"If it is the determination of the corporation to starve us into submission, the railway employees of the country will not stand by and see us perish. We have already received the strongest assurances of support... we hope yet to convince the world that we are American citizens entitled to the protection of American institutions." — American Railway Union statement, Pullman Strike, 1894
The statement's appeal to "American institutions" was intended to:
- Acheck_circle
Frame the strike as a defense of citizens' rights against corporate power
- B
Endorse federal injunctions against work stoppages
- C
Reject solidarity with workers in other industries
- D
Demand annexation of the Pullman company town by Chicago
Explanation
Eugene Debs and the ARU cast the strike as a citizenship issue, contrasting workers' republican rights with the autocratic power of George Pullman.