The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-08-30

l0r CATF10O ul6 OWu WdIO Wy. WV ~
68 to 10, and the country pre-
oincts will probably increase Fuller's
majority in the county convention to
20. "
Powderly's Back Talk. F.
New York, Aug. 23.-Powderly to-
night wrote q reply to the statement OF
Third Vice President Webb as follows:
II see that you have at last ventured to
break the long silence that sealed your
lips.in relation to the causes which led
to the discharge of fifty or sixty en-
ployes of the New York Central railway.
Your alleged explanation 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 a man who can
see no cause for Investigation in cases of
drunkenness, incapacity, breach of duty
and insubordination. Knights Of Labor
have never questioned your right to take
such action as is outlined in that state
ment. Our order is 10 much interested
in that statement; our order is as much
interested in the maintenance of disci-
pline as you can possibly be. Grant
ing that these very men vert
discharged for the a you
assign, in order to shield yourself, you
charge all alike with the offences of the
worst among them. No just tribunal
will sustain you in your position. All of
these men have 8. right to know whether
they were discharged for a use. You
cannot assert with any degree of &C
curacy that any Of these men were dis
missed for the cause you set forth. You
must depend on the statement made to.
you by your subordinates-our superin-
tendents and foremen." Powderly
then says the s%ubordlnates used
Of eas'r blaeImaii on III those under
them. He then continues: "For from
five to twenty years the discharged men
were in the employ Of the company you
represent, but 1t was only when they
Joined the knights of Labor that You
discovered they were drunkards, incom-
petents or ~inattentive to duty. You
continue to assert that there is nothing
to arbitrate. Can you be 60 blinded by
your associations and surroundings as
not to realize that the travelling public
ought to know which Of these
men is q drunkard; which
incompetent, and 60 on, that they may
not trust their lives in the hands Of such
characters, either in your service, should
you see ft to again employ them, or in
the employ Of any other concern. We're
you a student of economic questions, you
would know what the sweating system,
q You would know that it is among
the worst features of the competitive
system. Under your own nose; beneath
your own eye, and carried on by the very
men upon whose bare words you dismiss
old employees, exists q form OF the sweat
ing system which finds a parallel only in
that Of the sewing girls of London. Let
me remind yon, sir, that he does not or
did not sustain you in the position you
have assumed. Depew's words, spoken
when the question Of q national arbitra-
ton law was before the country, in
dictate where 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
warrants you in taking the stand You
have taken. Men who have toiled on
the line of the Vanderbilt system
would not have done so had
not the hope 81, obtaining and retaining
employment been held ont to them by
the company. Having induced workmen
TO make their homes along the line Of the
road, the management of the concern are