Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-10-13
FOE. AsoUr wAeEs zoe ElKlNs.

In thirty years under Republican rul
wages had increased from 60 to 500 pc
cent Indifferent NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The REsIsTER has explained how
ELKINs does this trick. 1t is the sam,
fim-6am game practiced by the Intelli
aencer until exposed In these columns
ELKINs is entirely dishonest in figuring
out his 500 pet cent. increase of wages,
AMI there isn't man, except among
the workingmen, themselves, who know!
this batter than ELKINs. Because i've
times as much money is paid out in
wages to ten or twenty times as many
men as thirty years ago, he calls that
an increase Of wages OF 500 pc cent, y
when it is decrease OF wages per man,
a decrease Of the rate of wages of so or
IS per cent, according 10 how many
men the sum Of wages had to be divided
among.
We need not tell labor that the rate
+! of wages, and that alone, is the guage
Of labor's prosperity or depression. A
thousand men at so cents day will
earn 100 per cent. more I'm the asgre-
gate than 125 men at 50 a day, but the
125 81 men were jus. 400 per cent. better
of for they made just four times
as high wages. ELKINs, however, fig
ures it out that the thousand so cent
men have received 100 per cent. in
crease OF wages over the 125 81 men,
because their total earnings foot up
twice as much, though their individual
earnings are bat One-fourth as large. II
is the most brazsn dishonesty for ELK
ms TO make use OF this trick TO make ii
appear that wages have increased under
thirty years of Republican tariff rob
berry when he had at his hand the fig
ures showing that the rate Of wages has
steadily and enormously decreased in
that time.
Take the iron and steel industry Of
Wheeling for example; In the past de-
cade the rate OF wages has decreased all
the way from 80 to IS per cent Pud-
dlers who used to get So so ton now
get So. so and less Nailers who used to
make sny2here from IS to $50 day
now are sc.Isfed with SO. Nan-feeders
who used TO get from SIS to $50 week
now get mostly boys wages. Heaters
and rollers and, in fact, every branch
of labor in the iron and steel industry
has suffered a steady decrease Of the
rate Of wages in like proportion in the
past decade. And no branch of
manufacturing has had higher or
better "protectiOa" than the iron and
steel business. Likewise, the wages Of
glassworkers have steadily declined
under high protection, though the de-
cline has not been so great as In the iron
trade, because the glsssworkors have
had good organization and have been
lucky in compromising their strikes.
So 1t is throughout every branch of
protected" industry; the rate OF wages
has steadily and remorselessy declined
under the high tariff, and especially
under the Mckinley law, the highest
protective tariff in the world.
Inc lew v0Iy 1915 Instances OF in
,reasss in the rate Of wages are all
found in the non-"protected" trades,
such as carpentering, brIcklsying, ETC.
That is a point Republican orators never
touch upon, because they can't explain
il. and il knocks the props away from
their whole argument, But they never
touch upon the rate of wages in any In
dustry, particularly in those branches
where labor is Observation-Disclosures
save the mark!-because in all these
it has been steadily down
hill with labor's wages.
When ELKINs knows this perfectly
well, what is II but simple dishonesty
for him to attempt TO show the contrary
bv the. fllmsy trick OF Juggling with
wages in the aggregate?
WHEN Mr.. ELKINs says the REGISTER