Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1892 — TARIFF AND WAGES. [ARTICLE]

TARIFF AND WAGES.

HOW PROTECTION WORKS THE WORKINGMAN. Chief Of Tariff Frauds—Cutting Wisdom Teeth—Wages Here and There—By the Orace of McKinley the Trusts Advance Trices. Wages Here and There. To the Editor of the People’s Column: A correspondent in the Globe wishes to know the wages here and in England or Europe. Mr. M., of Haverhill, Mass., thinks the wages are based on the living account of people, and to a certain extent he is right, but not always. Labor organizations have fully as much to do with the rate of wages. For illustration:' In Manchester shoe cutters get $13.50 per week for doing Hie same work that cutters in Lynn get sl7 per week for. Yet they live as well and rent is as high as in Lynn. Lynn has its labor organizations in the shoe trade, while they have none. We work faster and longer hours per week in the United Btate3 than the workmen in England, but as most work is done by the piece, in giving the rate of wages here and in the old country it should be stated how much each receives by the piece. Here is a table from Mr. J. Schoenhof, formerly Consul at Tunstall, showing the dally wages, and the wages per yard', in cotton mill operatives in three countries: Wages Daily per 100 _ „ wages, yards. In Switzerland and Germany .44 to .49 .60 In England .65 .55 In United States 80 to $1.12 .40 This table shows that the “pauper labor" of Europe is not so cheap to the man who buys it and sells its products as American labor is. The average labor cost of producing a pair of shoes in Massachusetts, whore the shoe laborer gets the,highest wages in the United States, is 35 per cent., while in England it averages 65 per cent. Yet the dally average wages show in Lynn, Brockton, Haverhill, etc., $2; in England, sl. Here is a good illustration of the above: A shoe packer in America gets from $8 to sl2 per week; in Halifax and other large shoe towns in England he will get $5 to $7 per week. Here he will pack from 12 to 20 60-palr cases, while over there ho only packs from 7to 12 cases per day. An English shoe-cutter informed me recently that forty pair a day was • a fair day’s work in the old country, yet here twice that number is not a day’s woik. —Boston Globe.

The Tack Trust. The Iron Age of July 14, 1892, said that trusts “almost universally advanoe prices whenever the business is sufficiently consolidated' to warrant such a course. ” ■ This is somewhat at variance with the teaching of the New York Tribune and other high-tariff papers that feel called upon to defend the legitimate offspring of “protection,” but-that It is true is evident from a consultation of the flies of the Iron Age in' regard to prices' of Iron and steel goods in and out of trusts. Those out of trusts show a steady and general decline. Those in trusts show no decline in prices, unless the trusts are losing their grip on the market, but ordinarily show great advances in prices, while the trust is secure and supreme. The prices of axes, cartridges, shot, lead, steel rails, cutlery, etc., will illustrate this point, but the advance in the prices of taoks noted in the last Iron Age, July 21, will make it pertinent to consider the subject of tacks in connection.

