The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-07-01
LABORERS
FLEECED
Cosmopolis Lumber
Concern Disgrace
to State

1t has long been known that Cosmo-
polls is the hell hole of the state from
a labor standpoint. From time to time
conditions prevailing there have been
exposed but efforts to correct them have
either been too spasmodic or the influ-
ence eXerted by the Grays Harbor Com
mercial have been too strong to
counteract, and the result is that the in
famous practices of the mill company
have been practically unchecked. The
Grays lIarbor Post devotes a page Of its
issue of June 2G to a systematic expose
of the scheme worked by the G. II. c. Co.
and the employment agencies of Seat
tie which has been going on for years
Men are sent to CosmOpolis with the
understanding that their wages will be
$40 month and upward. The company
pays their fare, which is 81, and when
they arrive they have to pay hospital
fee of soc and an employment office fee
of $3.50. Instead of paying them $40 a
month they pay them ST a day and the
men pay for their own roms If upon
arrival the men refuse to work out the
$6 charged against them their baggage Is
kept by the company. Instances have
ben shown where men We're discharged
as soon as they had earned enough to
square the Sc. In former issue of the
Journal we alluded to the evident col.
msion between employment agencies and
some mill men whereby men We're kept
constantly moving and the employment
fee divided. This scheme has without
doubt been worked to a standstill by
the Grays Harbor Commercial Co. and
certain employment agents OF Seattle
So startling has the custom become that
Mr.. n. A. Thompson, assistant labor
commissioner, last month issued a no
tice to all employment agencies Of Sc
attle forbidding them sending any more
men to that company. The Post prints
a cut of photograph taken at Aber
deem, Wash, of a dry load of baggage
from Cosmopolis and underneath is the
following explanation:
This baggage, 2lO pieces, was taken
from men brought in through nisrep-
resentation by the Grays Harbor Com
mercial company at Cosmopolis Men
in Seattle are offered free passage from
Seattle and promised $40 to 500 per
month and board. The company has
them brought down and holds their bag
gage On their arrival they are given
81 day and must eat in the companys
mess houses and sleep in the bunk
house They are required to work ont
81 car fare, $3.50 employment agency
fee and a 50-cent hospital fee before
they can get a cent or recover their
baggage The above load confsoated by
the Commercial company and sold to
Mike Apert. a Seattle second hand
dealer, represents the belongings of 2l0
men, who lost them rather than to sub
nit to the treatment OF the company
and the Misrepresentation of the en-
ployment agency. This load was hauled
through the city of Aberdeen to the
Northern Pacific depot and shipped to
Seattle on the date the photo was
taken"
The legislature OF last winter and Of
former years has steadily refused to
pass a law forbidding false advertising
for labor, presumably because of the
strength of the "sawdust ring" in both
senate and house.
C. F. White, president of the Shingle
Mills bureau, is manager Of this uotori-
Gus mill company at Cosmopoli- and is
talked of candidate for l, :. senator
to succeed Mr.. Piles. How about it,
workingmen of this state, would YOU
vote to send Mr. White to the L. s
| Spnnts9