Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-03-19
RECORD OF LABOR.
OBJECTIONS REDUCED WAGES
AID STRIKES.

ductions-Tho Humbus Cry of Frotec-
ton to Labor.
Protection is making a record for it.
self \ year ago the protected classes
were fi0cking to Washington by the
scores and hundreds to ask for higher
protection For whom? Not for them
seIves-oh, motor labor. The dear
workingman must have higher wages;
he must not be put on level with the
..pauper labor of Europe" There were
wonderful tales TO tell about this same
pauper labor.
one applicant for protection called
foreign laborers "a set of men who have
no sympathy with our social life, our
traditions or our institutions" Another
did not like Mexican labor, which he
straightway named ''peon labor" an
other could not bear the thought of max
ing American labor compete with the
.horrid coohe labor of India" Sill an
other described the labor of Bohemia in
the terse phrase, ''They are cattle" and,
finally, one manufacturer had heard
something about German labor, and he
did not want to see our well paid labor
put on the same footing with those who
are said to get meat only once week"
They were all certain that high duties
would make them pay higher wages to
their workingmen. Yet they asked for
higher duties! Mckinley took NJ their
tale Of woe and spoke in his report about
''yle poorly paid labor of Europe and
cheap labor of Egypt and India"
And 50 the protected interests had
their way with the all too willing Nc
Kiuley. They got their higher duties
TO protect labor!
And now Mckinley's high projection
Is making its record. Wages have been
reduced since the 1st of January in a
large number of protected establishments.
Here Is a partial list of these reductions:
Brooke Iron company, Birdsboroulh, Pa,
closed Feb. ,, and $50 men thrown out of work
because they refused to accept a reductio of
about per cent.
Ellis d Lessig Steel and Iron company, Potts
town, Pa, closed Feb. >; 200 men out of work
because a reduction of 12L@ per cent. was re-
lected. The men have since submitted to the
reduction.
Hopedale fabric mill, Hopedale, Mass, wages
of weavers reduced 2l9 cents a yard.
SILK mill at Warehouse Point, Conn wages
IF winders and doublers reduced from Sl37 to
Il per day.
Sturtevant blower works, Jamaica Plain,
Mass; reduction of from 10 to 50 per cent.
Pottstown Iron company, Pottstown, Pa; re
duation of about per cent.
Bethlehem Iron company, Bethlehem, Pa:
reduction of 10 per cent. Feb. =.
Pennsylvania Steel company, SteeltOn, Pa;
reduction of from S to 10 per cent. Feb. l.
Lackawanna Iron and Coal company. Scran-
ton, Pa; an average reduction of 20 Gel Is a day
on Jan. /
Homestead steel works. Carnegie. Phipps &
Co.; 10 per cent, by agreement.
Pullman Palace Car Company's works; new
scale, making reduction of about 10 per cent.
brought forward Jan l.
Otis Iron and Steel company, Cleveland, O..
reduction of 30 per cent.
Coal mines, Duquoin, Ills. reduction from G,
to 80 cents per ton.
Of Is per cent.
Coal mines, near LeavenwCrth, Kan; reduc
ton of II per cent.
COcheco Manufacturing company: wages o.
weavers reduced per cent.
Manufacturers of pottery. Trenton. y. J.
wages OF sanitary ware pressers reduced - pei
cent.
AIerrimac mills, Lowell Mass: wages of mule
spInncrs reduced cents per hundred.
buckeye mower and reaper works, Akron, Q.
reduction of from 50 to 6G per cent.
~axouy knitting mill, Little Falls, y. Y; re
dUction of about % per cent.
Southern Steel company, at Chattanooga
notice of reduction of l0per cent. for al work
men receiving more than 81 per day WAS posted
recently, and the reduction was accepted.
In Tenney's hat shop at Methuen, Mass,
cut down in wages of p per cent. has been an
nounced.
Bates mills. Lewiston, Me. Temperatures il
reduction of 3 per cent.
Nearly all the employees of the JAG lsOnvill
Underwear company at jacksonville, Ills
struck because of 2 reduction OF wages. lIh
duties on underwear were largely increased b
the Mckinley act.I
Coal mines between Evansville and Hunting
burg. Ind. All the miners on strike becaus
their wages had been reduced.
i reduction of about 10 per cent mas bee
made in the wages of the wOrkmen at tn
Emma blast furnace, Cleveland o., the prof.
crty Of the Union Rolling Mill company, takin
effect at once.
Smithville cotton mills, willimantic, Com
The speeders struck against u reduction of 81!
per week, and settlement was made by til
restoration of the old rates.
The ribbon weavers of the Adelaide silk mil
Of Allentown, Pa, have been informed of a RI
duction.
In the coke region of Pennsylvania from 10
go to 1900 men have been on strike since Eel
against proposed reduction of 10 per cen
IN wages. OF the 5000 ovens in this region
lO,OOO are controlled by the II. c. frlck CON
pany, of which the well known high tariff &C
vocatc, Andrew Carnegie, is the head. III
wOrkmen maintain that their wages should NJ
be reduced, but on the other hand should be IL
creased l212 per cent, owing to the higher co:
of living,
Many of these cases were reported
the high tariff organs. Over again
them only three or four cases have bee
reported where wages have been raised
The above list ought to give any laborin
man practical answer to the questio
whether protection raises wages. 1t
projections record in 1891, the year whe
McKinleyism is on trial.
Infant Industries in Florida.