George Pullman made his fortune off the Pullman Sleeping (train) Car and built a “company town” in Chicago for the workers who manufactured his invention. George exploited his workers, and the black men he hired as porters (who worked for tips only). He worked them long hours for little pay, and charged exorbitant rent and prices for goods purchased inside his company town. The workers organized a strike, the government intervened on behalf of the Pullman Company, and things got violent. Many workers were killed. Eventually, there was an investigation, the courts ordered Pullman to divest his company town and annexed it to the city. As a result, Mr. Pullman died a wildly unpopular man in the city of Chicago, and “fearing that some of his former employees or other labor supporters might try to dig up his body, his family arranged for his remains to be placed in a lead-lined mahogany coffin, which was then sealed inside a block of concrete. At the cemetery, a large pit had been dug at the family plot. At its base and walls were 18 inches of reinforced concrete. The coffin was lowered, and covered with asphalt and tar paper. More concrete was poured on top, followed by a layer of steel rails bolted together at right angles, and another layer of concrete.” (Wikipedia)

The moral of the story? Don’t mess with labor. You’ll go to your grave in fear.

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