Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1886 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

The special committee appointed by the House of Representatives to investigate the labor difficulties in the Southwest commenced operations at Washington with the testimony of T. V. Powderly. He stated certain abuses along the Missouri Pacific Bead in the way of exactions for a hospital fund; declared that nothing of a violent nature was ever counseled by the Knights of Labor, and thought he should soon be able to suggest legislative remedies for existing evils. Mr. Powderly said that the discharge of Hall was not the sole cause of the strike under investigation, and in .proof of his statement he read the declaration of grievances published by the St. Louis Knights. Continuing, Mr. Powderly said: While I was in the West I heard from the men of little abuses whiclj I do not think the manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad knows anything about. Along the Iron Mountain Railroad they have a system of taking 25 cents a month from the wages of a man who receives $1 a day, and 50 cents from the wages of a man who receives $2 u day, and so on in proportion, for what they call a hospital fund. Then the men claim that as soon ns they are taken sick they are discharged, and are denied the right of entering the hospital. Then there are instances, which can be proved, where men have made contracts to buy land from the company on regular monthly installments, and where, having paid all but the last installments, they were discharged from the employment of the company. In that section of the country it is different from the East. Witness said that the men had asked in vain for redress, the General Superintendent of the Missouri Pacific Railway refusing to agree to a conference. Continuing, he said: I am told, also, that along the Iron Mountain Railway, and along the other roads in parts of Texas, the superintendents and foremen are interested in company stores, and teat the men are compelled to deal in these stores. The employes are not told, in so many words, that they must deal there, but they are reminded that it is to their interest to do so. If a murmur of complaint is to reach the ear of the President of the Company it must go through the Superintendent, and a man will be discharged as soon as he utters a word of complaint. The men whose money is invested in the railroad know nothing about this. In many places double prices are charged in these stores. Mi - . Powderly said that the committee would find proofs of all these things. The men complain, also, he said, that convicts are brought from the penitentiaries in Texas to work on the railroads, and that striped suits may Be seen side by side with honest men engaged in track repairing. William O. McDowell, a prominent member of the Knights of Labor, appeared as a w itness before the Congressional Labor Committee at Washington, and explained the objects of the organization. These are, to use the witness’ own words: To elevate the members by helping them to educate themselves, by helping them to save that which the average workman has wasted through bad habits ; to lift him from the condition into which he has fallen through such habits, and make him thereafter an employer instead of an employe; to so educate him by comparison of ideas and by discussing questions that help to educate that he is able to deal with and grasp the subjects which affect not only himself but his employer; that ho will become a better workman, command better wages, and by co-operating with his employer help him to such profits that he will be able to pay better wages. Mr. McDowell, being asked what was the original cause of the Southwestern strike, made a long statement, involving the difference between the principles of day work and piece work, and quoted Gould as saying that bymaking a change of that sort in the Western Union Telegraph Company he had effected a saving of 80 per cent. He added that the general cause of this strike and of recent strikes all over the country had been the successful strike on the horse-car lines in New York last February. That had commanded such universal public sympathy that workmen, whenever they had a grievance or wrong, jpined together and made applications to form assemblies of Knights of Labor. This was so general that the order had increased more in the mouth of February last than it had in the prior eight years. As an additional reason he alleged the universal system of watering railroad stock, which made it necessary for railroad managers to screw down the rates of labor as much as possible. The Secretary of the Knights of Labor, Fredericks. Turner, appeared as a witness before the House select committee, at Washington, and testified that there were twentyone District Assemblies of the Knights of Labor in the United States, with about 6,000 local assemblies. In these local assemblies there were from 10 to 3,000 members. The Knights of Labor had no political object, and did not seek to influence legislation. He had known of no such movement on their part. He knew nothing of the petitions to Congress for unlimited coinage purporting to come from Knights of Labor. He thought they could be traced to societies outside of and unconnected with the Knights of Labor. Mr. Turner described the interview which he and his colleague, Mr. Bailey, had had with Mr. Hoxie in St. Louis. He said that Hoxie’s treatment of them was very discourteous; that ho stated he would have no conversation with them as officers of the Knights of Labor, but that he would receive them as American citizens. They informed him that they did not desire to stand on their dignity, and were willing to talk with him as private citizens; that all they wanted was to have the trouble settled, peace restored, and the men set back to work. Mr. Turner said that theqgmu»ral Organization hail the right to approve or disapprove of strikes. The present strike had not been approved. Witness indorsed the arbitration plan suggested by the President in his message to Congress. A sub-committee of the House Committee on Pacific Roads has decided to report a bill providing for the annual payment to the Government of $1,812,000 by the Union Pacific for seventy years.