Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-06
CAUSES OF DEPRESSION IN HUSH
NESS.
From a Speech Delivered tn Marion,
Ohio, OR Saturday, Sept. 29d
1877, by the Hon. A. G.
Thurman.

1877, by the Hon. A. G.
Thurman,
I now invite your attention tC
some remarks on the subject of the
depression of business and of the
want of employment and labor
in the United States. Without al
luding to the destruction of capital
in the late war, in which thousands
of millions of property were utterly
destroyed, and Just as much taken
from the wealth of the country as
though it never existed without al
luding to the circumstances that
grew out of the war-Of men being
a long time withdrawn from the
productive industries of life and
then returned to such industries
want to call your attention to three
great leading causes, all of which
operate upon the condition of labor
ing men, and some, if not all, OF
which operate to produce the de-
preston in business that exists.
The first thing to which | call
your attention is the effect of the
wonderful improvements that have
been made in laboring-saving ma
chinery, and its effect upon labor.
| can not go into details on this sub
iect, but let me show you what is
the general result in the United
States, and [ now read the opinion
of one of the ablest statisticians in
the country, and usually one of the
most accurate men. He makes this
statement after a very full and care
full survey and study of the subject
" An estimate by Mr.. Atkinson, of
Boston, founded on an extensive in
vestigatiOn, is that at present about
80 per cent.O our population, using,
the improved tools and machines
can produce all that 100 per cent can
consume of the standard articles
food, fuel, clothing, tools, wares, and
the like, which constitute the great
bulkaof our cOnsumption-tand can,
in addition, produce all that we
have yet been able to find market
for abroad" Now, just think of it,
with theimprovementS in labor-saV-
ing machinery nine-tentks of the
community can consume, and also
supply all themarkets that, under eX-
isting laws, we have abroad. The
is that the labor of
of the country is practi-
cally dispensed with, or in danger of
being so. That is the inevitable re-
suit of it, or would be if it were not
for some cOunteracting influences.
Now, will give you an illustra-
ton or two as samples. First, that
of the cOttOn-mill known as the
BoOtt Mill, of Lowell, Massachu-
sets. / read from the North Amer
lean Review, No. 257: "The inn
portant fact brought out in this an
alysis is that ninety operatives men
and WOmen) engaged in the manu-
facture of cotton in one of the best
mills in Massachusetts produced
in 1876 with sixteen and
half hours less labor per week more
cloth, measured in pounds and of
nearly the same quality, than 231
operatives working in the same mill
did in 1885," That is, with the i'm
proved machinery, ninety opera
tives, men and women, working
sixteen and a half hours less per
week, produced more cloth than 231
operatives did thirty-nine years ago.
Now mark it (: There were 231 OPP
eratives working in that mill who
had to be supported. They had
need of food, clothing, fuel, light
and other necessarieS, and to
supply these wants required labor
of about 460 persons. But the
ninety mill Operatives now en-
are supported by the labor
of about 135 farm-laborers and
others.
So you see now the tendency is to
throw labor out of employment?
Now let us turn again to some
results ssimiIarand
possibly more striking" I read
from the same article in the North
Review, page ISL: "MOre
results are afforded by an
analysis of some other American
industries. Thus, in the manufac-
ture of boots and shoes, three men
with machinery can do at
what, prior to 1860, would
have required the labor of six men
to effect. While the individual or
per capita consumption of boots and
shoes in the United States has prob
ably been more uniform during the
same period than is the case with
almost any other commodity"
"In the manufacture of straw
goods, three hundred hands in one
of the largest factories in New Eng
land do more with the seWing-ma-
chine than what a comparatively
few years ago required a thousand
to effect when sewing was done by
hand. And the steam press turns
off four hats to the minute in place
of the old rate of one hat in four
Now, it is easy to see how this in
crease Of production by labor-saving
has dispensed with the
of so many hands, and
to see how the tendency of it is to
throw human bones and human
out of employment. But
do not understand me as condemn
ing labor-saving machinery, for
there is a great compensation to be
noticed. While it has a ten
1ency to throw men out of en-
who have nothing in
the world but their bone and
muscle to give them support while
it has this tendency, it has also
to give more employment
by increasing consumption. 1t does
that by lessening the cost of pro-
luction. 1t thereby increases con-
prOdigiously, and gives to
many peopIe-in fact, to the whole
cOmmunity-a much larger share Of
the necessarieS, and in some inStan-
ces the luxuries, of life, than they
would otherwise enjoy. Yet, owing
to circumstance, such as this cOun-
try is labOring under now, the con-
is not so great as it would
be in prosperous times, for all are
all wearing their old
clothes and living on just as little as
as they cali > 80 that the increased
market for labor ceases for the time
being, and laboring men feel the full
effect of the competition of iron
hands with human hands and hu-
human eyes. That is one cause of
our condition.
TAXES ANOTHER CAUSE.
Another cause that seems to have
been almost entirely overlooked by
those who have been addressing the
people, so far as their speeches have
come under my observation, is on
taxes. One of the greatest causes of
distress in the country is bearing for
many years-the enormous taxes,
l.. 4 i