The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-08-03

b INI " INf 80 south t1 mo Crnst+
qut ID prices II stocks. faiIwdy
and o. mich must shafoin the general
prospe f. Truly this section of the Union
Is 20 be partially congratulated upon ttc
nattofng prospects that arc smiling In the
waving fields ofour farmers, aud the happy |
countonances Of our merchants. 10.
dustral forces at work on larger aud |
more improved scale, admirable seasons
to assist, and u spreading tendency 10 push |
on in the race for wealth, are all distinctly
discerniblc features Of the past year. And
yet in the face of this, but little real, tangi'
bic wealth comparatively speaking, is left
for the Golfers of the south when the bal
ance sheet is struck. And in the north,
where the accumulation is greatest, the
distribution is wholly unsatisfactory and
wrongful. This is evidenced by the strikes
and labor troubles that prevail throughout
all its large cities. There must be some
thing radically defective in the sys-
TEN that brings about such an unhealthy
state of things. And surely it shall be the
pleasant work of the patriotic legislator to
discover the source of the evil, to proclaim
! it, and to fearlessly set about in righting it.
| To our mind on the iniquitous tariff much
if not all of the trouble may be placed.
Those labor strikes, it would seem, are
brought about by over production, and by
over production we mean not too.much for
the world s consumption, but too much for
our own, and this begets a suspension OF
work or its continuance at unIemunerative
figures to employees. AS evidence OF this
fact OF low wages we find that
last year in Illinois the daily
average pay of the wool3n manufacturing
wcrkmen was only "a cents per day, If we
reckon six working days for each week in
the year; and in some localities it was much
less even than that. At Cincinnati there
were 32l hands employed. and the total
wages paid amounted to So, 425, being
SIP 20 per year, or 1892 per week, which is
only 50 l-2 cents per day. AT Chicago the
number of hands was 525, and the wages
paid amounted to $4,000, being Sl27.17 for
the year, or $245 per week, which was Al
cents per day. AT Detroit the number Of
hands was 1885, and the wages $2l $50, which
was an average of $1,000 to each hand for
the year. that is $2,l3 per week, or 80 IL
cents per day. These are the average
amounts paid for labor. OF course some
employees received more and many re-
ceiyed even less than these amounts.
Clearly these are not living prices
for the toiling man and woman, and no
wonder that loud complaints are so common,
complaints that come from the outposts of
distress and despair, and will yet ripen into
commissions that will shake as an earth
quake the Washington capitol, where their
cause was Graded and is now protected.
Only last week senator exhibited in the
senate piece of wooden goods some 81
inches wide. weighing Is ounces to the
yard, which sold at Leeds, England, for 10
cents per yard, and which was brought
into this country at cost of 81
cents for the specific and ad valorem
duties alone, or say $40 per cent.
ad valorem duty Is there any reason, any
argument that can justify such an out
rageous impost as this, on not the rich
mans, but the poor mans cloth? And so
of the iron inductry. 1t was proved the
other day by the records of the orphan s
court in the city and county of Philadel-
phia that yearly dividend Of II per cent.
profit had been declared by those who con-
trolled the Bessemer patents, and
who are making these steel rails.
And SO with sugar, commodity
of universal consumption that sweetens
the tea and the coffee of the tired toiler
Last year it paid into the United States
treasury a revenue of $47,000,000l And
then there is another tax, upon patent
medicines. They paid revenue of.about
81, 500 900 last year. very acceptable con-
tribution to. the public treasury. The ad
valorem per cent. of that tax upon these
medicines Is far less than the tax upon
matches. Upon matches the taxi not less
than from 100 per cent. to 800 per cent. ad
valorem. We have no coin so small as to
express the value of what the difference will
be to the public by taking the tax off of a
bottle of patent medicine that costs twen-
ty-hve cents and has now penny stamp
upon it.And so on down through the obnox-
ious schedule. Shouldn't then be any matter
IF surprise that the country is startled at
the prospective throes that will
come from the poor laborer? Is it
any wonder that there is such wholesale
Generalization in those needy ranks, that
go from idleness TO mischief and indulge in
the dangers and excuses for which there is
no sedative save justice, and sometimes no
suppression save the shotgun tTiggered by
the arbitrary power that brought them
about? Capital may lie idle awhile
under diminished production and
regain its losses on revival of trade.
Not SO with the laboring man. His
time unemployed is consumption with
ont remuneration and can never be made
up again. What then is the remedy against
this overproduction, this overstocked mar
ketg Expectation. But can we export
under the tariff Who will buy
our wooden goods, when exist the heavy
duties the high tariff men say are necessary
TO produce them? Besides, our reduced
commercial relations owing 10 our laws
have sunk our marine service into an insig-
nifcant proportion that would scandalize
any governmental policy, so that we can
not compete with carrying trade that pre-
fers to transport its own articles. Will our
agriculturists consider these facts and con-
tinue TO press their demand for the repeal
ofthe iniquitous laws that take, they know
not exactly how. but positively do take, by
ingenious and devious complications, the
earnings Of their laborno matter how much
they product Reflect on 1t, farmers, and
work to wipe out root and branch the cen
frnlizinr shame that robs you By the force