Huntsville gazette., 1890-11-29
LABOR REPORT.
Twelfth Annual Report Of the Missouri
Labor Commissioner-The "Pluck-Me-
Store" Abuses.


store" Abuses.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo-, Nov. 2A-The twelfth
annual report Of the Bureau Of Labor Sta
tistics, now in the hands of the State Print
er contains. In connection with the statist-
les of mining, an account of the further
operations of the bureau In exposing and
suppressing the Illegal truck" or "pIuck-
me- store" system. The report shows that
owing to the efforts Of the bureau the sys.
tenn has been largely modified, and In a
direction greatly to the advantage OF
miners. In 1889 some mine operators paid
their employees in pasteboari checks
marked on their face mot redeemable until
1885," or ten years after date. A miner
working for such company had his choice
OF waiting ten years or Of trading out his
check at his employers store. and at any
price the latter chose to charge. All this
has been changed and to-day the same
miner is paid in legal United States cur
rency; what is more important sti ], he
is paid up to within four days OF
pay day. The law requires this, but
until the matter was agitated by Commits
sioner Meriwether many operators paid
their men up to within or thirty days OF
day; that is, the wages for October would
not be paid until November 20 or 80; this, In
fact, is still done by few operators, nota-
hly by Me- srs. LOOMS & Sniyeiy, w. ). Wat
kins and Thomas Wardell, OF Macon County.
to make forced loans upon their employees
OF from twenty to thirty days each month.
As Mr. Meriwether POINTS out, since the EN-.
ployers set this example of willful and flag
rant violation of the law, there should be
little cause for wonder if the miners also in
dulge in law breaking. The miners Of Be-
vier have been frequently spoken Of as
a turbulent unreason able set; according to
the Labor commissioners report they have
some reason to be so When somo OF
them requested their employers to pay
them up to within four days OF pay day, as
required by law, they were discharged.
This action, of course, deferred others from
asking that the law be obeyed, and as re-
suit many miners in Macon County continue
to be s.plus ked" by the stores of their en-
ployers. 1t is no fault of the prosecuting
attorney that the law Is not obayei The
fault lies with the law itself, In that 1t pro-
vides that the remedy of the miner shall be
by civil instead of criminal process. As
just stated, when a miner attempts to en-
force the law he is discharged; it should BIO
made the duty Of the prosecuting attorney
to enforce the law. We're that the case
miners might obtain justice without paying
therefor the penalty Of losing their situa-
tIons 1t appears from Mr.. Merriwether's
report that mine operators are not the only
employers who play the pluck me- store,
sknfiint game.
complaints received from the employees OF
| the Crystal City glass works, and in addition
| to the system of holding back from fifteen to
| twenty days wages each month 1t was
| found that even when the long-defcrred pay
| day did arrive the cashier of the glass COM
| pany kept his window open only two hours,
and did not open it again for week. The
| glass work employees claim that under the
| system of payment adopted by the company
| it Is a physical impossibillty to pay of zoo
| men in two hours, and that consequently on
| each pay day there is a scramble to see who
| shall get paid, since those who are not lucky
| enough to squeeze in must walt another
| whole week. Employees state that the COM
| pany's reason for kee ping the cashiers win
| dow open only two hours is because num-
| Der of men will thus be unable to get their
money and viii therefore keep on buying
| at the company's store, paying credit
| prices 1t is, of course, impossible to
| show that this is the company's mo.
| tive; at the same time it does not seem
reasonab to hold back six or seven weeks
wages and then allow only two hours in
which to pay 7t0 men, with an arbitrary rule
| that those who do not succeed in getting
| paid in that short time must wait another
| week. Why make them wait whole week
| 1t would give the company no moro trouble
| to hand over the check to it's employees on
Monday than on Saturday, five days later.
1 w
| the employees believe, in order to compel
| their trade that much longer. The man
| ager OF the glass works justifies the com.
panys infrequent pay day on the ground
| that the men get drunk on Sunday and then
| on Monday break thousands OF dollars
worth Of glass The manager states that by
| the present system there is only one such
| drunken Sunday once in four weeks; where
as, were the men paid every week they
would get drunk every Sunday and break 9
lot Of glass every seven days.
| Commissioner Meriwether expresses O
| doubt as to the right Of a corporation tc
constitute itself the guardian of its en-
| ployes and declares that capital has nc
| right to make forced loans on labor. The
workingman does not wait six weeks before
/ turning over the product of his labor to his
| cmployer-he does not wait one week-he
| turns it over every day, every hour, and it il
| unjust to require him to wait six or seven
| weeks for his share of the wealth ne pro
duces to make him wait Is to make him pay
credit prices instead Of cash prices-that Il
/ 1t increases his cost of living at least 20 pei
| cent
| While the "pluck- me store" Is the mos
| important and most systematic of the meth
| DDS adopted for d. frauding labor, there are
| not lacking other methods quite as oppres
| siye and unjust as far As they go. or the
| many instances If impositions reported II
Il
| able is the method pursued by certain
| lithograph company of st. Louis. That com
| pany requires one class of its employees tc
| sign a contract agreeing to the Withholding
| from their wages of a sum varying from o
| cents to 81 per week. This sum with all its
| accumuIatons is retained In any case until
1 the emplc We leaves, and it II retained perma-
1 nently should the employe violate any OF the
| conditions of the contract. Right here
| cones in the strik ing part: One OF the
| clauses of the contract is that II any en-
| ploye absents himself from work the con-
| tract shall be deemed violated. No cxcep-
| tion Is made even on account OF sickness
| One employe, Lewis Lang, Of 1927 North
| Seventeenth street, ST. Louis, testified un-
der oath before Commissioners Meriwether
| that, after working for the company three
| wears he was absent month on account OF
| sickness The weesly accumulations OF
wages that had been withheld from him
! during that period amounted to nearly 500
| and this money the firm declared forfeited
| because Lang was absent four weeks. One
| of the witnesses, in testifying before the
| Commissioner. said:
| "The worst part about the whole thing Il
/ that good man is sometimes discharged
| lust for the sake Of keeping the money thai
| il coming to him. / have known men who
had been working for The firm two or three
wears to be discharged for things that were
/ anffrely overlooked in new men. You SEQ