The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-09-29
UNADULTERATED DEMOCRACY.
WHAT is CHEAP LABOR?

Liz ldIIIl ulu uOU anu Jail NV hiesnS
wages high in this country. The rate OF
wages depends upon two things: First,
the efficiency of the labOrer, and second,
the proportion of the earnings of his
labor the workman gets in wages. The
only cheap labOrer in any true sense OF
the term is he who is highly efficient and
yet receives a comparatively SINAI pro
portion of his earnings as wages. III
European labor is cheaper thai Amer
lean labor it can only be IL ac-
cOmplishes as much and receives less.
Ii that is so, capital in Europe gets
more than it does in America. But the
very reverse of this is true. Interest we
know rules lower always in Europe
than here. Capital is constantly coming
from every quarter of Europe, from
England, from Holland and from Ger
many, seeking investment in our indus
tries. Hundreds of millions of dollars
are invested in our railroads. IL has mot
been long since agents of English syn
dicates Travelled up and down the liant
buying our breweries and whatever else
of our manufactures they could induce
the owners to part with, and why! BE
cause American labor using that capital
would give them a larger return upon 1t
than European labor would do. When
republicans discuss this question they
talk only of the rate of wages. That Is
but one side of the question.
The wages are what the workman gets.
There is another side to the question,
and that is, what does the workman
givep The dear workman is not the IN
who gets the most dollars for his work,
but the one who gives the least work for
the dollar. The cheap workman IS not
the one who gets the fewest dollars for
his work, but the m who gives the
most work for the dollar. The question
is, not the rate of wages, but of h labor
cost of the product. If a man gets S. a
week for mining coal and mines five
tons, the labor cost Of that a is 81 per
ton. If another man gets $40 per week
and mines twenty tons, the labor cost In
his case is only fifty cents a ton And
uniformly in ever, country and IN every
high wages and low labor cost go togeth-
er. There could be M such thing as
progress il this were not so. III ID
labOrer who was oppressed, deprived Of
every comfort, reduced to the verge OF
beggary was the most efficient, how
could humanity riser As men are better
fed, better clad, better housed, rs hope
for themselves and their children bright
ems their way, they bring more strength,
more intelligence, more spirit to their
work and their efficiency rises even more
rapidly than their reward, illustrating
how profoundly true 1t is that 1.-THE
ton means that everything, bread, meat,
clothing, fuel, shelter, every necessity.
comfort, ornament and luxury OF life
shall become cheaper; everything. save
one, and that Is human labor, and this
with every growing capacity shall be-
come dearer, and shall receive, not as a
b~enefactiOn, but as q just wage, an in
creasing production.
This is no new discovery. It is q truth
recognized by all who are not blinded to
it by q narrow self-interest. More than
100 years ago it was pointed out by
Franklin. l quote from n Of his
pamphlets /: 1.-The wages Of the labOrer
are the price Of his days work. The
| price of the merchandise Is the sum it
costs to gather the produce Of the soil. or
prepare any product Of industry. The
price Of the production may be very
moderate, while the labOrer may receive
good wages-that is the means Of pro
curing q comfortable subsistence. The
labor may be cheap and the wages Of the
workman good. Although the wOrkmen
Of Manchester and Norwich and those of
Amiens and Abbeville, are employed in
the same kind Of labor, the former re-
ceive considerably higher wages than the
latter ; and yet the wooden fabrics of
| Manchester and Norwich, OF the same
quality. are not as dear as those Of
| Amiens and Abbeville, = = The low
rate of wages, then, is not the real cause
of the advantages Of commerce between
one nation and another, but it Is n of
the greatest evils Of political cOmmuni-
ties.
l might illustrate this in a thousand
ways.
In 1861 the average charge of the rail-
roads Of this country for handling one
ton of freight One mile was 45-1O0
cents. The average wages of q lOcOmO-
tive engineer was $2.l3 per day. In
1893 the average charge for hauling
freight over the Wabash lines was seven
teaths OF q cent q ton per mile and the
average wage Of a locomotive engineer
was 81 50 per day. Higher wages and
How is 1t to be explained 7 Better rail-
roads, better cars, better engines, better
business and better engineers. What
would be thought of the Wabash COM
pany il, competing with q company that
operated under the conditions OF 1851, it
demanded protection" demanded q
higher rate than its competitor because
that competitor only paid its engineers
$2.l3 per day Yet this would not he
more impudent than the demand OF
American manufacturers for protection
against their European competitors be-
cause OF the cheapness OF European
labor.
In 1880 the weekly wages paid in the
cotton industry we're in Germany an
average of $2.l6 for each man, woman
and child employed. In the United
States they were IS. There were engaged
In the industry in Germany about go
90 persons, in the United States IL, 900.
The amount of cotton manufactured
was in Germany SOC, 600 900 pounds, in
the United States ESQ, 900 900 pounds.
The average per operative was in Ger
many 200 pounds, in the United States
1880. The wages in the United States
and Germany were substantially as 2 to
l, the efficiency OF the labOrers was 81 to
IL. Who was the cheapest workman ?
! might cite many other instances, but
instead will give you the summing up Of
two eminent republican authorities. In
his report Of May II, 1879, William M.
Evarts, then secretary of state, said:
"The average American workman per-
forms from once and One-half to twice
as much work in q given time as the
average European workman. This is 80
important a point in connection with
our ability to compete with the cheap
labor manufacturers of Europe and it
seems ut first sight SO strange that l will
trouble you with somewhat lengthy
quotations from the reports in support
thereof"
After quoting at length from the con-
sular reports figures showing the greater
efficiency of the American workman, he
comments:
Zone workman in the United States,
as will be seen from the foregoing
extracts, does as much work as two
wOrkmen in most OF the countries of
Europe"
Well, if he does twice as much work,
isn't he entitled to twice the wages, and
il he gets them does he owe them to the
simply the due need of his superior
industry aud intelligencep
The attention of Mr.. Blaine was called
to the same subject while he was secre-
tary Of state to President Garfield, and
in his report Oh the cotton goods indus
tries of June 25, 1881, he says:
Undoubtedly the inequalities in the
wages of English and American opera
tives are more than equaliZed by the
greater efficiency of the latter and their
longer hours of labor"
III the American workman more than
equalizes the difference between his
wages and those Of the English work.
man by working more hours and more
efficiently, then it is self-evidentt that the
protection of the tariff does not 60 to
him but to somebody else. There is no
protection in his wages, nothing but the
sweat of his brow the protection must