Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-06-20
Mr.. M'GUIRE's ADDRESS.

the audience for remaining until such
late hour, and explained the un-
avoidable delay. He SAID he
had not been in Wheeling for
three or four years, and deemed the
present a fitting time TO stop oil and
talk, not only to the carpenters put 10
members of other trades. de SAID tnat
at present we were passing through
more acute panic than In 1877; there
was more suffering now than then, and
more people were idle. The number OF
men now without Work was carefully
estimated at three millions. Strange IL
was tbatina country with such immense
resources, good harvests, all sorts OF raw
materials and innumerable willing
hands, there should be such stagna-
ton OF industry and sucn immense &C
cumulations of idle capital. He traced
the first indications OF the present
trouble, three or four years ago, and
showed that Secretary Window and
Secretary Foster, alike with the pres
ent administration, had TO go TO wall
street for ready money to enable Tue
government to meet its obligations.
The trouble had gone on under Demo
cratic and Republican administrations
alike.
THE CAUSES WERE VARIOUS,
One was economic, another was
political, and q third was financial. a
potent cause was the fact that labor
was inadequately rewarded. Wages
had fallen 25 per cent. in twenty wears,
in the face of a three-fold accumulation
of National wealth. No wonder, he
said, the warehouses were full OF
shoes aud clothing which could not
be sold, and the elevators were
bursting with wheat which was
not wanted at an aprecedentedly
low price. Beef on the hooi was alb
surdly low, but beefsteaks were the
same per pound; -four was cheap, but
bread was still sc per loaf; and so on all
along the line, and as result, LABOR was
getting the worst Of it. Wealth was
being heaped up in the hands Of a few,
at the expense OF the many. As an in
stance, he said the railroads were val
ued at twelve billions, but they
cost only about four millions.
The difference was largly water, upon
which the people indirectly paid Inter-
est, and these indirect taxes were
greater and far more grinding than all
the direct taxes paid 70 the govern
ment. Labor receives only about one
sixth Of the value 1t creates-a little
less where there there is no organiza-
tions-a little more where there are or
CARNATIONS. The price of labor was
steadily going down. MachiniSts used to
rlQ n
get Sl2 or SIS a week. Coal miners used
to get SIS to SO week; now they were
glad to get
THAT MUCH PER MONTH.
So it was in most lines. Glass-work-
ers and few others have largely held
their own, but in the iron and steel
trades, where the great power Of organ
lied capital was best shown, the ten
dency had been sharpely downward A
rigid and close organization OF work
ingmen was the best preventative for
this evil Until all trades and oCcupa-
tions stood shoulder TO shoulder, they
would continue to be the prey Of heart
less corporations and grasping employ
ers. 1t was the only thing which would
remove the perpetual menace OF power
ty. Labor was willing TO work-as
willing now as overland it should be
Justly and adequately recompensed.
He referred to the growing competi-
ton OF wOrkmen, naming the growing
eucroachments Of women and children
and the minute subdivisions OF trades
and the growth of immigration as all
tending to iujure the wage worker. No
man now learned his trade as OF Yore-
he learned a part of a trade. In Bald
wins Locomotive Works the machinist's
trade was divided into tweEtY-eight
parts; in the Massachusetts, shoe
! factories there were thirty-nne
divisions; while all the workings
Of the law, the courts and the
military were becoming more
and more turned towards the capitalist
and less aud less in favor OF the
wage-workers. How much better it
would be to treat the workingman just
Nv. than TO confront him, upon the
slightest preteXt, with gattling guns
and shotted rifles. The whole cry was
for cheaper and cheaper labor, and this
and the fierce competition among the
bosses all Injured TO the injury OF the
laborer. The whole system was wrong,
and so long as it lasted the present
state OF affairs would otonly continue,
but
WOULD GROW WORSE.
He denied the cry that labor unions
were opposed to apprentices, and said
the contrary is true. 1t was the bosses
who did not want :he apprentice, or at
most did not want him over six months,
instead Of the three, or five, or seven
wears an apprentice used 10 serve when
trades were really learned. Upon the
introduction of the so-called labor
saving machinery" he said II was mis-
named. II ought to be called profit
making machinery" That was the
real name TO know 1t By.
Trades unioniSm contende1 for a more
EQUITABLE distribution Of wealth, but not
By simple division. That was not the
way. The real way was TO raise the
price Of labor. That would accelerate
the distribution of products, regulate
supply and demand, and, in short, cre-
ate that which the country needed
nome market. The alleged statesmen
at Washington, ne said, prated about
foreign market, but that was an Eng
nsh idea That country had followed
the foreign market idea to its natural
result-l}5 per cent. interest for cap
itsk low wages for workingmen, and a
wasted and ruined agriculture. Ameri-
can buyers would
CONSUME AMERICAN PRODUCTS
whenever there was proper ratio be-
tween the products OF labor and the re-
wards OF labor. This was shown by the
fact that when wages were high times
were prosperous; and when wages were