The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1907-02-01
BIG REWARD
GREATEST ADVANCE IN WAGES
KNOWN IN HISTORY.
AZ a Result Of Unparalleled Prosperity
the Increase Of Pay to Workers In
Mills, Factories and on Railroads
VIII Amount to $1,ooo,ooo,o 900 for
1907.

January first just passed and the
months preceding saw the greatest ad.
vance in wages ever known in this
country. The advance is the more
remarkable because it was based on
the highest rate known in this or any
other land. A ten per cent. increase
to the wages of the laborer under the
free trade tariff of 1876 would havo
meant a daily gain of from five to ten
cents, If he had gotten it. A ten per
cent. increase under the Dingley tariff
In 1867 means a gain of 20 to so
cents a day, or from $50 to $3.50 a
year: the gain itself being more than
the entire wage of some foreign COM
petitors.
The Dingley tariff has brought most
wondrous changes to our industrial
life. Under it our foreign trade has
doubled; the value of our farm prod
ucts has doubled; the volume Of en-
ployment has changed from the idle
ness of millions to a veritable labor
famine in all parts of the country. Our
manufacturers are unable to supply
the demands of our prosperous people.
and We are buying " $1,000, 900, 00G
worth of foreign products.
Remarkable as are all these results,
they do not equal in importance the in
creased rewards to labor.
The secretary of the Railroad Gen
eral Managers association says tho
railroad employees will this year re-
ceive ver 81, 900, 000. 900 in wages.
more than double what the railroad
employees of 1896 received. Here is a
gain of over 100 per cent. in the past
ten years. These are socalled mon
protected workers, and yet they are
among the greatest recipients Of the
reward of a protective tariff.
The condition of street and elevated
railroad employees is similar. The next
largest increase has been given to the
metal workers. 11dstreet's' estimates
that the annual pay roll in the Pitts
burg district alone exceeds $350,000.-
600, an increase over two years ago of
500, 0O0, 1000.
The textile workers of New England
and elsewhere have had their share
too in the increase of wages, the gain
amounting to many millions of dollars.
The express companies employees,
coal and iron and copper miners, boot
and shoe operators, and the laborcrs
in thousands of mills and factories
have had an increase during the past
year owe the increases of the years
preceding under the Dingley tariff.
The laborers of the United States
have been trebly benefited, first by
continuous employment; second, by
higher wages; third, by shorter hours;
and we might add, fourth, by an in
crease of interest in savings banks
Where they have over $4,000, 900, 900 on
deposit at four per cent. now, in most
gases, instead Of three and three and
one-half per cent. formerly. And still
| the labor demand is not equal to the
supply, and we are easily absorbing
half a million new wage earners an.
nually from abroad, who, with their
families, add owe a million new con.
sumers each year to increase the de.
mapd for American agricultural and
manufactured products.
In the light of the above facts it
would seem foolish, yes, criminal, to
change a tariff policy which has given
such unprecedented rewards to the
workers of the country.