The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-16
Court Of Appeals Holds That
Scrip Law is Valid
And Attorney General Boyle
Wins a Victory.
WILL NOW PROSECUTE
Coal Operators Who Do Not Pay
Their Men Cash.
w. A. Calderhead Has Appoint
ed Over 200 POstmasters.

Wichita, Aug. 16.-Ihe court OF APP
peals has held that the anti-scrip law
passed by the last legislature is valid
and Attorney General Boyle thereby
wins the greatest of his many victories.
For years the mine operators of Kan
sas have paid their men in store scrip.
This compelled the miners to purchase
their necessaries at the mine operators
store at an exorbitant price. If they
did not trade the scrip at the stores
they could sell it to brokers in the pay
of the operators for 70 cents on the dol
lar.
In 1897 the legislature passed a law
making it a crime for corporations and
trusts who employed ten or more men
to use store scrip in the payment OF
wages to employees. The law, although
of general application, was especially
aimed and intended to correct abuses
which then existed in the coal mining
operations in southeastern Kansas.
Early in the winter the attorney gen
eral was called upon to take up the
case of the miners. He could not IN
itiate prosecutions of the kind he con-
templated to correct the abuse of the
law aimed at but he found very wiz
ling man to cooperate with him, one
who had the power the attorney gen.
eraI lacked, in the person of Thomas
J. Wildly, county attorney of Crawford
county. G. L. Haun, manager Of the
Kansas Commercial Coal cOmpany,was
arrested and was fined for violating the
law by Judge SimOns of the district
court of that county. 1t was really
test case, and Morris Cliggett represent
ed the coal operators. Judge Simons
sustained the law, and the operators
appealed to the appellate court, with
the result set forth above.
Judge B. F. Milton of the western
district wrote the opinion, and his two
associates, A. w. DennisOn and Man
ford SchOOnoVer, concurred in it. The
attorneys for the operators raised three
points, as follows:
First-The law was unconstitutional,
because the title of the act did not
clearly set forth the purpose of the
law.
Second-That the law was not uni
form in it's operations throughout the
state.
Third-That the law interfered with
the rights of private contracts, ana
hence was in violation of the state and
national constitutions.
This was the principal point in the
controversy, and the one about which
the hardest of the fight concentrated.
The mine operators showed that the
miner agreed with the operator to ac-
cept wages in scrip. This was a private
contract and the right to make it is
seemingly easy to defend.
Attorney General Boyle, from the
very start, took a great interest in the
case and not only studied the law, but
the history of England for 200 years in
relation to laws for the protection Of
miners He found that in monarchical
England the scrip system was consider
ed so vicious 100 years ago that it was
abolished by an act Of parliament.
His first contention was that as the
miner knew no other way of making a
living he was compelled by that fact to
agree with the operator to accept scrip
for his wages. In view of this there was
no real freedom in his right to make a
private contract of that nature. He
elaborated on this idea with great logic
and advanced some ideas that were
formidable. He presented such an able
brief and raised so many splendid ar
guments that the case seemed to be Of
wonderful Importance, and as a result
the court held it four months before
giving a decision upon it.
Judge Milton followed the briefs of
both sides with studious research and
found that Mr.. Boyle's position was
sound in every point. The court upheld
every point in the law.
Last April the appellate court decided
the screen law, a companion law for
the benefit of the miner for the cOrrec-
ton of the abuses under which he suf-
fered to be constitutional, but the Op-
orators still continue to violate it. The
attorney general has been waiting pa
tiently for decision on this law with
view of going after them for the two
offenses at the same time, as a matter
of public policy and economy. Now that
the scrip law has been sustained the
battle will commence at once and Mr..
Boyle indicates that it will be fight to
a. finish and a fight for blood.
The test cases are now over and the
mine opera tors who refuse to abide by
both the screen and scrip law will be
treated as common criminals.