Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-08-27
Ready for Free Trade or
Protection.

Protection.
The forecast of those mauufac-
turers who have guarded themselves
by duplicate machinery in Europe
against the mischievous plotting of
the Golden Clubbers to knock Amer
lean labor down to a level with for
eign pauperism is brilliantly exhib-
tied by the light of very recent his
tory.
Prominent Among such manufac-
turers may be quoted the Singer
Sewing Machine Co. of Elizabeth,
New Jersey, the Barbour Flax Spin
ming Company of Patterson, New
jersey, and the Clark Thread Works
of Newark, New Jersey.
The Singer Sewing Machine Com
pany recently bought forty acres of
land near Glasgow, Scotland, and
built thereon an extensive factory
capable of turning out ten thousand
machines per week, which is some
what more than their American works
can do. In their evidence to the
New Jersey Industrial Bureau they
stated tnat the wages paid in Scot
land were almost exactly only half
what they were here. whether meas
ured by time or piece-wOrk, averag-
ing ten dollars q week here and five
dollars a week there. The company
say that it is the same thing to them
as q business matter, whether they
pay the larger wages under protec-
tive policy or the smaller wages un-
der free trade regime, though il
the latter should prevail 1t would
compel them to manufacture 10 Eu-
rope and ship here (of course free
of duty until American workmer
would work at European wages.
The experience of the Barbour
Flax Spinning Company of Patter
son, n. j., is the same, though APP
preached in different directions, TO
5 the sewing machine works above re
t ferred to were planted in Scotland
by American capital and skill, while
: the flax factory is the creative o
E Irish capital and enterprise.
E Mr.. William Barbour, an Irish
r American and director of the com
= panv, in recent letter to the Hon
f w. w. Phelps wrote as follows:
/ "While | am American born, an
D the industry represent in Patterson
n. J., is thoroughly American, / al
L also large stakeholder in fla
spinning company in Ireland, an
that you may Judge of the relativ
wages paid in the two countries,
would state that the pay-rolls of tn
- two mills, as recently compared, dill
n fered only about $500 the numbe
S of hands in the Irish mill being 2,9O
r. against 400 in the New Jerse
g mill"
Thus the American, even whe
! paid by the same man, gets mol
!. than twice the money for the san
work that his competitor does
q Ireland.
; Mr.. Barbour elsewhere adverts
4 his German factory thus
! s.The German government, as yC
- know, has recently adopted sy
i tenn of protection. The compar
to in Ireland, with which | am connec
is ed, and which has manufacture
If threads in Ireland for the Germ;
. trade for the past twenty-five year
has been obliged under the new la
. to build factory in Germany to no
he it's trade and it is safe to say tn
M the money taken out of German
&c during the past ten years will
- reinvested in Germany within
~ year."
~ In addition to the simple tru
~ taught by the foregoing testimo
IL on the wages question higher a
40 a broader matter crops out in
'y fact of Americans establishing fl
aO tory in Scotland and Irishmen dol
GU the same thing in America and O.
~ many which is, SO to speak, establi'
nc ment of home markets in forei
lei countries where producer and CO
TIC sumner will be next-door neighbo
'ss Thus the ultimate objective pc
II and industrial and social aspiratiC
:" Irish World.