The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-18


was Insisted that il duties were lower and
foreign goods were imported, our people
would be turned out of employment and
the rates of wages would be reduced Moth
ing OF the sort would happen. We would
import things which we could not produce
things that could be produced cheaper
IN other countries than at home. We could
now produce at least 80 per cent. of all the
manufactures consumed in this country
cheaper at home than they could be pro-
dnced anywhere in the world and trans
ported here.
WHAT GOVERNS WAGES.
1t was said that high tariff made rich
wages for labor, it was said that if the
tariff were reduced, wages must be reduced.
1t was said that if the value of the domestic
product was increased, the manufacturer
was enabled to pay higher wages. Unques-
tionably. But did he do its No. A high
tariff did not regulate wages. Wages
were regulated by demand and supply and
the capacity of the laborer to do his work.
If high tariff regulated wages how was it
that wages in different parts of the country
were different9 How was it that wages in
different localities in the same State were
different? The rate of wages in the cotton
industry were lower in Rhode Island than
in Pennsylvania, but in the iron industry
wages were higher in Rhode Island than in
Pennsylvania.
FRANCE AND GERMANY.
1t was admitted by all that the rate of
wages in this country was higher than in
France or Germany, and yet Germany and
Franco had protective tariffs TO guard
against the free labor of England. What
made this high rate of wages in this coun-
try! 1t was coal and steam and machinery.
1t was these great agents that made labor
more valuable, and high rate of wages
meant low cost of production. Fifty years
ago it required five persons to make eight
yards of cloth in one day. They got
20c. piece a day. The labor cost Of cloth
was 1215c. per yard. Counting 800 work
ing days in the year, the whole product of
these five cheap laborers was 2,400 yards,
but when coal and steam and machinery
were harneSsed together to produce cloth,
five persons could produce 40, 900 yards a
year. The labor cost of the cloth was now
los of cent. yard. The wages Of labor
instead of being $50 year was $2S7. The
old wages had to depart before the con-
quering march of high wages and steam
machinery.
THE REAL CONTESTANT.
1t was not the rate of wages that came
into the market to contest for supremacy
1t was the article that labor produced, and
if it could be produced at lower cost than
a rival article it would drive that rival out
of the market. Increased productive
power, high rate of wages, low cost
of production followed each other
as night followed day. The fact that
the rate of wages was higher in this coun-
try than in England meant that England
was distanced in the great industrial contest
in which the United States had entered.
He cited from table compiled by an Eng
liSh gentleman sent over to investigate the
cotton industry of the United States, to
show that in every case the labor cost of
cotton goods was lower here than in
England.
Mr. Milliken, of Maine-If that is so,
what harm does the tariff dol
Mr.. Mills-What good does it do? 1t en-
ables you to make trusts and combinations
and pools. Applause on the Democratic
side.]
HOW ENGLAND BEATS US.
Mr.. Mills then proceeded to say that
though the labor cost was lower and the
rate of wages higher here than in England,
yet England beat us because she produced
goods at a total cost lower than ours. 1t
was not labor, it was material.
Mr. Brumm, of Pennsylvania-Did l
understand the gentleman to say that the
cost of cotton goods in England was less
than in this country2
Mr. Mills-The labor cost in produced
pound of print is lower here than in Eng
land but the total cost for material and
everything is lower in England
Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, protested
against the interruption.
Mr. Mills-I don't [Applause.1
Mr. Kelley-The gentleman is sexpounding
his party doctrine, and these interruptions
are, in my Judgment, impertinenceS.
Mr.. Mills went on to state that the Eng
lish gentleman alluded to by him returned
to his people and told them to fear nothing.
'These people i'll the United States" he
said, "while they beat us in labor, while
they can produce anything, hold to a high
tariff on raw material. The cost of the
materlal that enters into the manufacture
is high and as long as they hold to high
tariff, you may 90 to sleep in security, for
England holds the markets of the world"
PROTECTION DON'T MAKE WAGES.
Mr.. Mills then proceeded, with frequent
citations from economic authors and from
tabulated statements, to elucidate his argu-
ment that high rate of wages in this coun-
try was not the result of the protective sys-
tenn. He could not, he said, continue to
tell the result of his Investigations for want
of time, but he did want to read report
from the Commissioner of Labor, compar-
ing the cost of spinning cotton yarn in Eng
land and in Alsace. In every single in
stance England could produce yarn
a
she exported annually into Germany
from ten to eleven million dollars worth OF
cotton yarn over duty of 20 per cent.
How was that possible with the rate Of wages
so much higher in England. With all her
cheap labor, England skilled, powerful hand
took Germany's markets and compelled her
to build wall around her homes. The facts
could not be overthrow. What was it
that prevented us from becoming the great
est manufacturing country in the worldf
We had no foreign market.
BUILT A CHINESE WALL.
We were welded to high tariff and that
made the cost of production higher and
drove us out of the worlds markets. The
greatest people on the globe; the highest
and greatest diffusion Of intelligence, utiliz-
ing the power of machinery beyond any
otner people; having cotton and wool and
hemp and fax and rich beds of !es, we
are guilty of suicidal policy that closes
the markets of the world against US;
that plumbers the agriculturists of
one half of their earnings
TApplausel Instead of destroying our for
eign commerce we should encourage it as
we have our home commerce. Our prosperi-
ty wa, due TO the Intelligence Of our labor
and the UNRESTRICTED movement of our eX-
changes among GO000,000 of our people at
home. II was Interchange of $35, ,O00, 900, 900
of internal commerce that made u a rich,
prosperous and powerful people, and we