Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1912 — ROB LABOR AND THE PUBLIC [ARTICLE]

ROB LABOR AND THE PUBLIC

Recent Happenings Have Shed Light on the Operations of the Cotton Manufacturers. Recent industrial disturbances throughout New England disclosed a wage scale very much lower than the public realized. Of the 350,000 operatives, fully 250,000 were earning from $6 to $lO a week, 75,000 from $lO to sls a week, and 25,000, including overseers and foremen, from sls to $25 a week. This wage scale compared to that obtaining 20 years ago shows a reduction of more than 100 per cent., while the cost of living has increased 47 per cent. New England cotton mill wages were not living wages, and, even with the ten per cent, increase, are not living wages, The most- valuable contribution to the discussion of cotton mill wages is the report of the tariff board on the cotton schedule of the tariff law, and just made public. That report shows that New England cotton mills and. in fact, cotton mills throughout this country, are today paying lower wages than are paid in England or any European country; while the cost to the consumer of some grades of goods produced, Is 100 per cent, more than for similar goods manufactured abroad. This means, if it means anything, that cotton manufacturers have employed the tariff to rob both their employes and the public. The cotton manufacturers are thus responsible for the absence of a living wage in the cotton industry. The remedy for this situation is that the cotton schedule be revised by lowering some duties and abolishing others.