Milford chronicle., 1895-09-06
Where Wages Wore Advanced.

At last a genuine, undeniable and
important advance in wages has
been announced. It is an advance
of from 10 per cent. to 224 per cent.
over the former rates and its benefits
are enjoyed by a very large number
of workmen. Moreover, there is ex-
plicit testimony-the first Of the
kind on record-that this increase
was due directly to the enactment
of the Gorman-W Wilson Tariff. Hav-
ing said this much, it is, OF course,
searcely necessary to add that the
increase has taken place on the other
side of the ocean, and that foreign
and not American Workmen are its
benefciaries.
These benefciaries, to come down
to details, are the employees of the
great Tin Plate Trust of South
Wales and Monmouthshire in whose
interests the late Democratic Con-
gress reduced the Protection on tin
plate from 2 is cents per pound to
! is cents, and thereby afforded
most unexpected and undesirable
answer to the vexed question, pWho |
pays the duty ?" These WEIGH mo
nopolists had good reason to believe
that they had been paying it them
selves, and seeing their American
markets steadily drift away from
them into the bargain, with the steady I
multiplication of competing Ameri-
can factories, they very naturally
set out, therefore, to pocket all Of
that cent a pound bonus which the
Clevelands and the Wilson's and the
Germans and the breckenridge had
kindly conferred upon them, but I'M
fortunately their prescriptions en-
ployees would not have it. The
Workmen informed the exultant
Welsh mill bosses that there would
be a strike if they did not divide the
swag. They demanded an increase
in wages, a restoration to the old fig.
ures of 1874, and as the Welsh man
are prudent men, who be-
lieve in making hay while the sun
shines, and tin plate while the duties
are low, they got it. ;
Significantly enough, at just the
same time, there was change in Z
wages in the tin plate industry on !
this side of the ocean, but it was in
The other direction. 1t was down n
ward. The forty American tin plate
mills which had grown up under the +
increased Mckinley duty found
in a critical position when !.
,he vindictive Southern politicians {
;oOk almost half of their Protection
.way from them. Their managers
law that they must either reduce the :
abor cost of their products or shut q
Town their machinery and quit the L
,usiness. They called their work
men together and explained the sit q
lation to them. The workmen, like Il
ensible men, saw that it was ques-
ion of lower wages or no wages and to
ccepted a reduction of from 10 to al
o per cent.
Thus it happened that while wages a:
Iere going up in Wales they were
Ding down in America. Mr. CleVe- F,
.nd's Consul at Cardiff has stated da
he facts in the case. but he has dis b,
reetly RETAINED from offering any IA,
xplanation. Nor, Indeed, is any ex-
lanation necessary. The facts speak an
II themselves. The passage of the -
Wilson Tariff was the sole y
luse of the phenomenon. 1t in 4. 49,
eased wages in Europe and re- ~
iced wages in America precisely as
e Republicans said it would, just GU
it has done in scores Of other in IA
Istries, and just as such legislation tns
II do every time the American peo- :
Q permit q lot of incompetent or wh
lawmakers to get into wa
wer in Washington. - R0shaa IS
aarmaS August 4, 1885.