The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-03-25
rnr onrArrsr CAUSE or rnlcrlon


that time. All large concerns necessarily
keep filled with orders, cay for six months
in advance, and these orders are taken, Of
course, at prices prevailing when booked.
This years operations furnish perhaps tho
best illustration Of the difficulty. Steel
rails at the end Of last year for delivery
this year were $50 per ton at the works.
OF course tho mill entered orders freely at
this price, and kept on entering them un.
I'll the demand growing Unexpectedly
great carried prices up to $35 per ton. Now
the various mills In America are COMPEL.
ed for the next six months or more to run
upon orders which do not average SOL per
ton, at the BeaboArd and Pittsburgh, and
say $34 at Chicago. Transportation iron.
stone aud prices Of all kinds have advanC.
cd upon them In the meantime, and they
must therefore run for the bulk OF the
year upon very small margins for profits
But the men noticing in the papers the
great boom in steel rails" very
naturally demand their share Of
the advance, aud under our exist.
Ing faulty arrangements between capital
aud labor they have secured II, The en-.
ployerg, therefore, have grudgtngly given
what they know under proper arrange.
ment they should not have been required
TO give and there hes been friction and
still is dissatisfaction upon the part OF the
employers. Reverse this picture. The
Bteel.rail market falls again. The mills
still have six months work at prices
above the prevailing market, and can
afford to pay men higher wages than the
then existing state Of the market would
apparently Justify. But having lust been
atnerced In extra payments Tor labor
which they should not have paid, they
naturally attempt 70 reduce wages as the
market price Of rails goes down, and there
arise diEOontent among the men, and we
have d repetition Of the negotiations and
strike which have characterised the be.
ginning Of this year. In other words,
when the employer Is going down the em.
ployee insist on going up, and vice tcrSd
What We must seek 10 plan by which
the men will reoslve high wages when
theft employers arc receiving high prices
for the product, and heGU0 are making
large profits and per contra, when the eni.
plOyefs are receiving low prices for pro.
duct, and therefore small II any profits,
the men will receive low wages, >
TtiE SLIDING spALH.
Wages should bs based upon sliding
scale, In proportion TO the net prices re-.
uelved for product month by month. And
here gladly pay Mr.. Potter, president Of
the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company,
the great compliment 10 say that he has
already taken q step In this direction, for
to-day he is working his principal mill
upon this plan. The result is that be has
bad no ntoppage whatever this year nor
any dissatisfaction. All has gone smooth.
ly along, and this In itseli 10 worth al least
6s much to the manufacturer and 10 the
men At the difference in wages one way
o. another which can arise from the new
system,
The celebrated Crescent Steel Works Of
Pittsburgh, manufacturers Of tho highest
grades OIL tool steel, pay their skilled
Wofkmen by a gliding scale, based upon
prices received Tor pfoduct-an important
factor In the eminent success Of that firm,
The Scale" adopted by the iron rnanuiAo,