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culture in which competition is already severe enough; | that the prostration of the manufacture would also deprive American farmers of a considerable part of their home market, and that, with woollen goods worn by nine-tenths of the people as cheap now as in any other country, quality considered, the consumers have only to pay higher prices if the enormous consumption of this country is to be supplied wholly or in part by foreign looms. They therefore ask a united effort of all farmers to obtain from Congress such action that this industry may receive the substantial protection enjoyed under the tariff of 1867; that the dividing line between

wools paying the highest and those paving the lowest rate of duty be reduced proportionately to the reduc tion in the price of foreign wool; that washed wool of all classes be subject to twice, and scoured wool to three times the duties on unwashed wool; that mixed wool be charged the highest rate of duty to which any portion of the mixture would be subject, without regard to its commercial name; that the law be so amended as to prevent the admission of clothing wools at the rate charged on carpet wools, and that the rate on rags, shoddy, mungo and waste be such as will effectually discourage their importation.

CHAPTER VI.

The Protected American Laborer.

"That policy which secures the largest amount of work to be done at home, is the policy which will secure to our laboring-man steady employment at the best wages. A policy which will transfer work from our mines and factories to foreign mines and foreign factories inevitably tends to the depression of wages here." -Benjamin F. Harrison, July 26, 1888. "Labor has that in it which cannot be bought and sold. it is advancement; it is the upward trend of humanity. be exercised, it is, and must be, the grandest material April 27, 1888.

The labor of man is civilization; In whatever field labor may human force." Senator Platt,

"I am for legislating in favor of my country, her industries, and her institutions, first, last, and all the time. I believe in the old Bible doctrine that, he who provideth not for his own household is worse than an infidel.'" Representative Goff, April 27, 1888.

"We denounce the Mills Bill as destructive to the general business, the labor, and the farming interests of the country, and we earnestly indorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican representatives in Congress, in opposing its passage.' - Republican National Platform, 1888.

PART I.

Comparative Wages of Mechanical and
Factory Labor in Massachusetts and
Great Britain - Increase of Wages in
Massachusetts, 1860 to 1881.

none.

That the American Protective Tariff System encourages the investment of capital in manufacturing enterprises and hence gives employment to labor is denied by That it thereby makes the Nation self-sustaining by diversifying our industries is equally patent. In the preceding chapter its great benefits to the farm-owner and farm-cultivator in all ways-whether as to increased value of his land and its products or as to decreased price of all that he needs must purchase- have been shown beyond cavil. Let us now ascertain how and to what extent this Republican American System benefits and elevates American Labor in all its practical aspects, so that the

their sad eyes with longing gaze toward the fair land where honest toil is respected, adequately compensated, and is a badge of nobility and not of degradation.

As England is the great exponent of the doctrine of Free-Trade, so America is that of Protection. Comparisons, therefore, between the results achieved in these two countries are eagerly sought by the intelligent workingman. It is difficult, of course, in a country so vast as this, with wages of the same kind of labor so much greater in some parts than in others, to make as close a comparison for the study of the laboring man and the political student as could be wished. But it is generally conceded that the fairest comparison of the sort that can be made is that between Massachusetts and Great Britain. Let us then take Massaehusetts, and compare twenty-four of the leading industries common to both of them, and we find the following to be the general aver age weekly and hourly wages paid to al

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These tabulations, the result of painstaking and most intelligent research by the Massachusetts State Bureau of Statistics, exhibit the significant fact that the wages of labor by the hour in Protected Massachusetts exceed those in Free-Trade Great Britain by about 71 per cent (70.80), and that the wages of labor by the week in Protected Massachusetts exceed those in Free-Trade Great Britain by about 76 per cent (75.94).

try, of those considered, in which men are employed, in which the prevailing average weekly wage rises above $20, while in Massachusetts in 8+ per cent of the occupations the average weekly wage exceeds that figure, reaching to $40, or double the highest weekly average wage in Great Britain.

tries in which women are paid more than $6 per week, on an average, while in Massachusetts in 53+ per cent of the various occupations, or branches of industr ing as high as $19, or more than three times the highe the average weekly wage exceeds $6 per week, re

In Great Britain there is no branch of these indus

Occupation average for Great Britain. In Great Britain Other careful statistics furnished in the $6 is the highest occupation average for young persons report of the same Bureau for July, 1884, in these industries; the occupation average in Massashow in a comparison of weekly wage tabu-chusetts reaches to $11, or nearly double the Great Britain highest occupation average for young persons, lations, that

Taking the average wages paid to men as 100, in Massachusetts, the ratio of those paid to women is as 51.39 to 100 (that is, the average wages of women are a little more than one-half as much as those paid to men), those paid to young persons 43.04 to 100, and those paid to children 32.15 to 100. In Great Britain the ratio for women is 40.92 (men's wages considered as the unit, or 100), for young persons 29.06 to 100, and for children 9.56 to 100. In Massachusetts, on the average, one woman, one young person, and one child working together would earn as much combined as 1.26 men; in Great Britain they could earn only .79 as much as a man, or 59.4 per cent in favor of the women, young persons, and children of Massachusetts.

