Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-04-14
AMERICAN WAGES ARE HIGH.
But American Labor Is the Cheapest in
the World.

But American LABOR Is the cheapest in
the World.
]. B. Sargent is one of the largest
hardware manufacturers in the United
States. He has Travelled around the
world several times to learn as much as
possible about the needs of foreign mar
kets. In the following speech which he
delivered at the hardware dinner in
New York he tells why American labor
is the cheapest labor in the world:
In agricultural tools and implements
at least we take half the trade of the
foreign countries outside of Europe, and
in all kinds of edge tools we take half
the trade of South America and of Asia.
But, gentlemen, my time is more than
gone and l will bring my remarks to q
close by saying that with the manufac-
lures of this country in their present
condition, with our machinery, with
our unrivaled help, with our skilled me-
chanics, and with you, gentlemen of the
hardware and mercantile branches,
there is no reason why we should not
only hold our own in our own country,
but take large part of the trade of all
the world.
The American manufacturer, with the
American mechanic, has never seemed
to realize his own strength or the
strength OF his own trade. We have, as
| have always said, the most skilled,
most willing, the most energetic and
the most ambitious workers, worknen
and mechanics anywhere to be found
Although our wages in this country
Of l,,y
much more than those of any other
country, and especially of the countries
on the Continent, who are our competi-
tors, and although they earn so much
more per day, still their labor to the
manufacturer is cheaper than that of
laborers in other countries.
In other words, the labor cost of al
most any article of American hardware
manufacture is less than the labor cost
try. The fear which so many of US have
had of the pauper labor of England is a
matter unworthy of consideration. The
pauper labor of England, in the manu-
! facture of hardware, as compared with
our labor, may be compared with the
cheap farm labor of India, where that
class of labor is paid ten cents per day,
as compared with our western farm
labor in the raising of wheat. With
land as plenty and as cheap, with mil
lions of acres which are not used in
India, but that are roamed over by wild
beasts, with land in plenty, and with
labor at ten cents per day-cheap labor
in the usual acceptance of the term
still in this country we can produce
wheat more cheaply than they can in
India, and yet we pay one dollar per
day for the labor.
| In other words, the ten cent per day
labor in India, under all the conditions
that they have there, is not so cheap in
the product obtained as is the one dollar
per day labor of our western farmers.
And so, if we will only take courage and
go out before the world with our indus
tries, with our machinery, with our in
telhgepce and with our mercantile abil-
ity, we can conquer the world in indus
trial pursuits.
When | look upon this intelligent, this
energetic, this ambitious company, it
seems strange that any one should think
that the industry and business ability of
any other nation on the globe can COM
pete with us in a free field and in a fair
fight.
I have only to add that l know that
you gentlemen of the hardware trade,
you manufacturers and merchants will
carefully consider the question that
must come before you-of the greater
freedom of trade; the question of plac-
ing ourselves with our raw material on
an equal footing with the manufac-
turers of England. Whenever we do
that we can certainly take care of our
selves in any quarter of the globe.