railway Union previous unions are all their their brotherhoods there's the

there's the engineers there's the like ever you're classified by whatever your job is but the American Railway Union is like why don't we get under one big umbrella so on May 4th 1894 exactly one year after the stock market crash and the depression kicked off George comes back from spending a couple of months at the Jersey Shore in his his Jersey Shore house and he goes to Pullman he heard the workers were upset so he and Hattie go and they walk around the town what seems to be the problem oh that's a lot of body well that's more bone soup for you all to cook boil your neighbor eat your

friends come to Pullman Pullman it's time to eat so he walks around with Hattie and they see nothing wrong he speaks to a few guys they're very nice a manager says things are fine and he's like oh it's all good oh oh good all right the next day a committee of workers go to the company and meet with Pullman executive vice president Thomas Wicks they're complaining about pay the work was the same the output is the same but they're being paid much less the rents in Pullman are way too high so they want more pay double time for Sunday work they want lower rents and then there's a problem with the foreman in the plants

they're incompetent they're abusive they're wasteful they allocate work and and pay based on favoritism and quote petty despotism and then they also want to know why the company is hiring extra guards if it doesn't have money weird area to be throwing money I'll say that's a weird staff to be solidified this time yes so there's not enough money to hire more of you people but the people who will beat you people if you become sentient people those are the people right we're having beaters a lot of job openings for beaters if we're looking at we're really looking for clubbers and beaters those are the areas

of hiring we're going through now so yeah we'll take a pump that economy is booming it'll take a puncher if you're a week we can do punchers if it is someone has a history of punching we find it's easy to train them up to clubbers so they meet with this guy wicks and wicks says Pullman cars are not making money and the plant was only open he says to give men work it's losing money it's just there to keep you guys employed so paying paying more is impossible it just can't happen right yeah no they're not making any money now the residents of the town already owed 70,000 in back rent and he's like you're

not being pushed to pay that like we're not pushing you to get it why are you guys being such dicks about us not making you pay the exorbitant unfair rate it's like and and the the residents like no you're totally pushing us that happens all the time did you guys need more bones I'm not sure what the miscommunication here is do you maybe a set of ribs would be nice so have you guys had cartilage chili that could be you know my grandma they used to you know she would pop out one of her eyeballs when things got tough and boil that up and I have you guys tried angel hair pasta but instead of angel it's berry

berry hair pasta is this guy berry we can just eat his hair with a little bit of a little bit of bone soup mixed in that's just it's like ramen mm-hmm oh yeah it's just berry hair ramen mm-hmm whoa so the workers are like human noodles so the workers were like look if the company folded at least we could then move out of Pullman and to cheaper towns I mean this is a tale this is a black mirror I mean it's just like I mean maybe if we work hard enough we could leave this town pullman work hard enough and you could go back to your other life pullman it's his prison pullman and they're like we could find jobs easier in

the city and so wicks at the end of the meeting wicks sells them he tells them document all your complaints in writing and then come back so two days later they come back and George Howard is the VP of the American Railway Union goes with them and halfway through the meeting with wicks George Pullman enters very dramatic fashion it was clearly all staged and set up right they've been there for a couple hours and also he rolls in and he reads a prepared statement of this there's like 12 people from the the comp 12 workers and he's doing this fucking display walks in dramatically sure he reiterates that the company is

losing money on car building and the car building business he says is very competitive and he gives if he gives them the wages they want he wouldn't win any contracts and the plant would close now we know that's bullshit because he's fucking making handover fist money and yeah 50 54% yeah it's just absolute nonsense guys we cannot afford to pay you okay I mean here's the thing about paying you if we paid you you would have more money I would have less you understand you see one of those sort of yeah that's a problem yeah it's a big issue so you guys eat your friends and I'll stay really really really rich have

you ever had double boiled soup bone have you ever tried just putting your hand in warm water and then calling that wrong is that possible so look he says as far as the rents go at being in the employer in the landlord those are two totally separate things and a landlord doesn't set rents based on what people are making I cannot believe like I'm two people and I fighting with myself does that make sense to you I'm the head of two departments and I can't I won't fuck myself over do you get it and then he says he was only getting a 3.8 2% return on rents and he wanted to get 6% so he he's saying to these people who can't

