Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-10-23
STILL STICKING TO IT.

The I7ltelligencerS doctrine OF "a liz
well stuck to is as good as the truth" IL
being put to severe tests these days,
and is leading our neighbor into the
most ridiculous attitudes before inteili'
gent Workingmen.
The REGISTER thoroughly demon
strated that under Republican pro.
lection the wages OF all kinds OF
MISUNDERSTANDING that best protect
ed industry as a sample-fell stead
ily from the inception of the
high tariff era to the day the Mckinley
iniouity was wiped of the Statute books.
We took for example the wages OF pud
dle1s which have fallen in that time by
steady degrees from over 50 ton to the
present rate of So 80, which is fair
average Of the gradual reduction for all
iron workers, though nailers have been
reduced from $50 to SO and feeders from
$50 4 week to nominal boys wages.
At first the would-be tricky but crude
and laundering IrlteIltgeneer stated that
puddlers' wages had never been over
SIS. so. This ialsehood having been
nailed fat the InteLHgencer next tried
to squirm out of it by saying lamely
that it meant that the "bssic rate" Of
the sliding scale had not been lowered
from S.. so under Republican protection
and that the 50 wages the puddlers used
to get was the result of sudden rise in
the price OF iron and that IL occurred on
the SIS. so base rate, an astounding state
ment, which will make iron men laugh.
The REGISTER nailed this Lie No. ?,
demonstrating that rise to
over so on a $3.50 sliding scale rate
would necsssitats q sudden increase OF
about 100 per cent, in the price of iron,
which has never been in our history,
and showing that it has been the base
rate Of the sliding scale itself that has
come down by easy stages under the
beneacent effects OF Republican pro
lection to American labor" from over 50
to the present 81 rate in union mills and
$3.50 in the non-union mills here
abouts. What has been the answer OF
the Intelligcncer to this? Simply the
repetition of Lie No. 2, the invention OF
still another lie evidently being beyond
even the capacity Of our neighbours
hsrd-worked ANANIAs. 1t merely says;
The REGISTER is mistaken when it says
SO was ever the basic rate. Wages
reached that. figure and even higher under
the operations of the sliding scale, when
the iron market took a squirt, but they
quickly dropped back to the established
basis of $3.50. The point is that wages
were not lowered below the basis OF s.. in
Republican times, but they did occasion
ally 90 above the basis.
This, as we have stated, will cause
hilarity among irOn-workers who read
it and who understand the working Of
the sliding scale, and remember its
numerous changes, which the Intel
Iigencer evidently knowns nothing
about beyond observations on the sub
ject it has probably heard and gotten
tangled into a mass of nonsense which
it repeats parrot like.
Not only has Republican protection
to American labor" steadily reduced the
Wares OF frup.woiAers but - glass;
workers as well, though the or
OF the latter has prevented
tina cut from being 80 heavy. And not
only these have oeen reduced, but pot
tsrv.workers also have suffered heavily
tho reduction in that industry in the
,mopnt which can be made having
bsep fully so per cent. This re-
duction i'm pottery wages has
been due particularly to changes In
forms and methods by which potter
who before was able to make s. or 80 a
dsv can now at the outside only make
50. 50 and So,
The InteItigcncer stnboornly putting
its head against the stone wall OF wage
statistIcs and the facts of reduced wages
upder Republican protection" with
which every middle-aged working man
is familiar, presents a particularly
ludlcrous sight.