Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1882-09-16
A OR SCAB.''
The Question of MIR. Powning's
Right to One of These Titles.

Virginia Chronicle, Sept. 10.
The Enterprise of last Sunday having
editorially denied the charge that G. G.
Powning. Republican candidate for Con-
gress, can justly be termed a rat" or
"scab," q Chronicle reporter yesterday in
terviewed D. e. Mccarthy of this city, who
was foreman of the Sacramento Union
Office at the time the office was rated. The
reporter called Mr.. McCarthy's attention
to the Enterprises article, which declared
that the charge was an unjust attack" a
campaign SANDER" which had long ago
been proved to be untrue; that Powning
was then ''only an apprentice" and that
therefore the charge of rafting could not
hold good. He then began to examine the
witness as follows:
Union Office when the printers strike re-
ferred to occurred, were you not7
Mr.. McCarthy--I was foreman of the
Office at the time you mean, but no print
ers' strike occurred; it was a proprietors'
strike. They were paying IS cents q thous-
and, and served a demand for a reduction
to 80 cents, and insisted upon an answer
the same day, saying that they had men
ready to take our places if the reduction
was refused. We were in honor bound not
to reduce below the San Francisco rate,
which was then 65 cents, and so we refused
and were fired out.
Reporter-Was Mr.. Powning then an
apprentice in the Officer
Mr. McC.-No, sir; there were no APP
| prentices in the Office. Apprentices were
never allowed on morning papers working
under the Trade Union rules.
Reporter-When did Mr.. Powning ap-
pear In the Office?
Mr.. McC.-Hs came in with the rats.
The old h~ands-thirty of the finest print
ers / ever saw in a single otice-were
turned off on Saturday afternoon. No
| paper was issued on Sundays. The pub
fishers had not told the truth when they
SAID they had men ready to fill our places.
They telegraphed at once to every town
and village in the State for anybody who
knew how to set type, and engaged men
at all sorts Of prices; to some l know they
paid as high as rs cents, aud to none less
than 80. On Monday the office was in
possession of forty or fifty of the worst
looking gang you ever saw-men and boys
and one or two women.
Reporter-And was the Hon. @. G..
Powning in the rat brigade2
Mr.. McC.-Christopher Columbus
Powning was in the brigade.
Reporter-About what was his age then?
Mr.. McC.-Of course l cannot exactly
say, but he was old enough to step in and
take the place of some one of the thirty
good men who were discharged because
they would not violate their pledge Of
honor.
Reporter-Did the Trade Union printers
consider that the charge of rafting could
not hold good against him if he was not
fully twenty-one years OF age!
Mr.. McC.-I never heard the subject
discussed, but let us suppose a parallel
case here. Suppose the managers of one
of our mines should to-day notify their
miners and carpenters that their wages
must be reduced at once. The men would
quit Of course. Suppose, next, that the
mine managers should gather up all the
bar-room bummers and check-guerrillas
in town and set them to work in place of
the regular hands, and that among the
s'scabs" there should be some men under
81 years Of age, but old enough to swing
q pick or handle a drill; that the old
miners, having no means OF redress and
no chance Of getting work anywhere else
in the city-for that was our predicament
In Saoramento-should pack up their
household goods and trudge off with their
families to Utah, or Arizona, or some
mining camp elsewhere--how would you
expect these men to feel In such q case as
this3
Reporter-In such a case as thisP
Mr.. McC.-Yes; | mean that il after the
lapse of q few years a handsome young
man should turn up as q candidate fol
Congress in the locality where any of these
old discharged miners or mechanics hap
pened to be, and they found that this can
didate was one Of the crowd which had
rated them out OF their work on the Com
stock-broke up their homes and turned
them adrift as wanderers and tramps-hoW
would they be likely to feel towards him
Would they agree with the Enterprise tina
"a charge Of rafting does not hold good
against him, because he says he was no
fully 81 years old when he went to work il
the rated mine at the reduced wages?
Reporter-I should say not.
Mr.. McC.-Well, I ar not now dis
posed to pass judgment. but have simpl,
given you the facts. Let printers. miners
and mechanics decide the fine points FOL
themselves.