afford food after they pay rent that he expected a larger return from his residential properties and their their blood money is not toned there's tone deaf and then there's just straight up this is no different than just coming in the room taking out your dick and just peeing on everybody's face like it's the craziest does that make sense does everyone understand what I'm doing here so this is what I'm trying to tell you so he also Charlie open your mouth let me get it in there he also said look I'm being very nice by not going to court to get back rents because where I'm also the judge in the Pullman County courthouse

because he said he thought of the workers as quote his children oh good I mean what a frick it's just what kind of person is like I'm cool with my child eating fine he then said he was really great for keeping the shops open when they were losing money so at the end of it he gives himself props he's like look I'm doing a great fucking job here you know what I think we should increase wages for me I'm really crushing this I've really been great so after that the employees are like we want more pay we want more money and they asked to go into arbitration in George's like we're not doing legal arbitration and then he

said quote there's nothing to arbitrate what a what a legal process when you're basically like there's no there's I'm sorry no it's just not gonna work for me yeah yeah it's like breaking up with someone in there like I'm afraid we're together no I think this is no different than him reaching his pocket and going hey what about this and pulling out a fucking middle finger like it just it's the craziest but although things are getting so bad there they might be like we'll take it there's a lot of meat on that no no I'm saying fuck you so Wix had promised that there would be no retaliation against anybody on the

committee and George is like yes there will be no no retaliation the meeting ends oh yes no we won't take this personally shut that door call the beating when the meeting ends George and Wix according to Kelly quote congratulated themselves for defusing the situation so they're so out of their fucking minds that they don't see that he has just come in and said the absolute craziest shit to human beings who just want food he is just I mean he is and then at the end he's like I think that went pretty well I got a point across oh they left without incident well done didn't it yeah I mean but that is you

know I it is always I mean that is what is just constantly happening is they're just finding new ways to just keep the ruse going as long as possible you know so then the next day three of the committee members are fired interesting well at least they stuck to their word so look the workers at the Pullman company are already fucking pissed and this just sets them over the edge they're fucking livid yes now union leaders are opposed to a strike and and there's a multitude of reasons for it they're not organized for one they're not set up Pullman can last forever with all the money he's got how long can they

go like there's a lot of a lot of things and then what what happens with the public relations a lot of reasons so the Pullman workers vote after the firings and okay the firings were pretty much the final offense a wildcat strike will begin on May 11th based on dangerous working conditions low pay poor treatment everything just everything everything now Wix is just shocked he cannot believe what's happening and he says that the three workers who were fired had not been fired because they were on the committee but they were fired for it's hard for other reasons a total misunderstanding it's unrelated oh my

god did you think that we fired them because of its support oh my lord no no they weren't washing their hands we had to get rid of them they weren't washing their hands it's just so oh my god imagine if we would fire people because it threatened our personal exit that it just I'm oh it's a poem I we are what do you take us for stacks of money who have figured out how to wear skin and talk so George says he's surprised because his workers were the best paid in the world cuz I cuz I said so okay labor leaders the Chicago Civic Federation newspapers they all urge George to agree to arbitration he refuses

again he says quote nothing to arbitrate that which is fine because that's he said so that's how it works I'm suing you no no no no no no no so that night he goes to his house on the Jersey Shore but there's reporters camped out all over the place oh reporters strange so he takes a train up to to his house in northern New York in the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence to avoid the reporters that's pretty I mean this is some Saddam Hussein and the name he named the place it's it's what his place in upstate New York Castle rest fucking hey that's where Skeletor lives

castle rest oh good lord burn at the castle four days after the workers walked out the Pullman Palace car company paid out their usual 2% dividend to stockholders $600,000 because yeah but Dave they you understand that it's so hard to do that when you're not making any profit like 46% nonprofit you know I'm saying yeah yeah a lot almost yeah sorry we don't have any money oh except for these people who aren't doing anything well these people work so hard strike leaders warned the workers to avoid violence it to be fair though Dave you know if to find soulless pieces of shit that have no empathy or humanity it

