The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 190
566 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
While the necessity of running shorthanded irritated company of-
ficials, they remained relatively complacent until a union agent or-
ganized the employees of the Trinity Lumber Company at Groveton
on October 8, 1903. Five days later, Kirby Lumber Company workers
at Beaumont again walked out because the company failed to meet
the promised payday. As before, the walkout lasted only one day and
the mill immediately returned to full-scale operation, an occurrence
which led B. F. Bonner to the opinion that "passing this pay day has
been a blessing in disguise not only at Beaumont but at all other
points. It has demonstrated the fact that not only is there plenty of
labor, but that it is a tolerably easy matter to retain it." Bonner also
informed Kirby that "when you return and finances will admit of a
regular payday . . . I am fully confident it will be an easy matter
not only to reduce the wages we are paying, but to put them back on
the eleven hour basis.""
As October turned into November, lagging production, attributed
to continued failure to meet the payroll and consequent "soldier-
ing" by the workers, brought increased pleas from Bonner to Kirby
for immediate financial aid. The laborers, Bonner again advised
Kirby, "are controlled much more easily than you would imagine,
and you will find that when we catch up with our payroll that we
will be able to reduce the wages or increase the hours at ease.""
For the next few weeks, however, Kirby's fund-raising efforts met
with only limited success and Bonner found it increasingly difficult
to satisfy, the demands of creditors. "I am," he wrote to Kirby in early
November, "paying out almost our entire receipts each day, and there-
fore cannot accumulate anything." He also warned that Kirby's re-
turn without having obtained funds would be disastrous because, "I
have been feeding not only our creditors but our laborers on the
story of your successfully carrying out your plans . . . and that when
you did return it would mean the safe arrival of the big ship."1 The
"big ship" did not arrive and at the end of November, Bonner in-
formed Kirby, "We have been entirely out of groceries at the stores.
. . Our credit is so impaired that we cannot buy anything except
for cash, and when we run out of groceries and meat at the stores it
hurts worse than the delayed payroll." If financial help did not arrive
immediately, Bonner warned, "we will be in the midst of another
14Bonner to Kirby, October 5, 8, 14, 15, 1903, ibid. Quotes are from letter of October 14.
15Bonner to Kirby, November 2, 1903, ibid.
"6Bonner to Kirby, November 11, 1903, ibid.190o
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972, periodical, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101201/m1/202/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.