The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-06-09
WHEELING'S REPUTATION
Suffering in Trade and Financial
Circles by Reports In Connection
4 With the Strike = Some Results

Suffering in Trade and Financial
Circles by Reports In Connection
With the Strike Some Results
Noted by u Correspondent.
To the Editor OF the Intelligencer.
1 S1R:-I received in to-day's mail
letter from an old and valued customer
enclosing the following extract from a
trade paper:
THE Wheeling street car employees
strike, which has seriously affected local
interests. Is now In Its eighth week. and Is
ness and reckless disregard for lie. lib.
erty and law. rs former strikes In the
Ohio valley. The boycott has been applied
70 merchants who simply expressed their
disapproval OF the strike and OF strikers
methods: some others have been bounded
and harassed to such an extent as to vIr-
tually drive them out OF the city, while
still others have been picked up and bod
ny thrown Into the river for airing Views
distasteful to the strikers. Wheeling is n
tween organized labor and anarchy Is
mighty hard TO distinguish. As Z result OF
tho sympathy OF the citizens Of both sexes
with the strikers. embodyins politicians.
preachers, policemen, city officials and
safoonkeepers. the strike fever has spread
TO North Wheeling. to Bridgeport. Mar
tins Ferry and Bellaire. and has affected
tableware, bottle works, tin works. etc.
ana has wrought UP such bitterness as has
led employers to seriously contemplate re-
moval Of their plants. When repetition
OF the coniiagration which Il few years
ago put QuietEs on the Buckeye Glass
Company's plant at Martins Ferry. marks
the elimination OF the street car employees
strike. then. perhaps. the now over-awed
possessing class OF citizens will arouse
themselves sufficiently to end the present
reign OF terror and wave OF lnwlcssness
which comes over the Ohio valley three
or four times during decade like an
Egyptian plague. BY an invocation and
flrm-handed administration OF those laws
that make for peace. and protect life and
property"
The customer says: "a fine reputa-
tfon your city is getting; this sort of
advertising will help to bring you more
industries Do you wear the badge.
III walk or have you manhood enough
to walk"
While the article sent me Is not all
true, yet there Is enough truth In It to
hurt, and. true or not. Wheeling Is get
ting the advertising, and II my friend
had known that the Laughlin tin mill.
one of the best equipped and finest
plants owned by the American Tin-plate
COMPANY. had closed down indefinitely
with IN active demand ut high prices.
rather than submit to the dlctation of
employees, or to who should or should
not be employed. and that the North
Wheeling Glass Company had removed
its plant for similar reasons. he might
have INDUCED In other sarcastic allus-
ions to the fine reputation we are max.
ing for this city us a manufacturing
centre.
How long Will the people of Wheeling
pursue their short-sightedRess policy OF
cowardly cringing to organized tyran-
ny? There have been several meet
ings In support of the strikers, but Il
seems that while n large majority of
the people know that the strike ought
not to be supported. they are afraid TO
get together and express their views:
are afraid to ride on the cars: afraid
to insist upon an enforcement of law
and worse than all this, merchants are
afraid to own stock in MANUFACTURING.
companies and IRE selling their hold
tngS for fear there may come n strike
which would result In boycottIng their
private business.
With our own people terrorized and
foreign capital denounced, what hone
is there for Wheeling as q manufacture
Ing town, and what will become OF our
merchants when the factories are driv-
en- away by the fanntical leaders who
control our Sunday LeSislature?" l
am not usually afraid to sign my name,
but us further evidence of the reign of
terror existing in this community, l
subscribe myself,
MANUFACTURERS.
Wheeling. June s, 1899.