Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-02-10

difference in living, and the - 50 is as much
necessity today as the Is cents was $50
years ago.
This question of wages is all important as
bearing upon the question of consumption.
All production depends upon consumption.
Who are tine consumers? In the old DAYS,
when the products of manufactures were
luxuries, the lord and his retainers, the
lady and her maids were the consumers, a
class apart by themselves. but today the
consumers are the producers. Long ago the
laborer consumed only what would keep
him alive. Today he and his wife and their
children are SO UNNECESSARILY the most val
liable customers that if the shop had to give
up the wealthy or those whom it is the Gus
tom to call poor there would not be mo-
ment's hesitation or moments doubt
Unfortunately the gentlemen on the other
side have persistently retained the old idea
that the producers are one class and the
consumers are another, and hence we hear
on all hands such stupidities of speech as
those which sum up the workers in each
branch and compare them with the whole
people. One hundred and fifty thousand
workers in woolens-you ask what are they
compared with 100000 consumers; 300
600 workers in steel, what are they COM
pared with 100000 consumers; 100000
workers in cotton, what are they compared
with 100000 consumers, and so on all
through the long list, forgetting that all
these people added together make the whole
100000 themselves.
1t so happens that America is filled with
workers. There are idle people, but they
are fewer here than elsewhere, except now,
when we are living under the shadow of the
Wilson bill. If those workers are all get
ting good wages, they are themselves the
market, and if the wages are increasing the
market is also increasing. The fact that in
this country all the workers have been get
ting better wages than elsewhere is the
very reason why our market is the best in
the world and why all the nations Of the
world are trying to break into it, We do
not appreciate the nature Of our market
ourselves.
Engiishman, 81; American. SLIGO.
have given You already the glowing tes-
timony OF Englishmen who have seen us
with their own eyes-"Amazing prosperi-
ty," Greatest market in the world, Par
adise Of the workingman.n These are
strong words. but let us see il cold msthe-
MATES do not put 10 shame the fervor Of
sdieetives
We are nominally 20, O00, 600 people. That
Is what we are In mere numbers. But A. a
market for manufactures and choice foods
We are potentially 2oo,00.0oo A. compared
with the next best nation ON the globe
Nor is this difficult TO prove. Whenever
an Englishman earns a an American earns
SlGo.
/ speak within bounds Both can get the
food that keeps body and soul together and
the shelter which the body must have for
"a cents Take 90 cents from a., and you
have 40 CENTS left. Takethat same 90 cents
from the Sl.O0, and you have 81 lefg, just "a
times ~ much. That surplus can be- spent
N choice foods, IN house furnishings, In
lne clothes and all the comforts Of life-in
word. ia the products Of our manufae-
lures. That makes our population as con
sumers Of products, As compared with the
English population, 2OOoo0.OOO Their pop
ulation Is 81, 100000 as consumers OF prod
nets which one century ago were pure lux
uries. while our population is equivalent TO
sooo00.Oo0.
If this is our comparison with England.
what is the comparison with the rest Of the
world, whose markets our committee are
so eager TO have in exchange for our own
serve to make the comparison clear On
page 365 of his Dictionary of Statistics he
says the total yearly products of the manu-
features OF the world are eI,474, 000, 900, of
which the United States produces 81 49,
100000.
America Produces Third.
do not vouch nor can anybody vouch
for these figures, but the proportion of one
third to twothirds nobody can fairly dis
pute. We produce one-third, and the rest
of the world, England included, two-thirds
The population of the world is 500, 0O0,-
900, Of which we have rocco, 900, which
leaves |, 100000 600 for the rest Of mankind.
We use all our manufactures or the equiv
alent of them. Hence we are equal to one
half the whole globe outside OF ourselves,
England included, and compared as n mar
ket with the rest of the world our popula
ton is equal to 7l5,000000.
l repeat, as compared with England her
self as a market, our people are equivalent
to 200,000,000. As compared with the rest
of the world, England included, we are
equal as Il market TO us, 000,0O0
But all these questions of wages are to
be met, says the gentleman from New York
(Mr. Cockran), by our superior civilization,
and he accuses me of 'confessng that civil
cation at the highest level is incapable Of
meeting the competition of civilization at
its lowest level"
Now, it is great truth that civilization
can successfully meet bsrbarisn, but it
must do it with brains and not with rbet-
oric. How often have heard this and sim
liar eloquent outbursts about our SUPERIOR
ty and therefore inevitable conquest of the
inferiorl Survival Of the SUPERIOR That is
not the way the great naturalist put it,
Survival of the fittest" wa. his expression
Survival of the fittest to survive: not the
superior, not the loveliest not the most in
tellectual but the one who fitted best into
the surroundings.
The Bull and the Smelt.
Compare the strong bull Of Bashan with
a salt water smelt. Who doubts the SUI
periority Of the bulli Yet IL you drop them
both into the Atlantic ocean, i will take
my chances with the smelt. A little tom
tit, Insignificant as a bit CT dust in the bal
ance cannot compare with the domestic
swan either in grace, beauty or power. Yet
if both were dropped from "A balloon hung
in air, | would rather be the insignificant
tomtit than the graceful swan. IL had a
job to dig on the railway, the competitor for
that job whom | should fear would not be
my friend from New York, but some child
of sunny Italy, so newly imported that he
had not grown up to the wages of his adopt
ed country.
But is not it dreadful business to tax
peoplef Not necessarily. Taxes raised for
a good purpose-like schoolhouse road,
an army, for payment of pensions, for the
public debt and indeed for all the purposes
of u free people-are not only not bad, but
very good. Taxes to build palace for the
kings mistress or to place u barbarian
queen on a deserted throne would be dread
full, but we are not likely, owing to series
Of fortunate accidents, to be called upon TO
do even the last.
But can you accomplish anything but OPP
preston by taxest Oh, yes. The gentle
man from Missouri (Mr. Hatch will tell
you that taxation has regulated oleomar-
garine and can regulate stock sales. At least
SO he thinks.
On the question OF the constitutionality
of tariff taxation shall spend no time.
have not been here as long as have with
out learning that ''constitutionality" and
"uneonstitutionality' on the other side Of
the chamber are mere phrases, and that
when gentleman Of the other side, with
swelling voice, denounees the tariff as I'M
constitutional he merely means that be
does not like 1t.
Iuasmuch as nobody in a hundred years
has even asked the supreme court TO pass
on that question. il seems hardly worth
while to discuss it, IL the Father Of His
Country, fresh from the convention. in sign
ing the first tariff tax bill, signed an nm
constitutional act, the gentleman from
C,eo,rtsta Mr. Turuert and the whole Dspao-