The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-12-26

"driversn) and the most laborious sort OF ton'
can be seen that the weekly wage was q'''0
the first seven days expense, Including ONCE
was 81. So it can be observed that after lhe Ii
sixty hours of, grinding work the employe mao 'ne
magnificent sum of $3.50 earned. But had he
There were other expenses unjustly levied sueh "S
exorbitant prices in the commissary. If an en-
ploye purchased a 50-cent shirt it cost him dol
lar: - pair of shoes. $3.50; and so with every
necessity. But the fearfulest and wickedest part
Of the whole dirty business is yet to be told
Some Of the bosses-or more properly speaking
slave driyers-had a secret compact with many ol
the employment office managers whereby the .
fee was divided between them. Whether TINS en-
tcnte cordialc was known by those higher up can
not be asserted positively, but it can be alleged
that they were and are criminally Indifferent lhIS
agreement between the foremen and the employ
ment shark made it extremely urgent tor the 1or-
mer to get rid of men soon as all their expenses
were earned thereby filing their own pockets with
the fee money of unfortunate human oelnS''
whose only fault poverty!
The peculiar climate that prevails III Chicago
and the surrounding country makes 1t absolutely
impossible to work out doors six complete days IN
the week and So for fear that any men might
decamp in debt to the company through becoming
disheartened at the discouragng conditions pre-
vaiIing. armed sentries were placed at the en-
frances and exits In spite of all precautions quite
a number of men tunneled their way to freedom
beneath the walls of this twentieth century crlm-
inal stockade
Do the people who read this imagine that such
dreadful conditions obtain only at Summit! DIS
abuse your minds Immediately. They exist IN
similar manner everywhere in America.
Every summer the Chicago q Northwestern
railroad places boarding cars at different towns
along its road wherein men are housed and fed
while reaying steel or spacing ties. The contract
for boarding these hundreds of men is let by the
company to private individuals; consequently the
food is of the poorest quality, the pay sometimes
S 80 and again $1.75 per day. living expenses, 81
per week; and all clothing covetousy raised in
price! At one such camp last summer. situated
thrty-fve miles from Chicago. on the above men
toned railroad two men stopped and asked for
work having walked nearly half the distance be
cause they had observed the of the town ON
the signs outside the employment offices in Chi
cago. but did not have the necessary fee in order
to be sent out. There were about eighty men en-
ployed at the place and more were needed but the
foreman an employee of the railroad himself, re-
fused to put them to work because they had not
been shipped out by the office leech
Out at Peru, Wyo, last year there pri-
vate contractor helping to double track the Union
Pacific railroad who had DULLES employed fore
men, striking and intimidating the And if
any of the unfortunates left before a specified
time they were not given any wages at all.
These are only few of the terrible abuses the
American worBingman has to bear all this
beautiful land today. Yet multitudes upon null
ttudes assert there are no justice and retribution
beyond the grave. There are more devils in hell
and earth,v living amongst you. than you
dreamed of in all your science and philosophy.