The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-07
A FREE-TRADE FRAUD EXPOSED.
Democratic misrepresentation Con-
corning Wages the Past Year.
New York Tribune.

Elsewhere in the Tribune will be found
an astonishing exposure OF frauds perpe-
trated by free trade clubs, ard copied
all over the country by Democratic journals,
in pretended lists Of manufacturing estab-
lishments which advanced wages during the
first year under the new tariff. These lists
will have to be retired for repairs, for, in
view of the exposure made, no journal
pretending to care for truth will either
copy or quote them. For instance, it is
shown that the list includes the Carnegie
company with 1000 hands May IA. and on
the same day each of nine distinct estab-
lishments owned by the Carnegie company
with 5000 hands in all. 1t includes all
wire nail works in Ohio with 5000 hands.
and also two Of them with 6,0O0 hands each
twice repeated, another with 1000 three
times, and two others with 500 each, making
22,500 hands out of 5000. 1t includes all
furnaces Of the Mahoning and Shenango
valleys as having 1000 hands, and then the
Mahoning furnaces alone as having O,0C0,
and the Mahoning furnaces again, and one
of these with 1,0Oo hands, and another of
them with 500 hands and again with 475,
and the Shenango furnaces separately
twice, and one of them with 500 hands. and
again part Of them, the Newcastle fur
iiaNCss ~ Il Tic llflO steel
Company with 1900 hands, and parts of its
works twice more, and its works at Joliet
three times. 1t includes all the Providence
arately once, and one of them three times.
Twenty-seyen iron concerns are so repeat
e co; oom mil fwi Sf f FaH fsRe three hre ali tim inclu Ied
once, and then at least three of them sep
a%rately: the Lowell factories all. and then
factories all, and two of them separately:
the great Lewiston mills with 1900 TO 5,00o
hands each are each repeated twice, not ten
days apart, besides about a dozen cotton
and silk mills inserted twice each.
These applications alone swell the list by
about 5000 hands, 1920 in iron manufac-
Many establishments are included which
are entirely unknown to the best trade
directories and some of them are repeated
ing the number of hands employed are
simply amazing. Thus the Mesaba range,
with its output Of about :, ooo; coo tons this
which by recent duplication is sweiled TO
2, 200 and this wou1dotfnake the ore cost
has sold at about $3.50 per ton at Cleve-
land. In fact. 500 tons per miner is the
average there and 5000 men would do
the work. TIL ~cloakmakers of Cincinnati
are reckoned at $4,000, though the whole
number employed in all clothing manufac-
ture there is but 1900. according to the
census. No less than AZ. 600 hands hired by
the sweating system are credited in four
cities, where there are half as many The
sheet iron works of Pittsburg, mostly in
cluded already in separate establishments,
are added in a body. as $1,000 men. and the
tin-plate workers there as 1900. either
statement being absurdly untrue. The anx-
iety TO initiate the list fraudulently is so
great thai hands on two steam railroads
and several street railroads are included
with dock laberers at Erie and city labor
ers at Joliet, and ~brickmakers on the Hud-
son river reckoned at 10000.
Eliminating fraudulent Implications and
exaggerations, It is found that the number
CT Establishments of which facts are given
Il reduced from over 400 to $50, of which
only 166 are found in the trade directories,
and the number of hands employed is re-
duced from over 10000 to 25S, 1915. including
coal and iron miners. sarment makers. rail-
road and street car hands, b~rickmakers
and the like. OF manufacturing establish
ments proper. the number of hands. remain
ing is about PIP, 900, but, in order to make
the investigation complete, facts about as
many as possible of the $50 concerns enumer-
ated, of which data were not given, have
been ascertained, thus adding 1895 to the
number of hands whose wage have been
advanced. These added. the actual increase
appears to cover 334,SD hands. divided as
to industries and as to time of advance as
follows: