The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-10-02
BIG HTY- NINE GENTS A DAY.

The election of Hon. Charles H.
Dickerman, of Northumberland
county, to congress, is SO we'll as
sured that it seems like waste of
effort to give serious notice to any
of the calumnies and campaign
falsehoods that have been circulated
by designing and malicious persons
in the vain hope of prejudicing
public sentiment against him. The
most conspicuous, as we'll as the
most absurd of these, is the charge
that Mr.. Dickerman once upon a
time said, that eighty nine cents
was enough for laboring man. "
Such statement as this is an in
suit to the intelligence Of any man
who is acquainted with Mr.. Dicker-
man. For the greater part of his
long and successful business career,
Mr.. Dickerman has been a manu-
facturer and an extensive employer
Of labor. Petween him and his
employees there has always existed
the friendliest ties, and in the mat
ter OF wages he has always paid the
highest price. Where is the man
who heard him say that eighty
nine cents was enough for a labor
ing man' Produce the man who
heard him say this and let him make
the statement under oath and it
will be proven in court of justice
that he is perjurer and a scound-
rel. From 1894 to 1897 the Mil
ton car works was one of two car
building concerns in the state that
had the financial ability to keep
running. There were very few
cars being built and those that were
contracted for, were built at a price
that left no margin above their
actual cost. 1t is fact that from
1894 to 1897 the car works of
Murray, Dougal & Co., of which
Mr.. Dickerinan was the treasurer
and financial manager, did not
make one dollar above the running
expenses of their plant. We wish
also to emphasize the statement
that with the exception OF the Jack
son and Woodin plant at Berwick,
every other car building establish
ment in the state had either failed
or closed down during these four
years of financial depression and
industrial inactivity. During this
period the price OF unskilled day
labor at the Milton car works was
one dollar and ten cents per day.
On one or two contracts that were
taken at an exceptionally low
figure, by special agreement with
the men entered into before the
order was accepted by the firm,
there was reduction Of ten per
cent, which for short time fixed
the rate at one dollar for a days
work. This was only during the
continuance of these contracts, and
this was the lowest price ever paid
tor unskilled labor at the Milton
car works. There were hundreds
OF manufacturing establishments,
and some of them in Milton, that
did not pay this price Tor unskilled
labor, for even the time they were
able to run.
The Milton car works were kept
running most of the time during
these four years. AT times work
was very scarce and in such extre-
mites the men put in nine hours
which netted them eighty nine
cents. This is the whole story
about the eighty-nine cents a day
business. The writer has talked
personally with many of the EN-
ployes of the old firm of Murray
Dongal & Co., men who are strong
Republican partisans, and they in,
dignantly repudiate and condemn
this malicious and unjust attack
upon men, who at the expense OF
their time, money and health work
ed to keep the shops running, that
their employees might earn food,
clothes and shelter at time when
public committees and charitable
institutions were providing scores
of families in Milton, whose heads
were employed at the other mills
and factories, with the bare neces-
saries of life. The man who would
make such an accusation as this, is
an migrate and devoid of honor or
decency, and he dare not come out
in he omen and r,olya the choroa