Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-07-12
COMPANY STORE BILL.
FRIENDS AND OPPONENTS APPEAR
BEFORE THE GOVERNOR.
Constitutionality of the Orme Measure
Is Attacked by Corporation Attorneys.
Merchants and Miners Plead with Hast
ings to Sign the Act-No Decision Yet.


Governor Hastings heard arguments
pro and con on the Orme bill. taxing
store orders, checks, etc, on Thursday.
A committee numbering twenty-five.
composed mainly of representatives of
coal corporations, was present to pro-
test against the signing of this measure
Hon ). L. WOlVerton. OF Sunbury, was
chairman of this committees and other
prominent members were eX-Attorney
General ii. w. Palmer, of Wilkesbarre:
f. B. Farquahr of Rollsvilc; eX-State
Senator Grant Herring, of Bloomsbury.
and w. w. Watson, of Scranton. A
larger delegation, numbering seventy
five, appeared in favor of the bill, head
ed by Representative Orme, who intro
duced it, and Hon. William Wilhelm, of
Pottsvillc, who originally drafted it,
This delegation consisted of miners,
merchants aud ironworkers.
Hon. f. Il. Farquahr made the first
speech. He held that this bill was al
most identical with one which Governor
Beaver vetoed because of its illcgality
and ambiguity. He held that the evils
which this bill were supposed to rectify
had already been legislated out of exis-
tence, and that this bill was therefore
aimed for the most part at imaginary
evils. There was no need for this legis-
lation; it was superlluous and would
really cause Inconvenience to the miners
and employees. The speaker held that
il the miners and other laborcrs were
not able to assign their wages to store
keepers their families would be abso-
lutely destitute. For it is Il fact, Mr..
Farquahr contended, that there are not
thirty per cent of the laborers of this
country who are not directly dependent
upon their wages for their current ex-
penScs. In any emergency they are
stranded unless they can assign their
wages. If this act becomes law it will
assuredly be the employe who must in
evtably pay the 10 per cent tax. Again,
the power to assign wages at stores, etc,
for the necessities of daily life, prevents
the dissipation of the wages. He said:
The wives and children of the employees
would most certainly oppose this bill,
because they would be utterly unable to
get food from day to day under its pro-
visions. The saloons would get the bulk
of the money"
S. B. McClintock, of Wilkesbarre, also
opposed the bill He contcnded that its
unconstitutonality was obvious on two
grounds; its title was misnomer, and
its provisions were in opposition to the
provisions of the constitution, because
the legislation concerned special class
IN FAVOR OF THE MEASURE.
Representative Orme, who fathered
the bill, stated that she represented 225,-
600 miners of the state who are too poor
to come here themselves. They want
this bill passed. They need it passed
for self-protcction. Company stores
may not exist under their former name,
but they exist in fact and reality, as the
miners know to their sorrow A cor
poration is an octopus which is crushing
the life out of honest miners. The cor
porations have power and resources to
subtly eyade the laws aimed at company
stores. They can use Sophistry and un-
derhand means and the miners are pow
erless. They do not get their full
wages. They are not honestly paid
They are not at liberty to spend their
money where and as they chose. They
are hampered at every turn"
Hon. William Wilhelm, the framer of
the bill, made an eloquent speech in its
behalf. He drew a startling and
graphic picture of the differences be-
tween the villages of Honeyvile, Frack-
vile and fremont. He held that the
terrible and ever-cncroaching evil of the
company store is destroying the vital
principles of American freedom. 1.-The
company store" he continued, sis re-
sponsibe for the dirty, filthy homes in
one of the villages just mentioned and
for the hopeless, despondent faces of the
men, women and children; it is respon-
sible for the awful depression and the
terrible hopelessness of the miners lives.
They have no hope for the present or
the future. There are just two cond-
tions of life in this country-industria
freedom and industrial slavery. The
slaves in the South rebellcd at the CON
dition of industrial slavery and tho
North sympathized with slaves. VIII
the North do more for the slaves than
for the miners living here in their own
state?"
He drew a brilliant contrast between
the employees of the Reading Railroad
Company, which annually pays IS, 900, 900
to $4,000, 900 in cash to its employees, and
the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, which
he claimed "degrades its employes-does
not pay in cash and forces its employees
to deal at the company stores or else
starve." He further read extracts from
the latest auditor generals reports,
showing that the company stores in min
N rnuionS pnih nor nnpt In