The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-09-15
TARIFF REFORM.

If the Committee on Ways and Means,
now in session at Washington, hearing
what manufacturers have to say about
the tariff, do not see light it will be no
fault of the parties interested. For in
stance, the Democratic Troy organ, which
believes in Protection says: When I'm
porter Rosenield of New York made the
assertion that under the act of 1890 the
Troy manufacturers were making profit
of from 70 to 100 per cent; that the Ger
man girls employed in Berlin were get
ing the same wages as those paid in Troy,
eight dollars per week, and that there
was combination that controlled the
retail price of domestic collars, the Troy
people implicated sent a delegation to
appear before the Committee. When
these manufacturers obtained hearing
they showed that there is no combina-
ton, but the closest competition; that
there has been no increase in price since
1890; that collars retail from eight cents
to twenty cents; that the wages in
the United States average So per week
against an average of about $40 in Ber-
lin and SO in Scotland; that the importer
makes profit OF twenty-six per cent.
on imported shirts. They showed that
some $4,000 people are employed in this
industry in Troy, where about ninety
per cent. of the collars and cuffs are made.
There are some 800 shirt manufacturers
in the United States, and about one
third of the shirts are made in Troy.
They also showed that labor is fully sixty
per cent. of the cost of manufacture, and
submitted various samples which cost
them more to produce than the foreign
cost of the sample with duty and freight
added.
The hosiery manufacturers, in which
Bennington is deeply interested, had
about the same experience, as we find
by the New York Press, which sum-
marizes the situation as follows: "Un-
der the shelter of the tariff the manu-
facture of knit goods in the United
States has developed with remarkable
rapidity, so that now, while the finest
grades of hosiery are sought for in
Europe because of the high cost of labor
here, the domestic mills, with sufficient
protection, could easily and within a
brief period supply the home demand
for knit fabrics of all kinds. Between
1880 and 1890 the number of establish
ments increased from 359 to G07; the
number of operatives, from 10000 to 3d.
600; the wages, from $1,000, 200 to S1S,-
OOO8ONOt anu btlO NdluO VI bhO PAOAaSe
from S29,OOO,0O0 to S6S,000,000. The
growth of the business has been even
more rapid since 1890, when the present
tariff law went into operation. Mean
time, while the existing duties are
slightly higher than those that were in
the old law, no serious obstruction to
importation has been presented. In fact
the imports for the last fiscal year ex
ceeded those of the preceding year by
more than SS00,000
Nor have prices advanced. Indeed,
in the cases of many kinds of goods,
they are really lower now than they
were three years ago. This is explained
by the fact that European manufacturers
have cut their prices in the hope
that they would be able to hold
this market, which is invalu-
able 10 the Il. In Chemnitz, the great
Saxon hosiery centre, if report speaks
truly every kind Of sacrifice was made
by manufacturers and operatives TO
avoid surrender of the American trade.
Reduction of the duties at the present