Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-13

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! much protected by a tariff law; cabinet
makers, carpenters-of whom the same
/ thing may be said rs of bricklayers; COM
mon laborers, farm laborers, machinists,
! naasons-who lay stone in wall which
| cannet be imported-molderso of IRON, paint
ers, paSmbers, stonecutters, tailors and
i tinsmiths. These are the fifteen general
! occupations selected by the committee, and
! they are the occupations upon which the
| rates of wages rose 15-1O0ths Of ] per cent
| during the period covered by the investi-
| cation, and they were that much higher at
| its close than they were at the beginning
The senator from Rhode Island stated
| generally. as will be seen from his printed
| speech, that the committee had found that
| while there had been decline in prices
| there had been an increase of 15-1O0ths of
! per cent. in wages, whereas l assert now,
| with the tables before me, that the only
| instances in which any increase OF wages
| occurred, taking the whole together, were
! in those fifteen substantially unprotected
| industries, and viii show presently that
in the fifteen highly protected industries
! in which the rates of wages had increased
| before the Mckinley bill passed there was
! a decrease after it passed. If any of these
fifteen general occupations are or can be
protected or in any way assisted by the
tariff, it must be cabinet makers and
molders of iron, and yet, although the Nc
Kinley tariff act increased the duties on
household or cabinet furniture the wages
of cabinet makers fell after its passage
and although it reduced the duties upon
all forms of iron castings except hollow
ware, coated, glazed or timed, the wages
in that occupation increased after its pas
sage.
l do not make this statement for the
purpose of showing that the act itself in
creased wages in the one case or decreased
| 81 -, =
to show that the tariff does not affect
wages at all except to diminish their pur-
chasing power, because if it did we could
prove two wholly inconsistent propositions
to be true-frst, that tariffs raise wages
and secondly that tariffs reduce wages.
The man who wants to employ labor does
just what is done by every other man who
wants to procure anything-he gets it at
the very lowest rate at which the law of
supply and demand will enable him to get
it, tariff or no tariff. The employer pur-
sues the same course, whether he is in a
free trade country or in protective coun-
; try.
The general statement made by the SEN
ator from Rhode Island that the wages of
labor rose 15-10Oths of per cent. during the
period Of investigation was true only of
the fifteen unprotected occupations and
should have been qualified accordingly.
have already said that we ascertained
the rates of wages in fifteen other indus
tries, and win now enumerate them in
order that senator's may determine for
themselves whether they are industries
which the tariff is intended to protect:
thew are the manufactures of bar irc-
boots and shoes, cotton goods, cotton and
wooden goods, crucible steel, flint glass
green glass. lumber, machinery pig iron
steel ingots, steel blowers, steel rails, win
dow glass and wooden goods. Here are
,ofrI .a,, III
tries in the United States, and the wages
of the laborers employed in them fell So
lOoths of per cent. after the passage of the
Mckinley act, notwithstanding the rise
of 75-lo0ths of l per cent. in the wages Of
laborers engaged in the nonprotected in
dustries
One Of the most significant facts dis
closed by the report in relation to this sub
ject is that the rates of wages in these pro-
tected industries had increased 65-lO0ths of
per cent. between the beginning of the
investigation and the approval of the tariff
act on Oct. l, 1890 and consequently the
entire decrease of SOL 00ths of per cent oc-
CURED after this law was passed for the
benefit of the workingman.
Now, Mr. President, on these questions
concerning wholesale and retail prices, cost
of living and rates of wages, l have pre-
scented the figures made by the statistician
of the committee, based upon the actual
returns made to US by the agents who We're
sent out, not to take anybody's statement
or anybody's testimony or hear anybody's
argument, but to go to the books showing
the actual transactions in the retail stores
in these seventy cities; to go to the pay
rolls III the manufacturing establishments,
and take from them the exact amount of
wages paid on the first of each month
covered by this investigation, and conf
IDENTITY submit the results to the senate
and the country as a complete viudica ton
of the judgment pronounced by the people
upon the policy of high protection at the
election in 1890. There was no attempt at
misrepresentation or deception except upon
the part of those who had become alarmed
at the consequences of their own favorite
measure of legislation. The people were
not deceived then and they will not be de-
ceived now by any false deductions made
from this report, Or by any frantic appeals
to save the country from the imaginary
horrors of free trade.
A Tax Poor Peoples Clothes
AS / have already said, the articles Sc
lected by the committee were, with a few
Insignificant exceptions, the products of
our own country, and the sums which l
have given to the senate as representing
the increase in prices and in the cost of
living are based upon them and not upon
any rise which may have taken place in |
the prices of imported articles on account
of the very large increases IL the rates of
duty contained in the tariff act of 1890 |
Why, Mr.. President, the increased price of
the Si9, 59l $50 worth of wooden goods which
were imported into this country between
Oct !, 1890. the date of the passage of the
Mckinley bill, aud the 3oth day of June,
1891. the end of that fiscal year. amounted
to many millions of dollars
The report of imports and consum ption
for the fiscal year 1891, furnished to us by
the treasury department, embraces and
mingles together all the importations
which NM do H.