Nevada County picayune., 1888-05-02
Protection and Wages.

Ii denies them the right to buy where and of whom they can buy cheapest 1t forces them to pay SljO for what is worth only s1OO. and what, but for the high tariff. they could buy for SlOO. The extra $50 is cxtorted from the consumer and given to the home manufacturer in the manufac- turing states--and the pretext for this glaring injustice that American labor must be protected and the standard of American wages main taincd against foreign pauper compe- tition. If this plea were well found- ed there would be some show of reas- on in the system. But does the du- tv go to American labor: Does the American workingman get the extra $50 extorted from the American con sumer? Let Us see.
 The duty on worsted goods, used bv all classes of people. is GO per cent. and the whole product of wors- ted goods in this country in 1880 was S33 .b49 .OOO. which included a fair price. with 50 per cent. added. The fair price would therefore have been S2l .OO0. GOO. and the 60 per cent duty was Sl2, ,GO0. .O00. The extra Sl2. 600 ,0O0 ought to have gone i to the S,SO3 operatives employed in the increase of their wages. But we find from the census report on man. ufacturers that the operatives did not get it. The whole amount of wages paid to operatives in all the seventy six worsted mills in the country. was only S5.6S3, ,OO0. The extra profit of Sl2 600. .OOO was more than double the aggregate of wages and salaries paid out in the business and every dollar of it went into the pockets of the manufacturing capi- talists.
 The case may he stated another way. The lS,S03 hands employed in the seventysix worsted mills oi the East took S22 ,OOO,O ,OoO worth of raw materials, and by their skill and labor wrought them into finished goods worth S33. .549 .0OO-an in. crease of S11. 549 .0OO, or about SGOC to the hand. But the total wages paid them were only S5. 5.6S3. 900. oI about $500 to the hand.
 Take another example. The iron and steel manufactures is an enor- nous hnsiness more than one-half of it being in the single state of Pennsvlvania-and is protected by a an average duty of forty per cent. In 1880 it employed l42 ,O0O hands, whose wages were S55 ,416, ,OO0, or about S390 each. But these l42 .0OO hands took Sl9l ,21l ,0O0 worth of raw materials and worked them into finished products valued at S296. D : OOO-an increase of SlO5 ,2SO. .OOO- and this increase. which represents the value of the labor of l42 .OOt hands. $40 to each. But while each actually earned $40 he recciv- ed in wages only S39O-so that the other S35O went to the protected manufacturer.
 Other special manufacturers eXhib- it similar appropriation of all the benefits of the protective tar. riff by the manufacturers without allowing the smallest fraction of them to their operatives. Tn, hosiery and knit good business. pro- tected by duty of 90 per cent, employs 2S.SS5 hands and these taking Sl5.2lO, O,OOO worth of raw materials worked them into S29, l67 ,OO0 worth of finished goods the increment being sl3,957 ,0Oo or S4s5 per hand. But they received in wages onlvs6. .7Ol 900. or less than $40 per hand Each had earned S4O5. but got less than one-half the sum for his work, half going to the manufacturer. In many cases the protective tariff actually yielded to to the manufacturer more money than all the wages he paid for labor. Thus in knit goods, the 60 per cent. duty brought the manufacturer slO. 800, ,OOO while the entire wages they paid ont were SC. 10l .O00. The 10 per cent. duty on iron and steel brought the manufacturers SSj .0O0, GOO, while the wages paid by them ammounted to only S55. .i76. .0Oo. The 60 per cent. duty on worsted goods yielded 10 the manufacturers SIP ,60O. GOO, and the total amount of wages paid out for labor was only 8, 6s3. .OO0.