364 Chapter 16 | prosperity and reform | period seven 1890 –1945cost for labor and materials. Against this the loss to labor by the reduction of
wages paid on this work was over $60,000, making the wages of June, 1893, the
basis of comparison. It also had $1,354,276.06 of unaccepted bids, upon which
its similar loss would have been $18,303.56, or 1.35 per cent. Assuming that the
analysis submitted as to the cost of several lots of cars affords a fair basis for
averaging the whole of the contracts, it appears that the average percentage of
cost of material in this contract work was about 75 per cent. Hence while the
amount of loss was nearly equally divided, it seems that the percentage of loss
borne by labor in the reduction of wages was much greater than that sustained
by the company upon material. Three-quarters of the loss for the company and
the balance for labor would have more fairly equalized the division of loss on
these contracts.Report on the Chicago Strike of June–July, 1894: With Appendices Containing Testimony,
Proceedings, and Recommendations (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1895),
xxxii.p raCtICING historical thinking
Identify: Describe the successes and challenges of the Pullman Company, as
reported by the document above.
Analyze: Does this report depict the company as being fair to its employees?
Explain.
Evaluate: What values are expressed by this report’s critique of the Pullman Company?Document 16.2 LoUiS GiLrod and david Meyrowitz,
“a Boychik Up-to-date”
c. 1900The word boychick is a combination of the English word boy with the Yiddish word tshik,
meaning “little” or “cute.” The image below is from the cover of a piece of sheet music
that someone could play on a home piano or entertainers could perform at a local the-
ater. The writing at the top is in Yiddish, which was the language of European Jews who
immigrated to the United States in the late nineteenth century.tOpIC I | the Consumer’s City 36517_STA_2012_ch16_361-380.indd 364 01/04/15 2:29 PM