The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-09-01


character. He said recently to N. Y,
Times man; This is conspicuously the
case with goods requiring the least raw
material and the greatest amount Of labor,
For heavy goods, easy Of manufacture,
there is practically no foreign demand" In
other words, where he can compete on
purely TABOR basis he can enter the for
eign market; where he must compete on a
raw material basis he Is shut out.
The ruling fact In American export trade
sales of manufacture is simply this: that
where the competition is ir labor, Ameri-
cans can compete; where the competition
is In ra~ material, they cannot compete
Why is this? Simply because the
superior skill and productive capacity of
an American workman reduces the labor
cost in saw, hinge or blanket below
that of the Englishman or European; but
no advantage of skill or productive capac.
ity can Offset the Increased cost Of Ameri,
can raw materials made so by the effect of
the tariff. Blaine and Evarts, while each
was Secretary of State, In official reports,
drew attention to the fact that while the
American receives much larger daily
wage than his European rival, yet his pro.
ductive capacity is from ~ to 8 times
as great as the Europeans. Mr.. Manning,
In his magnificent report, also called atten'
ton to this fact, which he reduced to this
formula;-"The higher the wage, the
lower the labor cost of production" The
common experience Of men In every day
life shows this TO be fact. Mr. Sargent
put the case very simply when he said of a
man who in his factory foundry cast 1850
coat hooks in day: Nov | pay this man
t,oice as much as he can get In any other
country. This days work is four times rs
much as would be done by a man In any
other country. So, don't get him at hlt
the price that any foreign manufacturer
pays for the labor of any one of his men ~
Mr.. Schoenhof has shown that In a given
amount of wooden cloth the English labor
cost is 5000, while that cost to an Ameri.
can is only 53c. The writer has heard a
flipt-glass blower of this city declare that
If the English flint blowers worked as
steady and produced as many bottles per
day as he did they would get as much pay
per day there as he does here, If indeed
they would not get more, which he thought
was the fact, The Secretary of the Flint
Blowers Union has said the same in Pitts
burgh. Many more similar instances could
be given were 1t necessary.
Tue conclusion that must be reached Is
that the lack of free raw material is the
only obstacle to practically unlimited pro-
duction and successful competition of the
L. S. in any market, and that without re-
ducing wages one cent. Mr.. Sargent says
MY observation in two tips to England
and Europe and one around the world has
taught me that the greatest obstacle &c
American competition in foreign markets
in nearly every class of goods, is the high
tariff on our raw materials. Take off the
duty, and we will send our goods every
where. Wages would increase here under
such a system, rather than become lower
Mr.. j. H. Bass, manufacturer of cast iron
Car wheels at Fit. Wayne, Ind, said Aug
23d, in the Indianapolis Sentinel: "If the
tariff in this country were modified to give
us free raw materials think 1t would
have the effect of giving us foreign mar
ket that would prevent fluctuations in bus
mess that now exist in manufactures and
increase the demond for such articles to d
point that would necessarily largely in
crease the amount of labor required, and
would really be benefit TO the labor OF
the country as well as the manufacturer.
do not think the tariff has any effect upon
the price of labor, as that is governed en-
tirely by supply and demand"
This is just what the Mills bill proposes
to do: give to manufacturers raw material
to coax them into manufacturing for for
eign market and thus give steadier work
to. their men. What the working men wan
is more certain wordsworth all the yea,
around, without strikes and lockouts 1t is
folly--the densest ignorance,-to say we
can manufacture .cheaply so long as
raw materials are dear, and the U. s. is the
only nation in the world that commits the
objectionable blunder of taxing big raw
materials Until we send our surplus
goods to foreign consumer, the laborel
will always be at the mercy of the bosses
The more consumers, the more work. Open
up our markets, make raw materials free
and In few years the L, $. can commend
the worlds markets. and labor will be
blessed as the world never before saw.
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THE INFLowING TIDE-We could fill