Answer:
When business declined in 1894, Pullman cut jobs, wages and hours of work, but did not lower rents or prices in his city. The fact that he did not lower rents, service fees and product prices led his workers to strike, a violent contest that was dissolved by federal troops sent by President Grover Cleveland against the opinion of the governor of Illinois John P. Altgeld.
A federal commission that studied the case of the 1894 strike, ruled that Pullman's paternalism was partially guilty of the problem, and defined the city of Pullman as contrary to American culture. In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court forced the Pullman company to dispose of its urban properties, annexing them to the city of Chicago.
The animosity against Pullman remained, and when he died in 1897, he was buried at night in Graceland Cemetery in a lead-lined coffin with steel reinforcements in a concrete vault. Several tons of cement were poured to prevent his body from being exhumed and desecrated by labor activists.
His position as president of the company was taken by Robert Todd Lincoln, lawyer, former secretary of war and son of President Abraham Lincoln.
