Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-09-18
LIE TAREFF ANp wAans.


the reduction Of wages going on through
out the whole country. When the great
reduction took place among the nail
men there was no talk of tariff, no one
even intimated that the tariff had any
thing to do with the reductions and
revolutions going on in the nail bust
ness. An persons Of any intelligence
whatever knew the cause. The hypo-
critical InteIligencer knows that the
tariff has not been a factor Ia maintain
ing wages. 1t points with much
satisfaction to the testimony Of wage
workers before the Ways and Mears
Committee. These same wageworkers,
who are now induced to testify before
the committee, were cursing the tariff
and the Republican party from end to
end when they suffered a reduction last
year under the highest tariff ever
know. The Amalgsmated AssOcla-
ton workmen nave suffered a
reduction OF nearly one-half in
their wages during the last five years,
and yet the manufacturers had all the
tariff they wanted. What IS the cause OF
these reductions? Competition, more
than anything else. The InteHtgenceI
knows this as we'll as the workingmau
himself. Even theBridgeport ironworkeI
who testified before the Ways and Means
Committee, although a good Repubi-
can, said last year he believed he
would never vote for another Republi-
can President; that he had suffered re,
ductions right along, although he was
working under the highest kind Of
tariff.
Never was there such fight made in
the history of organized labor as that al
Homestead last year. which was con-
Quoted under the highest tariff ever
known. Was the wages of these men
reduced because the tariff was about to
be reduced? Certainly not, and the IN
telligepCer knows it.
Wages have been steadily reduced
since the war, and every intelligent
man in the country knows that compe-
titiou among manufacturers and free
trade in the labor market are the real
causes.
The false cry OF tariff for protection
to labor has been so thoroughly ex-
posed that it is almost unnecessary tc
answer the idiotic rawlings of the Re-
publican press at this late day.
A sufficient answer to the RtelLigenCeI
as to the flint glass trade is found in
the statement Of Manufacturer MAC
BETH, OF Pittsburg:
The tariff does not benefit me par.
ticle," he declares. II sell in England,
France, Austria, etc, and in the last
named country I come sharply into
competition with German glass" Mr..
MACBETH takes no accOuntof European
pauper labor, but stands alone, with
manly independence, and carries his
products into the very territory Of his
low wages competitor.
In addition, he stated that lone OF
the greatest and wealthiest iron and
steel manufacturers" told him he fore
saw our tariff must 'come down TO .
worlds basis" that he had prepared
himself for it, and twas now ready &c
produce against the world, no matter
how low the tariff might drop"
If anything else were needed, we
could quote the testimony Of gIasswork-
ers 10 our own town to show that theii
wages had been systematically reduced
during several years past, and yet the
glass industry has been all the time
highly protected And why was this
SOP Because in every new town in the
country, or new addition to a town, 0
glass factory was started, and those
that were able to survive are now com
petitors Of the establishments in and
around Wheeling.
As to whether the reductions made
are just or unjust, that is another Ques'
ton. That they have been made, even
.he Intelltqencer, with all of its ability
! to sQuirm out Of a weak position, can
not deny.
The workmen know this, and know
ing by experience tho iasity Of the cry
OF protection for American labor under
the broad shield OF American law" they
are not now disturbed by the whining
OF subseryient newspaper organs that
their present condition or their future
prospects are dependent upon the tariff.
They we'll and wisely think that they
have been working so long under q
rising tariff with falling wages, that a
reduction in the tariff cannot hurt them
directly, and will benefit them at least
Indirectly by placing the best articles
of both food and clothing that they
must purchase within their reach.
THE repealers in the Senate who are