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Tons of iron produced from January 1, 1874, to July 30, 1878.

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In addition to the foregoing communications the committee has received many others which it has not been deemed advisable to print. Some are incoherent; others urge views that have been repeatedly expressed; and a very large proportion of them are chiefly devoted to generalities upon various points of ethics. But while it has been judged best not to swell the bulk of the report and increase the expense of printing it, by publishing these letters, it has also been thought proper to brief them and present in a table a synopsis of their contents.

A list of persons who have communicated in writing to the committee their opinions as to the causes of the prevailing depression of labor and the remedies therefor.

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Angerer, Mrs. A. W., 75 Defrees street, Washington, D. C.

Abbott, L. J.. 624 North Fourth street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Babcock, W. A., Smyrna, N. Y.

Batory, Ignatius, post-office,
Wood's Mills, Howard County,
Maryland.

Barrows, A., South Front and
Reed streets, Philadelphia, Pa.

Bartlett, F. A., Room 12, Ben-
nett Building, New York City.
Balte, F., 122 Christie street, New
York.

Beeman, T., Indianapolis, Ind

Proposes the organization of co-operative societies. Capital to be
raised by an initiation fee. Loss and expense during the first year
to be covered by a small monthly due. Kaw materials and, if neces
sary, tools and machinery, to be bought with the common fund.
The officers to be attorney, treasurer, and secretary. Shops to be
established for the sale of products, disabled members serving as
clerks. The division of profits to be monthly. Cites the instance
of the Co-operative Society of Hatters organized in Liverpool in
1845, with 717 members and £18 08. Od., which, in 1858, had 1,95€
members, £18,165 capital, with library, reading-room, &c,
There should be provision for minority representation.
should be a legal day's work, and all above or below that amount
should be paid pro rata. The contract system should be abolished
and labor divided into four classes; the fourth, or lowest class, to
be paid $1.50 per day, or 15 cents an hour; a higher rate for upper
classes. In this way good workmen would be produced. The
basis of currency should be the resources of the country and its
property, not gold and silver. All property, including churches
and bonds, should be taxed.

Ten hours

Knows what has ruined his trade-harness-making; it is labor saving machinery, with which no competition is possible. Great discon tent prevails in his neighborhood (Smyrna, N. Y.) on this subject. He would close the Patent-Office and tax heavily the machines and their products.

be.

Advocates the "decentralization of capital" by abolishing usury
laws, and, in so far as they are mediums for collecting debts, the
courts. If lenders cannot enforce payment, a cash system wi
prevail, which will render capital subservient to labor, as it should
Believes the currency should be redeemable greenbacks. A hoard
of $800,000,000 or $1,000,000,000 in gold should be kept for purposes
of redemption. Nothing short of this is specie payment; and the
cost to the country would be less than that of one week of panic.
In the last forty years he has known times when specie could be
had in small quantities, but never a time when a "run" would not
cause suspension.

Recommends that the poor in each State should be worked on "in-
dustrial farms" for their food and clothing. Submits no plan.
On the part of the German Workingmen's Association of New York
submits a long paper, occupied, for the most part, with an account
of the hardships of the poor, but offering no remedy for the pre-
vailing depression beyond shortening the day's work.
After a laborious and economical life he is destitute at the age of 73
although he has created enough wealth to make his last days easy.
The real producers do not grow rich. The present trouble is not
high prices, but the lack of employment. He wants a gold basis
for the currency, that a stop should be put to speculation and land
grants, and that there should be a graduated income-tax.

Appleton, Wm., Albany, N. Y... Believes the source of the depression is in the faulty and expensiv❤ system of revenue collection. It should be abolished, and all reve nue collected by stamps.

Buck, Ed., 111 Manhattan avenue, Proposes that workingmen form clubs of 100 or 200 members. Each Greenpoint, L. I. member shall contribute 25 cents every Saturday night. At the end of the year twenty men shall be chosen by lot, among whos the sum contributed (of $1,300 or $2,600) shall be divided, and with this capital they shall take up in a colony government land to be given them gratis by the United States. Approves and calls attention to bill H. R. 2454 (introduced January 14, 1878) to promote inter-State navigation. After canvassing the furniture manufacturers of Chicago, Cincinnati and Philadelphia, he thinks the majority of them agree that the remedy for the present distress is an eight-hour law. It will break up the tenement-house system, giving employés time to reach their shops from the suburbs: it will destroy piece-work; it will give the workingmen the benefit of labor-saving machinery: railroads should be controlled by the government. He is himself a manu

Olberg, J. G., 226 Maryland avenue, Washington, D. C. Beiersdorf, J., Chicago, Ill..

facturer.

