The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1888-09-06
BY the Present Ubiquitous and "MOst
Infamous Tariff Law.
WORKINGMEN DEGRADED 6 STARVING
Protected Woollen .Industsies Almost
Bloited Out, While Free Cotton
Workers Extend Trade
and Prosper.
WAGES AND PRODUCTION EXPLAINED
(From the New York Herald. J

wages paid by the Union Steel Com
pany, Chicago, was fifty per cent
higher on an average than those of
the Edgar Thompson Steel Works,
Braddock, Pa, This does not merely
show, as the Post observed, that it is
useless to argue against reduction OF
the tariff from difference in the rate
of wages between different countries.
1t shows thatin this country a steel
company can do business at profit in
the neighbirhood of another company
and yet have to pay fifty per cent
more wages it shows conclusively that
the profit goes to the manufacturer dnt
not to the. workipgWan. The price of
steel rails, for instance, being within
fraction Of the foreign price plus the
tariff, the profit to the manufacturer
is SO grea: that one company can pay
fifty per cent more than another in
wages and still make lots of money.
Where different companies are carry
ing on the same kinds of business at
different costso production, and SELL
ing their goods in the same market,
there is no escape from the conclusion
that the market price is artificial, and
the difference in the cost of production
| is 50 much clear and unjustifable ex.
tortion (profit it is called) on the part
Of the concern paying the lower rate
OF wages. h Il .lu.t te r- CRITIC.
Newport, r. l., August 26, 1888.
@Critic" is right = The Herald has
recently pointed out this very fact.
Admitting that American ironmasters
pay 81 67L ton more in wages for
making steel rails than the British
manufacturer, Uncle Sam generously
allows $17 a ton more to the American
than the Englishman can obtain. The
real difference of labor cost on ton
of metal here and, abroad, however, is
not more than 81. Hence it is easy to
see how one company can pay fifty
per cent or even one hundred per
cent more for wages than another and
lyet rake in tremendous profits. The
workingman doesn't get anything
| from this arrangement. The manu-
facturer gets it all.
| AS for foreign competition being
prohibited by the higher cost OF labor
here the very reverse is the fact. Take,
for instance, American cotton goods.
In all the better grades, such as Wam'
sutta and New York Mills, America is
; underselling England even in her own
markets, and while both England and
America pay high wages as compared
with wages in Germany, yet Germany
where labor is abnormally low, has
,, thought it necessary to guard itsel
against American and English cotton'
by imposing an almost prohibitory tar
iff against them. American cloths ar
L proftably sold in Germany to-day
nevertheless. .:-y
{ LABoR's SHARE IN COTTON MILLS.
Now the hours Of labor in German,
. range between sixty-six and seventy
y eight hours a week, fifty-six hours i
Great Britain and sixty hours i
Massachusetts. Here is the cotto
workers. s';weekly wage list -
Massachusetts, England GERMANY
Men SO 81 to $loC' IS 2S to IS 40 1928 to 81,
II Women. 88 to 400 89Oto 456 2Ato
Boys. 279to 2g7 2l6to 3N =
u II the wage list governed sales no
- could America compete with eitht
, England or Germany The, fact thu
we do successfully compete with thel
- - in cottons is sufficient, evidence thI
:, the labor issue, as insisted on by r
- publican politicians, is false to its b
= sis. Cotton Manufacturers have fr'
!, raw material They have the san
n privileges in the material market
foreigners. With better paid and be
!. ter fed labor, with unstinted energ
" skill and perfect machinery, Il
American enters the markets OF Il
NJ world and reaps profit even whe
zee labor is low priced, where special q
er ifs are raised against him and whe
by competition is keen and perpetual.
the earnings OF the working peoI
alone determined prices America
,iv could not have a chance in forei
III markets. 1t is not the earnings whi
IN. control prices it is the amount a
' y quality of work. Impartial inqu
~ proves that countries whose produ
,s - iyeness OF labor has attained the hi
oso est result are those whose wages a
lie earnings are highest On the otl
o,a hand low wages mean low product
ab. The we'll fed and fairly we'll p
American does more and better W
than either the Englishman. Germ
Lely or Frenchman in home textile m
and There is no gainsaying the stubb
ID. fact. Take one man in each OF