Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1898 — PROTECTION’S WORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROTECTION’S WORK.

WHY THIS ISSUE SHOULD BE KEPT BEFORE THE PEOPLE. Increase in thi Amount Paid to Wage Earners During the Current Year Estimated at More than Two Thouand Millions of Dollars. The recently published comprehensive Industrial census of leading industries in forty-seven States and Territories, issued by the American Protective Tariff League, proves that the amount of wages paid to labor in the United States was 44 per cent, greater in 1898 than during the distressful year of 1895. This document was prepared by Hon. Robert W. Tayler, who represents in Congress the district formerly represented by President McKinley. The vitally important question arises, W T hat does the increase of 44 per cent, in wages amount to in dollars and cents? This can bo answered approximately upon the basis of the ivages paid during the census year 1890. The w-ages paid in manufactures alone during that year amounted to $2,283,216,529. Forty-four per cent, of this amount is This represents approximately the increased amount of wages paid to labor in manufactures in the United States during the year 1898, as compared with the amount paid in 1895. It far exceeds the value of the commercial advantages which will be realized from all the territorial acquisitions of the country during the recent war, even if w'e shall acquire Cuba. In a word, during the present administration of our national affairs the victories of peace through the adequate protection of American industry are far more renowned than those of war. Again, this increase In the amount of wages paid to labor exceeds the average annual value of the exports of merchandise from the United States during the last five years by $31,662,966. This is not a strange thing. The internal commerce of the United States many times exceeds in value its foreign commerce. The value of the home market is at least twenty times the aggregate value of ail our foreign markets. But the foregoing statement as to the value of the advantages derived from protection ($1,004,615,272) falls very far short of the truths It is based upon the wages paid in manufactures alone during the year 1890. If to it were added the amount of wages paid in agriculture, in mining and in all oilier industries the gain for the year 1898 over the year 1895 would undoubtedly amount to nearly if not quite two thousand million dollars a year. Under unbroken protection the number of persons employed in manufactures Increased from 1.311,246 in 1860 to 4,712,622 in 1890; the value of the products of manufacture increased from $1,885,861,076 in 1860 to $9,372,437,283 iu 1890, and the annual earnings per capita of laborers employed in manufactures increased from $289 in 1860 to $484 in 1890. Again, the value of domestic exports of merchandise from the United States increased from $793,392,599 during the calamitous year of 1895 to $1,210,291,913 during the prosperous year of 1898. For the first time in the history of the country, the value of the exports of manufactured goods from the United States during the year ended June 30, 1898, exceeded the value of the imports of manufactured goods into the United States. In his last annual message to Congress, submitted December, 1892, President Harrison showed that the country was then at the high water mark of prosperity. Upon the inauguration of President Cleveland in 1893 the country was plunged into the depths of despondency as the result of free trade. But again, under protection, it has attained unto a greater degree of prosperity than ever before. It would seem that these important facts have been lost sight of even by many Republican speakers and newspapers in the light of the brilliant achievements of our army and navy. If we fail to profit by the more important lessons of experience in the arts of pehce, the patriotic soul of this nation may w’ell exclaim, in the language of Itudyard Kipling’s recessional hymn: Lord, God of Hosts, l>e with us yet, Lest we forget; lest we forget.

Extend Protection to Bhips. We must be able to feel secure in the control of our home markets l>efore there is any letting down of the protective liars. Just at present protection should bo extended nml the great carrying trade of this nation should be brought under control of American Interests. We are paying three hundred million dollars a year Hi this direction, because wo are not yet able to compete with the cheap labor on foreign ships. We can build the ships ns cheaply, but we cannot run them at as low a figure as can tlie foreign owners, principally on account of the starvation wages paid to foreign seamen. The remedy Is not to even up this disadvantage by reducing the wages of American seamen, but by extending the lieneflts of protection to American shipping, whereby we can successfully compete with that of any foreign nation, and at the same time pay higher wages. This has been the result of all other American Industries fostered by protection; there Is no reason why It should not work as successfully In building up an American merchant marine.—Tacoma Ledger.

