The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-05-20
A BAD CASE OF PIPP.
Usage County Editor Accused of
Being a Corporation Tool.
MISREPRESENTATION OF THE MINERS

BY e. 6. Pipp in the Capital" Thus
Relief Of tho Miners-Lettsr frsm =
Member OF the Relief Committee.
SCRANTON, Kas., May 20, 1895.
To the Editor of the State Journal.
In Saturdays issue of the Capital ap-
pears the statement of an interview with
E. g. Pipp. editor of the Usage county
Chronicle in which he states that the
report of the destitution existing among
the miners of Scranton are greatly ex-
aggerated and ara in a general sense
untrue. / wish to state here that if any
false statement of the situation has been
made, Mr.. Pipp alone is responsible for
it, either through dense ignorance of the
facts of the case, or with the contempti-
BILE and unenviable desire of achieving a
cheap notoriety as the conspicuous SER
want and tool of a railroad corporation.
am miner and have followed that
occupation during the nine years of my
residence in Scranton, and owing to my
practical experience in the calling, and
my official connection with miners af-
fairs, | believe to be in position to Judge
from actnaI observation the condition of
the miners in Usage county better than
the swell headed editor of the Chronicle,
ever was or ever dare claim to be, per
haps. I do not care to take up the whole
string OF garbled and misleading state
ments of the interview, but l want to call
attention to some of the falsehoods con-
tanned therein.
Mr.. Pipp says that it is impossible for
any one here to go wanting without get
ting local assistance, but what relief can
the community afford when the whole of
its citizens are in distress, the stores
closing accounts, and no prospects of
work in sight?
He further states that the county is
fully compstentto take care of the needy,
and there he evidences his complete ig-
norance of the matter, when it is known
that in answer to the citizens committee
letter to the commissioners stating our
condition, they gave orders for twenty
sacks of -four, to relieve the general dis
tress of a whole community, with a sug-
gestion that the county could i'll afford to
dispense outdoor relief in any extensive
scale.
AS to the cash deposits made in the
Burlingame banks, I would like Mr..
Pipp to furnish me with the names of
those depostors who are Scranton
miners. In regard to some merchants
here complaining about Mr.. Young's
buying supplies from his own store
while chairman of the relief committee,
l will state that in the first place Mr..
Young never occupied that position at
any time, but acted once in the capacity
of a miners representative, and also
solicited aid in their behalf while on
strike two years ago.
The purchases made by the relief COM
! mittee were equally divided among the
merchants of Scranton without special
favor. do not feel justified in taking
any more space to answer Mr.. Pipp's
| garbled and distorted statement, neither
can l stop him from posing in the Capt.
tai as devoted champion of corporate
interests at the cost of the suffering of
mothers and little children. But ! do
most emphatically protest against the
| CALLING position assumed by Mr.. Pipp' in
publicly misrepresenting my CONDITION as
a miner, and in wilfulIy falsifyin G
against all palpable evidence the truths
of our situation as correctly reported in
the STATE JOURNAL, Kansas City Star,
and Times. and thereby endeavor to
| Illustrate all efforts kindly made in our
behalf to assist US in our distress, and
| obtain for Us the redress of wrongs that
are every day growing unbearable.
Respectfully yours,
A SCRANTON MINER.
Member of the Relief Committee