The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-09-14

LauRhlin mills. Recently the benWo0li
Belmont and Top mills erected large
steel plant Jointly, The LaBslle mill
manufactures nails from old steel rails,
Hence inside Of four years the enterprise
and Ingenuity OF Wheeling operators have
wrought q revolution in the Matchmaking
industry Of the world,
Had q dreamer pTopheBied five years
ago that Wheeling nail machines would
one day cut for the market spikes which
could be forged into razors, no would have
been put In q straight-iaCket. Yet razor,
have been forged from. Wheeling steel
nails and used, and paper knives, butter
knives, trowels, axes and other cutlery
beaten from these nails are popular orns
ments. Electro plated by the Wheeling
Hinge Company they are objects Of beauty
and speak for themselves oil the meta
Wheeling produces,
LABOR DIPPICULTIRs'
The Introduction OF steel nails threat
euad to deprive the boilers or puddlers n
iron OF their daily occupation, and in 1885
the AmRlgsmGted Association OF Iron anC
Steel Workers deCTeed that nRilers should
charge 20 percent more for cutting stee
nails than iron II the steel should Prov
harder than iron. The pToviso defeated
the object OF the clause, AS q result o
disagreement on this point the nailer
seeded in 1854 from the AmalgamatiOE
and formed the United Nailers Of America
with It's national headquarters in Wheel
Ing, In 1885 the manufacturers proposed
reduction Of the wages paid nailers from
q to II cents o key, This resulted in I
stubborn RtTike, lasting for fourteen
months, the end having only recently
been reached. The nailers' organization
dlsbanded and the members returned Il
the AmalgSmation,
The facts attendant upon this strike fur
nlsh q forCible commentary upon tho I'D
vantageous character Of Wheeling aa g
manufacturing locality, In all that four
teen months Of stubbornly contested dill
ferenCes, there was no organized disorder
no public disturbance in tho city, nor In
the vicinity save triillng one at the
Laughlin mill, where Wheeling's police
system does not extend. This VouChCa
for the peaceful disposition and high char
aCter OF Wheeling workingmen and the
efficiency OF her guardians OF the peace
more convinCingly than any eulogy, The
public sentiment condemned and checked
any disposition to lawlessness.
wHRRLINas ADVANTAGES.
The advantages Of location, transporta.
ton, fuel, light, taxation and experience
which Wheeling possesses in go eminent
degree, are sufficiently set forth else.
where. They are emphasized and made
plain by tho fact that until within year
Wheeling, tho leader Of the nail markets
Of the world, paid 81 cents u key for cut
ting nails while In the Fast competing
mills were having their work dono for
from IA TO IS cents q keg, tho average be-
ing lesszthRn 10 cents, Yet Wheeling
met the Eastern nails and drove them out
Of the markets. Even the present ruling
wageg here, II cents, are materially higher,
the manufacturers claim, than the wages
paid in the East, yet the advantages OF
transportation, skilled labor, convenient
surroundings aud the prestige Of the
Wheeling nail, enable them to dolly com'
petition.
The record In the past Is n guarantee
that Wheeling will maintain her su-
premacy In Matchmaking through the years
to come. She is the pioneer In new de-
pArtures, the criterion Of excellence, the
hail centre Of the world, aud 60 she will
remain.