The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-12
YEAR WITHOUT A BATTLE
Such - Cycle Counted as Lost BY
Mr.. Carnegie, Tariff
Baron.
SO His Present Trouble With
Workmen Is Not q New
Experience.
An Interesting Article That Was Pro-
pared Before the Battle Had Bsen
Fought NJ Homestead.

The press dispatches have begun to toll
MS the familiar story OF an impending Ia
Dor war at the Homestead Stsel works of
Carnegie. Phipps a. Go. The year in which
he docs not have . battle with his men on
the question Of wages il counted by Mr..
Carnegie % 4 year Lost. II Ia very seldom
that he has to reproaoh himself with any
losses of that kind. On the present COCA
sion No are told that the new waRe-scals
offered TO the 5000 workers In tho Home
stead establishmspA--thers 10 a fine touch
of sarcasm in Mr.. CarneRie's choice Of
names-is from 10 to 40 per cent lower than
tho old one, which was itself the residue Of
tho three or four previous reductions en-
forced since the passage Of the Mckinley
bill. The mills and 400 acres of grounds, it
seems. have been surrounded will . fence
nine feet high, topped with barbed wire,
which ia to be charged with electricity to
discourage unlimited visits from represent
ativss Of protected American labor olsmor-
ing for ! division of the profits of tho tariff.
H. G. Frick, who suppressed the coke
workers. strike and destroyed their union,
is to conduct this practical Interpretation
of the protective policy. writes Moffett in
the San Francisco Examiner.
The republican platform recently adopted
q: Minneapolis stated this policy in these
words: "That on all imports coming into
competition with the products Of American
labor there should be levied duties equal to
the difference between wages abroad and
at home"
On the principle hero set forth, has Mr..
Carnegie been giving his workmen an IN
duly large share of his tariff bountiss or
not? Tn sixth annual report of President
Harrison's commissioner Of labor gives tho
only thorough and accurate study Of COM
p~arative labor cost in the iron and steel in
'dustries of this country and Europe ever
made. From this We learn that the labor
directly employed inmakinR . ton of steel
rails costs on an average $1.4Gl in the Unit
cd States. $1.833 in Great Britain, and ST.
44 on the continent of Europe. The duty
required, therefore, would be 50. 272 less
than nothing to protect it against that of
Europe. The tax actually levied for the al
legged purpose of enabling Mr.. Carnegie to
pay more than his foreign rivals for labor
that he gets for less is $13.44.
But it may he said that fairness requires
us to take account of all the labor en-
ployed in the various processes by which
the materials that enter into the manufac-
ture of steel rails are made. instead Of con-
fining our attention to the final step. La
Dor Commissioner Wright has enabled us
to do this. BY a very careful analysis of
the returnS he has found that the total
cost of all the labor entering into the pro-
duction of a ton Of steel rails, beginning
with the iron ore, coal md limestone in
the ground. and running through the con-
version Of the materials into coke, cinder.
pig-iron. steel in2ots and rails, 10 $11.597- in
the United States and $7.S17 in Great Brit
min The DrOIuCkiva 1utv xvhiHh thu MIN
neapols convention saws should be equal
to the difference between American and
foreign wages, il thus between three
and four times that difference and OK
ceeds the total amount paid to American
workmen by about 16 per cent. The
figures may be tabulated in this way:
Protective duty 1913 A
Of which labor may possibly get..... 3 Is
Balance for MIR. Carnegie. which labor
# Mr.. Carnegie shall succeed in ! his H'
present raid on the wages of his workmen.
ns he probably will-he always does-it will
follow from the principles laid down in the
republican platform that the duties on his
products must be reduced. Not only that,
they mnst be abolished, or the demands Of
the Minneapolis convention will not be
fully met. Such a reduction in wages as
that now proposed would wipe cut the en-
tire difference between American and for
eign labor cost and destroy tho entire basis
upon which the republican party has
chosen to rest the need for a i protective
tariff in the present campaign.
If Mr.. Carnegie were only one independ-
emit manufacturer. hia course at this time
would be significant. But he ia not. He il
q member of u trust which controls the en-
tire market in its line, and the reduction of
one establishment. but is to be enforced
throughout the iron and steel trades of oil
western Pennsylvania. In the event of a
long labor war the country will have an ad-
mirable opportunity to see just whom the
tariff benetts and how it does it.
short time the workmen will begin
to suffer. They will run out of ready
money. Thor credit with the butcher and
crooeryman will drop below par. and their
landlords will begin to press them for
their rent. Having boon told that PRO
to some of them to look over the tariff law
and try and find some directions in it for
getting something to eat. They will find
themselves amply protected by such items
as these:
''ForginRs Of iron or steel. 2 $40 cents
per pound.
Boiler or other plate iron or steel. five
tenths Of one cent to three and . half cents
"kailroad bars, si1-tenths of one cent
per pound"
But when they undertake to turn this
protection into bread and meat they will
run up against the uncomfortable fact that
they huve no steel forRings, or plates or
railway bars for sale. TIL only thing they
will have to sell will DO their labor. whioh
the t~arif-maksrs seem to have overlooked.
But Mr.. Carnegie and his trust will have
no trouble in making a practical applica-
ton of the tariff while the strike 10 on.
They will have stocks of iron and steel pro-
ducts on hand, and, with foreign COMPETE
ton shut out by the duties, all they will
have to do will be to sell off their surplus
at their leisure, with no expense for run
ming their works except the wages Of . fow
Pinkerton guards.
That will be an object lesson which ought
to be able to carrv itH moral into an aver
age brain without the necessity Of a surgi-
cal operation.
THE SCENE OF THE BATTLE,