Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1883-09-07
THELABoR INVESTIGATION.
PSesident Jarrett Of the AMsAga.
mated Iron Work ers Gives Some
Interesting Evidenee.

interesting Evidence.
NEW YORK, Sept. 6.-Mr. Johr
Swinton testified to-day before the Sen
ate Subcommittee on Education ant
Labor.
Mr.. John Jarrett, the President OF
the Amalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers, of Pennsylvania
was the next witness. He said he had
fbeen engaged for % years in the iron
industry Of Pennsylvania. The asso-
citation Of which he was the head was
composed of the employees of the iron
and steel rolling mills. The object of
the organization was to secure the
moral, social, mental and financial i'm
provement of its members, and to
bring about conditions whereby the
rights of the workmen are recognized,
and that they get a fair days wages for
fair days work.
There were many mills In Pennsyl.
vania which were not under the control
of the Union. In these the rate of wages
was invariably lower than in the Union
mills. There had been humorous strikes
before the supremacy of the Union was
acknowledged by the manufacturers. -
Among members of a new organization
there was always tendency to strike
at the least prOv0cation. Now the
method of arbitration was pursued
largely with satisfactory results. The
representatives of the wOrkm-n and the
manufacturers me. once year and de-
cided on scale of prices and wages -
He continued, all iron workers were in
favor of protection, because it protected
them In their wages. Protection did
not increase the price of steel, but, if it
did not exist, there would be no employ
ment for iron and steel workers. In
some mills, which are not controlled by
the Union, the workmen are paid the
same wages as those in English manu-
factories
Mr.. Jarret, in answer to Senator Call,
said thata man who sold his iron for
$40 per ton less than another, but dis
posed of three times the quantity of his
competitor, would be able to pay better
wages but that the trouble would be to
make him exercise his ability in this
respect. The laboring classes, he added,
should be- compelled to attend school
and be educated, and the Government
should appropriate the means to carry
out system ofpublic education.
Mr.. Jarrett said that If the industry
of tin-plate manufacture were carried on
in this country 1t would give employ
ment to four thousand men the ore
could be obtained from California and
Australia as cheaply as England could
obtain 1t from her own mines. Under |
the present tariff rates n.plate manu-
facture could not be carried on. The
industry was connected !ntimately with
that of iron working. Tin-plate manu-
facture was attempted year ago in
Pennsylvania, but it failed on account
of the reduction of the tariff.
England can produce the plates at a
cost of 81 per box it cannot be done
here aG any such price. Seventeen
million dollars were paid to the English
last year by American
merchants for the commodity. The
plates are used in the making of all tin
both for household and canning
purposes. The tariff should be increas-
ed so that American manufacturers
could afford to pay the wages of tho
men engaged in the industry.
In thiscOuntry, the witness continued,
We use more tin-plate than is used in the
rest of the world, but the tariff is not
nigh enough to permit us to manufac-
,ure it, When the trade was ARE sted
BY the reduction Of the tariff there were
four rolling mills in this country. In
The matter of rent the American work.
ngman labors under disadvantage
with the English working
nan, apartments in tenement house
,ostin SIG a month, while the same
would not cost more than 81 in England.
Food WAS about as cheap here AZ there.
There is tendency to lower wages by
,he employment of Bohemians to do I'M
skilled labor, and this tendency is en-
outraged by the constant Introduction
If labor.saving machines. Steel man
lfacturers have imported workmen for
,hc purpose of lowering wages here. The
witness favored the establishment Of a
bureau of labor statistics, the enforce
neut of the eiglt-hour law and the pre-
vention of strikes by arbitration. There
should be II National law, he thought,
trades unions. He be-
ieved in the organization of capitalists
W well as OF working men.
II Il