The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-11
THE RNING NEWS. \
I ESTABLISHED 1880. INCORPORATED 1888.
J. II. ESTILL. President.
IMPORTATION OF LABOR.
PRESIDENT NEIDRINGHAUs' RE-
PLY TO SECRETARY WINDOW.

He Finds Nothing in the Letter of
Commissioner Owen That the st.
Louis STAN ping Company Could Mis-
copstrue-The Manufacture of Tin
Plate a New IndusIry-Willing to
Employ American Skilled Labor and
Pay 100 Per Cent. Advance Over
English Rates.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10.-Acting Secre-
tsry Nettleton has received letter from F.
G. Neidringhaus, president of the st. Louis
Stamping Company, in reply to the letter of
the Secretary of the Treasury Of July 30 in
regard to the importation of skilled labor
Tor the tin plate industry. Mr.. Neidring-
haus says:
Mr.. NElDRINGHAUS' LETTER
"In answer to the same allow me to state that
we Do not find anything in the letter Of Com
missioner owen that the St. Louis Stamping
Company would possibly miscOnstrue. 1t states
that the immigration laws will be strictly en-
forced, but to the importation of skilled
labor the law passed by the democratic con
gress, and signed by democratic President, to
enable the establishment of new industries in
the Uuited States, is very clear and beyond the
power Of the treasury department.
That the manufacture of tin plates is new
in !uStry IN the OulLeu states, no one disputes.
In order, however, to decide the question
whether skilled labor can be found
for the manufacture of tin plates in
tais country we have announced In the pa
uers Of the principal cities of the United States
herewith renew the ofPer) that we will employ
any American tinplate rollers who may apply
and pay them 100 per cent. advance per box
over what is paid for the same work in Eng
land. The average duty on tin plates is claimed
to be about 70 per cent, and we are perfectly
willing to allow w0rkmen all of that and add 30
per cent thereto.
on July the union men employed at our
mills sent a large committee TO our office. stat
iug that they were perfectly satisfied with the
wages paid and treatment received but that the
company should employ about three times as
many men to cut iron than was necessary and
also that they should control them. They de-
manded that scale with these provisions bs
signed by our company or they would
lay down their work. Both the manager
Of the mills, W. +. NeidrnShaus, and the
writer told the men that it matteTed not 10
them what was dOne with the iron after they
had finished it if they received their pay, and
before submitting to such arbitrary rulings the
company would quit the business. We told
their work on so tlimsy pretext our mills
would thereafter be nonunion. They
stopped work, were paid off and
laft the employ Of the company.
IN O entite1 u make good living, is taking
th.r places, and quite a number Of our former
employees have gone 10 work as nOu-union men.
This occurrence has been interpreted by some
periodicals and dailies strike against star
walton wages, when, in fact, the books Of the
company show that these men have been paid
at from S5 70 S12 per day for about saven hours
work at q y employment. Again, IL has
been stared that the company intended to i'm
port fore. N labor to tRks the PAGES of these
men, when the fact is that foreign skilled labor
Tor The new tin plate mills partially ar
ranged for as ca -ly as the month of May, when
tAers was no sign of any disagreement ever oc-
curing between the union and our company.
These alarms have no doubt reached your de-
partnent. and may have occasoned the pre-
letter sent me. For the successful
operation Of this new industry it is necessary
10 have skilled labor fresh from the business as
it is to day practiced in Europe but it will not
rs far as our own company is concerned amount
TO over 10 per cent. of the number employed.
IL we include coal, lead and iron ore miners,
box timber in woods and cotton seed oil in seed
aud the producers of pig iron (Which is the base
or beginning of our operations, it will not
amount to per cent. of the foreign labor to
successfully start the industry and produce
American tin plates for the market. When bars
and plates, from which tin plates are rolled,
are finished, which is done in our old mills and
partly by the mills at Bellevile and Chatta-
nOoga, the work is more than haf done. All the
company needs is some tin plate rollers and
perhaps half dozen men for the picking, wash
and tin house to run some patent machinery.
Tae balance OF the pieces will be filled by home
talent. We have one train now run
ming on tin plates in our old mills,
manned entirely by American young
men, mostly born and raised in the city of
last six years, 50 that the tin plates we will put
on the market in the next few months will b.
made entirely by home workmen. That crew,
however, Is not sufficient to man our new mills.
where We will have six trains, perhaps eight, to
supply which, To commence with, some skilled
a n ia