The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-09-08
there. Prices are as low as they ever

there. Prices are as low as they ever
have been.
To what an extremity has the cause of
protection sunk when such instances as
these are citedsto show how the Mckin-
lev law has raised the wages and ln-
creased the prosperity of the American
workman! Here is a case that IS still
worse. 1t was claimed with great
flourish of trumpets that Fl. L. Chap
man, of White Pigeon, Mich, mad
voluntarily increased the wages In his
factory fifteen per cent. because OF
willingness and desire on his part that
his workingmen should share in pros
perity that was coming to him In bound
less measure as a result of the beneficent
workings of the Mckinley Tariff law.
Mr.. Chapman manufactures patent
forge and employs just two men besides
himself. One is machlnlst and the
other is moulder. The machlnlst IS
about twenty one years old. He went
to Mr.. Chapman and offered to work for
twenty-five cents day and his offer was
accented. After while Mr.. Chapman
found that he was worth more and so
advanced his wages to fifty cents day.
The moulder was good for nothing so he
DISCHARGED him and hired another and
better man. The most he paid the old
hand was $1.25 day.
Another wildly absurd claim was that
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Conf
pany had increased wages twenty per
cent. in its shops at Grafton, w. Va.
Whoever first made this claim must have
been the victim of a prac tical joke. The
wages of the Baltimore and Ohio en-
ployes there have constantly tended
downward. During the last year hun
dreds of hands have been thrown out
of employment, and many have been
compelled to leave Grafton for other
places in search of work. The foundry,
which employed seventy-dve men, has
been closed completely. The force OF
machinlsts has been greatly reduced, the
carpenter shops have been torn down,
and nearly all the large number OF car
penters formerly employed have been
discharged. Those who have been re-
tanned have had their wages reduced
from 1926 day to S1.75. The rail-
road hands are compelled now to work
fourteen hours day instead of twelve
before they get any extra pay, and those
employed who formerly worked ten
hours a day are only permitted to work
eight now and are paid accordingly.
These are sample cases. The more
+ha If w
come apparent that either there has been
made a wilful attempt to deceive IN the
matter of these reported increases OF
WAGES. or that the American Economist
has been imposed upon. 1t is more
probable that the latter is the case, Tor
in its list is the name of B. Howitzer, OF
Chaseburg, Wis, who is said to have
raised wages in his factory ten per cent.
Chaseburg is little town OF about nity
inhabitants. There is no factory there
and there is no man named Howltzer
there. 1t is all hoax.
No one has ever yet claimed that there
have been no individual cases where
wages have been increased within the
United States since the Mckinley Dill
became law, but the claim has been
made and repeated that no well-anthen-
ticated case had yet been reported where
WAGES had been increasedin consequence
of the operation of that law, while all
over the land, in every State and IN we'll
nigh every county, there has arisen case
after case where wages have been re-
duced in some protected industry. The
people of the country are taxed osten-
ssibly to enable the wages of American
workmen to be increased. Wages have
not been increased. They have IN many
cases been reduced. What then becomes
of the money which the American peo.
pie pay to the manufacturers IN tarif
taxes2-New York World.