Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-25
WHAT THEY THINK.
Sentiment of the Labor Press on Car
negie's Wage Reduction.
ALL THE JOURNALS DEEOUNCE 1T.
One COngratulates the Courage of the
Great Iron Firm.
SIGNIFICANT COMING AT THIS TIME

The heavy reduction in wages proposed
by Carnegie, Phipps & Co. in introducing
their new sliding scale of wages at Home
stead published in THE DISPATCH the
other day, has caused considerable com
ment. All of the leading labor papers have
editorials on the subject this week, and
some Of them are appended:
The american Manufacturer has lengthy
editorial on the subject. The main point.
are as follows:
The action OF Carnegie, Phipps & Co., Linn,
relative to wages at their Homestead Steel
Works is most important and significant 1t is
in several respects wide departure from
methods that have been in vogue in the iron
and steel mills of Pittsburg and the country,
and should the outcome be its adoption either
in its entirety or practically as presented it will
have an important and determining influence
upon wages in the iron industry and the method
of deciding what shall be paid.
We have not seen the scales, and cannot
therefore say OF our own knowledge that this
firm has been thus courageous but it is as
serted that they have. If this is not a radical
change in Pittsburg, nothing is radical. Whether
the rates asked are fair or not, can only be
judged by those acquainted with all the facts.
One thing is true, such a demand shows q
courage that it has been questioned whether
any Pittsburg manufacturer possessed. At any
rate it is most decided protest against the
policy which has heretofore placed Plttsburg
manufacturers at disadvantage in wages.
CHARGED TO PRINCIPLE.
In speaking of the competitors of Car
negie, Phipps & Co. and the new scale, the
National Glass Budget says:
All this trouble is directly chargeable to their
set principle to pay less wages than other firms.
If Carnegie's proposed reduction brings on a
long fight at Homestead. it will be indirectly
due to the policy of his competitors. That
policy leads to social disorders, and is bound to
create dangerous revengetul feeling 1t
fosters anarchy. 1t is more dangerous assault
upon the peace of the community than that of
which the strikers are alleged to be guilty. But
our present laws do not take any notice of this
course. While the assault upon property
would be deemed worthy of the severest pun
ishment the assault upon wages is taken as a
matter OF course.
Secretary Martin, of the Amalgamated
Association, has this to say in the Labor
Tribune:
The apparent hubbub caused by the pro-
posed reduction in the wages of the Home
etead employees of Carnegie, Phipps Co, is
really unnecessary. The worst feature of the
notice is the coercive threat it carries-that
the new scale must be signed by June l, or new
men will be secured to take the places
of the present workmen when their pres
ent scale contract with the firm expires,
July l. next Just reverse that and see how it
works. Suppose the firm had an abundance of
orders and were under contract to deliver so
many thousand tons of steel per month, and
the Amalgamated Association knowing this to
be fact, would formulate new scale for the
entire plant, advancing the wages Of the men,
say, on an average, %per cent
THE NEW SCALE
to be given to the firm about the middle of
May, as the Associations ultimatum, coupled
with demand that the scale must be acceded
to be by June or the mill would close down by
July l. Would that be doing justice to the firm?
Certainly not And to make a similar demand
on the men is by no means justifable on the
part of the firm. This depriving the men Of
one full month (June) in which to discuss the
proposition with the firm is, to say the least,
coercion in its worst form.
The Conamoner and Glass Worker says
editorially:
Andrew Carnegie has shown the cloven hoof
again. To the general public the official an.
nouncement that he proposed sliding scale to
"his men" at Homestead was tremendous sur
prise, but the readers of the Commoner and
Glass Worker will remember without trouble
the repeated statements in this paper just after
the Braddock strike was settled year ago,
that he proposed to give his Braddock sliding
scale to his Homestead men. Carnegie means
just what he says, and as there is no doubt that
the men Will refuse anything but the Anal
gamaued scale which will be arranged at the
Amalgamated convention next month, a
struggle is sure to follow. Carnegie's plan of
action will be to shut down the mill, fill what
orders he can at his other mills or at other
mills, and after two or three months of idle
ness believing as he does in hungry stomachs
as a settler for labor troubles), he will attempt
to start up and make every individual who goes
to work sign his sliding scale as an individual,
and thus repudiate his labor organization.