The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-10-07
Prosperity Returns Under the
Dingley Bill.
OVER TWO MILLIONS
FOR POTTERY KMEN.
An Eloquent Picture Of the Desc
lation Caused by VIII
son Free Trade.
From the Jersey City Journal.


The Dingley tariff has given employ
ment to $500 workmen in the potteries
Of this state. The Wilson tariff made
these same 4.500 men idle for the past
three years. During these three years
these men, who had formerly been earn
ing from 500 to $40 a week under the
Mckinley tariff. have been on the canal
towpath working for 1910 a month and
board driving horse cars, sweeping
streets and thanking God for job that
would pay them SIPS day.
In these same three years seven
eighths of the capital invested in pot
teries in this state has not yielded /
per cent interest. Five OF the greatest
concerns. with almost one-half of the
money represented in the business be-
hind them. have gone to the wall, and
are still in the hands of receivers, or
have liquidated and gone to new own
ers. The potteries of Trenton. accord
Ing to carefully prepared estimate in
The Tribune, had when the Wilson bill
went into effect a payroll Of $4,000 a
week. and when the Dingley tariff came
to the rescue of the potteries after three
years of the Wilson tariff, this payroll
had gone down to $1,000 a week This
means that the Wilson tariff cost the
pottery workers of the city Of Trenton
alone $2,1S5,OOO a year! The Dingley
tariff means the return of s2,lS5, 900 a
year to the workmen of Trenton in this
single industry, and that Is only
starter, for the Dingley tariff has fea-
lures even more favorable to the pot
teries than the Mckinley tariff had.
II anything could eloquently picture
the desolation and destruction OF the
Wilson tariff II Is this statement re-
garding the scattering of the workmen
under its operation. The writer In The
Tribune says:
During the last three years the opera
tives have voluntarily agreed to n re-
duction of about SO 1-3 per cent. in their
wages In the hope of keeping the shops
running and holding the home market
against the foreigners. but the manu-
facturers could not then compete and
the doors were closed.
''The decorating shops OF Trenton that
have been operated at all have pur-
chased the ware they decorated in
England. France and Germany. 1t fire.
quently happened that the decorating
shop was located next door to big
pottery, whose warehouse was groaning
under the load Of the same kind OF
stock the decorator had shipped from
England. France and Germany, the for
eign ware having been brought to the
very doors Of the pottery here at a cost
to the decorator of 16 per cent. less than
the actual cost to manufacture in this
city
Fully 100 families have gone from
Trenton to England. in which country
the potteries have flourished under the
Wilson tariff rates. and there made the
ware that supplied the American mar
ket while the shops here were closed.
and the grass was growing over the
busy driveways."
In Trenton there are "a potteries
There are three OF four score shops and
other establishments employing labor,
whose very existence Is dependent upon
the potteries. There are In the city Of
Trenton no less than 35, 900 people, male
and female, in the families whose COM
fort is derived wholly from the pros
porous condition OF this system of in
terdependent industry. Within six days
after the Wilson law was enacted, de-
privation. want, and, in increasing de-
grees, the actual pains Of poverty took
possession of these helpless workers.
For three years they have been blindly
waiting for succor and at last II has
come for the most reliable reports from
that city already show that there
thousands are finding steady employ
ment, and within Is months all will be
employed and at wages nearly 25 per
cent. higher than were paid even to the
few fortunate laborers who held places
during the three years Of Democratic
While this Is the history OF the city Of
Trenton. II must be remembered that
Trenton Is but one city out of all those
which are similarly affected by the
Dingley tariff. East Liverpool, O.,
Tiffin, Baltimore and the rest
are equally benefciaries In the return
of prosperity under a Republican tariff. |