Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1895 — CUR LONDON LETTER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CUR LONDON LETTER.

THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM PRESSED ON PARLIAMENT. A Free Trade Country with More than a Million Idle Men—Where Cheapnes i and Poverty Go Hand in Hand —The Coat of Sugar. Five Millions Need Food. London correspondence: The unemployed question has now become so pressing in this country that a special Parliamentary committee has just been appointed to deal with the problem. It is not expected that the report of the committee will have any particular salutary effect for the simple reason that the whole difficulty is in our economic heresy of free imports, including prison made German goods. American citizens have just had an object lesson which has shown them very clearly what free-trade means. I will now tell them what it has done for the working classes in the United Kingdom. I have called them the “working” classes, but if matters go on at the present rate we shall eventually have no work left for our people to do. The prospect seems to consist of a dying agriculture and a decaying system of manufactures.

Will it be believed that In England and Wales alone there were 134,000 persons relieved at the several poor houses In one week in February last? This was merely outdoor relief and does not convey an adequate idea of the prevailing distress. Mr. Kerr Hardie, a labor member of Parliament, stated in the House of Commons that there were fully a million non-trade unionist workmen out of employment, or, counting 30,000 trade unionists out of work, a grand total of 1,030,000 men unemployed. If we reckon that each one of these workmen has a family depending upon him, we may safely say that about five millions of people are directly affected by want of work in England. In one part of London, with a population of workers of 44,090 in the district, there are 19,000 unemployed. In the London building trade only 3 per cent of the men are at present in work. There are 20,000 unemployed in Bradford, the great textile district In the tin plate district the men have offered to return to work at a reduction of 12% per cent, but the masters have no work for them. The condition of workers, even in the Government service,, is often deplorable. The postoffice is always supposed to be a splendid institution, but it generally starves its employes. Many of the mail cart drivers work sixteen hours a day for $4.50 to $5 a week. There are to-day in the central postoffice in London no fewer than 560 men sorters who earn less than $5 per week. It is generally thought that we are reducing our number of paupers. That is quite fallacious. Taking 1857, the earliest date available, we find that An. a population nL 19,000,00,0, the. xujjklber of indoor paupers in the first week of December was 129,000, while in January, 1894, in a population of 30,060,000, the number was 173,710. Following the statistics year by year, we find a continuous advance in the number of indoor paupers nearly keeping pace with the growth of population. The case of male able-bodied paupers is still more startling. Between January, 1880, and January, 1894, the number had increased from 26,000 to 391,319. In London itself the question of indoor pauperism is phenomenal. It has risen year after ygar. increasing from 29,458 in 1857 to 66,614 in 1894, and yet amid all this starvation, want of work and distress our free-trade Governmnt admits prison made German goods free into this country. And it goes farther yet and sends British contracts for soldiers’ clothes, arms, etc., to foreign makers because the labor is cheaper on the continent. This is the essence of free trade. To get manufactures at the cheapest possible rate, irrespective of any consideration about the maker. Railroads and Free Trade. The year 1894 was l the worst that the railroads of this country have known for decades. v

In normal conditions the earnings of the railroads should and do increase every year. They grow with the growth of the country and with the extension of lines. Last year they fell off enormously. Reports for the year are now approximately complete, representing 206 roads and 134,777 miles of track. They show a traffic loss of no less than $122,072,194 ns compared with 1893, which was a bad year. llow much of prostration tills means will appear when we say that from 1888 to 1892 there was every year a heavy gain in gross earnings, as follows: 1888, gain $13,903,586 1889, gain 42,865,020 1890, gain 72,141,530 1891, gain 47,067,580 1892, gain 56,303,782 It thus appears that in normal conditions the average annual Increase in gross earnings should be about $40,500,000. But instead of that there was a falling off of $10,520,098 in 1893, and for 1894 a still further decline of nearly $123,000,000 from that low level. The loss in net earnings was much smaller, being only $40,323,603. This means that there was a saving of $82,648,951 in operating expenses and maintenance. The greater part of this enormous saving represents a direct loss to wage earners, and through them to the producers whose products wage earners buy to the extent of their ability. The rest of the saving represents deterioration of the roads, and must ultimately be made good by stockholders. -The World. England Gain*, We Lose. Although England bought moro wheat, flour, bams, salt pork and leather from us, yet their total purchases of

the articles above enumerated were $2,305,483 less than in January, 1894,; showing that England is gaining at both r ends, selling us in one month $5,062,460 more than a year earlier, and buying from us $2,305,485 less, which made her net gain, under the Gorman bill, amount to $7,367,945 In a single month, or at the rate of almost $90,000,000 a year. This is the first fruit of “tariff reform,” and the approach toward absolute free trade. It is not surprising 1 that Prof. Wilson was tendered a banquet by the British Board of Trade, hut they should do more than this; they should provide him with a permanent job at a very high salary after he is out of the postoffice. They can afford it As for the President, when his term of office expires, undoubtedly he ought to be well cared for by the representatives of the British banking interests.

The Coat of Sacar. The bounty on raw sugar was 2 cents per pound and the tariff duty is now 46 per cent ad valorem, or less than 2 cents per pound. Should we not, therefore, have cheaper sugar now than under the McKinley law? ONE IN DOUBT. The present duty on raw sugar will average 1.20 cents per pound on a basis of 3 cents as the average value of all raw sugar that we import. This duty must be applied to all the sugar that we consume, because the market value of our domestic sugar will correspond with that of the duty paid imported sugar. Applying this duty of 1.20 cents to the 4,343,209,500 pounds that we consumed last fiscal year we have a total charge to the people of $52,118,514. The bounty of 2 cents per pound was chargeable only on the quantity of domestic sugar produced in this country, being $12,099,899 for the fiscal year ending June 30,1894.

Where the bounty cost the people only $12,000,000 the new duty will cost $52,000,000 on the basis of our former prices and consumption, making an additional charge for sugar of $40,000,000 to be paid by the people as the result of the Democratic policy on sugar. That is why sugar will now cost the people more money than under the McKinley tariff, and the producers of domestic sugar will also receive less protection to the extent of 4-5 cent on every pound of sugar that they produce. A British Demand. At the last annual meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain, held in London, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce asked the Associated Chambers to “call the attention of her Majesty’s Government to the disastrous consequences that have issued from the operations of hostile customs tariffs, and to the necessity of adopting such measures as may insure the defense of British imperial measures.” - , There are some free traders in this country who are so shameless as to assert that free trade is not for the advantageof British capitalists and manufacturers. Hopff So;-" ~* • The threat of free ships seems definitely lifted, for England can never expect that another Congress and nilmlaistration will be so subservient to her interests as the present one, and it is to be hoped that confidence in the employment of American built vessels will be revived, and that we shall see our wage earners employed in the numerous industries connected with shipbuilding. It is now certain that none but American built ships can engage in the vast coasting trade between the east and west coasts of America that will spring up as soon as the Nicaragua Canal shall be opened. Democracy Is Dead. The free trade party have always catered to the poor man’s vote, but now that American labor realizes that it is the object of that party to keep men poor, the friends of protection feel that we have turned the corner, and that in ’96 prosperity will come to stay. Free Trade Losses Lost. In free trade England the number of sheep declined by 1,420,000 last year and the number of cattle by 353,500 head. This shows that the loss of farm stock under free trade is not merely temporary, but continuous. Individuality is everywhere to be spared and respected as the root of everything good. Protection.