The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-24
Powderiy's Reply to Webb.

NEW YORK, Aug. 23.-Powderly tonight
wrote reply to the statement of President
Webb as follows:
II see you have at last ventured to
break the silence that sealed your lips in
relation to the cause which led 10 the dis
charge of fifty or sixty employees. Your
alleged explanation is even less credltable
to you than the silence it has broken, and
does not in any way excuse the stand you
have taken. Your statement is eminentiy
worthy of a man who can see no cause for
investigation in cases of drunkenness, IN
capacity, breach of duty, and insubordina-
ton. All these men have right to know
whether they were discharged for cause.
You cannot assert with any degree of &C
curacy that any one of these men was dis
missed for the cause you set forth. You
must depend on the statement made to by
your subordinates your superintendent
and foremen). Let me do you the favopto
show you what manner of men you have to
rely on for your supply of truth.
John Briggs is theiforeman in the employ
of your company. He has the hiring and
discharging of workmen. Upon his word
you decide the fate OF the poor fellows who
appeal to you against the decision
of said John Briggs. Appended to
/ this communication, you will find
an affidavit from number of EN-
ployees of the New York Central, 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, incompetent anu inattentive to
duty. You continue to assert there is
by your associations and surround
ings as not to realize that the
travelling public ought to know which
of these men are drunkards, which
incompetent and so on, so they may not
trust their lives in the hands of such char
acters either in your service, should you
see fit to employ them or any other con-
cerns Were you a student OF economic
questions, you would know what the swe at
ing system means. You would know that
it is classed among the worst features of
the competitive system. Under your nose,
beueath your own eye, it is carried on
by the very men upon whose
bare words you dismiss old employees,
elicits a form of thesweating system which
finds parallel only in that practiced on
the sewing girls of London.
''In the face of plain statement like the
words of your superior in office, Chauncey
Depew, you deny the right of arbitration.
Let me remind you, sir, that he
does not or did not sustain you in the posi-
ton you have assumed. Depew's words,
spoken when the question of a national ar
bitration law was before the country, indi
cate 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 great wealth warrants
you in taking the stand you have taken
The men who located on the line of the
Vanderbilt system would not have done sc
had not the hope of obtaining and retaining
employment been held out to them by the
COMPANY inducing the workmen to make
their homes along the line of the road
The management OF the concern are
morally responsible for their presence al
these points and should recognize that they
have some rights in the premises, the least
! of which is to be heard in their own de
, Tense. The men whose words you never
had reason to doubt make the Statement
to me TT at they were called up before theil
foreman or superintendent and asked i
they were knights of Labor, and whel
they frankly admitted they were, were dis
charged. 1t is not arbitration alone tina
| you refused: You have refused +
? arbitrate. 2-To investigate. st
! face those men in my presenc
! and satisfy yourself whether your fore
; men told you the truth. 4-You have de
fed the laws of the state in ignoring tn
board Of mediation and arbitration. s.
: You have refused to listen to the voic
q of the public which asks for simpl
q | 1uSt.ce and cares notnlng 1or tne personal
tiles of either of the parties to the contrc
versy. Six and last-You have shown tina
humanity has no claims upon you what
ever You have refused to satisfy me
5 whom you have discharged, and that &C
s will always stand to protest your claim t
= true manliness. Had you satisfied the me
there would be nothing for US to ask. Yo
are as much in duty bound to satisfy thel
1 in this matter as you are to satisfy the lie
r gally constituted authorities of the cor
t pany. GSigned] PowDERLY.