The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-10
The Potteries and the Tariff,


One of the c~apitalistic interests
which was well taken care of by our
House of Lords committee in its
mangling of the Wilson bill was the
Pottery combination. 1t has, between
direct duties and duties on packages,
been given protection" to the tune
about 80 per cent. The case is of in
terest for two eason In the first
place, it comes near home, and our
own Lordly representatives in the
Senate are understood to be largely
responsible for the favor shown. Sec
ondly, the barons who control the
potteries of this State have insisted
even more than common that the
tariff was needed for the sake of the
dear w~orkingmen. To emphasize
this point, they announced a few
weeks ago a general reduction in the
wages of their men. and there has
been a strike on in Trenton ever
since, by way of demonstrating the
beneficence of McKinleyism and the
~ pCfliS tild AllpCld Ala AAO PVSoA0AAACy
of the Wilson bill passing.
The Mckinley tariff placed duties
of IS per cent. on moderated por-
celain or china; go per cent. on decor
ated ware, and So per cent. on all
ouher white, glazed or edged ware.
Besides, all the cost of packing and
shipping were to be figured into the
cost of imported goods, thus enor-
mously increasing the degree of pro-
lection. Notwithstanding the enor-
nous handicap in their favor; not
w~ithstanding that they manufacture
a necessity of life, which is consumed
to the amount of eighteen millions of
dollars in the aggregate every year in
this country, the pottery barons want
US to believe they could not make a
living. They started in on the 1st of
January with a cut OF twenty per cent.
in the wages of their men. This wa
not done in fear of the Wilson bill;
it was absolute. They tackled on to it
a second cut of twenty per cent. only
to be held back until the Wilson bill
figures were known. If the bill cut
the tariff, then the barons were to
hold on to the twenty per cent. II
McKinleyism still held sway, they
would graciously pay it over to their
men.
In this last display of greed, they
overshot themselves, They lost the
hold on the fears and the self-interesG
of the Formerly, they were able
to get up monster petitions and or
ganize delegations of trade-unionists
and indulge In all the other forms of
claptrap, behind which the mad
beneficiaries of 'tprotection" fight,
concealing their own identity. This
time the atrocity of the situation was
too much for the operatives. long ac-
customed though they were to do
their masters bidding. They re-
volted, and in their anger they have
published a protest, which gives a
strange insight into the conditions of
this industry and its need for a pro-
hibitive tariff. Here is an extract
Notwithstanding the fact that the tariff on
pottery has been increased by every bill passed
since the industry was started, the wages of the
workmen have been decreased. and now, under
the highest tariff OF all, IL is proposed to maze q
further reduction.
Iu 1874 the manufacturers cut down wages,
the men struck, and the old rates were re-
stored.
1888, increasing duties, another strike against a
reduction In wages lasted from January until
March. The men were forced to accept a re-
duciion of & per cent.
In December, 1890, after the Mckinley tariff
was enacted. the sanitary ware combination
forced another strike by a cut of from 10 to ID
per cent. The men were finally obliged to go
back 10 work at an average reduction in their
wages of Is psr ceut.
Whatever advantage has accrued from the
tariff has gone to the manufacturer alone and
not to US. Under the Mckinley law the tariff
on pottery not ornamented is So per cent. The
Wilson bill reduces it to 30 per cent. which is
really q reduction of 12H per cent. aud not 20
per ceut., as the bosses cain. As wages have
gene down under a high tariff. nothing worse
eau come from any other kind of a tariff, high
or low.
The House Of Lords Committee,
however, has increased the duty
again to an average of nearly so per
cent.
But perhaps you may say. Well the
conditions of industry change. Per-
haps it costs more to make pottery
ware now than 1T used. Perhaps, af-
ter all. the trade needs higher pro-
lection from veal to year!t Well, here
are the facts from the same docu-
ment:-
We do not believe that composition with Inn
ported goods cornpels a reduction ia wages. In
this country the cost of production has de.
creased quite as rapidly as ia England. perhaps
more rapidly. Raw material has fallen 10
price. Potter's clay, which. used to cost $35. a
livered, and the price of flint and spar. the
other main Ingredients. has cheapened accord
ingly. Very little machinery is used in making
pottery, but processes aud methods have very
materially lessened the cost of production.
Then you may fall back on the last
ditch of protection, and point to the
pauper labor of Europe as afording a
reason for the high import. Once
again the facts defeat all refuge in
that direction. Here they are
Many of our men have worked in England. and
k,,ow that the proposed scale, even without the
% uer cent. conditional reduction, provides Tor
lower wages in many branches of work than are
maid there. The cost OF raw material In plain
china is about so per cent. according TO most
autboritiss. The tariff is imposed. not upon the
cost of labor in goods, but upon the whole value
of them ind If it is imposed to make up the dil-
ferenre In wages in England and In New Jersey,
then the money ought to be all given to the men