St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-13
WHAT WAS TO DE AND WHAT IS.

Recently we put against the an
nouncement of the sale of the Full
ton Worsted mills of Oswego, N. Y,
10 an English syndicate which bought
On the report of its experts that the
business was very profitable and in
which there had been an increase of
wages, the answer of the company
10 the senate finance committees in
quiries. The comparison, our read
ers will recall, put in a laughable
light the predictions of disaster to
follow tax reduction. The New York
Times has been keeping tab on the
increases in wages wherever they
have occurred since last March; and
the same source-the replies to the
rommittee-affords more instances of
fallibility Of human foresight, if of
no other and less excusable traits.
Appended to Bulletin so is a. drag
net protest, signed by wooden manu-
facturers all over the country,
against the wooden schedule Every
ground of objection is here pre-
sented. The armories of the pro-
tectioniSts were ranSacked to gather
objections. In view of the fact that
the wooden mills of the country were
never so active as since they had
free raw material, and the protection
on their products was scaled down
from 80 to rs per cent, while the
wages of their employees have been
increased, the predictions of these
manufacturers have a present inter-
est as continuing demonstration of
the fallacies on which protection
rests. These hundreds of wooden
manufacturers protested against
free wool because government, for
thirty years, has ordained that man
ufactures should be adjusted to a
tax on their raw material, a policy
which meets the approval of the
manufacturers who believe 'tthat
the benefits of the protective sys-
tenn should be shared equally by the
farmer and the manufacturer"
There is universal agreement
among manufacturers, they con-
tinue, that transition from dutiable
to free wool involves revolution in
the industry, which must be effected
at great expense, after long expert
n1nnf9 tin11 Will
ton. Machinery must be readjusted
or replaced, help must be re-educat-
ed, methods must be modified: the
whole manufacture must change, and
the whole wool market must be re-
established in new channels" The
mere threat of this change has
brought an unparalleled crisis"
and IAN enormous shrjnkage in the
assets Of every wooden mill" s'The
actual transformation will give to
foreign manufacturers, for the time
being, the complete control of the
American market"
They make this protest as well sin
behalf Of the labor employed in these
industries" They ''contemplate
with profound regret the establish
ment of conditions which will COM
pei the most radical establishments
of the present 1888 scale of wages.
# the existing barriers against for
eign competition are broken down
the manufacturing costs must be cor
respondingly reduced; labor is the
chief cost and must be the chief suf-
fcrer. Adequate help will
be difficult to obtain at the
wages this bill will compel.
unless there shall be cor
responding reduction of wages in
all lines OF industry. both nlanufact-
uring and otherwise" And so they
protested against what they termed
"an act OF extirpation." Raw wool
vent on the free list Aug. rs, 1894,