Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-09-03


figures will prove that for family buy
ing the same quantity and quality of ar
ticles at retail in the two countries that
the cost of living would not be higher in
America.
OUR TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
The condition, however, of the Ameri-
can workman is infinitely superior to
that of any other people in the world.
Under this protective tariff we have
built up a vast textile industry, employ
ing in the aggregate nearly 500, 900 per-
sons, and turning out annually product
to the value of about 500, 900, 900. 1t
will be shown In the great branches of
the manufacture of wool, of cotton, of
silk, that we have steadily improved the
quality and lessened the cost TO the con-
sumner. Every variety Of cotton goods.
including lace curtains, wooden cloth and
dress goods, blankets, wool hats, knit
goods cotton and woolen), carpets of
all grades, silks and ribbons from Amer
lean mills will be exhibited this cam
paign-better in quality. more taste in
design and lower IN price than hereto
fore. And the fact that every house wife
knows this to be true, without reading
this article in the Press or studying a
column of census figures make these
facts hard nuts for the free traders to
crack. But he will have others. Wages
in all these industries have gone up con-
siderahlv in the last decade
The census shows that the number OF
employes in the wool manufacture in
creased thirty seven per cent. in the tea
years from 1880 to 1890, and their aver,
age annual wages increased eighteen per
cent. in that ten years. This is, wages
paid to all help. Men, women aud
children in all branches of the business
average 1928 annually in 1880 and S3f7
in 1990-an increase of eighteen per
cent.
WAGES TENDING UPWARD.
The tendency of wages in all our pro-
tected industries is steadily upward -
not always perceptibly from year to year,
but very marked when measured by ten
year periods. No less marked is tho
steady downward movement in the cost
of commodities consumed by wage
workers. This downward trend ha,
been more conspicuous in wooden goods
than in any other line of manufactured
articles. The net result to labor has
been, from the two causes, an increase in
the purchasing power of wages of near
ly fifty per centum in the last ten years.
This is not result to make workingmen
hostile to the protective tariff on manu-
featured wool, and more especially is
this true if the fact is established, aud
it will be, that wages abroad during the
same period have been reduced.
Steadily, but surely, the free trader
has been driven from the positions he
has occupied, and in his rapid and in
glorious retreat there is little left but tho
cry of fraud and robbery" and the
slack of constitutional power Wages
and cost of living at home and abroad
are established beyond question. Steady
reduction in cost of protected commodi'
ties to consumers cannot be denied. Poor
old Trust went down to avoid the pun.
ishment provided by Republican legisla-
lation, and general prosperity makes peo-
pie extremely Indifferent to change, es-
pecially such radical one as proposed
by the Democratic platform.
SOMETHING ABOUT TIN.
To upset these industries now adjust.
ing themselves to the new tariff; to de-
stroy the millions which have gone into
new industries like tin plate, pearl but
tons and score of articles; to change
a business policy which works So salts.
factorily; to throw hundreds of thou.
sands GU! of employment and reduce the
wages of others; to do all this is dan.
gerous experiment and one the American
people are not likely to give their con-
sent to on that cry of the back nunbel
statesman, otis unconstitutional"
The business interests of the country
demand that the law in regard to til
plate, for example, be carried out IN
good faith. Prior to the passage of th1
tariff law of 1890 there was no tin plate
industry in the United States. Yet w;
consume mole tin plate than any othel
Nation in the world. In twe1ty years,
1S71-9l, we paid for tin plate tc
foreigners the enormous sum of 1907, :
341, 494 An estimate of the capacity
of the works now established shows 4,
probable output of $40, 200, 900 pound
per annum, Even that is less than bal
our consumption. In the face of thi
courageous legislation in the interest o.
labor and of the business interests of tht
country, it does not seem possible tina
the PEG pie will trust these importan
matters to the tender mercies of partl
whose lea 1ers have shown themselves SC
utterly incapable of approaching a plain
question like the Worlds Fair appropri-
alton without a disgraceful display O
demagogism.
FEW CUES rIoNs.
Who have put the farmers wool OF
the free list and increased the duty OF
clothingf Who have passed laws strik
ing down at one blow mportantAmericar
industries without even giving those in
terested an opportunity to be heari
Who have in the last decade made foul
attempts to get at the throats of oul
greatest industries, to throttle and dis.
rupt them for the benefit of our foreign
r.valss To trust such party would
simply mean industrial suicide for the
Nation.-Hon. Robert P. Porter, il
Chicago News.
An Accurate Analysis of the Free
Trade Demagogues.