The San Francisco call., 1896-08-26
Disturbances.

sad record of failure under Clevelandism.
The ghost of the ruin already wrought by
the Wilson bill will not down, however
divert attention from the issue most vital
to the people.
"How will free coinage help the man
who has no bullion2" the workingman
asks as he turns and conternplates the
widespread ruin wrought by the very
measure advocated by Bryan as panacea
for all industrial ills.
Lest it be charged that the present hard
conditions have only lately been attributed
to the Cleveland and Bryan free trade
policy it is well to refer to records that
were extant long before this wears Ma.
tlonal conventions made their platforms
and named their candidates.
A careful report on American business
conditions was made by the American
Economist in October, 1894 by which Il
plainly appeared that wages were then on
the average, 40 per cent less than in 1899:
that there was no work for 80 per cent ~
the people; that the output of the Factories
had decreased A per cent; that the aver.
age earnings fell off sos per head. and that
olillons OF dollars less money Circulated
than circulated two years before.
The report showed that 800 diffarent
employers of labor were unable to find
WORK for ~, S0O hands IN 1894, and that they
Pald So,U0O,OOO less wages than in 1895
The report concludes as follows:
"There was loss of $55 for the year
Tor every individual employed. The anaIy-
SIS OF the reports, according to sections of
the country, brings the facts learned by
!ne lhVesllgauon committee more strik-
ingly home, both to the EMPLOYER of labor
and the employe. The statements pre.
sented regarding the conditions that have
recently existed in the different sections
OF the country are also extremely inter-
esting.
"A valuable tabulated exhibit is that
winch shows the percentage of business
tnae was oone by each separate industry
TINS year as compared with 1892. Unfor-
tunately there are very few cases where
there has been no shrinkage, and there
was put one showing an increased busi-
ness for this yaar.
"Ihe Mckinley census that was taken
by the American Protective Tariff League
IN 1917 proved that over $40, 600 of
money mad been invested in new or en-
larged industries within two wears. Also
that work had been provided for 81. .285
additional hands,
NOW we are under the painful necessity
OF showing that 20,8O0 people have been
deprived OF work in 800 different industries.
Also that those who were at work have re-
eelVed nearly S., ,O00. 600 less money within
SIX months than they did two years ago.
lt Is shown further that the amount of
business was but 56 per cent of that trans
acted in 1892
"A year ago this month we published the
results OF our industrial census. This
showed that there had been a decrease in
business within twelve months of 472 per
cent, decrease in wages earned of SO per
cent and decrease in the number of
persons employed In factories of about 6O%
per cent.
We now have to report shrinkage of
30 per cent in the nnm Der of persons en-
pioyed; a loss of 45 per cent in the amount
OF wages earned and of A per cent in the
output OF industrial establishments. A
year ago the eayeragesdecrease was recorded
as $Z 90 per week in the wages of each en-
ploye, or SOL 10 for the half years work.
we now record a loss of s55 for each per-
son Tor the six months work this year as
compared with the money that he earned
during the same period in 1892
Ii we look back still further and COM
pare the present results with the census Of
1880, we find on the basis of the reports
that we have received that there were as
many as 1, Alb, $50 idle persons in the coun-
try this year who were actively employed
In 1880. We further find that there were
more than one billion dollars less wages
earned than in 1892. We further find that
the value OF the product of the factories
has decreased by more than five billion
dollars. Also that three billion dollars
less money has been paid for material to be
used in manufactures.
I'VE cannot but accept as thoroughly
reliable the information we have received.
and upon which we have based our calcu.
lations. 1t Is extremely painful to us to
record such a distressfuI condition of
business, which must involve pincning
and poverty in most American house,
holds.
AFTER these facts have been carefully
studied by every reader and thinker in
the country, we should hardly expect to
find one solitary individual to advocate
policy of free trade as against protection
to American labor and American indus
tries"
The foregoing figures stand in bold re-
ply to the oft-asserted accusation of the
popocrats, that the Republicans of 1896
are reviving cry of free trade and ruin
to divert attention from the money uues-
ton. The truth is that the Republicans
OF this year, like those of every year, re.
fuse to shut their eyes to the fact that free
trade has ruined the wages and the indus
tries OF the country. Republicans are not
crying free trade and ruin so much as
they are asking the Democrats to account
lOE tuelT utter Iallure TO Drlng prosperity
out of the Wilson bill.
No one who has studied the question
even in the most elementary way will
deny the fact that Bryan was a champion
of the Wilson bill, which he promoted
as panacea for industrial Ills. He was
so full OF promises that his lips were as
roses. In free wool, free iron, free Ium-
ber and free products from afar he beheld
the signs of coming Eden. While strik-
ing down the industries of the country
and reducing American labor to the verge
of starvation he forcibly held out the ilIu-
sorry hope that the dagger of free trade
was magical wand OF progress. The
cool man who studies the foregoing re-
port will see the extent to which BRYAN
has tried to mislead the people.
The disasters that have occurred in the
industrial and commercial world since
1894 have been along the line OF those that
began with the first threats of free trade.
There is scarcely an industry from one
ocean TO the other that has not felt the
blight of the Wilson bill. 1t has been
shown that the wooden industry has been
hurt in every part, from the shepherd
among his focks to the girl at the loom
that Canadian lumber has hurt the Ameri,
can trade; that cheap iron has stopped
hundreds of forges and closed hundreds
of factories and vet ha ronoorot;a