Page 81 - William H. "Bull" Marah - Still Fighting

ISSUE : Issue 72

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1997/6/1

laugh at them. They'd come with these pies (economic pictures), and cut up this way-- 6% this, that, all that other stuff. I used to chuckle at those. You'd look fine when you're going in the coal industry with that, and them losing money.... I was trying to keep people working. We used to (rotate) 30 days in the mines--to keep everybody working. This mine'd be down 30 days--they cut that production off. All the others, they'd work steady. Then we'd go to the next one. You know, we were our brother's keeper. We invented everything. We did more schem? ing and conniving to keep.... See, I was a fanatic against unemployment, for the rea? sons... for the drunkenness and the home- wrecking and all the rest of it. I was a fanatic against that. I told you about Tom Kent; I don't know if you remember it or not. He wanted me to lay off 1500 men and he'd pay them the same amount of money or more, just as though they were working. (He said that to your face.) Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And him and I got along very well. And I'll tell you the same story again--the truth is easy to remember. I said, "Tom, I was down to the Rotary Club, listening to you. And you were telling them about the family being the cornerstone of the nation. Now you want me to destroy 1500 families. You want to lay them off and have them all down there drunk and chasing each other's wives and everything else. And they spend four times as much money when they're idle as when they're working. You know?" I said. "You do something to a man, when you take his job away from him. To his dignity and to his self- respect. It's de? grading, you know. And then he degrades himself further." I said, "Don't ever mention it again, Tom. Once is enough." So he didn't. No, but I liked him. I mean, he was about the closest thing that I ever saw to an employer that had really a heart, you know. He was good to the pensioners, he was good to the widows, he was good to the children. He was good to the men. Tom Kent, President, Cape Breton Development Corporation He's the kind of a guy that when you went in to negotiate with him, he gave you everything that he could give you--every- ~ Over 25 Years in Business ~ Canso Realties Ltd. Box 727 Port Hawkesbury, N. S. BOE 2V0 ? Phone (902) 625-0302 • We carry 300 listings of property for sale in Cape Breton and Eastem Nova Scotia. t'' JIM IMARCHAND BROKER ''We're Proud To Be Growing With Nova Scotia. '' m B. k ft:* .& ft:*'::: :% 'WftW. .ift. ::!?ft:4fc • :% .!:*y*:. .%. im!!'':. :% . • :!!?%< a:;. .:::*s* ::a *:ft:5Si ift. :??:!: • :**. $A *y*!4 • & • *%% im jjKi i??& $& m. m- 'sa M' m m, m' '., ?5ift:. .ft::. >r:::5S* :??: • m-iiii'' '::::& '. M: ' STORA M * ' >:*x?x ??>x?x • : • >: • :*>: • • Stora Port Hawkesbury Ltd. P.O. Box 59, Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, Canada BOE 2V0 Tel. (902) 625-2460

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