Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1908 — TAFT ON WAGES [ARTICLE]

TAFT ON WAGES

Of Men, Widows and Orphans. While Mr. Taft was making a speech to the Republican clubs in Cindnantl last week a man in the gallery asked him what he was “going to do with the unemployed.” In answer Mr. Taft said: “I’ll tell you what I would do with the unemployed. I would have them vote the Republican ticket this fall, and they will get employment.” This is mere assertion. The Republican party is in power, and yet tor a year millions of men have been out of employment. If the Republican party can give employment to men who "vote the Republican ticket this fall,” why did it take employment away from them. But let us look below. Here is a dispatch dealing with employment and wages subject to Republican control, which we reproduce, headlines and all, from the Indianapolis News m September 17th: WIDOW’S WAGES ARE CUT "

Uncle Sam’s Pay for Their Needlework Is Reduced. New York, Sept. 16.—Their small wages already cut In half by the competition of labor-saving machinery, the needlewomen in the clothing factory in the Brooklyn navy yard have learned with dismay that a further reduction of their earnings is threatened. The women are “widows and dangbters of Union veterans, and for thirty years they have sewed on by hand the white braid and stars for all the Jackies’ uniforms, numbering from 30,009 to 60,000 a month. Last week the navy department ordered a reduction from 10 eents to 5 cents a garment for the braiding. These women cannot vote. They are widows and daughters of old soldiers. They are working under a Republican administration, sewing stars and stripes on the uniforms of Uncle Sam’s seamen. Roosevelt’s administration, of which Taft was so recently a part, made one eut in' the small wages off these women and threatens to make another. If the Republican party does such a thing to these women, how can men depend upon it?