Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-10-27
Whole Number 1899.
samuel J. Trlden, a LabOrlnz Man.

That was cheap bait which Coy. Tilden
flung out for the vote Of the working men,
when, in his Albany speech, after his nom-
inatiOn, he said: ave are all labOring
men, but, when they read the record Of
his dealings with the workmen in his mines
IN the Lake Superior region, no working
man will bite at that bait. Gov. Tilden
was the chief owner of the New York mine
at lshpeming, and was largely interested in
Che Iron Cliffs Mining Company, of Ne
gs9nee, and the Michigan Iron Company,
oI Ciarks6urg. These are the companies
that hooded the Upper Peninsular of Mich
gan Win thelr shinplasters, known as the
iron currency. II was forced into cireula-
uon Dy showing 1t upon the companies
| WOrKmen IN payment OF their wages. This
! dishonest currency, which Gov Tilden's
companies forced upon their workmen in
payment for honest labor, was, in order to
defrsud the Government out Of the tax upon
paper circulation, issued in the form of
drafts, payable in sixty and ninety DAYS
after date, which made it requisite, to fx
the liability of the companies, that there
should be presentment, protest notice, etc.,
at maturity. The only pretense for redemp-
ton was in ''Store goods, for which, at
such inflated prices as they chose to de-
mand, it was exehangeable at the compa-
MES stores. In truth, it was wholly ire
deemable currency, issued without author
lty OF law, and without security Of any
sort, and thousands Of dollars of it in
amount, now utterly worthless, are out
standing in Michigan to-day, being precise
ly so many evidences of what the eompa-
MES Swindled their employees and the hold
ers out of, and Gov. Tilden added his
share Of it to his millions, while the dishOn-
ored shinplasters drawn upon his own Sec
retary still abound in the Upper Peninsular
as samples of what Gov. Tilden means by
honest currency.
IL 1875 his Michigan Iron Company was
put into bankruptcy, owing about $50, 900 |
to Its miners and labOrers, which remains |
unpaid. Immediately prior to the adjHdi-
cation in bankruptcy, and when that was
fOrseen to be inevitable, the Hon. William
Breiting, and other high minded gentle
men interested in the company, Yoluntari-
ly agreed, upon condition that all the |
stockholders would join in that undertake |
ing, to make up out of their private funds |
the full amount to pay the companys Ia |
borers in full. This arrangement failed,
because one of the stockholders refused to |
enter into it after all the others had agreed |
to do it. That stockholder was Samuel ]. |
Tilden. 1t would have cost him about |
81, 300 out of all his bar'ls Of money to do j
it. In truth, it would simply have cost /
him the payment of an honest debt to that
amount, which was his pro rata share of
the company's debt to its hands, For that
too, under the charter Of the company
and lawslof the State, he was legally liable.
But to get the money out Of him they
would have had to go to New York to sue
him, and as he remarked when this view Of
it was presented by one of the honest stock
holders who psoposed to pay the men their
wages, ''nOt much was to be made by com
ing so far to sue." 1t is shabby exhibit
tiOn Gov. Tilden presents, talking in a
demagogie strain of himself as a laboring
man, with his iron Companies repudiated
palmed off upon their work
men, still outstanding, and with the Michi-
gan Iron Company's hands still unpaid, be-
cause he refused to contribute towards
their payment, the paltry amount for which
he was legally and morally liable, but
which he leaves them to get by law, if they
can. 1t shows that Samuel j. Tilden, la
boring man, is as great fraud as Samuel
]. Tilden, political reformer.