The record-union., 1893-05-24
FACTORY EMPLOYEES.
Those at the East Fed and Clothed at
Our Expense.
How the Tariff on Coal Affects
Industrial Enterprises
In California.
From the S. F. Journal of Commerce.l

From the S. F. Journal of Commerce
California is far removed from the great
manufacturing ceuters of the Eastern
States of the Union. Manufacturing on
this coast for home consumption and to
supply the limited foreign market has
been hampered to a large extent by the
extra cost for fuel, for raw material and
for labor.
California, in particular, possesses no
irol mines nor coal fields. She raises no
great vegetable fiber crop. True, she has
wool clip that is very largo but only q
very small portion of it is manufactured
into fabrics here, solely on account Of the
increase in cost over that of Eastern fac
tories. So our wool crop is shipped East,
manufactured into a hundred grades of
fabrics there, and returned to US with
charges both ways, handling expenses
and four or five profits added. The work.
ers in the factories there are getting what
naturally belongs to the workers here.
They are fed and clothed really at the eX-
pense OF the laboring classes here.
Fuel Is too high for manufacturing pur-
poses. The tariff on bituminous coal is
solely to blame for this. Remove the duty
on coal by Congressional legislation, and
we will see the vast difference in the
prices which would naturally result. No
capitalized combine of coal producers
could maintain the present prices, and
| the cost of coal would be materially re-
! duced. Then, instead of the present
amount consumed by the different fac
tories in the city OF San Francisco, quad
ruple that amount could and would be
protitably used, and the products manu-
tactured would be increased in like pro-
portion, thus giving labor the same in
crease in factory hands. Remove the
! duty off pig iron also, and with fuel free
and raw material free with could easily
compete with the world in the manutact
ure OF iron and steel products.
Let the tariff on lOng-teece woods be
also removed, and thus add 10 the chances
for succoring our almost dead California
woOlen mills. We have the machinery,
we have the skilled labor, we have the
money to invest and we have a climate
that Is so invigoraung that laborer in
any branch can turn out in a given year
here % per cent. more finished work than
IN any other portion OF the l Mon. This
IN ltseh, all other things being equal, is
equivalent To make of California the man
n1uctory and workshop OF all the islands
OF the Pacific and the Republics of Cen
Iral and South America, and the surplus
could be successfully sold against the
older countries OF Europe TO the Asiatics.
Besides, we have vast field i'll our own
country, which covers one-half the area
of the United States. San Francisco is
less advanced than she should be- and
consequently does not occupy the posi-
ton she is entitled to. Her markets are
flooded by cheap goods, made by the
cheap labor OF the East, which are being
sent here at figures too low to be re-
munerative TO the transportation COM
panies, and SO low as to be discourage
ment to local manufacturers. Cheap
frelghtS on Eastern manufactured goods
10 this port have conduced to throw a
large number of workingmen into idle
| ness, and Its tendency is toward the
! closing of factories and machine shops
throughout the coast, and which, if un-
checked, will eventually result in the
closing down OF all the factories, with the
| possible exception OF repair shops.
| ON account OF cheap treights the Cali.
fornla Glass Works is running only half
its former force. The nail works in Oak
| land have closed. Other industries will
! follow suit. The hands who received
wages, fed and clothed their families are
now in want and must suffer. The re-
! tail dealers of every class must suffer also
| along with the unemployed.
Who, but for the Immediate present,
can be benefited by cheaper transporta-
! ton from the East to California of such
goods as can be manufactured here, and
which, if manufactured here, as is practi-
cable, would give employment to our
army of laborers and make the State rich
and prosperous?
a Fall River. Mass, manufacturer,
who turned out a million and a quarter OF
| dollars worth OF machinery in 1892, who
is now on tour Of inspection here, in
| formed the writer that If the present low
! freights to California held good San Fran
cisco's iron and brass manufacturers
might as well close up shop. For" said
he, in my line, with present freight
rates, can manufacture and lay down
here goods at from 10 to Is per cent. less
than your people can possibly manufact-
ure them" This proves that while the
prevailing freight charges on goods from
the East are a temporary advantage to
local consumers their effect is to make
the situation, as regards the manufactur-
ing industry, all the more difficult.
These are facts and the people of tho
coast, whether merchants, wholesale and
retail, or mechanics, must face them and
determine without waste of valuable
time, where the fault lies and how TO
rectify it.