Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-11-03
a few dollars to aid you in your distress,

lew uOildES U diu gOu III JOoA N'SeAS So
[ApplauseI,
They say that 1 want TO go to Con-
gress to tear down your industries and
TO reduce your wages. That IS most
astounding proposition. tear down
your wages! What advantage would
that be to me? If go to Congress for
two years. go at a reduction from
my present salary-at a loss. Does
the inspiring cry OF my coun-
trymen or the name OF be-
ing a Congressman spur me on? No!
So help me God, my friends, my great
hope is to try TO do something to en-
able you all to say, when you turn out
with your badges TO my funeral, that
the world was left some better for John
Towards having lived in it. APP
plause. Call that the cry OF the par
tiSan- politician If you will. Call that
the cry of the demagogue II you will.
Is the demagogue the man who has de-
voted all his life and his energies TO
lettering the lot of his fellow-men, or
the man who says protection Increases
your wages?
Mr.. Howard then went into the tariff
question in detail, showing very con-
elusively that the tariff had absolutely
nothing to do with the rate of wages in
any Industry, but that they depended
upon the memorable law of supply and
demand, against which legislation was
powerless, and touched up the Republi-
can party very effectively in narrating
how they encouraged contract labor,
protecting the American manufacturer
against foreign manufactures while al
lowing labor to come in freely Tor the
benefit OF the manufacturer. He then
said:-
Now, my friends, I deduce from all
this the following proposition: 1t is
not the tariff which regulates wages.
The tariff is not in any manner repre-
sented in your wages. Why? Because
you have no means Of compelling the
employer to divide his profits; but, on
the contrary, your efforts TO make hin
divide through your organizations are
nulufed by Republican legislation. IL
is the law of supply and demand which
regulates wages-the most inexoraole
law which the world has ever known.
1t regulates wages-always has, ana
always will.
Now, let US examine this law OF sup
ply and demand, and see II IL is not
what regulates wages. II several men
are seeking for employment, and there
IS a situation to be filled, then the em-
ployer does not bother himself about the
matter, and offers you low rate OF
wages. But If several employers are
looking for men, and men are scarce,
then they are concerned, and offer you
a higher rate. Suppose you hear OF
vacancy 10 one OF the mills. You
have TO get up very early to see
about it. in order that you may get
ahead of the other fellows, and when
you get the job, it is at low rate. But
If the situation is reversed, and the en-
ployer has to hunt up the men, the
wages are much higher. This is so
with everything-so with everything
you buy, or sell, or deal in. IL is that
law which controls everything. Now,
if Captain DoVener wants TO do some
thing for his fellow men, let him try
this plan: Let him tell you how be
would control this law Of supply and
demand. as applied to the employment
Of labor.
Is it not cruel, and a shame on our
higher civilization, that you buy men
when you buy their labor, just as you
horse or a mule, or any other dumb
brute2 Whss are we? we are not
brutes, but / n, intelligent, reasoning,
cast in the image of God himself-made
but a little lower than the angels. We
can perform wonders; we have perfect
ed great inventions; we can craw down
the lightning from the clouds TO furnish
us with light aud with heat and with
th means of transportation. We bring
in the powers of nature to aid
US i'm all these things. Yet
mans body, his mind-nay, his soul
itself, almost, is bought in obedience to
that ihexorable law. Let the advanced
statesman who talks to you about in
creasing wages give you something in
place Of that law. Appause.
Mr.. Howard then went back to the
period Immediately following the war,
when labor in this country was scarce
because OF the many lives sacrificed in
that struggle, upon both sides, and
demonstrated that il was because OF
this scarcity Of labor that wages were
high, and that the Republican policy
of protection had nothing whatever TO
do with it, He said:-
The demand was then good, and the
supply limited and under that condi-
tion the Republicans passed the con-
tract labor law. for the benefit OF manu-
facturers, so as TO reduce wages, and ii
did it. No man can refute that asser-
ton, and I will agree to establish 1t
L. a., ic Cnnatinnn1
withdraw from the Democratic ticket
before next Tuesday night. Applausel.
You had protection for thirty years,
BOYS. l had it with you. We all had
il. and we know what it is and we know
IL never increased our wages. We
now have a new law. 1t has been in
operation for two months, and l don't
care what your politics is-whether 1t
is Democratic or Republican, think
YOU will agree with me that 1t Is the
better part of wisdom to give that law
al least two years trial. You know
that YOU can't change II within two
years, You know that Democratic
President will be in the White House
for two years more. and that you will
probably have q Democratic majority In
the Senate, and that the law can't be
changed for two years. Let US have
the next two years without any agita-
ton Of the tariff and see what the re-
suit will be.
He referred to the recent inventions
OF labor-saviug machinery, notably In
the glass manufacturing business, By
such men as Joe Blackburn and Mike
Owens, and said that such men ought
to be regarded, in reality, as benefac-
tors Of the human race, vet for ages the
inventor of labor-saviDg machinery had