The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-09-11
TARIFF AND WAGES.
General Draper, q New England Manufact-
urer, Talks After Visit TO Europe.

General Draper, New England Manufact-
urer, Talks After Visit TO Europe.
New York Special to Boston Advertiser.
sNow 40 regards the argument that tariff Is
needful for the protection OF our manufacturing
industries, let me give you single comparison
of wages paid to employees here and In England.
There is shop in Oldham which is in substan-
TALLY the same line of business rs that in which
I am engaged at Hopedale-I mean the manu-
featuring Of cotton machinery. The two shops
each employ something over five hundred hands.
In the Oldham shop they have improved mo-
ehinery very largely of American design. In
the Oldham chop the operatives, like our own,
work very largely by the piece. The employees
are mostly men, with some boys of from four
teen to eighteen years. The weekly Troll OF
the Oldham shop is little less than LOU, aver.
aging a little less than s4.S5 per week per man.
In our Hopedale factory the weekly average per
employe is 5000 The over-crowded condition
of England keeps wages down there. Under
protective tariff at least, if not because or 1t,
we pay greater wages TO our employees IN Amer
lea. Without sufficient protection by tariff to
make up for this difference In wages, or without
q corresponding reduction in wages here. It
would oe absolutely impossible to carry on
there such business as my own.
II give you this instance, this comparison of
wages in my own business, not as an argument
for the maintenance Of duty for my personal
benefit. but as good illustration of the COM
parative condition of things in the manufactur-
ing industries here and abroad. Now. suppose
the tariff is educed. With the reduction must
come an accompanying reduction of wages.
think that after agar or two, when things be-
come readjustcd a new level, We would be
able to meet the foreign mar ufacturers and sub
stantially hold our markets, paying lower wages
for labor. But many of our English cousins do
not believe that we could hold our markets
against them under the changed conditions.
They think that We manufacturers would have
to change our business; that our operatives
would not work at materially reduced wages;
in other words, that we should become, as they
say we properly ought to De, an agricultural Ma
ton. But how would New England fare as an
agricultural section, and what kind of farmer
wonld the average skilled factory operative
makes This is the way many English manu-
fscturers talk. They believe that IL they once
get our trade they will hold it. Others, though.
say that they would supply Us for two or three
years, at least until We got on cur feet again
under a new order Of things.'
did you talk with good many English
manufacturers, General DraperF
"Yes. They fairly admitted what our free
trade papers do not that with low tariff we
must either diminish our manufacturing in
dustries or else lower the rate OF wages. One
English hosiery manufacturer said to me that If
We elected Cleveland and carried out the policy
which his election foreshadows to them, they
would surely close our manufacturing establish
ments Some English manufacturers, influ-
enced doubtless by the class feeling which is so
strong in England, said TO me: Your operatives
get too much. anyway. The American rate Of
wages is too high for workipcmen, and ought 10
be cut down..
1.-TWO or three manufacturers said TO me, as q
member Of their own class, that if We only re-
duced the tariff and then the wages paid the
men. we wouldn't have much trouble about
strikes. The operatives could be more easily
controlled, for with less wages they would have
less money 10 the savings banks to fall back
upon The nearer the poor-house the working
man is II was said the less likely be is to strike
at is my belief that it is not tie rnanufact-
urer so much as the employee who needs to dread
the lowering of duties. The manufacturer can
take care OF himself, provided he Is solvent and
able to 60 through the period OF financial de-
preston which must inevitably ensue after any
substantial reduction of the tariff is made Some
manufacturers would fail, others would shut up
shop until scuh time they could go on again
at such a price for labor as would enable them
TO compete. But the laboring man would find
himself lower down in the scale Just so far as
the readjustment Of the tariff had gone JUST so
far would the readjustment of wages follow.
IL would simply be the letting OF en- much blood
out Of Ne. 1t is not the manufacturers who
would suffer. met many English manufactur-
ers. So far as my observation went their profits
were as great we realize here. They have
better houses, as . rule. than American manu-
facturers; twice or thrice the number of serv.
ante, more eq1ipages. and maintain generally
freer style Of living
80 Tar as the Hills DILL ie concerned, that
proposes average reduction of per cent, do
you think that would Dc likely to be felt by more
than q few special industriess"
Other industries would suffer In sympathy
with them"
Gould not . manufacturer save on the cost
Of his raw material well as by cutting down
wagesl'
"What do you call raw MATERIAL Where do
You find III Is there anything used upon which
laboc in some shape has not been expended
And IL you save upon the cost of your raw ma
terial. isn't the labor which has been expended
uDon IL going 70 sufierl-