The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-04-25
TIE TaREAo MONOPOLY.

| Professor w. G.. Sumner, of Yale College
is ont in another letter to the New York
! Times, in which, in his usual lucid and IN
cisive style, he exposes the operation of the
| Willimantic Linen Company, by which IL is
able to make enormous annual profits. II
should be understood that the WillimaniiC
monopoly, under the fostering care OF Re
publican prote ctive tariff, is permitted to
levy tax upon every man, woman and
child in America. The mills of the Will
mantle Linen Company manufacture thread,
and the letter to which we refer, and from
which we make ths following extract, re
lates particularly to the use, value and cost
OF this article, as also to the tax burdens the
manufacturers are permitted 10 impose.
Professor Sumner says:
Thread is used by every soul IN the country
From the cradle to the grave every individual
from the bsggar to the millionaire must have it.
The tax on it is one and three-fourths cents per
spool, and the retail price is raised by the tax
from three cents the price at which 1t is sold in
Canada, 10 five cents. At Willlmanic there is a
magnificent establishment. The visitor there is
struck by the perfection and elegance OF all the
appointments. He is told that the tariff did IL,
and the spectacle is offered to him as an argu-
meat for protection. II was 50 offered at the
great meeting held in 1880. when the Lew mill
was opened. and it has been SO offered again and
again. / meet that argument. and ask, Who
pays for IL all? II it Is necessary, in order that
the establishment should exist. to tax every soul
10 tho United States one and three-fourths cents
on every spool of thread used, then the mill is
not an industry" 1t does not produce
wealth. It consumes wealth drawn
from the consumers of thread. then turn TO
seek out some of the consumers Of thread, who
are scattered, unseen forgotten, but all the more
entitled TO the notice of the economist, the states.
man, or the social philosopher on ttet account
have before me copy OF the New Haven News,
OF March Is. containing five letters from corset
stitchers who complain that they can earn with
machine only from fifty to seventy five cents
per day. They state that they provide the thread.
1 took the case OF Just such laborers to show who
it is who pays for the glories of willimantic, so
50 long rs Wiliimantic is supported By tariff.
Whether a woman pays for the thread she uses in
her work or fof the thread she consumes on her
self is INN atsT:al 20 the argument Any laborer
who earns 81 in ten hours, earns one cent in six
minutes. At the cad of eighteen minutes work
he she has readsred all the equivalent IN labor
for a spool OF thread according 10 the relations
of value il thu worlds market to-day.
If he lived in Canada he could there
get the thread. The laws of this coun-
try, however. tell hin that he must go back and
work twelve minutes more in seryitude to the
WiliimAntic Linen Company-nOt to get the
thread. bnt ID support the mill. When we con-
slider what this means TO the vast body of men
and women whose lives are running away IN the
minutes spent in that way, it srouses all the hon
est indignation and love of justice OF which s
man is capable. The Linen Company do not like
to have the auth pointed out but a man who
sees the truth AID would not preach it would be
the most contemplate coward. ] know poor
washerwoman who was LEFT 3 widow ten years
sgo with seven children and a little house under
S heavy mortgage ct s per cent. sac has doas
washing AID house cleaning for ten years, during
al 'hs hard tines to eara enough to supp IT tht
family. pzs interest taxes aud principal. Every
cent to her has been worth as much ss s,o) to
man who owned WilliIsaic stock. aud she la
had to pay tgo cents tax on every spool Of thread
used In that family, while the Linen Company
has been paying 20 per cent. annually and water.
ing IT'S stock every three of four years.
Here. thea. is the truth: The sewing women,
the saleswomen. servants, teachers, washerwo
tered In gsrrets. tenements and cottages, strug-
Cling often with poverty aud misery, are endur-
ing diminution # their comfort and ell-beiDg
to pay the taxes which 30 10 keep up the mill.
The protectionists constantly argue that pTotec
ton is for the good Of the laborer. They speak a
If Congress had a store of wealth which 1t was
distributing to the wages class and as IL the free
traders wanted TO stop this proceeding. 1 NEAR
to show that there are always two Americ IL
laboIers to be considered and that the tariff is
plundering one of them positively and certainly
and pretending to benefit the other without
doing so.
1t would be difficult for facts to DO SET
forth in clearer or more convincing light,
and those who will give the thread mo-
nOpoly the attention 1t deserves Will moi
fail to see the magnitude of the outrage the
thread monopolists are permitted to perpe-
trate upon the people. Professor Sumnei
says the Willimaatic mill turns out from
5 900, 900 to 100000 dozen spools of thread
per snnum. Say 100000 dozsa-6O, 0Oa, 600
spools. In Canada these spools would go to
consumers st three cents each-s1, 800 900;
in the United States the cost is five cents
per spool or $4,000, OOO-s difference OF
81, 200, 900. This for one mill. Manifestly
1t is the duty of the people to throttle the
thread monopoly.