The 'Chisel' Game: How Seattle's Working Class Fought Labor Exploitation

One of the greatest frauds perpetrated on the workingmen, said a gentleman yesterday, is the ticket system. Wages should be payable and should be paid in cash weekly if possible, but if not, at least within two days of the first of the month. I am very glad to see that one of our local members has brought in a bill to put a stop to the present system. Now a man is hired at a certain rate per day and, to pay an employment agent two dollars, he obtains the work. After he has performed the labor and wants his money, he is given a 'time ticket,' which he is told he can sell or cash at the company store. When he takes his ticket to the agent and asks for his money, the agent looks at it, takes off a discount of ten or fifteen percent, just what he thinks the man will stand, and then hands the balance over to the man. This is nothing more than a system of robbery and robbery of the poorest. It is robbery of the poor. I hope that bill will pass the present legislature and that contractors and corporations will be forced to pay their men in cash.