Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-02-08


Accepted Axiom of Political Economy"
With wages rising prices of man
ufactured goods falling, with lessening
hours of labor, what moro do you want
except more of the same sort
The truth is that this very question of
rising wages is what makes a good many
men free traders. People with fixed in
comes think that anything which raises
wages is inimical to them.
The increase of wages which the service
seller ought TO have and the only useful in
crease he can ever get will be by the opera
ton of natural laws working upon the oppor
tunities which legislation may aid in
furnishing. The increase will never come
from the outside, will never he the gift of
any employer. 1t mnst como from the i'm
provement in the man himself.
This question of wages is all-important
as hearing upon the question of consump
ton All production depends upon
consumption. Who are the consumers
Unfortunately the gentlemen on the other
side have pelsistently retained the cid idea
that the producers are one class and the con
sumers are another. and hence we hear on
all hands such stupiditicS of speech as those
which sum mp the workers in each branch
and compare them with the whole people.
One hundred and fifty thousand workers in
woollens--vou ask what are they compared
with ~, 600. 900 of consumers POO. 900 work
| el's in steel what are they compared with
~. O0O. 900 of consumers: 2O0. 600 workers
in cotton. what are they compared with 10.
600. 600 of consumers. and SO on all through
the long list, forgetting that all these PEG
pile added together make
The whole 20. 900, 900 Themselves,
We are nominally 10000, 600 people But
as Il market for manufactures and choice
food we are potentially 200, 0OO. 600 as com
pared with the next best nation on the
globe Nor is this difficult to prove. When
ever an Englishman earns one dollar an
! American earns a dollar and sixty cents
Both can get the food that keeps body and
soul together and the shelter which the
body must have for 60 cents. The surplus
can be spent in comforts of life-in Il word.
| in the products of our manufactures That
makes our population as CONSUMERS of prod
uctS as compared with the English popula-
| ton. POO 600 900.
| If this is our comparison with England
| what is the comparison vi II the rest of the
| world Mulhall gives certain statistics
which will serve 10 make the comparison
/ clear. In his Dictionary of Statistics he
says the total yearly productions Of the
manufacturers of the world are 4. IN 00G,
| 600 pounds. of which the United States pro
duces L. Al. 600 600 pounds
| do not vouCh, nor can anvbc DIV vouch
| for these figures, but the proportion of one
! third to two thirds 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 1000 600.
! 600 Of which we have 20. OOO. 600, which
! leaves ,l3O. OO0, 600 for the rest of man
] oil IL,
equivalent of them. Hence we are equal to
one-half the whole globe outside of our
selves. England included, and compared as
a market with the rest of the world our
population
Is Equal to .1j,OOO,OO0.
Instead of increasing this market by leav-
! ing II to the steady increase of wages which
the figures of the Aldrich report show so
concusivcly and which have not only
received the sanction of the mem
Der from New York, the secretary of
the treasury and the democratic bureau of
statistics, but the sanction of everybody
who hears me. our committee propose to
| lower wages and so lessen the market and
! then divide that market with somebody else
and all on the chance of getting the mar
ketS of the world
Who have these markets of the world
now? There is hardly spot on the globe
where three generations of Englishmeu
| FrenChncn, or Germans have not been
campcd in every avenue Of trade. Do YOU
suppose that with machinery nearly as good
as our, and wages at une-half these men are
going to surrender to us the markets of the
world ? Why, the very duties you keep on
show that you do not believe il.
To add to the interesting imposoiblitcs of
] L., tI,., ~
side say they are going to maintain wages
How can that be possible All things sell
at the cost of production If the difference
between the cost of production here and cost
of production in England he not equalized
by the duty, then our cost of production
must 20 down or we must 20 out There
fore our labor the great component part of
cost of production, must 90 down also If
You say this will come out of profit, then
profits will be leSSened in every occupation
Let il be Noticed Abroad
that any occupation is making big profits
and straightway it will be swamped with
competitors so that over-profit is the sure
precursor of no profits at all.
But all these questions of wages are to be
offset, says the gentleman from New York
Mr., Cochran, by our superior civilization
and accuses me of ''confessing that civiiza-
ton at the highest level is incapable of
meeting the competition of civilization at its
lowest level, Laughter on the democratic
side,
Now, it is great truth that civilization
can successfully meet barharsm. but il must
do it with brains and not with rhetoric
survival of the superior:' that is not the
way that the great naturalist pets it. SUP
yival of the tttest" was his expressions sur
| e, Aet.
peI'or, not the lovelieSt, not the most intel
lectual, but the one who fitted best into the
surroundings
If 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 from sunny Italy, SO newly
imported that he had grown up to the wages
of his adopted country.
On the question of the constitutonality of
tariff taxation | shall spend no time. Con
stitutionality' and 'unconStitutionality on