The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-09
WAGES IN IRON MILLS
A WHOLESALE CUT TO BE MADE
IN SPITE OF THE TARIFF.
Mex iniey's Prohibitory Duty, Made by
the manufacturer Themselves to Raise
the Poor Mans Wages" Has an Entirely
Different Effect.

to admit that a serious reduction of
wages-a "wholesale cut" the Philadel-
phia Press says--is o to he made in
the iron and steel mills, but their com
ments are discordant. For example. the
Pittsburg Dispatch is moved by the I'M
pending reduction at Mr.. C~arnegie's fac
tories to say:
"If the iron manufacturers wish to
strike every tariff advocate dumb and
paralyze the entire campaign for protec-
ton, they could not do SO more etfectu-
ally than by confronting them during
the campaign with the spectacle of mills
standing idle through the forcible at
tempt TO reduce wages 20 per cent. in Il
protected industry"
The Philadelphia Press complains that
it has been forgotten by certain persons
''that the Mckinley tariff reduced the
duties on all forms of iron manufacture
in which a reduction of wages is now
taking place or has taken place" The
Boston Journal makes the same asSer-
ton. But neither of these papers has
said that the reduction Of wages ha,
been caused by the slight reduction of
duties i'll parts of the iron and steel
schedule. They know very well that in
nearly every instance the duties which
were slightly reduced by the Mckinley
act had been practically prohibitory,
and that the corresponding duties n,
they stand now have substantially the
same effect. The old duty on steel or
iron beams, for example, was $2S per
ton. With the assistance Of that very
high duty the manufacturers in this
country, who had been in combination
price of SG0.il per ton. The duty was
reduced from SIS to $50. -. Owing to
the dissolution of the trust combination
the price of steel or iron beams has fallen
from $69.44 to S42.56. The reduction Of
duty was $1.Sl per ton; the reduction of
price, caused by the dissolution of AN
unlawful and greedy combination and
the restoration of competition. is S?6.ss
per ton. The duty i, still %prohibitory
The manufacturers do not suffer by rec
son Of iInporlations. for the duty is too
high to permit importations to be made
so long as the price AZ home is deter
mined by that competition which thu
manufacturers strangled for sixteen
years.
Our high tariff friends should not for
get what their own leaders have said
about these duties in the present iron
and steel schedule. After the enactment
Il ~, 1880, al. 4 A. -
were published in The Bulletin of the
American Iron and Steel association,
which is the official organ of the manu-.
/. facturerS who have since reduced the
wages Of their workmen and are q
preparing to make further and greater
reductions:
Take it all in all, the new metal
schedule is a good one, and our iron and
steel manufacturers will never see a bet
ter one. 1t has been secured with much
effort and no little anxiety. 1t is the
uest that was attainable. We are salts.
fled"
While Alr. Mckinley and his associate,
We're making thi, schedule Mr.. Henry
W. Oliver, of Pittsburg was in Washing
ton AS Il representative of the iron and
steel manufacturers and as an adviser of
the majority of the Mckinley was and
means committee. After the passage of
the bill he returned to Pittsburg, and
there made a report IN which he declared
that the rates of duty in the new sched.
ule were those proposed 10y the manu-
facturers themselves As Speaker Reed
said after the election of 1890, the MANI
facturers Of iron and steel had obtained in
the new tariff Just what they wanted"
The speaker was complaining then that
the manufacturers had shown ingrari
tude in not contributing for the cam,
paign in 1890 so libcrallv a. they had
contributed in lssS. A. Mr.. Reed ais,
declared in l>on hat III" ''"hirct of the
Mckinley tariff was "to rails" the poor
mans wages" the manufacturers III
Pittsburg ami in III" Mahoning ard She
mango valleys -hould now employ him tp
explain to their worknen why il has he
come necessary or expedient To make
what the Philadelphia Press calls "a
wholesale cut" varying from - Ia ~
per cent.
Wcnoticc that our high tariff friends
no longer rely upon Mr.. j. W. Jones. Of
Hutchinson. Kan. for assistance in theii
treatment of this subject. Heretofore.
when we have v"nturrd To point ont H..
auctions of wages IN the iron and steel
factories the Boston journal. the Indi-
annapolis journal, the Tariff leagues
Bulletin and other advocates of MckIn-
leyism have turned with contidenr" 10
Mr.. j. w. Jones. of Hutchinson. and
have published, with much apparent
satisfaction. his authoritative assertion
thar no such reductions had been made.
Has Mr.. j. W. Jones ceased Ia I've an
authority more trust worthy than the
reports of the Associated Press. the
trade journals and the testimony of the
manufacturers them>rlvcst-Nrw York
Times.
In Favor OF Free Wool.
The EuslOu journal sand rrcvntlV that
ii ,.n 800. 4