The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-27
WORKMEN AND THE TARIFF.
Experience of Practical Mechanics Who Have
Witnessed the Operations of Free Trade.

Correspondence of the Indianapo is Journal.
New ALBANY, Sept 24-I have had this
week number of talks on tariff four of which
I will here give for the good that they may do.
Charles Hegewaldis the proprietor of large
Foundry in this city. Heretofore he has voted
with the Democrats. He has just returned from
an extended trip through the old country. He
was close observer and says 4 am better
American than was before started This is
the country for mechanics. In Vienna saw
women working as common laborers, carrying
the hod to the top of houses shoveling, ETC., for
which they received the pittance Of forty cents
per day. saw them working alongside of men
all night for forty cents per night. The usual
wages paid for a days labor is forty cents. This
is in the city In the mountains they get only
twenty-five cents per day. The first named
class have sausage or ham meat once week,
the other class not half as frequently In Am
Bterdam l saw farmers wives hitched
to carts in which were the products Of their
farms. In Dresden the ship carpenters receive
81 to slips per day. The boss foreman received
only SO per week Draughtsmen are paid 5000 per
year. Mechanics do not own their houses. Oc-
caslonally you will find one but very seldom.
In England, day labor is 2 shilings, or AZ cents.
saw women there working at mems labor. The
tariff makes this difference; and that party
which stands for protection is the party that
mechanics ought to support. That is the party
which favors protecting their interests
/ next had talk with Fred. Oelsen, an en-
ploye Of De Pauw's glass works He says I
left Norway fourteen years ago, because wages
were better in this country than in my native
country. can make as much money in New
Albany in one month as l could IN Norway
in four months. In my country women
are forced to work to help support the
family. They work at everything, carrying
hods, shoveling, etc. just as men laborers work
The price Of day labor is fifty cents Mechanics
do not own their houses | own my house in
this city, valued at 81 500, don't owe cent, and
love this country | will vote for Blaine and
logan, because they are with the party which
gives me all my comforts
Major r. P. Finney, of New Albany, says II
have travelled all over the world and give as the
results of my observation, that in those coun-
tries where the policy Of free trade prevails the
manufacturing and laboring interests are Ian
gushing and decaying The colonies of New
South Wales and Victoria aptly illustrate
the difference between countries under the
different policies In New South Wales there is
on every hand evidence of material prosperity.
Trade is booming, wages are high-higher even
thanin this country. Manufactures are springing
up,schoos are filed, and the system is an excellent
one There lisa steady flow of immigrants com
ing to the country In this colony protection is
the policy Victoria is 800 miles Distant not
farther than New York is from Indiana There
free trade prevails, labor languishes and the
wages paid are not half as large as in New South
Wales There are no immigrants to Victoria.
On the contrary people are leaving the country.
Another feature which strikes every one is
that there is greater depravity in Victoria than
in New South Wales. l attribute this to the
greater idleness prevailing in Victoria. In Lon
don, England, there is a firm styled Tozer,
Hewitt & Co. They are among the largest agri-
cultural implement houses in the world Mr.
Tozer desiring to establish branch house de-
termined to do SO in Victoria, but finding trade
stagnant and money scarce, he put his plant
down in New South Wales. Any person with
ordinary intelligence must come tothe conclu-
sion that it is protection which gives to New
South Wales its prosperity and it is free-trade
which is causing the deplorable state Of affairs
in Victoria
John S. Mace is employed in the Ohio Falls
Iron Works as a boiler. He says: I formerly
lived in South England, and worked at my trade.
My wages averaged $l80 per day Since left
England they have declined to Is and
Albany from S. to 81 so per day or as much in
one month as made in England in three
months. When the tariff was put on in this
country, it closed England's best Market and
many of their mills shut down. went back to
England In 1876 and saw mills in which the
grass was growing That was because this
market was closed to England. Free trade in
the United States would make grass and weeds
10 grow in our mills. lived in Manchester, and
my views are the result Of observations and
experience In the mills where worked com
mon labor was paid at the rate Of one shilling
to one and sixpence per day or twenty four to
thirty-six cents per day in our money have
seen women working in the collieries, on pit
banks, showing coalcars out Of the mines It
was hard and degrading work. They received s
pence or l6 cents per day / have seen them
working around rolling mills, principally about
the ashbank, washing coke. They were paid
from to 5 pence per day. The poor-houses are
double in number as compared with the number
In the United States, and they have double the
capacity. To an American the destitute condi-
ton of the lower classes in England is appalling
This sad condition is due to the low wages, which
results from free trade My advice to all work
ing men is to vote for good wages, good food
and white bread-to vote for protection and for
Blaine and Logan"
GENERAL GRESHAM.