The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-05-30


problem, namely, the rate of wages re-
eelved and the degree of domestic comfort
it will procure
his earning power, the wages which
he receives, is the primary source for his
domestic expenditures and determines it,
no matter how economical his domestic ex-
penditures are. Whenever these exceed the
wages received debt or ruin must follow
Inc wages received is, therefore, the pri-
mary source for the domestic economy and
determines it's degree.
AS it is with an individual, so is it with
a nation. Nations, too have their primary
source of income and their secondary. ave-
nues for the expenditure of that income.
10 Illustrate: England's primary source of
material support is in manufactures, and
her secondary, agriculture. That is, with
the profits on manufactures she is enabled
TO buy her food supply at home and
abroad. In the United States the condition
is reversed the primary industry in this
country is in the production of staple ag-
ricultural products, and the secondary is
in manufactures. Therefore the volume of
manufactures in the United States is linn
tied to degree equal to the volume of the
net profits on staple agriculture
This statement is true or false If false.
there is end to further discussion; if
true we may proceed
1t is true it is just true of the United
States as is the example above given of the
workingman. 1t is therefore important
matter for workingmen to inquire into the
profits of staple agriculture, for failure to
do this would be a failure to examine into
the primary cause of wages and it's rates,
than which nothing is of greater Importance
to the wOrkingman. Let us examine
into this matter with the care and atten-
ton it deserves and see if it will not lead
us to certain conclusions.
Some writer's have asserted that civiliza
ton is liable to destruction by an armed
invasion of Asiatic hordes. We need have
fear that score. The probabilities are
that the Asiatic hordes would do themselves
more mischief with modern devices of war
fare than they would inflict on the more
civilized races. There is, however, every
reason to fear that the time is near at
hand when civilization will be menaced
with a danger more enduring and destruc-
tive than bloodshed; and that danger is in
the economic changes that must occur as
soon as labor saving devices and machin-
cry will be placed in the hands of the docile
cheap labor of Asia-the millions that have
been content from remote time to the pres
ent day to work for the lowest rate of
wages in the world
Free traders are apt to overlook this dan
ger, and yet it is real. The objection that
this class of labor is not competent and
cannot work machinery will not hold We
see in California that a coolie, with little
experience, operate a Mckay ma
chine and turn out as many boots and
shoes and of good quality as any other
class of skilled labor. The difference being
that in California the cooie receives 81 a
day but in China the same class of labor
may be had at from to 10 cents day,
and in almost unlimited numbers. Why is
it that la Dor saving machinery has not yet
been introduced in China and India for the
manufacture of goods, 1 do not know. That
these will be introduced in time there can
Jel~o xyir,rr a1hr, nvx
for the manufacture of goods has not yet
been introduced into the Asiatic countries,
the same cannot be said of agricultural
labor saving devices and machinery.
At the time England established free trade
she had practically a monopoly in the man
ufacture of goods The monopoly consisted
chiefly in the skill and technical knowledge
of her workmen. The quality of the Eng
lish knife was without a peer, and so with
her textiles and earthenWares. Bye-and-
bye Germany, France and Austria estab-
lished great schools of technique and the
manufactures soon rivalled the skill of the
Establishment AS a result the English wage
rate declined, and to counterfeit this, Eng
lish statesmen sought remedy in the pro-
curement of cheap food for the English
workmen. This actuated the taking of
Egypt and the converting of India into an
imperial form of government. With these
changes followed the introduction of labor
saving agricultural devices in Egypt, India
and the British possessions generally, and
even though the Monroe doctrine prevented
England from securing the Argentine re-
public, it did not prevent Engishmen from
buying large tracts of wheat land in that
country and supplying it with modern la
Dor saving devices.
Russia too followed in these footsteps,
and the result is manifest.
The two leading staples of the United
States, wheat and cotton, have felt the eff
fects of this line of policy in steady de-
cline in price.
IMPORTANTTO EVERY WORKINGMAN.
This decline is the subject matter of our
discussion, and is of great Importance to
every workingman in our country, for it
concerns and bears directly the hours of
labor and the rate of wages The unthink-
ing workingman may see in this decline
cheap bread and cheap cotton, hence a
greater purchasing power for the amount
that he receives wages
No greater mistake can be made than
such conclusion. While it is true that as
far as England and the English working
man are concerned, cheaper wheat and cot
ton is conducive to their interests, in the
United States it is just the reverse, for here
cheap wheat and cotton means cheap
wages and heightened hours of labor
This is absolutely true-as absolutely true
as that a diminution of wages on work
ingman will affect his home expenditures
For at the start it was said that where
manufacture is the primary industry, the
profits of manufacture determine the guam
tity or degree of prosperity of the nation
and in country where agriculture is the
primary industry the profits of agriculture
determines this.
We have also before US the fact that the
primary industry of the United States is
staple agriculture, and that the net profits
on agriculture determine the volume and
quality of manufacture. If, therefore. agri-
hnc ifc
OF the conditions stated before-by the use
of labor saving devices in the semi-ciyilized
countries. enabling them to expand greatly
the area for cultivation-and when this de-
cline affects the producer of staple agri
cultural products to the degree that it does
IN our country, there must necessarily fol-
low corresponding decline in the quality
and volume in manufacture.
Cheap bread and cheap cotton, if thew
mean cheap wages and long hours really
mean dear bread and dear cotton. These
mean leveling toward the Asiatic stand
ard; hence lowering Of the degree of
civilization, and is destructive not alone
to the family, but to the nation A saw
ing of cents a day in bread and cot
ton will not compensate in the loss of 25
or so cents a day in wages.
Now not alone has American staple ag-
rlculture to suffer the decline by reason
of the depressing competition outlined: but
1t is well-known fact that this primary
industry is compelled to pay for the cost
of protection to American manufactures
1t is scarcely necessary for me to prove
this assertion, for 1t is a fact beyond a
question of doubt that in a country where
the protective system is in force, that anv
industry therein which is compelled to sell
its products at home and for export a
the worlds free trade price, that that in
dustry pays for protection Of the other in
dustries.