St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-23
President Copbin Writes a
Statement Regarding Trou-
bles On the Reading.
He Says Those Employed Will
Be Retained While They
Are Faithful,
And That the Difficulty on the
Railroad Will Not Be
Opened Again.
The Louisville Courier-Joup-
nal Has an Editorial on It's
Printers Strike.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 22.-President
Corbin, of the Reading railroad, in
answer to the various communications
from people along the line of the road,
Who are deeply interested in the opera
ton f both the railroad and coal and
iron companies, has made long state
ment in regard to the recent troubles
between the companies and their en-
plOyes. He says: SIN December GER
tain carloads of merchandise arrived at
Port Richmond consigned to the Phila-
delphia Grain Elevator company. The
employees of this company at Port Rich
mOnd in charge of the switch engines
refused to transfer these cars to the
elevator company, and gave as a reason
that the company did not employ
Knights of Labor. They were imme-
diately notified that with such q Ques-
ton this company had nothing to do:
that we were common carriers and
bound to receive and deliver freight to
any person or company that
offered it to us and paid
for transportation. Notwithstand-
ing this they still refused to make the
transfer, and an order was issued by the
general manager of this company for
their discharge from the service of the
company. Because of that action the
leaders of the Knights of Labor ordered
all the employees of the Philadelphia &
Reading Railroad company on strike.
They left the service of the company
with notice to it that they would not re-
turn unless the men discharged were
reinstated. To this the management
answered that the men discharged for
disObedience of orders would never be
reinstated, and this company proceeded
to fill the places left vacant. The men
who left the service of the company had
never made any complaint that thew
were worked all unreasonable number
of hours, that their wages were not fair
wages for the work performed, or that
in any single instance they had been
treated otherwise than kindly by the
management. Notwithstanding this
and that under the terms of their en-
plOyment with the company they were
bOnnd to render
HONEST AND FAITHFUL
service, complying with all reasonable
orders it might make in the regular
transaction of its business, they violated
every obligation of this character, an d
by their own act cancelled any obliga-
ton there might have been on the part
OF the company to retain them i'm its
service. Over $500 men voluntarily left
our service. Competent men presented
themselves for service with the COM
pany. They were employed and will
be retained so long as they perform
their duties faithfully. We have never
made any objection to labor OrganiZa-
tiOnS. So long as men perform the
duties they owe to this company prOp-
erly, we shall stand by them, whether
they be union or nOn-uniOn men. The
trouble Oh the railroad is ended, and
will never be opened up again.
AS to the miners difficulty, he re-
counts the contract made between
them through committee and the
superintendent of the coal and iron
company, and says: ''An advance of
wages was granted for four months and
the contract was made and reduced to
writing at the request of the miners
themselves. By this agreement the
company paid, ih addition to the basis
wages, the sum of S242, 900. NOtwith-
standing the terms of the agreement the
miners refused to continue at work in
the mines after the first day of January,
as they had promised to 90. They did
Ds
would not reinState the men who were
discharged on the railroad; and, second,
because we would not continue the s
per cent advance which we had under
this agreement paid four months: and
we are informed they would on no basis
of wages have been willing to return to
work, unless we had first
REINSTATED THE RAILROAD MEN
or arbitrated that question. That ques-
tiOn is ended, and no matter in connec-
tiOn with that strike will ever be sub
mitted to arbitration. AS to the uues-
ton of wages to be paid to miners, we
have always paid and have always been
willing to pay as high wages for mining
coal as any of the large companies
which are selling coal in the market i'm
competition with this one" Mr.. Corbin
concludes: For reasons which every
business man can understand, it would
be impossible for us to maintain even
solvent corporation, much less return
anything to the shareholders, if we
were compelled to pay for our product
more money than our neighbOrs pay for
theirs. We regret exceedingly that this
action on the part of the employees of
our road, as well as the action of the
miners, promises to bring such disas-
trOuS results, but there is no alternative
for this company that can see, except
to insist upon: First, the right to man
age its own property: and second, the
right to employ labor in the mining of
its coal so that it will have at least an
equal chance with it's neighbors in
every competitive market. For the
twelve years commencing Jan. l, 1876,
and ending Jan. l, 1888, this company
has mined 100000 tons of coal; paid
for it to its miners, $57, 10000, and has
re, eived as the net proceeds for the coal
so mined only s44, $40. 900, making an
actual loss in the mining of it's coal of
S12,270,000 during that period. In other
words, we have distributed throughout
the country 81, 100000 tons of coal, the
miners have received every dollar of
net money we obtained for it and we
lost in the operation $12,27O, 900 besides,
and during all the twelve years the
stockholders of the railroad company
which transported this coal, who have
paid up $40, 100000 of money for their
stock, have not received cent by way
of dividends, and they have just been
called upon, with a portion of the Junior
securities, to pay in by way of assess
ments, S12,OO0,0OO of fresh money to
make good the losses of the companies"