Editing Pullman Strike (section)

==Public opinion==
[[File:940707-warogers-kingdebs-harperscover-300.jpg|thumb|right|American Railway Union President Eugene V. Debs was pilloried in the press for the disruption of food distribution and passenger traffic associated with the 1894 Pullman Strike.|upright]]

President Cleveland did not think Illinois Governor [[John Peter Altgeld]] could manage the strike as it continued to cause more and more physical and economic damage. Altgeld's pro-labor mindset and social reformist sympathies were viewed by outsiders as being a form of "German Socialism". Critics of Altgeld worried that he was usually on the side of the workers. Outsiders also believed that the strike would get progressively worse since Altgeld "knew nothing about the problem of American evolution."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Rondinone|first=Troy|date=January 2009|title=Guarding the Switch: Cultivating Nationalism during the Pullman Strike|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537781400001018|journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era|volume=8|issue=1|pages=83–109|doi=10.1017/s1537781400001018|s2cid=163078715 |issn=1537-7814|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Public opinion was mostly opposed to the strike and supported Cleveland's actions.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage'' (1933) pp. 624–27</ref> Republicans and eastern Democrats supported Cleveland (the leader of the northeastern [[Bourbon Democrat|pro-business wing]] of the party), but southern and western Democrats as well as Populists generally denounced him. Chicago Mayor [[John Patrick Hopkins]] supported the strikers and stopped the Chicago Police from interfering before the strike turned violent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gildedage.lib.niu.edu/pullmanstrike|title=The Pullman Strike and Boycott|last=Schneirov|first=Richard|website=Northern Illinois University Libraries|access-date=October 16, 2017}}</ref> Governor Altgeld, a Democrat, denounced Cleveland and said he could handle all disturbances in his state without federal intervention.<ref>{{cite book|author=H.W. Brands |title=The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOBpgsNQMwQC&pg=PA153 |year=2002 |publisher=U. of Chicago Press |page=153 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427203854/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOBpgsNQMwQC&pg=PA153 |archive-date=April 27, 2016 |isbn=9780226071169 }}</ref> The press took the side of Cleveland and framed strikers as villains, while Mayor Hopkins took the side of strikers and Altgeld. ''[[The New York Times]]'' and ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' placed much of the blame for the strikes on Altgeld.<ref name=":1" />

Media coverage was extensive and generally negative. News reports and editorials commonly depicted the strikers as foreigners who contested the patriotism expressed by the militias and troops involved, as numerous recent [[immigrants]] worked in the factories and on the railroads. The editors warned of mobs, aliens, [[Anarchism|anarchy]], and defiance of the law.<ref>Troy Rondinone, "Guarding the Switch: Cultivating Nationalism during the Pullman Strike," ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' (2009) 8#1 pp 83–109. {{JSTOR|40542737}}</ref> The ''New York Times'' called it "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital."<ref>{{cite book|author=Donald L. Miller |title=City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0TNXWkIf0wC&pg=PA543 |year=1997 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=543 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428154920/https://books.google.com/books?id=N0TNXWkIf0wC&pg=PA543 |archive-date=April 28, 2016 |isbn=9780684831381 }}</ref> President Cleveland and the press feared that the strike would foment anarchy and social unrest. Cleveland demonized the ARU for encouraging an uprising against federal authority and endangering the public. The large numbers of immigrant workers who participated in the strike further stoked the fears of anarchy.<ref name=":1" /> In Chicago, some established church leaders denounced the boycott, most notably Reverend Englebert C. Oggel pastor of the Presbyterian church in Pullman. Oggel voiced his opposition to the strikes and supported the recent actions of George Pullman. In response, members of the congregation left in large numbers. Conversely, Reverend William H. Cawardine, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Pullman, was a well-known supporter of the ARU and the striking workers. A number of lesser-known ministers also voiced support for workers and claimed that Christ would not neglect those who were suffering.<ref>Heath W. Carter, "Scab Ministers, Striking Saints: Christianity and Class Conflict in 1894 Chicago," ''American Nineteenth Century History'' (2010) 11#3 pp 321–349 {{doi|10.1080/14664658.2010.520930}}</ref>