Blood, James N., New York, City. In a very long communication, points out the evolution of society from separate families up to Roman imperialism-the first cycle-and from Roman imperialism, under a decentralizing tendency, te

.

Writer.

List of communications, &c.—Continued.

Blood, James N.-Continued..

Bryce, T. T., Hampton, Va..
Blanchard, R. P., Chicago, Ill.

Brief.

American republicanism—the second cycle. But through all this
political progression, society, in its industrial theory, has been
always the same; that is to say, politically, the common good is re-
garded; but when money is in question individuals are left to prey
on one another and the weak are unprotected. The amount paid
in interest, including gold premiums and discounts, is $1,300,000,000
annually, or $600,000,000 more than the annual increase of wealth.
All of this is tribute to non-producing classes. So long as interest
was paid, it was reloaned and all went well. But when Jay Cooke's
failure shook public confidence, hoarding began. This, with con-
traction of the currency, brought ruin on those engaged in manu-
facture and threw labor out of employment. If the right to life is
inalienable, so is the right to the things which support it-land,
air, water. Blackstone admits that there is no natural right to
land beyond that of present possession; and that devises are con-
trary to natural law. Under a system of barter, there was justice.
For convenience of distribution the abnormal class of middlemen
was introduced, and later, those who loaned money to the specula-
tive middlemen appeared, the bankers. These money dealers are
the cause of all our woe. For example's sake, look at Champaign
County, Illinois. With $11,000,000 of real estate, it owes $6,000,000
on mortgage. Its yearly taxes and interest are $1,000,000. In A.
D. 1911 this real estate at the average yearly increase of 2 per cent.
will be worth $22,000,000: but the mortgages will be worth $96.000, 000.
These figures will never be actually reached, because failures, bank-
ruptcies, &c., will intervene, and most of the property pass to the
lenders. But this is the true cause of our panics occurring every
twenty years. Land cannot pay the rates of interest on mortgages.
Arrears are secured by further liens. At last comes the crash and
the owner loses his property. The remedy for all this is the abolition
of interest government loans with security for principal only. Let
the debt be paid in greenbacks, thus becoming a non-interest bear-
ing debt. Colonize along the lines of the Northern and Southern
Pacific Railroads. Finally, provide by law for the escheat of all
lands to the State on the death of its possessor, and let all land be
held by the government for the people. He is a communist because
he believes Christ so taught. But communism is not dividing up
property among the needy, but a consolidation of it for the general
good.

Believes the causes are, (1) over-production; (2) unstable currency.
The remedy is protection.

inde

Is an employé. Thinks little can be done by Federal legislation,
though postal savings-banks and the prosecution of public works
might help somewhat. The causes are of two kinds: (1) Those
always operating; (2) those peculiar to this time and country,
Of the first are, (a) ignorance of mental, moral, and
physical
science; (b) lack, among the masses, of that desire to
pendent which is so characteristic of the Jews and Chinese;
(c) prevalent idea that idleness is happiness; (d) demagogues;
(e) competition of dependent labor-that of women, children, and
convicts-with independent labor; (f) hard bargains, which
should be controlled by law; (g) lack of reciprocal sympathy
between the rich and poor. Of the second are, (a) speculation and
extravagance, engendered by the war; (b) emigration and rapid
increase in marriages (and births) after the war between those
unfit to marry; (c) the restless spirit growing out of the war. Sees
no remedy beyond patient work and willingness to live cheaply on
the part of labor, and on the part of capital cheerful aid wherever
possible.

Brown, H. Byron, New York City. Represents an industrial club. Believes the function of government

Boyce, S. S., 1322 Fourth avenue,
New York.

Carhardt, James L., 169 West
Twenty-third street, New York.
Coleman, A. E., 149 Hart street,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Carey, John, Newton, Iowa......

to be paternal; that it should control railroads; that taxation
should be graduated; that the debt should be paid in greenbacks;
that currency should be issued on a per-capita basis.

Only wishes to offer limits." Seems to find in protection the rem
edy sought. Cites flax and sugar as examples of how great a loss
the country sustains under the present tariff.

Thinks the failures of savings-banks have caused much of the
trouble. The law provides no safeguards for depositors.
There has been too great an immigration. Too much has been spent
in luxuries; too high rents; too high dividends on fictitious values
in railroad stock. Remedies: Regulate rents by law; settle rail-
road valuation by government inspection, and forbid watering
stock; enter into reciprocity of commerce with all American
countries; adopt a system of protection against Europe; just nav-
igation laws; postal savings banks; subject mining-stock compa-
nies to government inspection; put tramps to labor on government
works; issue paper enough to make the volume of currency stable;
forbid the "heathen" to come here except as manufacturers or
tradesmen.

