New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-18

rate at which her population increases Ina
already been greatly diminished; and
monopolizing capitalists will only ope
. plenty of iron mines in Spain, and thus clos
those of England, where mining and handln
the ore would cost them more, he who lives &
read the census of 1881 will find written OF
every page of the statistics of population pal
pable proof of free trade England's rapit
decadence. 'A 81 -f f.t -
happen to have with me a copy of tn
English tariff, which the gentleman present.
as a model which we cannot too speedil,
J copy, together with presentation of on,
: years results. A more infamous piece o
legislation was never planned by the Gun
ming OF greedy capitalists than this mode
tariff. 1t is the work ofheartless cupidity.
The English tariff has two objects, sir; the
irst Is to tax every import of which the la
/ borer is a special consumer, and to admit free
II OF duty everything that the governing classes
7 OF the people require. That is one of its OBJ
Jects. The other is to tax two of the lead
i ing agricultural products of the United States
The English laborer and small farmer know
two kinds of fruit, and two only-raisins and
dried currants. These even the poor, before
/ they approach too nearly to pauperism, enjoy
in their Christmas pudding and the better
class of labOrers enjoy them ON Sunday al
l
racy indulge in white grapes, and figs, and
prunes, and nuts, and indeed every variety of
imported fruit. Does the English tariff touch
eitherclass? Yes, sir; the currants and raisins
| OF the labOring man pay a duty of seven shil-
hngs per hundred weight; but the luscious
| fruits enjoyed by the aristocracy, the grapes
| OF France and Italy, the figs of Smyrna, the
prunes of the world, the banana, and other
tropical fruits, and all those things which
beautify and grace the tables of the aristoc-
racy, are admitted free of duty. Would the
| these? - s* - -
Mr.. Speaker, why should the laborers and
| farmers of the United States be taxed s2O,-
| 100000 a year for the privilege of taking a
draught of tea or coffee with their morning
and evening meal: Why should this be, 1
ask? - s. n
If the purchasing power of English wages
is, as the gentleman from Indiana asserts, so
much greater than the purchasing power of
American wages, why do SO many English
skilled laborers come to this country? Why
do no American laborers migrate to England?
| Sir, gentleman who was yesterday before
the Committee of Ways and Means, the mayor
| of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr.
HOughton, of the firm of Hurd & Houghton,
| told us he mad gone to England to get work
men, when his Office had yielded its able
bodied men to the demands of the war /; and
he found there the best compositors so poor
that they were not able to pay their passage
and come with him. And he told us, further.
that he found in London one poor compositor
from Indiana, who, having saved something
here, had gone over there to see the world,
and who, having exhausted his American
earnings, had found his wages so small that
he had been unable to save enough to pay his
passage home, although he had been working
steadily for more than two years. He begged
Mr.. HOughton to bring him to this country,
where, according to the gentleman from In
diana, Mr.. KERR, the wages received have
not the same purchasing power as those he
had been earning in England. How, if this
assertion be true, was he to pay the passage
money to be advanced? - 1s 'i.~.
This theoryis mere fiction, sir, and those
who assert it cannot adduce any facts which
support it. You will not find an
English workingman in America who will not
tell you that the purchasing power of current
American wages is vastly greater than that
even of the recently advanced rates paid in
England. An English silk-weaver told the
Committee Of Ways and Means a few DAYS
ago that he had been at work in Macclesfeld
before the reciprocity treaty which closed the
silk factories in that town was concluded be-
tween France and England, and that he was
now at work at the same branch Of business
in Patterson, New Jersey, in factory en-
plOying the looms ON which he had worked
in Maccles6eld. When asked to compare the
wages he received then and now, he answered
thus: " Sir, / can now save more in year,
and have done it for years past, than the
whole of the earnings of my labor amounted
to in a year in England Yes, sir, that
mans net savings, the net results of his labor
after all his expenses Of living are provided
for, are greater than his whole earnings were
in England; and he now enjoys his meat
every day as all American worknen do, in
stead of only once week as very many skilled
English mechanics do who are comparatively
prosperous. Yes, sir, while enjoying more
generous diet and educating his children an
American silk-weaver can save more in the
course of year than the total amount of the
gross wages he could earn in England. But
what are facts like these to those who have
implicit faith in the inspired wisdom of the
teachings of free trade revenue reform!
May God forbid, sir, that in the pursuit of
cheapness we should reduce the women and
girls of America to the condition of those of
Belgium and the Zollverein, and may He, in
His mercy, forever prevent any portion of the
children and women of America from being
reduced to the condition Of those of Stafford
shire and other parts of England.
Sir, you have read the little book of George
Smith, of Coalville, Leicestershire, England,
entitled The Cry of the Children from the
Brick Yards of England?'' 1t is the most
thrilling and loathsome story of English in
humanity and suffering that have read for
years no fiction parallels it. 1t shows that
children, girls in the fourth year of their age,
are not too young to be employed in making
the pOttcry-wares and bricks of England
And Mr.. Smiths storyis corrOborated BY the
venerable Elihu Burritt and correspondents
of leading English journals, whose statements
are embodied in his book.
Boys and girls above twelve years of age
are often required to walk over twenty miles
day, carrying from six to nine tons of wet
clay half the distance. The distance walked
and the weight carried are easily ascertained.
They walk from certain bank to certain
table; and the amount of clay worked by the
men or women they supply tells the weight
they carry, and the number Of loads carried
determines the distance travelled. And for
what do they thus labor? A few pence a
day, the best workers (the adults) getting but
from one to three shillings day. / COM
mend the book to the attention of the gem
tleman from Indiana, mfr. KERR, j and ask
hun whether, in addition to turning girls and
women into the oar banks and coal mines of
Indiana in order To obtain cham iron apd