New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1892-08-31
M'KINLE 7 PROSPERITY.
WAGES AND PRICES IN THE
FALL RIVER COTTON MILLS.
Senator Carlisle.s Exaggerations
Tested In the Cotton Indus
try-- Wages Rising and
Prices FallinR--Large
Increase OF Work.
mems Savings.

FALL RIVER, Aug, Senator Car
isle, in his reply to Senator Aldrich,
declared that in fifteen sshighly pro-
tected industries wages had fallen
since the passage of the Mckinley
act, ian average OF $1,000 Of / per
cent Among the protected indus
tries named by him was cotton man
ufactures. Now, Fall River is the
largest cotton manufacturing centre
in the United States II there has
been any reduction of wages in cotton
mills the operatives employed in this
town are not aware Of it.
There are in Fall River sixty-seven
factories, nearly all OF them being
cotton mills, with 5l,446 looms and
100000 spindles. These mills use
100000 bales Of cotton annually.
For the operatives there is a payroll
OF $l54, sos weekly, or $8,O34,26O
annually. About $22,153,o0O has
been invested in the mills. Fall
River produces in the course of a year
cotton goods worth S2l, 100000. It
manufactures annually 600, 100000.
yards of cloth. Thecity contains one
sixth of all the spindles in the United
States, and manufactures over two-
thirds ofthe domestic print cloths. If
the chief industry OF such a city, en-
ploying 22,TSO men and women in it's
mills, were depressed and it's mill
hands suffering from a reduction OF
wages and an increase in the cost of
living, as Senator Carlisle asserts,
there would naturally be outward
signs Of the prevailing distress. The
most industrious and fanatical tariff
reformer will fail to find here. any in
.dications of that sort. All the super
fetal evidence points in the opposite
direction. The mill operatives are
well paid and prosperous, and instead
of.having had their wages reduced,
have virtually had them advanced
within q month. The mills are III full
operation and their owners are en-
joying exceptional prosperity.
The manufacturing business of the
city is expanding under the influence
OF the Mckinley tariff. Investors are
building new mills and increasing the !
number OF their spindles The only
dark cloud in the Fall River sky is the
avowed determination OF the Demo
cratic party to sweep away the Ameri-
can Protective system and to substi-
tute for it "a tariff for revenue only"
under which manufacturers and opera
tives will be exposed to destructive
competition of the cheap labor of
England, France and Germany.
Wages in the cotton mil S have not.
been reduced, but substantially have
been increased. The mill owners
during the past fortnight have cut
down the hours Of labor Of their hands
from sixty to fifty-eight hours a week.,
and in order that there might be no
decreasesof earnings from this rear
rangement Of the working hours they
have advanced their wa,es 81 per
cent. The hands who were paid BY
the day have had their wages adj
vanced 3 l-3 per cent. per hour
while the job hands get s 1-3
per cent advance on piece
work. The operatives get the
full benefit OF two hours
a week without having to pay
for it. On the other hand, the manu-
facturers lose two hours work from
each hand and have to. pay for it in a
reduction OF weekly product of each
mill. One mill-oWner has estimated
here that this increase OF the wages OF
men and women, and the decrease OF
their hours oflabor will make differ
enee OF. 100000 the income ofFall
River manufacturers. That $500, 900
has been given away without any So
slicitation from the operatives, and by
the voluntary action OF tas inlll-own-
ers. Business in the mills, moreover,
is so active that the Weavers are cen-
fdently expecting all additional! in-
crease OF per cent. In their wages IN
thee urse Of year.
eve employ in the King Philip
Mill" said Mr. Chase, the treasurer,
a.l,1OO hands, evenly divided between
sexes. Our weekly payroll mounts
to $4,000. Since the tifty-eight- hour
schedule went into effect our weaVers
ret $1.O4 wages for a piece OF goods,
instead OF 81, as formerly. and i OK
cents is paid in print mills for a piece
OF forty-hve yards. instead OF 10 cents
for tile same amount. The tariff has
especially aided us in the goods made
OF the finer yarns, and in selling the
fancy woven fabrics. a good weaver
on low grade goods in America Will
make from SO to $40 week, but in
England only from So to So a week.
The wages are higher upon the fine
grade goods, a, weaver earning from
$40 to Sl4 in America. and only
from So to S in England. =
Wrong in the facts about labor,
Senator Carlisle is strangely misin-
formed pecting the condition Of the
operatives ofcotron mills. These vie !
tins OF stariff taxation, and robbery,
keep their surplus earnings in the four
savings banks OF Fall River. The
Mckinley tariff act went into ef-
feet iii the fall of 1890. During he
next#year, according to Senator Car