The Penn's Grove record., 1882-08-26
Census Reports on Wages.

Gates OF n existing n1Sn LaTlH IN Tue
United States are never weary of af-
irming and reiterating is that the
laborers ia the protected industries
have been thereby greatly benefited
through the permsnency of employ
ment (the stagnstion of industry from
1873 to 1875 and the strikes and lock-
outs of 1882 to the contrary notwith-
standing) and through the receipt of
extremely high wages, by reason OF
which the ironworkers of Pennsyl-
vania, according to the Hon. W. ID.
Kelley, are enabled and accustomed to
adorn the walls OF their resideDce
with chromos and fine engraving"
and otherwise to fare sumptuously.
Heretofore, In the absence of any col
lection of statistics which all interested
were willing or constrained to accept
as authoritative, the discussions which
have taken place betw cen the advo-
Gates Of tariff reductions" and high
protection /" in 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 oten to conviction, found them
selves utterly confused by a conflict
of assertion and inference which did
not admit of any complete refutation
or verii cation.
The recent publication of the results
of the census of 1850 have. however, at
last, in many departments of domestic
industry, placed matters upon u new
and different footing, and given to the
public q revelation of positive facts
which cannot be hereafter either
ignored or denied. Thus, in q series
of articles on our "Iron and Steel
Industries" publis he'd some weeks
since in our columns, it was conclu-
sively demonstrated from an analysis
of the census returns that in place OF
the receipt of exceptionally high
wages by the lsborers employed In
these highly protected industries, the
average wage paid them was only
about 81 16 per diem, or $345 per an.
mum. u rate about the average paid to
the commonest and least skilled labor
In most parts of the country and,
also, that the laborers in the industries
in the United States derive no benefit
whatever from the greatly enhanced
prices which the xistiEg 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
conclusions are now deducible from
the statistics of the manufactures of
twenty of the principal cities of the
United States, as set forth in n of
the most recent of the bulletins of the
Census Bureau. In these manufac-
lures, which include all the more
especially protected industries, the
number of employees Is returned at
948, 494, comprising 6S3 S27 men, 224,-
100 ONE and go 567 children. The
aggregate annual wages paid to the
same were 1919, 1874 931, which, assum-
ing 300 working days In the year,
would show a disbursement of $780,
2S3 for each day, and an average of
St.33 per day for each person en-
ployed. Selecting Philadelphia from
the list of the twenty cities as the one
which may be fairly regarded ss raw
ing done the most to impose the high
protective tariff system upon the
try, the analysis of the census returns
affords the following results:
Hummer o. s,o sa I 81 7o ~
ns1is disbursement for 300 day. So2. o2l. 90
Average wages per hand per day. 1.I6
1t will thus be seen that in this
centre 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 Philadel-
phia out of the list, the average paid to
manufacturing labor rises from 81. 33
to 81 81 per day.
These figures are hard nuts to crack
for that class of people who have been
assuring The workingmen and women
of the country that high protection in
evitaoly assures them higher wages.
With the prices of commodities 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, CLOTH
ing and sbeiter-more especially If he
bss others dependent on him-and
every advance in commodity prices
means reduction of wages through
diminished purchasing power. Since
1879 The sdvancs in the prices of COM
modlties has been at least 20 per cent,
and there has been no generalincrease
of wages in cons quence. Hence the
reasonable discon tent of labor every
where. Hence the continual strikes
and local d sturbauces. Now, in what
way is the laborer to look for relief,
with FROM seven hundred thousand to
a million recruits to the labor marke
pouring in annually ? Not by denoun-
cling employers, who, IN all but excep-
tional instances, ray the average mar
ket rrice of labor, but rather by de.
~nouncing all men and measures which
are instrumental in unnecessarily aug
menting the cost of living by excessive
taxation, wasteful exp p mixtures, and
the continuance of a policy which
prevents the expar sion of the markets
for the products of our various indus
tries. Let those DESTROYS OF relief and
a better state of things ask themselves
Why should this land, so productive
Of abundance that we are able to con-
tribute largely to the food supply of
almost all nations, be at the same time
the most costly of all lands to live in.
Aud when they have once fully COM