Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-16
THEY WILLCGNTINUE.
The Company Stores Will Remain in
the River Mines.
TIE WORKMEN ASK FOR THEM.
One Establishment Which is offered for
Sale Very Cheap.
THE ROLL TURNER'S SCALE SETTLED

There will not be much of fight against
company stores at the leading Mononga.
hels river coal works for the reason that the
operators claim they are an advantage to
the miners. Representatives of the two
Oldest coal firms in the city were seen yes.
terdsy by DISPATCH representative. Cap.
tain 1. n Bunton, of Joseph Walton & Co.,
in speaking on the subject, said: ''Our
stores arenot 'pluck-me's' They are bless
ing to the men. If we should abandon the
stores at our works the other dealers would
be able to pluck, as they would not
then have any competition. AS it is
we buy for cash and sell at a close margin,
thus compelling outside companies to charge
reasonable rates for their goods. We do not
compel our men to deal with us, but they
prefer our goods and prices, and we conse-
quently have their trade. We do not issue
any store orders. Our firm do not need any
coal at present, but we do need slack to fill
our orders. The contracts for slack could be
put off very easily, but we do not want to
see our men starve, especially those who
have families. They have the run of the
stores, and on pay days
THE DEBTS INCURRED
by our employees are deducted from their
pay. We started one of our mines two
weeks ago, and, to show that the men were
not 'plucked, we paid out $1,000 In cash to
15O men to-day, after deducting their store
bills and rent for their houses Our men
are not objecting to our store; in fact, it is
an accommodation to them. do not mean
to say there is ne profit in the store, for
there is, but it is not as large as it would be
If we made it 'pluck-me.'
"We informed our men to-day that we
could not continue the Scent rate any longer
as the mines in the Fourth pool. are running
at 2 cents. When the apportionment was
made several years ago it was arranged that
the price for mining in the Fourth pool
should be One-hslf cent less than in the
first three pools. We cannot compete with
the operators up the river unless we pay ~
cents for digging The miners held meet
ing to-day and understand they decided to
accept our terms and one of the works will
continue in operation"
Everybody that has ever been engaged in
the coal business or run on the river knows
Captain Simpson Horner, the oldest coal
operator in the MonOnganela Valley. He
engaged in business away back in the 4O's.
BIS opinion on company stores is therefore
worth something. He said: iFor the first
20 or 80 years of our career in the coal busi-
ness we did not have store, and our miners
came to US and said they must have store
or secure employment elsewhere. We built
q store that cost US $4,000 without the
ground or stock, and if anybody
wants it as it now stands, ground,
stock and all, they can have it for $40 900.
We have made no profit of any con-
sequence out OF the store. One of our last
two-weeks' paws amounted to $40, 600, and Of
this amount only $1,000 came out of the
store, or 20 per cent of the pay roll. The
profit on these goods was not more than 10
per cent. I do not see how our store can be
called 'pluck-me. Another point, to show
that our men
ARE NOT COMPELLED
to deal at our store,i is the fact that one man,
during the last two weeks when our mine
was running, only purchased pipe at the