223] THE STANDARD RATE 9I 



Cincinnati — agreement adopted in July, 1881, was the Pitts- 

 burgh scale plus ten per cent, and the Wheeling or second 

 district scale for the rolling branches in 1881-1882 was 

 precisely the Pittsburgh scale. Nail-plate rolling west of 

 the mountains was at the Pittsburgh price. The same was 

 true of puddling and most of the finishing branches in the 

 fourth district. 



In 1880 the Association began the movement toward uni- 

 formity by requiring that all district scales be approved by 

 national committees of the respective branches before being 

 presented to employers. As a further step in the direction 

 of uniformity, the convention of 1881 provided that the 

 Pittsburgh price should be taken as the basis of all district 

 scales.^^ Accordingly, when the Pittsburgh district went 

 on strike for an advance in prices in 1882 most mills in 

 other districts became involved.^® The third district agreed 

 to work with the understanding that it was to receive Pitts- 

 burgh prices when that scale was settled. ^^ When the set- 

 tlement was reached that fixed the rates for the first, fourth, 

 and sixth districts, the second district retained its differ- 

 ential for boiling of twenty-five cents above the Pittsburgh 

 scale. ^* With this exception, the settlement of 1882 left the 

 scales for the various branches practically uniform for the 

 region west of the mountains.-' 



The adoption of uniform scales in all branches as a defi- 

 nite policy was delayed by the refusal of certain districts to 

 give up their differentials above Pittsburgh rates. In 1882 

 the Cincinnati and St. Louis divisions of the third district 

 were compelled temporarily to accept Pittsburgh prices, but 

 they were unwilling that such rates should be permanent. 



The plan of taking the Pittsburgh scale as the basis of all 



"5 Proceedings, 1881, p. 693; Constitution, 1880, art. 14, p. 23; Con- 

 stitution, 1882, art. 10, pp. 22-24. 



»•' Proceedings, 1882, p. 814 ff. 



inbid.. pp. 804-806, 814-817; 1883, p. 1 197. 



1" Proceedings, 1883, pp. 1084-1088. 



'" Certain classes of workmen in steel mills, such as steel-convert- 

 ing and furnace men, were as yet unprovided with a uniform scale. 

 The union could not effectively organize them in all mills, and they 

 were emp<jwercd where organized to arrange their own scales. 



I 



