Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1904-01-21
4 coMPENsATINc WAGE
Baker Answers Hepburn and
Flags the Trusts.
4 PROSPERITY wNDBAG PRIOKED
the Real Truth About the Condition
That There Is Work For ALA
compromising Wage" That Has
Fallen Behind Cost of Living.

Several Democratic congressman have
taken Congressman Hcphurn of Iowa
to task for his reckless and unfounded
assertions on Nov. 10 that
''There is labor in every part Of the
country for every man who wants Il
place to work. and there is Il conpen-
sating wage for evcS- man who will
perform days work
But no other congressman has made
Mr.. Hepburn and his statements APP
pear quite as ridiculous, to use mild
terms, as did Congressman Baker of
Brooklyn in his maiden speech in con-
gress. The following is a part of the
column report of Mr. Bakers speech
as it appeared in the New York Times
of Dec. 10:
us there any man. even upon the he
publican side.'' he asked, las we see
growing up gigantic fortunes almost
beyond calculation and in our great
cities hundreds of thousands of ill.,
their breakfast is coming from in the
morning. who will pretend that these
hundreds of thousands of individuals
who have none of the wealth of the
world have received compromising
wages for their toll?
'COmpenSating wages, we are told eX-
list for every man who desires to work,
and yet the evidence was brought out
before the coal strike commission that
under the system of slavery that en-
listed in the anthracite coal regions of
PENNSYLVANIA persons had worked for
fourteen years and never received one
solitary penny in wages.
Cardinal Gibbons says of the per-
sons employed in the clothing indus
try in Baltimore: They arc living on
starving wages. The result is that in
a few years they become incapacitated
for work. When they become incapac-
itated for work, where are they going
to receive the compromising wages that
are to support them?
"This condition is not unique. Right
in my own city of New York for nearly
two years men have come to my home
almost every day to ask me for what
little influence l have to get them a
job in the city parks. That pays So per
day, but foreman in that department
tells me that on an average the men
only work four days week.
''These men are begging for an OPP
portunity to earn IS Il week in the
great city of New York. where rents
are so high, where prices have been i'll
creased in this period of prosperity,
where trusts have been able TO squeeze
labor down and raise prices up.
1.-The cost of living has gone up 81 per
cent during this period Of so called
prosperity, and, at the best, wages have
not gone up more than 10 per cent. n
compromising wage. Is it Il compen-
sating wage that gives to the toiler one
fourth of the increase and makes him
pay the whole increased cost OF his
commodities:
I'm the great state of Iowa QIep-
burns state), where we are told every
man has his bank account he declar-
ed, the farm laborers do not receive
in wages as much rs the mileage that
is paid to the gentleman from Iowa to
congress.
a gentleman who at the time Of the
great labor trouble at Homestead WAS
very careful to remain secluded at
Skibo castle, who was very careful not
to respond to cablegrams sent him
asking him TO use his influence to see
that the struggle should be ended. An
drew Carnegie. has a great deal to say
about the 'beneticent system instituted
by the United States Steel corporation,
which is called their bonus for their
employees
Says Andrew Carnegie. In the bo-
nus granted to employees we have
proof OF regard for them which cannot
but tell and the distribution of shares
in the concern has an advantage which
so far even no partnership has enjoyed
eyes. Never before in any large way,
on any large scale, has an industrial
corporation been able to foist upon it's
worllmen stock at S2la which sells to-
day in New York at 523A''
The Hanna Plan of Redemption.
2 T..