El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-29
THE SHARE OF LABOR.
PROSPERITY HAS REACHED THE
WORKING PEOPLE.
Industrial abIishments Announce In
creases of Wages That VIII Affect
About 100000 Mechanics and Artisans
Other Advances Sure to Follow.

Other Advances Sure to Follow.
The advance of wages announced in
the current issue of the American
Economist is natural development
OF the conditions of returning pros
perity which set in directly upon the
inauguration of President Mckinley
two years ago. Following the enact
ment of the Dingley tariff came a
marked revival of business activity,
which at the close Of 1898 had in
many ways passed the high-water
mark Of 1892, the year in which the
benefits of the Mckinley tariff were at
their zenith. The first quarter of 1899
has witnessed a continuation and in
crease of good times"-Dingley tariff
tmes-and a new set of the CONNER
cial records indicative of exceptional
prosperity have been established.
Now comes the wage-earner's period
of prosperity. He has not been with
out some share in the bettered condi-
ton Of things, for, even though his
wages were not largely increased, he
was the gamer by increased and GER
tain employment. So long ago as
March, 1898, as shown by the indus
trial census of the American Protective
Tariff league, a vast increase had
taken place in the gross sum of money
disbursed among work people, as
compared with the month of March,
1895, when the disastrous tariff tinker
ing of a free-trade administration had
begun its deadly work upon American
labor and industry. 1t will be recalled
that this census, reporting compare
tive conditions in nearly $500 labor
employing establishments, showed for
March, 1898, eight months after the
passage of the Dingley law, gain
of 31.65 per cent in the number of
hands employed, a gain of 44.O5 per
cent in the gross sum Of wages paid
and a gain of 11.56 per cent in the
average wage rate per capita.
These gains, important and signifi-
cant though they were, had not at
that time reached the more populous
centers of employment, the large av-
erage being helped by exceptional in
creases in regions of smaller popula-
ton. For example, phenomenal gains
were shown in the states of the Pa
cific coast, the far West, the middle
West, and the Northwest. Longer time
was needed to bring about general
advance in the heavy producing dis
tricts of the middle and eastern states
Enormous overstocks Of foreign goods
brought in just prior to the higher du-
ties of the Dingley tariff had depressed
home production in many important
lines, and until these stocks had been
absorbed by consumption the lean
period must perforce continue.
The advent of the fiat" period so
confidently anticipated as the natural
outcome OF the policy. of protection is
obviously at hand. The reports print
ed in the current issue of the Amer
lean Economist show a general ad-
vance in earnings of cotton mill op-
eratives of about 10 per cent, of iron
and steel workers generally 10 per
cent, in tin plate and sheet workers
from to 10 per cent, of coal miners
about 10 per cent, and in several other
departments of labor fully 10 per cent.
The reports thus far indicate that
nearly 100000 workers have been af-
fected by the advance in wages. Other
establishments which were forced to
reduce wages in times of free-trade
tariff depression and which are now
experiencing the benefits of revived &C
tivity are certain to join in the in
crease of wages.
There is in the situation, as it ex-
lists today, and as it promises to de-
ve1op from this time, guarantee of
good business for the entire country
AS is well remarked by Dun's Review
of March IL:
Traders and manufacturers can
only sell when wage-earners can buy,
and in proportion to their buying pow
er. Those who fail to COM
prehend what such change may mean
have only to consider that a tenth in
crease in the wages of all labor would
put into the markets a new buying
demand, in amount about three-uuar-
tiers of the entire value of exports to
all countries"
Protection is keeping its word with
the American workingman. The Ding
ley tariff is carrying out it's contract to
revive business and increase wages
The advance agent of prosperity"
proves to have been acting with knowl-
edge and authority. The fulfillment is
in a fair way to make good the fore
cast, and more, too.