Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1892 — THE HOMESTEAD LABOR WAR. [ARTICLE]

THE HOMESTEAD LABOR WAR.

An Indiana Workman Gives Some Inside History of the McKinley Hill. Mr. Janies P. Appleby, who was a delegate to the convention of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, which was recently held at 1 Pittsburg, said lie fully anticipated the trouble that has since taken place. He further said that when the McKinley bill was before congress, the Republican leaders induced the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers to go to Washington and work for the passage of the bill, with the guarantee : that if the bill was passed tlieir wages would never again be reduced and that j the mill owners would never ask a re- j dnetion. That the price of iron would be kept, by the provisions of the bill, at a sufficiently high figure to Warrant the payment of t’ ■ :’.e in force at that time. A committee was appointed by the association and the bill was passed. But the first time after the scale run out, the mill owners have demanded n reduction of from 20 to 00 per cent, in the wages of the iron workers. And still it is said by Republican papers that there is no politics in it. Mr. Appleby is also authority for the statement that on Monday after the scale had been agreed upon by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, Governor William McKinley, author of the bill tl.at bears liis name, was in Pittsburg in conference with the mill owners, but whether for or against the interests of the workmen it is not known. At any rate, only three or four mills out of sixty-two in the vicinity of Pittsburg signed the scale. These are matters of which Mr. Appleby says he knows what he is talking about, as he was at Pittsburg during the entire session of the association. Mr. Appleby works in the New Albany rail mill and is well informed on matters pertaining to liis calling. What do workingmen think of the of the Republican leaders? Do they believe that high tariff means high wages? Not much.—New Albany Public Press.