About 1881 a great tack trust was formed, called the “Central Tack Co.,’’ with' headquarters at Boston. Ail, or nearly all, tacks made in the United States are made in New England. There were then about forty-five manufacturers, mostly small ones. They were all included in the trust, which closed many of them. Prices were advanced greatly and the trust made big ■profits for two or three years, despite the fact that it paid considerable sums to the new factories rapidly called into existence by the high prices to keep them idle. After four or five years there were eighty or ninety manufactories, and the- trust could not subsidize them all and had to go to the wall. Prices took a headlong tumble of about 50 per cent., and for several years the process of evolution was at work in this industry, closing up all factories, that could.not Stand severe cOiiipbtltion, or annexing them to larger and more favorably situated concerns, so that in 1890 there were a comparatively few manufacturers doing the bulk of the business. But among these few were several of those who officered the Central Tack Co., and who had ever since been dreaming of again making those old-time profits. Five of these manufacturers—Dunbar, Hobart & Co., of Whitman, Mass.; Loring & Parks, of Plymouth, Mass.; the American Tack Co., of Pail-haven, Mass.; and ' the Albert Field and the Taunton Tack Companies, both of Taunton, Mass.— got together in 1890 and formed the “Atlas Tack Corporation.” with headquarters at Boston and warehouses in other large cities. These are all large manufacturers and are said to make three-fourths of our total product, which is estimated as being over $3,000,000 per year. By closing up some of their offices, and by advancing prices, which a reduced output enabled them to do, they soon began again to reap big profits. Besides previous ones, two important advances have been made since September, 1891, as is shown by the following sample discounts, tb.e pricelists remaining the same: Papered.dozened and M's. Sept. ’»l. June ’92. Ju1y20,'92. Steel carpet tacke, bright . -.80% *25 72% *25 66%% *25 •Upholsterers’ (arike, 8. 8..... .80%*20 74%*25 70 %*25 Am. out taoks... .80% &15 80% &15 66%% *25 Gimp aud lace tacks 80% *2O t6%%&:5 Thus tacks listed at $1 sold for 15 cents in September, 1891, and sell for 25 cents at present. The advance then on carpet tacks has been 66 per cent. Inside of one year. It Is noticeable that outside manufacturers keep pace, in the matter of advances, with trust prices, showing that there is some secret connection not understood by the public and consumer. Another remarkable fact is that wholesale dealers make no objection to these increases, but, on the contrary, they consider it a “healthy sign,” as it enables them to get their hand deeper into the consumer’s pocket. As one of them puts it, “We add the same per cent., Io the first co§t of the goods, and if tacks cost us 3 instead of li cents a package, yre make just twee as much profit, because a family only uses|2o or 30 cents’ worth of-tacks a year and will buy Just as many no matter what the price. ” As is usual with trusts, a tariff of from 23 .to *5 per cent, is back of this one to prevent the consumer from importing foreign-made tacks or from reimporting American tacks sold for export at z 0 per cent, less than to the domestic consumer. The recent price of two doeen papejTs of tinned-iron tacks, weighing 24 ounces per paper, was $2.65 to the American"and $2.20 to the foreign consumer. The oeauties of our “protective” system surpass all understanding now that we are beginning to appreciate MoKinleyism. Tell-Tale Wage Reduction*. Out of the 438 wage reductions in protected industries printed in the New York World, the greatest number that occur in any one State is 110, which, of

course, Is credited to Pennsylvania. Next in order come New York with 97; New Jersey, 39; Massachusetts, 33; Ohio, 36; Indiana, 19; Illinois, 15; Connecticut, 11; Rhode Island, 7; Tennessee, 6; Montana, 6; Missouri, 5; Maryland and Michigan, 4 each; Minnesota, Kentucky, Wyoming, Alabama, and Arkansas, 3 each: lowa, West Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Delaware, 2 each, and 11 more States and Territories I each. This summary shows at once what States receive the fiaost protection and the inevitable results of such protection. Not only are wages higher in the unprotected industries bat there are fewer wage reductions and strikes in them. It is facts like these that make protectionists scratch their heads and think. Chief of Tariff Frauds. There are several other bigger frauds when amounts are considered that are being worked on the American people than the tin plate fraud; but this one is pre-eminent when the percentage of frauds to the dollar is taken into ao* count. It matters but little from what point of view the subjeot is approached. The consumer Is losing from $15,000,000 to $20,0( 0,000 a year, with no compen-' satlon at present and no hopes of any In the future. The American workingman is getting the benefit from the Btnall tin plate, or rather tin coating, establishments that are temporarily- located here, because the only labor that receives more than ordinary day wages Is imported. The capitalist who Invests in this business is likely to lose money because the high price of steel or “black” sheets (due to the duty) prevents the prosperity of the industry here until we can import plates lree of duty or can roll them here as cheaply as they are rolled in Europe. Even the politicians will find that this industry has done them more harm than good—it is said that some of them are already sorry that they staked so much on it and ihade such glowing promi ses. The Hon, Thomas L. Bunting said in Congress June 16, 1892: “The tin-plate industry, as now developed and put on record, is a finishing step for Welsh consignments of cold-rolled, pickled, and annealed steel plates. It is adding to this Welsh material 25 cents of Welsh labor, through the use of Welsh machinery, for each box of tin plate. It is simply putting on a coat of paint on the finished produot, with Australian paint and a Welsh brush and by a Welsh painter. Up to date, with but few exceptions, the tin-plate industry of this country has but one ingredient in Its composition that is truly American, viz.,

