Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-08-17
Mr.. BLAINE TAKES A HAND.

Not according to programme, but a
couple of days behind schedule time,
Hon. James g. Blaine, the Republi-
can Joshua who is expected to lead
his party from the wilderness wherein
| they are now cropping to the promised
land of fat offices, arrived in New
York on Friday frop Europe, where
he has been for more than a year past.
Mr.. Blaine didn't touch terra firma
until he was up to his neck in politics.
He started in on the tariff question
first thing. The distinguished gentle
man said:
The campaign on which you are about to
enter should be prefaced, If that were possible,
by every voter in the United States seeing
what have seen, and hearing what have
heard, during the last year.
There is no doubt that it would be
mighty pleasant thing for the voters
especially for the poor laborers who
are prevented by the greed of their
bosses from getting any holiday at
home much less in foreign lands, if
they could have frolic similar to the
one Mr.. Blaine enjoyed. This gentle
man travelled through Great Britain
as the guest of Mr.. Andrew Carnegie,
the iron manufacturer who makes
81 100000 profit yearly by the high
tariff and by the judicious reduction
of his laborers' wages. Oh, yes; the
voter would learn a great deal by
keeping such company, but he would
probably want to know how one man.
could honestly and fairly make so
much money, and would be very likely
TO compare the relative situations OF
employer and employee.
Again Mr.. Blaine remarks:
Isav here that the wages ofthe American la
bOrer cannot be reduced except with the con-
sent and the votes of the American Iaoorer
himself The appeal lies TO him. 1t comes
TO his door and asks him whether with the
great power of the franchise and the great
majority he possesses in his own hands, he
is willing for himself and his associates, his
children and his children's children to take
that fatal step at the bidding of an American
Congress and an American President, who
are governed by that element which sought
to destroy this nation.
The wages of the American laborer
cannot be reduced except with the
consent of the laborer himself, ell?
This is an interesting statement to
ask any intelligent laborer to swallow.
The manufacturing and mining mag
mates, of whom Mr. Blaine's bosom
friend Carnegie is a shining exam
pie, care lot for their employees
consent to a reduction of wages, don't
they? Mr.. Carnegie's own plan is like
this: He concludes that his profits
must be increased from million to
million and a-half year; he notifies
his army of workmen that their wages
are to be reduced 10 per cent; they
refuse to accept the reduction, and
demand arbitration; Mr.. Carnegie
says he has spoken, that his ultima
tum is 10 per cent. reduction. The
employees refuse TO work at the re-
duced prices. Then Mr. Carnegie in
forms them that he has 100000, 900 to
live on, and he will shut his mills and
mines until the men are ready to go
to work at the reduced price. If he
don't succeed in starving them into
submission within a month or so, he
imports Hungarians to take their
places, getting these filthy foreigners
to work for what he chooses to give
them. The American laborer is left
to do the best he can, and as election
time draws near he is told of the ben
efits of protection and the glories of a
high tariff.
Mr.. Blaine and his friends may
talk of protection and abuse the
President and Congress, but the
laborer will vote for the party that
will enable him to live better and that
will cut down the profits of monopoly
for his benefit.