Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1892 — Honesty that Paid. [ARTICLE]

Honesty that Paid.

A score or mure of cash boys employed in a dry goods store organized a strike. They wanted an increase of 50 cents a week in their pay and the abatement of two or three obnoxious rules relative to fines. The determination to strike was unanimous, and each boy was taken into the remotest corner of the cellar under the store and made to swear “upon honor” that he would not back out of the movement until the objects sought were attained. A day or two before the day fixed for the strike a mousing porter caught three of them together in the cellar, and his threats to report them for trying to steal frightened them into telling their secret. Disregarding their pleas to keep quiet the porter went directly to the superintendent and exposed the plot. That night all the cash boys were summoned before the superintendent after the store had been closed.

“If there is to be any striking,” said he, “I propose to strike first. Now I want every boy who is pledged to this movement to step forward.” Only one boy came forward, and he was the most industrious and trustworthy in the store. Each of the other boys being questioned denied any complicity in the proposed strike. The superintendent was a shrewd man. He soon ascertained all the facts and found that the one plucky hoy proposed to stand by his strike oath until the objects sought were attained. “Oh, very well,” said the superintendent, dryly, “as you are the only one on strike, I will concede to you all you ask. ”