Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-31
THE WAGE ISSUE.


question Of comparative wages plainly into
view, so that ''the wayfaring man." if not
fool, can understand it as well as the stu
dent in his closet. 1t settles fully, conclu-
sively, and once for all, the fact. to which
the Louisville C0urieT-JOiIrndl has never
ceased to urge public attention, that all
labor and wage arguments OF the high-tar-
i'll gospelers are the merest hypocrisy.
By far the most magnificent industrial
fabric of which any nation can boast, or has
ever in all history been in a position to
boast, is the textile manufacture of En-
gland.
This is no empty assertion, as we shall
proceed to demonstrate. The aggregate in
ternational trade of England is equal in
magnitude to that of any two other nations
of the earth combined; and the exports of
only three classes of her own textile prod
ucts are about one-half of her total exports
Of all commodities. As to England's chief
manufacturing interests, the textiles rank
first and the metals second. Now see: The
value OF the products of only the larger part
Of England's textile factories, cotton, wool
and linen alone, amounts to SS90,000O00.
1t employs in only three lines 1,136,OOO
artisans.
The product of all other textile factories
in England Sl17, ,797 ,0OO and the export SS9,-
100000, making grand total of textiles
amounting to sl,007, $40, 900, and a total ex-
port of S6l4.5OOOO0.
Its immensity and its connections, its alli-
ances and influences are so great and
varied that it comes in contact with every
interest of domestic trade and finance and
all its maritime relations. Nothing could
possibly vie with it as broad and compre-
hensive exemplar of England's whole in
dustrial and commercial system
England's 1,136,000 textile artisans in
these three lines were paid in 1SS0-S2-a
date which we select for purposes of con-
trast with our own National compilations,
last made in 1850 s 23j. $4,000 in wages for
working up SS9O,GO0,OO0 worth of cotton,
woolen and linen goods, including $685.
100000 cotton goods, 1865, 100000 wooden
goods and S90,000,000 linen goods Flax,
Jute and other textiles are not embraced
in the figures. There were S525, 10000 of
these textiles alone exported and s644,6l3
800 worth of all other commodities combined.
The home consumption of these homemade
textiles was $3.50, 600 600 worth
In the United States in the same year our
own production of these textiles amounted
to t459, $4,000 and S03,OO4,5O6 was paid in
wages to the operatives who produced them.
In England tho operatives wages
oAAouhNCN " -p.f1 per cent OF l0c Nalue OF
the whole product, and in the United States
TO 20.2 per cent The honest artisans
share in the product of his skill and labor
was 29.6 per cent. larger in the factories Of
England than in those Of the United States !
There were 10000 workers employed in
the textile factories Of that free-trade ma
tion out of 36,O00,0OO Of her population, on a
wage fund of SOB 6l5.OOO, and there were
97, ,029 workers employed in the factories of
the United States, out of a population Of
5O,OOO,OOO people, on wage fund of s93,0Oi,-
5O6i
The American factory hand was paid s26S
year and the English S2O5.64. On the
English ratio of wage TO product, that
American operative should have had 1894 Is
a year.
The American artisan delivered his en-
ployer II ,324 of product for his $26S in wage.
and the English artisan turned over to him
only 1888 for his S2O5.G4 wage.
The American employer got net profit
of 81 ,O56 for his average wage payment, land
the Englishman S571.36.
The product equivalent of the average
American wage was 63 per cent. more val
liable IN money than that of the English
Therefore, to put the American operative
on an equal footing Of wages as measured
IN product with the English, the American
should have been paid G3 per cent. more
than the English wage Of S205, or S334 13
! per year, instead of S26S, or 80 per cent.
more. AT a rise of only 30 per cent. his en-
ployer snoggles SO per cent. Of what was
honestly due him on the English wage rate
to pay exactly as much for the amount of
his product as the ''pauper artisan of En-
land. A rise of so per cent. to American
labor over the English wage gives his en-
| of
nothing, so far as labor goes in the crea-
tion of its cost and value.
While the product Of an American factory
hand Is 63 per cent greater in value than
that Of the English, the latter is 81 per cent
lower, the differences being those between
discount and premium. So, 10 prosecute
/ the analogy, if 1868, the American wage be
/ fair return to labor for 81 ,324 worth of tex
tiles, then the English operative for only
| $1S3 OF product should be paid 30 per cent
| less than the American, or $l6S.S4 But he
| is paid S20564. What an extravagant rascal
John Bull is, to be sure, in thus paying his
wretched ''pauper artisans" $3.50 per head
more than the sharp Americans pay the
independent wage-worker of this glorious
land of freedom, SIR" for exactly the same
product value from his hand and skill
Men and brethren, seeing what an ocean
VI huhAOub DtSC Deen emp
tied into the economic systems under which
all our interests are staggering, let us de
voutly hope that there is but a small re-
serve Of lies and hypocrisy and cant left to
be devoted to other purposes among us.
But we can't refrain from adding that
If, in this Nation, our systems were reor-
! ganized to secure readily accessible results
from the cheapest and largest supply OF
material, horsepower, and food in all the
universe, now or ever, the main differences
would be this: We would have G.0OO.OOO
mechanics and artisans actively employed
more than now; we would have 6.00OOC
less iaOorers competing with the farmer
aiield and he plug him to overproduce
every thing, and we would have 6,OO0, ,00G
more artisans and mechanics consuming
farm products az home
But They Are Not 80 Easily Frightened
A specimen Of the unfair way in whicl