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

Iila own profit, bat ms aotuN mbsistenoe
Ia taken away Under this system
lih va arc told again II protocols Tho la
boref In the mandatory. let ~ SEQ
about that, The tfulh ~ the business IL
that the laboror IN tle unprotected indus.
tries Il Tho best paid. from Wmonr's
table We take the following "The average
annual wages include tho wages Of laborers
skilled aud unsllIod, males aud females,
clerks, bookkeepers and suporinte ndents.
Workers In iron aud steel receive per
day 900 days In the year. sl.3i, In wool
OS cents silk So cents, in cotton 81 cents.
Besides the l4l 900 laborers In ircn-works,
thore are 81 eco iron miners, who receive 81
per day, and the average wages for 173 0c)
men working fiom ten and hall
to twelve hours per day in
iron and iron mines, $1,000 OF
them under ground, was $l.25 per day.
This was in the year Of exceptional pros
perity-iSS0. There were at least five years
between 1879 and 1880 when these men re-
ceiyed less than 80 cents per day. Wages
are higher in this than in any other pro.
tected industry. After ninety years Of pre-.
tection-sometimes By q protective tariff
sometimes by revenue tariff-this system
gives to the laborer this pittance of 80 cents
to S1.25 per day. 1t appears from official
statements that since the period of low
wages in 1873 in Massachusetts,, the richest
tate in the Union, wages have increased
but per cent, while the cost of living has
increased 81 per cent. The most prosper
GUS mills in the state have recently reduced
wages from so cents to SO cents per day.
This is the result of high protective tariff
in that state, with one exception the richest
manufacturing state in the whole Union
So with silk and so with cotton
When we come 10 the iron and stee
works, we have calculation here made by
Mr.. CARLISLE, taken .om the same table
in which he makes this statement: =, "MR
SwANK, the secretary of the Iron and Stee
association, and the editor of it's organ, the
Bulletin; and it is not uni ust to him to say
that his report is doubtless as favora
BILE to their interests as he coult
honestly make 1t. From this report
| it appears that the number of hands EN-
ployed in the Bessemer and open-heartt
steel works during the census year, 1880
was 1885, the wages paid amounted tc
81, $50, $40; the amount Of capital invested
including all the real estate, was $50, 975, 999
total cost of material used, $50, 500, 1923, and
the total value of the product was $55, $685.,
30. Deducting the total cost of labor and
materials from the value of the product
there is left the sum Of $14 ,047 1888, which is
small fraction less than 81 per cent. on the
whole capital invested. 1t thus appears
that while capital retains in its hands, after
paying the whole cost of production, nearly
67 per cent, labor received less than per
cent. of the value of the product" That is
the protection given to the laborers in that
specific department ofindustry, 81 per cent.
to the capital and 0 per cent to the
labor. So it has been, and so it will be.
As to the other argument, that 1t builds up
state, let us say in unmistakable Ian
guage, in the face of such violation Of
every principle of right, justice, equity, we
want no such protection as builds up the
few, the very few, at the expense of our
farmers, our stock-raisers, the laboring
man and woman and child. We are for a
uniform system of taxation, now and for
ever. 1t is wrong and rotten .'tom turret
TO foundation stone.