The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1894-02-05
rnn QUESTION o I, VAC M.

. . To-" Do. .
How tho Tariff Affects Them -Our Great
Home Market. H5 W.
From he Sretch cf Thomas D. Red n ihe House
Ftbruavi,
This question Of wages Is all.lmport-
ant as bearing upon tho question OF
consumption. All production depends
upon consumption. Who arc tho con.
aumoHr In Tho old days, whom tho
proullctso oil manufactures woro luXurios,
tho lord and his ro,ainers, tho lady and
her inaids, were tho consumers, q class
apart by thomgelvos, but to-day the
consumorl arc tho producers. Long ago
the laboror consumed only what would
Keep him alive. To-day no and his
witeIand Children arc 80 immeaSur0bly
tho most valuable customers that II tho
shop had to give up tho wealthy or
those whom II 10 tho custom to call
poor thore would not DO moments
hesitation or tnoments doubt. X
Unfortunately tho gentlemen on tho
other side hRvc Professionally retained
tho old iloa TINT tho producers arc ono
ciasa anu Tho consumers arc another,
md hence wc hoar on all hands such
stupiditios Of speech as those which
snm up tho workers In each branch and
compare tham with tho whole people.
Ono hundred mud fifty Thousand work.
ers IN woolcna-you ask what nre they
compared with 70,0O0,000 consumers;
2UDOOO workers In atoei, what arc they
compared with 70,000,000 Of consumers;
100000 workers In cotton, what are they
compared with 10000, 900 OF consumers;
and so on all through tho long list, for.
getting TINT all those people added
together make the whole 70,000,000
themselves. .,f
II 80 happens thnt America Is filled
with workers. There arc lido people,
but they are fewer hero than elsewhere
except now, whom we arc living under
the shadow OF the Wilson bill. II those
workcrs.arc MI getting good wages they
aro themselves tho market, and II tho
wages arc increasing the market Is also
Increasing. Tho fact that In this coun-
try all tho workers have been getting
better wages than elsewhere Is the very
reason why our market Is the best In
the world and why uIl nations OF the
world are trying to break into it. We
DO not appreciate the nature Of our
market ourselves. tti
! have given you already the glowing
testimony OF Englishmon who have seen
US with their own eyes. Amazing
prosperity" greatest market III the
world" paradise Of tho workingnun."
These aro strong words; but let lis SEQ II
cold mathematics do not put to shame
the fervor Of adjcctivcs.
We arc nominally 100000. That is
what We are in mere numbers. But as
market for manufactures and choice
foods arc potentially zoo, 000 900 as COM
pared with the next best nation on the
globe. Nor is this difficult to prove.
Whenever an Englishmnn earns 81 an
American man earns 81 go. speak
within bounds. Both men can get the
food that keeps body and soul together
and the shelter which the body must
have for 80 cents. Take 10 cents from
81 and you have 10 cents left. Take
that Same 90 cents from 81 90 and you
have 81 left, Just TWO and half times
rs much.
The surplus can be spent in choice
foods, In house furnishings, in fine
clothes, and all the comforts Of life--in
word, in the products Of our manufac-
tories. That makes our population as
consumers OF products MS compared
with the:English population 200, 600, 900.
Their population is 81, 000, 600 as con-
sumers OF products which ono century
ago were pure luxuries, while our pop
ulation Is equivalent to 2O0,000,000.
II this is our comparison with Eng.
land, what Is our comparison with the
rest OF the world, whose markets our
committee are 80 eage: to have in OK
change Tor our own? Mulhall gives GER
tain statistica which will serve to make
the comparison clear. On page 1855 OF
his Dictionary OF Statistics" he says
the total yearly product OF the manu-
factories Of tho world are 4.474,000,0 900
pounds, OF which the United States pro-
duces l,443, 600, 900 pounds.
- l do not youch nor can anybody
vouch for these figures, but the proper
ton OF one-third to two.thirds nobody
can fairly dispute. We produce one
third and tho rest OF the world, En-
gland included, two-thirds. The popu.
lation OF the world is !, 1900, 900 900, Of
which We have 70, 000 900, which loaves
1,430, 0O0,0 for. the rest OF mankind.
We use all our manufactures or the
equivalent OF them. Honce we are
equal TO one-half the whole globe out
side Of ourselves, England included, and
compared as u market with the rest Of
the world our population is equal to
7l5,0O0,00O. .a5
I repeat, as compared with England
Itself as market our people arc equiv
alent to, 100000 900. As compared with
the rest Of the world, England included,
We are equal as q market to 7l5. 100000.
These figures more than justify the ad
jectiyes Of tho EngIishmun. and tho
cold facts OF mathematics surpasa tho
spasms OF rhetoric. X
Instead OF Increasing this market by
leaving it to the steady increase OF
wages which the figures OF the Aldrich
report so conclusivoly show, and which
have not only received tho sanction OF
the members from New York, tho secre-
tary OF the treasury and the Democratic
bureau OF statistics, but tho sanction OF
everybody who hears me, our, commit
tee'propose to lowe. wages and so les
son the market and then divide that
market with somebody else, and all on
the chance Of getting the markets ofthe
world. d
Who have these markets OF the world
now? There is hardly7a spot on the
globe whore three generations Of Eng
lishmcn, Frenchmen or Germans have
not camped in possession OF every avenue
of trade. Do you suppose that with
machinery nearly as good rs ours and
wages at one-halt these men are going
to surrender to lis tho markets OF the
world? Why, tho duties that you keep
on show that you do not believe it. " II