Manchester Democrat., 1909-01-06
drAg Ah1AF TAHIpF T19,d
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Continued from Page 1.
made an analysis of the thirty mill
lion workers in the United States as
reported by the 1900 census, and
declared that it was impossibla to
pick out as many as one million
whose work would be injuriously
affected if absolute free trade were
adopted-which nobody
thinks of doing All the protected
employ only n small part
OF the labor of the country. Suppose
i We're true-wlich it isn't--that
protection affects wages. Could the
pyramid stand on its head? Could
the wages of the protected few fix
the wages of the unprotected many?
Bricklayers are among the highest
paid workmen in the country. Their
average wage in cities is 62 cents an
hour If you entered union and
proposed that they should give up
tl.eir very efficient labor organiza-
tion in consideration of 20 per
cent. horizontal advance in duties you
might go out through the window.
Wool clothing pays the high duty OF
"a cents pound plus 60 per cent. ad
yalorem. You have read of the sweat
shops in New York and Chicago
where clothing is made. Why didn't
the tariff protect the sweat shop la,
bor? OF course, the tariff had moth
ing to do with 1t. The labor receiv-
Ell bread-line pay because it was un-
O, ganized and it's efficiency was low.
In North Atlantic cities a male hos
iery knitter (protected) gets 20 cents
an hour and union teamster (unpro.
tected save by his union and his
right arm) get 80 cents.
There is a duty on cotton cloth run
ming from to 8 cents yard and
from % to 60 per cent. ad valorem
Cotton-carding machine operatives
receive in the North IA cents an
hour; in the south 10 cents; spinners
l.. the North, 13 cents; in the South
8 cents; weavers, 19 cents in the
North and 13 cents in the South
These wages are substantially high
er than in 1897, yet hardly represen,
q perfect flower of prosperity. And
il. the dyeing, finishing and printing
of textiles, wages, according to the
Bureau of Labor, advanced as follows
from the passage of the Dingley Law
to 1907: Color mixers, 1" per cent. ];
dyers, 13 per cent; engravers, 6 pei
cent, while printers wages have dc
clined a trifle. In this field it seems
to have taken protection about ter
years to get around to the workman
1t did not take it so long to operate
upon the cost of his living.
Averages deduced by the Burear
Of Labor from examination of the
pay-rolls of 4034 leading establish
ments in the. principal manufacturing
industries of the United States show
that full-time weekly earnings pei
employee advanced little over 2;
per cent. from 1897 to 1907. About
half the total expenditure in a typi
cal workman's family is for food
Taking the mean food consumption
in 1867 workmen's families, the Blu
,eau finds that the cost of the diet
arv articles SO consumed advance d
from 1897 to 1907, just little more
than the average full-time weekl!
earnings. In short, the food-pur
chasing power of a weeks earning.
was slightly less in 1907 than in 1897
On this subject of the advance il
wages from 1897 to 1907 the variation
shown in the Bureaus reports are
highly interesting. For example
bricklayers' wages advanced Al pei
cent; wages of common laborers il
brickyards, 2S; carpenters. 81; labor
ers in the building trades, 20; struc
tural iron workers, 80; candy-makers
10; cabinet-makers in car shops, 80
common laborers in same shops, 49,
gatherers in glass factories, "a; la
borers in same factories, 26; marble
carvers, %; laborers in the sam'
shops, i3; back-skinners in slaughter
houses, 36; laborers in slaughter
houses, Ia. These reports cover onl.
a certain number of typical establish
ments-about four thousand-in th'
larger manufacturing centers; an,
in he reports themselves are fount
instances where the less skilled labo
has advanced more than the highl!
skilled. One cannot lay down an alb
solutely hard-and-fast rule. But i
certainly looks as though the bigges
advance rather inclined toward tn,
strongest organization.
Undoubtedly, relatively very man,
more workmen received full week.
pay in 1906 and the fore part Of 190i
than in 1897. But in ten years farm
values of cereal and cotton crops an,
ef 1arm animals (all practically unprt
tected) increased more than hun
dred per cent, or over four billiol
dollars. That fact might claim 4
humble share in accounting for tn,
increased consumptive power of tn
home market and the consequent full
er employment of industrial labor.
This unprotected farm production
meeting the competition of the worlt
on an even footing and paying thu
freight, supplies exports amountin
to nearly thousand millions year
We export more goods than any othe
nation and we could scarcely do tha
unless, finally, we had the ch9apes
labor. For generally speaking, thu
cost of an article is the sum of the
cost of all the labor that went t.