Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-06-28

NUMBER 81.

| ESy pt. bOeS tii1S SOuf1u like GAdkScI
alton? Well. then, listen for momen
again to pitiless statistics. AS an ex
ample of house industry take slate
making in Thuringia. Germany. A
cold, cheerless wind-swept hut is thu
| home aud the Workshop. Wife and
daughters, painting, groaning, wrap
about by clouds of smoke from thril
own sweating bodies, carry each .
hundred-weigh of stone from the quar-
ry. II for moment they pause fol
rest in this Sisyphus-toil, 1t is amid
snow and ice where consumption stings
them like a viper. And what is the
| reward of lis unrelaxing vail? Fol
the whole family so cents a day! The
tide of years has swept by them anC
lett them stranded. They are rock &c
in the cradles, they walk in the steps
they sink to rest in the graves of theiI
fore-fathers. But beneath their deepest
pit of misery deeper pit still yawns
to eDguif them. The American ma
chine-made slate, in whose manufaet
ure the brute energy of nature guided
by human intelligence is substituted
for the energy of man-this slate is
actually driving the German han.i.
made slate out of its own market. The
American slate is smoother, better and
cheaper. The wages of the American
(S430) are 700 per cent. higher, but the
labor itself is 1000 per cent. more eff
cient. This case is not isolated by rep.
resentatiye. Matchmaking is another
such drudgery. 1t breathes the foul
right within bearing of the city of mil.
lionaires, Frank nkfort-on-the-M The
brawny arm of the Matchmaker ham,
mers out on his ancestral anvil 80 cents
in II hours. The defter hand OF the
wire-maker may yield him 40 cents.
(Even among us the wire-puller -
fiourishes beyond his fellows!) The
MIN BILE fingers of the wife or daughter
knit IA cents worth, when piled from
morn to midnight. Happy the family
whose daily earnings foot up so cents
per day. A father, two sons and three
daughters by strenuous efforts have
been known to make nearly 81 90 per
day! Does such penury appall you?
Think then of the hand-loem weaver
Of Silesia, the year-long hum of whose
shuttle yields him $75. A scanty pota-
to-patch upholds him in his desperate
wrestle with starvation. while just be-
yond its narrow border 'sfell Thirst and
Faminen scowl upon him the baleful
smile of Death. Come with me now
from this land of shadow to the Black
Country of England, where house-in-
dustry still hides in the hooks and
crannies of the crumbling ruins of a
past civilization. Does the inky gloom
brighten? Perhaps; still there is mo
light, but rather darkness visible"
Clang, clang, clang from Monday
to Friday night, rings out the
triple resonance of fathers of mothers,
of daughters hammer. Nails worth
S5.13 are the combined product. The
German Matchmaker takes his wares to
market on his shoulder, but the more
modern Britain hires this done, and
retains as total net earnings of the FAM
lily SAT-. Turn now to the American
side of the picture. In nail-manufact-
ure there were in 1880 81 establish
ments, employing 1900 persons, paying
in wages 81 ,225, III, i. e., $40 per per-
son. How then, exclaims the protec-
wages with the German at such low
wages? The answer is perfectly simple.
German labor, is loa0-aoriced but dear;
labor is hig1s-priced but
cheap. Proof: The material consum-
ed in the United States was So ,311 ,602,
exclusive of fuel, So, 800, ,000). Thus. in
A merica the labor was not 80 per cent.
Of the whole cost, while in Germany
the labor is nearly 40 per cent. of the
whole cost. That is, while the wages
of the American are $50 per cent. high
er than that of the German, the labor
Of the German is 100 per cent. dearer
than that of the American. In Amer
ca the labor adds not As per cent. to
the cost of material; in Germany it
adds over 95 per cent. Hence the whole
cost of production in America is to the
whole cost in the United States, the
material supposed the same, as AS is
20 1876. or as to 4. While, then, the
American labor is $50 per cent. as high
priced, it is not so per cent. as dear,
and the product is 35 per cent. cheaper.
What, then. gentlemen, in the light
IF these official facts, shall we say of |
he Raw Head and Bloody Bones" of
The New. York Tribune, the ghastly |
spectre of competition with foreign |
oauper labor? Is it not nursery tale,
bug-bear to frighten children, the
phantom of brain imhecile by nature,
,r decrepit with senility? Can you
protect the American workman armed
With the hundred-fold might of steam
lgainst the puny paralytic arm of
,auper Europe? What! Protect the
he lusty-breathing present against the
hattering ghost of the past? Protect
IN iron-clad steamer against bark
anoe, locomotive steam-engine
Igainst dog-cart? Protect the cleo
ric are against smoking pine-knot?
Why, it is the pauper labor of Europe
hat needs protection against us. 1t Is
he beneficent but irresistible competi-
ion of our factories that is doomed at
10 distant day to sweep their whole
ystem of fhonae-industry into nothing
less. The contention of the protection
SITS is really too absurd for serious treat
nent, and their gloomy forebodings
emind one of the like prophecises of
he crowd in IsliDgton, assembled
round the man who had been bitten
" his dog:
The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye,
And while they swore the dog was mad
They swore the man would die.
But soon wonder came to lignt
Which showed the brutes they lied:
The m an recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.
Why, then, you ask, if America is SO
astly superior in production, are our
unable to compete with /,
British in foreign markets? Why is
ar trade hemmed within the confines
our own territery? The answer
lares at you from the records of Con-
ress. 1t is the duty on raw materials,
nat topmost round In the the ladder OF
which handicaps us hope
,ssly in the race for the worlds COM
lerce, which endears our products
'rty per cent, while our methods
neapen them thirty.five per cent.
merican industry is the Prometheusl
lat has stolen from the elements the /