Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-08-25
A WORD TO THE ORGAN.

Our. qucrulous contemporary, Peck
sniff, OF Fourteenth street, devotes a
very lengthy editorial exclusively to
Quarreling with the Register for calling
attention to the phenomenal activity
and quite unprecedented situation in
the iron trade at present and the in
ability of manufacturers to get suffi-
Gent pig iron to fill contracts. One
would think that, living in a commun-
ity which is especially interested in this
industry, the Intelligencer would join
the Register in exploiting the phenom-
email boom. But our truthful and
sweet tempered contemporary doesn't
take this view of it, as witness the fol-
lowing sample paragraph of his bilious
comment:
In view of the Registers frequent refer
ences to bogus prosperity ana its sheer
ing illusions to what it calls mo prosperity
at all; that the only prosperity was ON
s4Wall street" etc, we are pleased to note
that our contemporary has given evidence,
editorially, of a discovery that prosperity
is rampant in some of our own local indus
tries, and classes OF industries that are
wealth producers in various parts of the
country. Some of these industries are pro-
tected industries, and are controlled by
trusts and combinations.
Mind it is not the Democratic Reg
lister, but the Mckinley Hanna trust
organ of Fourteenth street, that calls
attention to the fact that the trusts are
the chief benefciaries of this tremen-
;pc
tub has been thrown to the labor
whale and wages of the trusts work
men have been advanced, but the adj
vance in no instance is at all common
surate with the tremendous advance in
iron ana the unprecedented profits the
trusts are making out of it, while the
community in general is simply con-
fronted by very much higher priced
iron as their share of this situation.
1t is due to the scarcity of pig iron.
Ii, as one trade paper we have
quoted says, there was sufficient supply
of this raw material, the situation
might be very different AS it is, the
over-taxed trade is hoping that higher
prices may check the demand, which
1t cannot meet on account of the scar
city of pig iron.
But the organist of Fourteenth
street, who cannot or does not want to
see anything but politics in any situa-
ton, prefers not to look at the matter
from this rational and business stand
point. He goes on drearily thus:
Under the heading of 1.-The Great Boom
in Iron," our neighbor has a lengthy edi-
torial, the opening sentence of which is:
The present tremendous boom in iron has
grown to such magnitude that the coun-
try's resources in ore are greatly over
taxed, and the outlook is probematical,"
and then proceeds to quote from the Iron
Age, the New York Journal of Commerce
and other authorities that. whenever the
InteIllgencer quotes them. the Register
charges them to be ''organs of the trusts.
How like Pecksniff! OF course, the
Register nsed not say that it has never
made any such charge against any OF
the excellent and reliable trade jour-
mails mentioned
One of the chief troubles with our
neighbor is that it did not print the
news about the iron situation and the
Register did, as it always does.
Yesterday, in leading editorial, our
neighbor boasted of its entrance upon
its forty-eighth year. Surely, then, 1t
is old enough to know better.
1t is doubtful, however, if Pecksniff