Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-06-07

| Importers. Lille case SHOULD nave gone
to the supreme court for final hearing
but Secretary Carlisle refused to carry
it up to the court of last resort The
United States government had three
decisions against the importers and
the importers had one decision against
the government. The secretary of the
treasury surrendered at the first de-
cision against the government and al
lowed the importers to bring in fin
ished pearl buttons as raw material
and escape the duty so long as they
did not finish the holes in these but
tons until they got them past the Gus
I tOm-hOuse. That knocked out the
pearl-button factories in this country,
for the importers could bring pearl
buttons in practically fl ee of duty
The Wilson bill is fairer toward the
pearl-buttOn manufacturers in Amer
lea than was Secretary Carlisle be-
cause it imposes a tariff of 1 cent a
line and 40 per cent. ad val0rem on
pearl buttons and provides that but
tons are buttons whether they have
the holes punched or not
The Germans of Manitowoc have no
further use for the democrat tic ad-
minisration that strikes down two
pearl button factories started by young
Germans, proposes to destroy the
market of Wisconsin barley, and gives
them hard times instead Of prosperity.
: One old German farmer said he had
voted for Peck twice and for Cleve-
land. He had heard that Mckinley
! was running for some office, he did not
! know what, but he wanted a McI<in-
ley ticket at the time of the spring cleo
who made the Mckinley bill and the
! good times that came with that legisla-
ton. He did not care what it was
/ Mckinley wanted in the way of an
/ office, he proposed to vote for him
every time he found the name on a
| ticket. That old German farmer repre-
sentS big sentiment in Wisconsin to-
day, and could McKinley's name be
placed on a ticket this fall it would
sweep the state by as large a majority
as he had in Ohio last fall.
A correspondent, writing from Mil
waukee to the Inter Ocean, says the
Wisconsin democrats did under-eSti-
mate their own capacity for blunder-
ing in legislation and also the docility
of the people, who were the sufferers.
They elected Mr. Mitchell to congress,
then elected him to the United States
senate, and in a special election sent
| Mayor SOmerS to take Mitchell'S
vacant seat in the house. All this was
before the democratic machines at
Washington and Madison had got I'M
der full Roadway to show how they
could destroy business interests in
Milwaukee and flood the state with
the roster scandal.
After one year of a democratic ad-
ministratio the worllingmen of Mil
waukee concluded to take stock or an
inventory. of the results of demo-
cratic pledges. They found that in
Milwaukee nearly four thousand less
men had been employed in 1898 than
in 1892, and that the labOring men
in the manufa curing establishments of
this city had lost in wages S5,6 ,051
through the election of Grover Cleve-
/
In 1892 the total manufacturers of
! Milwaukee, according to their own
figures gathered and compiled, paid
53,S73 persons SOS, 1867 400 in wages.
an average of $53769 As each. In
1873 they paid 50.562 persons $23,33335.-
$40 in wages, total of So, 632, OIL less
than the sum paid in wages in 1892,
tn To
each person employed in 1898.
The aggregate reduction in wages
was 20 per cent, the actual reduction
in product % per cent, with a general
increase of actual investment of ST.
100000 in new capital. An observance
of the Shrinkage in values in manufact-
uring property by manufacturers in
placing valuations on their properties
brought the actual valuation in 1893
$7,3G6,345 below the valuations of 1892,
besides this absorption Of S4,OO0,OOC
new capital, thus sinking values SILL
566345, in round numbers 10 per cent
on the S1O6, 100000 invested.
In 1892 the reports Of the Mllwau
kee manufacturers indicated general
increase in the scale of wages of 3 tC
20 per cent The general average in
crease was about II per cent. In 1S9:
fully as many reported decreases as
had reported increases in 1892, and the
decreases were at a larger percentage
ranging from 10 to % per cent, with
! none less than 10 per cent. The de
crease reported in 1898 averaged IL
per cent, as against an increase OF
II per cent. in the wage scale in 1892
These figures bring out the differences
between a year of the Mckinley tar
iff and a year of the democratic ad
ministration that was to wipe out the
Mckinley tariff and give the laborin:
l men cheaper food and clothes.
=, The only industries in Milwaukee
! that reported more employees in 1S9
than in 1892 were the breweries AM
9 malthouses, and even in the sever
breweries, according to their own ig
;. ures the employees averaged S73.SS les
:. in earnings in 1898 than in 1892. L
;, the malthouSes the average earnings o
= employees was S155.96 less than in 1885,
II These two industries gave employ
4 ment to more men in 1898 than i
q 1892 and had a greater product, bu
n they paid less average earnings t
= the employees.
n When the voters of Milwaukee ha
J. taken stock and noted the capacity flo
n tr.11n in hn 10. WI