St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-17
TWIN CITY EMPLOYMENT BU-
REAUS SEND MEN TO ST.
PERIOR,
BUT THEY WON'T WORK,
AND THE LABOR COMMISSIONER
is ASKED To HAVE THEM =.
QUIT. sr
BIG STRIKE Is ON UP THERE
Among the Laboring Men En-.
gagged in Unloading Coal on =
the Docks.

A letter was received yesterday
by Labor Commissioner Powers from
T. j. McKeague, secretary of the
Trades and Labor Assembly of Su-
per1or, asking Mr.. Powers to exert
his influence to prevent employment
agencies in ST. Paul and Minneapo-
lis sending men to work at Superior
The letter goes on to say that on
Monday night last the labor organ
ization above named had to ship for
ty-tWo men who had been sent there
to Sandstone and other places, and
that there We're five men for every
job in the place. Complaint was also
made in the letter that the men sent
from this city were required to pay
81 each to the Central Employment
bureau on Third street.
Mr.. Powers referred the letter
to his assistant, who proceed
ed to investigate the matter at
once by calling on the employment
bureau complained of for explanation.
He was told that the bureau had been
authorized to hire men for Superior by
the Northwestern Fuel company. The
men We're to work on the docks. there
unloading coal for the fuel company.
That work had bsen guaranteed them
until Dee. l, and transportation fur
nished; and that the men had not paid
two dollars or any other sum to the
bureau. Mr.. Powers still has the mat
ter under consideration.
An officer of the Northwestern Fuel
company was seen by a G o re-
porter yesterday afternoon and ques-
toned about the affair. He said:
''The whole trouble arises out of the
strike of the coal workers at Superior,
which began last Monday and is still
on. The coal companies have been and
are paying as high wages at that point
as are paid at any point on the lakes or
the Atlantic seaboard. We are paying
$1.75 a day for dock work and forty
cents an hour for shoveling coal out
of the vessel holds. The strike was for
higher wages, and as the Superior men
declined to work for what We were pay
ing we started to- hire men to take the
PLACES Of those who quit. We have
been getting them from Chicago, st.
Paul and Minneapolis. Those from
Chicago were nearly all workers and
satisfactory but of those from the
Twin cities not over twenty-five per
cent wanted to work. Yes, we author
lied the Central Employment bureau
to hire the men for US at the wages
stated, and furnished those engaged
with free transportation to Superior.
AS 1 said. most of them did not want
to work When they got there the
strikers-these very men who sent in
this comDlaint-got after them and
persuaded them away from the docks
and shipping. 1 will say for the strik-
ers that they have so far used no vio-
lence; but whatever else they could do
to prevent men from working for US,
they did We instructed, the. employ
ment bureaus in st. Paul and Minne-
apolis to Quit hiring any more men for
us on Wednesday night. Those have
been sent from here since then. We
need the men, but we want workers,
and those who came from Chicago
seemed willing enough to work and we
withdrew the authorization from the
bureaus here. Our company has I'M
loaded sixteen or seventeen vessels
since the strika begun, and we are
moving on all right. I am sorry the
men sent from here allowed themselves
to be influenced as they did,
R. J. Lezee, of the employment
bureau, was next seen and stated that
no men had been hired since Wednes-
day night, when the authority was
withdrawn. He also repeated what he
had said to the assistant labor COM
| missioner, as given above, and was
very earnest in his declaration that
not a cent had been paid to the bureau
| by single man, the bureau being re-
| Enumerated for it's work by the
| Northwestern Fuel company.