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In the case of children, the highest occupation average, in the industries considered, for Great Britain is $2, while in Massachusetts in 98+ per cent of the

branches of these industries in which children are

employed, the range is higher, reaching $7 in a small percentage of the occupations.

The increase of wages of mechanical and factory labor in Massachusetts from 1860 to 1881.

Massachusetts Labor Statistics Bureau for The following table from the Report of the 1882, develops the increase of labor wages in that State at different periods, from 1860 to 1881 inclusive:

Compiled from tabulations pages 300 to 301 of the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1884, furnished by Col. Carroll D. Wright, then Chief of that Bureau.

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But I do not rely upon these authorities alone. H. Conant, treasurer of the Conant Thread Company, of Pawtucket, R.I., and also the owner of thread-mills in Great Britain, writes me, under date of Jan. 19, 1882, that the" cost of building and equipping a cotton factory in New England, as compared with the cost of a similar structure in Lancashire or Scotland, is just about double." Mr. Wyckoff, secretary of the Silk Association of America, declares that "a silk factory built in Coventry or Macclesfield, of the same size and floor capacity as one here, would cost about 60 to 65 per cent as much." Wilkam Clark, superintendent of the Clark Thread Company, of Newark, N.J., a company owning mills both here and in Great Britain, declares that a factory, including buildings and machinery, erected in Newark, "will cost 80 to 85 per cent more than in Paisley." James Coats, of J. & P. Coats, the largest thread manufacturers in the world, and owning and running mills here and abroad, declares that a factory would cost "fully twice as much to build here as in Scotland."

I have here the Deutsche Industrie Zeitung of June, 1881, the organ of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Chemistry in Dresden, and regarded, I believe, as the highest authority in Europe. It shows that the cost per spindle of constructing mills in England is $5.79 to $7.78; in France, $8.69 to $9.65; in Germany, $8.69 to $9.65; while in the United States, the cost is from $12 to $18.

Mr. President, what makes this difference in cost? It is because 90 per cent of the cost is labor, and labor in Great Britain is paid only one-half as much as labor

here.

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But the Senator from Texas denies that a tariff Doffers for protection secures for the laborer higher wages than does a "purely revenue tariff." A most amazing declaration. In my hand is a book entitled "The State of Labor in Europe," carefully prepared and printed under the authority of Congress, from "Reports of United States Consuls," and a work entitled "Laborin Europe and America," by Dr. Young, late chief of the United States Statistical Bureau, and I aver that, in the cotton and woollen mills of England, the average wages is one-half below the wages in the cotton and woollen mills of America.

Mr. Coats adds:

Difference.

United States,

Wages

per week.

Scotland,
Wages

per week.

Amount.

$6.59

Per cent.

$3 40 $3 19 94 3 14

5 69

2 55

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ployment of good, steady hands, it being impossible for us to maintain the quality of our goods with a floating class of help. The general average of female help in Scotland, you will observe, is under $3 a week, whereas here it averages $7.50 per week. (Remember the difference in the time run between the two countries is deducted from the rates paid here to make the comparison more correct.) The difference in male help is not so great, but the great bulk of those we employ are females. We are obliged to pay higher wages, as we have to employ help corresponding to the best class engaged in weaving and other highly paid departments of labor. Unless we do so, we find our help unwilling to remain with us steadily, subject to the strict discipline necessary to produce our quality of goods. These conditions apply to Scotland as well as here, where our experience proves the help to be quite as efficient and able to attend to as many machines or spindles.

"I deduct from the wages paid here an amount corresponding to the difference of time run during the

week in the two countries."

These statements are from business men, owners of mills here and in Europe, who know whereof they affirm. They are the, indisputable practical facts of their business record. They show conclusively that in Europe the workingmen and working-women do not receive half as much pay as do ours. The following statement, showing the weekly rates in the several countries, computed from the consular reports, and compared with rates prevailing in the United States, show as great a difference in all other branches of industry: [Here follows a condensation of the tables given in

Part III.]

While the cost of the necessaries of life is, on

the average, from twenty to forty per cent higher in Europe than in America. And yet the Senator from Texas declares they are paid alike.

PART III.

Comparative Weekly Rates of all Wages in Europe and America—in Country and City.

Consul-General Merritt of London, in his report to the State Department upon “Labor and Living in the United Kingdom" (U. S. Consular Reports, December, 1883, p. 298), referring to the consular reports made in 1878 on the condition of "Labor in Europe," says: "These reports, having been found correct and taken as a basis for comparison and reference comprehensive, may well be in the present inquiry respecting wages, cost of living, and consequent condition of the laboring classes of the United Kingdom." As no better or later tabulations are given, the following official tables (in the letter of the Secretary of State, May 17, 1879, to the Speaker of the House), compiled from the consular reports of 1878 aforesaid, are subjoined:

Statement showing the Weekly Rates of all Wages in the several Countries, compiled from the Consular Reports, and compared with Rates prevailing in the United States.

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House-Building Trades.

Statement showing the weekly rates of all wages in the principal cities of Europe, compiled from consular reports, and compared with rates in New York and Chicago.

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