Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-13
MONDAY, AUGUST Is, 1883.
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL TICKET.
FOR PRESIDENT
GROVER CLEvELAND,0 of New York.
FOR vICE-PREsIDENT-
ALLEN G. THURMAN. of Ohio.
To enforce trugality in public eape,adi-
lures and abolish unnecessary taxation.
FOR CONGRESS, SIXTH DISTRICT
REEL b. TERRY, Of Fresno.
The Question of Wages and High
Protection.


A Republican editor or orator never
becomes really eloquent until he gets
upon the earnings of the wage-earner.
Then all the fervor of his being exudes
through his pen in poignant paragraphs.
He disdains to confine himself to facts
and his arguments have not the most
oblique reference to the truth. He is
never tired telling the workingman that
if the duty on foreign rails is reduced
from $17 to $40, and if slight drop is
made in the duties on glass, which now
range from So to 10s per cent, the wage
Garner will have to work for wages in
sufficient to sustain life. He ignores the
fact that in Pittsburgh, the center Of the
iron industry of the United States, many
workingmen only receive ninety cents
. day, while the wages of the glass
blower have been going down for years
under an exorbitantly high protection.
It is useless, also, to call his attention
to the truth that under the moderate
reduction made in the tariff by the
Mills bill, manufactures will be invigor-
ated, American skill and ingenuity will
be enabled to compete with English and
other European manufacturers in the
markets of the whole world, that the
workingman, as a result, will receive
steady and remunerative employment
and that universal prosperity would fol-
low. No! He will not be consoled.
His effusive sympathies will still go out
to the oppressed wage-earner.
There are multiiorm statistics about
the effects of high tariff on the wages
of employees, and they are all against
the artificial theories of the Republican
editors and orators aforesaid.
We will give specimen brick:
The New York Press, Mr.. Robert P.
Porter's tariff newspaper, had an article
in its issue OF Sunday. July 10Th, headed:
"Poor Pay for Hard Work; Feather
Workers Long Hours and Difficult La
Dor. Crowded into ill-ventilated rooms,
they are subjected to discipline equalled
only in slavery days; Children employed
who should be at school" This promised
well certainly. Slavery in New York
had a startling sound. Upon reading
this article it appeared that the wages
paid were 81 week; that the hours
were from 8, or 8 80, to 80 and 6. with
compulsory night work at home, for
which sometimes there is little extra
pay; that the girls rarely have holiday
and that they never know until the
morning of the day whether Fourth of
July, Thanksgiving Day or Decoration
Day are to be granted them; that in the
hottest weather the girls are not allowed
to stop even to fan themselves for mo-
ment; that the places where they work
are always hot and often filthy, and that
the tyranny Of their superiors is cruel"
"Prices used to be better years ago,
and even within my recollection" said a
sober-faced young girl who sat busy at
her work, although the hour was 9
O'Clock in the evening, and the room
was sitting with the accumulated heat
ofthe day, and light of the gas-burner,
which was just over the tired eyes of the
workers head. And then the worker
goes on to tell about competition, scant
wages, long hours, harsh treatment and
hard life generally. Forewomen used to
get $40, now they get $40 a week. The
pay used to be ninety and then seventy
five cents dozen for feathers the worker
now gets thirty-ive cents for. Finally,
says the reporter, GAS a rule, estab-
lishments for making fancy feathers are
separate and apart from the ostrich
feather factories, and the girls who do
the work often earn but fifty or sixty
cents day. Formerly, in the better
class of work, it was possible for girl
to earn 500 and sometimes $50 a week,
while now the very best workers are
only able to make $13 or SIS, and as
already stated, the wages are but 81 a
week. This gradual decline in prices to
factory girls is driving some Of them to
accept other means Of livelihood, and it
II snvnokliuO for THAR ornlovoru IN an.