The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-05-06
WHEELING. ". VA. MAY 0. 1851.
TmEwmEELrNG POTTERY COMPANY
The Pottery Trnttc fa GsncrH'-.a Glove
shave In HusIness-The question or

TuEwMEELISGP POTTERY COMPANY.
The Pottery Trndc fa GsncrH'-a Glove
shave In HusIness-Jhe Question "
Wages.
The Wheeling Pottery Company is doing
large business these times but at unsasis-
factory prices. Prices have come down
abou, % per cent since the concern started,
ba. the wages remain the same. There have
been number OF failure, and s.oppascs
recently among the factories in this coun.
try, owing to the decline in prices, brought
about by heavy impostations. Wages are
from co to 100 per cent higher in this
country than in England. Hence the heavy
importations. Among the failures are the
franklin Pottery Company, OF franklin, O.,
and the New JeHy Pottery Company, Of
Trenton, n. J. Among the stoppases are
concern in Baltimore, one or two in East
Liverpool, and the Coxon Company, OF
Trenton. Were It not for cheap fuel,
cheap trcigh,s, and other facilities here, the
Wheeling pottery would also he com.
PEELED to stop until prices improve. AS it
is, they are jus. about holding their own.
Wages and material cost more than in Eu-
rope. The material costs more because
higher wages are paid to those who pro-
duce it. 1t Is after all question Of wages.
The protection on pottery is 10 per cent.
al yaorem. But the lower wages go to
100 per cent in Europe overcome this dii-
ference, and enable manufacturers over
there to come into the American market
and compete with domestic manufacturers.
This being the case, the American manu-.
facturers OF pottery are now before Con-
gress asking for increased protection. They
gay tina, it is either this or reduction in
wages. They hold with Congressman lIew-
lit, OF New York, before he turned free
trader, that
''rhe amount OF duty imposed on such
articles should be the exact difference be.
tween the amount Of the wages OF labor
paid for their production here and the
amount required for their production
abroad"
II this was sound doctrine when Mr..
Hewitt enunciated il, it ought to be sound
doctrine to-day. An officer Of the
Wheeling Pottery company (who used to
bca Democrat, and is still sort OF one),
thinks that it is still sound doctrine and
he doesn't understand why Mr.. IIewe,t, as
4 manufacturer, should have abandoned
it, unless he has become so enormously
rich, and in possession OF so much cheap
capital that he feels 10 fortified in his own
specially as to be able to bid defiance 10
foreign competitors in his line. 1t was
understood that Mr.. Hewitt laid down the
words we have quoted rs principle, not
for the day in which they were uttered,
but for the indefinite future. For instance,
lie said lin connection with what We have
quoted:
"'rhat the superiority Of free institutions
and economical government is proved BY
the fact that in the United States the az.
eragc wages OF labor are from three to four
times as large as under the monarchical
governments OF Europe
1t seems by this that at the time OF this
deliverance September, ls4S) there was a
much greater discrepancy between wages
paid in this country and in Europe than
there is today. And yet despite this fact
fact That would seem to have increased
the force OF Mr.. Iewi.t's principle (if it
ever was one)-he now substantially aban-
dons his position, and as wages in the old
and new world approach each other goes
for letting down the bars and reducing the
difference to dead level. This would
seem to be very illogical. Mr.. Hewitt ad-
nitted in his letter to Jay Gould (January,
1870 that Stree trade will simply reduce
the wages OF labor to the foreign standard"
and that
1.-THE only reason why tariff ia necessary
is TO supply the laborer with such wage, rs
will enable him TO travel and consume not
merely the neccssarics but some OF the
luxuries OF modern civilization"
sea-, .
This is the point and principle OF pro-
lection as Ibid down by Mr.. Hewitt in his
Gould letter. lie was not in favor OF a
tariff beyond this principle, nor arc we.
But why does he not now stand by this
principle, ii it is good one? The Pottery
trade is an immense trade, and capable OF
m indefinite expansion in this country.
More thca half OF our pottery il i'm portcd