Must Cone to This Country. The "Importer’s revenge" referred to In a recent Issue of the American Economist—that of retaliating upon our government’s refusal to admit undervalued goods by establishing a large plant In the United Rtates for the inarm failure of those goods-impresses the Minna-

apolis Tribunt. as “aa interesting illustration of the Working of the protective principle in favor of American labor.” The Tribune remarks: If this is their mode of securing “revenge” on the customs officials, it will be a revenge that will conduce to the interest of American labor and American farmers and merchants, for the work of manufacturing their goods will be done here. American workmen will be employed, and the wages paid to their employes will be spent here instead of abroad. Thus protection encourages an importation of capital and industries rather than of goods. The way to national development is through the diversification and multiplication of industries. Political economists say we need foreign capital to properly stimulate our growth, and the application of the protective principle is bringing it to us. There la Plenty of Gold. The refutation of the plea of the silverites that there is not enough gold to answer the demands of the gold standard for money Is found in the reports of the production of gold throughout the world. The Director of the Mint has just published his report of the gold production of the United States and of the world for last year. It shows a vast increase ewer 1896, just as 1890 showed an increase over preceding years. Taking the world’s production, Africa leads with something over $38,000,000. The United States comes next with over $57,000,000, nnd Australia next with over $35,000,000. liussla leads European countries with $23,000,000. Altogether the world's output of gold for 1897 was nearly $238,000,000, which is an increase of $35,000,000 over the output of 1890, and more than twice as much as was produced in 1890. The indications for the present year are that these figures will be surpassed and that not less than $270,000,000 will be the production for 1898. The statistics for the United States show that Colorado has at least surpassed California as a gold State, her output being $19,000,000, as against $14,000,000 for California. South Dakota—the Black Hills region—comes next with $5,000,000, and Montana with $4,000,000. With such a production of gold the world over—one that Is a permanent addition to the world’s wealth—how futile It Is to say that there is not gold enongli to answer the demands of a monetary system founded upon it. It may seem paradoxical to say so, but the more gold we have the less we will need it as money. The world's business is done with paper, and all that is needed is a uniform standard for the paper. That standard is gold, and we have it In abundance,—Chicago Tlmes-Herald.

Republicanism and I.abor.

A formidable movement of capitalists in Massachusetts for repeal of laws enacted in the interests of labor was turned down by the Republican Legislature in 1897. The object of the movement was to put the cotton manufacturing Industry on a more equal footing with the Southern mills. The recent Republican State convention of Massachusetts adopted the following resolution: The laws of Massachusetts passed in the interest of wage earners, establishing short hours of labor, compulsory education for children, frequent payment of earnings, guarding, as far as practicable by law, life and limb from the risks of machinery, and demanding the best sanitary conditions for the workshop nnd home, have proved wise and wholesome. If, in the industrial development of the country, they have become adverse factors in competition, the remedy is not in their repeal, but through education and the efforts of organized lal>or to procure the en-t actment of similar laws in the other State* of the Union. The charge is frequently made by the opposition that the Republican action in Massachusetts gives no support to the charge. An Astonishing Fact.

The Table* Turned an ICnittnnd'. An Associated Ureas dispatch from Washington sa.vs that the fact that British imports Into tlie United .States have fallen off greatly in the past year, while American exports to Great Britain have greatly Increased, has been anonuneed from time to time during the year, but the full year's figures Just presented by the treasury bureau of statistics, bring to the surface some Interesting facts heretofore unpublished. These figures show that while the exports from the United States to England have increased 111 per cent., the Imparts from England have fallen off 35 per cent. The exports from this country to England during the past year, in round numbers, were five times as much as the lni|>ort« from England, the figures being: Imports from England $100,138,885 Exports to England. 8540,800,UK! Our Imports from England decreased 12 per cent, and our exports to England Increased 35 pt*r cent., making a net gain for the United States of 47 per cent., almost one-half, and yet the Democrats condemn HepubUuanlsm and protection: