The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-08

The Gedney Picking company's
West side lease and the charge that it
was being violated by failure to en-
ploy the stipulated number of men oc-
cupied the attention OF an Investigate
ing committee from the assembly yes
terday afternoon, but the examination
was not overproductiVe in results
Armed with books and a large num-
Der of pay rolls c. B. Gedney, the man.
ager of the company, appeared at the
meeting. Accompanying him were
several of the employees. The testi-
mOny of the latter and the pay rolls
he offered in substantiation of his
claim that he was living up to his
lease, but the committee finally find
ing that both would consume a lot of
time that they were reluctant to give,
finally adjourned until this afternoon
At this time Mr.. Gedney is to be in
attendance with his pay rolls for the
past year and from these the commit
tee Will draw its conclusions.
Like Mr. Gedney, Health Commits
sioner Ohage was OH hand yesterday
and was just as eager for the fray as
the pickle manufacturer. DR.. Ohage
was armed with documents and pro-
ceeded to put numerous questions to
Mr.. Gedney regarding the charge that
the real number of persons employed
was three men and two women, but
the frequent tendency of Mr.. Gedney
to object, soon showed to the commit
tee that there was nothing to be gained
by permitting it, and First Assistant
Corporation Attorney McDermott was
given the job of examining Mr.. Ged-
ney and his witnesses. This he did
by Immediately taking up the pay rolls
and asking Mr.. Gedney questions re-
garding them, but they were so volu-
minous that the committee finally de-
cided to abandon them altogether and
Confine its investigations to the past
year.
Past Year No Fair Test.
This decision was not satisfactory
to Mr.. Gedney, who said that the past
year, including the last six months,
had been extremely light with his firm
in consequence of a small crop, and
the number of hands employed had
been necessarily limited, but he final
~ accepted the situation and agreed
to be on hand.
DR.. Ohage's contention was that Mr.
Gedney was Offering the names of
men employed in the main house at
Minneapolis, and not directly in the
branch here. He held that the major
1ty of the employees were statesmen
who relied solely on the main factory
for their livelihood. He obtained from
Mr.. Gedney an admission that ONLY
Tour or five men We're employed in
the factory now. In the list of en-
ployes submitted was the name of one
who had been imprisoned in the Cen
tral police station, and Jailer Hammes
was offered by DR.. Ohage to corrobo-
q q coy vAg,co f5Nv, L. 4
in which he denied working for the
Gedney people any great length of
time, but Mr.. Gedney would not per-
NIT the testimony.
1t is generally conceded by the
members of the assembly that the in
vestigation of this particular lease
viii come to naught. The members
show a decided reluctance to inter-
1ere, and are not backward in saving
so Among those prominent in this
respect IS Assemblyman Arnold. He
was in attendance with the other
members, Assemblymen Schurmier
and ROsen, yesterday, but took little
interest in the proceedings. Mr..
Schurmier acted as chairman Of the
meeting and was practically the only
member to show any zeal in the mat
ter.
In the examination Mr.. Gedney was
put under oath. Dr. Ohage asked that
such be done, and it was granted. He
said he wanted everything to go on
record.