Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-07-30

A Few Pertinent Remarks on the sub
Jsct by observer"

mittee and the iron manufacturers at
their first meeting agreed that the oase
priee for boiling on 2 cent card Wonld
he * for the coming scale year. The |
selling priee of ton of puddled iron |
for the last year or two ranged from S23 |
IN COX. and since the price OF ton OF
steel bilets or slabs fell below so the
iron manufacturers INCREASINGLY COM
plained that S5 so was too much to pay |
for pudding e..
1t is given out that there was FAIR
AID impartial examination OF the iron
business, its future prospects luiiy |
investigated aud discussed, before tine
workers accepted reduction OF 81
cents. but there is no information AZ
hand that puddlers were guaranteed
any more work by accepting reouc-
tion than they got last year at sou
Will IL bring about a revival or the pud-
dIer,s trade and successfully compete
with the product of the steel workers?
II will not: because the mania TO reduce
wages is dist urbing the minds OF steer
manufacturers as well as iron manuiac-
turers. Where is the advantage 10 De
gained by the puddler over the steel
worker as far as the competition OF
tba Droduct is concerned?
Ara not q both , workers hoeing
in tha same old row they hoed last year,
with the steel worker ahead and with the
nrosnect of more work? The puddlers
stand In position now that no man
should euvy-his wages reduced, MS
chances for employment dlscouraglhR'
and the product OF his skill ana Iaoor
trampled upon by steel manufacturers
Steel capitalists say that muck oar can
he displaced by steel and that pudding
is almost q question of the past. rms
NAV he the opinion OF theorists out not
of practical business men. Experienced
and practical writers In the press OF the
iron and steel manufacturers, discussing
the merit OF roofing tin plate, maze
of steel, say "that the foreign matter
in the steel interferes with the picket
ing and prevents the perfect coating OF
the mates, so that In places there is
only a thin skin Of tin, this being
abraded, corrosion is rapid and the
sheet becomes worthless. Sheet steel
whether coated with tin or not, When
exposed TO the weather Is not as durable
as the wrought iron sheet because steel
has not the tough fiber that iron has.
It f. fine gra ined, with hard
smooth surface susceptible OF
rust and corrnsion and will not admit
OF alloy to bind the plate and tin coat
coating together. All grades OF fine
rolled steel are of the same nature. Inc
steel tin roofing plates in few years
will be displaced with the old rellaole
wrought iron plates, as the innovation
of seven or eight years ago, the steel
cut nail, which was idolized and con-
sidered at that time by manufacturers
and capitalists to be one OF the greatest
and most progressive inventions OF the
present century, has now met its Water
loo by being displaced by the common
wire nail.
Progress and inventive genius cannot
be relegated to obscurity, but the In
vention can II it does not prove profit
able.
Carnegie's progress In the msnufac-
ture OF steel rails by the invention OF
labor-saving machinery that displaced
human labor, aud petted and fostered
by the high tariff OF from SIT to S2S per
ton on foreign rails, cut a great swath
in controlling the market price OF that
article, will, when the next Democratic
Congress gets through with tariff re-
form, come to the conclusion that the
invention Of labor-saving machinery Is
not as profitable as when he was max
ing his millions and grinding what
human labor he could not dispense with
to mere serfs and slaves.
The ravenous greed for wealth, the
selfish motives to reduce wages and the
desire to introduce self-saving labor
machinery, has become as much OF
contagion among moderately wealthy
| iron and steel manufacturers as 1t Is
among milionaires. II they were not
| imbued with such desire for these Kind
! of things, the hard worked slave pud-
| dler would not be reduced fifty cents
| ton. This grinding process TO starVa-
ton wages and threat to displace pud-
died iron by cheap steel, may eventual
" be reversed by the circumstances OF
the future time, and that II such re-
verse would bring back the pud-
der his old trade, isn't
is contemplate and dis
! gushing inducement that's offered to
encourage or protect the art by enlist
ing young men to learn it?
| In the last seven years six or seven
hundred puddlers and their helpers
were thrown out OF employment in this
city and vicinity by steel manufactured
in Benwood, Marshall county. The
plants furnishing this material were
erected by capital accumulated from the
sweat and toll OF these puddlers' handl-
work. This meant progress for the
manufacturers and a crushing blow for
puddlers and this community. The
greatest majority OF these men have
now secured employment at other avo-
cations and cannot be induced to enter
a rolling mill again, with few ex-
ceptons, to work for the same rate
of wages formerly paid helpers
and third,hands, without full assurance
of steady work. Times outside OF roll
ing mills will be extremely hard when
puddler will take the responsibility OF
furnace, pay his helper SO per cent. and
second helper % per cent Of s.. To In
duce young men to learn the art Is out
of the question. They want better pay,
lighter work and steader employment.
The few puddiers who are employed
making the small quantity required by
one or two mills cannot stand the work
without help, and this help they cannot
afford to hire. Who then will puddle
iron few years hence If pudding re-