The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-08-24
PoWDERLY SCORES HIM.
lie Takes Vice President Webb Severely
To Task.


to Task.
New YORK, Aug. 23.-Powdcrly tonight
wrote reply to the statement OF Vice
President Webb as follows: IL see you
have at last ventured to break the
silence that sealed your lips in relation To-
the causes which led to the discharge of
fifty or sixty of your employees.
Your alleged explanation is even
less crcditahlc to you than the ST.
lencc il has broken. and does
not in any way excuse the stand you have
taken. Your statement is rminently
worthy of the man who can see no cause
for All investigation.
"All these men have n right To know
whether they were discharged for cause.
You cannot assert with any degree
Of accuracy that any one of these
men was dismissed for the cause you set
forth, You must depend on the statement
made Ia you by your subordinates your
superintendent and foremcul. Let me
do you the favor To show you what man
ner OF men you have to rely on for your
supply of truth.
"John Briggs is foreman in the cm.
| ploy of your company. Tie has the hiring
aud discharge of workmeu. Upon his
word you decide the fate of poor fellows
who appeal to you against the decision
of the said John Briggs. Appended To
this communication you will find an
affidavit from number uf employees Of
the New York Central which may
| cause unbiased people 10 think
| that drInkCtlnCss Is rNcusahlc IL
"A driuknrd will only share his whisky
with the man who inspires your state
ments, You will furthermore learn that
/ in order Ia retain employment in the best
/ corporation in America the poor laborcrs
have 10 pay bosses several dollars each
month L. get favor from man on whose
statements you lean when asserting you
have right In discharge man for any
one Of dozen causes without telling HIM
which one applies 10 HIM. | must yet
| learn why our simple words, based on
hearsay, should stand unqurstloncd or
that II should have any more
weight than that Of an honest
| workngmau. For from five To-
twenty years the discharged men were in
the employ Of the company you represent.
But il was when they joined the Knights
of Labor that you discovered that they
were drunkarls, incompetent aud mat
tontivc la duty.
You continue 10 assert there is nothing
Ia arbitrate. Can you br 50 blinded 10y
your associations and surroundings as
not Ia realize that the travelling public
ought 10 know which of these
men are drunkards, which incompetent
and So on, 80 they may not trust
their lives la the hands of such characters,
either In your service, should You see iit
io again employ them, or in any other
concern Were you Student of econ
omic questions you would know what
the sweating system means. You would
know that IL is classcd among the worst
a., ~
der your own nose, beneath your own eye
aud carried on,hy the very men upon whose
bare words you dismiss old employees,
exists "A form ot sweating system
which finds "A parallel only in that
praCticcd on the sewing girls ot
London. In the face of the plain, states,
manikc words of your superior IN office,
thauuccy Nj. Dcpcw, you deny the right
of arbitration, Let me remind you, sir,
that hv does not sustain you IN the posi-.
ton you have assumed. Dcpew's words,
spoken when the question uf national
arbitration law was before the coun-
try indicate where Drpcw stood at
that day. You alpu" claim Ia have any
! rights IN the matter, and nothing but the
fact that you are possessed OF immense
wealth warrants YOU III taking the stand
you have taken. Men who located on the
line of the Vanderbilt system would not
have done So had not the hope ~ obtaining
? and retaining employment been held out
to them 10y the company. Having induced
! workmcn Ia make their homes along the
: line of the road the management Of the
= concern are morally responsible for their
!, presence AT these points and should recng
I nflc that they have some rights In th,
u premises, the least of which, is to b,
heard IN their own defense.
e "Mcn whose words never had reason tC
. doubt make the statement Ia me that they
2 were called up before their foreman nj
!. superintendent aud asked IL they wcr,
i Knights 81 Labor, aud when they frankly
q admitted IL they were discharged. Ii Il
: not arbitration alone that you refused
You have refused To- arbitrate; sec
l. ond, 10 investigates third, I,
y face those men M my pres
J. rncc aud To satisfy yoursel
% whether your foreman told you the truth
l. fourth, you have dclird the laws Of th,
state III ignoring the board of mediation
q and arbitration; nth. you have refused 4
+ listen Ia the voice of the public whicl
l. asks Tor simple justice and cares nothing
y for the personalities Of either part
e Ia the controversy; sixth am
J. last, you have shown that hunanit
q has no claims upon you whatever
y you have refused Ia sat sly the men WHOM
% you have discharged and that act will al
ways stand To protest your claim 10 trli
i manlness. Had you satisfied the me
u there would bc nothing for us 10 ash
. You are AS much in duty bound to satisf
@ them in this matter as you are to satist
= the legally constituted authorities Of III
I 4