Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-10-13

Hod-carriers Are Better Paid.
Over four columns, in small type, of
the Boston Herald, Oct. 9th, are taken up
by letter, and accompanying affidavits,
submitted by Senator Vest in reply to
previous letter from William Whit
man, Treasurer Arlington Mills, Law
renee, Mass. Mr.. Whitman had adj
mitted, to quote Senator Vest, that
'your (Whitman'sl position is that OF
mill treasurer of highly protected cor.
poration; you (Whitman) have admitted
that you were responsible for the text
of two paragraphs in the Mckinley bill
which give increased aud inordinate
protection to your company respecting
the special fabrics you malIe;" where
fore, adds Senator Vest, "your corpora
ton, its finances and its dealings with
its employees, hold, are fairly subject
to public inquiry and ventilation, be-
cause by your tariff log-rolling you have
secured the United States as a partner,
and the people who consume your goods
have right to know the facts in regard
to them"
Itappears that Mr.. Whitman, in the
letter referred TO, had protested to an
swer "fulIy and frankly" certain ques-
tions propounded by Senator Vest, but
had not succeeded i'll doing this to the
satisfaction of his interrogation. Upon
the matter of strikes and wage reduc-
tions in the Arlington mills, Mr.. Whit
mans answers, without going into
details, had been particularly unsatis-
factory, SO that in his communication
printed in Wednesdays Boston Hcrdtd,
Senator Vest trayerses this ground and
proves by atfidavits, that there was d
strike against reduction of pay, in
juno 1891, in which all the wholesalers
except SIX, 1902 out of los, quit work,
and that work in the wool. sorting
department was stopped for nearly
three weeks, pending the reimbursement
of the wage scale on the smallest basis
that the strikers could be coaxed back
to the mills on; that this REIMBURSEMENT
was such cut-down as to save the mill
$4,000 per year on the cost of wool.
sorting and to compel the employees to
sort nearly twice as much Australian
wool as before to earn $11 per week;
hat within month or so after tho
strikers returned to work wholesalers
from Saitaire and Bradford, England
believed to have been engaged
abroad by Mr.. John Garden, began
to arrive at the mill and were
put TO work there; that in December
1891, an order was issued to clay Off Is
Of the old sorters who had been work
ing in the mill for periods of from two
up TO seventeen years, while the newly
imported English workmen were re-
tanned in the mill; that on March list
1892, there was second and still
further cut-down which, it appears, til,
men were compelled to accept ant
under which "a good number of tn
workmen have only earned from So tc
50 per week, when under the old SEIZED
ulo they made Sill" and that, in short
the record Of this mill since the passag,
of the Mckinley bill furnishes anothe
very conclusive object lesson as to thu
truth Of the declaration Of the Demo,
cratic platform, that Republican protec
ion is "a fraud on the labor Of the grGa
majority Of the American people 10
lie benefit of the few"
Well, indeed, may Colonel McClur
venture the declaration, in this morn
ing's Philadelphia Tines. 1--WE ar
positive in the statement, after careful
investigation, that the non-protectet
colored hod.carriers now employed ol
the Times building are paid higho
wages than the average wages paid NAL
adults in the protected industries Of TIL
citvr