The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-11-02
Gaattbman T. Suurnal.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1892
Hearing on Weekly Payment Bills.

presiding. heard on Thursday evening
the advocates and opponents OF the
weekly payment bills now before the legis-
lature The large cloak room was allied
and great interest in the subject was ex-
hibited Mr. Stafford, the representative
from st. Johnsbury, began the talking. He
set forth the general object OF the ellis, but
dwelt chiefly on the state of things exist
ing in st. Johnsbury, on which he founded
his argument for the weekly payment of
wages, in money, by corporations. The
Fairbanks corporation employs some six
hundred men. The company HAS general
store. 1t pays at the middle Of each month
the wages earned for the month preceding.
On each monthly payday the company Is
owing its employees the wages of six weeks.
This is Withholding from the workmen an
unreasonable sum. The interest on it
would be a large sum. The company de-
ducts from the monthly pay of each en-
ploye the amount of his store bill, and, II
there is anything left, pays it in money.
Having the laborer's pay always under its
hand. the company incurs no risk in trust
ing him 1t has the first lien upon his
wages Other tradesmen are thus taken at
a disadvantage. If they give Fairbanks
prior claims OF that corporation have been
satisfied. The Fairbanks company has
driven many smaller tradesmen out of bust
ness by their control of their workmen's
pay and by their monopoly of trade in vari-
GUS branches. There is an indirect, but
substantial, enforcement of a requirement
of their employees to trade at the corpora
ton store Mr.. Stafford argued from these
concrete facts as well as from general prin-
ciples that payment of wages should be in
money and at intervals sufficiently frequent
so that workman may buy where he
pleases and have the advantage derived
from paying cash rather than running up
account.
Senator Mead of Rutland, author of S. II,
providing for weekly payments, gave his
experience with two systems of paying
1,1 oV1xw 1xv 10 la.,N afa
company employing some 400 workmen.
The company formerly paid monthly 1t
recently adopted the weekly plan and likes
it. Under it the workmen are better salts
fed and the company is enabled by the
more frequent examination of the payroll
to discover errors that work against the
company. The company has no store. BY
having cash in hand to pay for garden
truck, groceries, etc, their men buy at
lower prices and avoid making accounts.
Mr.. Jackson, the member from Waterville,
is engaged in the lumber trade. He is
jobber and used to receive his money from
his principal once month and paid his
men once a month Some five years ago he
made new arrangements, got weekly set
Elements and paid his men weekly in cash,
instead of in orders as formerly. Can now
get his pick of the best help at lower wages
than others who cling to the monthly sys-
TEN, are short of help ana have to take what
they can hire and pay ten per cent higher
than he does. He would apply the terms of
the bills to all employers of ten men or
more.
Mr.. Rowland, the member from Barre,
opposed the bill. He spoke of the probable
effect on the granite industry. A weekly
payment law would kill out large number
of the smaller firms and concentrate the
business in the larger and weather. compa-
MES. The smaller firms rely upon payments
made on the filling of contracts for funds to
pay their help. This bill would drive these
men out of business. He held sixty-siX diff
fpranf nptitinng nos of rio
bill The railways get cash for tickets and
cash on delivery of freight. Why are they ex-
cepted from the requirement to pay weekly?
There are ten corporation stores in the
state, he was informed. Why should the
business interests of the entire state be en-
dangered on their account?
r. Il. Morse, treasurer of the Vermont
Marble Company, spoke from the employ
ers' point of view. The company he repre-
sents has mills and ouarries at different
points widely separated. There is diff
Guilty in making up a payroll for 1900 men
weekly under the circumstances existing in
the business of his company. The company
pays monthly. 1t requires till the 14th Of
each month to complete the payroll; it
takes four men one day to count out and
put up the money. The extra cost of
weekly payments to his company would be
$1,000 year. A similar state of things and
similar difficulties exist also in the lumber
business. The bill proposes to compel cor
porations to pay weekly; individuals may
pay when and how they please. This is an
unjust discrimination, No labor legislation
has ever been called for in Vermont and
there is no state in the Union where the
relations between laborer and employer are
so friendly. If men were not fairly treated
good workmen could not be had by cor
poratiOn. No company can afford to pur-
sue a course that will work inuriously to
its employees. There are six corporation
stores in the state-two at ST. Johnsbury
one at Winooski, three at Rutland the lat
owned VarmOnt lar
pany. Two of these, at West Rutland, the
company inherited; the one at Proctor it
established when the place was small and
there was no other store there. 1t was a
business necessity. AS the business has
grown the store has grown. 1t is run for
the benefit of the workmen. 1t sells -four
fifty cents a barrel lower than it can be
bought in Rutland, and coal from fifty
cents to seventy five cents a ton cheaper.
The charge that the company's men must
trade there or be discharged is false. Many
of their employees have their cash and buy
for cash. 1t was his honest conviction that
men paid monthly will lay up more money
than If paid weekly. If the company be-
leved that weekly payment would be a
benefit to its employees, it would pay weekly,
no matter at what extra cost.
John Hutfmire took the floor. 1t was evil
dent that a professional labor agitator was
on deck. He delivered himself of an incohe-
rent harangue, bad in logic, bad in its def
ance of the kings English, and very bad in
temper ne gave Lhe lle ulrecJ 10 MT.
MOrse's statements. That gentleman seemed
to be the special object of his spleen. His
pockets, he said, were full of petitions from
laboring men of Rutland for the enactment
of ekly-payment law, and they would
be aired in due time.
Mr. Stafford introduced A. B. Moves, a
coal and hardware dealer from St. Johns
bury Mr.. Noyes was, some five years ago,
in the clerical department of the Fair
banks corporation and spoke from a per-
SOnal acquaintance with their business
methods at that period, If they dared to,
he believed nine-tenths of the Fairbanks
employees would sign a petition for weekly
payment in money. Employees were ex-
pected to trade at the company store. Men
in the company's employ sometimes bought
coal OF him, but didn't want anything said
about it, No other traders in St. Johnsbury
stand much of a chance against the Fair
banks competition The payroll could be
easily made out weekly; the roll for 1000