Daily Republican., 1888-11-02
PkU rRuFIOM FAUTN.
what honest John PiIIlnE of NswArH
says,

GAgAl
From the Morning News.
John Pilling, the woollen manufacturer
who lives at Newark, but has several
mills at Stanton and K'amensi, is prob.
ably the best qualified man ia the state
to speak upon the subject Of the tariff as
1t affects the wool growing and manufac.
turing industries IA this country A re-
resentatiVe Of the Morning News ac-
cordingly called upon Mr. Pllling several
days ago at his mills in Kiamensi to learn
something Of him on this great question
and to show him q clipping from the New
York World, which pretended to give a
reliable parallel comparison of wages In
woollen factories In England and 10 this
country. OF course. IN the case OF Eng
lish wages the figures were made as high
as p1ssib Q, while American wages were
very much minlmized and underestlmated
In order to delude the American work
ingmen into believing that wages in Kng-
land aud America we're ab1ut the same
1t did not take Mr.. Pill,ng very long
after adjusting his eyeglasses aud look
ing for some time at the 1gues, TO say:
"Those figures are not true, either as to
wages in England or here. The hands in
my mills here make an average Of over
$50 per non h, while tn Sc figures say
that the average wages paid
to workers in woo'len mills in Delaware
Is only $50. We will take the Weavers
for instance" said Mr. Pilling, as he
produced the huAe pay-bo1ts OF the com
pany and read off the amounts paid dur
ing the previous month to his weavers,
which were from S3S, the lowest, to S03,
with an average per month Of over t52
"Now as TO wages In England, from
personal experience / know that the
weavers there cannot make more than S25
or at the mott $50 per month. NJ amy
weavers from England have come TO the
De woollen mills whsn they were In
operation at Newark and made ei5 and
s5O per month, while IN the foreign mil &
S25 was the very most that they could
make and with the ruling price of com
moa.,..,, shccye shsolutelv noting could
be saved up. Many of these same per-
sons to-day own comfortable homes in
Newark, all of which were pu.chased
from the accumulated earnings of few
years And it is quita net dless for me tc
say that these employees made more out oi
the mill than did tho owners, who did
not receive even 8 per cent ON the inYeBt
ment." .-.
"Well, do you think that un der sys
tenn Of free trade you could export your
goods2"
"Why certainly not, unless we adopted
the same scale Of low wages as in Eng
land and that would, of course, be almost
suicidal. An experience Of forty Eve
years In this business leads me to say that
with the English scale OF wages we could
compete with the world in quality aud
workmanship, but It is, Of course, i'm
possible without this wholesale wage re
ductiOn. This. think is clear to any
sensible man, Why do you know that
my first wages in mill in this State
were only " per week. That was thirty
dve years ago, and for the performance Of
the same duties in our mill to day we pay
tb so. The lowest wages paid to-day are
t3 per week. This is what protection has
done for the American WorkingmAn. /
don't see why trey should vote for any
change in the tariff duties"
On the question of free wool, which Is
one OF The cardinal p.iaciples of the
Mills bill, Thomas Pillirg, the junior
member Of the firm, bad sone very
pointed things to say as he put his hand
into . h"Sa ssck and brought out q
beautiful Apac!nan Of onriy s's.s sses'-s hi.-
fleece Holding 1t up to the light he
said: "Thls Is from Ohio and is as fine
wool as can be produced In any country
in tho world, With the possible exception
Of Australia Here is some from another
bag which was grown IA Colo ado, not so
good perhaps, tinee wool raising is a
comparatively new industry there, but
under reasonable protection 1t Will i'm
prove In quality rs per cent in another
two years. We do not use a pound of
imported wool year In our works, and l
cannot see how its free admission to
his country will beneas any one except
the foreign growers of eheep, and 1t will
certainly work incalcuable injury up n
the great and growing wool industry in
the finished product, It will not accomp
lish much in this direction, and the
wOrkingman will pay about as much as
formerly ior bis blankets, etc 1t will
take but few years to entirely wipe out
the home production OF wool, and this
very restriction of production will
eventually and inevitably tend to in
crease the cost of wool everywhere. 1t
is great mistake that with our superb
facilities and great wool producing terri
tory, sheep raising cannot be encouraged
"The woollen mills In this country
under protective tariff have made won
dertul progress, and are now making in
the palmer geo 70 just as tine material,
quality for quality, as can be produced
IN England OF course, in the finer and
highly finished goods, such as broadcloth
for instance, England is far ahead of us
by reason of the cheapuess OF her labor.
On this class of goods fully twice the
time and labor are expended, and to
compete with her our only alternative
is follower wagee. This is why am op.
posed to free trade, and the same reasons
govern al of our workmen."
The reporter left, with Mr.. Pilling
prophecylng the election of Harrison and
Morton and the vindication of the
principle of protection to the American
workingman.