does cost pretty it's very hard like in order to pay someone to remove their soul from their body there's a fee you know you've got to pay you cannot just pay that minimum wage because they are forgoing heart love any of it just I mean you've got to pay for that it's a little I agree with you you know if you basically want a husk you've got to throw money at it now strike leaders tell the workers avoid violence avoid property damage because it'll be used against them they actually go as far as to surround the plant with strikers to keep it safe from company saboteurs most papers said the workers would lose

because George could hold out for months but at the same time they do attack George some papers start calling him the Baron or Duke and saying the town of Pullman was like a feudal manner okay well that's a better name instead of Castle rest so he's he's such an egregious violator of humanity that even the newspapers that always take the side of business are like this guy this guy's just and yet I mean it needs to be egregious right for them to actually be like you know he's not perfect yeah which is why someone like Bezos buys the paper that's correct so in early June the American Railway Union holds their

National Convention in Chicago the union is run by a former railway worker Eugene Debs they have 150,000 members now it's they've just had a very successful strike against the Great Northern Railroad which was owned by one of George's buddy Big Jim Hill now the ARU debates at the convention about opening membership to African Americans right so now we're talking about the the reporters Deb argues in favor but ARU members vote it down 112 to 110 for a whites only union huge damn it huge who was the way this country could have changed if workers had gotten together over race lines and work together we

would live in a different country and yet I mean it's I mean yeah it is like the way that they have been able to insert race into the class it's just yeah it's it's done it's maniac it's exactly how they plan it so a few days later the Pullman strikers appeal they're hearing the Pullman workers and saying should we get on board with this striker do start a boycott or whatever with the the ARU so one Pullman worker a father of four quote when a man is sober and steady and has a saving wife and after working two and a half years for a company he finds himself in debt for a common living something must be wrong

another quote we are born in a Pullman house fed from the Pullman shops taught in the Pullman school cataclysm in the Pullman church and when we die we go to Pullman hell so just set that to music so the ARU agrees to back the Pullman strikers with boycotts that afternoon that afternoon 11 Pullman employees go to Wilkes and ask him will you arbitrate and Wilkes said he couldn't respond to rep of the ARU because the Pullman company didn't recognize the ARU's existence wait what that's wicks the guy from VP like the VP of right okay so he so this what happens okay the so they're so there's they just have these I mean

it's basically like very much how it is now where you just like I choose to not acknowledge the reality you're not real so oh oh you're an apparition yeah I mean they go there they go there with a rep from the ARU and the guy's like I'm sorry you're not real I'm sorry I don't negotiate with boogie men on June 20th the ARU informed the Pullman company if there was no response on June 26 members would boycott Pullman by refusing to handle trains with Pullman cars okay there Pullman it's gotten to this point there's a lot of public pressure to settle because it's a big deal the trains are a big fucking deal but the Pullman

company insisted and kept saying quote there's nothing to arbitrate so June 26 comes that's the deadline and crowds gather by Chicago rail stations hoping to see some action I mean people are down there like this is gonna be great right George walks from his mansion to the 12th Street station to watch the diamond special leave now the diamond special is a very very fancy luxury train made 100% of Pullman cars it's just a Pullman car train and it's going to st. Louis it's full of Democrats heading to their convention uh-huh all the fuck you all diamond Democrats fuck you was pulling out

riding in the eat our shit part so but the diamond special leaves the train without incident people are like what George George walks back to his mansion a kid yelled at him wake till tomorrow so so but the night switchman at the Illinois Central Station refused to handle the diamond special supervisors had to figure out how to do it themselves but had no idea that's good that's cool that's cool to be on a train that's like what's going on up there like they're just figuring out how to switch it by morning Illinois Central switchmen were refusing all Pullman cars the railway company fires anyone who's

not following orders so then 2,500 trainmen and shop workers walk off the job in response to the firings and say you have to give the guys their jobs back the entire line is frozen within three days Chicago Great Western Northwestern Burlington Baltimore and Ohio Northern Pacific and Western India rail systems are tied up completely crowds on the south side Chicago block the tracks it's almost like the workers have so much so much power crowds on the south side block the tracks freight passenger and suburban trains are stopped as people yell at railroad officials who are now trying to do the

