The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1895-04-13
MAKING MIscHler.
Injury Done 20 Our Industries by Chang
lug the Tariff.


lug the Tariff
Two causes OF apprehension in the
textile manufactures are mentioned by
trade journals, the frequency Of
strilkas. particularly in wooden mills.
and the frequency and Importance OF
cancellations. Both are evidences of
the incalculable injury done by the
change In the tariff. IL Is important to
understand these movements, because
they show the working OF causes not
by any means confined 20 textils es-
Establishments.
The cancellations are partly unwar-
ranted and essentially dishonorable.
Having given orders 20 domestic man
ufacturcrs some months ago, I'm order
20 secure the goods they expected to
need, some buyers now cancel these
orders and refuse 10 take the goods be-
cause they find that they can buy at
less cost similar foreign goods, which,
though not OF as good quality, may
nevertheless be made up aud sold rs
readily, so that the consumer will be
defrauded. This is one side OF the
case, aud the large importations OF
goods, mainly composed OF shoddy,
which are SO destitute of wearing quail
tiles that IL is often easy 90 put tho
finger through them, show plainly
enough what sort Of stuff some cloth
iers are preferring. But on the other
side there is desperate effort made
by some OF the manufacturers 10 rival
the shoddy users OF Europe in their
own field in order 70 produce goods
here as cheaply as those offered by for
eign makers. Beyond n question some
makers have been turning out poorer
goods than they ever sold before, only
because they have been forced 20 make
such goods or lose their home market.
Thus the consumer is robbed both
ways, getting poorer stuff for his
money when he buys such American
goods as have dcteriorated in quality,
or such foreign goods as are scut here
10 capture this market.
The trouble about wnges springs
from the general impression among
employees that when manufacturers get
orders they get profits. But in times
like these that is by no means true.
Very often n manufacturer has orders
that only suffice TO keep his mills at
work part time, which, owing 20 tho
increased cost of production under
such circumstances, he cannot take
without loss, unless he can somehow
contrive 20 keep the works fully en-
ployed. With that object. and in or
der To retain his market as far as pos
sible, he accepts enough other orders
TO keep his works employed, though
these other orders may not by them
selves yield anything but a loss. The
average for the whole output, he calcu-
latcs, may yield something above bare
cost, with labor at the rate recently
prevailing. But when the hands de-
mand a restoration Of wages TO the
rates paid before the prostration, tho
naked question for the manufacturer is
whether he shall run his mills NJ GER
tain and often n large loss or not run
them at ALL
The wages and prices prevailing two
and three years ago were SO closely adj
justed 10 each other that only moder-
ate profits were realized in wcll-man-
aged and successful mills. The homo
competition was SO sharp and severe
that works which were not well man
aged rarely realized any profit, and n
large-numbcr OF them were forced into
bankruptcy or compelled 90 stop, even
in those years Of prosperity. The cost
of wood in the manufacture Is, on tho
whole, less than thirty per cent. of the
cost Of goods, 80 that the cheapness OF
the material by no means compensates,
as TO great number OF products in gem
eral use, for the decline which foreign
competition and the AUTHORIZATIONS
of foreign goods make necessary. IL Is
the unwelcome fact that large pro-
portion OF the mills now at work would
be forced 90 stop, and the operatives
would nave no wages whatever, IL
they should refuse 20 work at matcri-
ally lower wages than were paid under
the former protective duties.--N. Y.
Tribune.