The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-06-07
HE Rise IN WAGES
a Direct Consequence of Repuhiicsa
Victories.


Victories.
The advance in wages is blessing.
It is also the direct consequence Of the
overthrow of the party which proposed
direct competition with the ill-paid
labor of other countries. and there
fore lower wages for Americans, so
that every advance in wages is a de-
feat of democratic principles 1t Is E
direct consequence of the restoration
of the lawmaking power TO the party
which has for more than thirty years
sought to maintain good wages for
American workers through the restric-
ton of foreign competition, so that
every advance in wages is victory Of
republican principles 1t was because
of republican victories in 1898 that the
tariff proposed by democrats was
emasculated- If any such tariff as the
democratic party demanded had been
passed, there must have been further
decline instead of any advance in
wages. But these are not reasons for
exaggerating any advance that ap-
pears
1t is a favorite fiction of some jour
nails that every rise In wages, whether
in works whose products bear protec-
tive duties or not, is a tribute to the
excellence of the existing tariff-s
tariff acknowledged to be packed
with duties that are practically iniquit-
Gus favors sold to various monopolies
in return for the votes of senators con-
trolled by those monopolies-" 1t ap-
pears enough to answer that an adj
vance in wages which did not come
until six months after this bill of sale
had been passed, and not until the
democratic congress had vanished TO
be followed by republican congress,
is not the fruit of democratic policy.
but of its complete overthrow. Still,
genuine Joy on account of the improve
ment is not a reason for padding the
returns, so to speak; for putting into
the list all the separate establishments
about Pittsburgh and in the Mahoning
valley, of which separate mention can
be found, and then following with
other general statements, as Item
thousand workers about Pittsburgh
and seven thousand men" in western
Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
Really, the reports do not need that
sort of initiation. They are highly graf
flying without it, and while the state
ments given in dispatches do not
actually cover a tenth part Of the five
million manufacturing workers, nor a
sixth part of the six hundred thousand
hands in iron production and fashion
ing, nor a fifth of the five hundred
thousand hands in textile works, yet
the intelligent and candid will readily
infer that the movement shown in
news columns is in the nature of
things likely to extend over other
manufacturing establishments, unless
arrested by untoward events. Just as
no specific statement was ever made
about more than a tenth of the estab-
ishments which reduced wages from
twenty to thirty per cent. in 1898 and
1894, so the partial or complete restor-
alton at many establishments will
never be chronicled. Readers who
know the conditions understand that,
when the prominent works in any in
dustry grant an advance, the demand
for 8 similar advance IN other works
in the same region and business soon
becomes irresistible.
What, then, is this gratifying change
so far? In the great majority of cases
il is the restoration of the wages cut
off at the second reduction, where there
were two, or the restoration of about
half the wages cut off where there has
been only one reduction. There are
numerous, though not relatively nu-
merous, exceptions, in which the en-
tire reduction has been balanced by
the advance. The same conditions
cannot govern all manufacturing, nor
all the works in the same branch of
any manufacture, and the works which
are least exposed to foreign competi-
ton, as respects their chief products,
are those at which the recovery of
wages has been relatively greatest. At
the large majority of work, as already
stated, the advance thus far Is about
equal to the last reduction in 1894
But of this it is not always possible to
speak with certainty, because no avail
able records, even in the most careful
trade journals, show just what reduc-
tions were made in 1894 at different
works. So far, moreover, the upward
movement appears to be sustained to
gratifying extent by an improvement
in the demand for American manu-
featured products II this continues
and enlarges, the recovery in wages
may be lasting and may be expected 70
make still further progress.-N Y.
Tribune.