Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-05-17
Thus Helms Lab or.

II is STOCK argument with repuolcans
that high tariff is for the benefit of
workingmen. Indeed. we have been
told, times without number, that protec>
ton not only makes wages but that it is a
panacea for all industrial ills. Indeed
the Mckinley bill was to usher in the
millineum. There was to be an end of
strikes, lock,outs and reductions, and the
men who toll for living were to pass
their existence in the long. sought land of
milk and honey. This was the promise,
and now what are the facts9
The Mckinley law has been on the
statute books over two years, and vet
labor was never before so unsettled. Take
the preceding month of April as an ex
ample and it will be seen how a war
tariff in time of peace has affected the
lsboring classes:
April S-By strike of 200 girls and
boys in the Dolphin jute mills at Pster-
have been getting $3.50 and the girls 81
q week" in this protected industry.
April Spy reduction of wages of pud-
oilers at McIvsne s. Sons plate mill,
Reading, Pa, from S3.7 to so per ton,
and the announcement that next week
Seifert's two rolling mills, employing 800
hands, five miles below Reading. will
close down indefinitely.
April S-By the determination of the
Furniture and Cabinet Manufacturers
association to keep their factories closed
until the strikers give up their fight for
eight hours.
April S-By exsctions of the rice trust
which led committee of rice merchants
at New Orleans to, take steps to build q
rice mill to circumvent the trust.
April 9-By consolidation of the six
cotton seed oil mills. Of Georges into the
Georgia Cotton Oil company. The Amer
lean Cotton Oil company owns 120 mills;
for the purpose of economy those in each
state are being merged into separate cor
porations. All of the trust mills are now
reorgsnized under state charters except
those in South Carolina.
April 10-By notice of general reduc-
ticn Of wages in all the furnaces at New
castle, Pa. After April II the turn men
were reduced 10 cents, the day laborers
10 cents and the iron men cent per
pound. This will give the turn men
$1.75 and the laborers S1.35 per day.
April 10-By closing down OF the Dol
phin Jute mill at Patterson, N. j., be-
cause of the inordinate request of the
boys for 50 and of the girls for $3.50 per
week.
April 1O-By strike of 200 electric men
in New York.
April 10-By strike of 20 helpers at the
Phoenix silk mill. Patterson, n. j.
April 10-By the announcement in the
Tribune that Claus Spreckles cleared S.
600, 600 when he sold his Philsdelphia
sugar refinery to the trust, giving the lat
ter complete control Of refined sugar cas-,
of the Rockies.
April 11-By big marble trust which
the Tribune announces as being formed
in Georgia ''to unite all the output as
well as the prices can be regulated" The
duty on marble averaged about so pei
cent under the trust killing tariff
April 13-By strike of workingmen at
the Monitor iron works at Sing Sing.
April 14-By the formation OF trust
company OF the type-founders in the
United States.
April 14-By the closing of the Spreck'
els enormous sugar refinery by the sugar
trust so as to produce the reduction and
maintain trust prices.
April 15-By the completion of Gen.
Alger's Diamond match trust. it ,haying
bought the Lebanon Match company, OF
Philadelphia, for Sl25,000. This was
the last company to surrender to the
trust. The retail dealers in Pniladelphia
upon advices from wholesalers. at once
advanced the price of matches 30 cents
per gross.
1t will be seen, as the Rockford Stal
says, that the Mckinley bill Injuries rath'
er than helps labor, and that instead Of
preventing strikes and lock"outs it en-
courages them,