Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-08-14
WONDERFUL GROWTH.
FACTS CONCERNING OUR NATIONAL
ADVANCEMENT AND PROSPERITY.

1
Us-wonderfuI Statistics Relating to
Our Growth in Thirty Years-Increase I'm
Wages and Number Employed.
The following interesting statement OF
our national prosperity under existing
economic conditions is taken from Sena-
tor Hiscocks speech on the silver CUES
ton, in the senate, June 5. Senator
Plumb asks: Why change tariff legis-
lation as such prosperity exists? 1t may
be answered that the efficacy of tariff
legislation having been demonstrated by
results, it is now time to make that legis-
lation more complete, to fortify it where
it has been proved to be weak, and ex-
tend it to industries and localities which
have not hitherto enjoyed its advan-
tages.
Let me invite your attention for a
moment to our own industries, the man
ufacture of cOttons, wooden goods, chem
icals, paper, agricultural implements.
lumber, -four, glass, iron and steel and
shipbuilding, the leading industries of
our country.
These industries are so organized that
their reports practically give us their
condition now as compared with ten
years ago. The estimated capital en-
ployed in 1890 is 81, 7S4, FAC, O82 as against
81, 165, 015,74 for 1880; the hands en-
ployed in 1890 is estimated at 1874. 1888
as against 844, 776 in 1890; there was paid
in wages in 1880 1855, 795 1897, and it is
estimated that $3.50, 6S9, 5OS will be paid
| in 1890; the value of material used in
1880 was 81 ,197, 204 sol, and the estimate
for 1890 is 81, SIC, 3O2, 97S; the value of
the product in 1880, $1,774, 1877 ,423, and
the estimate for 1890 is s., 293, 779, 22S.
In the last eight years the metallic
products of the United States have in
creased SJ0,0OO,0OO worth, and in what
are known as nOn-metallic products the
increase has been nearly 800, 0OO, 600
80 far as one is able to estimate from
the statistics that have been furnished
by the leading industries, the reports Of
the agricultural department and those Of
the geological survey, the wealth per
capita in this country has increased i'll
the last decade to 81, 600. From 1870 to
1880 the increase was from $3.50 to 1870.
In the six cereal products (wheat,
corn, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat), as
reported by the statistician of the de-
partment of agriculture, there was an
increase of 44.3 per cent. in the average
annual production and of 80 per cent.
il the average farm value of crops for
the past nine years over that for the pre-
ccLing ten years.
The two decades preceding 1880, in
respect to material prosperity of our
country, are without parallel in the his
tory of the nations of the world. The
expenditures by the general government
and by the states amounted to at least
9,GG0, 900, COG, not pad III exchange for
property for the people or the develop
ment of the country, but to support
armies in the field and prosecute a great
civil war. Property of the value of ST.
100000, 0G0 was destroyed in the seeding
states, and for four years their produc-
tiCi2, Ia those pursuits which create ma
tioral and individual wealth, was sus-
pended. Nearly three millions of work
c,S and producers We're for three years
called from our industries; nearly half u
million of men were killed i'll the con-
fiict, and a million more were disabled
N various degrees. The funded national
debt reached nearly s.. 000, 000. eco 1t has
been reduced to less than $500, 600, 600.
The valuation of the property of the
people i'll 1860 amounted to about &c.
900, 200, 900, including the value of the
slaves; in 1870 to $50, 900, 900, and
the slaves had been enfranchised; in 1880
to over $43, 000, 900, 900, and as Indicated
from the returns from the largest indus
tries of the country and the reports I
have referred to, the last decade will
show an increase in property and pros
perity largely in excess of either Of the
two preceding it.
1T was asserted here the other day
that our country was filled with idle
men and unemployed labor. l deny it.
Idleness is not enforced, and there is
labor for all at remunerative rates. An
nually for ten years over 100000 immi- |
grants have sought our country for en-
and with these yearly addi- |
tons from abroad to our labor force |
there has not been any decrease in the
rate of wages during that period. The |
find employment and con-
tinue to come.
81 have already given the increase in |
the number of those employed in orr
industries. The number en-
gagged in agriculture is not so available. |
Their wages, however, are not fixed by |
in that industry formed to
regulate prices, but depend upon the |
law of supply and demand. The sub
ject has been investigated by the agri-
cultural department, through its regular
correspondents and agents, and from |
which report 1 quote the following re-
suits:
1.-The average daily wages of the or
binary farm laborer in the state of New
York in 1879 was 90 cents without
board and 6S cents with board; in 1880,
1921 without board and 80 cents with
board, and for 1890 $1.23 without board
and 80 cents with board.
in the state of Illinois in 1879 the
same laborers received $1.01 without
board and 70 cents with board, and in
1890 $l.13 without board and sc cents
with board.
''BI Iowa in 1879 the same laborers re-
eeived 81 IL without board and so cents
with board, and in 1890 $1.23 without
board and 50 cents with board. There
las been no material change during the
past ten years in the daily wages paid in
hat the greatest and the most important
If all our industries, where, as 1 have
stated, the demand absolutely fixes the
,rice without the intervention of organi-
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