The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-11-02
IN. o.. THIS ls sAakAssuM."


tngman.
This is an educational campaign, indeed,
not only as relates to the tariff for the
protection of monopolists, but in variety
of ways. The wage Garner, to whom ar
guments are being addressed by both par.
ties Is learning number of things hith-
erto unsupported by him as having any
existence in the universe.
He is learning, for the first time In his
life. that his employers sole object and
ambition In life is to pay him high wages.
Heretofore he has been compelled to or
ganize, to make scales" and to threaten
strikes In order to make his employer pay
him living compensation. Now the en-
ployer is urging him TO vote the Republ-
can ticket, In order to enable the good
man TO pay high wages.
That his interests and his employers
ought to be one he has known for some
time, but not until now has he discovered
that they are. To tell the truth, however,
he is so suspicious of his employers good
intentions toward him that he is con-
yinced that he can most likely benefit
himself by doing the very reverse Of what
his employer asks of him. If the success
of the Democratic ticket really involved
low wages, as the employer tells him It
must, he knows that the employer would
be for 1t, not against it. He has learned
that much, any way.
Now, 1t has seemed clever to the astute
persons who are conducting the Republi-
can campaign. to send out to men who
employ numerous workmen envelopes
covered with printed arguments in favor
of the Republican candidates, in which to
pay off their hands. The employers in
large numbers have adopted this cheap
and easy method of preaching the gospel
OF monopolies. The amount of anxiety
exhibited for the working classes by
these gentlemen, measured by the fervor
of their appeals to vote against Democ-
racy. would touch the heart Of the White
chapel murderer II he could be brought to
contemplate 1t Alright. 1t is so genuine,
so sincere, so consistent with the general
conduct of these gentry that nobody can
reasonably affect to doubt It.
For example, there is the firm Of Tim
Walerstein & Co., of Troy in this state
which manufactures shirts, collars and
cuffs on large scale. 1t Is not known
precisely how much 1t pays It's sewing
women for shirt, but since trousers are
made at the rate Of 10 cents dozen in
New York we are not inclined to believe
that shirt making Is very much more
profitable in Troy. However that may be,
the firm is deeply concerned lest the
Democratic tariff Of az per cent. should
reduce the princely wages of It's shirt
makers, and Is putting forth every effort
to have that pauperizing reduction of 8
per cent. repudiated. That is thought
full; 1t ought to be acknowledged
gratefully. But since there Is no way Of
protecting the laundry workers of the
United States against the pauper laun-
dresses of Europe, why do not Messrs
Walerstein & Co. employ free labor to
starch and iron their shirts. collars and
cuffs2 If they are so profoundly inter
ested In the welfare Of the industrial
masses why do they send their goods to
the Sing Sing state prison to be done up?
Perhaps they thought that this little
business Of theirs would not be found
out; that they can pose as devoted friends
OF the American workingman and still get
their work done at minimum prices by
convicts without being called on for an
explanation. But they cannot. Their
miserable hypocrisy is engraved for all
time on the archives Of the state, in
memoranda summed up in the following
portentous statement:
Tim Waerstein & Co.. to the State Of New York,
D laundry work in State Prison at Sing
Sing, from Nov. 1885 to July 1888. ... S7s e92
If these gentlemen really love the
American workingman as they profess to
do, why did they not pay out this bill of
$7S,2 for laundry work to free and
honest American workingmen and work
ing womenH The answer Is that these
gentlemen, like the knaves OF the ware
house, steel, coal. sugar and other trusts,
hate the American workingman and are
always on the lookout to plunder and de-
ceive him. Their solicitude for his vel
fare is fraud. And the wage Garner has
at last learned that Brooklyn
Cift1ap