Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-09-27

Wages depend on supply aud de-
mand, not on taxes. So says John
Sherman in his speech last year in
Springfield. Employers in the pro-
tected industries do just as employers
in the unprotected industries do-they
govern the rate Of wages paid by them
by the supply of labor at their COM
mand. This has always been the case
with the protected interests. They
have reaped the benefits of the high
protective tariff, and at the same time
sustained the policy of unrestricted inn
migration, which gave them q surplus
of labor-two men after one boss-from
which to choose the labor that could be
had for the lowest wages.
For some time the employees in the
protected industries have been able, in
spite of the competition of immigra-
ton, to secure and retain reasonably
fair wages, by means of unions of work.
ingmen, but now the surplus of labor
has become so great that the bosses
propose to derive the greatest benefit
from it by spurning the unions with
contempt and depriving them of the
privilege of having any voice in fixing
the wage rate. The wealthy employers
now tnd workingmen so obedient that
they propose to engage their men in
dividually, and it is readily to be seen
that when the independence of the
rich is balanced against the necessities
of two or more competing for the work
he has to give, the strong will prevail
and the man whose necessity compels
him to accept any price, the boss may
off rxytII kln rorly s1 DO N
situation our workingmen are coming
to. 1t is close upon them. The power
of their unions to exert any influence
to secure good wages for them is to be
broken, and they are to be subjected
one at time, to an abject servitude in
which they will meekIy accept what
ever wages are offered them after he
has settled upon the rate ofprofit which
will satisfy his own greed. If the man
protests that he cannot support him
self and family he will be told by the
boss, "Well, can't help that; il you
don't like the wages you are receiving
there are plenty of Sweeds, Poles, Hun
garians. Italians and others who will do
my work for the price offered"
That we are not drawing upon our
imagination is proved by the facts of
to-day. Here is the millionaire steel
rail maker, Andrew Carnegie, loud
advocate of the war tariff for the pro-
lection of workingmen but who re-
sents the united efforts of his own men
to obtain fair share of his war tariff
profits which have simply been i'm
mense during the past year. Here is a
Pittsburgh dispatch which shows that
Mr.. Carnegie proposes to pocket the
benefit of individual competition in
the ranks of labor:
Carnegie, Phipps & Co., proprietors
of the Edgar Thompson steel works at
Braddock, Pa, have decided to resume
operations next Monday with nom
union men. The works have been
closed for four months on account of
wage troubles.
There are many other recent instances
which show that in the estimation of
the employers the time has come when
i they can defy labor unions, and in
crease their own profits by taking ad-
vantage of the struggle of the surplus
of workingmen for bread. And that
they have not mistaken their ability to
do this is shown by the successful def
ance of the unions of workingmen, by
the Reading company, the Quincy &
Burlington railway, the Brewers asso-
citation and many other industries.
And yet the workingmen of the
country are told that for their own
protection they must keep right on
supporting the war tariff, which adds
from so to 100 per cent to nearly all OF
the necessities of their life, and enables
the employers, by its large margin of
profit, to speedily become independent
of any need or demand Of labor. "We
car increase our profits by trusts and
syndicates," say the protected interests
land by limiting supplies we can dis:
pense with a great deal of labor, and
by raising prices make more money
than ever. And we can afford to close
our works at any time we choose, when
the men won't work for the wages we
offer them"
Such situation ought to convince
the intelligent workingman that the
war tariff is not their friend and pro
tector. ."..