The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-09-21
wnEELINo, w,yAn sEPEEaIpLh y, lssv
Ten year. in the wheeling Newspaper

OHloeht
For more than ten years the wages ioF
which the late employees Of the Wheel
Ing newspapers have refused to continue
al work we're the governing prices. I'm
N the demand came which resulted IN
dislupting the relations existing through
tbat decade there was no intimstion that
the printers thought themselves under
paid. In the meantime the wages have
relatively apr eCiated about % percent
60 that a dollar earned now will buy as
much as Sl,25 earned when the present
waves were established, is very clear,
Therefore, that the demand was not made
because the dsy's earnings bad dimin.
ished in power to buy the necessaries and
comforts Of life.
In the productive industries, almost
without exception, wages have declined
The men who worked on the Wheeling
newspapers put in type night alter night
dispatches telling Of the reduction oil
wages. They saw the steady drift Of
things, Yet they were not asked to &C
cept lees, and the pIoprietors Of the In
.rELLluENcRR were assured that the men
considered themselves well treated not to
bs asked to accept a reduction.
With wages seeking lower levels every
where, there came upon Wheeling at the
same time such depression as thecity had
never known. For fourteen months the
one industry which has overshadowed all
othsrs in this community was paralyzed
Men who haid paid promtly for the paper
nolonger able to pay, were carried, and
are still carried on the books, as they will
attest. The paper was delivered as usual
though the receipts from subscriptions fell
OF largely. This was done not only as
matter Of business, but because these de-
linousnt Subscribers were in large part
old friends who had taken the paper FOL
years, and tho publishers did not feel dis
posed to sever relations with them be-
cause they could not pay at the end Of the
week, the month or the half year. Many
Of these accounts cannot be settled until
the men who have been 80 long out OIL
work get on their feet again.
sucha depression, 90 deep.rooted and
50 prolonged, could not exist without pro-
duclpg ia,-resching: collateral results
Every business enterprise, great and
small, in Wheeling felt the blight; and
from every one Of them came the reaction
upon the newspapers in every branch Of
their business. There was not only a
smaller volume OF business, but collections
were slow beyond all precedent. Besides
this the hopeless accounts represented an
unusual amount. In the past year the
IsrEL11uESoER struck of its books as
'dead horse" more money than had come
under the same head in any previous
year in twenty years. The newspapers
were struck heavily at homel and abroad.
The proprietors knew that their bust.
ness did not Justify the wages paid, yet as
often "a the matter was discussed the
name determination was reached-to 60
through another year on the same basis,
in the hope that business would improve.
II was also hoped TO find some compen.
Bation in the regard Of their employees,
whs could not help knowing that they
were not being paid on the basis Of their
employers earnings. So 1t was that while
almost everything else went down the
piy Of the printers employed by the
wheeling newSpapapers stood where II
had stood for ten years.
II was not possible to retrench in other
directions. Composition from other guar
tiers was sharp. The only hope for the
Wheeling daily newspapers was in keep
ing up their standard Of quality and i'm
proving IL as much as possible. 1twas q
battle for existence, and the Wheeling
newspapers fought II by the expenditure
Of money. This battle 10 not ended, and
the newspapers must still find money to
enable them to hold their own.
All Of this Is against the demand Of the
union printers, and the methods TO which
they have resorted to compel compliance
with their demand.