Omaha daily bee., 1882-11-17

the presence of a decayiDg carcass,
These are facts that made the dishon-
est imbecile Mathews f~rantically
inquire, "Have you heard the news
from Holt county," X
The Census Reports on Wages.
New York Times.
One of the assertions which the adj
vocates of the existing high tariff in
the United States are never weary of
affirming and reiterating Is that the
laborers in the protected industries
have been thereby greatly benefited
through the permanency OF employ.
ment the stagnation of industry from
1873 to 1873 and the strikes any lock-
outs of 1882 to the contrary not
withstanding) and through the receipt
of extremely nigh wages, by reason of
which the iron workers of Pennsyl-
vania, according to the Hon. W. d.
Kelley, are enabled and accustomed
to adorn the walls of their residences
with chromos and fine engrav.
ings," and otherwise to fare sumptu.
ously. Heretofore in the absence of
any collection of statistics which all
interested were willing or constrained
to accept as authoritative, the discus
sions which have taken place between
the advocates of tariff reductions"
and ''high protection" is respect to
labor, wages, prices and profits, have
been in. a great degree unsatisfactory,
those on either side who did not want
to be convinced being generally
strengthened in their preconceived
opinions, while others, fairly open to
conviction, found themselves utterly
confused by q conflict of assertion and
inference which did not admit of any
complete refutation or verification.
The recent publication of the re-
suits of the census of 1880 have, how
ever, at last, in many departments of
domestic industry, placed matters
upon a new ana different footing, and
given to the public a revelation of
positive facts which cannot be here
after either ignored or denied. Thus,
in q series of articles on our "Iron
and Steel Industries" published some
weeks since in our columns,it was con
clusively demonstrated from an analy-
sis of the census returns that in place
of the receipt of exceptionally
high wages by the laborers en-
ployed In these highly protected in
dustries the average wage paid them
was only about $1.16 per diem, or
$345 per annum, a rate about the
average paid to the commonest and
least skilled labor in most parts of the
country; and, also, that the laborers
in these industries in the United
States derive no benefit whatever
from the greatly enhanced prices
which the existing tariff permits the
owners of coal and iron lands and of
the iron and steel furnaces and roll
ing mills in this country to charge to
the general public as consumers.
Similar striking and interesting con-
illusions are now deducible from the
statistics of the manufactures of
twenty of the principal cities of the
United States as set forth in one of
The most recent of the bulletins of the
census bureau. In these manufactures,
which include all the more especially
protected industries, the number of
employees is returned at 948, 494, COM
prising 663. 1927 men, 224. 100 women,
and go, 567 children. The aggregate
annual wages paid to the same were
1878, 1884, 931, which, assuming
800 working days i'll the year, would
show a disbursement of 81, 251, 283 for
each day, ana an average of 81. 33 per
day for each person employed. Sc.
lecting Philadelphia from the list of
the twenty cities as the one which may
be fairly regarded as having done the
most to impose the high protective
tariff System upon the country, the
analysis of the census returns affords
the following result:
Number Of employees. ...... 1882
Annual aggregate wages. . $50, COG. 2S7 on
Daily disbursement for 800
days. 292,U2l w
Average wages per hand per
day. l. 10
1t will thus be- seen that in this GEN.
tire of protection the average wages
paid to labor are II cents per day less
than the general average paid in the
twenty selected cities located all over
the continent, or, leaving Philadelphia
out of the list, the average paid to
manufacturing labor rises from $l.33
to 81 81 per day.
These figures are hard nuts to crack
for that class of people who have
been assuring the working men
and women of the country that high
protection inevitably them
high wages. With the prices of COM
moditles at normal rates, 50 per
week is little enough to enable the
laborer in the manufactures of our
large cities TO provide himself with
food, fuel, clothing, and shelter
more especially if he has others de-
pendent on him--snd every advance
in commodity prices means reduction
of wages through diminished pur-
chasing power. Since 1879 the adj
vance in prices of commodities has
been at least 20 per cent, and there
has been no general increase of wages
in consequence. Hence the rea'
sonable discomfort of labor
everywhere. Hence the con-
tinual strikes and local disturbances.
Now, in what way is the laborer tc
look for relief, with from seven
hundred thousand to a million re
cruits to the labor market pouring il
annuallyl Not by denouncing em.
ployers, aho, in all but exceptional
instances, pay the average market
price for labor, but rather by denounc
ing all men and measures which are
instrumental in unnecessarily aug
menting the coat of living By excessive
tsxation, wastefll expenditures
and the continuance of q policy
which prevents the expansion o.