WHY HE'S OUT OF WORK.
Underpaid City Employe Gave Out an
Interview and Was Fired.
W. H. Applegate, a city employe, gave an interview to a reporter for The Journal last Sunday, in which he truthfully said that the city pays part of its Turkey creek pumping station employes only $1.75 a day. On Monday Applegate was discharged by S. Y. High, superintendent of the water department. It was said that Applegate had asked for three days off and had taken four. No other charges were made against him. Nobody denied that he had told the truth in the interview. Sometimes it's an unwise thing to tell the truth during a campaign. Anyway, Applegate told the truth and was discharged.
Applegate said yesterday that he had been singled out by certain persons for dismissal because he was working for an increase of wages for the men in the city's employ who are paid only $1.75 a day.
"A number of men in the city's employ were given a raise a short time ago," Mr. Applegate said last night. "I was requested by other men who receive only $1.75 a day to go out and work a few days for R. L. Gregory, candidate for speaker of the upper house. I spent four days at that work last week and when I returned to work I found a note notifying me of my dismissal. I went to see Mr. High and he told me that I was let out because I had stayed away from work one day more than I had asked for."
