The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-19
REDUCTION OF WAGES IN ENGLAND.

The pressure of the industrial competl-
ton which Great Britain feels is indicated
by the reduction OF the wages of 225.0cO
workmen a few days ago. The average re-
duction was only about 50 cents a week. but
to men who nave been earning not more
than s. TO 81 a week that is a serious item.
II is, however, the British method of meet
ing the competition of the best paid labor
In the world. whose pay is twice the figures
here quoted.
The question naturally arises. how can
the manufacturers in the United States
compete with those of Great Britain when
paying double the wages? Several elements
must enter into the answer. First. the
British workman having been for years
the best in the world. has assumed that
under no conditions can there be a better.
He has obstinately chung TO methods that
are worn out. He will not yield to new
inventions and processes. The result is that
from being the best workman a third of Il
century ago he is now inferior to his
American and German competitor. Again,
good wages. with the prospect of better
things, has appealed to the ambition of the
workman. consequently he is more intelli-
gent and more energetic. Instead of resist
ing innovations. he uses his skill and in
telligence to turn inventions and new meth
DDS to his advantage. BY making the best
use of new appliances the American work
man can turn out enough more goods TO
enable the manufacturer to pay from 80 TO
100 per cent. more wages to skilled labor.
But another powerful factor in creating
this difference is the much-denounced pol
icy Of protection. the United States is by
far the best market in the world. The 76,-
10000 of people in the United States con-
sumo as much in value of the products of
skilled labor as twice as many people else
where. 1t may be said to be the American
policy, in contradistinction to the British
or free-trade policy. to reserve. as far as
possible. this best market in the world for
the producers i'm the United States; so at
the very outset, for all the products of
skilled labor. we have a wider market than
any other nation in the world. Now, it
stands to reason that the certainty of a
market that consumes three or four times
as many goods as the market of any other
competing nation affords enables the
American manufactures TO thrive on a
profit on each pound, yard. etc. much
smaller than can his competitor in any
other country. 1t is the quantity sold that
makes the price. To Illustrate. the shoe
manufacturer who can put upon the mar
ket 100 cases a week cannot sell at so small
a profit as the manufacturer who makes
tective tariff has always enabled the manu-
f~acturer TO pay much higher wages than
are paid W in the world. The
workman who earns these wages has twice
as much money to spend for the PRODUCTS
of other labor. Cut the wages paid in the
United States 30 or 80 per cent, and con-
sumption of merchandise i'm many lines
will be reduced in like ratio. Thus in a
two-fold measure the much-denounced pro-
tective policy is the cause of the high
wages In the United States.
Great Britain, driven into close quarters
competitors created by the protective poi
icy, has but one way of meeting the ruin
Gus American competition. and that method
is the reduction of wages. thus to some ex-
tent curtailing the capacity of labor to
consume it's own products.