Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-10-26
TARIFF PARALYZING THE
BAY STATE INDUSTRIES
Duty Raw Material Drives Some of the Greatest
Manufa cturing Esta blishments Out Of StaAte--
Wages Stationary. Cost or Living Growing

Boston. Mass, Oct. 2G.-'The indus
tries of this neighborhood are being
starved by the tariff"
Such was the characterization of the
economic condition of Boston and its
vicinity made to your correspondent
by Mayor Patrick A. Collins.
An inquiry into the detailed condi-
lions covered by the MAYORS state
ment shows that every steel industry
of any Importance has been forced to
to leave the state. The Fore Ship
building plant has recently been force
ed into liquidation, and the United
States Steel company at Everett has
had to go out of business. The metal
stamping industry has likewise disap-
peared from Massachusetts. The Al
las Tack company at Fair Haven, the
largest tack concern in the world, was
forced to reduce the wages of its en-
ployes by 20 per cent only a short
time ago.
All Massachusetts industries are
likewise suffering from the tariff tax
which they must pay To the coal trust
through inability to get the coal from
the neighboring mines of Nova SEQ
tia free from duty. Thus it may be
said chat here in this state are found
the most complete examples anywhere
in the United States of the barrier
which high protective tariff wall
raises to the development of indus
try. The burden here is not so much
upon the consumer. but it hits hardest
at the wage Garner and the investor.
The state is aroused as it has sell
dom been before over this blight which
has been cast upon its industries and
the republican party is to be called
severely to account for it's stand pat"
policy.
No more precise statement has been
made of the present attitude of the
public toward the existing condition
in Massachusetts than that of the Hon.
Nathan Matthews, permanent chair
man of the democratic state conven-
ton. at Boston, Oct. Z, 1904, when he
said:
Dark Outlook For Massachusetts.
AS to this state and city in par
ticIlar. | assert that, with the eXcep
ton of a few manufacturing indus
the money and good fortune to buy
stocks before the speculative rise be-
gan and to sell before the reaction,
there has been no increased prosperity
at all at any time since 1897; and
that at the present moment the COM
mercial outlook for New England is
darker than at any time since the war
of 1912. Our industries have one by
one been moving away. our manu-
facturers occupy precarious position,
and our foreign commerce is rapidly
declining. These are patent facts
admitted by every one except the
special benefic.aries of the Dingley
tariff and the politicians who espouse
the cause"
Massachusetts feels most keenly the
tariff tax upon raw materials. The
heavily protected trusts deprive her
of the cheap raw materials to which
she is fairly entitled. and as a result
her great Industries are suffering.
The total tariff burden carried by the
state of Massachusetts is astonishing.
In 1903, the manufacturing establish
ments of the state used materials of
stock valued at $500. 900. Upon
such of these materials as were dUti-
able the tariff tax amounted to prob
ably s71,0OO.000 In other words. $500.
100000 were paid for materials which.
had there been no tariff tax. would
have cost the manufacturers only $3.50
600. 600
Wages Might Have Been Raised
IN 1908. about $3.50 900 900 was paid
in wages to about 900 workers in
Massachusetts. each employe earn
ing an average Of $47I23 for the year