The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-09-19
Failed to Make Out q Case.

/ Inc Register Is paper OF iHOI'
words than wisdom it is also more
sensitive than solid in statement
and conclusions. After the fashion
of prudes generally it affected to b.
greatly shocked last week because
we quoted the slang phrase about
one '.biting off more than he car
chew 1t was naughty, we admit
and we sympathize with our friends
bushes and beg pardon. To say 9
man has "bitten off more than he
can chew" is horrid. 1t implies
that he chews tobacco; but at the
time we INDUCED the immodest
quotation it did not occur to us
that our friend might be addicted
to that vulgar habit. Still, after all,
isn't it possible that the KEYSTONE
is about as clean as the Register
which habitually quotes all the bosh
profanity and all-that finds its
way into the American Economist?
The KEYSTONE, believing in exact
justice to all; special privileges to
none," tries by inelegant quotations
to show that alleged protection pro-
tects only the monopolist who preys
on labor, while the Register seeks
by series of sentences delightfully."-
elegant, polished and ornate, il
slightly verbose in style, and this
effect heightened by bushes. to de-
Jude its readers by beautifully en-
belished perversions of facts, that
they may be still further victimized
by the favorites Of false and vic
ious system and of evil laws.
But, alas, for its powers of COM
prehension Our Objectionable quo
tation did not apply to its tariff
discussions, but to it's allegations
concerning the treatment of labor
ers in the South. We fear the Reg
lister people have not travelled much
or are poor observers. Moneybags
has no respect for laborers North
or South, but least of any place in
the North.
The Register asserts that the aver
age wages paid in the United States
is from 81 to 81 so a day. The
proposition is absurd on its face.
An average is fixed quantity. But
we demand the proof that it is either
the one or the other. Even here
on the Pacific coast, where wages
are fully so per cent higher than in
the East, the average would not ex-
coed 81 SO day. A few men here
in gold and silver mining
get from 50 to So so a day. Coal
miners-mostly negroes imported
from the South for the purpose OF
reducing wages-get, SO we are told,
from 81 to 81 Is a day, the latter
for foremen. In Pennsylvania, coal
miners get 60 cents a day, and that
wage, according to the best infor-
nation we can get, prevails gener-
ally in coal mines east of the Rocky
Mountains. If the Register knows
to the contrary we hope
it will state the facts it has. One
fact is worth all it's of assertions,
and we want to get at the truth.
We lived in California up to Is
months ago and the wages we quo
ted prevailed therein Southern
California-at the time we left and
before. Is that definite enough?
The Register having repeated the
assertion over and over for a month,
that sugar was selling at 20 pounds
for a dollar, we demanded to know
whether or not it bought sugar at
that price, and it had to back down.
1t now says sugar is advertised in
Chicago at Is pounds to the dollar.
That is far-fetched and meaning
less. Merchants frequently adver-
tise ''leader" at cost or below. Ii
is a ruse to bring customers to their
stores, and then make their profits
on other sales; and that is what the
Chicago merchant was doing who
SO adroitly misled our verdant con-
"The KEYSTONE will not deny"
says the Register, that white labor
in Texas and the entire South, so
far as that is concerned, is forced
into competition with the ex-slave
labor, which is whipped into state
of subsection far more degrading
than it was under the slave regime"
The KEYSTONE will not deny that
white labor in the South is forced
into competition with ex-slave la,
borers. any more than it will deny
that white laborers in the North are
forced into competition with the
labor of Italy, Sicily and
Hungary, but the ex-slave is not i'm
ported into the South for the pur-
pose of competing with the white
loborer, as the barharians are into
The North. The KEYSTONE denies,
however, that black laborers in the
South are whipped into any kind
Of subsection other than are all la.
Dorers North and South. When a
man hires out he places himself at
4 disadvantage, and this the en-
ployer always uses to his detriment.
Southern negroes who are industri-
ous and frugal can rent land at bet
Ter rates than Northern renters get.
Il l. L