Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1895 — THE RISE OF WAGES. [ARTICLE]

THE RISE OF WAGES.

GOING UP FASTER THAN THEY DECLINED. Republicans Forced to Admit the Benefits of Turiff Reduction—Good Clothing Cheaper, Yet Wages of Makers Not Reduced—European Sentiment. Glowing Dawn of Trade Revival. The rising tide of prosperity is now coming in so strongly that the Republicans are compelled to get out of its way and In doing so to admit that business is rapidly reviving under the Wilson fro'e trade tariff bill. As late as the oth ult, the New York Tribune was still telling its readers that the wage-earners were In revolt because they could not get “the old rate of wages,” and that “every week's payment brings home to them the fact that they have been persistently cheated, and that the Democratic policy was not Intended tb, and in the- nature of things, cannot maintain the wages formerly paid.” “Not only arc wages not being restored.” said the Tribune, but “the more severe competition with the labor of other lands only makes it more clearly impossible to restore thorn.” But the Tribune could not suppress the news of better times, and before the end of April admitted to Its readers that ”in a good many establishments wages have been advanced.” On May 2 it again admitted that business was reviving with surprising vigor, but expressed great sorrow at the fact that the wage-earners should insist upon sharing in the revival. After declaring that “there seems to be a prospect that the woolen mills in Providence and the neighborhood Mill soon be shut down, on account of a controversy with the, workers regarding wages,” the Tribune continued: “It is most unfortunate that this great industry, which has been so seriously depressed for the last two years, but has now begun to revive with surprising vigor, and lias shown most gratifying progress in the effort to compete under new and trying circumstances with woolen manufacturers of other countries, should now be arrested by serious labor difficulties. It is. to be. hoped that better sense will prevail, and that for the time questions of wages may be deferred.” The B,yoo or 10,000 textile workers In and near Providence paid no attention to the Tribune's advieqi but continued in revolt against McKinley wages. Other Republican newspapers are still asserting that wages are not advancing anil that it is folly for wageearners to expect higher wages while Democratic conditions exist. This is the position of the Philadelphia Press and the Boston Journal of Commerce. Regardless of the fact that several hundred thousands of wage-earners (mostly in textile mills) have had their wages advanced under the Wilson bill and apparently in blank ignorance of the fact that strikes for higher wages were then on in several scores of woolen mills, the Boston Journal of Commerce said, late in April: ' “The advance of wages in one or two woolen mills, and the advance in some of our cotton mills, gives many the impression that there is to be a general advance all along the line in these industries. This is a great mistake. * * * It is folly to presume that woolen manufacturers can live and operate their mills on a closer margin, We have no doubt that our woolen men would like to pay more for labor iu their mills if the present prices warranted it, but they do not; neither will they as long as we have so low duties on goods imported. It is hoped that the help in our woolen mills will understand this .fact, and that no strikes will take place iu that circle of business.” As a matter of fact nearly all of the reductions iD 181)3-4 have been restored and often the laborers are striking for as high wages as they were getting when McKinley struck them in 1890. The Republicans and protectionists cannot, with their little brooms, sweep back the rising tide of prosperity. If they were honest they would at once submit, as they will be forced to do later, that wages have advanced faster since this year than at any time during the last thirty years. A Ten-Dollar Sait. Under the new tariff the American people are able to get good clothing cheaper than ever before. The admission of wool free did not damage the domestic wool-growers, for there is a better demand l’of their product now than there was before the repeal of the McKinley tariff. More woolen mills are in operation, the mills are employing more hands and turning out a greater product as well as a better quality. Domestic wool is used largely for mixing with the foreign article, and tlie improved condition .of woolen manufactures promises well for our wool-grow-ers. The new tariff is an attack on shoddy, which, under taxed wool, constituted a large part of the clothing of the masses in this country. The American Wool and Cotton Reporter has had one of its editors investigating the matter, and he finds that clothes are so cheap since the tariff has been taken off wool that a really good suit can be bought in New York for 810. This expert reports as follows on one such suit which he examined critically: “A strictly all-wool, sixteen-ounce, Clay diagonal of American make, costing the wholesale clothier sl.lO a yard. The suit was made up and sold to the retailer for $7.50, leaving him a very handsome margin of protit when sold at $lO. The suit was cut on the same stylish line used for their higherpriced garments, and was trimmed, lined and sewed in a neat and serviceable manner. When it is understood that woolens costing as high as sl, and iu a few cases sl.lO a yard, and heavyweight woolens sometimes as high as $1.25 per yard, are used in the manufacture of $lO suits, it is plainly apparent to any one acquainted with the quality of such fabrics that a stylish, serviceable and in every way good suit can be retailed at $10.” None of the reduction in the price of clothing has been made by cutting down the pay of those who make it. Wages have not been reduced in our woolen mills or clothing factories, and more persona are employed in both

