The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-30
H WEEKLY TRIBUNE.
THE PRICE OF LABOR.
SATURDAY. JULY 80. 1892.

IL is bdlu mat tne CHdirilldH vi I'll
Homestead investigating committee, al
ter looking over tho schedule of wage
paid to some of The striking employees O
the Carnegie works. exclaimed: !"
never heard of such wages" Mr.. Boat
ner may or may not have said it. |
makes no difference SO far as the caus
of the Homestead troubles is concerned
whether he said it or not. The man wh'
says he never heard of such wages bein!
paid to employees is not well informed
The price Of labor is fixed by unchGnge
able laws. Ii two employers run aftel
one laborer it is high: if two laborers rur
after n employer it is low. In the ear
ly days in California miners wages wa'
SIG a day. As the state filled up wages
dropped 10 olO. then to IS. and to Sc; t,
81. and today it is much less. Every
man who could handle a pick and shove
in placer mines in those days passed as q
miner" and received miners wages. The
price of labor was governed by its sup
ply.
At Homestead the price of labor isgov-
erneG 10y its quality not by its quantity.
But few men can do the work required
Of some of the employees. 1t took years
of non ~remunerativc apprenticeship for
the men to tit themselves for their spe-
cialty work. II is because they can do
it and that Others can not they receive
good wages. All the officers Of the com
papy RECEIVE much higher wages and
they do not raise "a hammer or direct a
piece of machincy in a year. 1t is the
quality of the work they perform that
enables them to command better salaries.
The wages of the skilled employees
is measured 10y the same standard.
Chairman Boatncr has sense enough to
whether he made the remark ascrIbed to
him. If hc did the words were uttered
without any reference to the wages
being out of proportion to the value of
the labor performed. 1t is not supposed
Mr.. Boatner is IA worker in iron and steel
and knows what wages in special lines in
that industry should be.
The republican press have caught up
the words and are making the most of
them. They are attempting to show
that the Homestead employees have no
cause to complain on account of the pro-
posed cut in their wages, and throw the
blame of the lockout upon them and not
deem the promises Of its advocates.
While the fact is the cuts made in the
wages Of employees since the passage of
the Mckinley bill. in oyer 800 manu-
featuring establishments in the country
90 to show that protection as far as keep
ing up the price of labor is concerned is
a Hat failure.
1t matters not so far as the principle
of protection is involved whether the
Homestead employees were over-paid or
undergrad, J. is known that Mr..
Carnegie has made SI0,0OO.OOO in
d highly protected industry.
The iron and steel tariff schedule was
drawn by Secretary Swank Of the great
IRON and steel trust ur association of
Which Mr. Carnegie is IA member. The
schedule IA satisfactory to him. He
mas prospered under it. lie has paid
MS employees a certain scale Of wages.
We cow have his word that he can no
longer pay it. He must cut down the
-:ale from II to - per cent in order to
run his business without loss. If this
IS not a confession that protection does
lot mean high wages and that the price
OF labor does not depend upon the tariff
the words Of a man supplemented by his
acts can not be correctly interpreted.
Republican journals may squirm and
deny and protest till the day of resur-
rectiOn. but the fact that protection is a
friiure as far as it keeps up the price of
labor is as plain as the MONDAY sun.
The strikes and lockouts brought about
by reductions in wages since the Nc.
Is nley bill became ID law evidences the
Of the proposition.