Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-01
VOTES OF LABORERS
The Result of Campaign Now on Will Be Decided By
 Them.

will largely be determined by the
 votes of the laboring men. In for
 mer campaigns, after deducting those who voted the socialist ticket, what is known as the labor vote has
 been about equally divided between
 the two parties. In the states
 where the highly tariff protected in dustries are ensconced, such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio, the workmen employed in the
 iron and steel and glass and textile and pottery industries have mostly voted the republican ticket. These
 workmen have been led to believe that their employment depended
 upon the republican policy of tariff protection and only through that
 policy, as the republican national platform declares, can be maintain ed "the high standard of living of the wage earners of this country, who are the most direct beneficiar- ies of the protective system. This year, however, it seems probable that the workingmen of even the highly protected industries are de- manding something more than tariff protection and Government by h. junction is the paramount issue with them.
 The highly protected steel trust managers evidently feel that some thing must be done to hold the la bor vote for the republican party and H. c. Prick, who broke the homestead strike in 1892, and who is now one of the managers of the steel trust has set about to do it.. The plan is laid down in a dispatch dated July 20, from Pittsburg to the New York Sun. It informs the public that:
 "The H. c. Prick Coke company to-day placed orders with many em- ployment agencies In Pittsburg for men to work at the coke ovens in the Connelsville field. One stipula- tion is that all must be Americans, or at least must have been residents of the United States for a cer' ain number of years,
 "One Pittsburg employer yester- day let the contract for 100 houses for his miners, each house to have a bathroom.
 The dispatch you will observe says nothing about the wages to he paid, but undoubtedly the pay to- these Americans will be the same. as 1t was to the foreigners, hereto-1 fore employed, but the Americans are to have bathrooms If they can pay the. extra rent charged for that luxury. 14 '5s, ss
 The Bulletin of the bureau of la bor just published by the depart ment of commerce and labor, con- tains the latest official report on the wages paid to coke workers .n for 1906. As that was in the height of the late trust boom, wages were then at the highest point. So the Americans are not likely to be now paid higher wages. The report says:
 There were 12,330 coke work CTS, to whom were paid wages to an average yearly wage of s56260. That was equal to s46 month or s1.70 day of 26 working days In month. At the high cost of living, in conse- quence of the tariff protecting the trusts, an American workman would not revel in luxury on such wages, although bathrooms were thrown in free, though the steel trust, which controls the Prick Coke industry did make such enormous profits that it paid good dividends on hundreds of millions of watered stock. Still If 1t is true that over i2.000 coke workers. all Americans, are to be put to work at $1.70 per day, it is a greaa improvement if not actual prosperity for these men, who have been practically idle for the past six months.
 But somehow I feel it will be well to await further advices before be- lieving this good news. The bath room story casts doubt over my mind. It Is, too altruistic to be credited to the steel trust and Pitts burg.
 The story has the earmarks of the club which is working ov- ertime to prove that the late repub- lican deluge was merely a shower and that if we will all put faith in what the Sunshine club tells us and by taking a kind of republican faith cure the la.e panic and the still pres ant business depression will disap- pear and prosperity reappear.
 The fact Is the trust magnates and the railroad managers have all joined the Sunshine clubs in their centers and are literally towards the dissimina- ion of Sunshine news. They are sending 1t 10 all the newspapers not the labor papers. and the story Is evidently intend ] sd for the especial consumption of l he workingmen to show them the ] actual prosperity that awaits all sAmericans" if they vote the re- publican ticket and do not listen 1 o the wicked Gompers, who would | cad them on into the barren field l If democracy. The democratic managers. however. view the mat .er with considerable complacency. Tor it shows that the republicans | lave discovered 1t Is necessary to ook after the labor vote even in I iuch state as Pennsylvania with is republican majority. and 1 hey draw the conclusion that tl many other states the labor vote 1 sill be almost solid for the demo- .ratie ticket.
 There is. however. a doubt in the iemocraiic optimism. for 1t is fear d that many labor votes may 20 I liter the false Cod of Hesrstism and i hat such votes will count mos in ] he states where the democrats need I hem more especially.
 The -Amerfcan- workinTmau has