The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-09-21
"TARIFF REFORM"
Wages Being Reduced as q Result Of
Democratic Legislation.

Wages Being Reduced rs q Result Of
Democratic Legislation.
A dispatch from Toledo describes
the difficulties the knitting industries
of that city and vicinity have to en-
counter under the operation of the
new tariff law. The manufacturers
there will have to furnish goods at
much lower prices than heretofore in
order to meet the increased foreign
competition. They may be able to OBJ
tain wool at lower figures and dye
stuffs a little more cheaply than be-
fore, and perhaps make some improve
ments in machinery before the Eu-
ropean manufacturers achieve that adj
vantage. but if by means of economies
in one or more of these directions they
cannot achieve a saving equal to the
cut in the protective duties nothing
will be left but to lower the wage
scale or cease to operate the works
One of the Toledo employers states
the case with reference to certain
kind of mitten in which there is
large trade. The cost per dozen is &c
cents for wages, SIS cents for material.
10 cents for boxing and waste and 50
cents for selling. The total cost Ii
S2.15. In France. Germany and Bel
GUM the cost per dozen for the SAINT
kind of goods is e1.11, including %
cents for labor and 90 cents for ma
terial Adding to this duty of IS per
cent the foreign manufacturer is able
to bring his product to our doors al
sl.sO per dozen. There is difference
of 65 cents which must be met in some
way or the foreign mittens will be
purchased by American consumers in
preference to those of home make.
Undoubtedly q large part of it will
have to be supplied from q reduction
in wages.
This is inevitable. The American
manufacturer cannot afford to sell at
81 goods which it costs him sL25 to
produce. He no more will do that
than the average consumer will pay
him 81. IS for goods which another man
is willing to sell him at 81. His mater
ials will cost some less, and wages are
the only remaining item that can be
cut to meet the altered conditions
Just how much wages will have to be
reduced may not be aseertained for
awhile yet, but whatever be the extent
necessary it must be submitted to, or
the workers will be minus situations
because of the inability of the employ
er to manufacture and sell his goods
at loss.
Doubtless most of the men who must
submit to the wage reduction voted
two years ago to carry out the demo-
cratic policy of tariff REFORM" as re-
quested by the demagogues who prom
ised them good wages with lower
prices for what they had to buy. Now
they are reaplng the fruit of their
blind acceptance of democratic prom
Uses and pledges Are they going to
vote this fall for another cut
in their wages, to be necessitated
by still greater competition from
abroad, as the party leaders intimate
will be worked for if the country shows
its approval of what has been done
in the recent past? By next November
the employees in the knitting industries
of Toledo will be receiving far smaller
WdkcS per udy duO Wcch Iudu LWO
years ago, or even than were paid
them just previous to the passage of
the new law. VIII the adult male en-
ployes, and the fathers and brothers
and husbands of the rest vote for cam
didates whose policy has brought SO
much mischief already and threatens
to deepen it if allowed to dominate the
industries of the country in the fu-
ture? Can they be such noodles, SO
utterly idiotic, as not to learn quickly
from this bitter experience that demo-
cratic rule means low wages, depressed
industries, and fiercer competition
with European toilers and their prod
ucts? Surely large proportion of the
workers who voted the democratic
ticket in 1892 will vote next time for
restoration of the republican policies
which gave them full work at good
wages by providing a home market
for their products, and protecting that
market from undue foreign COMPETE
tion.-Chicago Tribune.