The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-08-17
THE CHEAPEST LABOR IN THE
WORLD.

THE CHEAPEST LABOR IN THE
Extract from the Congressional Record,
June y, 1888
Mr.. MillS-The remarks of my friend
from Pennsylvania Mr.. Kelly about see
ing women and children making bricks in
England recalls to my memory speech he
made a few years ago, in which he remind
ed this House that on former visit to
England he had seen women making nails
at 81 cents a day; and that the product
of that pauper labor was coming over here
to drive our people out Of employment.
Mr. kelley-Oh, no; | never said hat.
was only talking about the condition of
England.
MIR Mills appeal TO the record. Iou
We're talking about the tariff and the dan
ger from the product oi that pauper labor.
| asked a gentleman Who was familiar
with the manufacture of nails how many
nails that old woman could have made in
a day for % cents. He said about ten
pounds would be a fair day ) work for her.
That would make the labor cost Tor one
pound OF nails over cents. | went 70 the
table of the census prepared by Mr.. SWank
on the iron and steel industry Of the Unit
ed States
tleman is appealing to his imagination as
to my stating the price Of the nails BY tie
pound. | never computed it.
Mr.. Mills No; but YOU said the woman
got b cents day. That is all You said
about It.
Mr.. kellev-Yes.
Mr. Mills Gou said She was making b
cents day while our good nail makers
were getting tive and SIX dollars a day;
and you SAID the product OF such pauper
labor would come over here and drive our
men out of the market.
Mr.. kelley-One moment. would like
to say there that was not comparing them
with our people as TO power to produce.
Mr. Mills know YOU were not.
Mr.. Kelley was pointing to the fact
that that system had reduced mothers,
wives and daughters 10 the condition in
which | saw them
Mr. Mills-i am coming 10 that. | went
to the census report 10 ind cut whether
there was any danger Of our WOrkingmeu
being supplanted by thi, pauper labor in
Europe. | found out from the census that
one man working at i've or slN dollars
day as mailer would turn ont thirty kegs
Of 100 pounds each ~ machinery. that
while that poor old woman vas working
Over youder for 3. cents Il day to make
ten pounds OF nails, one man here was
sitting by and working a machine and
making 5000 pounds Of nails; and that
the cost Of labor III the nited States was
from one fifth to one sixth of cent a
pound. while the cost Of the labor IN Eu
rope was over three cents a pound. And
Vet those nails are 10 be brought 10 this
country to take the market away from Us.
Those nails are to drive our naliS all oat If
the country and destroy our industry.
And then the gentleman brings up pa
/ thetic scene of women and children work
ing over yonder making brick to come
/ here and drive our brick out Of the coun-
! try.
| Mr. kelley-Oh, no.
| Mr. Mills Now, Mr.. Chairman, my
i friend, who is practical brickmaker, or
i who understands that business, pricked
+ the whole bubble here before US when he
/. told Us that these bricks were made by
machinery. | have Just told my friend
! from Maine that know enough, by gen
| eral reading, of the efficiency Of American
labo: to know that the labor cost Of II
thousand bricks in Nova Scotia, England
or Belgium was greater than it was any
| where in he United States.
! Now, gentlemen will say that we are Ell
dangered by the product Of iron workers
! in Belgium, in Germany, and in Great
Britain, and yet they want a great duty
on iron to protect the labor in it, Yet |
read the other day most able and eX-
haustive lecture made by a German en-
| gneer who sent over to Pittsburg to
| investigate the cost of natural gas. He
made thorough investigation into the
subject and went back home and delivered
a lecture, in which he told all about these
things, and then he concludes by saying
that he found at Pittsburg that forty men
working iron could do in one day as much
work as it required one hundred men to
do ia Germany. That means that the
labor of the nited States is 100 per cent
more efficient than the labor Of Germany.
Here was q German engineer, man OF
ability, talking to his own people and
| telling them what obstacles stood in the
way of their controlling The market. II
is not the labor that is in our way. We
have got the cheapest labor in the world
know that our labor gets more wages by
the day more by the month. more by the
year; but it is because our laborers dc
more work than any others in the world
and when you come to compute the Labor
cost of a unit Of product, do not care
whether it is brick or woolen goods Ol
cotton goods or silk goods our labor gets
less for a given product than labor any
where in the world receives.