The copper era and Morenci leader., 1915-10-15
CBy R. L. Byrd, of Morenci.)

The writer of this article is a non union man who has been in the en- ploy of the Arizona Copper company in this vicinity the last two years and has received treatment from his employers as just as that accorded any employe. Therefore he feels that he is in position to tell the truth to the public with the least pos sible prejudice concerning the causes and effects of the present situation.
 By the perusal of several Arizona and Texas publications the public cannot but feel that the people of the ton-Morenci-Metcalf district are surely unjustified in their present de mands fer better conditions and that the Western Federation of Miners is maliciously exploiting a few thous- and simple minded laborers for it's own benefit Such a belief is errone- ous.
 In a statement published October 6, 1915, c. c. Berault, private secre- tary of Norman Carmichael, general manager of the Arizona Copper com pany, stated that there had been no grievances among the miners of this district until the Western Federation agitators came in. MT. Berault has been sadly misinformed.
 Some of the Grievances.
 MT. Citizen, if you had a family of e, forced to work eight hours day at a wage of from two to two and one half dollars per day in vicinity where the heads of the grocery de- partments in the company stores (which are the only stores readily ac- cessible to the average citizen) were instructed to make from 50 to 200 per cent profit on commodities, would you not have a grievance? If you paid a monthly hospital fee of two dollars and twenty cents, If the total of your company's hospital fees amounted to $25O0 or $3,000 per month (to pay the salaries of two physicians, two nurses, a cook, and the operating expense of hospital not feeding more than 15 sick peo- pie through the month); if you were forced to pay then a dollar per day board for any member of your family, who was confined in the hospital, while if it was yourself, you would draw but half pay, would you not have a prievance?
 If you were working under ground and had to pay your boss $5 per month to hold your two dollar job and upon protest to the superintend- ent you were discharged, would you not have a grievance?
 Juggling of Wages.
 If your wage was cut 10 percent at the outbreak of the European war when copper sold at approximately 12 cents per pound and six months later the companies kindly CD rais- ed CD wages by establishing a slid ing scale whereby you would receive at Is cent copper the same wage you formerly received at 12 cent copper, duu II COppSI uSC1IIISu VO Io CClIo (the minimum price of copper upon which tho wage scale operates) you would receive 27 cents less per day than before the war, would you not have a grievance?
 If groceries cost more in the only stores at which you were permitted to trade-the company stores-than they do at Springerville, Arizona, where the freighting is done by wagon over S5 miles of rough road as con trasted with the comparatively cheap transportation by rail to the fton-MorencilMet etcalf district, would you not have grievance?
 If 1t Were You?
 Now, MT Citizen, if you had these things to contend with besides monthly water bill that can be termed nothing less than capitalistic rob- bery as well as numerous other out rageous conditions, I might mention and you would carry some insurance as every sensible man desires to do, then you had also the small item of feeding and clothing your family, do you not think you would be justified in demanding higher wages?
 MT. Citizen, 1 have lived among these conditions and with these peo- pie two years and I know their de- mands are fully justified, and yet c. C.. Berault says there were no griev ances before the agitation by the Western Federation of Miners. These