Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-16
REPORTS FINDINGS
OF STRIKE INQUIRY
Details of Trouble Between
Standard Oil Employees and
Company, Bayonne, N. J.
ALLEGES GREAT PROFITS
DUE TO uOW-WAGE RATE
Statement Outlining Results of In
vestigation Made for Commission
on Industrial Relations.

CHICAGO, August 16.-The report of
George =. West and c. T. Chenery.
who Investigated the July, 1915, strike
of Standard Oil Company employees at
Bayonne, y. j.. for the United States
commission on industrial relations.
was made public last night by Frank
y. Walsh, chairman of the commission.
The report said, in part, after stating
that the strike was against the stand
ard Oil Company of New Jersey:
The company is the most important
of the Standard Oil group, and this
group is the principal contributor to
the wealth, prestige and power of the
largest estate in the country, if not
in the world-that of John ID. Rookie
Teller, ST., and his immediate family.
The facts regarding the companys la
Dor policies must therefore be regard
ed as of special significance because
of the tremendous power welded by
the group of men who control this in
dustry, and because of their announced
intention to enter the field of indus
trial relations with a view to widening
their influence and actively prOpaSat-
ing what they deem to be the proper
theories and principles that should
govern the relations between employer
and employee
Statement of Findings.
The following findings of fact are to
be considered in the light of the fore
going:
THE Standard Oil Company of New
jersey, although conducting an enor-
mously profitable enterprise. pays
wages too low to maintain a family on
a comfortable, healthful basis.
1T fixes wages not with relation to
the earnings of the company, but by
taking into consideration wages paid
by other companies in the same local
ity and then fixing the wage as low as,
or lower than, the prevailing wage IN
that locality.
IN Bayonne it paid common laborers
less than those of two companies
whose plants adjoin it's refineries. This
is in direct contradiction to the claims
of the company in statement issued
at &c Broadway that il always has
paid the prevailing wage or better The
statement of the general manager of
the company that the interests or othef
companies in the same locality are
considered in the fixing of wages con-
stitutes in effect an admission that the
company combines with the poorest
and least generous employers to fix the
wage rate.
Ihe company maintains Seltlcu
policy of refusing to deal with any la
Dor organization or professional labor
man and even refuses to permit those
employees who cannot speak Englsh
intelligibly to engage an attorney as
their spokesman and representative.
Alleged Denial of Hearing.
Developing this last point further in
the report it was stated that Paul Su-
pinsky, Jersey City attorney. visited
General Supt Hennessy of the COM
pany as spokesman for a committee of
six employees who had hired him to ne
Eotiate for them. 1t was further stated
that Mr.. HenneSSy, acting in conjunc-
ton with Mr.. Clifford, general manager
of the company, refused point blank to
consider the demands and expressed in
dignation that the men should have en-
gagged a non-employe of the company
to aid them in presenting their grew
ances"
The men are made to understand"
the report continued, that they must
seek no outside assistance in their deal
ings with the management and that
any show of independence or any hint
of compulsion will be vigorously re-
THE company has instituted no ma
chinery by which real or fancied griev-
ances may be peacefully and promptly
adjusted. The officials say that any
tendent, but the employees allege that
they would be discharged before reach
ing the office.
General Manager Clifford is not be-
lever in child-la Dor legislation. and on
the other hand thinks the children
should be allowed to go to work earlier.
He and Mr.. Hennessy apparently have
little respect for the foreign-born men
whose labor produces the company S
earnings, and are proponents of the eX-
tremely individualistic and reactionary
Industrial theories discarded by en-
lightened employers and by economists
many years ago.
Employs Detective Agency.
The report then recited that the COM
pany employed a detective agency of
New York to furnish guards and strike
breakers. 1t quoted the attorney for
the agency as referring to these men
as "a lot of thieves" The investi-
gators added their appearance amply
justified his use of the term.
THE strike was broken by Sheriff
Eugene Kinkead," the report stated.
who first overawed and disorganized
the strikers by assaulting and arrest
ing one of their leaders. and then
strengthened his control over them by
promising to use his influence to OBJ
tain an increase in wages and by ar
resting thirty of the armed guards.
In another section of the report it was
stated that the sheriffs alleged assault
was upon "a young Elizabeth City social
list named jeremiah Baly."
The report asserted that the sheriff had
suggested Baly as d member of the strike
committee, and when the men went to
the plant to draw back pay insisted that
Paly should go with him. 1t was
further stated in the report that
Baly, not being an employe OF the COM
pany. refused to go to the pay window.
and that the sheriff first beat him
viciously' and then arrested him.
Says Company Upheld Sheriff.
Sheriff kinkead's course had the cor
dial approval of Standard Oil Company
officials, who were thus enabled to MAIN
tain their refusal to make any concession
to the men until the men returned to
work and had, in effect, thrown them
selves on the bounty of the company,
continued the report.
Two days after the men had returned
to work the Standard Oil Company an
nounced increases in wages These in
creases were less than those dema nded
by the strikers. and the rates now being
paid are still below those paid by one