Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1892 — CARNEGIE [ARTICLE]

CARNEGIE

Knows a Good Thing When He Sees It, and Says So, Too. [By cable from Sunningdale, Scotland, June 12, 1892.] To President Harrison, Washington, America: The people know a good thing when they get it. Heartiest congratulations. You deserve this triumph. ANDREW CARNEGIE. The Manufacturer Gets the Bounty. We believe that on all imports cominginto competition with the products of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the diffidence lastween wages abroad and at home.—National Republican Platform. If the tariff should be revised and the schedule made to fit this plank of the Republican platform the custom houses would not collect sufficient revenue in a year to run the government a month. Take the manufacture of steel rails for example; the report of Carroll D. Wright, as commissioner of labor, on the iron and steel industry shows that the difference in cost of producing a ton of steel rails (2,240 pounds), from the time the oar is taken from the ground is as follows:

cl O p I i n g? “ i| 8 g : & Direct labor *11.597 *7.817 *8.104 Officials and clerks.. .(505 .857 .581 Supplies and repairs. 3.416 3.417 2.643 Taxes 282 .150 .196 Transportation 5.949 4.207 3.894 Timber 081 .479 .668 Blast furnace profits 2.962 2.241 5.291 Cinder, scrap, etc... 1.081 2.678 Total, gross #25.878 *21.341 *21.822 Less scrap produced. 1.207 2.727 1.687 Total net cost *24.066 *18.614 *19.685 The above table shows the difference in labor cost to be $8.78 as in favor of the English manufacturer, and $3.49 in favor of the continental manufacturer. Of course this difference is largely duo to the efficiency of labor in the various countries. Mr. Wright shows in his .report that the efficiency of the workmen in the United Stares is .12 and .18 tons of product per men, per hour, while for the continent of Europe from .02 to .06 tons and .08 to .09 a ton in England. Bnt assuming that the capacity of the English workmen was equal to the American workmen; then, according to the last Republican platform, the tariff on steel rails should be $3.78 per ton, whereas, the McKinley tariff fixes the duties on steel rails at $22 per ton. According to the Minneapolis platform the American workman receives $3.78 and the manufactures $18.22 of this tariff bounty. No wonder Carnegie is able to take an annual regal tour through Scotland and bestow public libraries right and left, and buy old castles. No wonder the blood of American workmen has been slied at Carnegie’s Homestead mills. A few years ago Carnegie testified* before a congressional committee that his own profit from the iron mills amounted to $1,500,000 a year. Today the men who earned for him these millions are fighting for bread. Great is the protection to American labor!