Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-22
PECK'S REPORT.
LBsURDITY OF HIS CLAIMS FOR
MKlNLEYlSM.


eraI Growth Of Prosperity. Not McKin-
ley, Did the wOrk-Progress in Spite
of Protection.
Labor Commissioner Peck, of Albany,
has prosecuted an investigation and
made discovery. He has investigated
"the effect of the tariff on labor and
wages" and discovered that protection is
boon and the Mckinley law g blessing.
1t would hardly seem to be the func-
ton of the state bureau Of labor statis-
tics to go into partisan politics, especially
in the midst of an exciting campaign.
But Commissioner Peck, seeing that the
Republicans were fighting for protec-
ton and the Democrats fighting against
it, felt it to be his official duty ito estab-
lish the truth or falsity Of the premises
taken by the two great political parties
of the country" Accordingly he set
out to investigate the condition Of labor
in this state the year before and the
year after the Mckinley law took effect.
He discovered that in the industrial
field he covered there was an increasein
the latter year of $50, 100000 in prod
ucts, SO, 600, 900 in wages and $29 in the
average yearly earnings of workingmen.
AS this prosperity appeared after the en-
actment of the Mckinley law, therefore,
as the situation looked to Commissioner
Peck, the Mckinley law must be the
cause of it.
This conclusion, with the figures from
which it was drawn, is duly set forth in
the ninth annual report of the bureau
of labor statistics, the essential part of
which The Herald has already pub
lished. The Republicans have hailed its
publication as a boom for protection
from Democratic official in the great
est of manufacturing states, and will
doubtless food the country with it as a
campaign document. Some of our
Democratic contemporaries, on the con-
trary, seem to be affected by feeling
of indignant amazement, bordering on
panic, that Democrat should put forth
such a report at such time.
Now let us see what Peck's discovery
amounts to. He finds first that more
products were turned out and more
wages paid in manufacturing industries
in 1891 than 1890. Well, what of that?
1t is just what any we'll informed per-
son would expect. The increase in the
aggregate of wages and products in
manufactures has always been as steady
and sure as the increase in population.
Tbot orroo+ +r,,+I ,,rauoiIa5 -, +b;e oo,,,,
try long before the Mckinley bill was
ever thought of, and it will prevail long
after that law disappears from our
statute books. Had Commissioner Peck
extended his investigation backward he
would have found in every year before
the Mckinley law volume of wages
and of products greater than that of the
preceding year.
The industrial march of New York
may be demonstrated by comparison of
the federal census manufacturing statis-
tics of 1880 with those of 1S70-the fig
ures for 1890 not yet having been pub
lished by the census bureau. In 1870 the
value of manufactured products was
$628, 10000 in 1880 it was 81 ,090, ,000,-
900. In the former year the amount of
wages paid was $114, 900, 900; in the lat
ter it was $198, 100000.
This shows during the decade a yearly
increase of more than $45, 900, 900 in the
value of products and nearly $500, 900
in the amount of wages. A more strik-
ing progress could be shown in the dec
ade between 1880 and 1890 if the figures
for the latter year were available. Yet
when Mr.. Peck discovers an increase be-
tween 1890 and 1891 of $6,000,000 in
wages and $30,000,000 in products he
thinks it can be attributed only to the
Mckinley law.
Mr.. Peck made no inquiry into the
prices of the necessaries of life or the
cost of living. The nearest he comes to
dealing with the rate of wages is to re-
port an increase of twenty-three dollars
in the yearly average of earnings. A
comparison Of federal census statistics
ON this point discloses yearly average
of forty-eight dollars higher in 1880 than
in 1870. Turning to Mr.. Peck's annual
report for 1888 we find that he then went
into this question by asking nearly 5000
employers whether the prevailing rate of
wages was higher or lower at that time
than in 1888. Twenty-nine hundred re-
ported that the rate was about the same,
1850 replied it was higher, and less than
45O said it was lower. The result of all
the replies was marked advance.
These figures are sufficient to show
that an increase in the rate of wages or
in average yearly earnings is to be at
tributed to the Mckinley law with about
as much certainty or reason as the ex-
ceptional strikes of this season are to be
attributed to the nearness of Mars.
AS for the volume of wages and that of
products they have steadily and natural
ly risen with industrial progress. This
progress, like the advance of national
prosperity, has gone on and will go on
under high tariff and low tariff. 1t has
gone on in spite of excessive protection.
New York Herald.