Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-03
TIE MILLS BILL.
WHAT THE AMERICAN WAGE.
EARNERS THINK OF 1T.
Those Who Have Been Benefited by
Protection Go Against 1t
Every Time.

of the class that attends to business talked
with reporter yesterday about the effect
which the Mills bill would have on
number of industries with which he is
personally familiar. That he is a practi-
cal man may be taken without question,
for he has successfully conducted bust
ness for many years which now employs
hundreds of wage-earners, while the build
ings of the establishment cover acres of
ground.
"Why," he said, if you want to know
whether a man is financially sound or not
what do you do? Then you hunt up his
debts and subtract them from the assets.
Well, then, is it not fair to estimate the
financial condition of a class of men in
the same way, class such as the wage
workers in this country, for instance? Just
take New York State There are S417,-
100000 in her savings banks. You know,
and so do l, that the majority of that
money belongs to the wage-earners. Then
ingmen in New York city do not own
many houses, although the number cf
houses owned on Manhattan Island by men
who have made the money for the first
house exclusively out of days wages would
astonish you. Bnt you go into villages
where there are factories, and see what a
large percentage of work people own their
own homes. The money at interest on
bond and mortgage is harder to get at, but
every man of affairs acquainted with peo-
pie in the villages knows personally of
several men who work at manual labor
every day ior wages who have money so
loaned. Here we have, in fact, State
whose people are so rich that they have
difficulty in finding safe investments for
their money. The conditions under which
that State has existed for twenty-five years
have been such that every thrifty, healthy
man in it could get bank account What
| want to know is whether these owners of
small bank accounts and of comfortable
homes and comforting mortgages are going
to vote to change those conditions?
II put that question in plain language
to an Irishman who came to my house to
do some work the other day.
"'Fm afther thinking about that same
good dale he said, 'and Pm thinkin' them
Southerners as are backin' this free trade,
are tryin' to raise the divil wild us. They
are aware, dye moind, that the Irish,
more than any other people, helped to
lick 'em, and that the Irish are the hard
laborin' men of the North, and they're
afther gettin' back on us for the drubbin'
we gave them
That was new idea to me, but quote
1t merely to show that wage-earners are
working out the results of this free trade
legislation for themselves.
Then, for | am interested in helping
these men to see things as they are,
asked the man if he knew why prison labor
on certain kinds Of goods had been abol-
ished. Yes, he knew that. The making
of stoves In the prison made hard lines for
honest stove-molders in honest shops, for
the prisoners worked at prices no man
could live on.
Then l said, do you want the law
changed SO that the stove-molders and
lot of other honest mechanics will have to
compete with the labolers who get but
prison pay in the old country? p
"' see that, too, and we're all talking
about it, he said
subject again, would like to call attention
to the changes in the conditions of both
capitalists and wage earners during thirty
years.
=" In the days of thirty years ago capital
return of 10 per cent, while unslSilled
laborers received from sixty to seventy-fve
cents day, carpenters from 81 25 to 81 80
day, and masons from 81 so to 81 75.
Now capitalists cannot hope to average
over 5per cent, while the unskilled laborer
gets from 81 p to 81 so, the carpenter
from So to So 80, and the mason from S4
to S4 30 day. This increase in wages
and decrease in profit on capital has come
during the period that protective duties
have been levied on imports Do wage
workers want to go back to the conditions
in which they were before protective duties
were levied?
:" know Of n papermaker in an adjoin-
ing State who is of the third generation of
papermakers in his family. His firm own
six large mills. Every cent Of the capital
they have is locked up in the business, in
the houses rented to employees, and, of
course, in their own homes. They have
no outside investments. Last year young
japanese gentleman, fresh from a down
East college, with diploma in his pocket,
came to the mill and asked to be allowed
to go to work on one of the paper ma
chimes, in order that he might learn to
make common printing paper. They put
| him to work. He was keen and quick to
learn. In three months he had mastered
the art of making printing paper. There
upon he bought the best machine of the
sort to be found in the country, and with
its appurtenances it was shipped to Japan
Since then he has corresponded with the
| firm. In Japan for $3.50 he bought
piece of woodland containing enough
wood to supply his mill with pulp for fifty
years. The men whom he had trained to
prepare the wood aud run the machine
and turn out the completed paper, work FOR
thirty cents day, while the women en-
ployed in the factory receive fifteen cents,
and board themselves, of course. The
American papermaker said to me the other
day:
Il am done with names, and shall here
after vote for principles. As for the Mills
bill, | must obey the first law of nature
and preserve myself. How can | COM
pete with the japanese paper if the tariff
is taken off? His labor costs fourth of
what mine does; his wood costs nothing,
practically, while ocean freights from Nag
asaki to New York are SO low as to be
no protection whatever. You will say,
perhaps, that Yankee ingenuity will per-
feet machinery that will beat Japan's
cheap labor. The truth is, that the Jap
is just as much alive to the benefits Of
improved machinery as l am, and he will
buy the new machinery as fast as / will.
His mills turn out nine tons day. Give
him chance, and he will load ship
every day.
"When was in England met man.
ufacturer of crackers baker who en-
ploys several thousand men. He used to
sell his products largely in America, but
eventually, on account of the tariff, had to
abandon this market. He said to me
that he was astonished to think that our
people should permit the maintenance of
such enormous duties as were levied on
imports.
"'You would favor free trade l said.
Naturally, having seen its benefits
"'Why don't you export to America
nowg
so can't on account of the tariff
n L