Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-02-16
coMpENsAT1NG WAGES.
Workingmen on the Verge Of STAR
walton In Many Lines Of
Industry.

Industry.
Several democratic congressman have |
taken Congressman Hepburn, OF Iowa,
to task for his reckless and unfoundsd
assertions on November 10. that:
! There is labor in every part Of the
country for every man who wants .
place to work, and there is compcn-
sating wage for every man who Will
perform days work"
But no other congressman has made
Mr.. Hepburn and his statements ap-
pear quite so ridiculous-to use mild
terms-as did Congressman Baker, OF
Brooklyn in his maiden speech in con-
sress. The following is a part Of the
column report of Mr.. Bakers speech as
1t appeared in the New York Times OF
December IL:
rs there any man, even upon the re-
publican side, ;" he asked, who, as We
See growing up gigantic fortunes al
most beyond calculation, and IL our
great cities hundreds of thousands OF
individuals who scarcely know where
their breakfast is comjrg from in the
morning, will pretepd that these hum
dreds of thousands of individuals who
have none of the wealth Of the world
have received compromising wages for
their toll?
"'Conses isating wages we are told.
exist for every man who desires to work,
and yet the evidence was brought out
tbeirore the coal strike commission that
under the system Of slavery that OK
listed in the anthracite coal regions of
Pennsylvania persons have worked for
IA years and never received one solitary
penny for wages.
Cardinal Gibbons says of the per-
sons employed in the clothing indus
try in Baltimore: They are living on
starvation wages. The result is that in
a few years they become incapacitated
for work When they become inca
FACILITATED for work where are they go
| ing to receive the compromising wages
that are to support them?
This condition is not unique. Right
in my own city OF New York, for near
ly two years, men have come to my door
almost every day to ask me for what lit
\ tie influence have to get them q job
j in the city parks. That pays two dollars
q day, but a foreman in that department
tells me that on an average the mel
only work four days a week.
N These men are begging for an op
portunity to earn eight dollars weel
in the great city of New York, wher'
rents are SO high, where prices hav'
! been increased in this period Of pros
: perity, where trusts have been able t.
squeeze labor down and raise price
vi up.
q THE cost of living has gone up 81 pc
s cent. during this period OF so-calle
: prosperous times, and at the bes
wages have not gone up more than TEL
8 per cent A compromising wage. Is
a compromising wage that gives to tn
. toiler one-fourth of the increase an
Q makes him pay the whole increase
K cost of his commodities?
q I'm the great state of Iowa (Hep
burns state). where we are told ever
man has his bank account" he contin
ued, "the farm laborers do not receiv
psl1 {. s..s VISA q .tRa 4ilsagss1 that
come to congress.
"A gentleman who at the time OF tn
great labor trouble at Homestead wa
very careful to remain secluded at Ski
: BIO castle; who was very careful not t
: respond to cablegrams sent him askin
{ him to use his influence to see that th
!. struggle should DO snded-Andrew Cal
= negie--has great deal to say about th
'bsnefcent system instituted by tt
United States Steel corporation, whic
IL called their bonus" for their en-
= ployes.
!, Says Andrew Carnegie: In IL
:. bonus granted to employees we hay
). proof Of regard for them which cam,
I, but tell, and the distribution of shar,
= in the concern has an advantage whie
= 30 far even no partnership has el
" joyed.'
"a Eyes; never before in any large wa
n on any large scale has an Industrial CO
Il poration been able to foist upon 4
l. workmsn stock 1t s21a which sells t,
II day in New York at 52Nt."