The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-10-19
Under the Hat,

Jersey. Wnen Cn6 Mchlntey Oil De-
came law the hat makers of this
State were told by the Republican
organs that they would at once re-
ceive the benefits. Isn't it about time
they were getting them? The McKin-
ley bill has been in operation now for a
good while; the Major is industriously
telling Ohio audiences of the great
good his services have secured to the
labor interests of the country; yet we
find that dear old soul, the Trenton
State Gazette calmly telling It's readers
that 1.-THE Eatontown hat factory now
employs seventy-seven hands"-great
feat of the Mckinley bill, you know,
and all that sort of thing-"who re-
ceive an average of $500 per week in
wages" Sounds big, doesn't it?
Shout for Mckinley OF course $500
per week for one hand would be big
wages. But when seventy-seven
hands dip into the pool and divide
those five hundred ''shekels" how
many is it per one hand?
Perhaps our arithmetic may be
wrong, but we figure it to be an in :
finitessimal fraction under $3.50 a
week. We put it at So. 80, being will
ing to give SO laborious a worker for
labor interests as Major Mckinley,
all the fractions, vulgar or polite. to
which he is entitled. And having done
SO we pause long enough to ask the
State Gazette what sort of wages So. so
per week is for a man engaged in a
protected industry and what he would
be likely to get if his industry wasn't
protected? Would he get anything at
all, as a matter of fact? Perha ps he
might do better if left to himself.
There are unprotected workmen in
the country who are getting 1925 a
day almost as much as the protected
hat men get for a weeks work-and
there are no unprotected workmen
who receive less than So per day in
the various trades and crafts, here
abouts, at all events, whatever they
may get in Trenton.
So far as we have been able to dis
cover, the only good that has come
out of the much-vaunted protec-
ton to the hatters' industry
has been to raise the price,
to the consumer, of a soft felt hat
such as the Eatontown factory turns
out, from $2.5 to So. Now who gets
the benefit of the advance. Certainly
not the workman, for he only gets
Sc. so a week. The increase may be
divided between the manufacturer,
the wholesale dealer and the retailer,
but the protected wage Garner GER
gets none OF it. That fifty cents
increase in the cost to the consumer
is the ''nigger" in the business, only
this time he is under the hat instead
OF in the woodpile.
j. Sloat Fassett's Political Honesty.
When he talks in New York city j.
Sloat Fassett sends up a heart-rend-
ing appeal for honesty; then J. Sloat
Fassett goes into the rural districts to
tell Of the wickedness of the metropo-
lis and it's taxes. But j. Sloat Fassett
then the honesty he shouted
for in the city and in holding up the
wickedness Of the big
town in contrast to Republican good
ness in the township, he merely takes
the State taxes for illustration, while
in the city he uses the State, county
and city rates. If he were to add ten
per cent. for the contingency Of for
getfulness, he would not be more dis
honest than he is.
Morally, ]. Sloat Fassett may be
nice enough for a Sunday school
teacher, but politically he couldn't be
honest if he tried. N. Bit do esn't
as If he tried very hard.
MONMOUTH county is Dragging
about % pumpkin that weighs one
hundred and four pounds. But why
boast of it when pumpkin is a thing
that all des-pies?
THE thrilling circular of the New
Jersey Republicans may be summed
up in the following brief ''pome":-
Give us your vote
And a five dollar note.
Set 1t to music, brethren, sing it at
the top of your lungs, and then circu-
late the hat.
Mr.. BALFoUR will be the Bigfour of
the British House of Commons awhile,
SOMETHING for curiosity hunters:-
The last letter of George Washington
letter 'tn."
He Will Get There.
Michael Burke, who was assaulted and
beaten by a crowd Saturday night week
while in a beastly st ate of i~ntoxication
was again before Police Justice O'Don-
lell this morning. As before, he APP
oealed to the Justices Christian charity
He drank but four glasses of beer, and it
vent quickly TO his head, which has not
yet recovered from the terrible beating
n RAAnH UAd liz aba % hA .-u~& -. -