than were there when the new tariff went Into effect—Atlanta Journal. Another Tariff Lesson. The actual, operation of the new tariff is playing havoc with the theories of its opponents. In many industries wages, which we were told would be cut down, have been increased. Manufactories, which we were told would be ruined, are now making more goods and selling them iu more markets than they did under the McKiuley tariff. We have given recently a uumlier of instau es In which American woolens and carpets have been sold in England and in continental European markets which they uever reached before. The competition of the shoe manufacturers of this country has aroused the fear of the English manufacturers that a large part of their own home trade may be taken from them. The Wilson tariff reduced the duty on decorated crockery from GO to 35 l>er cent., and that on white ware from 55 to 30 per cent The general reduction of duties on crockery has been about 10 per cent. The foreign manufacturers have not, as it was said they would, raised the price of their wares and thus secured for themselves the benefit of this reduction of the tariff. They are selling to us at the old prices , and the people get the beuefit of lower prices for both foreign and home-made crockery. The industry in this country does not seem to be injured by the lower duties, and the consumers llnd that they can buy table ware cheaper now than they ever could before. The Wilson tariff has boon in effect only a little more than seven months and it is justifying every claim that was made by Its author and supporters when it was under consideration.—Atlanta Journal. « A Shaky Single Plant. Mr. Depew thinks thntj'.e luis discovered the winning issue for his party next year. It is simply “hard times.” He would have uo other—neither the tariff nor currency, except as incidental. His line of reasoning is short and direct. Everybody is “agin” hard times Everybody wants good tirfics. Therefore hold the Democratic party responsible for hard times. “Whoop it up” for Harrison (or McKiuley, or Morton, or Reed) and good times—and there you are. The formula Is Indeed simple—rather too much so. It supposes that the people are simple enough to have forgotten the long period of terribly hard times from 1873 to 1878 under Republican rule. It requires them to forget the depression, the strikes and lockouts, the million idle workmen, that led the voters to turn Mr. Depew's party down and out in 1890 and again In 1892. It Ignores the sacking of the Treasury during the Harrison-McKin-ley reign, and the monetary panic of 1893, due to the Sherman Republican Silver-Purchase act. But there is another and a more potent reason for thinking that Mr. Depew’s single plank will be too shaky for use next year. The times are improving. They are growing rapidly better. Commerce Indus, try hums. Wages rise. Prices are up. Crops promise well. If this improvement shall eiffitlnue, as there are many indications that It. will, where would the calamity howlers be then? Wo advise Dr. Depow to look earnestly nbout for another issue.—New York World. Cannot Be Suppressed. Possibly the tariff question may have to take a back seat for a year. No one, however, who knows anything about the question and the great extent to which public sentiment has been aroused will make the mistake of thinking that it can always be kept on a back seat. Tens of thousands of intelligent men have seen the iniquity of the whole tariff system and aro waging a war upon it that cannot but be successful. In public and private debate, in homes, in labor unions, in granges, and even in church and society gatherings, debate will go on until Congress will be compelled to settle tlie question in the only way possible—by abolishing the obnoxious, unjust and corrupting system of tariff taxation. Thousands of our best citizens consider the tariff question to be of far greater importance than the currency question, and it is by no means certain that the tariff question can be set aside for even a year.

Iron Workers’ Wages. Until the other day the only increases of wages in the iron industry which had been reported were at the very base of that industry—the advance of 15 per cent, for 15,000 coke workers in Western Pennsylvania, and an increase of about 10 per cent, for the employes of the Minnesota Iron Company in the iron-ore mines of the Vermillion Range. The upward tendency is now beginning to be manifested at the ifon furnaces and the manufacturing plants. At all the furnaces' In the Mahoning Valley wages are to be increased by 15 cents a day, and an addition of 10 per cent, has been made at the Phoenix Iron Works, Meadville, Pa. Our Republican contemporaries still strive to ignore this wages movement, because they have continuously and strenuously asserted during the last twelve months that it f could not take place so long as the present tariff should remain in force.—New York Times. An English View of the Income Tan. The rich people of America, whose fortunes are largely invested in such a manner as to escape with a nearly invisible minimum of taxation, fought the income tax from the outset with a naked frankness of selfishness Which none of our impoverished lords of the manor would have ventured to display in resisting Sir William Ilarcourt’s budget of last year. The astonishing decision of the Supreme Court, that to exact a percentage on rents is direct taxation, but to exact a percentage on salaries is indirect taxation, and hence permissible, gives an appropriate point to the entire controversy. There is no monarchical country in Europe* not excepting Russia or Turkey, where wealth enjoys the immunity from responsibility to the state and the general public that is given to it by the foremost of republics.—London Saturday Review. Old Kaiser Wilhelm had a soft voice, and spoke in a that gave pleasure to every hearer.