The St. Johns herald., 1892-07-14
M'KinIey Wages.

contributions and influence ovel employees, is demonstrated by the determination of Carnegie and his fellow tariff favored iron and steel manufacturers to reduce the wages of about 100000 men. Had any one predicted that these million. aires would be guilty of this tower ing folly at such time-the open ing of Presidential contest-the prophecy would have been laughed at. It would have occurred to every body that the manufacturers would not dare, for the sake of their tariff privileges, to supply the country with so striking a proof of the falsi- ty of the assertion of the Republi- can platform that the sole object of the tariff is to maintain wages, and that it is to the tariff that the high CT reward of labor in the United States is due. The argument would have run thus:
 "These manufacturers are long headed business men and know that they owe to. the Republican party the larger profits which the exclusion of foreign competition gives them. They know that the Democratic party is opposed to tax ing one class of citizens for the ben eft of another, and does not believe in enrichlng the few at the expense of the many. Consequently the manufacturer will do nothing to embarrass the Republicans, with whom their own welfare is bound up. It would be suicidal to do otherwise"
 But the millionaires of the iron and steel trust are no longer headed than other business men. To them the temptation to grab the dollar in sight has been irresistible. That temptation overcomes all general considerations. Nothing can be more self-evident, for instance, than that the Southern Pacifc's interests and those ot California are identi- cal-that in the end whatever pro- notes the growth of the State must inure to the advantage of the rail- road. Yet, year after year, we have seen the corporation pursuing the short-sighted policy of charging ex- tortionate rates that have retarded California's advance by preventing the incoming of population and the development of new industries. The company has not been able to withhold it's hand from the dollar in sight.
 It is not to be imagined, however, that the iron and steel men are such fools as to deliberately i'm mperil their snug position behind the tariff wall for the sake of what they can gain by reducing wages. They are con- fdent that, no matter what they may do to give the lie to the Re- publican platform, they can get from the party whatever they wish when the time comes. They have good reason for this confidence. The Mckinley Congress was eager to oblige them. The degree of pro- lection for which they asked was accorded without the smallest abate- ment. The Chairman of the sub- committee on tariff at the Minne- apolis convention was H. w. Oliver. The same gentleman was at Wash ington representing the iron and steel manufacturers when the Me- Kinley bill was pending, and when that amazing aggregation of log rolling jobs was passed he reported to his principals that the rates on iron and steel "were those pro- posed by the manufacturers them selves"
 The object of the Mckinley bill, according to the Republican plat form, was to keep up wages. Has the Mckinley bill done this? The Iron and Steel Trust gives the an swer. These millionaires scorn the common people and do not believe