Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1890-09-13
AN ABLE LETTER.
Powderiy ycatiiates the Sweating
system.


ment Of Vice President Webb as fol-
lows:
II see YOU have al last ventured 10
break the silence that has scaled your
lips in relation TO the causes which
led 10 the discharge Of fifty or sixty
employees. Your alleged explanation
is even lees creditahle to You than the
silence il has broken, aud does not in
any way excuse the stand you have
taken. Your statement Ii eminently
worthy of man who can see no cause
for investigation in cases Of drunken
ness, in capacity, breach of duty and
INSTRUMENTATION. All these men have
right to know whether they we're
discharged for cause. You can not
assert with any degree Of accuracy
that any one OF there men was dis
missed for the causc you set forth.
You must depend on the statement
made 10 you by your subordinates,
tyour superintendents and foremen)
Let me do yon the favor to show you
what manner Of men you have 10 rely
on for your supply Of truth. John
Briggs IL a foreman in the employ Of
your company. He has the hiring
and discharge Of workmsn. Upon his
word you decide the fate OF the poor
fellows who appeal to YOU against the
decision OF said John Briggs. APP
pended to this communication yon
will fluid an affidavit from number Of
employees OF the New York Central
which may cause unbiased people to
think that drunkenness IL excuseable,
il the drunkard win only share his
whisky with the man who inspires
your statements. You will further
more learn that in order 10 retain their
employ in the best corporation in
America to the men, the poor laborers
have to pay their basses several dollars
each month to get favor from the
man on whose statements you lean.
When asserting You have the right TO
discharge man for any one OF dozen
causes, without telling him which one
applies TO him, must yet learn why
your simple words, based on hear say.
should stand unquestioned or that il
should have any more weight than
that of an honest wofkingMan. For
from five 10 twenty years the dis
charged men we've in employ Of the
company you represent, but is was
only when they joined the knights
Of Labor that you discovered they
were drunkards, incompetent and in
attentive to duty. You continue TO
assert there il nothing 10 arbitrate
Can you be so blinded by your associ-
ations and surroundings ms not to realize
that the travelling public ought to
know which OF these men are drunk.
ards, which incompetent and so on. SO
they may not trust their lives in the
hands Of such characters, either in
your service, should you see fit TO
again employ them, or in any other
concern. We're you student Of econ
omic questions, you would knew what
a sweating system gains, carried on
by the very men upon whose bare
word you dismiss old employees, is the
worst form Of the sweating system,
which finds It's parallel only in that
practiced ON the sewing girls Of Lon.
don. In the face Of the plain states.
man like words of your superior in
office, Chouncey NJ. nepew, you deny
the right of arbitration. Let me re-
mind You, sir, that he does not, or did
not, sustain YOU in the position YOU
have assumed. Derew's words, spoken
when the question OF National arhi.
tration law wins before the country, in
dictate where Depew stood nj that day.
You alone claim to have my light
in the matter and nothing but the
TACT that You are in possession of inn
mense wealth. warrants you Ia taking
the stand you have taken. Men who
have located Oh the line OF the Van.
derbiit system wauid not have done
30, had not hope Of obtaining and re-
tanning employment been neld out to
them by the company having Induced |
the workingmen 10 make their homes
along the line OF the ruad. The man.
agement Of the concern ARE morally
for their presence at these
points and should recognize that they
nave some rights in the premises. the
east of which IL. to be heard in their
,wn defense. Men whose word |
never had reason TO doubt, make the
iatement 10 me, that they we're called
~ before their foremen and superin-
endents and asked if they were
Knights Of Labor and when they
raakly admitted that they were. we're
discharged. II Is MT arb.
ration alone that you refused. You
ave refused Ia arbitrate, second, to