The San Francisco call., 1897-02-23

not take it. / wanted cash, but the superin-
tendent told me 1t was the best he could DO.
Il ! aecordingly sued them, and the case was triea
In the Justice of the Peace Court at Westport
on the I'D of August / got judgment against
them there, but they appealed Inc case to the
superior Court at Ukiah. Now, my case has
been set for trial three different times, but II
has always been put off and continued for
some reason or another.
Another workingman. whose name is
suppressed by the Com missioner, writes
as follows:
My Gear Sir: You spoke in your let.
ter about looking in to the lumber indus tries.
ume-check system, ETC., up in this locality.
wish 10 say right here, have often thought oi
writing 10 you on the subject The Mendocino
coast EN- ploys something like 5000 men, and
you have no idea how these men are treated
words cannot express it. Take this company
here. They pay their men every ninety days
with sixty-day time checks. When the WORK
men get these sixty-day checks they cannot
get them cashed here unless they pay from
10 to 20 per cent discount. Those who cannot
get their checks cashed here at the above dis
count send them TO San Francisco, and when
the sixty days expire this company Will not
pay them for months. Then there are thou
sands of dollars of sixty-day checks belonging
TO the laboring men in San Francisco. Now
they have been due since last September, IN
paid. Last summer this company had about
100 head of old bulls, which they have been
working Tor years, hauling logs with them in
the woods They commenced to use machin-
cry Tor getting out their logs. They then
killed their old rotten bulls and fed them TO
their laboring men in the woods. Every man
in this section will tell you this. Men VINO
worked in the camps at the time tell me they
went months without eating meat-they could
not eat it.
The following will be quoted by Mr..
Sanford from the Fort Bragg Advocate.
The letter is dated ''Rockport":
With regard to Rockport, wonld say that,
Judging The future by the past, and speaking
" n nCn a n n nor has :
very little inducement for any selfrtspec ing
man TO come here, unless he is willing to
leave all his earnings in the company So DON
and store at prices which would MAKE '49er
blush Should anything of his earnings es-
cape the rapacity of bsrkeeper' and store
keeper, he receives sixty-day draft on the
18th of each month; this he can take home
ana frame and hang it up to remind him oi
all the hard licks he put in to acquire it, for
1t Is about as negotiable as a Confederate
greenback, without possessing any value as
historical relic. AT the end of sixty days
he can take it back TO the bookkeeper, who
Will take about ten days more to exchange II
for draft on some bank down below the
Mason and Dixon line. If by this time the
bank is still in existence and tine cost of col
lection don't eat ii all up, he gets his money.
man would naturally think he had some
title to his money by this time, but no. Should
he object to paying q dollar for a pair OF 40
cent overalls, or 10 cents q pound for sugar
ana paironize such enterprising merchants AS
Shafsky Bros, he will quickly find himself
upon the retired list, 10 matter what his
capacity is, and get blacklisted the coast over
In the bargain, and 1t is about time for Labor
Commissioner Fitzgerald to look this up.
Joseph Brier of East Oakland writes:
On the morning of May 5, 1896, asked and
received my time check; l drew So worth OF
goods at the store during my months stay,
and that was deducted from the check: the
clerk informed me that could have the check
cashed at the company's store in Fort Bragg.
accordingly presented my cheek at the store
a. Fort Bragg and in return received two re-
ceipts, amounting to So and 81 90-that was
all l received for my month work. The COM
pany only pays out time check once in every
three months, and shen each man has to send
the same to San Francisco at his own expense,
and viii have 10 wait for sixty more days be-
fore he gets any returns. Ii he does not wish
10 wait he can sell his cheek at Fort Bragg at
10 per cent discount on the dollar. ALI this is
not told you at the employment Office or that
you will have TO wait five months before you
get any pay, or that the work is very danger
Gus, and that many men get killed or crippled
every year. Il myself know of four men get
ling seriously hurt, and one ge ting killed in
one week.)
After reading the letters Mr.. Sanford
will say:
"In those protests it was said that my
bill was a good one and that all the mil
men wanted it passed. Yes; those COM
panies are very likely to want such law
enacted They want a law passed that
will prevent them from robbing working
men! Why do they not do justice to the
men without waiting to be compelled to
do 50 by law2 II they are in favor OF such
q law why did they turn over heaven and
earth trying TO defeat me last fall? Why
did they in some instances even threaten
to turn men off if they voted for me 4?
Mill superntendents took particular pains
TO ride my opponent all over the country
in fine surrey and pleaded with the
workingmen TO vote for him.
ssWith ALL this nnnosifinn IN -
the superIntendents in those districts
where superIntendents fought the hardest
against me my vote was the strongest In
the seven precincts near Point Arena, nv
home, where they did their utmost TO de.
feat me, [ ran LOT votes ahead of William
]. Bryan, and taking the whole coast
through / ran nearly 200 votes ahead OF
my ticket, and had it not happened for
the fact that there was United States
Senator 10 be elected / believe I would
have left the coast with over 600 votes
ahead of nv ticket.
What is the object of this protest7 II
is simply to create a sentiment to defeat
the bill in the Senate. One OF those men
who is represented as protesting against
this bill is w. P. McFaul, one of the own
ers of the Hardy Creek Lum Der Company.
which company pays off it's men in checks
that could not be sold for 10 per cent. as /
discovered on my visit to Westport during
the last campaign. found mum Der of
men in Westport who had checks of this
company. and they would have been will
ing to have sold them for almost any
thing.
The reason why laboring-men do not
say more about these things is because of
terrorism. They lear that they would be
discouraged if they signed petitions for
relief"
Mr.. Sanford will also point out the fact
that IN the communications published in
The CALL last Sunday not one of the pro-
testants denied any of the cuarges he had
made with reference to the time checks
and the exorbitant rates charged by the
truckstores.
Drofc ed at Salem.