The Penn's Grove record., 1915-02-12
DISCUSS STRIKE
AT ROOSEVELT
Assembly Committee Inquire
into Causes of Fatal Shootings
PROFITsOF BOARDING boss"
one Member Of the Committee, Quinn
Of MiddIesex, 10 q Labor Leader
and viii Make a Strong Fight
for Wage Increase.
Especial Trenton Correspondence

Especial Trenton Correspondence.)
Trenton.-The Assembly committee
appointed to inquire into the causes
that led the fatal shooting by deputies
of two strikers at Roosevelt on Janu-
airy 19, is hard at work.
The committee, which is composed
of William N. Runyon, of Union;
Charles G. Pilgrim, of Essex; Oliver
J.. West, of Gloucester; Charles A.
Wolverton, of Camden, and Arthur
A. Quinn, of Middlesex, will sit at
Roosevelt and will inquire not only
into the cause of the shooting, but
into living conditions there as well to
determine if $3.50 a day is a fit wage
for any man to support a family n
Officials of the American Agricultur-
al and Chemical Company. whose two
plants, the Williams & Clark and the
Liebig, are idle because the laborers
are striking for a restoration of the So
a day they got previous to last Oc-
tober, instead of the $3.50 a day the
company has been paying them since
them, will be called to tell if they
think their employees can live on $3.50
a day. They will be asked to tell what
they know of the shooting.
Mayor Joseph A. Hermann, of
Roosevelt, who has been in sympathy
with the strikers demands, will be a
witness. Mayor Hermann has been
mayor of the borough of Roosevelt for
many years, and he is familiar with
conditions inside the plants and out.
Sheriff Edward Houghton, Of Mid
dlesex, also will be called. Sheriff
Houghton engaged and swore in the
deputies, all from the OBrien Detec-
tive Agency in New York, who later
fired the fatal shots. 1t is possible
that jeremiah F. O'Brien will be a wit
ness.
Live on $3.50 a Day.
1t Is a matter of wonderment to
many how a man can live on as little
as $3.50 a day, but these men, most
of them foreigners, know how to get
along-of they are single. If they are
married, that is a different thing.
The unmarried men generally live
with a boarding house." The board
ing boss and his wife and children
live in one of the six or seven-room
houses which are plentiful in Roose-
welt, and he has anywhere from ff-
teen 70 twenty-five boarders. Each
boarder pays him $4 or S. a month.
This entities him to a place to sleep,
his washing, a cup of coffee in the
morning and his cooking.
He buys all his own food, raw,
through the housewife. Each one has
a book" with the grocer and the
butcher. When the wagons come
around in the morning with provi-
sions the housewife takes out all the
individual books and orders for each
one.
She does not, Of course, order a
variety. One day she buys soup meat,
another day she buys pot roast, some
days she buys no meat at all, because
the boarders can't afford it every day.
But each mans portion is debited in
InC DOOh anu at INC Gnu VI tic W0Sh
or month he settles with the grocer
and butcher.
Boarding "Boss" Profits.
The boarding boss" and his fam
lily too, profit by this arrangement.
They have to spend little for food, be-
cause by common understanding it has
come to be the practice for the house
wife to take a bit here and a bit there
froN the various orders, and thus feed
her own family.
So it can be readily seen that if a
man attains the estate Of a boarding
boss" he can raise a family with a fair
guarantee of being able to provide for
them. With the other fellow, however,
it is different. He has to depend en-
tirely on what is left of his $1.60 a
day after he pays his board bills, and
like as not he has to send some of it
to relatives in the "old country"
One member of the committee, AS
semblyman Quinn, of Middlesex, is a
labor leader, and will make a strong
fight to have the wages of the men
increased. Some idea of the attitude
he will take was shown in the resolu-
ton he introduced in the House two
weeks ago, calling for an immediate
investigation and referring to the en-
ployers in very strong terms. Mr..
Quinn, who lives in Perth Amboy, only
a few miles from Roosevelt, is vice
president of the Carpenters and Join
ers' Union of America, of which Sher-
if Houghton, of Middlesex, is a mem
Der. A~ssemblyman Quinn does not
find favor with the sheriff's action
throughout the strike.
tuberculosis Legislation.
Francis J.. Swayze, Louis Hood and
Ernest d. Easton have been appoint
ed a committee by the executive com
mittee Of the Newark A~nti-Tubercu-
losis Association to examine all bills
before the Legislature which may have
a bearing on the fight against tuber-
culosis and to take whatever action
which may be deemed necessary. Dur
ing the last nine months of last year
the Newark Anti-Tuberculosis Asso-
citation handled 651 cases. Red Cross
Christmas seals a~ggregating $6.44O.0s
were sold.
May Reargue Gas Rate Case.
1t is probable that the ninety-cent
gas rate case will be argued before
the Court of Errors and Appeals at its
March term, IL was learned here. The
term opens on March 2.
The court. after reversing the Su-
preme Court decision sustaining the
ordar of he puhlie TTtiitv Coror,s