Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-02-02
FREE TRADE WORKERS.
MAYOR SARGENT, OF NEW HAVEN,
AND HIS TARIFF VIEWS.

A1oD0F VIC DcsL III the World
The Hon. Joseph B. Sargent, wayor of
New Haven, Conn.,, whose recent inaug-
ural address attracted wide discussion
throughout the country, is the largest
manufacturer of hardware in America.
Mr.. Sargent holds the curious distinction
among our great manufacturers of being
an absolute free trader. His views on
the subject of raising revenues may be
seen from the following extract from his
inaugural message:
But whatever may be the future
methods of taxation or sources of rev.
enue for the support of local, state or
national governments, let us hope that
there may be no more collected than is
absolutely necessary for the proper and
economical administration of govern
ment affairs, and that there may be no
direct or indirect imposition of unnat-
ural and therefore unjust burdens upon
the whole for the benefit of any favored
or grasping few"
A free trade manufacturer of the
prominence of Mir. Sargent is such an
oddity that it is of special interest to
know something about him and how he
arrived at his present views.
Mr.. Sargent is no theorist on the tar
If. He views it from a manufacturers
standpoint. For thirty years he has
made hardware, establishing business
which beyond dispute is the largest in
the world in locks, bolts, builders and
furniture hardware, and in certain lines
of carpenters tools. He employs from
l,o00 to 1000 men, varying with the sea
son. His factories cover four solid
blocks, equivalent to sixteen blocks of
clty houses. They furnish roof for
nearly twelve acres of ground. The
splendid establishment that he now has
became what it is through his energy.
He thinks he does only fairly well in a
hight season if his daily output of goods
Is fifty tons. 1t would be at least four
times that quantity, he is confident. if
he could get his raw material free of
duty.
Mr.. Sargent was once protectionist:
but the experience gained in his daily
business as manufacturer and in sell
ing his wares in foreign countries first
began to awaken doubts in his mind as
to the wisdom of the protective system.
He had been taught that the higher
wages OF labor with us as compared with
wages in other countries made protec-
ton necessity; but he observed in his
business that the finer grades of his
wares found frequent outlet abroad, and
that this xr-oS iol1 h.
ticles IN which the labor cost was great
est. This began to shake Mr.. Sargents
faith in the assertion that we need pro-
lection by reason of higher wages.
Mr.. Sargent is an enterprising man
and has an inquiring mind. He was
curious to find an explanation of the re-
markable fact first noted, and in order
to study the labor question to best ad-
vantage he made trips to Europe, and
later to China, Japan and Australia.
The result of Mr.. Sargents investiga-
lions was that he became an absolute
free trader. He states in the following
language the result of his observations:
my trips abroad were made to inves-
tigate the competition that might fol-
low provided the farmers should insist,
as presumed they would, on buying
their supplies on free trade basis in
order to meet the competition of eastern
countries in wheat, cotton and other
farm products. / found among the
manufacturing districts in England that
as general rule, although the workmen
there get much lower wages than ours
when counted by the day or week, yet
when counted by the piece or by the re- |
suits of their labor their employers paw
them higher wages than we paw in |
America. found on investigating the |
cheap labor of Japan, China and India |
that on account of the very small prod |
uct per man labor in those Asiatic coun- |
tries is generally dearer than in Amer
lea, although the common laborer gets |
in those countries only from ten to |
twenty cents day. As manufacturer
l would not fear, under free trade, the |
competition of foreign cheap labor, so |
long as cheap labor stays where it isl
foreign"
MIR. Sargent found, as he SAYS, that
American labor is the best in the world. |
1t will carry everything before it, Why |
~-A~ASAASesh Ahboi 10 cltCLlVE CIla0 |
that of Europe may be seen from what |
Mr.. Sargent found in Germany. He
says:
Let me tell you how men work in |
Germany. They begin at in the morn |
ing. AT they quit for an hour for |
breakfast. Then they fill their pipes and |
saunter back to their benches. About 10 |
they knock off for beer and sausages. |
By the time their pipes are filled again
an hour has passed. At o'clock they |
go home to dinner. That takes another |
hour. They must have more beer at 3. |
Along about or 6 they go home to sup
per for an hour and come back and work |
until g. That is the way they have al |
ways done and always will. They call |
it fifteen hours work day
''Now here is a double spring hinge.
1t has been riveted and finished We |