Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-02-25
THE RELIEF FUND SCHEME.
Speech of a Wilmington Railroad
Man at baltimore.

AT the Mount Vernon shops, Baltimore,
| Tuesday afternoon, Master Mechanic j. NJ
Coale called the men together at 3 o'clock
and read letter from President Roberts of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company calling
upon them to nominate two delegates to
tho relief fund conference of Tuesday next
AS the shops at Mt Vernon shut down at
O'Clock, the men were inclined TO believe
that they We're to be hurried into hasty
action. They determined to transact no
business Mt any meeting called by the COM
pany. ID. Il. Clark was called to the chair,
and upon motion it was decided unan-
mously, amidst considerable cheering, to
adjourn Mt once and meet at hall on Lex
ington street in the evening.
AT O'Clock last night 400 or 500 me
packed tightly into the hall and took ,ti
upon the assistance fund delegation. A
inember Of the visiting com nittae, utp
an employee of the Pennsylvania roid
Wilmington, addressed the meeting. !
said: Il come as q messenger frpni I'll
executive committee of the Knight,
Labor and the Brotherhood of Engiuanre
to assist you to protest against dinbulicH
scheme of fraud. If any one of you steal
dollar you are imprisoned for ii
but this law does not seem to
apply to corporations. In Wilmington
we are as one man against this scheme, and
the men for the last four weeks have been
pouring into the X. of l.. We conferred
with the engineers and they said they were
unanimously opposed to it, and would
stand shoulder TO shoulder with the X. of
l.. in this matter. To show you how the
men north Of you stand, l have but to state
that two large assemblies of the Knights of
Labor were formed on Monday by men In
the employ Of this railroad company. Are
we going to be made TO pay out our money
for what we don't want. lCrles of No, no. n
The pay ear has come along the road up
our way and the question has been, who are
you going to send to the conference ? The
answer has always been "A Knight of La
bor.' Tho obnoxious notice of the com
pany was posted in our shop on last Satur-
day after the men had left. Sunday was n
holiday, and Monday a partial one, SO the
idea of quilting the public into be-
lieving that tho road exercised large
hearted liberality in allowing the men
to have voice in this insur-
ance is an empty one. But we have time
anyhow to send men who will say to the
company No insurance for u.s. II you ac-
cept this scheme in modified form, you
accept 1t in its entirety. They will let You
have a voice at the start, but they will grad
ually promulgate their own regulations, to
take effect after such and such IL date"
Another speaker said; Il am for drop
ping this election Of delegates altogether.
When / refused to sign my blank said
No. emphatieally. If we take part in this
we will bear the same relation to the insur-
ance scheme as a voter bears to a pnrty who
votes ut primary election"
The gentleman from Wilmington said that
they had better do as the other shops had
done; TINT is, send delegates to Philadelphia
to say to Superintendent Pugh that ii we
want relief fund we will run one ourselves.
The following resolution was passed unau-
imously with great enthusiasm:
Reso'Ued, That we declace that we will not
accept anything in the shape of a relief nssoca-
ton at the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, or any other corporation,