Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1889-07-24
The "Bulwark of Wages.

United States census mass of figures
and facts clearly demonstrating the
utter untruth of the assumption that
our tariff is the bulwark of American
wages. These facts have often been
utilized in the discussion of the tariff
question, but they have never before
been so completely presented in suita-
BILE form for popular use and reference.
Mr.. Wilson shows first that of the
II 1000 persons in gainful occupa-
tions in 1880 about 100000 at most
were employed in protected industries.
He then searches through the census
returns to find whether the wages paid
in those industries are so high that
they can be supposed indirectly to
raise the wages of those employed in
other industries. And as he proceeds
he discovers some things that may
surprise people who have never pur-
sued this line of investigation.
Taking sixteen industries, in which
about 80 per cent of the 100000 work.
ers who are supposed to be protected
are employed, Mr.. Wilson finds that,
taking the whole country together,
the average weekly wages varies from
SAG in hosiery to $9.42 in sugar
making. 1t will be understood, of
course, that these averages relate to
all hands employed, skilled and I'M
skilled, men, women and Children
The average for all sixteen occupa-
tions is $6.76 per week, or $1.13, near
ly, per day. 1t may be supposed from
the smallness of the average that no
allowance is made for loss time. But
proper allowance is made, because the
employers were compelled to return,
not the whole number, but the aver
age number employed during the
year. The averages above given,
therefore, as well as those that follow,
are for the time employed, and not for
the whole time, counting in the days
when not employed. This should be
borne in mind throughout.
Mr.. Wilson proceeds to show the
averages paid in different parts of the
country T; and here he digs up the
facts which demolish the assumption
that wages depend OH the tariff.
The highest weekly average, as above
stated, was $9.42 in the sugar indus.
try. But the average was not every
where the same. 1t ranged from So
06 and 1854 in the New Orleans and
Baltimore refineries, respectively, to
1888 and $11.36 in the Boston and
Jersey City refneries, respectively
Here is a curious fact. The tariff is
the same in all parts at the country,
and yet the hands average more than
twice as much in Jersey City as they
do in Baltimore and New Orleans.
And what is quite inexplicable upon
the high-tariff theory, the Boston and
Jersey City refineries did not have to
go out of business because they paid
twice as high wages as were paid by
the Baltimore and New Orleans refin-
cries, with which they had to compete,
and against which they had no tariff
protection whatever. This fact seems
to be fatal to the high-tariff theory
that the cost of production depends
mainly Oh the rate of wages paid.
Even more startling facts are de-
veloped as the investigation proceeds.
In the silk manufacturing industry
the average weekly wages ranged from
S1.20 in Vermont to S640 in New
Jersey. And while the average was
only S1.20 in Vermont it was s601 in
the adjoining State IF New Hamp.
shire. In Ohio the average was ST.
70, in Maryland $2.5S, in Kansas 81
4S, and in Missouri $3.50. 1t will be
seen from this that low wages prevail
ed in widely separated localities. 1t
may be said that women and children
were employed exclusively where the
wages were very low. But if so we
must conclude that men alone were
employed where labor was paid the
most. What, then, shall be said of
20 cents day for women and child
rem, and 81 to $1.07 day for men
Are these the princely rates of wages
in the protected industries ? Do we
have to go to Europe to find "pauper
labor?"
Like differences are found in wages
paid in different localities in the man
nfacture of glass and glassware, in
cotton mills, in wooden mills, in iron
and steel works, and so on. All of
which proves to demonstration that
the rate of wages depends on some
thing besides the tariff, and that the
average of wages in the protected in
1ustries is not extravagantly high
Chicago Times.