A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



At this point I shall digress for a moment to illus- 

 trate the workings of the boycott system in restraint 

 of trade, and how far-reaching, after local troubles 

 had been adjusted, the system sometimes unintention- 

 ally carried serious injury, and relate some personal 

 reminiscences which are amusing in the telling, but 

 were very real then. 



I had charge of the western brokers, and usually 

 spent two months every spring in the west. Our 

 immense trade there was blocked by the failure to 

 have the boycott raised. Our brokers were wiring 

 us about it. I was sent out to investigate. I found 

 that the boycott had not been raised because the 

 notice of its having been lifted had not been placed 

 before the central body, the secretary of which told 

 me that it would be necessary to locate the particular 

 union which presented it. His record did not show 

 that union, so I had to make the rounds, of the 52 

 secretaries until I located my man. I ferreted out 

 two or three of the leaders. They treated me very 

 courteously, and helped me locate the various sec- 

 retaries. Butte was a three-shift town, most of 

 whose population consisted of miners; it was prob- 

 ably the liveliest town in America at that time. It 

 had no day or night. Members of one shift or 

 another were always more or less on the streets. It 

 was said that "It is day all day in the daytime, and 

 there is no night at Butte." 



I began selling meats, subject to lifting the boy- 



[13] 



