The herald., 1897-05-13
| LABOR md PROTECTIVE TARIFF !

It seems almost irrelevant to discuss
the question Of labor with that Of tie
tariff. The value Of wages has nothing
to do with the amount of protection.
except in strictly local way. There
are three elements which contointly or
separately establish the price of labor:
First. its productive power; second. the
supply and demand; third, the purchas-
ing power Of wages.
Concentrate all the powers Of human
knowledge and research on this ques-
ton, and not one of these propositions
can be shaken. Put them in the alembic
Of crucial analysis and they stand the
ordeal without any concessions as to
their correctness or truth. 1t is recog-
nized fact. by all who have given the
wage question a careful consideration
in Europe and America, that labor pro-
duces greater results in America than
anywhere else in the world. This great
er production, caused by superior skill
and superior machinery. makes it cheap
er than the lower priced and less intelli-
gent labor Of Europe. The American
consul to France said a few years ago.
after having made thorough examina-
tion of labor and its wages in the manu-
factories Of France, that an American
laborer would produce as much in nine
hours as Frenchman would In eleven
or twelve.
Mr.. Blaine made a careful examina-
tion Of the labor question in the cotton
mills of England, as compared with
prices in the cotton mills of the United
States. and in his report, as secretary of
state, in 1881, he says: The average
wages of employees in Massachusetts,
mills are, for men, IS. 80 per week. while
the average wages of the men employed
in the Lincolnshire mills, in England.
are IS per week, subject to a reduction
of 10 per cent. The wages Of women
are $3.50 to $3.50 per week. with re-
duction of 10 per cent. The hours of
labor in the Lincolnshire mills are fifty
six hours per week; the hours of labor
in the Massachusetts, mills are sixty
hours per week, and in other New Eng
land states generally sixty-nine hours
per week" Mr.. Blaine sums up his report
as follows: Undoubtedly the inequali-
ty of the wages of the English and
American operatives is more than equal
lied by the greater efficiency Of the lat
ter and their longer hours Of labor"
Mr.. Evarts, while secretary Of state,
after an exhaustive comparison of the
hours and wages of laborers in the cot
ton and wooden manufactures said that
the labor of one American was equal to
that of one and half Englishmen.
In an examination of the census re-
ports of 1880, we find that shoemaker
in Massachusetts earns $1163 per week
1t e.. -
and that an Englshman earns only $500
per week, but his output for the week
is only ten pairs Of shoes, and hence
American shoes, with only S5 cents of
labor in each pair, easily compete with
English shoes in the English markets,
with so cents in each pair.
Our second proposition is that supply
and demand regulate the price Of wages.
This law is as old as humanity and is as
infleXible as any law of nature. Labor
is commodity, just as wheat and cot
ton are. Two men go to the city to sell
their commodities; one has grain, the
other muscle and energy. The man
with grain finds the market over
stocked, and hence low prices; the la
borer finds that there are many other
laborers asking for the same job. hence
wages are lower. The law of supply and
demand has settled the value Of their
commodities. This law Of demand and
supply has always fixed prices of labor,
except when labor has been protected by
high protective tariff known as labor
unions. The tariff, whether high or low,
has nothing to do with wages. If a high
protective tariff insures high wages, it
must be universal in it's operation, ex-
cept when modified by labor combnia-
tions. If high tariff does produce high
wages, then wages should be higher in
those countries where a high tariff is
maintained than in countries having a
low tariff. China has a protective tariff
of so per cent, and still labor is worth
only 10 cents day. Mexico has an aver
age tariff of SO per cent and yet her labor
is worth only so cents a day The high
tariffs of Russia and Italy ought to make
those countries very paradise for la
borers; yet, as a matter of fact laborers
in Russia and Italy only get from 30
cents to so cents per diem. France and
Germany have high tariffs, yet they pay
only a little more than one-half the
wages Of free-trade England.
PURCHASING POWER OF WAGES
If tariff regulates the price Of labor
then labor should be higher in periods Of
high protection, yet the following table
compiled from the United States census.
gives the average in cotton, wooden and
iron mills for four decades:
Wages per Purchas-
annum. Tariff. ing power
1850 ........$244 about IS per ct $2A
1860 ........ 2S7 about IS per ct 254
1870 ........F306 about 60 per ct 230
1880 ........ 277 about Al 40 per ct 272
*Reduced to gold.
Thus it will be seen that the wages
of a man in 1870, though $40 more per