The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1892-08-03
Wages at Homestead.

The Democratic House sent com
mittee TO Homestead with hope of max
ing a showing Of distress and poverty
among the laborers in protected in
dustries They hoped to show thai
workmen in protected industries get no
/ benefit from a protective tariff But
they will not show that.
What they found was workmen get
ting from $40 day (the lowest rate
and that only to q few up TO IS high As
SIC per day. There were men offered
81 600, $, 800, 5000 and even 5000 pei
annum, and working about go days in
the year and yet they had learned tC
feel and believe, under tie experiences
o. q protective tariff, that they ought tc
have more. No wonder Congressman
Bynum, Democrat, of Indiana, and s
member Of the committee, inquired with
some show Of eagerness whether there
was a chance for him TO secure position
in the works
When Hugh O'Donnell, the leader Of
the strikers, was on the stand, Mr..
Boatner Democrat, of louisiana asked
him:
"You are one ofthe skilled workmen
are you not ?"
Yes, sir
q About what were your wages?"
About Sl44 per month";
John McLuckie, a member Of the
Amalgamated Association and burgess
of Homestead, complained TO the COM
mittee that the Mckinley law reduced
the tariff on steel billets, and that wages,
therefore, began to 90 down with the
price Of steel billets after its passage. He
advanced the somewhat extraordinary
opinion that the securing Of the reduction
Of tariff on steel billets was part OF
conspiracy to reduce the wages Of work
ingman. He also charged that the COM
pany shortly converted the Duquesne
works into a billet plant, increased the
production, flooded the country so that
prices may be reduced, and thus affect
our wages. The Duquesne produces
large amc unit Of billets."
This would seem to account better for
the reduction in the price of steel billets
than the removal of the tariff.
Representative Oates, of Alabama, the
Democratic chairman Of the Democratic
committee Of investigation, was inter-
viewed after he returned from Homestead
and said That the wOrkmen at Home
stead were far above the average in in
telligence and seemed TO be fairly
prosperous, living in good, comfortable
houses. He saw none Of the poverty
common in great manufacturing centres.
Many of the men, particularly the skilled
workmen, made good wages, some of
them as high as S275 per month. Others
made only $50 per month. The COM
mon laborers earned from 81 to sl.50 a
day.
"As Mr.. Fick had positively declined
10 disclose TO the committee the cost per
ton of producing steel billets at the
Homestead mills, Mr.. Oates could not
say whether the contention of the men
that the company was making great
deal of mony at the present prices was
true or not. He was satisfied, however,
that the allegation of the men that the
company had purposely produced an
overstock of steel billets in order to
reduce the scale of wages ofthe wOrkmen
was untrue"
Blatant demagogues have spread many
lying reports Of the misery, poverty and
degradation of the workmen at Home
stead, and Democratic politicians have
been quick 10 take up these reports and
glory in them as showing the calmity Of
a protective tariff. But the day has gone
by when lies Of this sort can befool the
people. The country is not prepared to
Judge finally on this merits Of the strikers
quarrel at Homestead. But that the
wages they have been getting and the
wages they are offered are such as would
leave them in the helpless and poorly
paid condition of laboring men it Europe
and Great Britin is proved not to be true
out Of the mouths of the strikers and the
Democrats themselves