Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-08-06
GIl,e caIlfaster 1ntelli9enter.
LANCASTER. AUGUST 6. lsss.
II VIII Not Do.

In the absence of Gen. Beaver his friend
Col. d. II. Hastings and that veteran cam
paigner and explainer, Galusha A. Grow,
have been down to Philadelphia working
out vindication of the Republican candi-
date for governor from the damaging
charge of the Times, that his nail company
pays its men in store orders instead of cash,
contrary to the statutes of the common
wealth in such cases made and provided.
The gist of several columns of defense
printed by the Quay-Cooper organ to-day is
that some of the nail company are Demo
Gratis; the employees are paid in cash. they
are not required to deal at the store it was
established at their request and for their
convenience; and these coupons are issued
books; although bearing on their face
evidence that they are good for trade only,
the explanation says, "unsold coupons can
be returned to the office at any time and
be redeemed in cash. Although the cou-
pons have printed on their face that they
are not transferable this is mere safe
guard in case the book should be lost by
the owner to prevent the purchaser from
loss, as by notice he can at once stop the
finder or wrongful possessor from appropri-
ating it to hisown use and negotiating it -
and finally the explanation explains that
the same system is in operation by the coal
company at Peale, of which Mr.. w. A.
Wallace is director and legal adviser.
Furthermore, the employees of the COM
pany have been procured to sign an address
to Chairman Cooper, testifying to their
cordial relations with the corporation hir-
ing them and issuing the shin-plaster store
orders to them.
"Methinks he doth protest too much.r'
People of experience know exactly what
a" company store means it is generally
the device of contractors and corporations
to make double profit off their labor. In
remote Tegions, unsettled and unprovided
with mercantile facilities, such as are fire.
quently traversed by new railroad lines, it
may be necessary for the convenience of
workingmen that their employers establish
such concerns but within a mile of
Bellefonte, a business centre for a GEN.
euy ~ ocClho lCttoOudblO lIItb tllt
merchandise might be left to individual
enterprise rather than that it be controlled
by the same firm as gives employment to
the workingmen and regulates their wages.
The explanation furnished might possibly
acquit Gen. Beaver were he indicted in
quarter sessions court it seems to indi-
cate that his firm has resorted to a Yankee
patent to evade the letter of the statutory
penalties, while violating the spirit and in
tent of all such legislation. 1t will not
answer for candidate for governor.
Moreover, it is a question whether the
admitted practices of Beavers company
are not violation of the act of June 3,
1885, which forbids the issue, sale or gift
by any retail tradesman of any "ticket or
tickets, check or checks, or other token or
memoranda emitting such purchaser or
customer " to money, trade or gifts. This
is statute for which we have no respect
but, being on the books, gubernatorial
candidate ought to respect it.