The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1898-03-22

we punish tiic INV" AhS
the Idaho State Tribune, pub
lished at Wallace, for what it is
worth. The Tribune is a radical
labor organ. 1t plunges into the
affairs of Custer county where 1T
has no business. This same
Tribune man is a noted agitator.
AS the following article has been
copyed to some extent, we pub
lish it in full
1.-THE most ridiculous reduc-
ton of wages that has come to
our notice for a long time is the
action of the Commissioners OF
Custer county, who have at a
late meeting decreed that hence
forth men employed on road
work be paid $3.50 per day, a
reduction of so cents. Custer is
essentially a mining county,
scarcely producing enough vege-
tables for its small population.
It's seat of government, Challis,
is 65 miles from the nearest rail
road point, Ketchum. The mines
are more than this, in some in
stances rs miles. The necessar-
les of life are very high, yet the
amount is considered sufficient
remuneration for laborers by
gentlemen who are hardly one
notch removed, according to the
social scale, and several notches
below in the moral scale, these
same laborers. Two dollars and
fifty cents a Gay in that portion
of Idaho is hardly equivalent, all
things considered, to 81. so in any
eastern city, so it is seen that we
are keeping pace with Massachu-
sets in the downward tendency
of wages. 1t is worth chronic
ling that these three Commits
sioners are arrant haters of Mark
Hanna, because he is so cruel to
the men in his employ, and are
veritable silver bugs. Nobody
but a silver man got Office in
Custer county in 1896. Oh mud !
Poor old Custer has had it's
Sharp, its Fox, and its Coryell,
just as Shoshone has had it's
Bradleys and Eslers. but it re-
NAMED for these three Commits
sioners to cut the wages below
that which any self-respecting
scab would agree to work for.
Their next move should be to
open an employment Office in the
state of Missouri, or, like the
various towns along the Short
Line, import japanese or Chin
csc laborers. Think of it. a min
ing country in Idaho wanting to
hire road workers for 50. so per
day, this to be paid in scrip that
will hardly bring more than rs
cents on the dollar. Sorry, very
sorry, that old Custer has gone
scabbing. The names of George
MCGOWAN, William Treloar and
Henry Knapp should be handed
down to posterity.
1.-The Custer Miners Union
entered strong protest against
the action, but that's all. 1t will
slide off the greasy pates of Gus
ter's Mark Hannas much after
the fashion of ducks, and the
worst is, we fear that this is not
all. The Union and Commission
ers are likely to be voting to.
gether this fall, for silver"
This rot goes TO show how far
the Tribune agitator will go out
of his own field to agitate. We
believe in good wages, but we
also believe Custer county and
Custer Miners Union can get
along without the aid of the
Wallace agitator. The above is
gross Misrepresentation OF the
truth in many places, and vile
SANDER. We are proud to say
that the Custer Union is compos-
ed of good honorable men, and
take a common-sense view of
matters, and do not rush into
strikes without a reasonable and
just cause, which cannot be said
OF some of the Unions in the
Occur d'Alene region. But how
could the result be different when
they have such leaders as the
Trih11nQ in thai7, midst 9