The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-24
ERIE MISMANAGEMENT.
Employees Uupaid and DemOra ltZed-Uaur
at MorL-The hnd FalLh of Fisk Il de.

Empioyss HnpSid md a. or s.IIizedEUsurers .Iiz
About year ago the Erie Railway Company
effected settlement with the STRIKERS" along
the line by promising that all employees shoald
receive between the 18th and 18th of each month
their wages for the previous month. These
promises have not been fulfilled in single in
stance, and payday has been deferred month
after month, until, in many cases. the company
owed from 90 to 80 days wages. 1t requires
more than 800, 600 month to pay employees on
the Eastern Division alone; and this large
amount being withheld from 80 to 60 days after
it is due causes much suffering In hundreds of
families.
Beginning at Jersey City, the employees are
paid in the following order:-Dscharged men,
engineers, firemen, conductors, brakemen,
clerks, machinists, and laborers. The paymas-
ter then proceeds to the various stations and
pays agents, operators, clerks, mechanics, aud
laborers, until The end of the division is reached.
The trip occupies from three weeks to month.
Thus 1t will be seen that the most destitute re-
ceive their wages last Many of the laborers
are improyident, and spend their wages not only
before they are received, but before they are
earned These men are always in debt to their
landlord, grocer, or butcher, aud when the Erie
Company fails to pay, these are the ones who
are most distressed. A haggard, squalid looking
woman applied not many days since, to Jersey
City grocer for provisions but was refused be-
cause of an Indebtedness already incurred.
Her debt amounted to $967, while the Erie
owed her husband nearly 300 In fact. so great
is the distrust in regard to the Erie Company
and its employees, that many tradesmen inva-
riably refuse TO credit any person who is de-
pendent upon that corporation for money to
pay his debts. 1t Is therefore very difficult for
an Erie employe to obtain even the common
necessaries of life. number of spectators
along the line are engaged In the disreputable
business OF buying up the mems pay rolls at
discount. 1t is asserted that ring" has been
formed for this purpose, and that it receives the
encouragement of the Erie managers From 8
TO 10 per cent. a month is charged by these Shy
locks.
About the first of each month, many of the
employees receive vouchers for the previous
months wages. These are sold to whomsoeyer
will buy. A banking corporation In Port Jeryis
purchases, at a discount of 3 per cent from
$40, 0Q0 to $4,000 worth per month. The
vouchers are redeemed, by representatives of
the companp, ON or about the 10th of each
month, when, 1t is said, the commission is
divided. Such a state of affairs contributes
largely to the Generalization of the force em-
ployed en- the road and creates intense dissatis-
faction. 1t is reasonable TO suppose that any
prudent corporation would endeavor to break up
This usury system, but the Erie seems rather to
lend Its influence TO perpetuate it. For several
years past an Erie Railway clerk at Jersey
| City has carried on thriving business in lend
ing money to unfortunate employees at the
Ruinous rate of ten per cent. for one month or
| less. Sometimes 1t happens that the borrower
| requires the money for week or ten days only,
| but the ten per cent. is invariably exacted. The
| extortioner lie protected by the privilege of de-
Quoting from the pay of an employe the full
amount of principal and usury. The INDECENT
! clerk the destitute laborer, the distressed hus-
band of an invalid wife, the poverty-stricken
/ father of dying child, and the care-worn
parent of starving family, all appeal to the
! extortioner for temporary relief, and none are
refused.-N. Y. Tribune today.