Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — SPEAKING FOR ITSELF. [ARTICLE]

SPEAKING FOR ITSELF.

YEA, VERILY MR. M’KINLEY, THIS IS TRUE. The Bobber Tariff Speak. Through the Five Thousand Looked-Out Workmen at Homeatead, Pa.—Wage Reduction. All Along the Line. Wage Reduction, in Iron Hill.. The following, from the Iron Age of June 23, 1892, will give some Idea of the enormity of the wage reductions proposed by the Iron and steel manufacturers and presented in the form of an ultimatum to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers: The price for bar rolling and heating, 2,240 pounds to the ton, has been cut down from 70 to 60 cents on a 2-cent card; for boiling, from $5.50 to $4.50; for rolling common iron on plate mills, from 72 to 50 cents. Put in tabular form some of the reductions appear as follows: HEATING SLABS AND SHINGLING. " Shingling, 2,240 pounds. Card Rates— oTd rate. New rate. Sc bar Iron (re-hammered) $0.75 $0.50 Jc bar iron “ -.11 .65 Jft bar iron (charcoal) 82)s -62)4 So bar iron “ 1.01 .82)6 Heating, 2,240 pounds. So bar Iron $0.75 $0.50 8c bar Iron LOO .70 GUIDE, 10-INCH HOOP AND COTTON-TIE SCALE. Sizes— Old Kate, New Rate. 1-32 rounds and squares $7.63 $6.70 0-82 5.15 3.15 6- half round 9.50 4.35 54 and 16 oval 8.50 3.20 NUT IKON. Old Rate, New Rate. 27-64x56x1-16 $12.50 $0.63 27-64X9-64 10.00 4.80 15-32x54 4.70 3.60 19-32x14 4.25 8.10 CHANNEL IKON. 2 Inch and upward, base $2.90 $2.18 s4x6-10 and lighter 7.70 3.50 s6xs-16 and lighter 9.50 4.30 T IKON. Djandupward $3.20 $2.40 156 4.70 3.50 CLIP AND WAGON STHAP. 54-, $3.20 $2.30 7- 4.10 2.55 6-16 7.09 3.40 TEN-INCH MILL. 56 oval $3.50 $2.47 >6x3-10 and heavier 3.20 2.18

It is no wonder that 5,000 men are now out at the Homestead Works of Carnegie, Phipps & Co., and that many more thousands are on strike in other iron mills. For several yoars Carnegie and others have been steadily reducing Wages, and importing laborers to make reductions permanent. But never before has the situation been so precarious as now, when wages are cut in two and a death-blow is aimed at the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workors. These men are making a determined resistance, but their fate is in the hands of the multi-millionaires, who can, if neod be, let their mills rot, and live the balance of their lives in luxury on the tariff profits made during the last twenty years. Neither they nor their children need ever want for either necessaries or luxuries. But the iron Workers, they can hold out at best but a few months. Their only hope for salvation now is that the Republican administration shall put its present request In the form of a demand that peac.e be patched up in somo way, at least until after the election, and that no government troop 3 will be allowed to protect Imported laborers oven while they are at work upon government contracts now In the hands of Carnegie, Phipps & Co. These are the bitter fruits of “protection" which Pennsylvania workingmen must eat.