Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1892-10-13


ufActurers had treated The Ecu.0uisI
% collection of falsshooda
| Senator Aldrich Il another over cred
ulons protsctiouist statisficiau. whsz
he wished b annihilsts Hon. John D,
Witt Warmers list Of s'ioo tariff trusts'
he sent out blanks 10 protected MANI,
facturers. asking them to state whetha.
or not they were members Of trusts. o.
eourse In the face % criminal statutes
and public opinion, the manufacturer
strennously denied that they were in &
trust-in many cases, where they were
lodging from ono state 10 another, un.
der aliases to escape prosecution. o.
where the courts had declared that they
had trust. Bat Aldrich paraded fhci,
denials In The Congressional Record and
apparently believes these snillionairs
monopolists incapable Of colorin4 facts
AZ the New York World pufz Il: ~1rr
kecka report wEe*x0ede liHe fh8 nc
kinley texiE law, by fks un61zof - < EI
-by the people who expect 20 reap The
benefits.. They first prepared the bill
and are now reporting on its eject In
the state Of New York. Inaid Of this
pretty scheme Mr.. Peck refuses to make
public the letters ON which he bases hia
assertions" HAf. tg ~
Fourth-Mr. Pecks figures show q ne,
increase of production Of 81. .3i5, ,l30.
and Of wages Of q. .377 ,925 in 1891 owe:
1S00-S23.11 to each. Of the 2S5, 900 EN-.
ployees, or e43o6 to each employee in
the 6fty-one trades showing increased
wages-there being 69.717 instances Of
individual increases.
Fifth-Supposing that these statistics
are correct they show that from come
cause or causes-perhaps good crops or
il may be increased prices for manufac-
tured goods-the value Of manufactured
products has increased $3l 900, 900, about
one-fifth Of which has gone 70 labor
probably for work done-and four-iifths
Of which rest snugly in the pockets Of
protected manufacturers. That Mr..
Peck should jump to the conclusion that
this increase In earnings meant increased
rates Of wages and that these were due
to tariff law, 10 unbecoming to him as
statistician and inconsistent with his
past records In 1883, 1880 and 1890 he
attributed wage increases TO labor or
ganizations, strikes and national pros
perity. t
These statistics also contradict those
OF the senate committee-obtained with
considerable care-which show tha-
wages have advanced somewhat in fif
teen unprotected industries, but have
fallen slightly in fifteen highly protected
industries.
In many industries the statistics ap-
pear to be entirely inconsistent with
previous and with contemporaneous
statistics and to depend largely upon
the elasticity Of the consciences Of the
makers. Thus the average yearly wages
in the agricultural implements industry
for 1890 Is $G54.s0 In New York and
S419.l0 in Massachusetts, difference
greater than usually exists between
wages in this and In European countries
and yet these two states have the same
tariff law. In the second industry mem
toned farms and ammunition) the aver
age yearly wages in 1890 were f56i. AS
in Massachusetts, and $4e2.42 in New
York. The third (artificial teeth shows
yc2kbg wages "a kJt4.1J ia 14&h08Cnu-
setts and $i92 in New York-but not
withstanding this tremendous difference
the high priced labor Of Massachusetts,
competes with the pauper labor Of New
York. But by 1891 wages in this in
dustry had increased to s25L45-that is
from about sixty-five to eighty cents per
day. Analysis Of other industries shows
the same glaring Inconsistencies and
demonstrates the entire worthlessness of
such statistics, except for Republican
campaign purposes.
But there are, as Mr.. j. Schoenhof
has shown, important and significant
omissions in Peck's list Of protective IN
dustries. Three of these are the highly
protected and exceeding important in
oustries OK cotton goods, hats, caps.
ETC., and iron and steel products. In
these, both the number Of employees
and their annual earnings had declined
heavily from 1870 to 1880. Here are the
census tables dn thousands):