Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1909-05-14

1905 was $l.5l per day, and in 1906 $l.53
In fourteen Wisconsin mills the aver
age wages for ali persons 1907 was Sl.iS
per day: and wages in 1907 We're lower
than they had been in any of the three
! years preceding. In Wisconsin many
boys are employed in the crews operat-
ing paper machines.
The Mann committee SAW many To-
/ ycar-old boys who were working thirteen
hours for six nights. At one mill. Com
hined Lockstpagc hob. the night force
worked fourteen hours. Two l5.year-
old-boys NJ one mill in Neenan. Wis.,,
were working AS members of the crew
on = paper machine ut the rate of s l-2
cents AMI l0cents an hour. respectively.
Workers in George y. Writings mill
AT that place received pay varying from
90 cents 10 Sl.l0 per day. Women who
were sorting rags Were paid $3.50 per
liens. Paper mill workers in the Fox
River valley We're paid II l-2 cents per
hour for siNty-tive hours per week.
Instead of giving TO labor the rewards
which protection WAS designed TO confer
the paper makers have treated their
labor worse than almost any other in
duStry has done. Beginning August |,
1905, Il protracted struggle was carried
on between the International Paper
company and its employees owe a ques-
ton OLA reduction of ) per cent III
waSeS-thG- contest cntailing = loss i'll
labor and other items exceeding 81, 900.
900, AL Of which was ultimately borne
by the newspaper publishers. under the
provision Of the tariff schedule. The
international Paper company admits
that by making that rui i'll wages it
saved 80 cents per tun in the cost of
making paper. Moreover, the bulletin
of labor for July, 1901. shows that Of
f0-ty-onc industries employing 33i, lO7
persons whu>e earnings were reported.
the paper industry WAS the only one
showing a reduction in wagaS, and that
WIS when the trust had advanced paper
price, u abJut the limit ana threatened
y still higher price.
The ccn>IIs report for 1893 shows that
G5,G9i persons in the paper trade re-
ceiyed an average of 1922 per week, or
81. - a day: and the New York state
quarter of 1891 the employees i'll the
paper trade averaged smaller earnings
than those in any other trade occupa-
ton.
These figures are most valuable be-
cauSc they are exact and from official
sources. They relate to Il trust which
had the special favor OF Speaker Cam
non; they represent perfectly the work
ings of the protective tariff as applied
to ~monopplic~: and they show beyond
question jus, how philauthropic the
trusts are when they plead for u duty
that shall prevent competition because
they want to shield the dear America
working man from the inevitable pau
compete with foreign labor.
Imagine tn" generosity of a trust
that works children ON machines at 10
cents an hour Tnd compsls I5.year-old
boys to work thirteen hours a night for
six nights OF the week,
No wonder that the best of the re-
publican1 themselves have grown sick
of the deception and misrepresentation
that characterize tariff legislation, and
no wonder the people. who inevitably
pay the bill. have about reached the
limit of their patience with the whole
rotten system of Especial favors for the
trusts. none to anybody else.