The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-04-19
The PuddIcrs' Victory and the
Miners Defeat.

From tho Cleveland Leader.
An important crisis in the labor trou-
bles in Pennsylvania has been reached,
The Pittsburgh puddlers have won their
fight, but the miners strike in the east
crn part Of the State Is on its last legs and
willundoubtedIy yield before the end ofan
other week. AZ these two contests be.
tween labor, and capital have an import
ant effect upon the industrial interests
here, u brief reauns Of tho two cases will be
OF interest, The Pittsburgh strike began
on the 18th, Of November last, and became
general Throughout that region on the
9th, Of December. The iron masters Of.
iered 81 so per ton for pudding us long
rs iron maintained in the market gencr-
al value Of 2!c. per pound, or $50 per ton,
Should the price OfirOn advance to 8 cents
per pound, then ii was promised that the
puddlers' rate should be raised to s. 90
To this tho puddlers would mol agree.
Five dollars and half per ton
was tho least they would take for
pudding no matter what the
market value Of iron might be, and
sooner than accept less they would quit
work altogether, which they did. To the
operators this decree Of the Puddlers
Union had no terrors. The iron market
in December was dead, the demand lin.
tied, and the price low, To have run
their mills through the winter, and piled
up the product would have required nm
immense expenditure Of capital for n
very uncertain result. They accordingly
accepted the situation, locked up their
mills, and waited for prices to improve
or the pudllers to, yield. But neither OF
these things has happened. The demand
for iron has increased, but prices are still
low, and the mills in other sections have
started up aud are running brisk y on
the trade that has hitherto belonged To
Pittsburgh. Meanwhile the puddlCrs
there have stuck for tho s. 80 rate, and
n few days ago one iron master, seeing
his customers supplied from other mills
outside the Pittsburgh district, gave up
the contest and set his men to work ut
s. 80 per ton. Then another mill started
up, and another, until the Iron Masters
Association, seeing that stampede had
begun, formally resolved to COnCede the
wages demanded and end the lockout.
Thus terminates one Of the longest and
most stubborn strikes in the record of
American industry. The puddlers have
successfully resisted reduction in wages,
and the managers have avoided running
their mills during winter in which II
was safer 10 lie idle than busy.
In the coal regions Of Eastern Pennsyl-
yania, however, the boot is on the other
leg. The strike there il not the orderly
firm refusal To work that II has been in
Pittsburgh, but violent, riOtous revolt
against n uniform rate forced upon the |
coal mine owners by n combination Of all
the railroads in Eastern Pennsylvania |
which carry the coal product TO market.
There il wrong on both sides. The alliance
between the coal princes and railroad
kings forms an imprCgnable wal !, against
which the vast tide Of labor freLs and
rhatcs necessarily. The Miners Union
the men TO strike, with the vain
llulS vi DlcuhlHb tHCcHpluyCiH SuLHulnh@
lion, but IL IL running the heads Of the
poor lnbOrersngainst stone wall and they
have nothing 10 do but remain idle and
suffer, or leave the State. In all tlatrc-
gion to-day the loudcst and deepest curses
arc against the leaders OF the Miners
Union who ordered the strike. But 1t Is
ut iis last. The grocers who have been
the miners families with food
On credit since their scanty savings were
exhausted, are now cut of from their
sources Of supply. The wholesale grocers
II New York have combined 10 refuse
further credit to the retail grOcers Of the
,Oal regions. When tho scanty stocks
now on hand arc exhausted, there will be
eft no alternative between work and
The miners are eager to re-
urn to their labor, and with starvation
PRESSING them, tho discipline Of the Union
must l,e overcome. Tic resumption Of
abor in the coal and iron regions Of
Pennsylvania cannot fail to have u
marked influence on tie revival Of bust.
less throughout the country.