Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-13
a CAUSE OF DISTRESS.
A DepiorabIe Condition in Eastern In.
dustries which Has Been Brought
About by Democratic Legislation.

!
dustries which Has Been Brought
About by Democratic Legislation.
Without warning, there comes to a thou
sand men employed in a Pennsylvania axle
establishment the choice, reduction Of
twenty-five TO forty per cent. in their wages
or a closing of the works for an indefinite
time, until the market demand for products
may revive. So, without warning, several
knit goods establishments are forced to
suspend, whether for short time'or not is
yet. uncertain. Again. without warning,
the coke workers, who were struggling so
long against the reduction of wages, find
that a sudden collapse in the business has
stopped work for an indefinite time in most
of the establishments, while those still at
work get only one dollar per ton for coke,
and can not pay the former wages. Thus
several thousand workers, some of the
highest and some of d lower grade of in
telhgenCe, are astonished TO find that their
labor has at present no value, or a much
lower value than it had a few days or
weeks ago. Their entire mode of living
must be suddenly changed. Their wives
and children must suffer in many cases, or
must submit to changes which seem
scarcely endurable.
TO the workers these things prove that
they are IN some way unjustly treated. Yet
many know not in what way The COM
panies can not afford TO continue work with
markets so overstocbed, unless the men &C
cept wages SO low that the products can be
safely accumulated until 4 better demand
arises. 1t seems hard to the men. but the
companies may claim that the cessation of
the demand for products is not their fault,
that they have paid the wages which the
men require just as long as they could, and,
III fact, could have ablished their business
more securely, gained more and better per-
manent customers, and SO been able TO con-
tinae work longer. if they had not been re-
CURED to pay quite as high wages in the
past. But the present undenisble fact, says
the New York Tri6ane, IS that the market
will not take products any-longer al the old
rate of cost.
The men naturally look further in their IN
dignation. If the companies are not TO
blame, somebody must be. The men DO not
feel ready TO admit that they ought to have )
been content with lower wages all along,
and doubt whether that would have made
any difference except in the profits of own
ers. This doubt is natural, and yet the
workers are apt to reject plans Of co-opers-
tive labor when proposed, as Mr. Carnegie's
WIZ hCAS at brnAluOCh nave FC4nScU ~ WIN
at a., on plan which makes the earnings
proportional 10 the market valve of the
product. The daily necessities. they answer.
are not conditional In that case who is In
1aiAt when the market breaks down and ne
work or lower wages Is the alternstlvei
The indignant workers know that the de- !
Hland for IRON and wooden products has sud- /
denly and largely diminished. The axle .
makers, Like other iron workers, are aware
that purchasers are looking for lower prices,
because the great party now in control of .
the Government has proposed bill 10 re-
duce the duty on iron axles from two and
one-hah 10 one and onehaIf cents per
pound, or forty per cent, and il that should
pass, not even reduction Of forty per cent.
IN wages would enable the works to con-
tinue without other changes.
The consumers of woolens are looking for
lower prices; the same bill proposes 70 re-
suce the duty on knit goods from 6sls per
cent to 40 per cent, reduction of s. DER
cent, and calsnUers ana naturally IN no