The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-25

workmen from the twenty eight potteries
of East Liverpool, Ohio, travelled seventy
hve miles this morning to call on Major
Mckinley at his home.
Chairman w. l.. Smith, Col. j. n. Tay-
Tor and w. B. Blake headed the delega-
ton. The latter is pottery bench
worker and an eloquent talker. The Wis
ltors on the way to Canton and later on
their way to McKinley's residence at
tracted recruits until 5000 enthusiastic,
cheering people gathered about the Nc
Kinley home. Mr.. Blake made a speech.
to which Mckinley replied as follows:
II cannot and would conceal not the
pleasure which this visit on the part of
the citizens of East Liverpool and Column
bla county gives me. / have been deeply
moved by the warm and generous words
spoken by Mr. Blake and nothing gives
me greater pleasure nor more satisfaction
than to feel that have behind me sup
porting the great principles for which I
stand, the workingmen of my old Con-
gressonal district The message of good
VIII so eloqucntly expressed by your fell
low workman has profoundly touched me.
| canEot forget that you trusted me in
my young manhood, for which l am
deeply grateful, and that you have ever
since followed me with unfalterng conf
dence, for which l am also duly apprecia
tive. l remember the first time | ever
looked into the faces of an East LIVERPOOL
audience twenty years ago and then, as
now, was speaking for sound money and
a protective tariff. Your spokesman has
alluded most graciously to what he terms
the services | have given to your great in
dustry. If have done anything to bring
work to you or my fellow man anywhere,
and made the conditions of the American
workingman easier, that is my highest
reward, and greater reward no man could
have.
Ihere Is no industry, my fellow. cti.
zens, in the United States which demands
or deserves protection through our tariff
laws more than yours. 1t is a business
requiring technical and artistic knowl-
edge and the most careful attention to
the many and delicate processes through
which the raw material must pass to the
completed product Down to 1862 the
pottery industry of the United States had
achieved little or no success and had
made but slight advancement in Il prac-
tical and commercial way. At the close
OF the low tariff period of 1860 there was
but one white ware pottery in the United
States with two small kilns. Decorating
kilnS were not known. In 1878, encour-
aged by the tariff and the gold premium,
which was an added protection, we had in
creased to twenty potteries with sixty
eight kilns, but still no decorating kilns.
The capital invested was 81 ,020, 600, and
the value of the products was 81, $50, 900.
In 1882 there were fifty-five potteries, PA
kilns, twenty six decorating kilns, with a
capital invested of 50, 016, 900 and an an
nual product of So, 299, 140 The wages
paid in the potteries in 1882 were 81, $751;
600 and the number of employees engaged
therein 1000 or 45 per cent. You have
twenty eight potteries in the city at East
Liverpool to-day. The di ference between
the wages of labor in this country and of
foreign countries you know better than |
can tell you. When the law of 1888 was
enacted | stated on the floor of Congress
that if the duty of % per cent. and so per
cent. was given, as recommended by the
bill then pending, in less than five years
the quality of American ware would be
improved, the quantity increased and the
price to the consumer sensibly dimin.
ished. That prophecy has been more than
verified
I'm 1882 an assorted crate of ware sold
for S57 and the same-only better ware
is now sold for less than $40. In 1864
we paid for the same crate of ware 1910
On decorated ware the immense benefit
to the consumer is even mere apparent
The selling price of all decorated ware
was from 80 to 100 per cent higher in
1882 than in 1890. In 1852, with the low
revenue tariff duty of 81 per cent and no
domestic manufacturers, an assorted
crate of white ware sold at 800, in 1890.
with the % per cent. duty and domestic
competition, with large potteries which
are the pride of the country, employing
labor and capital at home, buying our
own raw material, the same assorted
crate is selling for $40. What the state
of business has been in the past three
years you know better than l can tell
you. Without any actual knowledge
about it, think | can safely say that you
have not been so prosperous as you were
prior to 1893. and that the past three
years have been years of unsteady and
irregular employment, reduced wages,
less work and less pay.
my fellow citizens, the people in 1892
were busy at work and gave little atten-
ton to politics They will not be so in
different again They have more time
this year than they had four years ago
and are giving earnest attention and &C.
tive work to the national contest which
is engaging the country.
I'VE have had some distressing expert
ence in this direction which has taught
us that if we do not keep our business
our business will not keep us, and that
if somebody else does our work, we will
have no work to do at home. The people
are settled in one purpose this year-they
will not tolerate the surrender of any
more of their business and will as quick
ly as possible recover what they have al
ready lost. They know how they lost it,
they know when they lost it and they
know how TO get ii back and they mean