Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-17

workingmen who will be called upon
in November to choose between a party
which has encouraged and fostered
trusts, and a party which Is pledged in
its platform to enact legislation to pro-
tect the public against the machina-
tons of corporate wealth:
To the Editor of the Register.
Sir:-A great, big pompous mill man
who l am informed on good authority
has not received the wages his scale
calls for for years was holding forth
last. evening in public to a crowd OF his
fellow workmen who stand in awe OF
him owing to the influence he has with
LIE boss for evil. He was showing
them the beauty of trusts and what a
benefit they were to any laborfng man.
To man of his caliber they are. no
doubt, and he must do his boss bidding
now as he did in SO, when he voted the
Republican ticket to please. him, as this
big mill man is Democrat and was all
his life. But the job he holds in his
estimation comes before principle or
manhood, and good men shun him as
they should
Hc uoL llAI AApIOyo IlIAll COllelO1o
twenty mills. In the same line of
business there are four Independent
mills. This trust is dismantling some
of these mills and moving them away
to other localities. If the worhmen
who operated those mills want to work
they and their families must leave their
homes and follow those mills wherever
the trust chooses to place them. Many
OF these men have their own homes and
are good and respected citizens, and
were born and raised there. Yet no
matter how much they may dislike to
leave their homes and friends, if they
want to work at their trade they must
go where the trusts send them. When
they apply for positions their applica-
ton goes to headquarters. They can't
work where they want to, as formerly,
but must go where they are sent.
If they should have any difficulty at
any one OF the trusts mills they are
virtually at the mercy OF the trust, as
all can't get work at the Independent
mills. If they fail to get work at an
independent mill they must quit the
business or leave the country for work
at their trade.
And, Mr.. Editor, the tin and steel
workers of this valley know of dozens
of men who are to-day tramps from
this very cause, and the trusts are
scarcely two years old. When we dealt
with our home manufacturers indi-
vidually or collectively, we dealt with
u.s. We were brought up in
their mills. They were men
who had mercy, and as a rule
dealt fairly with u.s. They at times
fought us, and we fought them, but in
the end we were good friends. They
were equally as anxious as we were to
see this valley and city grow and pros
per. But now! Oh, what changel
We are to blame as much as they
are. We went to Canton in droves in
July, go, ito boost party of men into
power to put yokes on our necks,
which all workingmen are now begin
ming to feel. They gave us prosperity
in the shape of 5, 10 and Is per cent.
advances in wages to shut our mouths,
while the trust boosted the prices OF
everything they got into their grasp
to the tune of from so to 200 per cent.
The advances we got would not begin
to cover the advanced prices we were
compelled to pay for the necessities OF
life.
After the iron and steel trusts had
got prices to point that was simply
prohibitive. Mr. Wire Trust Gates got
into Wall street, cut the bottom out CT
the market to the tune of $40 per ton,
land cleaned up $5,000,000 on the deal.
gave the bar of the State of New York
the laugh, and went to Europe to
spend it,. The entire market immedl-
ately went to pieces, the mills shut
down, and some are not started yet.
Wages have come down, and the work.
men are now reaping the benefits OF
the prosperity promised them by the
Republicans.
These trusts furnished the money to
elect the President and put the Repub-
lican party into power. 1t was simply
paying them for protection to rob the
nation, just as the gambling element
sometimes pays for police protection
for the purpose of robbing the commun-
ity. 1t is one and the same thing. My
big friend don't read, or he would know
this.
The Republican papers are publish
ing day after day articles on the iron
markets, claiming the bottom has been
reached and business is reviving and
everything will be in full swing in a
week or two again; and yet, in the face
of this, steel billets are quoted to-day
at the lowest prices since the boom
started, namely, ST. per ton. If bust
ness is reviving, why are the mills of
this country not starting? 1t is as
plain as day to any one that the trusts
by their unlawful manipulations have
squeezed the life out Of everything by
their unholy desire to get everything
they could while they had chance,
and no mill man need expect any better
times this winter, as it is now too late
in the year for any new Guiding oper-
ations to begin. l want to say that all
the trusts are antagonistic to organized
labor, and if Mckinley is elected this
fall it will be a virtual endorsement of
the trusts by the workingmen. There
is no other way to look at it. You may
look on all sides and see a trust fight
ing organized labor. Take their testi-
mony before the United States Indus
trial Commission at Washington AL
most all the trusts declined to recognize
any organization of their workmen.
The iron trust will not employ any; the
fin sheet ho0p and steel trusts refused