Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-26
"ANOTHER CLERK" ANSWERED.
To the Inter Mountain.

In your issue of last Tuesday night
there is a curious effusion signed An
other Clerk" which is SO untrue and I'M
fair to the bona ide clerks of Butte that
it deserves an answer from a real clerk.
I will wager that the man is not a clerk;
in fact, he could not be one and be SO mis-
informed or else he Intentionally distort-
ed facts. In the first place there is a
union scale of wages paid clerks. No one
can change this scale, that is lower 1t.
And not one merchant who has signed
the list presented them in which they
agree to close at 6 O'Clock has even init
mated such a thing. After I read the ar
ticle l spoke to a number of merchants
who nave signed the list and one and all
were indignant to th.nk n one should
imply that any honorable merchant of
Butte would even hint at such a thing.
Why should he when he knows that 1t is
to his advantage and profit to close at p
o'clock. I knew personally that the man
who submitted the article is not a clerk
nor yet a merchant. So We'll informed IS
the reading public Of Butte, and that
means every citizen of Butte, that the mo-
ment they read an article they can
tell if it rings true, is written by friend
or foe of the early closing movement, by
one opposed to or a friend of organized
abor. If the writer of the mentioned
communication was a clerk he had an
opportunity to exploit his views at the
meetings of the Clerks union. He has
that opportunity to do so still. AS a
member of that union I ask that he pre-
sent the proofs he speaks of, at a meeting
of his fellow clerks, in unmistaka Bile
language in the columns of your paper
where everyone in Butte will read 1t,
and that he sign his own name. Then
we can answer Those arguments and
prove our case. There Is one ambigu-
GUS sentence I would like explained, he
= cYx,, tsyEyo,,i1 uYsooorv c1el<kS and nt npls
like employees be able to leave at 6 then.
or would they need to remain in the store
thereafter to complete their daily work"
Why should their work keep them later
after doors are closed tina when closing
at s; the movement is to close at 6 and
they would stay after 6 the same
length of time they now stay after 8.
Why should they stay longer! As to
the woman: "Who has small children
she has to leave with her husband"
there is not a woman in Butte who has
not expressed her sympathy with the
move ard her determinat ton to shop in
the day time, Inc she will find a way or
make ,one. There are thousands or
women, wives of laborers and millionaires
in all the cities of the east; and to come
nearer home, Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma.
San Francisco, etc, who have always
been obliged to do their shopping before
6. Dies the gentleman want to insinuafe
that the women of Butte are less SYM
pathetic, less able TO regulate tnelr
household affairs so as to help their
neighbors and friends to make life q
little more worth the living?
Another thing which every citizen
should resent is the very unfavorable
light another Clerk" throws upon
Butte. Since his agitation to remove
the only blight upon labor in the state
of Montana, the papers all over the west,
and some in the east, have been quoting
articles from the Butte papers for the
benefit of the clerks of those other cities.
1t will not be a very good advertisement
for the Copper Queen of the Treasure
state to learn from that communication
that Butte is a most unhealthy place;
that all the clerks, according to this par
ticular clerk, are mot here for their
health;" not here to be good, honest cit
liens, but just to make all they can and
get out, going to some healthy place,
what will their opinion be? Butte has
been maligned enough by interruptions
people. and that any one earning their
living here should be so eager to traduce
her is almost incredible. II 1 were his
employer I would see "a as far as I
was concerned he be left free to seek a
more favored spot. 1t is a reflection
upon The characters Of the Butte
clerks when he asks: How many
clerks would contribute that houz