Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1891 — Labor Does Not Believe It. [ARTICLE]

Labor Does Not Believe It.

The silk-workers have had hard experience in the matter of wages for the past year. Reductions in wages are very frequent in the silk industry just now, and the Master Workman of the Silk-workers' Association declares that

wages have in some cases been cut down 50 per cent within a year. It is only natural, therefore, that the sjlk-workers in their recent convention should have passed the following resolutions: Whereas, The silk industry of the United Stitos, despite the high protective tariff, is at present in a most deplorable condition, wages being so low that skilled operators are seekiug other occupations, and in viow of the fact that since 1889 the wages of ribbon weavers have been reduced 58 per cent., be it Resolved, That tho representatives of the United States Silk-Workers of North America, now In session, appeal to the frieuds of American labor not to purchase silk fabrics of foreign manufacture, \/hieh are actually inferior to those made here: and be it Resolved, That in our opinion neither protection nor free trade benefits the workman, and we therefore call upon all silkworkers who are unorganized to band themselves together into the national body, and it is our further opinion that the only protection workingmen will ever receive will be that they give themselves. The silk industry is protected by duties of 50 to fiO per cent Why does not this protection secure good wages to the workers?