The San Francisco call., 1896-11-22
General Manager Exposes One o.
the Latest and Most Cruel
CanardS.
WAGES OF sTREEToAR MEN.
They Are Not to Be Reduced and the
Subject Has Not Even Been
Under Consider ration.

eff We had any man In our employ who
would believe a story that appeared IN
that $50, 600 beauty, the Monarch of the
Fakers, we would try to get him place In
the asylum for the feeble minded"
When General Manager E. ?. Vining of
the Market street Railway Company ut
tered these words there was good
humored sincerity in his tones that lndi-
Gated clearly how thorough was his con-
tempt and distrust for the journal he re-
ferred to-
His remark was called forth by an in
quiry as to the truth of an article which
appeared in the Examiner Friday, stating
that il was the intention of the company
to reduce the wages of grlpmen and con-
dCctors 10 81 day, instead OF continuing
to pay employees 221& cents an hour.
1.-The subject of wages" continued Mr..
Vining, 'has not been talked about or
brought up in any way. We are entirely
satisfied, and have every reason to believe
that our employees are also satisfied with
the present system. We would be very
foolish, when we have satisfactory basis,
to change to one that would be unsatisfac-
tory.
"a large part of the trouble between
employers and employees arises over dis
putes as to what constitutes days labor.
This is always an uncertain quantity. We
pay by the hour, and everyone knows
what an hour is, so that there can be no
misunderstanding on that point.
1.-The article in the Examiner is abso-
lutely without any foundation, but so lit
tie faith is placed in anything that paper
has to say on any subject in which its
self-interest is involved that would not
use my time, nor trouble the public with
denials of its numerous and palpable
fakes, under ordinary circum stances. But
in this case l feel there is something due
our many hundreds of employees and their
families.
1.-The publication of unfounded rumors
like this is unpardonable and maliciously
mischievous. l do not speak from the
company's standpoint, but from that of
the employe. Nearly all of our N en- are
married, or have others dependelt on
them, and these untruthful stories tend
to demoralize and discourage the men, and
create an uneasiness in their families that
is nothing less than cruel, for reduction
of the daily earnings would mean to some
of these people deprivation and perhaps
even actual suffering.
zone of the things that the taking sheet
calls attention to is that men have some
times to work until o'clock in the morn
ing, and then must report on again at 5
o. clock the same morning. It is true
some few do so, but the reason for this is
one that is to the benefit of our men, and
I am sure they all un derstand it.
Twelve hours is considered full days
work, but when cars are kept out from
eig ghteen to twenty hours each day we
would either have to divide the time so as
to give all our employees chance to earn
full days pay throughout the week or
divide the days run SO that none of them
would earn more than ten hours pay. 1
find that three cars, for instance, aggre-
gate sixty hours run in three days. This
is divided into five tricks of twelve hours
each.
This gives one crew twelve hours, say
from A. NJ. to P. NJ, and another crew
eight hours, from 5 P. NJ. to A. M. The
latter is then given the trick from A. NJ.
TO 9 A. NJ. the next day. This OF course
gives only four hours between the two
watches, but each crew has an interval of
eight hours also, and of course can sleep
either the consecutive eight hours or take
their sleep in installments, whichever suits
them best.
This arrangement naturally, is not
what man would make from choice. but
is adopted so as to give all opr men an op-
portunity, as / said, to earn a full days
pay. In this way, which is really no
hardship, there are not large number of
men who get few hours work day
which would not return them living
1t is well-known fact that this fake, SO