Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-08-08
IARIffs. AND WAGES.


lrAmense Advantage Of the Wilson Law
to WOrkngmen.
A contemporary, whose distinction
is the number of things it don't know,
notes the revival in the manufacture of
pottery in this country. at East. Liver
pool, in Ohio. The potteries have been
idle since the passage of the German
tariff until this week, it says, when
three-fourths of them started up on
full time, and the rest are running
part of the time. Anxious to forestan
any credit that might be claimed by
the democrats that this revival is due
to democratic legislation, it informs
it's readers that it is not. but that that
legislation gave it its black eye. The
pottery men, it says. give as the true
reason that, ''in order to renew opera
from remaining indefinitely idle, they
were compelled to cut prices to the
level of those of those of imported
goods under the new reduced tariff. !"
This shows, says our contemporary,
how friendly the democratic revenue
reformers are to the American work.
ingman.
We are of one opinion with our con-
temporary in its last statement The
American workingmen. who vastly ex-
coed in numbers the manufacturers of
pottery, will certainly not regret the
reduction of the cost of their pottery.
But the really interesting part of this
confused tumble of statement and de-
ductiOn, is the reason assigned by the
pottery men for resuming. They have
been compelled to reduce the price of
their wares to point where they
could compete with the foreign i'm
ported ware, increased in cost by the
duty imposed. The average ad valorem
tariff on their products under McKin-
leylsm was 90 per cent, which was re-
duced by the present act to 35 per
cent, making a reduction of little
over IL per cent Under the present
law the cost of every 500 worth of
pottery imported is increased S35 by
the tax, making its cost S135. The pot
terry men, if Our contemporary is not
giving us another piece of misinforma-
ton, admit that. for every 500 worth
of their ware. they add this S35 of pro-
lection SO as to bring their price up to
the level of that of their competitors;
in other words, the pottery manu-
AoStui CIo thuo SAde tACy oAS
taking. as they have taken. to them
selves the entire benefit of the protec-
ton afforded.
Apropos of this, and illustrating the
"paralyzing effect" of the latest tariff
act, we have the case of Trenton, n.
j.. pottery which, on January 10, 1891,
three months after the passage of the
Mckinley act, proposed to its employees
a reduction of 331s per cent of their
wages. The men went on a strike,
which lasted until April 30 that year,
when reduction of go per cent. was
accepted, but was followed on May IA
by further reduction of per cent.
On June 16 of this year, the same firm,
under this ''black-eye" tariff, increased
the wages of its employees from 10 to 40
per cent. The effect, then, of the re-
iuction in the tariff is only to reduce
the profit of the employers and in
crease wages, while the effect OF the
Mckinley act was to increase the
profits and decrease wages. We agree
that the comparison does show ''how
friendly the democratic tariff reform
ers are to the American workingmen."
St Paul Globe.