St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-02
THAT LABOR TRUST.
Men to be Discharged at
Will and Kept Out Of
Work.
The Contract Under Which
Giebenhein Was Black
Listed.
How Candidate Babb Made
1t Count in Paying His
Men.
Another Chance to Answer
Very Pertinent Cues
tiOnS.

tions.
1t will be remembered that when
Candidate Babb employed Lawyer Kel-
logg to prepare his first interview in re-
Spouse to questions asked in these col
umns, which interview was published
in the Tribune, and republished herein
Thursday last he made no allusion to
the blacklisting of Charlie Giebenhein,
but claimed that all the agreement he
had made with other dealers was that
they should not hire drivers away from
one another-that there was nothing i'll
the agreement aiming to fix the price OF
labor. or in any way regulating their
employment. other than as stated.
Also. that Candidate Babb paid his
drivers or ice-leliverers, as he called
them-s6O a month and allowed them to
quit work at noon. Such was the sub
stance of his lawyer-interview. so far as
the labor question was touched upon.
The GLOBE promptly quoted from the
UIlSlIldl lCC I'll uSU NSlCCInChts ualCU
April 2, 1888, and demonstrated that it
could discharge any emplOye at will,
with or without cause, but demand the
discharge of any employe of either of
discharged or voluntarily quitting work
for the one was to be employed by the
other, and that the rule was to apply to
former employees as well as those but
recently employed. No one who has
read the contract will claim that the
conditions are too broadly stated above.
THE GIEBENHEIN CASE.
TWAS further shown that one Charles
Giebenhein, employed the season be-
fore by Babb and during the winter
cutting ice for himself. had been hired
as driver by Herman Westphal; that
Babb demanded the discharge of said
Giebenhein, under the conditions OF
said labor agreement, and caused a let
ter to be sent to Westphal, the follow
ing being copy of the demand made:
We hereby notify you that unless Charles
Giebenhein is Immediately Withdrawn from
South Minneapolis from soliciting trade.
that we consider our contract broken, and
will not stand by any agreement on the sale
of ice. We consider that you have broken
your contract with us, and if he is not with
drawn at once and kept entirely out of the
ice business, we will notify the other dealers
and withdraw from the agreement and sell
our ice as we please. Mr.. Babh has returned
you.
A more outrageous demand, under
the circumstances, could not well be
imagined-not only that the man be
discharged, but kept entirely out of
the business:'' and this coupled with
the threat that the ice trust should be
broken up unless it was done. 70 the
credit of Westphal be it said. that not
having understood the agreement to
reach former employees. and having en-
ployed Giebenhein in good faith. he re-
fused to, discharge him. Babb, how
ever, didn't ''notify the other dealers
and Withdraw from the agreement" or
our people might have purchased ice at
reduced rates.
So much for the Giebenhein case.
Every one who knows the facts knows
them to be as stated, and notwithstand-
ing his long association with ice, Babb
will find it a very cold day when he gets
even respectable percentage OF the
labor vote. 1t seems. however, that the
Giebenhein case was far from the only
one in which Babb sought to turn his
iron-clad labor agreement to his advan-
tage--that he regarded it as very eff
fectual method of cracking the lash and
cracked it.
SWORN TESTIMONY.
A well known wOrkingman, one who
has resided here since his boyhood and
who is as well liked as he is well known.
visited the GLOBE yesterday. and after
saving that he believed it to be duty
he owed his fellow-wOrking men, be the
personal consequences what they may,
asked the publication of an affidavit
made by him. He requested that his
name be suppressed until such time as
Babb should explicitly deny the state
ments made, in which case the name is
to be divulged and a number of other
affidavits presented. Here is the affi-
davit:
STATE OF MINNESOTA, COUNTY OF
- Hennepin-ss. - being duly
sworn. says that he has worked for E. G.
Babb the president and general manager of
the Cedar, Lake Calhoun and River Ice COM
pany, for three years last past hauling ice
during the winter season and delivering the
same during the ice season. so called, and do
ing such work as was required during the in
tervals between the same: that during that
time depOnent and other drivers and en-
..
working fifteen and frequently more per day,
as we'll as making special deliveries of ice on
Sundays, when required to do SO; that for
such extra service deponent never received,
and as far as he knows no other driver re-
ceived any compensation whatever. but that
when for any reason they failed to work full
time and were absent on account of sickness
or otherwise, the alleged lost time was
promptly deducted. and no payment made
therefor; that in the fall of 1887 it was un-
derstood and agreed between said Babb and
his drivers that they should each receive 80
per week for the winter season, and until
the LIST day of May, 1888, and for six months
thereafter $3.50 per week; that said
first named sum was duly paid from
time to time but u that , after The
Babb refused to pay the additional sum
agreed upon, or any greater sum than nine
dollars per week, until the fifteenth of May;
that said drivers to the number of about
twenty, organized TO demand the increase
promised them. but that said Babb relying
upon his contract with other dealers not to
employ men who might quit his employ. per-
sistently refused TO yield to said demand and
claimed to be, and was, master of the situa-
ton; that no strike occurred, for the reason
that the drivers ascertained that during the
month previous, said Babb and other dealers
had entered into formal agreement, by the
terms of which none of the drivers en-
ployed by the one were to be allowed under
any circumstances to be employed by the
other, and that if they quit work they would
be forced into other employment than that
they pest understood; that rather than lose
seasons work they remained at work. and
submitted to what they believed to be an un-
Unsuitable wrong to which, being poor men,
they had to submit, and thereby lost the sum
of $500 each: that deponent knows of his
own knowledge that a 'black list is kept in
the Office of said Babb, of drivers whe are
discharged from or quit the employ of said
Babb and their being kept out of employ
ment by others rigidly insisted upon by him,
as in the case of Charles Giebenhein, who
was relentlessly prosecuted by him.
The foregoing was duly subscribed
and sworn to before a notary public.
and the original is in the possession posse of
to know who the affiant is. he need only
make an explicit denial of the truth of