Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-09-10
For County Clerk no selection has as yet
been made, but it is probable that it will
be either W. Fleming or James Duffy.
A MERCHANTS FIGURES.


The figures presented in the advertise
ment of t. A. Chapman & Co., giving
comparison of the prices of cotton goods
in 1884 and 1860, are particularly timely
when the American system is before the
people for new approval. From these
figures it appears that the retail prices OF
cottons now are very much lower than
the jobbing prices of 1860 and that the
goods are improved in quality. The
following statement made by this exper-
fenced house is strictly true:
"We note tEat the price of wheat in
Milwaukee and Chicago in December,
1860, was as low as 63c, and at present
it is worth 78c and S0c The wages Of
the machanic and laboring man are fully
25 per cent more than in 1860. The
above shows that they are far better off
and can buy more for dollar of all man
ufactured products than they could at
any previous time in the history of the
country"
Most manufactured goods are produced
and sold for less money now than then,
while the wages of employees have in
creased On every hand there is evidence
of the improved condition not only of the
agriculturalists but also of laborers en-
ployed in manufactures. In particular
departments of industry, as in the iron
trade, wages are lower than they were
few years ago, but they are considerably
higher than In 1860. Some farm prod
ucts are sold for less now than then,
but the production is vastly larger, and
proportonately less expensive, the price
of consumption having been increased by
the prosperity of the people.
The tendency of manufactures under
protected system is to diminished cost
together with increased wages to employ
es. This is seen best in the matter of
cutlery. For many years we paid more
for our knives than we would have done
under system of free trade, but as the
manufacture became established here
through the home consumption the price
diminished until to-day American cut
lery of better quality than the British
can be bought for less than the latter
would demand if free of duty But for
the encouragement given to this industry
by the protective system, we would to-
daysbuy the inferior foreign articles at
higher prices. So with the cottons speci
fed in Chapmans advertisement In
1860, under free-trade, these products sold
for less than they did in 1868 and the
| first years of a protective tarift-but un-
der this tariff they have reachad lower
price than they ever touched under a free
| trade system and lower than they can be
proftably made for in England. The
report of the Massachusetts statistical
bureau shows that the hours o. labor IN
the cotton mills have been reduced while
wages have been advanced.
One of the tests of the protective sys-
tenn, as applied to America, which used
to be insisted upon by the Cobdens club,
was that of immigration. Because for
the first three years of the war tariff the
immigration dropped away, it was held
that the tariff was responsible, because it
aimed at the prosperity of laborers But
there was a steady increase from 1865 to
1878, when the panic occurred. In 1890
again the number was larger than ever
before, and it has increased every year
since. The average immigration for the
first dozen years of free trade was less
than 100000, while it is far above this
for the entire period of protection, reach
ing more than 100000 last year. Peo
pie do not flock in increasing numbers to
a country whose revenue system oppresses
| the laborers. The immigration from
England has been much greater during
protection than free trade periods, the
statistics showing an average increase of
100 per cent. over the free-trade years.
| From MiZao0ukee Sentinel. Sept. 1St,