The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-08-07
The s.fsuck- Ne sssrss' lniquIty.


IL is evident that some of the mining
and manufacturing corporations IN this
state which keep what workingmen ex-
pressively describe as ''pluck-me stores"
are preparing to evade the new law for
the suppression of this abuse. The
Wood Morrell store at Johnstown-the
model of all these plundering institu-
tions-has taken the alas of the Penn
Tariff Company, and proposes to contin-
ue its old methods in the interest of the
Cambria Iron Company. Mr.. James
White, President of the Miners ASsocia-
ton in Western Pennsylvania, says of
one of the coal corporations that ''they
have lately shown determinati' n TO
compel their employees TO trade IN their
store, the Superintendent going so far as
to have the men notified in their homes
that they must spend more of their earn
ings in the company store.
Since the legislative power has again
and again denounced this abuse it is
hardly necessary to dwell upon the can't
ing pretexts by which the spoliation Is
defended. The corporation store owners,
who consult only their greed, set them
selves up as Special Providences whose
mission il Is TO protect worklngmen
against the consequences of their own
extravaganza by means of a system which
prevents them from eXpending money
for beer and for indulgence in vice. Yet
this insidious system not merely fiches
the earnings of honest labor, but IL en-
genders habits of extravaganza, waste and
improvidence in workingmen and their
families. Economy and thrift are out
of the question when the pass-book and
the company store order for payment of
wages in truck constitute the only cur
rency in circulation among workingmen.
When an employe does not spend his
earnings at the company store, and de-
mands payment in cash at the end of the
month, pretext is soon found to get rid
of him. \ few such examples of thrift
around a coal operation or an iron es-
tablishment with the pluck me store
attachment would be fatal to the success
of the system. What the companies
operating these stores want are work
ingmen who take orders in payment of
wages and ask no annoying questions
about current market rates for commod-
tiles. l
Hitherto the Courts in Pennsylvania
have refused to enforce legislation TO
suppress this company store abuse, on
the ground that II would interfere with
the right of private contract; and on this
ground the effort will be made 10 defeat
the operation of the new law. Yet the
English Courts, from which we derive so
much OF ouI Jurisprudence on this and
kindred subjects, have, for reasons of
public policy, long enforced the law of
Parliament against the ''pluck-me
stores" The Courts of PENNSYLVANIA
viii not, for the same reason, enforce a
contract to pay bet or a gambling debt,
or a liquor bill. The Supreme Court of
this state has found no difficulty in affirm
ing the law which, in the exercise of the
police power, was passed TO prohibit the
manufacture and sale of oleomargarine
Yet the same Court has held that this
power may not be exercised by the Legis-
lature TO suppress an abuse and iniquity
so ftagrantly violative of sound policy as
the ''pluck-me store system.
Since the latest decision on this subject
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has
undergone some change in its personnel,
and the new law has been somewhat
altered i'll form, if not in spirit, for the
sake of overcoming judicial doubts.
Hence il is not improbable that the
latest legislative effort to stamp out the
company store iniquity will be sustained
in the Courts. But of no less importance
is the attire of the workingmen of
Pennsylvania who have been made the
victims of this abuse. If they should
connive with the employing corporations
to evade the law a judicial decision in its
favor would be of small utility After
all, the workingmen themselves have a
more potential means of suppressing
this evil than can be found in a mere
statute. If they should sustain each
other in refusing to accept aught but
cash in payment of wages the company
store for filching their earnings would
soon become as Improbable as it is obi
Gus and iniquitous.-Phih. Record.