Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-05-04

ar3 .r1e his wheat for that price, or
Nl.uatiE JESS. because tho farmer : mar
.,.t j, restricted practically To the local
u !. But where does Chicago wheat
come from y here j. II grown aud
what INV Of values determines ITS sell
my price, Il comes from the regions
cd iiIr treat Northwest: n l. grown upon
the rich and fertile prarlcS Of that
section. upon band tina; can be had al
most for tie asking, or al most at cost
% from - to SlJ per acre. upon lhnd
requiring no harnyard 10 make a crop,
and where The straw Is burned II the
field as the easiest and cheapest way
of getting nd OF il. The price IN the
Chicago market j. determined day by
dan, { there l. not "A corner" IN wheat
hy The price at Mark Lane, London.
The farmer at Brdddocll. after selling
his wheat. returns 10 his home and fam
liv. He had bought his farm AT "A cost OF
500 per acre. made payment in cash
upon H. from the savings OF wears OF
toll and In Dor. secured the deferred pay
mems ~ a mort ga@c, hopinE that by his
industry and labor upon his farm and
its favorable location he would make
money and pay oil his mortgage AT
maturity. He has sold his wheat at
ninety cents per bushel, grown upon land
which cost him 500 per acre. sown
and harvested this wheat by labor tor
which he had 10 pay from SO TO slS
per month and board. and after the
taxes upon the land and his help are
PAID, and other debts connected with
The raising of his crop are settled. be
finds that both ends Will not meet; that
The price he has received for his wheat
W not cover the cost of production.
Discouraged. but not disheartened. the
irrMcr arises the next morning before
the sun is up; bitches up his team and
drives to town. He needs an iron or
steel beam for some purpose on his farm,
and goes TO the steel mill To buy it; and
upon asking the price is told that he can
have il for 3.3 cents per pound, or at
the rate of $50 per ton: and he Is FUR
ther informed that 3.3 cents per pound
for steel beams Is the uniform price at
all the steel mills in the United States.
Now. the farmer protests that 3.3 cents
per pound Tor steel beams appears To
him to be an eXorbitant price that
his boy works in the steel mill. in the
beam department, and that in figuring
over the cost of making steel beams last
night with his boy they could not make
them ouE to cost more than sly or $50
per ton at the mill; that 500 per ton
gave the steel works profit of $50 per
ton; and that he thought something must
be wrong: what it was he did not lust
understand, but yesterday he brought
INTO town thirty three and One-thlrd
bushels of wheat. Just one ton. and he
could only get ninety cents per bushel
for il. or ! 1-2 cents per pound, the
equivalent of $50 per ton. and that this
price did not pay him the cost of raising
it; in fact, he lost money on IL instead
OF making $50 per ton prOflt, as the
steel works did on the beams. to meet
the interest and pay the mortgage on
his farm: that he could not understand
why he should be obliged to
IA Use and sell seventy three bushels of
wheat, or over two tons. to enable him
TO purchase one ton of steel beams cost
ing less than $50 per ton to produce and
make. The answer of the steel-man was
that this condition of affairs all grew
out of the pauper labor of Europe, and
the necessity of protecting home labor,
and to make a home market for the farm
cr's wheat, oats, corn, cattle and hogs.
The farmer being unable TO refute this
unanswerable argument, paid 3.3 cents
per pound for his beam and departed a
wiser man. In the evening the son re-
| turned, and, with the father, began to
discuss the transactions Of the last two
days, endeavoring to ascertain why the
! farmers wheat would only command
| l IL cents per pound at the Steel-workS,
| while the farmer had to pay 3.3 cents
per pound for his steel beams. The
| farmer feared he had made q fatal mis-
| take when he bought the farm, but he
had been influenced in the purchase by
a speech he had heard in the fall of 1884,
| delivered by very distinguished states
man, one Mr.. Kelley, at the opera house
in Braddccl, in which that gentleman
| ably set forth the advantages Of pro-
lection to home labor, and eloquently
dwelt on the home market it would Gre
are Tor the products of the farm, while
ennancaag the wages of the mjll-hands.
But the sTrs could not see the advantage
of Mr.. kelley's Kind Of protection. either
to himself, the mill-hand, or his father,
the farmer. The price of the htter's
product in the home market being regu-
| lated by the price in Mark Lane, London,
| he was of course trading in an open mar
fet, and took nothing whatever by the
wages in the mill, if he got any share of
the tariff subsidy in the form of wages,
it was so small as to be inappreciable
and to count for practically nothing as
against the prices he was made 70 paw
Tor the fairfield necess,ries of life: but
considering the employers share, and the
necessities of protected" employers
life, he was not so surprised that the
boss as alleged in the newspapers,
could rent Cluny Castle, in Inverness.
SHIRE, Scotland, to spend his summers
in; and as he believed that the net prof
| its Of Carnegie Brothers, on the two items
of steel rails and steel beams alom.
| throwing out OF account all other items
Of their production, Wcra on 40 OaO
| tons of steel beams. 1000, 900, and an
l92, 99S tons OF steel rails, at $40 uer
ton, 81. 929, $50, or total profit on these
| two items alone Of nearly $4,000. 600.
| the son. with an eye to facts and finurps
| declared his extreme amazement al the
| proposition of Carnegie Brothers to re-
duce wages 10 per cent, for the wage
workers of that esta blishment tho1rht
they might decently leave this mimi
| percentage in the hands of that labor in
whose name and for whose alleged bene-
lit they receive the enormous bounty ex-
tortcd from the consumers Of the Tinted
states upon these two capital articles:
and that while the employees not oplv
| thought they were justly entitled to this
Q per cent they were yet fighting for a
principle dearer to them than mere dol
iars and cents. 1t was a principle in
voiylng not only the treat economic
problem of this age, but of past ages
and must be the great problem of the
| iuture-a fair division between labor
| ana capital; and if the wage-wOrlxer MT
| carnegle Brothers works could he forced
| INTO subluaariOn by Pinkertcn special
detectives. their Just rights denied them
ana the imported pauper labor of EIrope
could be utilized as means for the sinh
| version of their rights. he could see very
httle hope in the future for the wage
worker in this country