Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-02-13
ANOTHER TARIFF TRUST.
THE TABLE GLASSWARE MEN CON-
elNE FOR UNIFORM PRICES"


Labor-Factories to Be Closed to Main
tain Prices-Under False Pretcnses.
The table glassware industrv of the
country is entering upon the enjoyment
of the tariff spoils which Mckinley gave
it. Nineteen of the leading establish
ments in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West
Virginia have Just formed a trust.
The duty on plain and ornamental glass
ware under the old tariff law was 40 per
cent, and the manufacture of glassware
has developed very rapidly of late years.
1t is stated by The New York Oil, Paint
and Drug Reporter that the number of
pots at work in this industry has in
creased 40 per cent. within the past two
years. 1t also reports that the demand
for glassware has increased so greatly
that manufacturers are not afraid to hold
their goods for an advance in prices,
which is looked for in short time. The
formation of the trust will doubtless
cause the advance in prices at an earlier
day than was expected.
In order to make this trust possible
glassware TO 50 per cent. The old rate
having been 40 per cent. the new duty is
an increase of one-h9lf. 1t was stated
before McKinley's committee that only
about 800. 900 worth OF glass ware is inn
ported into this country annually. This
insignificant competition the domestic
manufacturers wanted ID get rid of,
and already trust Is the result.
In pleading for the increased protection
the manufacturers had much to say about
wages in Germany and in America. One
of the men heard by the Mckinley COM
mittee in favor of higher duties on glass
ware for the benefit of his workmen was
Mr.. Gillinder. of Philadelphia, who ad-
mltted that our glassware wOrkmen do
not average over nine months work in
the year" Mr.. Gillinder is a benevolent
man. He said, Il do not want to see our
well paid labor put on the same footing
with those who are said to get meat only
once week"
Mr.. Gillinder knew all about German
wages by report. But in pleading for
higher protection on glassware, in order
that he might pay his men better wages,
he made one damaging admission. as the
following extract from his testimony
will show:
Mr.. Flower-Some statement has been
made as to the efficiency Of the German
labor?
Mr.. Gillinder-I have not been in Ger
many myself. but my brother visited
there, and was very much astonished by
the skill and quickness displayed by the
German glass blowers.
Mr.. McMillin-Does not your compe-
tition come more from Germany, where
they have a protective tariff, than from
England. where they have not?
Mr.. Gilliuder-I think that is true
The reason for that is that labor in Eng
land is as two to one in Germany.
Where a workman gets $l2 in England
he gets sc in Germany
Mr.. McMillin-And yet Germany is
protected and England is not
Free trade England pays its glass
workers twice as mucn as Germany.
which has a protective duty on glassware
ranging as high as s.. 80 per 100 pounds.
and yet the sanguine Mr.. Gillinder ven
tured TO ask for higher duties in behalf
of labor.
Well, he got his higher duties-and
what is the result: Nobody has heard
anything of increased wages for glass
ware workers. On the contrary, one
part of the programme of this new Nc
Kinley trust is to shut down some of the
factories whenever prices are not salts
factory. If at any time business be
dull at one Of the factories" says this
press dispatch from Pittsburg, that
plant will close down and its orders be
transferred to other factories Should
general dizziness ensue the trust Will
operate only as many factories as are
necessary"
But what viii become of the labor, in
behalf Of which such fervent appeals
We're made before Mckinley? This dis
patch states that the nineteen factories
in the trust employ over $500 hands
When general dizziness" ensues and a
number Of these hands are thrown out
of employment it will be difficult to per-
suade them that the Mckinley duties
We're not secured under false pretences
of love for labor. However. the manu-
facturers win get what they were work
ing for. The dispatch says, 1T is ex-
pected that this arrangement will bring
about uniform prices" In other words,
prices viii be higher, labor viii partly
lose employment, the consumer viii foot
the extra bills and AIckinleyism and
hum buggery will reign supreme.
The protectouists are fond of citing
the development of the glassware in
dustry as one of the proofs Of the benef-
cent effects of protection, and they
claim, too, that the rise OF the rate of
wages in this industry is also due to
protection. In his Recent Economic
Changes" David A Wells. the greatest
economic writer OF America, makes some
remarks which well exposes the hollow
ness of this pretension. He lays dowQ
the general principle that, while an in
creasing cost of labor has been the great
est stimulant to the invention and intro
duction of labor saving machinery, labor
commands a better pr-ica than 1T was