The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-04-15


lump for one batch of goods, and that
$50 assessment was the last straw on the
back of the white slaves. The 400 weav.
ers went to Superintendent Estis and
asked for hearing. He refused to listen to
them, aud replied Go out of this office
and be-p"
1t is not necessary to comment on this
state of affairs. "Pauper servitude" and
"white slaves" tell the whole story.
With wages ranging from SO cents to 7
cents for eleven hours of labor; with the
price of life fixed at 50 week and
with 25 per cent profit paid by the oper.
atives to the management for supplies,
there is nothing remarkable in the state
ment that the laborers can barely support
their families. Nor is there anything to
excite special wonder in the declaration
of Baltic taxpayer: "The Baltic Mill
is curse to this town. We get small
tax from it for the town, and the town
has to pay more than three times the
amount for the support of its poor"
The protective tariff greatly enhances
the price of nearly everything these
operatives buy, and the manufactures
adds 25 per cent. to this enhanced price /!
Wherein does protection protect the
"pauper servitude" of New England
against the "pauper labor" of Europe? ?
The case of operatives in woolen man.
ufactories cannot be much better. The
Philadelphia Press is authority for the
statement that "three volumes of pro.
tests" against reduction of the tariff on
wool have been recently forwarded by
woollen manufacturers to Congress, and
that "the industrial establishments rep.
resented in these protests give employ
ment to 10000 workmen," who receive
"an average of seven dollars" per week
in wages. For the purposes of the argu.
ment in favor of protection it is usually
assumed that each workman has at least
three persons dependent upon his wages.
According to Mr.. Atkinson's estimate,
the price of life to family of feur per.
sons would be twelve dollars per week;
to meet which expenditure the working.
men in the woollen manufactures receive
an average of seven dollars in wages.
Mr.. Atkinson's estimate may be reduced,
possibly, by one.half, or to six
dollars per week. If seven dollars
is the average wages in this industry,
however, it is plain that many working
men receive much less, and that all who
work for less than seven dollars week
are working for very "bare living" for
themselves and families.
The Chicago News says, in regard to
the conduct of another Industry which
is protected for the purpose of enabling
the workingmen employed in it to receive
high wages:
Con the 9th of February last it was
announced that the bituminous coal trade
in the East had perfected its poul for the
current year, and that it would advance
prices 80 cents per ton on March l.
Almost Immediately came intelligence
that the miners in the Cumberland and
Clearfeld regions were agitating for an
advance of 10 cents per ton, to take effect
simultaneously with the 30 cents advance
in prices. One week later the pool noti-
fed the operators to grant no advance
to the miners. Within few days the
strike was begun, aud in short time
mad extended over vast area, the mum.
ber of men going out being estimated at
fully $4,000. Meanwhile prices were
steadily advanced from 50 Is and 1925
per ton to $3.50 and 81, the pool, of
course, reaping the benefit of this in
crease"
The increase in price in this case was
not caused by the high wages paid to
miners, and they were deliberately refused
the benefit of even one.third of that
increase.
The Springfield Republican contributes
the following information bearing upon
this subject, the facts being stated by
Mr.. Charles H. Litchman in lecture
recently delivered in Springfield:
"The coal miners are paid in orders on
the company's store. We pay for coal
from IS to $3.50 ton and the miner gets
for mining it IS cents ton. 1t is an
object of the Order represent to 6ud out
what becomes of the difference"
The testimony we have quoted has
been derived from newspapers published
in the manufacturing centres of the
country, and vast deal more to the
same purpose might be added. Enough
has been given, however, to show that
the claim that protection benefits the
workingmen employed in some, at least,
of the leading industries is pretence
and falsehood; and that large per-
centage of the wage. learners in the
United States are working from year to
year for barely sufficient to keep them in
workingorder. Adopting MIR. Atkinson's
significant words, and applying them to
the case of the laborers in the industries
we have considered, it way be truly said
that the price of protection to the work
ingman of America is, in deed, "the price
of life !"
= Professor Mcbride, of the South
Carolina College, publishes in the Cotton
Plant his test of several varieties of cot
I ton for the last three years, giving yield
per acre and per cent. of lint. In 1885
Dickson's cluster headed the list with
147S pounds to the acre, making 32l per
cent. lint, or 477 pounds. Duncan's
mammoth made only 80 per cent. of lint,
while the Peterkin cotton made 1856
pounds to the acre, and 3Ss per cent of
lint or 48O pounds. That is 1856 pounds