The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-02-02

ana ntty thousand lust such horse power
runs TO waste every day in New England
alone. Whenever our citizens are rich
enough TO employ these great resources
my hope is that they will be rich enough
to consume their products themselves.
SO utterly uudisputed and so distinctly
visible to every human being in this audi
erce has been our growth and progress
that this hasty outline is all that is nesded
to remind you Of one great fart, that what
ever the future industrial system of this
country may be, the past system is II
splendid monument to that series of sue
Cesstul statesmen who found the country
bankrupt and distracted, and left it first
on the list Of nations.
WE WANT NO EXPERIMENTS.
We may safely assume that country
which has become in the last thirty Yeas
the richest country IN tho world u couu-
try which during all that period was u
paradise Tor laboriug men, does not need
to try any dubious experiments. A good
thing in this world OF diSappointments is
not to be lightly left. A better thing we
should desert with still more reluctance,
and nobody but misguided man would
leave the best thing ever known in the
history Of the universe unless he had such
a glimpse OF the future as would place
him securely among the prophets and not
land him among those unhappy martyrs
whose blood Is the seed of no church.
What are the reasons why any change
Of principle should be had? Is there any
example IN the history OF tine world of any
nation situated like ours which has taken
the step to which we are invited? Some
gentlemen, perhaps, are fastening to say
that Euglund affords us the needed eX-
ample MIR. Speaker have looked there,
and am amazed to find how little the OK
| ample OF Eogiaud can teach.
Are the gentlemen of the ways and
means committee legitimate successors
| Of Bright and Golden and the Antl-Co
| Law leaguey Not the least in the world
| That fight by the manufacturers. This
is fight against the manufacturers. The
manufacturers then desired no protection
whatever. Turn over this big volume of
! CObden's speeches until you come to the
| twentieth speech, seven years after he
began; yoI will not find one alluSion to
| protective duties to manufacturers,
and even in the twentieth speech they are
only alluded to to reiterate the declara-
| tion made in 1898, when the Corn
| law league hegar, that all duties were to
bs abolished. What Cobdsn was fighting
was an odious law enacted to enhance the
price of bread, not for the benefit of the
farmer, but Of the aristOcratic owner Of
land. Workingmen were clamoring for
increase OF pay. The manufacturers
knew that decrease of the price Of whent
was the equivalent of higher pay. Men
do not work for money; they work for
moneys worth.
While our wiseacres are reading British
books of forty years ago with the emotions
| Of lignAOApavg hat do Fh 1igp
themselves say about the actual facts?
| They come here in shoals Naturally they
do not like our system; but for it, they
could do our manufacturing for US Never
theless, prejudiced and preposseSsed as
they are, they are startled inio some in -
cautious truths. Says Mr.. Jeans: ut re-
quires think, unusual temerity to allege
] that the tariff system Of the United States
| hrs been a failure for that country What
a preiudiCed English free trader regards
a. unusual temerity," ," and which he might
have called uneZampled rashness, is
not only exhibited by our committee Of
ways and means, but by every gentleman
who can recite sydney Smiths discourse
on the taxed Englishman under the i'm
preston that he is delivering an original
speech. Mr.. Carr, too, remarks the strange
phenomena i am, says he, "a convinced
. FREE lFhueT. ITOLtCLlOu IS TO NE an econ
omical heresy, the fraud and folly"-(How
like one OF our own dear Southern states
man he soundsl-"the fraud and folly of
which are capable of mathematical illus
tration. And yet throughout tn
length and breadth Of this vast continente
one is almost daily brought face to face,
with solid iBdisDutabie facts that seem
to give the lie to the soundest and most
universally accepted aXioms of political
economy"
Yes, not only do ''solid, indisputable
facts seen to give the lie to the sound
est and most universally accepted axionl
of political economy" but they do give
it, and so does the whole history of this
county. If what he calls "the soundest
and most universally accepted axioms"
had been aXions at all, this country ought
to have been permanently thirty years
in the situation which i. Is now in tenn
porarilly, after eleven months Of this free
trade nightmare. We ought to have been
hating in every branch Of manufactures:
we ought to have stopped progress and
faltered to the rear, for we were wasting
both capital and labor IN Improbable
employment.
Projections RESULTS.
Our workmeu peuned up in our little
country while Englishmen reveIed in the
markets OF the world ought to be impover.
ished beyond all the experience OF history.
Instead Of that tho Aldrich report shows
that since 1860 money wages have risen IS
per cent. Or, If you say, and you would be
right in so saying, that wages should be
measured by what they will buy, the re.
suit is still more striking The same report
shows that measured by prices OF things
bought, wages have risen, real wages, az
per cent. BY which ] mean to say that
where our people in 1860 received a dollar
our people have now one dollar and sixty.
eight cents and six mills in money, and @
dollar and seventy-nine cents and one
mill I'm consumnDe wealth. During the
same period the hours of labor, by average
in all the occupations calculated, have fal
len from eleven TO ten. II you count that
and reckon the mans hours saved to bC
worth as much to him as it used TO be TO
his employer-ano it is-you have rea
wages raised % per cent. and you and the
wage-earner today, after thirty-threC
years of protection, with Sl91, where il
1850 he had but single dollar The Al
drich report declares that there eXists ne
thorough digest Of facts relating TO Euro
pean wages but If you will show me any
figures Of increase Mt any appro6matinl
what have just described in Fr9e Trad,
England, you will discover what my
search has not been able TO find.
With wages rising, prices Of manufac
tured goods falling with lossening hours
oflabOr what more do you want excep
nIore'Of the same sort2
WAGES THE REAL ISSUE
|, | confess to you that this question oi
wages is to me the vitrl question. To in
sure our growth In civilization and wealtl
we must not only have wages rs high n
they are now, but constantly aud steadily
increasing. Thi1 desire of mine for con
stantly increasing wages does not have / t
origin inllove for the individual, but In low
for the whole nation in that enlightened
selhshness, which recognizes tho great trutl
that your fate and mne, Mr. Speaker, anC
the fate Of your descendants are 81
wrapped up in the fate of all Others kha
whatever contributes TO their progres
gives to us all nobler future and higher
hope
IN my Judgment upon wages and tn
consequent distribution of consumabl,
wealth IS based all our hopes for the fu
ture and all the possible increase of oul
civilization. The progress of this nation Il
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