Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1898 — THE SUPPLY STORE. [ARTICLE]

THE SUPPLY STORE.

Vennsylvanla Coal Miners Robbed by Their Employers. A clerk in a Pennsylvania coal company “supply store” has made some interesting revelations regarding that particular method of robbing the workingman. There are twenty-seven “supply stores" in the coal and coke region, notwithstanding the State law on he subject, and all are owned by tna oal companies, or by heavy stockholders in the corporations. Twenty thou- . and miners or employes of coke ovens are compelled to deal at these stores, and, assuming that the average annual purchases a customer reach S2OO, we have as the total ol the business. All the supplies for a 1 these stofes uro bought for cash by one man, who has an oTce in Pittsburg, and the employe quoted says he Is enabled, by the magnitude of his orders and spot cash payments, to buy from 15 to 25 per. cent, cheaper than the individual private merchant, while the store prices to miners are from 10 to 25 per cent, higher than at ot'.er stores. In other words, he figures a profit to the “pluck me store of from 25 to 50 per cent., an 1 concludes that the stores are often far more profits ble 'to the coal companlesj’than the mines are. These company stores have no bad debts, as other more: ants have. A mine ? can only obtain good; when he has money coming to'him from the coal company. When he exhau te that balance he can obtain no more supplies until he has done more work, an t, as a result of this system, he often sees no ca3h for months at a time