The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-04
Cheap Silver Has Undermined
the Commerce of England,
And the Dingley Law Gives a
Knock Out Blow.
PROSPEROUS IN 1895.
The Country is Now on the
Verge of Commercial Ruin.
Trade With Silver Countries
Has Declined Enormously.

Chicago, Nov. A-The Record nrints the
following from W. E. Curtis. a corre-
spondent Of the paper who spent the past
summer in England:
The Industrial and comercial pros
perity of England is now in the
greatest peril Last year was the
most prosperous in the history of
Great Britain, and until the 1st
OF july the present year promised to
surpass 1t in commerce and 1nanufac-
lures, but several important causes have
lnterVened to change the conditions and
at present the outlook is very discourae,-
ing.
The interruption of commercial and in
dustr1al prosperity was caused by the
stationary engineers, who struck for an
elght-hour day about the first of JuIv
or 10 be more accurate, for forty-eight
hours week, with a half holiday on Sat
urday. They selected a time when the
most of the manufacturing establish
nehts' mills, foundries and shipyards had
large contracts at profitable prices and
expected that their employers would be
compelled to yield at once. But tbev
We're mistaken. The employers organ
lied an association for resistance and
have been lighting desperately against
great odds. The sympathy of the public
with the engineers, and they have recefv-
ed financial assistance amounting to sew
eral hundreds of thousands of dollars
from the other trades. At the same
time their strike has thrown out of en-
ployment great many persons by clos
ing mills and shops that cannot be run
without engineers. The result is that
more than 100000 people have been out
of employment since early in July from
this
mediate prospect of a settlement What
ever advantage there has been thus far
is in favor of the employers, although
they have lost great deal of business
and corresponding amount of money;
they have means which they can live
upon, while the engineers and the allied
trades have been forced to withdraw
| their savings from the savings banks and
are very nearly at the end of their re-
sources.
In the midst of this turmoil a strike
of three four hundred thousand opera
tives in the cotton factories is threatened
because of a reduction of per cent all
around in wages, which has been ordered
in nearly all the mills in England. The
manufacturers explain that this reduction
is imperative because of the exigencies
/ of the trade, and it is expected that the
operatives in the wooden mills throughout
England will receive similar notice during
| the present week. The principal causes
! of this reduction in wages are the high
/ duties imposed upon foreign made fab
rics by the United States and the decline
| in the value of silver money, which has
paralyzed the export trade with India
| the Central and South American repub-
| lies, the East and West Indies, and other
silver standard countries, which consti-
tute the largest markets for British ex-
ports.
Under the tariff of 1894 British cotton
| and wooden manufacturers, by reason of
| the low wages to their operatives, were
! able to pay the duty and compete on
| even terms with the manufacturers of the
/ United States. but the increase in duties
/ by the Dingley law has compelled them to
| curtail the cost of manufacture in order
/ to reach this market. During the fiscal
/ year ended June 80. 1897, cotton cloth to
the value of 900 was imported into
| the United States and other manufac-
lures of cotton amounting to half as
much more. At the same time wooden
! goods to the value of $50. 600 600 or more
were imported, the greater part of both
from England. The increased duty knocks
! this trade into confusion, and the manu-
/ facturers are compelled to adjust them
| selves to the new conditions and ask their
operatives to share the losses. The con-
tinual decline in the value of silver has
| ain and the silver using nations in sim
liar manner and they are great consumers
of cotton and wooden goods.
The operatives do not understand the
situation, and it will be a sad lesson if
| they are compelled to learn it by a strike.
! The engineers had much stronger grounds
| to fight than the cotton and wooden
| operatives, as there has been a tendency
| toward an eight-hour day in England for
several years, as in the United States,
and it has been demonstrated that the
average mechanic can accomplish as much
in eight hours in nine. The fact that
the cotton and wooden manufacturers
must cut down their cost of production
in order to keep their markets has be-
come equally apparent to all who know
the trade. although it has not been ap-
preciated by the average operative, whose
intelligence and knowledge of current
events is not equal to those people of the
same class in the United States. To turn
the weavers and spinners and other en-
ployes of the textile trades into the
streets with winter approaching is q. des-
perate remedy and will be fearful blow
to the prosperity of England.
All this bears upon the silver question
and will advance the cause of bimetallism
more than any verbal arguments that can
be offered A sentiment in favor of bi-
metalIism by an internatiO agreement
has been growing very rapidly among the
manufacturing industries and the labor
leaders of Great Britain, chiefly because
of their experience in the export trade
| with silver-using nations. While the
market price of nearly all varieties and
grades of merchandise is considerably
: lower in England than ever before. as
| IN +IA Tinted States the reduction has