A Receivership Tells Issaquah's Miners There Is No Money for the Old Wages
Seattle Coal and Iron's receiver answers his own employees in superior court: the mine is insolvent, the market is gone, and the pay cut stays.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The answer of Receiver John H. Bryant, of the Seattle Coal and Iron Company, to the petition of a number of the employees of the Gilman mines for the restoration of the wages prevailing before his appointment, was filed with the clerk of the superior court yesterday. The answer is a general denial of most of the allegations of the petition, and also says that the apparent profits for the quarter ending May 31 were swelled by the sale of large stocks accumulated prior to the receiver's appointment, and also by the practical cessation of dead work in the mines.
It attributes the small earnings of the employees to the lack of a market for the product, and says if there were a market for the product of the mine worked to its full capacity the present wages would be able to support the employees and their families. The fees collected for physicians' services were declared to be all expended in paying his salary and providing an office, hospital, nurse, medicine, food, etc., for sick and injured employees, any balance being reserved as a separate fund for unusual emergencies.
In addition the insolvency of the company and its inability to pay interest on its bonds are alleged as reason for the reduction. The quality of the coal, the recent railroad strikes and the general depression in business are given as reasons for the uncertain market for the coal. The charge that prices have been reduced by undue competition is denied, and the receiver claims to have observed market rates, but says that in order to operate the mines even to a limited extent and to furnish coal at market rates he has been compelled to exercise rigid economy and prudence in all the details of the business. Unless he continues to do so, operation would have to be entirely suspended, and whether the mines are run or not certain necessary expenses will have to be made for pumping and superintendence. So, in order to maintain the property as a going concern paying its way, he has been compelled to pay no greater wages than those established by him. He has divided the work he had among the men rather than discharge any of them. He has been paying wages in cash, except where credit had been extended in the store, and then only at the man's own request and at a bare margin of profit.
In conclusion he says that John Bassett, the principal petitioner, has not been in the company's employ since January 16, his "breast" being finished on that date, and the receiver is doubtful whether he can employ him again except by discharging some other man.
“"If there were a market for the product of the mine worked to its full capacity the present wages would be able to support the employees and their families."”
The Gilman mines at Issaquah were then one of the region's largest industrial employers, and the argument in this answer — the company is broke, the market is bad, so wages must fall — is the same one workers in this region still hear whenever a firm enters receivership or changes hands. Note also the company store credit and the doctor's fees deducted from pay: a century before Amazon, the company town was already billing its employees for the necessities of staying alive.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.