Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-07-12
PROBABLE SHUTDOWN.
THE PTrFsBURG NAIL FEEpERs 10 STRIKE
TODAY %
For an Advance Of Five Per Cent In
Wsgs--Ths Trouble Existing
Elsewhere in the West
To-Day's Meeting.

It Is ON the cards that the nail feeders oil
Pittsburg will strike this morning Tor an
advance of 5 per cent in wages, and In
case they 90 out the nail factories, so re-
Gently put in operation, will be again
closed down. There was TO have been a
conference between the feeders and nailers,
at the Pittsburg Times Office, Friday even
ing. when it was hoped settlement would
be arrived at, but, although the feeders
were promptly on hand, the nailers' COM
mittee failed to put in an appearance, and
the feeders departed in no very amiable
frame of mind. Colonel Joe Christy, one
of the Oldest nail feeders in the country,
who was one of this Conference Committee
which did not confer, said
Had the nailers met us they could have
settled on q basis ofthe feeders receiving half
a cent, but as it is now the feeders will have
three-ffths of the earnings OF a machine OF
all. Ihave in the last four days received
% letters from assemblies of feeders in the
West asking what the Pittsburg feeders
will do, and saying that all waited In Pitts
burg"
At Bayyiew and Greencastle, the same
complication exists. The feeders at those
points have resolved to demand three-tfths
of the 17-cent scale rate until the manutae-
turers card advances to -. 25, and when that
nate is reached, TO demand One-half OF the
nailers' wages. They ask that the Pittsburg
feeders assent to this demand. The feeders
base their claim upon the assertion that
while the nailers are making So or 81 per
day, they are only receiving Sl.25t to Sl.Io,
and claim with some reason that this Is not
a fair division.
The Pittsburgh Dispatch of yesterday
had the following in this connection:
There is q scarcity of feeders in the
CITY in consequence of which q large num-
her of nail machines are not in operation.
A strike of feeders will shut down the fac
tories. One of the feeders in speaking OF
the trouble last night said: we stood by
the nailers during their strike when we
could have gone to work and earned the
same wages as they do. After having
aided them, they refuse TO pay us living
wages. Inc 1eeQeTS VIII Cub ioOoC hoh'
the nailers, and do as they have been doing
in Wheeling. We can grind nails almost
as well as they do, and unless they treat
US fairly there will be trouble.
The Pittsburg Times of Saturday said
''The feeders claim that during the
strike shOenberger & Co. sent circulars to
thirty-fve feeders offering them work as
nailers and pledging themselves not to dis
place them on any consideration. The
feeders were induced not to accept this OF
fer by a committee of nailers, which
agreed to grant the feeders demands as to
the rights of the feeders to be taught nail
ing and to stand firm for the PIC scale II
the feeders would stand by them. The
feeders claim that now the nailers have de-
serted them"
How the trouble will end, of course can
not be foretold at this time, but 1t Is
hoped matters will be speedily and ami
cably arrayed and a long stOppage, or, In
deed, any stoppage of the mills at all, be
avoided.