Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1888-07-19

81 wheat Just one ton. and he could 4
only get 90 cents per bushel for it, or |
II cents per pound. the equivalent /
Of $50 per ton, and that this price did |
not pay him the cost of raising it, in !
fact, be lost money on it instead of |
making $50 per ton profit, as the steel
works did on the beams, 10 meet the
interest and pay the mortgage on his
farm; that be could not understand
shy be should be obliged to raise and
and sci! Is bushels Of wheat, or over
txo tons, to enable him to purchase
one ton Of steel beams. costing 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
farmer wheat, oats, corn, cattle and
hogs. The farmer being unable to
refute this unanswerable argument,
paid 50 cents per pound for his beam
and departed a wiser man. In the
evening the son returned, and with
the father began TO discuss the trans
actions Of the last two days, endeavor-
ing to ascertain why the farmers
wheat would only command /! cents
per pound at the steel-works, while
the farmer had to pay 3.3 cents per
poand for his steel beams. The farmer
feared he had made fatal mistake
when he bought the farm; but he had
been influenced in the purchase by a
speech he had heard in the Tail Of
1884, delivered by very distinguish
ed statesman, one Mr.. Kelley, at the
opera house in Braddock, in which
that gentleman ably get forth the
advantages Of protection to home
labor, and eloquently dwelt on the
home market il would create for the
products of the farm, while enhancing
the wages of the mill-hands. But the
con could not see the advantage OF
Mr.. Kelley kind OF protection, either
to himself, the miilhaBd, or his father,
the farmer. The price OF the latter 6
product in the home market being
regulated by the price In Mark Lane,
London, he was OF course trading IN
an open market, aud took nothing
whatever by the o.called protection.
As to his own wages In the mill, if be
got any share OF the tariff subsidy Ia
the form Of wages, it was SO small as
to be inappreciable and to count fol-
practically nothing as against the
prices he was made to pay for the
clarified" necessaries Of life; but con-
sidering the employers share, and the
necessities of protected employer
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
10; and as be believed that the me-
profits Of Carnegie Brothers on th'
two items of steel rails and steel beams
alone, throwing out of account al
other items of their production, were
on $4,000 tons Of steel beams, 81 900,
600, aud on 1872, 998 tons of steel rails
at 80 per ton, 81 ,929, $50 or tota
profit on these two items alone o
nearly $3,0OO,000, the son, with al
eye to facts and figures, declared hi
extreme amazement at the proposition
Of Carnegie Brothers to reduce wage
~ per cent, for the wage-workers o
that establishment thought they nigh
decently leave this pitiful percentag
in the hands Of that labor in who's
name and for whose alleged benef
they receive the enormous bount,
extorted from the consumers of tn
United States upon those two capita
articles; and that while the employee
not only thought they were just,
entitled to this 10 per cent. they wer
yet fighting for a principle dearer Z
them than mere dollars and cents. |
was a principle involving not only tn
great economic problem Of this age
but Of past ages, and must be tn
great problem Of the future--a fai
division between labor and capital
and if the wage-worker at CarnegI
Brothers works could be forced int
subjugation by Pinkerton special de
tectives, their Just rights denied them
and the imported pauper labor O
Europe could be utilized as a mean
for the subversion Of their rights, b
could see very little hope in the futur
for the wage worker IN this country.
NJ ar, /. Scot.