The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-11-24
perpetuates the difference which exists in

perpetuates the difference which exists in
the rate of wages. because even if the
purchasing power of our wages were no
greater than those which are paid by our
competitor we make q very great gain
when we exchange products produced at a
high rate of wages with nations where a
lower rate of wages prevails. IL we sell
our labor abroad at 81 per day and pdr-
chase the products of foreign labor equal
ly efficient at fifty cents per day, we get
the fruits of two days labor in exchange
for one. Hence, it is our interest not to
cut off and restrict foreign trade, but to
give it the largest ex ansion which is pos
sible without reducing the rate of wages
paid in this country. 1t is thus that for
eign commerce is profitable ; not by the in
terposition of obstructive charges, as some
persons seem to suppose, but by the re-
moyal of all. impediments in the way of
the Interchange Of commodities which are
produced with less labor in our country
than in the other with which it exchanges.
As long, then, as the higher rate of wages
may be maintained in this country, and as
long as we desire TO preserve the branches
of business wherein the higher rate makes
it possible for us to compete on even terms
with other nations, we must SO arrange
the tariff that in these branches there
is a rate of duty established which will
compensate for the difference of the cost
of labor in each. In order to do this we
must determine, first, what is the actual
difference in the rate of wages, and, sec
ondly, how the duty shall be applied in
each case in order to compensate for this
difference | shall not have time to go
into details as to the difference in the rate
of wages, for the tables which were con-
structed in the state department IN 1879,
giving the different rates of wages and the
cost of food in the different countries of
the world in the year 1878, when wages
were lowest not only in this country but
in all countries, can be referred to. 1t will
be sufficient to say that, as between Great
Britain and the United States, the rate of
wages is on the average about so per cent.
higher here than there. 1t is true that
skilled labor is much more highly paid
here than in great Britain. while the differ
ence in common labor is not so great as
stated; but the tendency of modern indus
try is to introduce machinery by which the
amount of skilled labor employed is stead
lily reduced. This is strikingly illustrated
in The manufacture of Bessemer steel,
where, although the profs have been upon
scale of unprecedented magnitude, the
wages paid for common labor in Pennsyl-
vania-$117 per heads precisely the
same as the wages paid for the same class
of labor in iron works while the wages for
skilled labor IN the Bessemer steel works is
very much less than the wages paid for
skilled labor in iron works, being 80. 46
per day in the former and So 03 per day
in the latter. Is that on account of the
skill? No. because by the machinery of
the Bessemer steel works another SET of
faculties in the human constitution is called
into exercise 1t is rather in the eye you
want skill there than in the manipulation,
while in the iron works it is rather the
skilled hand than the skilled eve.
Il do not think for moment that the
tariff question has anything whatever to do
with the closing of any steel works as
you think, then, that from causes of
over supply alone the trade has reached its
present status?
Il do most decidedly. / cannot predict
when it will come to the surface again, but
the tariff reduction is not a particle to
blame for the depreciation.