Randa Abdel-Fattah

This is Alison Dirk, director of the Eugene V. Debs Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana.

It's important to keep in mind that Debs still believed that labor and capitalism could coexist, that it was just a matter of fixing the system, not overhauling it.

Despite the setback, Eugene Debs stayed committed to the fight.

And in 1894, when he was 38 years old, he got his chance to do something big.

He went toe-to-toe with the Pullman Palace Car Company.

The Pullman Palace Car Company transformed rail travel in the late 19th century.

They were responsible for building the luxury rail cars that everyone, who could afford it, wanted to travel in.

And the thing is, a lot of workers dreamed of making those cars and getting to work at Pullman.

Because Pullman workers got to live in the company town, and the living standards there were better than average.

But it wasn't all great.

Workers had no room to speak out if something was wrong for fear of getting fired.

And when the country faced a big economic downturn in the 1890s...

This turned into a big problem.

Pullman slashed wages, but didn't lower the rent or the cost of groceries or utilities.

Pullman workers couldn't make ends meet.

As the Pullman workers grew more and more frustrated, many decided to join the American Railway Union, the ARU, the powerful industrial union founded and run by Eugene Debs.

In May 1894, 3,000 Pullman workers.

After this refusal to negotiate, the workers with Depp's support called for a massive strike.

The New York Times reported, quote, The labor powers have spoken, and the most tremendous strike known to history will be inaugurated tomorrow when the evening whistles blow and 10,000 men abandon their work not to return, it is said, until the Pullman boycott is settled.

The next day, the strike began.