Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-04-21
FIEIsEERs VS.. PuDDLERs.
Some Views on the Action Taken oY
the Heaters and RolleFs.
What is Thought of the Move 10 PlttsDufg
"A Surmise as to What the Result
Would be If the Puddlers Accepted
Is Per Cent Reduction.

rs Per Cent keducuon'
Apropos of the actien taken on Saturday
last by the nail plate rollers and heaters IN
withdrawing from the A~maigamsted Asso-
citation, the Pittsburg Times OF yesterday
SAYS: -. n
t;on of the men at the Wheeling mills last
evening. he ssid: II know nothing ofil
The Vice President CT that district lett me
about $50 this evening and he had heard
nothing about il. One of the rollers was o
delegate in the convention and q scale was
drawn up for them as well as the others.
Mr.. Weihe declined to give an opinion as
to the probable effects of this action; a
fnisher employed at Oliver Bros. l. Philips
Tenth street mill ventured the opinion tina
the action of the Wheeling men would not
be followed by the 6nishers OF other districts;
81 think they have made a great mistake,
he said. 1.-The value of the puddlers in the
Association is greatly underestimate; l
DO not think the fnishers, standing
alone, can keep their wages up
10 present rates tor q year,
whereas the puddlers in one of the largest
strikes on record, that of 1876, proved that
they could make q fight, and win it. without
our help. 1t was out OF that strike mat Ine
A~maleamated Association grew. Inc
puddlers kept up o fight single handed Tor
nine months, and finally gained the day;
We worked during that time on all the old
rails and everything else that could be OBJ
tanned, and the fact that the puddlers won
under those circumstances demonstrated
hat we need them more than they need us.
The Wheeling nail plate heaters and rollers
will regret their action before the close OF
the wear. As to the effect on the Assocla'
ton il will not be felt. If ali the nailers
and plate heaters and rollers In the country
we're to withdraw it would nottake more tnan
n thousand men of the rolls. The associa'
ton can stand that without trouble"
This extract was shown to q prominent
heater in one of our mills yesterday and his
opinion being asked, he said:
f"In the first place, the action taken by US
is undoubtedly misunderstood, for you see
the fnisher, whose opinion IS expressed
therein, SAYS that he does not think the I'm
ishers standing alone can keep their wages
up to the present rates. That may possibly
be true if we were standing alone, but we
have identified ourselves with the nailers
| association and therefore we are on the
| safest side of the fence, because the United
Nailers although young, is undoubtedly the
| strongest association OF the two. l will ad'
| NIT that the boilers always made a strong
Epht, but that was often the great trouble,
tbey wanted to fight too much, and we never
| knew exactly where we were standing. we
| lave no fear that our action will be regret
| ted before the end OF: the year. You see II
| stands TO reason that as all the workmen
in Wheeling have Withdrawn from the Anal
| gsmated Association and none are LETT In
il but the puddlers, and very few OF them
| sad 10 saw have employment, should a strike
| occur, the result would be disastrous aud
~unsyailinp to us, because w would be
striking, really. to give the puddlers back
| their employment, when pudding has prac'
| tically been done away with"
THAT seems to be reasonable, but it Il
rather bad positions the puddlers are placed
in; don't you think SOP
"Yes, it is; and no one regrets it more
than | do; but the matter stands that way
now, and it is too late to remedy 1t. They
have instructed the committee which Is tc
confer with the manufacturers, TO make
an attempt to retain the ga NJ
old rate for pudding anc
accept a reduction for the fnishers, but
if this could not be done, accept q 10 pei
cent reduction for pudding. Now, IN
either case this would make reduction FOL
us, which is not q fair count, because there
mas not as yet, been any apparent attemp
made to reduce our wages, AS far as the
opinion of President Weihe is concerned
he and Secretary Martin want to hold to
gether the Association because they arr
getting rather a good salary. That ii
about all there is in it, and we now being
out o. the Association; Of course will not b.
affected should q strike be ordered nv 1t.
Meeting a well known puddler short!
afterwards the reporter asked him what hi
thought about the matter.
well" said he ~ haven't much to say
except hat if the puddlers had never
joined the ~Amalgsmated Association the.
would be working TO- day at the same ole
rate Of wages, and in all likelihood the stee
nail would have been unknown. The man
ufacturers were determined to down tn
Association, and they cast about them unit
they found the weapon to do it with, and yo'
see the result"
"Do you think that iron nails will b,
madeagsin IN WheelingT'
ut is my opinion that If the puddler
would accept a rs per cent. reduction thu
manufacturers would return to making iroI
nails, which in my opinion could be manu-
factured superior TO the steel article sim
ply by using a better grade Of iron
This, however, / Am afraid will never b
done on account OF the unwillingness of tn,
puddlers to accept such q heavy reduction
The following from the Pittsburg Post .
Yesterday will be interesting in this connec
ton:
1.-THE committee appointed by our con
yention" said q member of the Amalgs
mated Association, lis given greater lati
tude than they ever had before, and create
powers are vested in them"
"Were they given unlimited power to u.s.
their own judgment, or did you restric
them by Instructions
II have told you all that can tell you
When the question OF the scale is inall.
settled it will be given to the public"
Yet in spite OF all efforts to keep every
thing quiet there were certain things Leaked
out. One OF these was that the fight seemet
70 be largely between the representative
from the West and those from Pittsburg
One gentleman remarked that, "You car
Just set it down that the western member
are in favor of accepting q reduction in th'
scale, while the Pittsburg members are no
willing to come down q cent You know
The wages are fixed throughout the United
States. by the Pittsburg scale. In som,
places wages are q little higher and II
other places they are a little lower than tn,
price paid in Pittsburg, but in all places
they are governed BY the Pittsburg scale