The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-02
B. REEDS GREAT
SPEECH FOR A PRO-
TECTIVE TARIFF.
III.

Although Mr.. Reed makes in the para
graph quoted in my last letter, a statement
as to the wages of bricklayers having been
| increased from twenty-five cents per day in
| 1725 in England to s2.50 per day in the
United States at the present period, it is not
easy to determine what he is trying to
| prove. If. as seems to be implied, Mr.. Reed
| would assume that the laborer is ten times
| better off today than in 1925, he is stating a
matter of opinion, but certainly not a matter
| of fact. The late Thorold Rogers t"Six
| Centuries of Work and Wages'1 a careful
| and painstaking authority, states that the
condition of labor has improved but
| slightly since the time to which Mr.. Reed re-
| fers, and John Stuart Mill said it was doubt
| full if the invention of machinery had
| lightened the labor of a single workman.
But that the condition of labor has i'm
| proved positively, in many respects, may be
| admitted; that it has improved relatively to
| the advance in history, in our W or recent
| times, few viii maintain. In the United
States. where, within a century, wealth has
| increased more than 500 fold, poverty has in
| creased in a far greater ratio than popula-
ton. The legal status of the laborer has i'm
| proved, but that is no Indication OF the COM
| p~arative rewards of labor now and in the
| past. According to Mulhall the productive
| power and value of the worlds product has
| risen 1O4 per cent. since 1850. Has the con-
dition of labor improved in anything like
the same degree? Is it not, in fact, true that
in the United States the workman was better
| off. all things considered, in 1850 than he is
today?
The problem is best stated in this way
Wealth is increasing. Sp, too, the purchas-
ing power of wages may be slightly on the
increase. But the ratio of wages to reason
| able wants is decreasing. Mr.. Reeds con-
| tention seems to be that the ratio of wages to
| physical necessities is increasing. He does
not make this contention plain-in fact, his
| entire reference to wages leaves the point
be wishes to establish in doubt-but the only
| truth in what he seems to lCish to imply is
! the increase in the ratio of wages to physical
| necessities, which obscures the real problem.
The test of wages then is this-that while
| they nave increased n may still be In
creasing somewhat, measured by merely
| physical wants. this increase is in no wise
proportionate to the increase in productive
power, in the growth of national wealth-in
short, to the laborer's reasonable wants.
The increase in the ratio of wages to ply
steal necessities is but slight, while the in
crease in productive power is enormous.
That there is here a yet unsolved problem
of the distribution of the laborer's
products, is clear. The remedy OF
| economy and abstinence so generally
urged is only further to decrease the labor
er,s reasonable wants. Measured in this
way-and this is the only way to regard the
problem, If the true and just sentiments
Mr.. Reed expresses In regard to the prog
ress of the human race through an increase
in wages are to be accepted-not only have
wages not increased, but, on the contrary,
in the United States during the last fifty
years nave declined, and are still declining.
With the growth of intelligence, economic
conditions, instead Of improving, are harden
ing. This is testified to, ~abundantly and
eloquentiy, by any number Of social facts
which nobody thinks of denying. For ex-
ample, among these are increase in the social
phenomenon known as tramps, increase in
tenement house population and rapid de-
crease in the number of so-called middle
classes, or people of comparative afiuence,
who are being pushed back into the w
ranks; decrease in the number of indie
pendent landowners, notably among the
farmers; tremendous increase in the employ
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