The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-05-08
AMERICAN INDUSTRY.
WHAT OUR woRklNcMEN MAKE ey
HOME PRODUCTION.

Benefits to Our Farmers-Foreign as Com
pared with Homo Consum ption-Taks
the Tariff Away and We Are at the
Mercy OF Great Britain.
At the annual meeting Of an Illinois
steel company the presidents report
showed that during the year 1890 $685.
$50 tons of raw material had been re-
ceived and 92S, 769 tons of finished prod
ucts shipped. Of this aggregate. 1885,
246 tons were transported in 209, 421 cars,
or nearly 1000 trains of thirty. cars each.
The balance was carried by lake vessels.
The company employed an average Of
9,648 men, paying for wages and salaries
total of %, 1855, 416.3S, expanding at the
same time for stores and supplies 81, 751,-
587.1 10. 1t will be noticed that about so
per cent. Of the expenditure noted, S.
6f6, OO3.4S, was paid for services rendered.
If the same proportion of labor is sup
posed to enter into the 'stores and sup
plies account" it will be seen that SO per
cent. was expended in remuneration for
personal services, or, in other words, the
payments on this account were about
eight and quarter million dollars. In
addition to this the wages of the engi-
neers, firemen, brakemen and conductors
employed in forwarding 5S, 676 carloads
of finished material to its destination
of men employed by these works cannot
have been less than 10000, and their
average earnings for the year must have
been at least 800. Those employed at
the works averaged STILLS each.
Our farmers, and others engaged in
productive occupations, are assured by
the s'reformers' that it would have been
better for them if the Illinois steel in.
dustry had not been created by protec.
tive tariffs; if the eight million and odd
dollars had been expended in Great
Britain, and if the 10000 men employed
had either been engaged in raising
cheaper cotton and cereals" or sup
ported on the other side of the Atlantic.
1t is urged that steel and iron would
have been cheaper if it were not for the
tariff! Who ever knew of the English
spending their money to cheaper any
thing they had to sell?
The farmers position, if these 10000
men had withdrawn from consumption
and had become competitors in grain
raising, is too apparent to require COM
ment. Let us examine the situation il
they were employed on the other side OF
the Atlantic.
The report of the chief of the bureau
of statistics ON the foreign commerce OF
the United States for the fiscal year end.
ing June 30, 1890, shows that the value
of our exports to Great Britain and Ire
land of the following products-viz.,
animals and fowls, breadstuffs, broom
corn, fruits and nuts, hay, honey, hops,
oil cake, lard, cotton and linseed oils,
provisions. including meats, oleomar-
garine and dairy products, seeds, vege.
tables, including pickles, beeswax and
wool, was 1920, Ale, 229 This includes
grain sent to England for orders to pro-
coed to continental ports, and meats,
dairy products, canned goods, ETC., which
it is necessary to send there because she
controls our over sea transportation and
can charge our products freights to Eng
land and factors charges at Liverpool
before they are allowed to start on a
direct voyage to their consumers. AL
lowing that all goods shipped to England
are consumed there, the 100000 in
habitants of the United Kingdom each
consumed $5.65 worth of the above men,
toned produce last year.
Tobacco to the value of 81 ,90S, 1856 I'M
manufactured, and $1,017,748 manufac-
tured, is not included in the above, as it
is not food product. And it is heavily
taxed; as taxation on tea, tobacco and
spirits bears with greater hardship on
the poor than on the rich. Nor is $14S,-
297, III worth of raw cotton included.
We should manufacture all the cotton
we send out of the country, as it would
give direct employment to over million
people.
The value Of the people employed by
the Illinois Steel company as customers
to our farmers would amount, as shown,
20 $56,50O, if they were employed in
England. But their wages could not
have been less than 100000. If we
assume that they spent only 40 per cent.
of their wages for food, and that is a
very small percentage, their custom was
worth $2,SO0,OOO to American farmers,
or enough to give 1000 farmers $500
each. There is also another considera-
ton. Any time the English owners of
the railroads in India are willing to re-
ceive smaller dividends on their stocks
the Hindoos can wipe out about all of
the $94, O00, 900 paid for breadstuffs; but
with-a duty of twenty cents per bushel
on wheat, the custom of the Illinois iron
works seems assured to the western
farmers.