Appreciation, kind treatment, a fair
deal--these are often the potent forces with the American workmen.
Employers can do so many desirable things for their men at little
cost. At one meeting when I asked what we could do for them, I
remember this same Billy Edwards rose and said that most of the men
had to run in debt to the storekeepers because they were paid monthly.
Well I remember his words:
"I have a good woman for wife who manages well. We go into Pittsburgh
every fourth Saturday afternoon and buy our supplies wholesale for the
next month and save one third. Not many of your men can do this.
Shopkeepers here charge so much. And another thing, they charge very
high for coal. If you paid your men every two weeks, instead of
monthly, it would be as good for the careful men as a raise in wages
of ten per cent or more."
"Mr. Edwards, that shall be done," I replied.
It involved increased labor and a few more clerks, but that was a
small matter. The remark about high prices charged set me to thinking
why the men could not open a cooeperative store. This was also
arranged--the firm agreeing to pay the rent of the building, but
insisting that the men themselves take the stock and manage it. Out of
that came the Braddock's Cooeperative Society, a valuable institution
for many reasons, not the least of them that it taught the men that
business had its difficulties.
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