Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-29

K1nIey rar1n act increased The duties on household or cabinet furniture, the wages of cabinet makers fell after it's 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.
 do not make this statement for the purpose of showing that the act itself in- creased wages in the one case or decreased them in the other. My purpose is simply 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-f1rst, 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 8 free trade country or in a protective coun- try.
 The general statement made by the sen- ator from Rhode Island that the wages of labor rose 75-1OOths 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 will now enumerate them in order that senators may determine for themselves whether they are industries which the tariff is intended to protect; they are the manufactures of bar iron, boots and shoes, cotton goods, cotton and woolen goods, crucible steel, flint glass, cy1aSS 1nnohar T1oaohinoru rHic steel ingots, steel blowers, steel rails, win dow glass and woolen goods. Here are fifteen of the most highly protected indus tries in the United States, and the wages of the laborers employed in them fell s9- 10Oths of per cent. after the passage of the Mckinley act, notwithstanding the rise of 75-100ths of per cent. in the wages of laborers engaged in the unprotected 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 65-1O0ths of per cent. between the beginning of the investigation and the approval of the tariff act on Oct. 1, 1690 and consequently the l entire decrease of 89-100ths of per cent. oc- cured after this law was passed for the | benefit of the workingman.
 ! Now, MT. President, on these questions | concerning wholesale and retail prices, cost l of living and rates of wages, have pre- sented the figures made by the statistician of the committee, based upon the actual returns made to us by the agents who were 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 in 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 | dently submit the results to the senate and the country as complete vindication | of the judgment pronounced by the people upon the policy of high protection at the | election in 1890. There was no attempt al 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 on Poor Peoples Clothes. | As have already said, the articles SC lected by the committee were, with few insignificant exceptions, the products O. our own country, and the sums which have given to the senate as representing the increase in prices and in the cost O. living are based upon them and not upo1 any rise which may have taken place il the prices of imported articles on account of the very large increases in the rates O duty contained in the tariff act of 1890 Why, Mr. President the increased price O. the SIS, ,591 $50 worth of woolen goods whicl were imported into this country betwee1 Oct. 1, 1S90 the date of the passage of tn
 Mckinley bill, and the 30th day of June 1891, the end of that fiscal year, amounted to many millions of dollars.
 The report of imports and consumption
 for the fiscal year 1891, furnished to us b,
 the treasury department, embraces ant
 mingles together all the importation
 which were made during that year, for tn
 purpose of showing the ad valorem rate o
 tax, whether they were made before O
 after Oct l. 1890, and therefore reduces tn
 Average ad valorem rate of taxation to
 much lower figure than it actually wa
 nnder the Mckinley act. At the eXpens
 of a great deal of time and labor have SC
 lected from this report those articles o
 woolen manufacture which were importe'
 after Oct. l, 1890, and which therefor
 paid the increased rates of duty imposes by the Mckinley tariff act, and I find tn
 result to be that the total importations c
 woolen manufactures, including yarns
 which cost us abroad $19,591 $50, paid a
 ad valorem rate of 92.S4 per cent. Tn
 amount of duty paid on these goods wa
 BIS, ,192, ,33S, so that it cost, without includ
 ing anything for insurance, commissions freight or interest or any other charge b37, 7S5 ,0SO to lay down in New York good
 which cost abroad $19, ,591 ,650.
 [An elaborate table was here presented
 showing the imports of woolen goods fror
 Oct. 1, 1890, to June 30, 1S91.l
 Let us take for illustration a quality C
 dress goods in most common use amor the people, The total value abroad of tn class of goods imported after the passal ) of the Mckinley act was s, ,2sO, ,s41, the tt } on them was &, ,423 422, the ad valore } rate of taxation upon this s, ,2sO,s wort : of goods purchased and consumed by o' people was 1O2.7O per cent. The cost = these goods abroad was 22.S cents p