Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1908-01-30
LABOR ACITATIONS
WAY BACK IN |S49
DAYS Of Zoe to $I.25 Per and
"Store Pay. Recalled
by Veteran.
From ,he Chicago Daily News.

-.hhitA "Aif ,iA'tifNV ~ .N'NS.
have wandered / iittle from the
IN me on which We started. sad Tlioma-
W. Nutte,. the pioneer unioniSl ship c,i-
penter and asit.,or, whom was inter
Viewing He had Interrupted his story
while he ietl!cd his p.Ie- II wantcd 10
tell you about our agitation on the waG-
question back in 49," he continued. w
we're being pad. as I sad. all the way
from - cents TO SIS a day. aud the
wnSe might have been all right. consider
ing ihci. comparatively high PURCHASING.
power, except for the lac; that we wei.
not paid in money. We received what We
.ised To call store pay. Shall / explain
that
Yes. do / replied.
We'll. IN the years from 1919 to ISL
the country suffered. just as il seems
tv suffer now. from IA scarcity of cur
rcocy. There wasn't much money i'll
common circulation but McSican COINS
and they were Worn so smooth that
YOU could make neither heads nor tails
"ut of them. SO the bosses used to
ask us what we wanted ard give us or
.l,rs; on the various stores to satisfy our
needs. Many were paid ia calico for
their wives. shoes for their children and
clothes for themselves. I used TO pay
my board bill by giving the woman who
boarded me an order ON the grocery for
the food she needed for her table,
~"lnconvenient, wasn't IT."
Great Days for Booze.
1t was worse thun announcement I re-
member at one time that -four of us club
bed our orders together and bought a bar
rel on whisky in exchange for them. We
Then decided to sell the whisky to the FIRST
grocery that would buy 1t. There was TO
tax on whisky in those days; the best of
il sold for II to IL cents Il gallon. Every
grocer sold whisky and no table in those
dlys was without it. Well. we didn't
have the money to pay Il tcamstcr to cart
OR barrel from door to door until we
found a purchaser. so we took turns in
rolling it along one of the main streets
until We found a purchaser
When did this 'store-pay' system cnd?"
l uueried.
After our strike against it. which lasted
for two whole years. he replied, knock
ing lie ashes cut of the DOW of his pipe.
THAT settled the currency question, too,
ii. it?"
wlr the government flooded the market
with grcenbacks and these went up or
down in value according TO whether there
WIS Il northern or a southern victory.
There were times when 81 in grecnbacks
had little more than the value of 81 in
purchasing power. or course there was
constant pickering gong on between us
aiiiNa 'Ni csosS VIZ Nv - " Il IL
ing our wages according to the relative
purcha sing power of grecnbacks."
with the episode OF the strike against
store pay DID Your career as an agitator
and striker cease?" I asked.
NO. indeed" he replied. with animation.
Il not with a slight degree of displeasure
nj the question. II nave spent, at one
time and another. what amounts to ex-
actly 10 years. or ~ per cent of my work.
ing life, on strike"
3 The Cost Of Strikes.
1T means Il great DEAL 1 put it. when
you figure the time in terms of wages and
money"
II know that. Then when you multiply
m. " experience by that of the number
of others who went through practically
the same thing YOU can arrive at n rough
and ready estimate of the social loss and
waste involved in strikes
IF it could be lived over again would
YOU DO differently"
Not at ALL" came the answer without
he>itatlon. The whole question with me
has never been one of money. 1t has been
a question of simple. everyday justice.
Justice is one of the greatest things III
the world. anyway: it's one of the things
worth living and fighting for. Even if I
have LOST by Il. thousands of young men
working today reap the benefit of our old
struggles. Considering the improved con-
d. ons of the present time, the sacrifice
was we'll worth the while. That's the way
I look at 1t. anyway. | hope the younger
men in their turn, for the sake of the
generations 10 come after them. will keep
up the struggle. no matter penalty
they pay.
There's another word I want to say TO
you on this theme before we go to talk
ing about something else and l forget it.
In all my long career as worker, agitator
.~J eIra 7 H,uo ny,ap haon aVrnctoJ
sent to jail or asked for any reason what
soever to appear in court.