Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-19
THE HOME MARKET.
Statistics Bearing on Mr. Gladstone's
Advice TO America
TO PRODUCE CORN AND COTTON.
report Of House of Lords Committee on
Wages in England
AND FIGURES FROM MASSACHUSETTS,
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

From the discussion of the tariff question,
which for ten months has entertained read
ers OF the North american Reuieu, q few
IDEAS may be grouped in such way as to
elucldate one another and show the mental
attitudes OF the writers dealing with this
great question.
Mr.. Gladstone, in the January number.
endeayors to prove that our great folly con-
sists in producing dear" iron and cloth
(meaning presumably manufactures gener-
ally), instead of "cheap corn and cotton"
(meaning agricultural products generality.
An unimpeacbable authority, Mr.. Atkin-
son, states that seven mep in our modern
agriculture can produce food for a thou
sand. Therefore if the $500, 900 pro-
tected workers in these United States
were to turn farmers, as Mr.. Gladstone
counsels, they would grow "cheap corn and
cotton" for 800, 900 people. Unfort-
unately Mr.. Gladstone omits to furnish a
diagram with his article, which might make
the genealogy, and a few other things con-
cerning this handful of people, so clear to
us that we might be disposed to act on his
| counsel.
Mr.. Gladstone further says that it cannot
be protection that has made America rich,
as he knows that free trade has made En-
/
the Englishman? Some extracts from
Arch speeches might furnish some light.
| THE ENGLISH LABoRER's LOT.
But here is "another Daniel come to iudg-
| ment." Mr.. Michael Davitt is dealing
with British, not an American, problem
when, in the October number, he says:
1.-The scandalous-the almost inhuman-
| conditions under which working men and
women are being employed in many indus
tries in England has long been the subject
Of bitter cry for redress" Then follow
quotations from report made BY an investi-
eating committee of the House OF Lords. If
the body OF the report is up to the extracts il
would be "mighttinteresting reading" for
Major Mckinley just now Here are some
extracts referring to the tallor's trade:
1.-THE conditions under which life is car
ried on are deplorable in the
extreme"
People working Con clothing) with tho
garments on their backs to keep !hem
warm"
''Three or four gas jets may be faring in
the wretched fireplace, sinks untrapped,
closets without water sanitary
conditions abominable."
I'm double room, perhaps by Is feet,
q man, his vile, and six children slept, and
in the same room ten men were usually en-
ployed, so that at night 18 people would be
in that one ROOM"
"As regards mems hours, sometimes they
work Is, 20, or even % hours at stretch"
One man got shilling" (S1 2O) per day
when at work, and his hours were from A.
M. till IL P. NJ, and employment very irreg-
ular. Women's wages of course were less
than half as much.
NOT CONFINED TO LONDON.
This state of things is described as largely
obtaining IN London, Glasgow, Newcastle,
Liverpool. Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, and
elsewhere.
So much for tailoring. The boot-making
business is described as worse From the
clothing trade Mr.. Davitt turns to nail and
chain-makers, describing a rather somber
picture. He quotes the report:
"A male chaiDmaker earned IA to Is skill
Gngs (S3 16 to So 40) per week. His work.
ing time was 81 hours per week.
ga nailmaker said that out OF his weeks
work only shillings pence remained for
himself after dedueting fire and other
charges" Two dollars and eight cents per
week.
Another case: A husband and wife work
together. Their united work brings in 18
shillings GA 32) to 81 GA S4) per week
gross, when they work, which is not every
week. But out of this high wage they paw
2 shillings pence go cents) FOR fuel, 5
shillings (S1 20) for carriage, 6 to pence (12
to Is cents) for underweight and 6 pence (12
cents) for schooling their children Their
charges amount to shillings 8 pence, or
81 "a a week out of their income leaving
them with which to purchase cheap corn
and cotton the sum of So 90 to 50 10-ex-
cept 80 cents week which Is paid Tor rent;
working hours from A. NJ till at night.
with two hours for meals, or II hours daily.
AT such wages it would take more than
half billion people to buy the cheap corn
and cotton which 3,50O,000 Americans
could raise.
A CALL FOR REFORM.
This parliamentary report concludes:
"And we believe that public attention and
public judgment can effectually check oper-
ations in which little regard is shown to the
welfare OF the working people and to the
quality of the production, and can also
strongly second the Jealous and judicious
efforts now being made to encourage thrift,
promote temperance, improve dwellings and
raise the tone of living"
ALI on 81 80 per week, gentlemeDl
Hear Mr.. Gladstone again: "Were the
domestic relations in which employers once
stood to laborers to be inverted, and were
Iaborers once to obtain the uncontrolled
hand'-whateyer he means by that-"then,
indeed, while the material condition might
be higher, they would be subject to strain
OF moral triar'-possibly 81 SO a week
-"such as they never yet have been
called upon to undergo, and such as only
the strong restraints of the gospel could (in
my judgmen) enable them successfully to
encounter"
MASSACHUSETTS PICTURE.
Look on that picture, and then on this,
Mr.. George S. Boutwell,, in the OctobsY
Forum, quotes the report of Massachusetts,
industries which the free traders speak of as
in their 'decadence" as follows: From
1875 to 1885 population increased from l.
7S3, ,085 TO ], ,942, al; horse powers from 49,
8S9 to 365, ,0121z; machinery from $65, ,5OO,-
900 to over 500, 600, 900 in value; in 1885
there were %, 431 manufacturing establish
ments, of which IL, SOL were established
since the tariff of 1861; and 5, 634 in the
years from 1880 to 1884 inclusive, 667 being
metal working. In 1885 raw materials
worth S390, ,000, 900 were turned into manu-
features exceeding $674, ,000, 900, 17,125 es-
paying S147 AIS, ,316 in wages
to 419, 966 wage earners, an average of
S351 per year or Sc 70 per week, to men.
women and children. There were on de.
posit in Massachusetts savings banks S332-.
600, 600 in 1889, against S45. 900, 900 in 1860
the gain in 'S9 beingts17, 500, 600; the deposi.
tors being T,029, 900 in number in 1889.
against 23O, 900 in 1860 the gain being 46,-
900 in 1882"
LOTS OF BANK ACCOUNTS.
Every other person-man, woman or child
in the tarlff-cursed State of Massachusetts
has money in bank!
Senator Morrill,, in the North American
for March, ennunelates the fact that the