“How to Settle the Strike”, 1894

‘’Big Pullman, and big other boys,
Are quarrelin’, just now,
With Labor Kids, and Union Kids
An hence this family row
Don’t wait to find out which is right,
Or which is the worst;
Just grab the gad, like my ole dad,
And lick the big boys first.’‘

“How to Settle the Strike” 1894

L. B. Coke wrote to Congress in verse with his ideas for settling the Pullman railroad strike. He wanted to punish both sides, but, like a father with misbehaving sons, Uncle Sam should not favor either side but should “lick the big boys first”—the railroads.

National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate