The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-10

| to several hundred dollars brought
against his firm by italian laborers FOR
money due them since March. Fell
declared, also, that other firms had
| found IL practicable to pay their la
borers promptly at the nd Of each week.
President ]. A Kelly of the labor
council, emphasized the point that no
matter II employees worked steadily for
Gray Brothers, the long postponement
of pay day made them always at least
three weeks behind in their wages.
E. BackuE, member of the unem-
ployed cooperative league, gave some
strong testimony relating to complaints
received at the headquarters of that
organization. His denunciation did not
stop with Gray Brothers alone, but
carried TO other firms and companies.
ITALIANS COMPLAIN
Secretary Henry Durand of the Ital-
ian bureau for immigrants told or
many complaints received regarding
Gray Brothers and of efforts TO make
collections. He called on Miss Brasch
with time check, he said, on the day
marked for payment and was told to
come next month"; The same thing
greeted him month later and when
he demanded to see Gray personally he
was told Il would be of mo use. he
finally succeeded. however, in getting
to Gray and secured an order payable
in 80 days He told OF another case OF
man with a claim of 1910 against
Gray Brothers for work performed In
February, 1S90S, who was not pa1u
until May, 1903.
Alfred Isson. the friend of a former
Gray employe, told OF similar case
and openly denounced the firm as
'-swindlers."
August Kolb, a blacksmith. gave
Gray the lie by denying the latter
statement that the firm never discount
ed its own checks. He asserted that he
had been charged discount of 10 per
! cent in order to get the firm to cash
! one of its own time checks for him.
He said that employees were forced 10
pay board whether they took their
meals at the firms boarding houses or
not. and that the living quarters were
filthy.
"We have had great many COM
plants agains the firm OF Gray Broth
ers," testified Deputy Commissioner
Fred c. Jones of the bureau of labor
statistics. The general trend of these
complaints has been that the men could
not get paid for the work performed.
complained of in the same way.
Laborers Are Victims
.'The complaints are from unskilled
laborers who can't cash their checks
and can't obtain satisfaction. The
complaints are very general. L suppose
we have had 1000 within the last two
years. This commission has no power
/ 1t ca molly advise. The evil is the out
growth of a system due to lack of
Legislation. It is a general evil, not
confined to Gray Brothers at all"
Supervisor Booth wound UP in a
clash with Harry Gray when he was
asked TO express his opinions on the
pay check system as divulged in evil
dence. He objected to Gray's COMPARE
son of the citys methods with those of
his firm and told Gray that such things
might have been possible only when
"his friends" were in power in the city
government after the fire. The refer
ence to the Doodle regime went unchal-
lenged
Gray Brothers and the board of SUI
pervisors are old friends continued
Booth. For the last 10 years we have
passed ordinances prohibiting blasting,
to which the Gray Brothers have seen
fit to pay no attention"
That's going entirely int ooutside
matters" interrupted Gray. 1t is get
/ ting personal and is merely politics"
I'm glad ] came" answered Booth
81 have heard some interesting stun
today"
DeouIafiouS Eayored