The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-01-17
MAINE WoRKlNGM EN-.
They Have a Great Interest in the Tariff
Observation-Disclosures at Sanford by Nfessrs
McLaen and Matthews.

Sanford Jan. 10. Mr.. David Mclean of
Brooklyn N. and Hon. Samuel w. Mat
thews Labor Commissioner of Maine
addressed large audience of working
men in the place this evening. Sanford
is one of the most enterprising manu-
featuring towns in Maine and oneswhich
has been built up largely by the assis-
lance OF the tariff The workingmen
are now, in the present conditions,
studying tariff questions more thought
fully than ever. Mr.. Mclean is an old
Scotch weaver who knows the conditions
of labor abroad as well as here and is
therefore aifavorite orator with work ing
men.
Mr.. McLain spoke without notes and
in the manner of one workingman to
others Though reared in Scotland he
had no education until 30 years old.
He now speaks several languages quite
fiuently. He said he shrunk from de.
picting the conditions under which he
was born. Until he was a young man
grown he never saw roast beef on his
fathers table. When he came to this
for doing the same work that he did
in the old country for So a week. Do
you wonder Pm for protection, and the
American laborergn he asked. He had
been here but a short time when the
company loaned him 5000 to bring his
family over here. He paid this back in
the first six months and spent the first
year in dressing his family so that they
could wear as good clothes as other
Americansla borersss families as much as
his entire year WAGES iii the old country
would have amounted to. In this coun.
try he and his three daughters earn
sum treble what they could earn in the
old country. The cost of living is higher
here in only one particular that of rent
But even in this particular the charac-
ter OF the accommodations are so much
better as to more than make up for the
additional price. No workingman in
Scotland would think of living in such
house as. the workingmen live in here
Hon. S. w. Matthews,
Commissioner of Labor for Maine fol-
lowed.
In his introduction he said that few
months ago the country was prosperous
Labor was generally employed at good
wages. Capital was receiving fair re-
wards on it's Investments The gaunt
and hungry wolf of hunger stood at few
doors and soup houses were unknown.
How is it today? In 119 cities of our
land as reported by Bradstreet's CONNER
cial agency, a non-partisan concern more
than 80,o00 wage earners are in enforced
idleness, willie nearly two millions Of
dependantspupon che idle employees are
without breasil except that of charity.
Business failures are almost numberless
and clouds and darkness fill all the land.
He then put the question What has
caused this condition of things?" There
is no famine in the land. Peace, not
wasting war, exists Crops have been
administration, and the course it pro-
poses to follow.
He then referred to the condition in
a Mine. which thus far had not been
SO had as in many other sections. We
had been in the penumbr of the eclipse.
He did, however, demonstrate by statis-
tics, the bad effects Of the depression
along some lines.
In 1891 the amount Of factories, shops
and mills erected, enlarged and in pro-
cess of erection in Maine was 49, 230, $50.
This may have been little abnormal on
account of the large mill at Madison,
But in 1892 the amount footed up to
80, 1898, 000 In the year 1858 just passed,
the full returns show total of only
SS41, 200. OF that amount about one half
are returned as begun early in the year
and suspended. The number of these
suspended works is sufficient to. reduce
the contemplated expenditure of $S41, 900
to an actual cash outlay of about $500,
900. This shows that the tariff agitation
has practically suspended the building
of new mills and shops in Maine.
The speaker then dwelt for little
upon the
Magnitude of Names Industries.
We have, he said, about $50, 600 families
Gfnto ar l,cr