iyo UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



independent employer is crushed. The result is an absolute monopoly 

 of industry. 



What were the fruits of this combination ? The teamsters put up 

 their wages from eleven to fifteen per cent. No teamster can be hired 

 without first notifying the union. He must pay his dues, $15 to join 

 and one dollar a month. Some teamsters earn $25 a week. The union 

 has $25,000 in the treasury. Dealers raised the price 0} coal 40 per cent. 

 No citizen can draw his own coal to his own cellar in his own wagon. 

 The salvation army had to get special permission from the association 

 to haul a few loads for the poor. 



Not content with a monopoly of their own industry, the combination 

 decided to use their power to kill another and competing industry. The 

 natural-gas industry was the one selected for destruction. Marshall 

 Field, the Fair, and the Auditorium Hotel used gas to some extent, but 

 had to have coal in the colder weather. The drivers refused to deliver 

 coal in the winter unless they would cease to use natural gas at all. 

 They compelled them to remove all the gas-fixtures. The users of gas 

 were at the mercy of the combination, and they were obliged to surrender. 

 Marshall Field & Co. were the last to yield. For a long time they kept 

 up a vigorous fight, and only yielded when there was not coal enough 

 in their furnaces to run for more than two hours longer. Thomas A. 

 Hall, the manager of a set of apartment buildings would not surrender. 

 His janitors struck. The teamsters struck in sympathy. He was 

 forced to yield. The union has further changes in the industry pro- 

 jected. They intend to stop delivering coal in bags. Then the public 

 will be obliged to hire hustlers to carry the coal from the walk to the 

 cellar. In this way room will be made for the employment of another 

 set of manual laborers. 



Perhaps the worst feature of this new form of union between labor and 

 capital is the agreement as to the number of milk deliveries a day in the 

 city. The utter ruthlessness of this extortionate method of organized 

 industry is well exemplified by the decision of the Milk Dealers' Associa- 

 tion and the Milk- Wagon Drivers' Union to make but one milk delivery 

 a day in the city. Two deliveries a day had been made for years in 

 most districts. Dr. Reynolds, of the board of health, wrote a letter to 