jobs of workers the boycotts spread to 27 states wow oh my god can you imagine how can you I mean a hundred carloads of bananas rotted on the tracks between New Orleans and Chicago and you just heard 500 ants say we'll make bread don't worry we'll make bread across the country meat and vegetable prices doubled ice prices quadrupled the strike was affecting oil plants sugar refinery refineries fruit canneries in California flour mills in Wisconsin and brewers in Milwaukee perhaps to considers chartering a steamboat to get beer to Chicago that's amazing I mean it's I look it's it's amazing in many

metrics because it does I mean it just you can gum up the works and you have to gum up the works it's also amazing that perhaps there's like we made a beer submarine get it over there we shall not be controlled the people need their bubbly ale and by the way that's perhaps blue ribbon like imagine if you're like we've got a boat it's coming in with beer don't worry awesome what kind is it perhaps blue ribbon tell the turn Chicago's meatpacking district was shut down the carcasses start to stink it this strike is way more effective than anyone thought it would be it's way beyond anyone's expectations so the

Chicago Tribune labeled Eugene Debs dictator Debs other papers pick up on it I can't wait to find out that he wanted like you know like a mattress to sleep on when he was on the road and people go this out of touch prick so people are running with that label editors portray Debs as a monarch who did what he wanted with the railroads now again George Debs was not for the strike he was being led by the workers he actually didn't think they should have struck because he didn't think they could win right but he I mean so he's probably like thank you now I should have had that follow but it's going far

better than he ever imagined yeah so he would have signed up for this George has his mansion put under guard a Chicago mansion he has all the servants removed and his most valuable silver plate locked in a vault inside the Pullman building it's been right there like we need guillotines it's just so like that if you are like if you have a plate guard it's it's no you go to the Hague that's new it's a new thing if you are on that if you can employ a guard for your plate we don't need you in our Smithers save the plate oh my god I just I mean people are starving and he's like don't let them

touch the plate he takes his family and his servants to the Jersey Shore summer home they ride on separate trains they took a they took a less fancy car so not to be noticed not a Pullman car from another company hopefully it's got a bar been the company stays consistent quote nothing to arbitrate there's nothing to our George makes no official statements he he goes out of his way to make sure it seems like he doesn't care he's acting very nonchalant but in his diary he's freaking out he's totally worried nervous the jet the General Managers Association was an anti-union group made up of rich owners of the 24

railroads serving Chicago and they hold a meeting they refuse to communicate with the ARW GMA's plan according to historian Almont Lindsey quote the strategy of the Association was to draw the US government into the struggle and then make it appear that the battle was no longer between the workers and the railroads but between the workers and the government the GMA did not want the GMA did not want to get the trains moving but rather to slow them down to upset the public right a rumor began that the GMA was pressuring George to make a deal and one of the GMA members made sure everyone knew that was not

true quote we have organized to resist the strike to the bitter end now they now considered the situation to be beyond just George Pullman the GMA considered this to be an industrial war between the ARU and the GMA one of the one the New York Times would call quote the greatest battle between labor and capital that has ever been inaugurated in the United States sued you're doing it in this corner in this corner ready to remove all workers rights and dignity the GMA and at this corner weighing in with many many grievances looking to give workers a living wage and a sustainable existence and make their

families happy and give them enough time to have a vacation the ARU only one can leave you'll pay for the whole seat but you'll only need the edge so that's the end of part one references Carl Smith urban disorder and the shape of belief the great Chicago fire the Haymarket bomb and the model town of Pullman as I said Jack Kelly the edge of anarchy Susan Eleanor Hirsch after the strike a century of labels labor struggle at Pullman Thomas Crawwell with William Phelps failure of the presidents from the whiskey rebellion to the war of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs the air and contra-affair Jimmy stamp traveling

style and comfort the Pullman sleeper car so you you obviously see the comparisons between this person and Amazon they're they're clear as fucking day and yes it is and one thing that everyone needs to sort of consider when they realize how big Amazon is getting Amazon is you know taking over and it's shutting down small businesses all over the country right you know now you can't go there's just there's just things you can't get like there's things that you have to order online now because if you go to get them they're not available within 20 miles or something that's just nothing there's just items that you

can't buy yeah the more that that happens the more Amazon opens himself up to a strike that will cripple things we sign train cars box cars