The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-20
COMMISSIONERS STANTON AND LA
RUE DENOUNCED AT SAC
RAMENTO.
EULOGIES FOR HUNTINGTON.
DECLARED TO BE THE SAVIOR OF
THE WoRKMEN OF THE
PACIFIC COAST.

SACRAMENTO, CAL, Oct. 19.-Three
hundred and fifty of the fifteen hundred
employees of the Southern Pacific Railroad
shops in this city gathered at Armory Hall
this evening for the avowed purpose of
filing protest against the action taken by
Railroad Commissioners La Rue and Stan
ton in having made cut of 25 per cent in
freight rates throughout the State. Hugh
M. La Rue was declared an aspirant for
gubernatorial honors, who was attempting
to gain political capital by abusing the
railroad company. AS for the company it
was lauded in the highest words of eulogy,
because, so the speakers claimed, it paid
higher wages than any other like corpora
ton in the United States. DR.. Stanton
was called the tool of demagogues and re-
ceived tremendous verbal castlgation.
The most vehement speaker of the even
ing was George Washington Ficks, super
intendent of the City Cemetery, who &C
cused DR.. Stanton of catering to the insane
whims of the party that had placed him in
the position he occupied. "All the rail-
road company wants is justice, simple
Justice, and that's all we want. If this
horizontal reduction of % per cent in
freight rates is allowed to go into effect 1t
will be deducted from the wages of labor
ing men. Last year the receipts of the
railroad company was 81, 200 and
So, 100000 was paid out in wages to the
$4,000 employees of the Southern Pacific
system throughout the State. In other
words the money was expended on the fol-
lowing basis: Sixty per cent went for
wages 20 per cent for fuel and the other 20
per cent for repairs and other incidental
yexpenses.
Ficks made comparison of the rates of
wages paid in the Altoona and Chicago
railroad shops and those received by the
employees of the Sacramento shop, and
prophesied that "if the employees OF the
Southern Pacific system were compelled to
accept the same wages paid their Eastern
brothers there would be one of the greatest
revolutions among the wage-earners ever
known in the history of the United States.
Let Hugh La Rue and DR.. Stanton pause
and mediate before they precipitate this
revolution and jeopardize the homes of the
laboring classes" he continued.
Mr.. Huntington was pictured as philan-
thropist who would suffer the deepest re-
greet at being compelled to reduce the ratio
of wages in California TO the same basis as
that received by their Eastern co-iaborers
The committee on resolutions appointed
by the chairman, after short consultation
introduced a resolution covering five
pages closely typewriter material to the
effect that
WHEREAS, The Southern Pacific Company
employs more labor than any other corpora
ton on the coast and distributes SO 500 900 in
wages annually and, whereas, reduction in
wages would not only injure said employers
but all other laborers on the coast and,
whereas, the sworn statement made to the
Railroad Commissioners shows that 60 per
cent of the eompany's expenses are for labor
and 40 per cent for incidentals, and that any
deduction must be made from the wages fund,
and that said reduction would result in the
degradation of labor, and the laborer be classed
as serf, and to the end that these unhappy re-
suits be avoided and the country saved from
strikes, lockouts, riots and turmoil, the Com
missioners are earnestly requested to rescind
their order by them adopted and still the agita-
ton they have raised in the land, and
Resolved That copy of preamble and reso-
luton be forwarded to said Board of Railroad
Commissioners.