Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-02-02
A SPECIMEN CASE

Pittsburg Post
The pottery owners in New Jersey
and Ohio propose 10 per cent. cut In
wages and 20 per cent. to be retained
from wages permanently II the WILSON
schedule becomes q law. The working
men very properly have refused TO
accept such oppressive terms, and there
is prospect of the lockout OF gooo
many thousand men, but not for long.
II the Wilson bill passes, for
eign competition will very soon
force the pottery combine to abandon
its arbitrary demands or lose its trade.
The ''cut" is merely conspiracy to ad-
vance their own profits at the expense
of their workingmen. as there is MOTH
ing In the rates Of the Wilson bill to
Justify such "cut" in wages, or for the
matter of that any cut whatever. The
Labor Tribune, OF Pittsburg, should be
good authority on this point, and in its
issue for the current week it says;
1.-THE fact is plain that there is moth
lug in the Wilson bill to warrant the re-
duction Of potters' wages. Assuming
thatthe Mckinley duties were what the
business wanted, there is no occasion
for the wailing, weeping and gnashing
OF teeth because OF the reduction made
by the Wilson duties. In the Mckinley
tariff the average rate OF duty on earth
enware is 81 per cent. Under the Will
son bill the average rata is estimated al
| As per cent But what makes the aver
age so high In the Mckinley tariff is the
| fact that upward OF seven-tenths OF the
1 Of
sists OF fine porcelain and Parian
articles. gilded, enameled and deco
rated In various ways, and paying duty
OF go per cent. On brown esrthenware
and common stonewsre the duty in the
J Mckinley tariff is % per cent, and this
I duty is 20 per cent in the wilson
schedule. The issue resolves itself into
/ this: The pottery owners, on the excuse
/ Of q 5 per cent. proposed reduction, de-
mand 10 per cent off wages outright,
| and 90 per cent. IL the 5 per cent. cut
/ of duties shall be made. They are a
/ sample Of some others who are slashing
/ wages on the same sort Of false pre-
/ tenser However, there will be day OF
retribution."
The pottery owners are about the
I most exacting Of all the protected man
| ufacturers in their extorti0n or the
| public and oppression of labor. As the
| Labor Tribune says, the pottery work
/ men "have been tramped on for years,
until their wages were about as low as
/ one would have thought should satisfy
even so hard employers as TIE pottery
owners" When the Mckinley bill was
pending In Congress the manufsc-
turers OF sanitary pottery obtained
an advance of 20 per cent in
duties on the ground it was to go to
their workmen. Did it take that drec-
ton? Inless than 90 days after they
| obtained the advance the pottery COM
bine reduced the wages OF their men by
% per cent, thus causing memorable
strike. And when these same potters
formed their trust, few months later,
they admitted in their published
prospectus that their profits in
the last three years of the old tariff
had been 22]4 per cent. upon their
capital stock, while for the year
when they reduced wages on the plea
their earnings were small the profits
were by their own admission 80 per
cent. A suit is now pending in New
Jersey TO break the trust. After its
formation, aud after the tariff had been
advanced on their wares, the price OF
sanitary pottery was advanced TO job
bers bv GO per cent, while the advance
to retailers was 100 per cent. And at
this very time the soulless and grasping
combine locked out their workmen be-
cause they would not submit TO cut in
wages Of % per cent.
This was in one branch OF the pottery
trade, bat it is characteristic of the way
the whole trade treats its workmen and
iuggles for prohibitory duties to extort
enormous profits on the watered stock
OF the pottery combine. And it is
equally true, as the Labor Tribune OBJ
serves, that the action OF the potters
in their reduction OF wages on the pre-
tense Of the reduced duties Of the
Wilson bill is. ga sample Of some others
who are slashing wages on the same
sort OF false pretense."