The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-03-31
The Labor Report.

The first report of Commissioner
Wright of the national bureau of sta
tistics is of instructive interest. He
estimates, from the observations of
agents of the bureau, that about seven
and one-half per cent of the manufac-
turing establishments were idle during
1885, and that probably one million la
borers were without employment. The
report says: d" A million of men out of
employment means loss to the con-
sumptive power of the country of at
least 81 100000 per day, or a gripping
to the trade of the country of over
$500 100000 per year. The earnings
of the people involved in the classes
named above would not be far from
5000 each per annum, representing
total earnings of 1890, ZIG, 0OO." Mr..
Wright then asserts that the wage
earnings of the million that should be
employed are crippled to an extent suf-
ficient to cause a reaction in business
and general curtailment of expense,
from which result apprehension and
timidity among the classes. Yet it is a
singular fact that the volume of bust
ness has not been affected in anything
like the proportion which might have
been expected from the enforced idle
ness of a million workers, while the
general prevalence of low prices has
given the reduced earnings of wage
earners a greater purchasing power.
The influence of labor-saving ma
chinery upon the interests of labor is
considered at much length. The report
says:
The mechanical industries of the United
States are carried on by steam and water
power, representing in round numbers
100000 horsepower, each horsepower
equaling the muscular labor of six men;
that is to say, if men were employed to fur
nish the power to carry on the industries of
this country it would require 81 ,000, 900 men,
and 81 ,0O0, 900 men represent population,
according to the census of 1880, of 100000
Co., The industries are now carried on by
100000 persons in round numbers, repre-
senting population of 20,000,000 only To
do the work, then, accomplished by power
and power machinery in our mechanical in
dustres and upon our railroads would re-
quire men representing a population of
172, 500,0 900 in addition to the present popu-
lation of the country of 55000,000, or a total
population, with hand processes and with
horsepower, of 227 SOC, 900, which popula-
ton would be obliged to subsist on pres
ent means. In an economic view the cost
to the country would be enormous. The
present cost of operating the railroads of
the country with steam-power is in round
numbers $500, 100000 per annum but to
carry on the same amount of work with
men and horses would cost the country
S11 ,30S, 100000. These illustrations of course
show the extreme straits to which a country
would be brought if it undertook to perform
its work in the old way.
In this connection, the report says
that in those countries where machinery
has been developed to the highest the
greatest number of work people are
engaged, and that in those countries
where machinery has been developed
to little or no purpose poverty reigns.
Some statistics gathered in England
show that while improved machinery
produces a temporary displacement or
disarrangement of labor, it is ulti-
mately attended by large increase in
the number of employees and a still
larger increase of wages, while the
price of manufactured products declines
and the purchasing power of wages in
creases in proportion.
The report next considers the effects
of immigration upon our industrial in
terests. Mr.. Wright believes that it is
cause of industrial depression, and
points to the fact that in 1880 1880 per
cent of all agricultural labor had come
to be of foreign birth and $40 per cent
of mechanical and mining labor Prior
w cdCu ucpIcSSlOu SluCe lcOl lncre mas
been period of large immigration.
The trouble is not that there is not at
times large demand for foreign labor,
but that the flow of immigration con-
tinues long after the demand for such
labor has been measurably satisfied,
and thus the labor market becomes
overcrowded, to the detriment of all.
Mr.. Wright holds, with the vast major
ity of people, that contract labor ought
to be prevented as far as possible. The
report states that, so far as known, the
employment of foreign labor under
contract has been miserable failure
for all parties concerned.
In a discussion of other causes of
labor depression, the report urges that
grants of land to corporations should
be stopped, that speculation should be
restrained, that a sound currency should
be preserved, that transportation should
be prevented from ruinOus competition,
that there should be great reform in
the distribution of products to consum-