The Forrest City times., 1891-07-10
FASHIONS DECREE.
dow A PROTECTION ORGAN
 INvENTS ARGUMENTS.

me New York Press on the Reduction h the Price of Cotton Cloth-Not Case of Pretsction-Trus Causes of tho Fall in Price - Cheaper Cotton and Changed Fashicns-Cheap American Labor.
 The New York Press is engaged in manufacturing some exceedingly cheap arguments for protection, and is print ing them in large black letters at the head of its editorial columns. The Press is the paper of Census Superin- tendent Robert P. Porter, and was found- cd for the purpose of propagating high tariff ideas, the money for the purpose having been put up by several wealthy beneficiaries of the tariff.
 The Press prints every morning its so- called ~tariff picture" A sample of it's cheap and easy methods for concocting arguments" in support ot protection may be seen from recent tariff pie ture" on the subject of printing cloth. This Is the plain white cloth from which calico is made. The figures are printed upon the cloth, and hence the material used in making calico is called printing cloth. This cloth is nearly all woven with sixty four threads to the inch each way, and hence it is generally designat- ed in the trade "64x64 printing cloth" Nearly all of the calico printing cloth used in this country is made at Fall River, Mass, and in Providence, k. l., there being Sixty-tive mills at these and neighboring points engaged in weaving these goods
 The boast of the New York Press is that the price of printing cloth fell from 5-16 cents per yard last fall to 15-16 cents during the past few months, and that this latter price is the lowest price ever reached by these goods The figures of the Press are correct, but it's claim that this fall in price was due to protection is "all off" The lower price can be accounted for on perfectly natur- al grounds. The causes of the decline are two, the lower price of cotton and the change in the fashion. Last sum mer the mills had to pay about cents and last fall about cents per pound more for cotton than they have been paying recently.
 This alone is enough to account for the fall in prices; but still more serious matter has been the encroachment of ginghams upon calicoes as 8 dress ma terial Every woman knows that during the past few months caicoes have almost ceased to be worn among those who keep up with the fashions. They have been driven out by gin9 hams.
  markets of New York will find the effects of this change Caicoes are uni formly reported as dull; and such orders as have been received come largely from distant points, where the new rage for ginghams has not yet taken full posses sion of the feminine mind. On the other hand, there has been a ready demand for ginghams. "Fall styles continue to be freely ordered" "Agents report unu- sually good progress so far" "Prices ruled very steady"-such are the terms in which the market for ginghams is re- ported.
 There are some further facts concern ing the manufacture of printing cloth which will be of interest to the public at large. This industry, which is being held up to us as an illustration of the |. beautiful workings of protection, is even now debating the question whether it will close down or reduce wages so un favorable are the market conditions at present The workmen are opposed to a reduction of wages, and prefer instead to have the owners order shut down in order to relieve the overcrowded mar ket The same thing was done last August, when fully three-fourths of the mills closed their doors for a week or two, owing to overproducton.
 Besides the conditions already named, the present low price of printing cloth Is due to the further fact that the Fall River combine" fell to pieces early In last December. The price of the cloth during the latter part of last year was fixed by an agreement" which expired in December. Under this agreement not to sell below 5-16 cents yard, the mills ran at white heat, and the stocks of cloth on hand during the summer and autumn were phenomenally large. When the combine" broke up, there was rush to realize on these enormous stocks, and prices were at once broken.
 And now these protected mills are once more in the same predicament, overpro- duction, and no remedy but shutting down or reducing wages. Why do they not go out and capture the foreign mar ketP" They have the advantage of cheaper labor than their competitors in Europe they ought to beat those com petitors ill neutral markets They could do it if they would only content themselves with smaller dividends and would exert themselves to gain footing in foreign countries. Some of the more prosperous of these mills earned from Is to 20 per cent. on their capital last year, notwithstanding the high price of cotton and the complaints of overpro- duction.
 The operatives in these Fall River mills are paid considerably less by the piece than is paid in England and Switz- erland Their higher daily wages are earned by attending to larger number of looms, thus producing more cloth than the English and Swiss weavers. Here is how the matter stands.
 Number of looms run by one weaver in cotton mill:
 In America. .........'......'....-.. to In Switzerl land .......................... to
 Number of yards. same quality and width, turned out by one weaver:
 Tn Engianu. ....................... e75 In Switzerland ............................ 466 Rates of wages in 100 yards print cloth
 1n Ene,rrS '''..'''''.-''''.''''s sv E s,,t cent III oWiI0riano. ..-..-................o ou cents
 When protectionist organs boast of what the tariff has done for our cotton cloth industry, do they include in that boast the cheapness of American labor at Fall River?
 The Great American Jackdaw.
 The way the protectionists boast of tho workings of the high tariff and claim for it the progress which has been achieved through invention, reminds one of the old story of the jackdaw stealing the canary's feathers and strutting around proudly in bOrrowed pliima %