The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1889-09-14
Ji1les- Mgunntainees.
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER IA, 1889.
BRITISH FREE-TRADE.

1t is falr TO presume that the 1ree-
trade journals of the United States
will make no comment on the great
labor strike in London and Liverpool
during the past week. If they were
approached on this question they
would say it is none of our affairs
what happens in England; but they
must not forget that Great Britain is
the one great free-trade country of the
world, and during the last canvass we
were so often pointed to the accumu-
lated wealth of the British empn e
that we are not liable to forget the
matter easily. Even on the subject
of wages Democratic papers attempt =
ed to prove that the figures of wages
paid in England were garbled and net
stated correctly. Every time a few Of
Carnegie's iron-moulders demanded a
rise in wages the fact was heralded far
and wide; but when an army of l5O,-
900 sons of toll parade the streets of
the worlds metropolis, in free-trade
country, there IS no comment made.
The facts made public by Mr.. Nathan
iel Mckay were attacked by almost
every Democratic paper in the coun-
try, and it was said the figures were
cooked up" for campaign purposes.
Perhaps our friends, following the doc
trines of the Cobden club, will find it
interesting and instructive to compare
she facts printed in the dispatches in
the last few days with this paragraph
from Mr.. McKay's pamphlet:
visited London docks at G:30 one
morning to hear the roll-call for labor
ers. A thousand men were elamoring
for employment. 1 asked one laborer
sotat lie got. He said 4aad per hour
These are what we call 'iongshoremen.
A carpenter at work on a building
near by said he was getting Cd. per
hour, and his assistant was paid Old.
The carpenter told me he paid l5s. per
week for rent. His assistant said that
he paid As. Cd. for one room and
''privileges" This carpenter added
that his wife worked when she could.
and got 2s. day. waited until 8
o'clock to see the workmen on this
building eat their breakfast. Four of
them had banded together, made some
tea in big kettle, and brought ont
bread and butter only. That's all for
breakfast, sir" said one. He ex-
planned that they usually had meat for
dinner as late in the week as Wednes-
day, because they always had enough
left over after their Sunday meal to
last till that time. Fron Wednesday
until the next Sunday they went with
out meat except, perhape, bacon. The
carpenter said. II get up at 4 o'clock
in the morning, and work from un-
til $50. When l am out Of work fer
three days at once there is not farth-
Ing IN the house, and we must live on
what my wife earns" The foreman
of the gang had half loaf of bread
with a hole in 1t about two inches
square In that hole he had placed
some butter. That was the way he
carried it to his work. He made
some tea; most of the other workmen,
however, had herring apiece besides
the bread and tea. One fellow, luck
ier than the-rest, had piece. of meat
pie for dinner.
While the comparison is being made
we would ask our Demonratic friends
whether they can conscientiously con-
tend that the change from the Ameri-
can to the British policy will be bene-
icial to our laborers2 If they can,
hen they may be considered honest in
heir convictions regarding free trade.