Today in History: Pullman Strike

On this date in...1894 - May 11, 1894: It had been praised as the ideal community, the Utopian village. George Pullman had seemingly solved the problems of industrialization by creating such a village centred on the sleeping railcar industry. People had good living conditions, with rowhouses across town. Everything was going smoothly. Pullman's invention of the sleeping railcar had impressed visitors to the city for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. People were living comfortably with the amount they made working for Pullman.
But a financial depression hit nationwide that year. And Pullman sharply cut wages to save money. But he also said that since rents would not increase in a time of flourishment, they should not decrease in a time of recession. People were getting paid less and still had to pay lofty rents.
The workers, with the backing of the American Railway Union and leader Eugene V. Debs, organized a strike on May 11, 1894. The strike only lasted a few months, but the imprisonment of Debs paved the way for him to organize the American Socialist Party. Pullman died a few years later and his town was sold off in 1898 after being deemed "uncompatible with the American spirit."
Pullman tried to make the perfect society, but instead created the company store.
This date in history effectively put the end to the idea of a Utopian society. It also served as a benchmark event of the workers revolution and paved way to the Socialist party.
Pullman