Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1901 — RUSSIANS SENT HOME. [ARTICLE]

RUSSIANS SENT HOME.

A Partial Settlement Has Been Reached in Sugar Beet Trouble. Lowell Souvenir. Yesterday the Central Sugar Company shipped the Russian laborers and their families who have been employed in the company’s beet fields about Shelby during the past season back to their homes in Nebraska. They were sent by special train over the three I and Burlington roads to Lincoln, and the composite ticket on which they traveled cost the company $1,600. The claims for wages were settled and paid on Wednesday, with the excepiion o» 25 per cent, or less, which balance is promised them from the proceeds of the sale of the lie. t sugar now being manufactured at Benton Harbor. The laborers receive sl7 per acre for bunching, tnincing, hoeing and harvesting the crop, but no time was set in their contracts for the payment of tlie last seven-dollar installment. There was a provision that the families should be returned to N - braska before Janusry Ist, 1902 The work of harvesting was com pleted five weeks ago, since whion time the men have been idie. During this long wait they became discontented and importunate for the balance of their pay and transportation home. Reports began to be circulated that the company was in a financial difficulty, and tins was confirmed by the news that the president was an embezzler for a large amount. Creditors commenced crowding on ev ry side as is usual in such cases. The laborers, fearing they woul 1 be left stranded here without employment during the winter, began suit to recover the balance due them and obtained judgments. Immediate executions were issued and all personal property of the company discovered was levied upon. In addition,to these other suits were commenced by creditors in the upper courts which are still pending. Meanwhile Messrs. Myers and Tully, of the company, obtained from the factory an advance upon the beets with which to pay the laborers. A private check for that purpose was issued by Mr. Tully to the order of Mr. Myers on a fund in a Chicago bank and deposited by the latter in the State National Bank here. No sooner had this been done than a creditor under an order of attachment garnisheed the latter bank. On the heels of this report it was learned that the fund in the Chicago bank had been withdrawn before the payment of the oheck here, which would go to protest upon presentation there. The purpose of paying the laborers through the bank here thus being obstructed, their attorneys, S. C. Dwyer and John Sink were called to the city and payment made there. J. W. Belshaw acted for the sugar company in the settlement. It is understood that if the company had not become involved through the mismanagement of its president, all

bills would have been liquidated promptly. As it is it may be forced into bankruptcy. However some of the leaders in the enterprise assert, they will recover from the shock, r< - organize and build the factory at Shelby next season.