The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-08-25

called ''the back bone of our present
tariff? Secretary James NJ Swank, of the
Iron and Steel association, will not be ae-
cused of any leanngs toward free trade.
but in tables which he has compiled for
the census he has afforded a very conclu-
sive answer to the question whether high
duties make high wages. According to
these tables the total number of persons
employed in this country in 1880 in the
production of iron and steel, from ingot
and pig to bar and rail-, was 140.975. and
their wages amounted to $55, 476, 1S5.
Reckoning 800 working days to the year,
the pay of labor in these trades in 1880 was
1.31 day The statistics of ore produc-
ton have been complied by Prof. Pun
pelly He finds that the persons employed
in this work in 1880 were 81 SOS, whose
wages amounted to $8,53S, lit, or trifid
over dollar per day per laborer Taking
the wages in ore production and iron pro-
duction together, we find that they average
81 20 day. But in reckoning only 300
working days to the year we have given
the workingmen privilege of Sunday rest
which they do not enjoy in fact. Mr..
Swank tells us that the practice of operat-
ing blast furnaces seven days in the week,
though not universal, is general. and that
the daily ''sbifts" are not of eight or ten
hours duration, but of twelve The aver
age wages of men who are classed as rela-
lively we'll skilled, working twelve hours
day, seven days in the week, in an arduous
occupation, in an industry highly protect
ed, whose kings and bosses apparently
have no lack of money to bride lawmakers
with, thus reduce to 81 :. Is a day, in a year
when farm labor was hard to get for much
more liberal pay! Remarks about the
pauper labor had better cease, at least until
MIR. Swank's readers can take breath.
Turn now from evidence dra yn from
particular industries, to evidence afforded
by considerable number. A census bull
'letin has been published giving the statis-
ties of the manufacturing industries Of
twenty principal cities of the United States.
The number of employees in these industries
in 1880 is put down az 94S 494, of which
663, S27 were men. 224s 100 were women,
and 60.567 were children. The wages
aggregated 1878, 3S4 ,93i, or.counting 800
working days a year, an average of S1.33
a day for each person. The employees in
cluded the most highly skilled labor in the
country, two-thirds of them were mature
men, yet their average wages did not eN
coed the average wages of unskilled labor
on city streets and in country towns.
Without giving the figures in detail, we
may add that according 10 this same bulle-
tin, the profits made in these industries
after deducting wages and cost of materi
ais are SO per cent. on the capital invested.
Deducting 10 to is per cent. more for
expenses we get 20 to 26
per cent. as the average net profit. When
getting ahead at this rate
claim that they need duties in excess of so
per cent. to enable them to pay wages
= 81,
the noble American laborer. forsooth, shall
not be forced down to the level of the
European "pauper," the claim may as well
be taken with some allowance.
A candid man who is willing TO see facts |
as they are does not need to push his in |
any further to be convinced |
that the claim that high duties make high |
wages cannot be honestly made. To con-
tinue to make it dishonesty as a means of !!
uniformed voters will prove |
most disastrous policy. Sooner or later |
the masses of workingmen will disco yer
the fraud. In the wave of reactionary
feeling that must certainly follow the
whole protective system may be swept |
away in a single election, with results of
ruin that no calculus could es
innate.
The American people will maintain the
system with a reasonable scale
Of duties if the manufacturers will let them
But if the high tariff men are committed to
a policy of deliberate Justification, mis-
represention and ring rule, the voter will
)ne day take things into his own hands.
md he may go further than moderate men
would like to have him. 1t is time to reef
vail, and the very first step is to stop
me foolish talk about high du
les making high wages. There is just one
way in which American manufacturers
nay, in fact, steadily increase the wages
md further the general well being of their
employees. They must steadily increase
he demand for labor until they make their
the leading manufacturing nation
n the world. To do this the general range
IF duties must be reduced to the point
which will make foreign markets possible;
'aw materials must come il free of duty,
md articles which are more important as
than as manufactures, such as
big iron and ingot steel, must be classed as
'aw materials.
This article should be put in the hands
IF every werkingman as well as every
yoter in the land. 1t is valuable cam
)aign document, and made SO because it
zones from the very interests which are
and is called forth because it
las been seen that this false claim can no
onger be used to deceive the voters of this
and it is feared that in the reac-
ion the whole system will be swept away.