The Indiana State sentinel., 1891-06-24
THE MARKET OF THE WORLD
HOW THIS COUNTRY CAN CONTROL 1T
A Comparison Between the Cost of Labor
I'm This Country and Engiand-wages
higher Here, But the Cost of Labor
SmsIIer-FaIiaoies Exposed.

To THE EDIToR-Sir: The Journal this
morning in an article Of some length en-
titled How to Control the Markets of the
World" refers 10 a letter written by an
Englishman who has travelled all over the
country. The Engiishman says "he was
amazed at the seemingly limitless re-
sources of the United States-where our
people actually had far greater margins of
profits than they had in Great Britain"
After specifying these advantages the
Englishmau said: If the manufacturers
in the United States would reduce wages
paid to labor to the level of those in Great
Britain they could drive us out of the
markets of the world, so much superior
are their natural advantages"
This portion of the letter the Journal
takes up and proceeds to deal out the reg
ulation republican tafy and sophistry
about the value of protection to our Ameri-
can workingmen. 1t says from so to 80
per. cent of the cost of manufactured arti-
cles is the price paid for labor, and that
the reduction of wages here to level of
Great Britain means an average loss of
half the wages"
1t is this nonsense about the better
wages that we wish to expose in as con-
densed manner as is possible with the
space at our command.
How does the manufacturer OF any
article arrive at the labor cost of the unit of
product Does be divide the number Of
dollars paid out that day by the number
of men he paid it to? He does not by
any means. But he does proceed to ascer-
tain how many units of product he has
made that day, and he divides the num-
Der of dollars paid out by the number Of
units OF production to ascertain the labor
cost.
For example, suppose the Acme milling
company turns out 200 barrels of flour in
one day and has paid to its labor
that day $50. How much has
the unit of product lone barrel
of -four cost? Exactly 25 cents per bar
rel-so it would be whatever the thing
made was-yards of cloth, boots and
shoes, tons Of iron, etc.
Now as to facts about the labor cost in
Great Britain as compared to the United
States. First begin with cotton. In
America one weaver runs from six TO
eight looms aud turns out 1 $50 yards of
cloth. In England one weaver runs from
three TO four looms and turns out S57
yards, same quality and width, of cloth.
Wages paid in Lancashire, England, for
one hundred yards print cloth 81 cents.
Wages paid in the United States for the
same quality and quantity In Fall river,
40 cents, or 273 per cent less than Eng
land.
Take shoes: Massachusetts shoe man
ufacturers pay 35 cents per pair for ladies'
button factory made boot. England pays
in Stafford 634 cents and in Leicester "a
cents for the same class OF shoe. Or, the
English manufacturer pays from 81 to So
per cent. more to his labor than the Mas
sachusetts manufacturer pays to his labor.
Yet the Massachusetts workman on Satur-
day night receives SI575 for his weeks
earnings and the Eng!ishman has only
$3.50 for his weeks earnings, and the
Journal says the reduction of American
wages to the same price as Great Britain
would mean an average loss OF half the
wages.
Now let the test be applied. The Mas
sachusetts workman made shoes at 50
cents per pair and made forty-ive pairs in
the week. The Englishman received GA
cents per pair and made only fifteen pairs.
Now if the Massachusetts workman had
been raised to the level OF the English
mans wages the Yankee would have re-
ceived $3.50 for his weeks wages in place
of the Sl5.75 he did receive.
And if the English workman had
only received the same price per
pair that the Yankee did-be reduced to
the level of the AmerIcan-he would only
have had S5.25 for his weeks work, in
place OF $500. l will only cite you to a
statement made to me by one of the most
enterprising manufacturers OF shelf hard
ware in this country, or in the world. He
says in letter dated Oct. 3, 1890:
American labor is the cheapest of any labor
in the world. The value of days labor is not
to be estimated by the time taken to do the
work. but by the amount done and quality of
IL. Within the past four years | have taken
two journeys of labor observation and study,
one of fifteen months duration, two-thirds of
which was spent In Australian and AsiaiIo
countries, and the other five months In North
African. Turkish and European countries,
where / have often been. Ny last trip, of
seventeen months. was nearly all spent in
Australian and Asisto countries. 1 have en-
ployed factory workingmen for forty years,
and could not help observing and studying
the comparative values OF the various qualities
Of labor as have found il in my travels, as my
object was 20 learn what are the obstacles to
the sale of American manufactures in foreign
markets. The great obstacle is the high cost
Of raw material, and the absence of American
steamships. Why is not the wheat farmer
of British India who pays wages at 10 cents
day more successful competitor in the Liver
pool and London markets with the Ameri-
can wheat farmer who pays wages at dollar
per day? The answer is that American labor
is the cheapest. / have made two
journeys into the interior and all over British
India, one journey in the interior and well
through Burmah; two trips of twelve hundred
miles each into the northern and again so far
into the western interior of China Over and
over again through Japan. also In java, Cey-
Ion, etc. / have watched the hve-cent, the
ten-cent and the twenty-cent per day labor
with the result Of being more and more CON-
vinced that American labor is, on the whole,
the cheapest in fhe worlo, and that il is the
fellow in the foreign country that needs pro-
lection, rather than intelligence and strength
combined in America.
Such is the statement OF an American
manufacturer who believes in going
abroad and learning the facts; who is
honest enough to come home and say
that in Germany he found the manufac-
turers, who competed with him in some
.,lacses Of his goods wera having the Ger