Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-02-09

CAJC6 VI PAOUOSuAOuS AA6 AOOVO4I C6 &Ao" l II
extent. The population of the town in.
creased to 1900, and the valuation Of
property to s1,2O0,OOO. Every year,
there was a reunion, in which the work.
mon in the Dodge factories participated.
There was a dinner given by Dodge, and
there were speeches and reviews Of
the benefits of the past year.
Dolgeville was a prosperous town, and
Dolgeville was populated with prosper
GUS people.
About a week ago, there occurred the
twenty-ffth annual reunion. For the
first time in the quarter century, the
factories had closed. For the first time
in a quarter century there was no dinner
at which the workman sat and made
merry. There was none Of this. Alfred
Dodge was there, and in lieu of the din
ner, gave his check for $500 for the re-
lief of any immediate need among his
workingmen. And after this had been
done, he spoke to the assembled work.
ingmen, regarding the cause of the closed
frctories, and lack of employment.
To the several classes of workingmen
he spoke in turn. Felt workers, who
could earn 1925 per day in his factories
had been forced to shovel dirt alongside
Italians, at $l.25. The felt industry, too,
he discussed, as to the effect of the
Wilson bill:
The wooden schedule of the proposed
Wilson tariff, admits the so-called raw ma
terial, free of duty and reduces the duty
on foreign hammerfelt about eighty cents
$500 per pound. If we investigate we find
that American manufacturers, and through
them consumers Of American made wooden
goods, never paid the duty on wool, except
a small fraction thereof. The foreign
wool growers paid the larger share of it
for the privilege of selling in our markets,
just as the Bermuda potato growers, who
appeared before the Wilson committee, ad-
mitted that they pay the duty on potatoes
which they send here, and not our con.
sumers. Statistics of the prices of wool in
the various markets Of the world for the
past thirty (30) years prove conclusively
that the duty is chiefly paid by the
foreigner, not by the American consumers.
But granting even that American manu-
facturers did pay the entire duty on wool,
do you suppose for a moment that foreign
wool growers will sell their wool at the
same price if the demand for their wool is
increased three to four hundred million
pounds per year, an amount equal to the
total American product? Certainly not!
We may perhaps get ou: wool two to three
cents cheaper than now with a duty Of
eleven (11) cents per pounds, but the re-
ductiOn will not be more than that. This
will make a difference of about ten cents
on a pound of felt, while the duty on for
eign felts is reduced eighty cents (S.8O) per
pound, a difference of seventy cents 6. 7O)
per pound in favor Of foreign as against
American manufacturers.
With this difference, there would be
only n solution to the manufacturing
problem, and that would be, lower wages.
And of this he gave an example:
Our statistics show that during the year
1886 when the effects of the low tariff of
1883 were felt to the full extent, the a
in our felt factory averaged 1903 per
capita. In 1891, after the enactment of The
Mckinley bill, we paid, 1854 per capita
while in 1898 the average dropped again to
$4Ol. This includes men, boys, women and
girls.
Mr.. Dodge went further, and asked his
w%orkingmen candidly whether that sys
lem which had wrought such an i'm
provement and increase in values in a
quarter century, could be so pernicious
as protection is argued to be by free
traders? He asked them what the tariff
reform leagues had done FOR them, now
that factories had closed and MANY
laboring men were destitute? He asked
them whether they wanted the lower
wages which were destined to follow the
enactment of a lower tariff, if the future
were to be judged from the past?
Alfred Dodge is not the hard hearted
capitalist, whom free traders and theor-
lists delight to represent, as living and
waxing rich from the sapping of the life
blood of his oppressed workmen. He is
generous and intensely popular. He has
always provided a pension fund, an en-
dowment fund and a life insurance fund
for his %workingmen. And at the end of
the reunion, his men, notwiths landing
closed factories and dark prospects, gave
three rousing cheers for Alfred Dodge,
and those Of them who had leaned
toward free trade and low tariff theories
took to heart the example of their W
city, and declared themselves convinced
OF the substantial advantages and bene-
fits of protection.
HENRY CLEWs weekly financial review
cove fbot =, 4bo ,ao.1 -.