Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-10-14

The farmer, gardener and planter are
abundantly protected al every point by
the tariff, as every intelligent member of
this class of workers we'll knows.
In the same address Mr.. Vest made use
of the following words:
The census of 1880 shows the capital
invested in manufactures throughout the
United States to be S2,8OO,COO,OOO and
the number of persons employed 2,737,-
600, whose wages annually amounted to
$947 100000. This gives to each operative
1916 year, Or ninetyseyen cents a
day.
These operatives received 1884 ,OOO,-
| 900 worth of materials, and worked them
into finished products worth 1869 600, 600
being an added value of 100000,
which represents the labor in the finish
ed products, so that each of the 2,737, 900
operatives in the United States earned
! $3.50. Instead of receiving this each
operative was paid only 1916, leaving 1884
to the employer.
The total earnings of these 2,737 ,000.-
900 operatives being $2000,000,O0O, of
this amount S947, 100000 was paid in
wages, leaving 1,O54,OOO,O0O for the CAPT
talists. In other words the capitalists
received 81 per cent. on their invest
ments.
This statement is misleading in two par
ticulars. The amount of the wages paid
in 1879, as shown in the census report for
1880, which Mr.Vest quotes, was $947, 919, )
GA. as the senator announced. And this,
divided among the 2,738,93O hands en-
plOyed, made about 1916 year. Mr.. Vest,
however, did not state perhaps he
did not know-that this S947 100000 in
wages was the amount paid to the factory
operatives only. The foremen, overseers,
uperintendents, bOOkkeepers, clerks,
ETC., ETC., employed in and around the
! factories were not included in this list.
| The list, in fact, comprised merely those
who did the ordinary work of the mills,
for which, in most cases, little or no skill
is required. This fact, we will be charit-
able enough to believe, Mr.. Vest did not
know. If the wages of the innumerable
high and low salaried employees referred
to be added to the $947 100000 given to
! the operatives Mr.. Vest will perhaps see
that the amount which he declares goes to
the capitalists will be considerably les
| sened. He will see, indeed, that they do
not and can not "receiye 81 per cent. on
their investments"
We have intimated that the senator
may nave HOu6Sl1y DSlI6fSu GIlctb sOtE .OOO,-
900 was all which the manufacturers paid
for wages, and that therefore there was
left ''S1, O53, 100000 for the capitalists"
When he declared, however, that ''the
capitalists received 81 per cent. on their
investments" of 1894 100000 he I'M
doubtedIy intended that his hearers
should assume that this 81 per cent. was
clear profit. If this inference be correct
he deliberately intended to mislead. For
Mr.. Vest, with all his political eccentricl-
ties and obliquities, is not an idiot. He
knows, if the majority of his audience did
not, that wages and cost of raw material
are not the only elements which enter in
to the expense of a manufactured pro-
duct, and which determines the profit to
the employer. To these must be added
the interest on the money invested in the
factory property, the insurance, expense
of storage and of shipment to warerooms,
and numerous other items of expenditure
! incident to all manufacturing industries.
ALI of these items Of cost must be deduct
ed from the price received for the finished
product before receipts balance expendi
| lures. The excess of receipts over this
amount is the profit. If these facts were
not known to Mr.. Vest he is not qualified
| to discuss the tariff question. If they