Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — STRIKES AND THE TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

STRIKES AND THE TARIFF.

Uk«r SlmtirfMtlw Spx—Mmf •tan Alar tba IbKiaMr Tartar. Judging from tike editorial page of the Indianapolis Journal,- there axe no claaaeo of people in this country more prosperous and better contented than the American workmen. Bat if the readers cd the state organ of the G. O. P. will turn to the telegraphic report* they will find a long list of strikes, lockouts, etc., to demolish the prosperity manufactured to order in The Journal’s editorial rooms. For example: The Journal of May 4, under the caption. “The Annual Strike Fever,” summarizes the labor trouble as follows: About 400 hundred house carpenter! went on strike in Baltimore May 2. The lumber shovers on Chequanegon bay, Wia., were getting forty cents an hour, but struck. Eight hundred coal-handlers are on s strike at Cleveland for fourteen oentf per ton. This is aa increase of twc cents a to* in some eases. Boston boiler manufacturers hav« voted to refuse their employes a reduction of hours to nine a day. They threaten to lock out every union man. Building operations at Saginaw,Mich., are at a standstill. The bricklayers, who have been receiving $3.50 per day, have struck for an advance of $1 a day. Nearly a thousand workmen employed in the quarries in and near Stony Creek, Conn., are on strike for a nine-hour day and an increase of one cent per hour over the rates now paid. Over 600 employes in the Boonton (N. J.) iron mill were notified that if the place was to continue in operation undei the present depressed state of the iron market, they would have to accept a 1C per cent, reduction in wages. The iron workers oh the manufacturers’ building at the world’s fair grounds, Chicago, are on strike for thirty-five cents per hour. The present rate is thirty cents. The workmen on the administration building were granted thir-ty-five cents, after a four-hour strike. Two hundred men on the Kentucky Central and Louisville and Nashville roads, including transfer hands, switchmen, yardmen, sectionmen and laborers, have struck on account of a reduction in wages from $1.35 to $1.25 a day. They predict all the men along the line will join the strike. The'united Germsff and English carpenters, of New York, went on strike May 2 because of the failure of the master framers and carpenters to sign an agreement fixing a schedule of prices for labor. This agreement has been made every year, but this year, when it was presented, only nineteen out of the forty-five bosses signed. On May 16 the clothing nressmen of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and other large cities will demand an advance in the wages and reduction in their hours of labor from ten to nine hours per day. In New York the men will demand an advance of 25 per cent.; Boston pressmen 15 per cent increase, and in other cities the advance demanded will range from 15 to per cent. As the time approaches for the holding of the Amalgamated association convention manifestations of trouble grow moae apparent It is an undeniable fact that not only the mill-workers, but also the manufacturers anticipate difficulty, but their reticence only adds to the general feeling of unrest. Probably the most important development ia the notification that ere long there will he another non union mill in Pittsburg.