Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1882 — Dividing the Profits. [ARTICLE]

Dividing the Profits.

According to the report on iron and steel production in this country in 1880 it appears that the number of hands employed in the Bessemer and open-hearth steel works was 10,835 ; the total wages paid during the year amounted to $4,930,349 ; the amount of capital invested was $20,975,999 ; the total cost of materials used was $36,826,928; and the total value of the product was $55,805,210. Deducting the wages ana cost of materials from the value of the product, there is left $14,047,933, which represents the profits on the year’s business. This is nearly 67 per cent, on the capital invested, and .shows that steel making is a very profitable business in the United States. It will be seen that the total wages ($4,930,349) were not quite 9 per cent on the value of the total product ($55,805,210). In other words, the capitalists engaged in this protected and most prosperous industry allowed their workmen only 9 per cent, on the value of the product, while they took 67 per cent, on it for themselves—a significant commentary on the pretense that the design and effect of protective duties is to secure good wages to American workingmen. again : the report shows that, taking the iron and steel industries together, there was paid to labor 18.7 per cent, on the product, while capital received 21.5 per cent, upon the amount invested. The annual wages paid to employes was $397 each, being a weekly average of $7.57. or $1.26 a day. In the woolen industry the annual compensation paid to workingmen was $293, or $5. 65 a week, being 93 cents a day. In this department of manufacture labor received only 17.7 per cent, on the product, while capital received over 35 per cent. In the cotton industry the average annual wages paid to labor was only $242, or 78 cents a day. And so on, all through the list of protected industries; the working man gets for his share a very moderate allowance for a living, while the lion’s share goes into the pockets of the manufacturing capitalists. St. Louis Republican.