domestic atmosphere. And this is the reason why, in the burning of the factory over at Philadelpaia belonging to the N. & G. Taylor Company, there was not an entire destruction and loss because the atmosphere was rescued!" If any one thinks that American tin Elate, so called, is made from American lack sheets, let him read the evidence presented by the Hon. Benjamin F. Shively in the House on June 15. Mu. Shively had prepared for him by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics statements showing the imports of iron and stoel sheets, such>s are commonly used for making tin and terne plate. It should be remembered that these plates constitute about nine-tenths of the weight and also nine-tenths of the value of tin and terne plates. The statistics of imports were as follows: Bate Pounds, U. S. Period. of duty. thinner product Year ending Cents than No. 25, tin June 30 per lb. wire gage. plate. 1889 1.76 6,246 1890 1.75 2,298 1891 1.65 1,339,582 Quarter ending— Sept. 80, 1891.. 1.65 786,603 826,922 Deo. 31,18Jt,. 1.65 974,241 1,409,821 March. 31,1892. 1.65 3.657,709 .3,004,087.

Commenting upon this table Mr. Shively said: “Every pound of black plates noted in this table is of the proper gauge and general character for tin and terne plates. The plates noted are ready to receive the coat of tin or tin and lead. The normal importation and consumption of these plates prior tq the passage of the act of 1890 is shown by the statistics for the fiscal years of 1889 and 1890, respectively.” For comparison the product of “American” tin plate as reported by the special agent of ,the Treasury Department has been given in the last column. Previous to the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1891, tin and terne plate was not made here in commercial quantities, though it is evident from, the imports of black, sheets just previous to this time that preparations were being made to establish this now famous “American” industry. Mr. Shively says, “these statistics, all of which arc official, show that the American production of tin and terne plate for the three quarters -ending March 31, was 5,240,830 pounds, while the importation of black plates for the same period was 5,418,552 pounds. Moreover it must be remembered that the 1,389,582 pounds of black sheets imported during the fiscal year ending June cO, 1891, remain unaccounted for. As is shown by tho importations for 188.) and 1890, the consumption of imported black plates in this country prior to the passage of the act of 1890 did not average over's,ooo-pounds per annum. Small amounts of these plates have been for years used in the manufacture of signs and a few other articles. It is perfectly apparent that the bulk of the 1,381,582 pounds was imported for other purposes. The real fact is that from the time the act of 1890 went on the statute book to March 31, 1892, there was imported into the United States 6,758,144 pounds of black plates, and there was made 5,240,830 pounds of what the Treasury Department construes to be tin and terne plate produced in the United States, so that after making ample allowance for all the imported black plates c nsumed in this country; for other purposes, we have left over 1,000,000 pounds to coat with tin and return to the Treasury Department at the end of the present quarter as ‘tin plate produced in the United States.’ ” This, then, is the kind of an industry that protection is trying to domesticate and put on exhibition here. The aniu als in Barnum’s circus are as much American as is this industry and far more uselul for exhibition purposes.

Cutting: Wisdom Teeth. The “recent unpleasantness” at Homestead, Pa., has called attention to the fact that the wages of rollers, heaters, and other skilled workmen in the iron and steel industry are nearly twice as high in Western as in Eastern Pennsylvania. Is this because Western Pas ttvice as much tariff protection as Extern Pennsylvania? Not at all. Both the manufacturers and the workers agree that tile because the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers ia stronger in Western than in Eastern Pennsylvania. This is why the millionaire iron masters fcre after the.scalp of the Amalgamated Association, just as they would be after a high.tariff, if it really made wages high. The two things that the manufacturers want most are high prices for their products and lot* wages to produce theta, and the mutual affinity between manufacturers and in high tariffs is evidence that “protection* accomplishes these two objects. The workers aud consumers are learning these facts by piecemeal, but their wisdom teeth will be cut some day. Mr. Harrison shiuld get Carnegif to manage his campaign. Carnegif could telt the workingmen all about the beauties of Republican protection —Atlanta Constitution.