The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-09-30

a ton; multiply the mum ber of tons pro-
duced by the average difference in price
occasioned by the duty, and you have
the enormous sum of $2S, 421, $50 re-
ceived above the English price by the
American rail makers, by means of the
duty collected from the people-S2S, 421,-
75O-on the pretense that it
was needed to cover the diff
ference between the wages paid
by them and their English COM
petitors But the whole wages paid by
the American makers to their workmen
in this same year, amounted to only
Sd, 9S4, 329 That is to say, they collect
ed from the people, by reason OF
the duty, $18, 487, 425 more in that
year than they paid to their 1aborers.
And yet we expected to believe that
this duty was paid by the people, not
at all for the benefit of the manufact-
urers, but solely for the benefit Of the
laborers. Had the people paid the la:
borers employed double the amount of
wages they actually received, and al
lowed them to live a life of idleness and
ease, and paid the manufacturers per
cent interest ca the capital invested,
they would have saved in that year bv
the operation S13, 333, 092, and would have
been able to have bought their rails at
$27. so per ton cheaper
Now, who is it that has paid the in
crease in price of $153, s22, ,212P Of
course the railroad companies paid it in
the first instance. But am persuaded
to believe that if the companies were
relieved from this tribute they are now
compelled to pay, they would give such
rates as even the Farmers alliance peo-
pie never dreamed Of The duty on
rails increases the cost of railroad build
ing about S3, 600 per mile, and the divi-
dend on this, of course, has to be paid.
in the second instance, by merchants,
farmers and others, who are compelled
to pay high rates of freight for the
transportation of their merchandise and
crops. This being a wheat growing
and manufacturing state, the farmers
and manufacturers are especially in
jured by this class of duties
Gov. Gear, of Iowa, republican rev.
enue reformer, in his inaugural address,
in speaking of the question, said ssTo
a state whose products are in the main
agricultural, as are those of Iowa, any
thing which enhances the cost of rail-
ways, thereby even incidentally, in the
least degree, increasing the expense of
transportation of her products to the
seaboard, which is a great market, is a
question of interest 30 all In view of
their greater strength and durability,
which lessons the cost of replacement,
all the great trunk railway lines of the
country are adopting Bessemer steel
rails. The manufacture Of this class of
f1eS T-,4&1 49, = =
by combination of not exceeding, L
think, ten firms in number. This COM
bination is protected by a high spe-
cific tariff, which prevents the impovta-
ton of foreign rails to any extent
thereby increasing the cost of railways
of the country. Without discussing the
tariff question mall its bearings. II
may be. considered whether it is wise
legislation, by tariff exceptional in its
character, to put immense profits into
the pockets of monopoly, composed of
but few persons, at the expense, indi-
rectly, not only of the Iowa farmers,
but of the whole west"
Senator Grimes. Iowa's greatest re-
publican senator, and once governor of
that state, said:
SIT is enough to make the devil laugh
with glee to see the farmers voting to
support high tariff, which doubles the
cost of railroad iron, spikes, chairs, To-
comotives, tenders, cars, etc, the effect
of which is to double the cost of trans
portation of all the produce, and what
they consume, and then hear them
growl about the high rates of passage
and freight, not for a moment reflect
ing that they, by their votes, impose
these high rates of freight on them
selves"
Second. So far as the 1aborers are
concerned, what has been the effect of
the duty? In 1870 the average annual
wages paid to the 1aborers in the iron
and steel industries of all kinds, was
$454 26. During the year 1870 the tariff
on steel rails was, doubled After ten
years of this high tariff the average
wages, according to the census reports
of 1880, was only $593 81, decline of
SCOTS or 1875 per cent, and in 1884,
according to Bradstreet, there was a
further decline of 20 per cent, making
q total of declines since 1870 of 3SM per
cent. And yet this steel rail monopoly,
this association of eleven companies,
made close corporation by paying SO
much money per ton into a Jackpot,
and in 1S77-78 they paid one of their
number, the Vulcan steel rail rolling
mill, of st. Louis, S70, 900 for stopping
work and discharging their hands, so
as to restrict the production and thus
keep up prices, while the tariff had
been growing all this time more and
more protective.
In 1880 the whole wages paid by the
American railmakeTs amounted to IS. SO
per ton for every ton of rails produced
in that year. And, as have said be-
fore, rails were selling for $27 per ton
in 1885, when the railmakers combined
and forced prices up to $40 per ton al
the beginning of 1887, an advance Of
$1S per ton, claiming that it was for the
benefit of their workmen But did the
combination increase the wages OF
their workmen? After having ad
vanced the price of rails $13 per tor
did they increase their wages a penny
No, they did not. If they did anything
at all they gave them further reduc
ton in wages. But the combination
increased their profits to the amoun
of S13 per ton under the pretense tina
the prices were raised for the benef
of their laborers while the Edgaa
Thomson Steel works, of Pittsburgh
one of the largest establishments o
this kind in the United States, pait
their laborers during the year 1887 onl.
81 09 per ton.
Carroll D. Wright, commissioner O
labor, in his preliminary report on th'
t'cost of the production of pig iron
steel rails, etc" issued July 1, 1890, Oh
page "a, says that the cost of the labo
TO produce ton of steel rails in tn
United States is only 81. 81, and $1.9
per ton in Great Britain. That is, tn
laborers in the steel rail mills of tn
United States received Al cents less pc
ton for their labor under protectio,
than the English 1aborer under FIRE
trade.
According to Senator Beck in 1ss
only 8 $40 per cent. of the value of tn
products of the Bessemer steel In
dustries went to the 1aborers employed
while sc 9-10 per cent. went to the cap
talists as profits and "a $40 per cent. wa
the cost of the material. And yet, it