Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-10-28

the best system we Know OF and Is far
superior to pass books. We are paid
in cash on monthly pay days, and can
draw cash at. any time during the
month. The coupon system is only u.s.
ed when we prefer dealing at the store,
and that is entirely voluntary on our
part. The system avoids keeping ac-
counts by the .workingmen. Our en-
ployers inaugurated the system ut the
suggestion and request of some of our
workmen. They have always been
willing to abolish it if the employees had
made the request. To say this state
ment bears any relation TO the odious
store order system is falsehood and
slander upon us knights of Labor, as
well as upon General Beaver as an en-
ployer of labor.
KNIGHTS OF LABOR OFFENDED.
The circular is the first political pa
per ever distributed to the Labor as
semblies of the state, and it has offend
ed Knights OF Labor generally, inde-
pendent of their particular views of
General Beavers candidacy. Word has
been received by members or the assem-
bly, in Bellefonte of the circulars hav-
ing been refused d-circulation among the
assemblies, simply because they were
fagrant violation of the established
law of the order forbiddmg the intro
duction of any partisan politics in the
assemblies. The partisan circular thus
sent out has called out counter state
ment from some fifty members of Labor
Assembly 2,333 embracing both Repub-
llcans and Democrats, in which they
deprecate the introduction OF politics
in the order, and especially dissent
from the statement that the assembly
could in any way sanction the use OF
store orders in payment of labor, and
they arraign Master Workman -Haines
for violation of his official obligations
in signing and issuing political circu-
lar. On the subject Of the trade cou-
pons used by the Bellefonte Iron and
Nail Company, the counter circular
says:
1--WE further declare that the invita-
ton in that paper to knights OF Labor
to apply to Assembly 1888 for yindi-
cation of the pay system of the Belle
fonte Iron and Nail Company is entire
" unauthorized by any action of that
assembly ana would certainly meet
with the answer from that body that
one of the fundamental principles of
the order is that nothing but the law
full money of thecountry should be used
for the payment of working people and
that the use of store orders for that pur-
pose is a fraud upon labor and VIOLA
ton of the law.
"In conclusion we assert, FROM reli-
able information, that this paper Ylndl-
eating the store order, system was cir
culated through the nail mill for sigma
lures at the instance. of Republican
politician working for the Republican
state committee. and. such being the
fact it can be looked upon only as po
litical scheme, and its circulation a
mong Knights of Labor can be viewed
in no other light than as an attempt to
prostitute their order to a political pur-
pose. Any member Of the order desir-
ing information concerning the trade
coupon system can have it in plain
terms by applying to the undersigned
members of LA. :, ,333.
The foregoing is signed by James
Schofield J. A. Williams, r. Hutchin-
son, Harry siebert, Grant J. Pelfer,
John Lucas, James Sharp, John Hull,
William Rhoads, ,WilliamStratton, VIM.
Wolf, John Dayis, John Williams and
some forty others, and as it is IN the
line of the clearly defined duties and
obligations of tue Knights of Labor on
political questions, it has the general
approval of the members of that large
organization In Bellefonte and through
out the state.
The Bellefonte Circular Dlsavowed.
The Wilkesharre NelUsdealer, the re-
organized organ VI GnO l"oOAAh~ A~Af
contains interviews with Thomas Dull
lard president of the Miners and La
borers' Amalgamated Association and
William FL. Hines, the author of the
company store bill of 1879, in which
they say in substance that the circular
letter sent cut by thirty-three Belle
fonte workingmen cannot be approved
by organized labor, that an increasing
battle has been waged for years against
the insulting, swindling and oppressive
company store system and the recent
decision of the supreme court declaring
the company store act of 1881 uncUnstlI-
tutional, makes it imperatively neces-
sary that the workingmen shall stand
united against store orders of any kind.
They say that Powderly's opposition to
company stores correctly voices the O.
pinion of laboring men. -
IF Not Store Orders They are
Taxable.
The store order dispute in Pennsyl-
uan,a has heen transferred to Washing