The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1890-05-16
THOMPSON AND THE woRKISeMrN.

Ore Of the proud boasts OF the repnblI-
car leaders IN their advocacy Of protection
Is that L susiains the wages OF the labor
Ing classes, and preserves them from ruins
Gus competition with the degraded pauper
labor Of Europe. This point Is the chief
argument they use when they desire TO
hoodwink the working people, and II Is one
too. that has an influential effect. Of
course II Is the sheeFcs,. shallowess pre-
ience. and ss made only like the razor poor
hog bought ito sell.p In the frs, place
Il Is the height of absurdiiy 10 believe that
the big. high priests of plutocracy, whose
Golfers have been swollen by frying the
fat out Of the poor through the instrument
taiity Of the tariff gridiron. could have any
sympathy Sith their employers. They
want the labor employees at the lowest
possible point, and II the latter object and
strike for higher wages, their places are
filed by imporia.ions from that same
''pauper labor of Europe" Mr. Powderiy,
the head of the knights OF Labor, has
recently shown up this system, in a seyics
OF letters to the n Y Hold. He relates
that the average wages of the employees of
the mills and mines Of Pennsylvania.
state in which tie so called benefits Of pro-
lection should be more especially felt, are
on an average of about Sac a month. He
gives fearful picture of pitiiul distress Of
the people, and describes how their main
article of diet Is mush and milk and not
enough of that. Another very Significant
thing he related WAS that one day be saw
thirty young Welshmen take passage for
their former homes In Wales. where, they
told him, they could get better wagers and
] i've more comfortably. To how more
clearly that ttis cry of the protection
leaders to preserve the wages Of labor Is
mere hollow mockery, let US cite case
nearer home. Let us In fact see how d 2
Thompson, the republican candidate for
governor, regards the laboring people.
We win only give incontestable facts that
can easily be verified by consulting hun
dreds of men at Portland. When d T
Thompson was several years ago made
n receiver for Weidle1s sawmill at Port
land, a part of the Holladay estate, ons
of his first acts was to reduce the wages o
the employees an average of 80 cents /
, day. The men had to stand it, for tn,
times were hard, and they could not affor,
to strike. as they could not find employ.
meat elsewhere. Now was this act of /
Thompson dictated by motives of econo
mys Not bit of 1t. For there Is The of
fetal record of the supreme court of thi
! state which shows that he brought suits
. amounting in the aggregate of $50. 600 TO
: his own services as receiver. In othe
Words. d P Thompson reduced the wage
of the men of Weildcr's mill, took tn
bread out of the mouths oftheir struggling
families, and for no other purpose than t
. put the money in his own pocket. This !
the man that now stands on the platform
of protection TO American labor, and h
serves as fine specimen of the rest OF hi
class who have honied phrases for work
, ing men and farmers around election time
! ard nothing but cuffs and kicks when il
. power and place.