Has seen four financial crises: (1) After the war of 1812: (2) 1837; (3)
1857; (4) 1873. Believes his plan would prevent a fifth. Let the
government buy up all the bullion in the market, coin it, and,

List of communications, &c.—Continued.

Writer.

Carey, John-Continued

Caldwell, J. W., box 102, Webb
City, Mo.

Curtis, Charles, 87 High street,
Newark, N. J.

Creed, Ed., San José, Cal

Brief.

keeping it as a reserve, issue $3 of paper in dollar notes for every $1 of gold. Let this money be loaned to the States as States, and by them to the counties, and by these last to individuals. The rate of interest to be 6 per centum, and the proceeds to be expended in buying more bullion. The loans to be secured by mort gage. Develop postal money-order system into postal savings banks. Believes the tendency of our financial system is to draw capital away from industrial pursuits to funded investments, and to concentrate it in few hands. Denounces strikes and eight-hour agitation, but suggests no remedy. Believes the cause is machinery, by which neither producer nor consumer profit, but only the middle men. The government should buy all machines and throw them into the sea. This would prove cheaper in the end than a war, just as it would have been cheaper to have purchased the slaves than to have fought the war of the rebellion.

Chinese immigration should be stopped, and some scheme of colonization adopted. The colonists should be loaned $500 by the gov

ernment.

Dance, Abel, 158 Joy street, Brook The cause is our vicious financial system. There are too many sinelyn, N. Y.

cures in the public offices. We need a system of convertible bonds. Upon the old bonds we should stop paying interest and “cry quits." All fortunes should be limited to $100,000. Any amount above that should be gathered by taxation into a "United States Frontier Settler Soldiers' Relief Fund."

Downs, James, Philadelphia, Pa.. Is a hand-loom weaver. His trade has been ruined by machinery so

Daggett, J. S., Boston, Mass....

that he can barely keep together soul and body; yet he is about as well off as most of his craft. He does not believe eight-hour laws or the issue of paper money will afford relief, but thinks that colonization will. People of good character should be chosen as colonists. Those of the same religious beliefs should be settled together. The government should advance to them the things nec essary at the outset, branding its property, the price of which should be gradually repaid.

Sends advance sheets of his work on co-operation. The world has outgrown a metallic currency. Our cotton alone is worth more than our coin. We need paper money based, not on a handful of gold, but on the country's wealth and the national honor. The volume of the currency should be regulated by the needs of the country and wise legislation. We should then have no panics. He gives a graphic picture of what is accomplished by labor-saving machinery as compared with hand work.

Dayton, Charles, 10 Waverly Place, Incloses a paper, read before the American Social Science Associa New York City.

Dougherty, Jno., Mt. Union, Penn.
Edwards, D. M., Sayville, N. Y...

Eifert, A. F., 900 Third avenue,
New York.

tion, upon the effects of labor-saving machinery. Labor, he thinks. should be equally distributed among all persons (but he does not show how it is to be done). The hours of labor should be short ened. Incloses a platform of the People's Progressive Party. Incloses the "Idea-Real" plan of colonization. Believes alcohol to be the cause of three-fourths of our pauperism. The amount of grain used in the manufacture of intoxicating liquor would supply every man, woman, and child in the land with thirty, five bushels of corn. He offers no other suggestions and no plan of relief.

The causes are (1) "the monopoly system "; (2) the custom of large firms, like that of Lord & Taylor, dealing in various sorts of ar ticles whereby they can sell cheaper than those who deal in but one kind of merchandise, as the profit on one sort will balance the loss on another; e. g., jewelry he believes can be bought cheaper at Lord & Taylor's than at a jeweler's.

Ford, C. W., Philadelphia, Pa..... Thinks that whatever the cause of decreased consumption may be,

Folin, C. V., Fordham, N. Y...

one thing is certain, that decreased consumption is the cause of our present distress. Let all employers raise wages 15 cents a day; this would increase the annual expenditure by $3,000,000; CODsumption being thus increased would react to raise wages, and high wages would again act to increase consumption. This method would hold good in all times of depression. Government should furnish statistics of wages and prices in all parts of the world. Employers then, knowing what the rates of living were, could pay their hands properly and the employed, knowing the prices of prod ucts, might be reasonable in their demands. It is not the fus tion of government to arrange the terms of employment; but it is one of its duties to prevent either party to a contract taking advantage of the necessities of the other. Thinks the credit system ruinous, and believes the Constitution should be so amended as to make United States money issued in proportion to property as two is to one; the property of the country to be the basis of the money and its value to be determined by annual estimate. The cause is extravagance; the remedies patience and frugality. More money is spent in New York for liquor and tobacco than for bread and meat. When, in an area no larger than a Westchester

Writer.

Folin, C. V.-Continued.

