Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1892 — WHY THE MUGWUMPS RAGE. [ARTICLE]

WHY THE MUGWUMPS RAGE.

The foolish Now York mugwumps, who are so bent on bringing criminal prosecution against Labor Commissioner Peck, may succeed in making him some trouble. Whether he will be annoyed by their operations or enjoy the excitement of the hunt depends upon his temperament. But One thing is certain. They are doing the Republican party a great favor by the renewed attention thus called to the report. It is now five weeks since the original publication of that report, or summary. Manv who passed it by at the time, or gave it no special attention, are now curious to know what there is in it. For the benefit of this class we refer to it especially, as all sorts of misrepresentations have bee made.

The report contains two tables and only two. The first shows the inoreases and decreases of wages and the amount of production in 1891 as compared with 1890 in slxtjr specified industries, those industries embracing a great number of trades. For example, clothing is one induatry made up of 136 different trades. The tablo shows decreases of wages in twenty-two and of production in twenty industries. The wage decreases aggregate $1,193,741.28; the production decreases aggregate $5,927,097.15. Had these figures had no offsetting increases every mugwump would have been happy and Mr. Peck would have been praised to the skies. But to the confusion and humiliation of the free traders, who insisted that protection does not protect, it appears that the increases greatly overbalance the decreases. The net results are: Increase in wages, $0,377,925(09; net increase in K* notion, $31,315,130.68. This, in , is the showing of table No. V. Governor Hill brushes this aafdc with remarks about the increase in

general enlargement of plants, etc., but his friend Peek says that “there were no less than 89,717 instances ing the same yeaiV’that is, during the first year of the McKinley bill. This is a definite statement and no reasonable doubt exists of its absolute accuracy. The second table is entirely devoted to earnings, and the figures given harmonize with those of the other table without duplicating them. There are in this second table sixtyeight industries, and 75 pfer cent of yearly earnings. In the cases of no less than 28,500employes an increase yas shown averaging~s23,ll a year per each employe. Take only the fffty-one industries showing an increase leaving out the seventeen showing a decrease, and the average Increase for each employe is $43.36 a year. One other point is covered by the report, namely, strikes. For the year 1891 the total number was 4,519, as against 6,258 in 1890, a decrease 01 1,740. More than half of these strikes were in the building trades, which, from the nature of the case, are not reached directly bv the tariff. Taken as a whole this report is an irrefutable argument in support of protection as a benefit to wage earners.