Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-06-14
Wages Under High and Low rarim..

W08cs (uueT htHu anu Low AuTluss
From the Springfield Mass Republican.
If any one should look through the last
part of the state bureau of labor statistics
report In the expectation Of tracing some
connection between the wages paid in
manufacturing industries and the tariff he
would be very much disappointed. 1t is
impossible to find any such connection.
Upon no other industry, for example, has
tariff been lavished with SO liberal a hand
a. upon woolens. We should naturally
expect that here high rate Of wages would
rule. And yet 1t appears that - per cent.
of the employees who are included in the
wage returns receive less than S5, moro
more than three fourths less than $40
week. As "A per cent Of the total number
employed in this industry are represented
In the wages returns, these results no
doubt give the average situation. Worsteds
are another product upon which much
tariff b IS been imposed. Butover on four b
OF the employees represented get less than
$5 a week, and over three-fourths get less
than %.
Cotton goods, again. enjoy very liberal
protection, the tariff here ranging from 40
3 to "a per cent, and the leading mills are
paying dividends of from to 20 per cent.
II the rate of wages in any way depends
upon the tariff, one would expect to find
very good wages prevailing here. Aud
vet of the 4S,l1 employees represented in
the vegetables, or 50 per cent. of the whole
number engaged in the industry, over 10,
900, or over 40 per cent, receiv o less than So
week or less than "a cents day. More
than three-fourths receive less than 81
week and more than 81 per cent. less than
IS. That cannot be called large pay.
Take now the paper industry. This en-
joys the least protection of any great
manufacturing business of Massachusetts,.
Three-fourths of the total number of en-
ployes are represented in the wage tables,
and 1t appears that less than 1876 per cent.
of these receive less than S5 a week, and
less than 40 per cent. get under So; while
nearly one half get SO aud over and quite
one-fourth get over $40. Nearly one-half
the men in this manufacture get $40 and
more week, and nearly one fourth re-
ceive over SIS. In woolen goods, on tho
other hand, only about u per cent. of the
men get $40 and over, and only about 5
per cent, or one-twentieth, get over SIS.
Boots and shoes are protected by a tariff
of 30 per cent, which is a little above that
laid upon paper, but much less than the
average levied upon cotton and wooden
goods. About GO per cent. of the total
number of employees in this great indus
try are represented in the wage tables.
Ofthis number only 6.5 per cent. receive
less than So week--which compares with
% per cent. in woolens, % per cent. in
worsteds and 40 per cent. in cottons. only
about one-third of them receive less than
50, nearly one-half get Sl2 and over and one
tifth get Sl5 and more. OF the males more
than one half receive $l2 and over week.
If these great Industries represented the
whole situation we should be obliged to
conclude that high wages were more apt to
be found in lightly protected than in the
more highly protected industries. And
this is generally the case. Certain it is, in
any event, that high tariffs do not make
high wages. They are based upon con-
ditions very different from the tariff enact
ments of Congress. Congress may heap
up duties on woolens, or woIsteds, or cot
ton goods, or linens or what not, but the
employees in these industries will 20 right
on toiling for less than 50 a week Just the
same. This Is made so evident from the
facts presented in the statistical report re-
ferred to as to need no further demonstra-
ton.