100 Miners Take a Receiver to Court Over Cut Wages—and the Company Store
A petition filed in King County Superior Court says a coal company's receiver cut pay, forced miners to shop at his store, and fired a man who refused to back his candidate for police justice.
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.
John Brown, for himself and 100 other miners employed by a coal company, yesterday presented a petition in superior court asking Judge Langley to order Bryant, the receiver of the company, to show cause why he should not restore the wages paid before a 10 per cent reduction, which the petition alleges was made in March shortly after the receiver took charge.
The petition alleges that the wages now paid are not adequate to maintain in comfort the miners' families and others in the receiver's employ, and that the earnings of the company were $8,700 in excess of all expenses for the quarter ended [date]. The miners complain that the receiver requires them to do their trading for dry goods and other supplies at a store conducted by the receiver, and that they were required to pay a sum in excess of prices for goods in Seattle, with transportation added. If they did not trade at the store, they were liable to discharge.
The petition also alleges that Wesley Wilson, manager of the company, was in the habit of discharging men for no reason whatever, and that after once discharged there was no show of reinstatement. It charges further that Mr. Wilson discharged a miner named Dowles, who was a member of the council, because he refused to support a certain man for police justice. Other grievances are cited in the petition.
Judge Langley granted the petition and set August 1 as the day for the hearing.
“The petition alleges that the wages now paid are not adequate to maintain in comfort the miners' families.”
Company stores, wage cuts, and retaliation for political independence are supposed to be history, but the petition sounds like modern labor complaints. The case shows how receivership—a financial rescue—could become a tool for squeezing workers in the 1890s.
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