Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-27

hr. Deere is IRVING to reply to an
rticle of mine recently published in the
ARGUS. he does not attempt to answer
ny comments on his former statements,
rather to again indulge in
ipread eagle assertions, unsupported
" facts. In his first article he
claimed that labor constituted two>
birds of the cost of pillow, and that
4 lower price could only be obtained
BY cutting wages, replied stating
explicitly, that the labor in making plQws
and cultivators under the present i'm
proved methods was less than twenty per
cent of their cost, and that if pillow
makers could get rid of the average tariff
tax on steel and iron and other materials of
As per cent, they could sell plows cheaper
without reducing wages. say now that
two wears ago thousands of tons of soft
center caststeel shares and mould boards
were sold all through the west for.fOur
and half to five cents per pound. while
at present the same Pittsburgh steel men,
under a combination or trust, are de- |
manding eight aud half cents and get |
ting 1t, simply because the tariff enables |
them to do So Deere's talk about grow
ing trees" or lore in tie ground" is an
old chestnut and not german to the Ques
ton. The point is not the price of min
ing ore, but what the plow maker will
save by getting rid of protective tariff
on steel. Mr.. Deere congratulates himself
that high turiff has enabled him to
buy steel in ittsburgh at present for four
cents. what he paid in England thirty
or forty years ago seven cents for. and
he asks triumphantly, if plOws are not
better and CHEAPER now than between
the years OF 1916 and 1851 | will
congratulate him on these few
statements. Blu: they prove MOTH
ing for or against protection. He might
have gone farther He might have told
his readers that he could today buy in
free trade England for two and half
cents per pound, better steel than he paid
seven cents for forty years ago. That
the cost per yard in labor in weaving both
wool and cotton goods has been so reduced;
| that one man weaves from ten to twenty
| yards where he formerly wove one yard.
| The same principle applies to steel rails,
| which are now worth less than one cent
| per pound in England, and if Mr.. Deere
| will look at his own works he will ind
that the labor in producing certain parts
| of plows is now from one~tifth to one
| tenth what it was formerly. Now what
has protection TO do with all this2 But
| when Mr. Deere tries to show that the
| unprotected farmer and pillow maker
| grows prosperous by paying tariff taxes
on all he buys. he makes assertion
| that not even the lsudable effort to
help the republican party will justify.
| He says that by reason of this protected
labor the farmer finds a market for all of
his peTshable products, and nine tenths
of his other products that this market ems
riches him and by doing so. enriches the
pillow maker. We will refer to the Off
cial documents, giving statistics and find
that last year we shipped abroad over 40
per cent of our wheat crop, over % per
cent of our rye crop, As per cent of our
tobacco and n per cent of our cotton
crop, or taking the figures Of the Ameri-
can almanac for 1888: we shipped in
1887 as follows IN round numbers: Raw
cotton, S305, 900 600; meat and dairy
products, S97 900 600; wheat, flou
and bread stuffs. $163. 900, 900; tobac-
co, S29, 900, 0tO. But before we com
ment on this, We will look over Mr.
Deere's official report of the Illinois labo
bureau for 1884 made by him as presi
dent. On pages 2l0 ard 211 of this re
port be says that taking fifty families il
Moline as a criterion, be found tina
twenty~nine families out of fifty, as
whole, earned in wages 50 ,043-less tina
was required for their support. That i
Rock Island twenty>one families out Q
twenty seven earned S1,304-less tina
their support, though in both places liv
ing as cheaply as possible, On page 80
of the same report, he mentions this
l .769 families, of five persons each, ST
lected from all parts of the state. Shove
average earnings of S5545S for enc
family and exactly the same amount e1
pended TO sustain life, or the years wor
for nothing. Those families have NJ
been selected from the poorest or tn
richest, but from the average laborin
people OF Illinois. If Mr.. Deeres figure
are correct, such state of atfai
should drive every laboring man in Nj
line and Rock Island from the support
party that falsely claims that to II
them of their earnings by tariff taxes
help some manufacturer elsewhere. real
enricbes them. The true state of affai
: is bad enough; but | can herdly think
as bad as Mr. Deere's official report
= president of the labor bureau makes
for if it is, would advise many more
his mechanics and working men to 90
Nebraska and Dakota to get cheap la
before it is all taken. | will plainly a
Mr.. Deere If he considers this conditi
of laboring men in Moline, Rock Isla
and other parts of the state, as sworn
by him in bis official report as higl
prosperous, and whether he attribut
this prosperity to the high tariff. l 9
this for the reason that Mr.. Deere attr
utes the panic of 1857 entirely to the l
w tariff then ruling. What does he attr
ute the panic of 1876 or 1888 to, wi
there were three times as many failu
and three times as much distress amo
the working classes as in 1857. and t
. under the period of the highest prot
ton this country ever knew. Now for
r farmer.
He can hardly be made to bell
il he reflects that the home market
very great help to him. He had
ship abroad over $500. 000,00 of fl
, products last year or burn them up,
ceiving in pay for this stuff what it
: worth in Liverpool less freight and CT
!. missions, and having Liverpool also
:. the price on what he sold at home
the sake of having less than per cen
the laboring population eat his prodl
and that is greater than is the pro-
= ton of labor in protected industries
i. comparable all labor-he is willing to b
! himself taxed from 90 per cent to 65
cent on everything he buys. How m
better of would he be If be got his &C
free of tax, even if he was forced
D sell that per cent of his surplus
some other market at redl
price, which is not probable.
j us take the negro employed
y the cotton plantations. He gets
! his wages part Of the crop. say
I. or three bales of cotton and has
y garden patch free. He has nothin
: sell but his cotton to get money to
clothing and groceries with. He find
T. Il