The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1884-02-01
HIGH WAGES.

lime upon time again, nave we oean |
old that one Of the greatest benefits
derived from the laying of high pro-
tective tariff Is in the high wages which |
It affords the laboring men OF the coun-
try. The fallacy of this argument viii
appear from whatever standpoint the
subject is viewed. In the FIRST place
the price of labor is regulated aud de.
termined by the supply and demand,
Aad not by the Willingness of manufac-
turers to pay high price for labor in
return for the protection which they
receive in consequence of tho laying of
a heavy duty upon imported articles of
the kind which they manufacture.
These manufacturers employ the hecheap-
est labor they can get, without regard
to the fact that each one of them Is
protected at the expense of every other
man, woman and child in the United
States. If it DO true that wages are
higher. in the United States than they
are in England. as claimed by protec-
tionists, that fact is not accounted for
in tho fact that manufacturers of pro-
tected articles generously pay high
wages in return for this protection, but
is accounted for in the fact that the
price of every article consumed by the
laborer is high priced in consequences of
heavy duty. Thus, it will be seen that
while the American laborer may receive
higher wages than the English lahorer,
yet the former loses all this advantage
in higher prices which he pays FOR oil
he consumes. In other words, he is
taxed heavily on all the necessaries of
life for this advantage Of high wages,
hence his condition is no better than
him who gets less wages, but whose ex-
pense of living is correspoadingly less.
No, the manufacturer goes before con-
gress and there pleads for high
protective duty that he may pay his
laborers good wages, and when he gets
the law he then goes to Europe and
makes contracts with the "pauper Ia
borers" of that country whereby be
agrees to pay their expenses to this
country. which is part payment Of their
wages here for labor after they arrive.
Petitions now are being circulated in
Pennsylvania, requesting congress to
prevent the importation into this coun-
try of fereign laborers under contracts
made abroad, and are receiving many
signatures of workingmen throughout
that state. AS an evidence of what is
transpiTing in regard to this matter we
call attention to the following state
ment as showing that laborers in the
hands of eastern manufacturers are in
many respects the slaves of their en-
ployers /:
The cotton spinners of the CLARK
Thread Company, Newark, arc lighting
against proposed reduction of their
pay of 10 per cent in the new Kearney
mill and l5 per cent in the old Newark
mill. They are told By Superintendent
Thomas Poole that the reduction is
necessitated by the sharp competition
offered By CIark's Mile End Spool Cot
ton Mill, whose superintendent is i'm
porting cheap labor from England, and
by several New England cotton mills
that are doing the same thing. The
Mile End mill is new, and is not run-
ming yet to its full capacity. j is run
by the CIarks of Glasgow and an
American stock company. The Clark
o. II. 7. mills are run by Paisley firm
of that name.
The spinners in botn mills work by
the piece. In the o. II. 7. mills they
get $500 for every 100 pounds of yarn
spun, which is about sI5 for weeks
work. The old spinners in the Mile
End mill are paid s12 week, and the
new ones usually 80. The other hands
in the business are wage workers. They
work. fewer hours than the spinners,
and receive less wages This class in
the o. n. 7. mills will not be reduced
in pay.
The notice of reduction was read to
the o. Il. T. spinners week ago, after
twenty-one Englishmen and one Eng
lishwoman had gone TO work in the
Mile End mill at $40 week. They
called meeting and appointed com
mittee to consult with superintendent
Poole. A reduction of Is and 30 per
cent was first announced, but the Su-
psrintendent agreed to make it 10 and
10 per cent if the men would not strike.
They told him they would answer to-
morrow. A less reduction is proposed
in the new mill because the machinery
there is more improved. The cotton
frames have a greater number of spin-
dies, and more yarn is spun than in the
old mill.