St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-15
FOR DIRECTOR OF THE MINT

A press news dispatch says that
JACOB SCHoENHoF, of New York, has
applied for appointment as director of
the mint. We trust that President
CLEVELAND will find no obstacle in the
way Of granting this request If method
lcal habits, close study of detail, COUP
led with power of wide and accurate
generalization and mind that Sits out
sophSm and Shuns "glittering general
tiles" are qualifications for that Office,
few men have them in higher degree
than has Mr.. SCHoENHoF.
The cause of tariff reform owes more
to no one man than to Mr.. SCHoENHoF.
When the manufacturers of the country
found that their position, the necessity
OF taxing the people for their profit. so
that our industries could be built I'D
luto an independence of foreign nations.
was 10 longer tenable, they shrewdly
shifted ground and proclaimed the
necessity of continued taxation in order
that the dignity of American labor
might be maintained; that our Work.
lngmen-always with a capital W
might receive the higher wage that the
protection enabled" the EMPLOYER 70
pay, and to save our Labor-aga!n with
capital l1-from being degraded to the
wage level of the "pauper labor"-here
with lower case l-of Europe.
1t was Mr.. SCHoENHoF who then
came to the front with his remarkable
book. The Economy of High Wages"
devoted to establishing the economic
truth that high wages produced low
priced goods, and that low wages
produced high-priced goods. He
boldly met the manufacturers OH
their own ground and demonstrated
that the measure of wages was
not the sum paid per day or
week, but was the productiveness of
the labor; and he established his promo
sition by facts and details gathered from
so wide a field, and from sources so
lncontroVeruble, that no attempt was
ever made to answer him. They paid
him the high compliment of giving to
his demonstration their silent con-
tempt"
Again. when consul to Tunstal, with a
rowing commission among the factories
of Europe, he contributed further TO the
proof of his theorem by his patient in
vestigation int the labor cost of SINH.
lar products in this country and in
Europe. We recall particularly his re-
port giving comparison of the labor
cost of ladies' button boots made in
Lynn with the labor cost of similar
boots made in several European
countries. The price paid in Lynn for
all the labor which went to the making
of pair of boots was So cents: IN
Franktort-on-the-M Main the labor cost
in like boot was 80 cents; in Vienna
1t was Il cents; i'll England it was 6315
cents. The earnings of the work
ingmen engaged in making these
boots averaged in Lynn, for girls,
81 a week and for men Sl2 a week.
In Frankfort the women's earnings
averaged $500, and the mems $3.50 to
1920 week, and the same is true of
Vienna. In England the earnings of
women were from s. 60 to S4.63, and
those of the men were from 1915 to
$40 a week. From the standpoint of
the manufacturer, which is the pro-
ductlveness of his laborers, this demon
Strated that American labor was paid
less proportionately to product than
was the foreigner, and if the American
earned more in week it was because
he produced more, and for no other
reason.