The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-03-30

zaborinq machinery Is it not clear that the
wages on the laboring machinery constitute
larger portion of the cost of manufactured
goods than the wages of the laboring men?
Would not reduction of the wages of the
laboring machinery go further to reduce the
price of goods and facilitate competition than
reduction of the wages of the laboring men.
Of course it would"
The above from The Free Trader is a fair
sample of the ingenuity brought to the sup
port of the doctrine of the free trade; an
ingenuity which expends itself in concocting
sophistical arguments to mystify and delude
those who have not the time or the facts
wherewith to test their accuracy. We would
only add single word to the above quota
ton, and that at the very end of it, "Ot
course 1t would not, is the way we would
read it, and for the following reasons:
First, it does not follow that because ma
chinery does the largest portion of the labor
performed, that it does it at greater cost
than that of the aggregate manual labor of
the country. There is no doubt that it does
it at much less cost. 1t is not clear that the
wages of laboring machinery constitute a
larger portion of the cost of manufactured
goods than the wages of laboring men.
In 1860, the capital employed in the
United States, in manufacturing, was ST.
0O9, 855,715. The wages paid for manual
labor amounted the same year to $378,878,-
966. Twenty per cent of capital invested
will, on the average, pay the entire current
expenses of establishments driven by steam
power, including the interest on the capital
at seven per cent, repairs and depreciation,
and exclusive of cost of the material worked
and the manual labor employed.
We have purposely made large average
for steam-power manufactures. Where wa
ter power is employed the cost of running
is much less, owing to the reduction in the
fuel account An average fully large enough
for all kinds of power would be Is per cent
Fifteen per cent of the total manufacturing
capital above given would be S151, 488, 1857,
for the wages of machinery in 1860, as com
pared with $37S,878, Goethe wages of
manual labor employed in the manufacturing
business.
But the value of manufactured products
was, the same year, $1,0S5,861, 676 The
wages of machinery was only trlAe over
eight per cent of the value of the goods and
wares produced. So that if, instead of de
handing such enormous wages as the Free
Trader would have US believe, the machines
would be generous to the consumer, and
work for nothing and repair themselves, the
reduction in the price of goods thus secured
would be only eight per cent.
But as the machines will not work for
nothing and repair themselves, the free
traders have determined on reducing their
wages by removal of duties on iron and
coal. The cost of iron in the construction
of machines made wholly of that material
will not average over ten per cent of their
selling price. So, provided that iron were
to be obtained without any cost, machines
could be thereby cheapened only one tenth,
and as the interest on the first cost of ma
chimes, and the depreciation which eventu
ally necesstates the purchase of new ma
chinery are items in the entire wages of ma
chinery, which perhaps may be estimated at
ten per cent OF capital invested, we nnd thaI
the reduction in the cost of manufactured
goods consequent upon the reduction of the
wages of machinery caused by getting the
iron for nothing at all, would be only one
tenth of one half of eight per cent of the
entire value of manufactured products, or
two fifths of one per cent
We have already said enough on the sub
ject of the tariff on coal, about which there
has been such hubbub. There is no rea-
son to believe that its removal would affect
the price of coal in any appreciate degree.
This attempt to show that machinery is
overpaid and that the workingman suffers
thereby, deserves to be ranked with the at.
tempt to prove that the tariff on salt-18
cents per 100 lbs.-must inevitably render
the luxury of salt Goldfish inaccessible to the
poor. Scientific american.