West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1896-11-05
This WIN BE an Inevitnb,e Se-
suit III Mckinley Should BE
Elected President.
THE REASONS FOR 1T.
Whether Wages Go Up or Down De.
pends Entirely on the Re-
suit Of the Election.
n the Gold Standard Is TO Bccono Per
manent Wages WIN Decline Along
with Everything Else-The Proats
of Business Already Gone--
bryans Success wan
Avert This
Crisis.

Chicago. Oct. 81. 1885, Especially
The most sweeping and distastrous re.
duction of wages in the history OF
American industry will follow the
presidential election, II the gold stand
ard Is finally foisted upon the nation.
Wnge-earners are warned In advance,
and IL they fail TO heed and govern
themselves accordingly IL is their own
fault
If Mr.. Mckinley is elected there will
he reduction in wages in all the great
factories and mills of the country.
Were II not for the certainty that
general reduction in wages would bury
Mr.. Mckinley under an avalanche OF
votes, wages would have been reduced
two months ago. BY almost superhu-
man energy Mark Hanna and the re.
publican managers have nverted the
reduction except in few unimportant
instances. The great trusts, with their
billions OF money and their millions
of employees. have been federated into
a campaign machine, and have acted
in concert. They have done so at an
enormous sacrifice in profits. Many
great corporations have been running
at an actual loss. and the banks have
been called on for support, until the
strain threatened panic.
But IL was life or death. To shut
down was fatal admission. To reduce
wages was suicidal. The weak ones
were encouraged financially and they
are now entering on what they pro-
pose shall be the last month Of the
present wage scale.
II Mr.. Mckinley is elected the po-
litical orators of the next decade will
grow eloquent in description of the
good times of 1896" They will de.
scribe how in the fall Of 1893 the great
factories were running on full time;
how every man who desired work could
find it; how the tramp became a rar-
ity and the smoke from a thousand
factory shafts blackened the sky and
the hum of industry made glad music
in the land.
There Is not weil-posted man in
Chicago, New York. Philadelphia, Pitts
burgh or any other manufacturing CEN
ter who does not know that there will
be general reduction in wages put
into effect the day after Mckinley is
elected.
This is so self-evident that it re-
quires no written or verbal proof. BY
every act, by every move, by the coll
umns of the great daily newspapers,
they have proclaimed the coming re-
duction in wages in terms so plain that
every man with common intelligence
can read between the lines.
The United States has been ON an abb
solute gold basis since the repeal OF
the Sherman act, which repeal was in
1898. Since that time there has been
a steady and relentless reduction in
prices, and consequently in profits.
Wages have been reduced somewhat,
but in no proportion as compared with
the decline in selling price in all
forms of property, with the single ex-
ception OF gold Real estate has de-
clined. rents have fallen, manufactured
goods have decreased In selling price;
thousands of articles of manufacture
and Of common use have dropped slow
~ but surely in the price scale. Look at
your stock reports. Compare the listed
value Of railroad stocks with the quo
tations Of a year ago. Pick up your
paper and compare the quotations on
the great industrial stocks with the
figures OF year or two ago. They tell
the same story; the story Of steady
decline in values, with decreased earn
irgs for capital.
Capital and not labor has been the
sufferer from the condition Of affairs
BY labor is meant employed labor. by
capital IS meant money employed I'm
business Of manufactories. Capital hes
itates long before making a wage reduc-
tion. Capital respects the great labor
organizations which stand like n rock
in defense Of prevailing wages Capital
knows the cost Of q great strike and
carefully considers the consequences
before precipitating a wage war. As
result organized labor Is the last to
safer from steodily-fallinR prices, and
the wages Of unorgahized labor are
fixed by the relative prosperity Of the
trade unions.
Can anyone deny these statements
and prove their falsity9 Are they not
self-evident2 There IS no theory about
it. These arc the things that have hap
pened. To reoapitulate: Capital en-
ployed in business and manufacture
bas suffered and suffered enormously;
business men and manufacturers have
held out, hoping against hope for a ris-
ing market; some Of them have failed.
those yet in business can maintain the
prevailing wage scale no longer. and
are compelled by the inexorable law
of supply and demand TO reduce wages
80 q point where profits are possible