The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-27

deploring the fact that our manufacturers are
in the main prosperous and happy.
One of these men appeared before the Nor
rison committee, last week, and blandly laid
down the proposition that he knew as much
or more than any other man, and that the
little matter of statistics was of no value
whatever in assisting in legislation. Mr..
Shearman-such was the man-is a lawyer,
and as a pleader before the bar, is a success.
But people will beg to take issue with him
when he presumes to know more
about the iron business than do
the iron men themselves, more concerning the
wooden and cotton interests than do the mill
men, and more about the cost Of labor in pro
ducing glass and glass bottles than do the
glass men, who sought to correct him. Among
other things confidently asserted by Mr..
Shearman was this:
THAT since Germany adopted the protect
i've system wages have declined throughout
the empire, except in one or two places which
were visited by Robert P. Porter, and where
wages were advanced on the receipt of the
news of his arrival"
Passing over the bold charge of collision
between German manufacturers and the news
paper correspondent who visited their mills in
search Of data, Mr.. Porter takes occasion to
show the zone or two places visited by him
in Germany We're little, if any, less than a
hundred in number, scattered all over the
LT,,Dsuo f,o-, d. rroo1o, rD~;o,c oLo,,+ Aiv 10
Chapelle, the silk regions of Crefeld, and
the textile industries around Eberfield
and Barmier to the iron and coal regions cen
tering around Dusseldorf and Dortmund, to
the extreme northwest, the center of the
linen industry, to Berlin, to the cotton and
mining regions of Saxony, to Leipsic, through
back to Cologne, up the Rhine to Frankfort,
all through the manufacturing regions of
Alsace-Lorraine, south through Muelhausen,
besides many other regions not given to man
ufacturing. In fact, his canvass of the ques-
ton was most thoro ugh, and his experience
was that, with the exception of one mill,
h1llCu Wy 1LSS GdUCy dl liz ~ lHuuoutlOo
employed more men, paid higher wages and
better dividends since than before the policy
of protection was adopted.
But Mr.. Porter does not stand unsupported,
nor does it appear that the mills of zone or
two places" increased wages for his benefit.
Mr.. Sherman confidently asserted that since
Cor,,oorI, oIor4oJ +bH nrotao4iv-a .c1yctarn ua0oS
have declined throughout the empire. On the
contrary, unimpeachable German authority
shows that wages have increased to a marked
degree. According to the official figures of the
Iron and Steel Association of Germany, dur
ing 1879, 1875 establishments employed 1913, 979
workmen; in 1883 the same establishments
employed 206, $50 ~workmen, an increase of
80, III workmen. In 1879 these establishments
paid in wages 112, 600, 1872 marks; for the year
ending 1888, 1T, O52, 300 marks, an increase
for the year over 1879 of Ga, 45l 448 marks.
The average yearly earnings of a workman
under free trade were 73l marks, and under
protection 859 marks, an increase of 128 marks
in the earnings of every man.
Other branches of manufacture show a like
increase in the number of hands employed and
wages paid. In the business of making iron
and steel, the following table will show what
protection has lone for Germany from 1879 to
1888:
Per cent. of
Increase.
Workmen employed. 39.9
w ages Of.@
Average wages paid each workman. ia
Speaking from personal knowledge, Consul
Ballou says: Operatives in Muehlhausen now
earn 90 per cent. more than they did in 1870"
On the other hand, vegetables compiled by
the Manchester England Chamber of Com-
merce, covering the same period. show a de-