St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-24
HOT SHOT FOR WEBB.
Powderly Rakes the Autocrat
Fore and Aft.

NEW YORK, Aug. 23.-Mr. Powderly
tonight wrote reply to the statement
of Third Vice President Webb, as fol-
lows: 81 see that you have at last ven
tured to break the long silence that
sealed your lips in relation to the causes
which led to the discharge Of the fifty
or sixty employees of the New York
Central railway. Your alleged eXplana-
tion is even less creditable to you than
the silence it has broken, and does not
deny nor excuse the stand you have
taken. Your statement is eminently
worthy of man who can see no cause
for investigation in cases of drunken
subordination. The Knights of Labor
have never questioned your right to
take such action as is outlined in that
statement. Our order is as much inter
ested in the maintenance of disci-
pline, as you can possibly be. Grant
ing that these very men were discharged
for the reason you assign, in order to
shield yourself. you charge all alike
with the offenses of the worst among
them. No just tribunal will sustain
you in your position. All of these men
have the right to know whether they
were discharged for cause. You cannot
assert with any degree of accuracy that
any one of these men were dismissed
for the cause you set forth. You must
depend on the statement made to you
by your subordinates, your superin-
tendents and foreman. Let me do you
the favor to show you what manner Of
men you have to rely Oh for
Your Supply of Truth.
John Briggs is a foreman in the employ
of your company. He has the hiring
aud discharge of workmen. Upon his
word you decide the fate of the poor
decision of the said John Briggs. APP
find affidavitS from a number of the en-
ployes of the Central which may cause
unbiased people to think that drunken
ness is eXcusable if the drunkard will
only share his whisky with the man
who inspires your statements. You
will furthermore learn that in order to
retain employ in the ''best corporation
in America" the poor laborers have to
pay the bosses several dollars each
month to get favor from the man on
whose statements you lean. When as
serting that you have the right
any al u,neD''e one ef dozen n"A causes ses
without telling him which one applies
to him. have yet to learn the reason
why your simple word based on hear
say should stand unquestiOned. or that
it should have any more weight than
that of an honest worklngman. For
from five to twenty years the discharged
men were in the employ of the company
you represent. but it was only when
they joined the Knights of Labor that
you discovered they were drunkards,
You continue to assert that there is
nothing to arbitrate. Can you be SO
blinded by your associations and sur
rOundingS as not to realize that the
travelling public ought to know which of
these men is the drunkard, which the
Incompetent, and so on, that 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 the employ or
any other concern? Were you student
of economic questions you would know
what the sweating system means; you
would know that it is classed among
the worst features of the competitive
system. Under your own nose, be-
meath your own eyes, and carried ell by
the very men upon whose barewords you
dismiss old employees, exists form of
the sweating system which finds the
parallel only in that practiced on the
sewing girls of London. In face of the
perior in office. Chauncey M. DepeW,
you deny the right of arbitration. Let
me remind you. sir that he does not OF
did not sustain the position you have
assumed. Mr.. Depew's swords, spoken
when the question of a national
arbitration law was before the
country, indicate exactly where Mr..
Depew stood at that day. You alone
claim to have any rights in the matter,
and nothing but the'fact that you are
the possessOr of immense wealth war;
rants you in taking the stand you have
taken. The men who have located on
the line of the Vanderbilt system would
not have done so had not the hope of
obtaining and retaining employment
been held out to them by the company.
Having induced the workmen to 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 recognize
that they haze some rights in the prem
ises, the least of which is to be heard in
their own defense. Men whose words I
have never had reason to doubt make :
the statement to me that they were
called up before their foremen OF super
intendents, asked if they were Knights
of Labor, and when they frankly ad-
mitted that they were,
They Were Discharged.
1t is not arbitration alone that you