The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-01-20
THE POOR WAGE GARNER

The editor of the Raleigh Messenger,
published at BeckIey, Raleigh county,
pays his respects to one of West yir-
ginia g 'fmaster minds in no uncertain
terms in the following article:
.'Stephen Benton Elkins, by the grace
of the West Virginia legislature and
combination of other fortuitous circum.
stances, United States senator from West
Virginia, has suddenly developed a keen
interest in the welfare of the wage Garner,
and is reported to be undergoing the pangs
or parturition from a senatorial resolution
calling for a senatorial investigation into
the high cost of provisions.
Mr.. Elkins says that wage earners
can not live on their wages; that clerks,
Office employees and the great mass of un-
organized employees are put to extremities
to make ends meet: that it is great
problem for them to keep their families
in food, fuel, shelter and clothing, and
Mr.. Elkins, master of millions earned by
the toll of these same wage earners, sug-
gests as remedy an investigating com
mittee, which may possibly be ready, to
report by the time most of the sufferers
have starved TO death, if their condition
is rs serious as it is represented to be
by the sympathetic senator.
THE present activity of Senator Ell.
kins in behalf of the suffering wage earn.
ers might be pathetic were it not SO su.
prcmcly ridiculous; might be laudable
were it not so transparency selfish. If
the anxiety of Senator Elkins for the
unorganiZed wage earners is so acute
why does he not evidence his sincerity by
raising the wages of the thousands of
employees of his mines, his railroads, his
offices, and other contributors to the
growth of his millions, or at least permit
them to organize for their own protection
"a right which he has uniformly denied
now sheds characteristic tears-character-
istic because hypocriticaI.
The bureau of labor of the depart
ment of agriculture is already conducting
an investigation into the cause of the in
creased cost of living, with excellent pros
poets of placing the responsibility upon
the trusts-a fact of which Mr. Elkins is
fully cogniZant, and the knowledge of
which explains his anxiety to have the
Investigation taken out of the hands of
the department of agriculture and put
in the hands of senatorial committee,
selected by Senator Aldrich, the accred-
tied senatorial representative of the
trusts, and hail feliow-well-met with SEN
ator Elkins land the rest of the trust
cormorants, and the business of that COM
mlttee will be to protect the interests of
the corporations against the demands of
the 'unorganiZed wage earners' for re.
lief from the payment of the blood tribute
eXactcd from them to the end that Sen
ator Elkins, lbs fellow vampires and their
progeny may hob-nob with old-world row.
atty and rehabilitate old-world profligates
while the unorganized wage earncrs" of
America foot the bill
Senator Elkins is looking ahead tn
three years from now, when he will be
n candidate for reelection, hence his
anxiety to have it appear that the inter
ests of the people are paramount consid-
erations with him, when in fact the ex
act reverse is the actual situation.
us it not about time that the people
of West Virginia substituted integrity,
intelligence and independence for the
Doodle, bluff and blarney which are the
chief characteristics of our present repre-
sentation in the upper branch of the ma
tional congress?''