List of communications, &c.-Continued.

Fitzgerald, M., 195 Eldridge street, N. Y.

Franke, C. L., Louisville, Ky.

Fox, Samuel, Quincy, Ill

Brief.

County farm, and chiefly inhabited by the poor, there is a grog-shop for every 250 souls, counting women and children, it is not wonderful there should be want and suffering.

He is one of 5,000 New York bartenders who work on an average
fifteen hours a day for the average wages of $11 a week. He wants
an eight-hour law, and believes the government should expend
$1,000,000 in buying suburban lots about New York and erecting
thereon houses to be sold at cost to clerks and mechanics.

A financial plan involved in statement, but accompanied with a great
mass of statistics. He holds that as compared with any European
nation we have never had an inflated currency, i. e., we have never
had a greater amount per capita than other countries. The causes
of our distress are contraction and the destruction of capital. By
abolishing national banks taxation can be reduced. There should
be a per capita circulation convertible into low-rate bonds.
Believes there should be a government board of arbitration to over-
see contracts and invalidate unjust ones. Sees no reason why the
price of bullion should affect the value of coin.

Farris, N. R., Philadelphia, Pa.. Proposes (1) that a tax equal to his passage-money be imposed on

every immigrant; (2) that the United States negotiate a loan equal to $10 per capita of population to serve as a fund from which money may be lent to colonists; (3) that to every head of a family so desiring 160 acres of land be granted and a sum of money to be repaid by annual installments within 10 years, no payment being made the first year. That in this way colonies should be formed, the government having a lien on the land and stock for its advances. All land held by corporations under government grant and now unoccupied should be redistributed.

Fulton, M. A., Hudson, N. Y...... The acts of March 23, 1867, and July 25, 1868, should be revived, and $500,000,000 issued in 3 per cent. compound currency loan certifi cates of $10 and upward in value, to be held by the banks in lieu of the reserve now required; $50,000,000 of legal-tenders should be issued as a fund for their redemption. Let $1,000,000,000 be issued in 50-year 3 per cent. coin bonds for sale at par in legal-tenders, to be a basis for national and State banking. Let all banks depositing this class of bonds at the rate of $1,000 for $900 of circulating notes be free from Federal taxation. Pay United States expenses out of the new loans and buy up the five-twenties, ten-forties, sixes of 1881, and the new 5 per cent. bonds. Repeal the resumption act, tax incomes, and gross receipts of railroads and canals. Take off three-quarters the duty on sugar and molasses, and increase the tariff on silks, diamonds, &e. Reduce the Army. Withdraw all subsidiary silver coin issued since 1853, substituting frac tional currency and coins of the weight prescribed by act of 1837, chapter 3, section 9.

Griffith, N., Covington, Ky.

Griffin, R. M, Albany, N. Y

Gibson, Walter, 239 Broadway,
New York City.

Gilmer, G. A., Mathews, Ala

Farm colonization. He proposes, in order to settle 1,000 families, to give each family 100 acres of land. This will require 12 miles of territory. Upon this he would build 1,000 houses divided into nine villages, each house having an acre of land attached for a garden, besides 39 acres in the village; the remaining 60 acres to be without the town. The government should furnish the neces sary tools and animals to begin with, for which it should be repaid in ten years without interest. No judges in the United States should be elected. The rate of interest should be limited by law to 4 per cent.

Proposes to increase the greenback circulation to $1,000,000,000, the surplus issue to be spent in cutting ship canals around Niagara Falls; from the Hudson to Lake Champlain; from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and from New York Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. A narrow-gauge road is also desirable, he thinks, to unite the Atlantic seaboard with the great Western rivers. Believes much is due to the feeble execution of the laws protecting property There should be a school for policemen similar to those at West Point and Annapolis for officers. Laws against gaming and liquor selling should be repealed; they are hardly ever enforced, and are temptations to corrupt municipal officers. Cause: The violation of the ninth and tenth commandments by those living north of Mason and Dixon's line, from whom God “has withheld the light of his Spirit." Remedies: Repentance; abolition of tariff'; reduction of salaries; lowering the gold dollar to the silver standard: paying those "you have injured;" imposing a direct ad valorem tax on all persons and things" protected by the govern Believe that the working classes derive no benefit from labor-saving machinery; they are idle in times of depression; in busy times they work as long as ever they did. Relief would come from an eight-hour law and the prosecution of government improvements Hubbard, Ch. E., Elmira, N. Y... A straw-worker, twenty-five years old. He pictures his distress and the difficulty of finding work at his trade on account of the introduction of machinery. He would tax the machines proportion ately to the amount of labor saved.

Hunt, J. C., Wilson, J. H. H., Nic. olson, J., Boston navy-yard.

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