Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-22

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Sir: The reply ct = Representative
Of the Wheeling Street Railway Com
pany to the citizens committee, which
appeared In the daily press last Satur-
day, looked very much as though I'll
emanated from lawyer Of the com-
pany. How the writer labored to Jug
gle with facts to mislead the public
was as brazen as it was deceitful. The
mutual love and interest" part of it
in it's relations with the citizens COM
mittee and the public was molasses
plaster to heal the insult the officials
of the company gave the citizens meet
ing for not having some one present,
after making promise to do so. Gall
and insolence is, and always was, for
midable weapon at the command OF
this corporation, and it used this weap-
on to an advantage in not being rep
resented there. Its officials were too
crafty to be found in such company
They did not wish to be induced or re-
quested to offer compromises or discuss
the trouble between the railway COM
pany and its employees. The request
of the latter was considered too i'm
portant to he trifled with, as the fol-
lowing part of the reply clearly indi-
Gates. 1t says:
"a communication has recently been
received by different members OF this
company, which throughout is courte-
Gus in tone and which requests re-
duction in the hours of labor and an
increase in the rate paid per hour. II
it had been, as on its face it appeared
to be, direct communication from the
employees of the company, it certainly
would have received direct response.
1t is signed, however, Local Union No.
1913, American Street Railway EN-
ployes,' followed by the names of six
officials with the designation OF their
offices in such union.
This was the elephant that OBJ
structed the way of the cunning Off
Gals from attending the citizens meet
ing. Now, on the face of this elephant,
a blind man could see the deliberate
falsehood which the action of the Board
of Directors in their meeting with the
citizens and employees committee on
last Saturday fully confirms. Did not
Mr.. Conderman, president of the COM
pany, make his chief fight on the in
crease in the rate paid per hour and
the reduction of the hours of labor?
Does not this falsify the legal lights
statement where he said: If 1t had
been Chat is, the strikers commune
cation), as on it's face it appeared to
be, a direct communication from the
employees of the company, it certainly
would have received a direct response
1t is presumed from this juggler's way
of writing that if the employees went
singly and alone to the Office and asked
the chief official there for reduction
of the house of labor and an increase
in the rate paid per hour, that they
would get direct response by telling
them that their services were no fur
Their required.
The representatives of this foreign
corporation would go to the Chamber
of Commerce to meet with a committee
of business men or capitalists, but to go
there to meet or confer with commit
Of Ia ilI1ra
mems union was beneath their dignity
1t is well enough to take wage earners
money in over a bank counter or to fee
a lawyer, but to ask for just rights and
living wages as union men was intol-
cradle and impudent.
Every true American citizen knows
that wage workers should have as
much right to organize labor unions for
mutual protection and be recognized
and tolerated in the same manner by
employers, as trusts and combinations
are tolerated and recognized under the
state and federal government, and to
deprive workingmen of this right is a
Q1Sr6puldDl6 commentary III Jul LIVE
dom as American citizens.
The street car company's officials
must be very hard pressed for material
TO make up their reply to the Citizens
Committee when they had to go back
and resurrect the contemplate action
of the company with its employees dur
ing and after the strike of 1898. They
forgot to enlighten the Citizens Com
mittee or the public about the heritage
left that company by one A. NJ Jolly,
in the shape of an iron-clad slavery
rule. Now, for the information of the
public, statement in regard to how
the employees were and are prosecuted
up to the present strike under these
rules will be interesting. Prior to the
strike of 1893 the employees of this COM
pany were paid at the rate of 20 cents
an hour. After this tyrannical COR
poration forced the strikers back on its
own terms, the first move made by A.
| M. Jolly was to reduce the rate from 20
cents per hour to 171ac, giving them as
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