The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-05-05

| said that ninr-telthS of all the manufactures
| consumed ia the | nitcd States could be pro
duccd more chcapiy hero than IN England he
| would have been nearer the truth. II nine
| trnthS of all the mauuia" consumed
here are cheaper here than IN Ll,;land it is
because they are produced at IA lower cost
! Then what objection does he see 10 reducing
the tariff
The manufacturer is not so much Interested
now in the foreign market u the farmer,
! Less than pcr cent. Of the $1,000 ,OOOOD or
! his annual produce goes u the foreign mar
| kct, but the farmer sends H. per cent Of his
products there, and would send "A larger per
! cent. If the way was open.
THE TARIFF AND WAGES.
But. Mr. Chairman, it is said that If we
reduce the tariff wages must bo reduced.
! How is it. high tariff makes high wages for
! labor, How can 1t be- explained Why, they
! say, IA matter of course, if you increase
! the value Of the domestic product, the manu-
facturer is able 10 pay higher wages. IN
uucstiuuubly he is; but does ne do it, No.
! Mr. JAY Could, with his immense income
! from his railroad property is able 10
nay his bootblack 800 day but
/ does do III GA, no; he pays the
market price Of the street He gets his
/ boots blackcned and pays his nickel like II
! little man. llaulhtcrl Mr Vanderbilt,
/ from the income arising from the interest on
| the immense amount pi bonds he has can al
| ford 20 pay his hoNtlcr $4,000 "A year, but
| does he do it: Oh no; he goes out into the
( market aud employs his labor at the market
| value, and pays the same price that the hum
! blcst citizen in New York does.
Wages are regulated by demand and sup
! ply, and the capacity Of the laborer to do the
/ work for which he is employed. If high
! tariff regulated wages, how is it the wages IL
! the different states of the Union are differ
! ent, while the tariff is all the same from
! Maine 10 California; In every part of the
| territory of the United States the tariff is the
! same How is it the wages are not the
samei How is it that wages in the different
! localities in the different states are differ
enti What is the cause, What is it which
diSturbs the tariff and prevents it from fix
| Ing high rate Of wages all over the country
! for labOri
| We find by the census the rate Of wages in
! the cotton industry is lower in Rhode Island
! than Pennsylvania and we find the wages in
| the iron business are higher in Rhode Island
! than in pcnnsy vania.
y
| on this subject that our rate of wages is
! higher than anywhere else in the world, that
| England is higher than France, and that the
rate of wages is higher in France than in
Germany Why is this Germany and
! France both have protectiN tariff TO guard
against the free trade labor of England.
! What then Is it that makes higher wages 1t
is coal and steam and machinery 1t is these
three powerful agents that multiply the
product of labor and make it more valuable,
and high rate Of WAGES means low cost of
product. \ high rate of wages means that
! cheap labor has got to go; and the history of
! our country in the last fifty years DEMON
/ s,rltcS that Il, clearly and rs conclusively as
any mathematical problem can be demon
stratcd
fifty years ago, Mr.. Edward Atkinson
shows, 1t required five persons, two carders,
| two spInncrS, and one weaver, working by
the old methods, 10 make eight yards of cloth
in one day They got % cents day; dol
lar for the whole five. The labor cost of the
| cloth was T. cents yard, and, calculating
| 800 working days in IA year, the whole pro
| duct of these five cheap labOrerS was :, 400
! yards of cloth; but when coal and steam and
| machinery were harnesSed together TO pro-
duCe cloth, five persons today in New Eng
land produce 10000 yards of cloth. The
wages of labor, instead of being $50 a year.
or 20 cents day, Is s?SI per annum for
each.
The result of the labor saving machinery
used was an enormous increase in productive
| capacity. The result of that was a great in
crease in the rate of wages and the further
result was "A great decrease in the cost of
production. The old hand wheel and the old
methods of labor have had to depart before
the all conquerng march of coal and steam
and machinery They had to go because the
small amount of product of the article drove
them out Of the field 1t is not the rate of
wages, it is the article which the labor makes
and the cost at which that article can he pro
duced-the lower cost-whlch drives the
rival article out of the market. Such is the
history which has been written in our country
in the last half century.
Mr.. Chairman, Mr. Edward Atkinson, one
Of the clearest thinkers and writers on politi-
cal economy Of the present day, in his little
book on The Distribution Of Products lays
down the principle that high rate of wages
means low cost Of product and low rate of
wages means high cost of product. He says
that the cheapest man Is the one who works
the greatest amount Of machinery with the
least stops read IA paragraph from his
book on page ~:
In any given country like the United States,
where the people are substantially Homogeneous,
where the means Of iuterCUmmuncatun are
ample where there no hereditary or class dis
tinctiOns and where there is artificial obstruc.
ton 10 prevent commerce, high rates Of wages in
money Will b" the natural and therefore necessary
result OF los cost Of production in labor.
Now, then, it follows, he says, on page SO:
That the nation which has diminished the uuan.
tity Of human labor in greatest measure by the
application OF machinery produces goods at the
| lowest cost, and by exchange with the hand
working nations, who still constitute the majority
Of the people Of the world, is by way of such ex
change, enabled to pay the highest rate of wages
in money, because their goods made at the
, lowest labor cost.
, In order to prove that fact Mr. Atkinson
made an investigation into the condition OF
two old manufacturing houses in the state OF
, New Hampshire; he compared two periods
, 1880 with the year 1854. He found that in
1880 the wages per annum We're SlGi in gold
! to each operative. This increased until 1854
: when it amounted to $500 in gold.
, Now as to the efficiency of the labor en-
| ,,lpNpl I'm lS,D the total nurph.r Of yor1,