The record-union., 1894-08-27
FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF
HONEST LABOR.


has said in public declarations. hence it
became necessary to bid low in order to
get work 4 contract was entered into
for the manufacture of one hundred re-
frigerator cars, Mr.. Pullman took this
work at rate so low that he was forced
TO offer starvation wages to his work
men.
The price Of everything is determined
by competition between buyers and sell
ers. When the competition is between
the purchasers of any commodity the
price goes up. When the competition is
between the manufacturers and the sell
ers the price goes down.
The stringency of the times had re-
duced the demand for rolling stock. Mr..
Pullman as a manufacturer of such stock
had no work. The purchasers of re-
frigerator cars took advantage of the ex-
isting conditions to force low price upon
the manufacturer. There was neither
wisdom nor justice in the course pursued
by Mr.. Pullman. If manufacturers had
due regard for the rights of their en-
ployes, competition between them would
never reach that degree of intensity
where their business could be carried on
only by rank injustice to the labor en-
ployed by them. No manufacturer in
the United States had right to make
bid on cars so low that in order to meet
his obligation he must reduce the rate of
wages paid his labor from S2 so day to
73 cents, as is instaneed by the testimony
being taken before the Congressional In
vestigating Committee.
But the buyers of every commodity.
however loud their profession of friend
ship for labor may be, are making every
effort to purchase the product of labor at
the cheapest possible price The man
who wants cheap shoes may profess to be
the friend of high wages. but his effort to
reduce the price OF footwear is in the
direction of reducing the wages of shoe
makers. There is no gainsaying this
truth. Pullman reduced his scale of
wages that the purchasers of cars might
have cheaper rolling stock. The public
has no condemnation for the purchaser
of a commodity who wants it cheaper
than the market rate. And yet there is
prevalent stupidity that this is not at
enmity with the rate of wages The rate
of wages will be correlated with the
value of the product of labor. This is
not debatable or doubtful. 1t is, in fact,
automatic. 1t is plain TO the meanest
capacity that even the material from
which boots and shoes are manufactured
is the product of labor; and that there
fore, whoever seeks to cheaper the
article is making an effort which. if sue
eessfuI, viii eventually reduce the wages
of the shoemaker. And yet the whole
world, pretending friendship for the
wage-earner, is seeking to make every
purchase at the lowest possible figure.
There was sense in which the rail-
roads of the country were being bene-
fted by the reduction of the wages at
Pullman. The purchaser of cars was to
make his purchases at a lower rate in
consequence of the reduction of pay to
the labor employed in the construction of
the cars. There is not wage-earner in
the United States to-day who is not
guilty of the practice of buying at the
cheapest possible rate; and yet, if he
thinks at all, he knows that cheap wares
mean cheap wages.
An issue is presented by the Demo-
cratic State platform directly in point.
The Democrats have nominated three
men to compose the Board of Railroad
Commissioners. The nominee for this
district is Hugh NJ. La Rue. Before any
hearing or determination of the subject
toscome before him Mr.. La Rue pledges
himself to a reduction of the rates of
transportation % per cent. BY this he
means horizontal reduction. There are
twelve thousand wage earners on the
pay roll of the Pacific system of the
Southern Pacific Company. Mr.. sLa
Rue will stand face to face with these
wage earners and pretend to be their
friend; aud yet he proposes to make q
forcible reduction in the product of their
labor of 25 per cent
If there are any so bountifully stupid
as not to see that Mr.. LIS Rue, for the
sake of being Railroad Commissioner, is
sacrificing the possibility of maintaining
the present scale of wages to railroad
operatives, they are very blind indeed.
Mr.. La Rue intends to purchase his elect
ion by corrupting the shipper with the
offer of lower rates of transportation,
and during all the time of his canvas he
will make hypocritical pretenses of
friendship for the common labor Of the
country.
Competition between car manufactnr-
ers forced Pullman to proceeding as
unwise as it was unjust. in our opinion.
But the purchasers of rolling stock in
the United States could not be deemed
the friends of labor when they were ac-
cepting the results of the honest toll of