The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-15


meeting of the Clinton Business Mems
Association was held tonight, at which
President Warren Goodale presided.
The report on the labor abuses in the
Wachusett reservoir was presented by
Thomas Dawson Tate, who was APP
pointed last July by the Business
Mems Association to investigate the
evil.
It was given out on the street that Mr..
Tate would submit his report at to-
nights meeting, and the large attend
ance demonstrated the amount Of in
terest manifested in the so-called pa
drone system. The report submitted is
appended
The reading of the report was met
with pronounced enthusiasm, and the
report was promptly accepted by the
body. It was then referred to the ex-
ecutive committee. This committee
went into executive session, and after
discussing the many facts contained in
the report, it was decided to defer def
mite recommendations, pending a meet
ing of the committee next Monday eve
ming. Here is the report in detail
Clinton Business Mems Association
Report of special committee on pa
drone system and its abuses in connec-
ton with the construction of the Wa
chusett reservoir:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen
At meeting of the association, the
second Monday in July, 1899, l was APP
pointed a committee to inquire into re-
the employment of labor in the con-
struction of the Wachusett reservoir
and into the conditions under which
labor is employed for such purpose, and
to inquire into the discharge of -four
Italian laborers who were said to have
been dismissed from the employment OF
Moulton & OMahoney, contractors en-
gagged Upon the reservoir.
found, upon inquiry, that such Ia
borers had been discharged from the
employment of these contractors, UNI
der these circumstances: The men had
been lodging in the shanties already re-
ferred to, and using food bought from
the shanty boss. The shanty is stu
ated on the site Of the reservoir in the
town of Clinton. Two of the men were
engaged in helping two others remove
with the purpose of taking the stuff tC
the house of Frank Decessare, citi-
zen of the commonwealth, and regis
tered in Clinton, where each of the foul
proposed henceforth to board. Tht
laborers were interrupted, as they were
leaving, by one Frank Copp, who is {
reputed padrone, engaged in the bust
ness of furnishing laborers to Moultor
& O'Mahoney, and informed by hin
6l lnJ1c rAl
required.
The names of the men and the de
tails connected with their dismissa
from employment I reserve, that thu
association may make such use of then
as it shall deem beet, either in urging
the metropolitan water board to taxi
steps against the contractors, or il
some other suitable way.
The dismissal of these men was no
only a violation of the intent and spiri
of the law regarding the employment
Of labor on the reservoir, but it was {
violation of a rule Of the board which
reads as follows:
1.-THE contractor shall not make it ;
requirement or condition of employ
ment, that his employees shall maxi
purchases at any particular place or o
any particular person"
This rule was procured by the efforts
of this association, and has since beer
embodied in some of the contracts mad
by the board.
But the interest of the board in it
rule evidently ceased at that point, TO
no effort has been made by the boart
to enforce it.
The case of these men is only on
of number discovered in the cours
of this investigation, in which con
tractors have taken grossly unfair ad
vantage of their ignorant and alien EN-
ployees.
All of these cases are a direct resul
and outcome of the padrone system 0
employing labor which has been re
duced on the Wachusett reservoir to ;
most scientific method Of proflting b,
the ignorance Of foreign workmen.
That the system exists in the fac
Of an enactment which II enforce'
would make it impossible, will be seen
And it can only exist with the counte
nance of the metropolitan water board
as will also be SEEN.
For the benefit Of those who do no
understand the padrone system, / vii
explain its operation in a particula
instance. The explanation is from B
c. Ka5ano, of the firm of B. G. Kajan,
& Co, purveyors Of Italian labor.
Mr. Kajano, with the assistance o
his son, keeps shanty in Sterling, a
the edge of the new road which is be
ing constructed by Contractor O'Malley
under contract with the water board
This contractor uses few besides Italian
laborers, and these laborers are fur
nished by Kajano s. Co. Mr.. Kajano
by his own story, receives nothing TO
his services in furnishing the men, ex
cept the privilege of boarding them
More strictly speaking, he lodges then
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