Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-02-22
ress anil 9akotaiaa
TIE READING TROUBLES.
THE TESTIMONY BEFORE THE CON,
OCCASIONAL COMMITTEE

sstt aEE-LrSEas5a $500 E-GstaEENN
cahiiI, at the Head of tho Striking Rail-
readers, "Details the Grievances OF the
workmen-A Mine workers. Story of
InyestInsnt and Profits.
louisville. Pa, Feb 21,-The con
gressional Investigation committee had
ander fro Joseph Cahill, secretary of the
striking railroaders' executive committee.
ietestiiied he was employed by the COM
pauy in various positions for the past
eleven years, and was at the head of the
railroaders' grievance committee. He
said: AFTER seven months work, on
Dec. !, we had all the employees complete
" organized into forty -eight assemblies.
There was considerable tyranny prac-
ticed, but up to September Last all grew
ances were settled satisfactorily. After
the Lehigh strike began, Il convention
at Shamokin voted to give the
strikers moral and financial aid,
n opened headquarters at Potts
Vile. We had the strike virtually
WOE when we got word that the COM
pany was shipping Lehigh coal, and I
got word from Lee to go to Shamokin,
where the company was loading Penn
sylvania cars at their transfer chutes.
The grievance was that the Philadelphia
q Reading company was furnishing the
Lehigh Valley company with coal in face
of Supt. Sweigard's agreement to abstain
from that course. Then this was fol-
lowed by the trouble at Port Richmond
n Elizabethport, and altogether the
men had enough grievances to strike.n
lie cited cases of grievances which had
boen settled by the company through
his committee's exertions. zone OF
the main IA first grievances acted upon
was against Dispatcher DOTS, at Palo
Alto He is considered one of the great
est ~tyrants in the state. We held his
case back six months before we published
10. We proved that he had company men
to do his private work, ETC." AS an in
stance OF Dotts' tyranny, witness said,
that he tDotts) suspended a Young man
for attending the funeral of his own
father, who was blown up in Dots pres
ence. He next touched on the Broth
hood troubles, and then followed with q
grievance where for three months the men
never had o Sunday off, and, besides
working seven days in the week were not
even. given the nightS to sleep. We asked
the company to abolish Sunday work; to
run canal boats to ease the railroad; to
comply with the semi-monthly pay list,
all OF which W. dropped when Sweigard
pledged that the company was getting
solid. Sweigard made verbal promises
not to carry Lehigh coal. Ysrcfaim that
the company premeditated causing the
strike.
Superintendent Levis, of the William
Penn, the largest Individual colliery in
the region, next took tie stand. He
described his experience and the pro-
cess OF miniig, and said: sLast
year we shipped 300, 900 tons Of coal and
made an average profit OF nineteen cents
q ton. We make less than ten cents at
$500, and sometimes ii is that much on
the other sido. Our miners earn from
O. 10 Sc 80 e aapY.er an af
pTv 20 $5U n month. He further Stated
that the entire cost of the mine was $780,
GOO besore there was anything realized
!ss5ur the shipments Of the coal. If our
coal should go into default the plant
would lot be worth $50, 600. This ceased
the testimony for the day.