The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-05-26

| bS pbilSCu w idist duu stll ~ DucutlS vi
wheat, or over two tons, to enable him "a
purchase one ton of steel beams, costing
less than $50 per ton to produce and make
The answer Of the steel man was, that
this condition of affairs all grew out Of tse
pauper labor of Europe, and the necessity
Of protecting home labor, and TO make a
home market for the farmers wheat, oats,
corn, cattle and hogs.
The farmers son, hand In the steel
mills, could not see the advantage of Mr..
Kelleys kind of protection, either to him
self, the mill hand, or his father, the farm.
er. The price Of the farmers product In
the home market being regulated by the
price In Mark Lane, London, he was of
course trading In an open market, and took
nothing whatever by the so called protec-
ton. As to his own wages In the mill, If
he got any share Of the tariff subsidy In the
way OF wages 1t was so small as to be in
,appreciable and to count for practically
nothing as against the prices he was made
to pay for the fairfield" necessaries of life
But considering the employers share, and
the necessities of protected employers
life, he was not so surprised that the
boss" as alleged In the newspapers, could
rent Cluny Castle, In lnverness.shire Scot
land, to spend his summers In. As he be-
lieved that the net profits of the Carnegie
Brothers on the two items of steel rails and
steel beams alene, throwing out OF account
all other items of their production, were,
on 1000 tons of steel beams, $1,000, 600,
and on 1898 tons of steel rails, at $40
per ton, $l,o29,9 $50, or total profit on
these two items alone of nearly $4,000, 900,
the son, with an eye to facts and figures,
declared his extreme amazement ut the
proposition of Carnegie Brothers to reduce
wages ten per cent. The wage workers of
that establishment thought they might
decently leave this pitiful percentage In
the hands of that labor In whose name and
for whose alleged benefit they receive the
enormous bounty extorted from the con-
sumers of the United States upon those
two capital articles.
THE BIG STEEL ROBBERY.
"Now," said Mr.. Scott, al propose, If l
can, to prove that the boys conclusions In
regard to his own wages are correct"
He then proceeded to analyze the details
of the cost Of making steel rail and steel
beams and Orders, showing the total cost
at Mr.. Carnegie's works, and the proportion
of material and labor. He demonstrated
by authentic figures that
The labor to produce ton of steel rails
at the Edgar Thompson Steel Works cost
409, and allowing difference of even so
per cent in labor between England and the
United States, which Is excessive, to pro
teCt the wage worker In this country en-
gagged In the the steel rail- factory against
the socalled pauper labor of England, II
would require So. The two items of diff
ference to labor would equal 81. so; and
duty on steel rails, therefore, of $3.50 per
ton would cover every claim upon which
the theory of protection is based. But 1t
costs something to get ton of steel rails
from Liverpool to our sea coast, and the
average freight and insurance during the
year 1887 from Liverpool to New York was
about 81 per ton, which is the equivalent
of so much more protection to the pro-
ducer In this country, and this. If deducted
from the $3.50, would further reduce the
necessary duty, even under their own the
DRY, to So so per ton. But let us be liberal
with them. Let US call the freight and
insurance so cents per ton and then a duty
of 81 per ton under their own claims and
theories would be ample.
The present duty is SIT per ton, and if
am correct in my figures, $40 per ton in
excess of what is absolutely necessary as
they claim, not only to protect home labor,
but to cover the difference in the cost of
pig iron.
TEN PER CENT REDUCTION IN WAGES.
One of the members of the Edgar
ThmpsOn Steel Works Limited) admitted
to me within the past month, within two
hundred feet Of where | now stand, that a
made by myself In the fall of
1886 was correct-namely, that he drew
out of the company as dividends in one
year the sum of 81 100000, the equivalent
of five thousand per day for 500 days in
the year. And this was but one mem Der
OF the firm, with no statement of profit
undivided.
FARMERS, PLANTERS AND STEEL BARONs.
According TO the pamphlet referred to in
with the Edgar Thompson Steel
Works they represent that the whole area
Of ground Is 154 acres, and we will Concede
that they employ $500 wage workers
which they DO not-in their various indus
tries. According to official returns of the
Agricultural Department there are now
under cultivation in the production of cot
Ton 100000 acres, and a fair estimate of
he number of adults employed In cult. |
vating these fields, allowing four bales TO |
an adult, is I,G25,000 wage workers, and
allowing each one to represent family of
i've it would give total of S,125,000 of
,ur people dependent upon this industry
or support and a living. | have esti-
mated the net profits of the entire cotton
,rop in 1886 at $97 100000, which repre-
ents the interest on the cost of the 1900
100 acres of land and the supervision and
,ther contingent expenses and liabilities to
he planter.
Assuming my statement tina: the said
net profits in the most prosper
JUS years are $5,000,000, would be pleased
o have some mathematician work out for
ne the relative comparative profits realized
" the protected industries of the Edgar
Thompson Steel Works, employing 1900
men, with en- estimated capital of $20,000,-
100, occupying l54 acres of land and i'm.
movements on same, and the profits real
zed on same, and the profits realized by
he unprotected planters of the south, cul-
waiting 100000 acres of land and en-
'loying 1,02j,0O0 adults in this industry,
8,l25000 of our population
let, sir, when the committee introduced
his bill. into the House anu proposed to