The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-07-23

IL will be seen from this that labor, III
the manufacture of Atwood goods, Is only
IS cents ON each dollars worth of the man
ufastured article. IL does not exceed the
cost OF rent, interest, fuel drugs, taxes
and insurance. The raw material and
other expenses cost 50 per cent and only
Is per cent is given IN the men who are
supposed To begin eating farm products as
soon as they are employed in factory aud
who would cease 10 consume those articles
if otherwise employed The fact Is, the la
Dor of the WOODEN mill is performed mainly
by machinery, worked by steam, Coal
has taken tho place of muscle, and iron
aud steel now perform the work once re-
curing skilliul human hands.
Three small towns, in New England, with
the necessary capital and the machinery,
could. without any remarkable increase OF
population, manufacture all the boots and
shoes Bosded 10 supply the whole people Of
the United States and il they did So they
would not consume ono loaf of bread or
pound of meat more than they
now consume The horseshoe nails and
the horseshoes Of the country are now
made by machinery, the cost Of the labor
employed in their manufacture not exceed
ing the proportion now expended for labor
in the wooden mills, and the employment
of the 10 per cent of labor has not added,
however remotely, to the consumption OF
agricultural products
Value Of manufacture. 1858 ~ 2's'r
Co.t Of materials Of all kind. SssI
tOst ui taDof .'''''.''''''''''''' ils|E,i'ss
'front.' on production iaiAe' ,V
Invested capital III ~ i.-h-
Number Of persons employed .......... 9Tg.,s
These 27g, $50 persons employed in the
various manufacturing industries of Mas
saehusetts are supposed 10 form a special
home market for the breadstuffs of the
West; but that they could not eat less OF
the same products were they engaged in
any other business is shown by the fact
that their average wages in the year was
SAC. II each, out of which they had % pay
rent or board, purchase fuel, clothing,
books, and generally provide for them
selves aud dependents. These figures OF
Massachusetts, industry disclose the fact
that, OF the value of the manufactures, the
labor that produced them costs less than
- per cent, while the profit on the capital
employed was over IS per cent In
that State, where manufactures are
more varied than any other, ii
will be seen that capital and steam IT,
gether earn 43 per cent, while labor re-
ceives only % per cent Each human
being employed received on the average
for his years labor $422 AZ, while each
81 900 invested in machinery earned $43O.
These figures show further, that $4,000 OF
capital invested in machinery is equal u
the labor Of ten men that that much
money thus invested earns as much as tel
living operatives, that the earnings
Of the operators are needed t.
feed and clothe, and shelter
however scantily, tina laborers, while the
earnings of the capital invested in the ma
chinery are all profit except the small per
centage needed for repairs-machinery
needing no bread, nor pork, nor butter ,nol
eggs, nor anything that is grown upon the
farm.
When farmers, therefore, are told thai
each factory OF horseshoe nails, or OF woOler
goods, or Of any other article, creates O
demand for a large amount of farm pro
ducts. let them remember that manua
labor is now only secondary consideration
in manufacturing that the work is done
by machinery and steam that human la
Dor is limited mainly 10 the management
of the machinery, and that, instead Of
creating new consumers for farm products
capital is confscating their products unde
bounties voted by Congress to protect la
Dor, but which are appropriated as earn
ings Of machinery.
There arc many good and sufficient rea
sons why all kinds Of manufactures shout,
be established in the West, but the pre-
tense that their establishment will furnis
an increased market for farm products i
not one of them.--CHicdgo Tribune.