The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-06-01
ATE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS.
INC secret II.torv on s,rIhe

cret history ofa great strike. which Is
not named, but is said to have lasted
for eleven months, to have been very
recent, and to have been renewed this
last winter. 1t had been in course of
organization for six years; itihhd been
fed by contributions from the three
Kingdoms, the United States, Canada,
Australia and Tasmania; I'll had been
prepared by lectures, letters in newspa-
pers, and the extensive circulation OF a
prize essay. A time was chosen, and at
once five of the metropolitan trades, by
common and fpreconcerted agreement,
struck. Nearly $50 influential estab-
lIshments were thus compelled to close.
The Standard has seen thsbalauceshset
OF the calamitous contest. There were
9,75S mento be relieved in the first week
of the allotment, In the last there were
only l,572. The sum of $40, ,O99 in gold,
was collected in the provinces, besides
ST4, $40 in London. How was it dis
bursedE The first spittance the opera
tives received nwas nearly alImonth
after they had thrown themselves out
of work, and at the rate for seven
lie
again, their daily dole-was rather less
than 10 cents Tor each family. -Occa-
siopally,i 1t hpctuatedi between. that
figure and Is cents. S7164, In all, WAS
expended in this manner. What else
was done with the money! Thereis a
large amount set down for advertising,
with commissions, was paid to men for
carrying Sandwich boards to pro-
claim the troublesIof the trade. The
innocent outside public might other
wise Imagine, that to sit as a committee
in benevolent sy tnpathy with the work.
ing classes, was saniunprofitable affair.
The, largesses bestowed, by these little
coteries upon themselves ranged from
SIS to $3.50. The ylatteE sum was the
price of a. single committee held at
Woolwich. % Next, one deputAtion e6st
S35, and anotheE$ SIS. A EIeader, !" while
the men were famishing on 10 cents "a
day, received $825aiWeek, for "waiting
on societies." TheresWere no less than
seventy.eight disbursements under this
particular head, the total OF cost
amounting to several thousands. But
there are, besides deputations, "dele-
cations" the members Of which
earned $40 a day, in addition to
themselves to the provisional towns.
They all indulged in first-class travel
ing and telegraphic dispatches, and
charged extra for doing canYassers'
business. In this department. of the
.baIance-sheet there are no less than u
hundred and TWO items, embracing
many "incidental expenses, quite un-
accounted r, though of considerable
magnitude; charges for pOst-horses,
hire of halls, stationery, postage and
newspaper printing, and "servfces rem
Il Il . "a IL
cellanies there is $50 to a firm OF solic-
itors ''for opinion on society's rules"
to loans repaid, $1,000; to a deputatton
mot ehumerated aboveO to the landlord
of music-hall, S. probably spent IN
the house6 to an architect, IS; to some
body 'tfor time" SS6, go; to somebody
else "for estimating," S3I so; to third
party for copying the estimate, $3.50.
So that the period of strike is not one
ofunmitigatedR distress 10 every body
concerned; there are some, at any rate,
who grow fat upon it. After deputa-
tiOns and delegates come 'demonstra-
tions" These cost, respectively, $40,
$40 and $50 each, and there were a
ture involved a payment Of 800.
There are in the catalogue, hundred
and forty printers bills. Then follow
more ssexpenses. Of delegates,n p and af-
terwards accounts of expenses incur
red by compelling men who had trav-
eled uP-to seek employment Mt the
empty workshops, to return to their
several towns. subsequently, there is
the item "stationery"-a very large one
and the [" executive" kept itself
cheerful at a certain tavern for S45.
Rather misty are the figures, "to work
done for the conference S170; but the
batch OF auditors, who were not pro-
fessionals, being plasterers, carpenters,
bricklayers and painters, got $2I5;
while the executive, being forced to
engage assistants, paid them with a
free hand; and still the daily coppers
were handed over to thousands
of workmen, who, but for the prompt
ings of this self-elected body, might
have been earning as many quarters,
1t is enough to set the audited accounts
SIDE by side-men on strike, 62 cents
week; gentlemen on the executive,
81 so uay. The working classes ought
TO understand this and reflect upon it