Wisconsin Afro-American., 1892-10-22
The Condition OF Labor Under Two Tar.

iffs.
The New Hampshire Advocate has an
article which constitutes a most effective
reply TO the Democratic advocacy OF the
Walker tariff and the other free trade
tariff which existed for fourteen years be-
tore the war.
1t copies the payroll for February, 1S48,
of the mill in that place, which is now
run by the Pittman Manufacturing Com
pany, when the working day was of four
teen hours, with an additional column
showing what the same pay would have
been on ten hours basis, and follows
this with statement of wages under the
Morrill, tariff and also under the Mckinley
tariff.
We have no space for the payroll, but
will give the summaries. 1t is first stated
that the wages as given remained the
same throughout 1916 and for five years
thereafter.
1t shows that under the Democratic tar
if the average pay per day for all hands,
including the OverSeerS, was 5l 6-l0 cents
for fourteen hours, or on the present ten
hours basis, 36 7-10 cents day.
This was a WeIl-manaGed mill, and the
wages were the same as those paid in most
similar mills throughout New England.
The wages remained substantially the
same down to 1860. There was no appre-
ciable advance in all those years to which
the Democratic orators aid newspapers
so often refer as ''the golden period OF
New England'S prosperity"
just before the war the Morrill, tariff was
enacted, and business and wages began TO
advance. The article gives summary OF
the payroll in one of the hosiery mills OF
Laconia for April, 1869. four years after
the war, which shows average wages per
day of ST. Ii 4-10 though there was slight
premium on gold then which SHOULD be de-
Quoted in comparing the wages With those
of 1S4S and 1892.
''Since them" says the article, there has
been a steady advance in wages in all the
mills, in the size of the mills. and the
amount of business dOne.'
Then it summarizes the Day-r0lH for
June, 1892, which in some lines is paying
higher wages than in 1890, and this shows
the average rate per day OF ten hours, IN
cluding oyerSeerS, but not including book
keeper and clerk, as Sl.5I.
Briefly stated, the comparison of wages
under the Democratic and Republican
| tariffs is as follows:
Walker tariff, lSIs. for IA horrs..... 5l6 cents
Walker tariff, 1S4S, for 10 hours..... 90 cents
Mckinley tariff, 1892. for 10 hours~.sl.5I
This is a forcible demonstration of the
| fact that tariff which promotes industry
promotes wages. twill be said, of course,
that during the same time wages have adj
vaneed IN England under free trade; SO
they have, but they are not YET one-naI
what they are here. The advance there
has been due in large part to extensive
sales of English goods in America, there
by displacing just SO many American
goods; and now that the American market
is being reserved for our own producers,
the English mills are reducing wages.
1t will also be SAID. falsely, that the
purchasing power of wages in England is
as great as it IS here-that is, that a day s
pay there will buy as much of the COM
forts of life as days pay will here.
There is not particle of proof of this and
there is any amount of 1T to the contrary.
MulhaIl, the greatest English statIstician,
SAYS that food, which comes 10 more than
One-half the cost of living, costs the
American wage-earner 33 per cent. of his
wages, and the English wage-earner 40
per cent. of his.
In view of all these facts, if any work
inrman chooses to vote in November for
the British tariff system, declared for by
the Democratic platform, or for the Walk