Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-09
BRAIN AGAINST BRAIN,
Continued from Third Pare.
present position of the Republican

The amount of work done by skilled
laborers in the United States, that is,
their production capacity, is SO much
greater than that of the foreign laborer,
that wages while apparently greater
here, are in many cases really less.
This proposition is supported by very
eminent authority, mainly Republican.
In 1883 Mr.. Charles S. Hill, who was
pronounced protectionist statistician in
the state department at Washington,
made an argument before the tariff
commission, in which he showed that
our manufacturing product in 1882 was
IS, 600, 600, 900, made by 5 ,250, 900 hands,
and that for the same, time the total pro-
duct of England was $4,000, 900, 900,
made by 5, lac, 200 hands.
Then he added this conclusion, SEEM
ingly remarkable, but nevertheless ap-
parently justified. He said: 'Here is
the positive proof that American me-
chanics in the aggregate accomplish
double the result of the same number of
British mechanics. They are, there
fore, very justly paid double in wages"
when Mr.. Blaine was secretary of
, state under Garfield he made a report,
from which the following is an extract:
"The wages of spinners and weavers in
Lancashire and in Massachusetts, &C.
cording to the foregoing statements, were
as follows per week: Spinners, Englieh,
81. 20 to $S.40 (master spinners running
as high as $l2); American, $707 TO
$l0.30. Weavers, English, So "a to So 81,
subject, at the date on which these rates
were given to reduction of 10 per cent ;
American, $4 So to 1878. The average
wages Of employees in the Massachusetts,
mills are as follows, according to the Of
fetal returns: Men, IS. 80; women, SIS 50 /;
male children, $S.11; female children,
$3.O8. According to Consul Shaw's re-
port, the average wages Of the
men employed in the Lancashire mills
on the 1st day of January, 1880, was
about So per week, subject to reduc-
tion OF 10 per cent; women from IS 40
to $3.50, subject to a reduction OF 10 per
cent. The hours of labor in the Lanca-
shire mills are Sc, in the Massa-
chusetts, 80 per week. The hours of
labor in the mills in the other New En-
gland states, where the wages are gen.
orally less than in Massachusetts,
are usually 66 TO SO per week.
Undoubtedly the inequalities in the
wages OF English and American opera
tives are more than equalized by the
greater efficiency of the latter and their
longer hours of labor. If this should
prove to be fact in practice, as it seems
to me to be proven by statics, it would
be very important element in the es
tablishment of our ability to compete
with England for our share of the cotton
goods trade of the world"
Ex- United States Consul Scnoenhof,
in his article, Economic High Wages,
corroborates the statements of Secreta-
ries Blaine and Evarts, that the Ameri-
can workman is more effective than the
European, and although he receives
more wages per week, he receives less
per work. This author gives numerous
tables, demonstrating conclusively the
correctness of his conclusions.
Mr.. Farquhar in his Economic and
Industrious Delusions. page 1873, says:
"A comparison of American, English
and Swiss cotton mills, shows that in
the first single workman generally
runs six or eight looms, in the second
three or four, and in the third but two
consequently, while the United States
stand first in order of daily wages, they
are so far ahead in efficiency that the
order of labor cost is exactly reversed
highest in Switzerland, lowest here"
In speaking of the manufacture of plows
in this country Mr.. Farquhar, whose
business has afforded him rare opportu-
mites to study this question, says: "Our
average of daily wages, is cer-
tainly in excess of English fig
ures. Some minds are capable
of seeing in that fact contradiction of
what have just said. Such would
probably conclude that il an English
manufacturer put two plows in box,
while we put four, and sold each box at
three-fourthe OF what we get for one of
our boxes, he was furnishing plows
some English agricultural factories, and
saw them in operation; since then l
have had no trouble in understanding
or explaining how it is we have cheaper
labor, although our workmen earn more
per day. I then and there saw that
their workman's daily labor was not
the same thing; it was a box
holding fewer plows. 1t is Just SO
with ue in York. We have always been
desiroue of getting hold of more high
priced workmen, for the very purpose
of getting cheaper labor. We would
gladly pay an even higher average OF
wages, if our country (Which already
leads the world in that respect) only
turned out more men of the high-priced
sort. For years we have made it rule
to employ our highest-paid workmen on
the goods sold at smallest profits-in
other words, ON work for export. That
is fact which an inspection of our pay
roll makes easily evident" PIP. 347.S
Prof. Taylor of Minnesota, q gentle
man of great care and reliability, de-
clared in 1888, lis Protection Benefit {?
D. 1859: "The census of 1880 shows
that the 1892, ,595 workmen employed in
the manufacturing and mechanical in
dustries of the United States, produced
goods to the value of $500, ,579, 191, an
average of $1965 each while the average
annual production of English workmen,
according to the statisticians of that
country, was $3.50 per capita. Again,
the American cotton weaver makes 200
yards week; the English 7l0 yards.
Thus, the American workman, through
better machinery, longer hours, greater
intelligence, and larger efficiency of la
Dor, produces from one and half to
two and half times the value turned
out by the English operatives. 1t is not
a lust and natural thing that he should
receive wages twice as great? Yet, pro-
tectionists clamor for aid from the gov
eminent, because his wages are % per
cent greater. The fact is, that American
labor is about 30 per cent the cheaper OF
the two"
II will not be denied, trust, that
these citations (and there is no reason to
Jo,,L4 tbo,,\ ohoU tbot tho Ia hor cnct of