Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1890 — TARIFF AND WAGES. [ARTICLE]

TARIFF AND WAGES.

Some Interesting Facts and Figures. [From the Chicago Herald.] If any one should look through the last part of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report In the expectation of tracing some connection between the wages paid in manufacturing industries and the tariff he would bo very much disappointed. It is impossible to find any such connection. U-pon no other industry, for example, has tariff been lavished with so liberal a hand as upon woolens. We should naturally expect that here a high rate of wages would rule. And yet, according to the Springfield (.Mass.) Republican, it appears that. 23 per cent, of the employes who are included in the wage returns receive less than'Bs, moro than one-half receive less than 7, and more than three-fourths less than 810 a week. As 74 per cent, of the total number employod in this industry are represented in the wage returns, theso results no doubt give the average situation. Worsteds are another product upon which much tariff has been imposed. But over ono-fourth of the employes represented get less than 85 a week and over three-fourths get less than 86. Cotton goods, again, enjoy a very liberal protection, the tariff here ranging from 40 to 75 per cent., and the leading mills are paying dividends of from 0 to 20 per cent. If the rate of wages in any way depends upon the tariff, one would expect to find very good w ages prevailing here. And yet, of the 48,178 employes representech.in the wage tables, or 80 per cent, of the whole number engaged in the industry, over 19,000, or, over 40 per cent., receive less than 85 a week, or less than 84 cents a day. Moro than three-fourths receive loss* than 87 a week, and more than 84 per cent, less than 88. That cannot be called large pay. Take now the paper industry. This enjoys the least protection of any great manufacturing business of Massachusetts. Three-fourths of the total number of employes are represented in the wage tables, and it appears that less than 13.5 per cent, of these receive less than 85 a week, and less than 40 per cent, get under 88 and over, and quite one-fourth get over 810. Nearly onehalf the men in this manufacture get 810 and more a woek, asid nearly one-fourth receive over 815. In woolen goods, on the other hand, only about 21 per cent, of the men get $lO and over, and only about 5 per cont., or one-twentieth, get over 815.

Boots and shoes are protected by a tariff of 30 per cent., which is a little above that laid upon paper, but much less than the average levied upon cotton and woolen goods. About 60 per cerft. of the total number of employes in this great industry are represented in the wage tables. Of this number only 6.5 per cent, receive less than 85 per woek—which compares with 22 per cent, in woolens, 25 per cent, in worsteds and 40 per cent, in cottons. Only about onethird of them receive less than 89, nearly one-half get 812 and over and one-fifth ' get 815 and more. Of the males more than one-half receive sl2 and over a week. If these great industries represented the whole situation we should be obliged to conclude that high wages were more apt to be found in lightly protected than In the more highly protected industries. And this is generally the case. Certain it is, in any event, that high tariffs do not make high wages. They are based upon conditions very different from the tariff enactments of Congress. Congress may heap up duties on woolens, or worsteds, or cotton goods, or linens, or what not, but the employes in these industries will go right on toiling for less than 88 a week just the same. This is made so evident from the facts presented in the statistical report referred to as to need no further demonstration.