The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-11
cones AFFIDAVIT FALSE,
An Interview Between the Labor
Commissioner and Mr..
NevillS.
Owners of the Rawhide Mine 1ndig
nantly Deny the Charges of lire.
sponSible Persons.

There was an important interview yester-
day between the Labor Commissioner and
his deputy on one side, and Mr.. Nevills,
the rich mine-owner, and Mr.. Hansen, the
proprietor of one the oldest established en-
plovment agencies in the City. The inter
view took place in the Labor Commission.
ers private room, which opens off the
State Labor Bureau headquarters on San
some street.
What led to the interview was the fact
thatan attack had been made upon the char.
acter and business methods OF Mr.. Hansen
The attack was not made by Mr.. FitZger
aid, but he had given credit to an affidavit
made by c. Z. Cone. the said affidavit being
false in every essential particular, as Mr..
Fitzgerald himself admitted yesterday al
the conclusion ofthe interview.
This affidavit was made on the Goth of Oc-
tober last and made serious charges against
both Mr.. Hansen and the proprietors of the
Rawhide mine. 1t accused Mr.. Hansen
and the mine-owners of standing in
"cahoots" to the end that idle men seek
ing employment might be robbed of a
dollar or two. Nils Nelson and one
Louis Omlette also made similar affidavits
and accusations, the burdens of which
were that they had paid Hansen 81 80 for
a Job at the Rawhide mines; that they
paid stage fare and other travelling eXpen-
SeS TO reach the mines, and that after
working day CT two they were discharged
without cause that the country there
about is overrun with starving men who
are good miners, who would be glad to 90
to work for the wages offered; but that to
increase their profits the mine-ownerS and
the employment bureau propretors con-
spire to send out new men continually, who
were discharged without cause after few
days work.
Mr.. Nevills is the largest owner of the
Rawhide mine, and also of other mines
along the mother lode. He is oc-
cupying his old quarters at the Palace
Hotel for the present, and, at the sOlicita-
ton of Mr.. Hansen, he called upon the
Labor Commissioner and his deputy yes
terday afternoon and told them very en-
phatically that the contents of those aft
davits. as published in the evening papers,
were utterly false.
In view of the assertions of the million
aire mine-owner Mr.. Fitzgerald and his
deputy readily aSsented to the proposition
that man worth 81, 600, 900 would hardly
care to stoop so low as to rob idle workmen
of a dollar or two-or any sum at all.
Then Mr.. Nevills assured the Labor
Commissioner that there were not five
idle men at the mines who were compe-
tent and reliable workman; but that there
were any number of idle and dssolute
men hanging about the saloons at Angels
and other camps who were incompetent
and unreliable. Therefore he had to send
down to San Francisco for workmen. Mr..
Nevills remembered the three men who
made the atfidavlts and remembered that
they were discharged because they turned
out to be not what they declared they
were-frst-class, competent miners. They
were not skilled men, and it was true that
their kind can be found in abundance at
or near the mines.
Mr.. Nevills himself examines most of
the men sent him by Hansen. He told Mr.
Fitzgerald very plainly yesterday that
these three men told falsehoods when they
claimed to be skilled miners. Mr. Nevills
said further that in all his transactions
with Mr.. Hansen's labor bureau, and
these had been numerous, no workmen
sent from the bureau could Justly com
plain OF unfair treatment at the hands Of
either Mr.. Hansen or the mine-owners.
Mr.. FITZGERALD readily accepted Mr.
Nevilrs word for all this, and the incident
clocad