Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-05-25
sHEPHERDsTOWN W. VA, FRIDAY, MAY 25 1888.

cover the cost OF production
Discouraged but not disheartened,
! the farmer arises the next morning be-
fore the sun is up; bitches up his
team and drives TO town. He needs
an iron or steel beam for some pur-
pose on his farm, and goes TO the steel
mill TO buy it; and upon asking the
price is told that he can have il for 3.3
cents per pound, or at the rate of S66
per ton; and he is further informed
that 3.3 cents per pound for steel
beams is the uniform price at all
the steel mills in the United States
Now, the farmer protests that 3.3
cents per pound for steel beams ap-
pears TO him TO be an exorbitant price;
that his boy works in the steel mill, i'll
the beam department, and that in fig-
uring over the cost of making steel
beams last night with his boy they
could not make them out TO cost more
than $50 or $50 per ton at the mill;
that $50 per ton gave the steel works
profit of S36 per ton; and that he
thought something must be wrong;
what it was he did not just under
stand, but yesterday he brought into
town 33t bushels of wheat. just one
ton, and he could only get 80 cents per
| bushel for it. or Is cents per pound,
the equivalent TO $50 per ton, and
that this price did not pay him the
cost of raising it; in fact, he lost mon
ey on it instead Of making $50 per ton
profit. as the steel works did on the
beams, to meet the interest and pay
the mortgage on his farm; that he
could not understand why he should
be obliged to raise and sell 75 bushels
of wheat, or over two 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 farmers wheat,
oats, corn, cattle and hogs. The farm
er being unable to refute this unan-
swerable argument, paid 3.3 cents per
pound for his beam and departed a
wiser man. In the evening the son re-
turned, and with the father began to
discuss the transactions OF the last
two days, endeavoring 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 pound for his beams.
The farmer feared he had made fatal
mistake when he bought the farm;
but he had been influenced in the pur
chase by speech he had heard in the
fall of 1884 by very distinguished
statesman, one Mr.. Kelley, at the OPP
era house in Braddock, in which that
gentleman ably set forth the advan-
tages of protection to home labor, and
eloquently dwelt on the home mar
ket it would create for the products
of the farm, while enhancing the
wages Of the mill hands. But the son
could not see the advantage OF Mr.
Kelley's kind of protection, either 10
himself. the mill hand, or his father
the farmer. The price OF the latter's
product in the home market being reg
ulated by the price at Mark Lane, Lon
don. he was of course trading in open
market, and took nothing whatever
by the so-called protection. As TO his
own wages in the mill, if he got any
share of the tariff subsidy in the form
Of wages, it was so small as TO be in
appreciable and to count for practi
cally nothing as against the prices he
was made TO pay for the ''tariifed' ne
cessaries of life; but considering the
employers share, and the necessities
of a "protected' employers life, he
was not so surprised that the boss,
as alleged in the newspapers, could
rent Cluny Castle, in Invernesshire,
Scotland, to spend his summer in; and
as he believed that the net profits OF
Carnegie Brothers on the two items
of steel rails and steel beams alone,
throwing out of account all other
items of their production, were, on
&c, 600 tons of steel beams, $1,000 900,
and on 192, 99S tons Of steel rails, at 80
per ton. 81 ,929, $50 or total profit on
these two items alone of nearly So
600, 900, the son, with an eye TO facts
and figures, declared his extreme
amazement at the proposition of Car
negie Brothers 10 reduce wages 1Oper
cent. for the wage workers OF that es-
adjustment, thought they might de
Gently leave this pitiful percentage in
the hands of that labor in whose name
and for whose alleged benefit they re
ceive the enormous bounty eXtorted
from the consumers Of the United
States upon those two capital articles;
and that while employees not only
thought they were justly entitled to
this 10percent they were yet fighting
for principal dearer to them than
mere dollars and cents 1t was prin-
ciple involving not only the great
economic problem Of this age, but Of
past ages, and must be the great prob
lem of the future-a fair division be-
tween labor and capital; and if the
wage-worker at Carnegie Brothers
works could be forced into subsection
by Pinkerton special detectives, their
just rights denied them, and the i'm
ported pauper labor Of Europe could
be utilized as a means for the subyer-
sion of their rights, he could see very
little hope in the future for the wage