Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-08-30
A Democratic Investigation that Didn't
Pan Out rs Expected.

IeOrge II. 1enOWlne Oh milwaukee,,
editor of the well-known and widely read
@Yenowine's News" is a Democrat from
away back, but heartily fayors the eandi-
dacy of Maj. Upham, and last week he
printed the following:
"A few days ago the Democratic Chica-
go Herald sent Paul Hall, the well-known
correspondent, to Marshield to thorough
ky expose the business career of Mai.
Upham, the Republican candidate for gov
.cTnor, and TO roast him to the queens
taste. The partisan press, particularly
the Journal of this city, has idiotically
charged Upham with being an enemy of
labor, of issuing store-scrip instead Of
money, of bulldozing his laborers and in
fact Of being a sort of George NJ. Pullman.
OF course everyone who is at all posted
knows hat these charges are all false,
that while Maj. Upham is a large employ
er of labor he is a just and honest man,
that he never had a strike or dispute with
his men, that they have always been paid
good wages and paid off in money and
that labor, organized or ~unorganized, has
no better friend than Bill Upham. The
Herald correspondent was evidently sore
ly disappointed. He could not substanti-
ate any OF the charges and he was com.
PEELED TO say among other things that:
If Maj. Upham is not the friend of
Tabor as a principle, he is the friend of ev-
cry laboring man or any other man who
needs help, for he is by nature generous,
sympathetic n one of the best fellows
on earth; but he is not making bedsteads
solely for the purpose OF employing labor,
nor has he laid down the principles of the
conduct of his general store purely fer
mental exercise.
".Any man in trouble can get help from
Maj. Upham, and his W employees get
money from him between pay days il
they show cause. They do not appear to
be an improvident class. There is no idle
ness, drunkenness or poverty in the town,
but not as many as one would suppose
get ahead a months wages. The en-
ployes are not compelled to trade at the
Upham general store, which is evident
from the volume of their trade at the
other stores.
1.-The scrip had its origin with the
Upham company in the effort TO simplify
the bookkeeping of the general store.
Early in the SOS, when Marshfield was
nothing but a clearing in the woods, when
the Upham business was nothing but a
sawmili. the Upham store was a neces-
sity. The employees Were loggers, working
in the winter deep in the forest and liv-
Ing in temporary camps. They did not
want their wages or need them oftener
than once or twice a year, but they need
ed supplies in the meantime. and their
credit was best with the men who en-
Dioyed them. upbam bought his logs,
contracted for his lumber, made his cut
and settled with everybody. The account
of each man ut the store was n long one,
and the settlement of 1t usually occa-
stoned dissatisfaction. To simplify credit,
Upham issued scrip, which was veritable
money.
".Marshfeld does not resemble the
town of Pullman. Maj. Upham owns no
residences except the one he occupies and
two small houses. One of these Is occu-
MED by an old soldier, who has paid no
rent for two years. The major is proud
OF the fact that nearly every n of his
employees who il the head of a family
owns his own home. The laborer bought
the land Of the Improvement company