The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1912-10-23
Franklin Pierce Shows That La
Dor Is Not Benefited by
Unjust Tax
MANUFACTURER KEEPS PROFIT
Proof Of Democratic Platforms Sound
ness Cited In Reports Of Wage In
vestigations.
BY FRANKLIN PIERCE.

For hundred years of our history
the manufacturers. believing that they
received benefit from the protective
tariffs. have ingeniously devised plausi.
BILE pretexts for imposing increased
prices upon the necessaries of life. At
irst they said that industry in our
country was in its infancy and needed
protection. When those Industries had
become strong and needed no aid the
manufacturers invented the theory
that the foreigner paid the duty. This
theory was exploded, and they declar-
ed that cheap clothing meant cheap
men and was not a blessing.
Driven from every one of these indie
feasible positions, their final and only
argument left today is that the tariff
is imposed upon foreign imports to en-
able the manufacturer to increase his
profits and pay higher wages.
The Democratic platform declares
that:
In the most highly protected indus
tries. such as cotton and wool, steel
and iron. the wages Of the laborers are
the lowest paid in any of our indus
tries
Wages In Cotton Industry.
Under the existing Payne-Aldrich
tariff law actual imports of cotton
cloth paid in 1910 average duties of
56.4 per cent.
In 1905. when work and wage condi
tons in the cotton industry were ex-
ceptionally good, the wages of 2022ll
cotton mill operatives in the United
Statesmen. women and children-av-
eraged only SG.47 week. The average
wage for men was but S7.71 week.
for women $500 and for children. 1921
AS to the profits, seventeen leading
cotton mills. with total capitalization
of $25, and total surplus of SOL
363.5O1, paid in nine years dividends
averaging % per cent.
The cotton manufacturers turned ont
in 1905 SAP. 45l, 21S worth of goods and
paid in wages therefor S94, 1897 500, or
81 per cent of the value of the finished
product
Extortion of Wool Tariff.
t0utside of the duties on two or three
commodities Of comparatively little i'm
portance. the duties on wooden cloth
are the highest of any in the tariff
schedules. According to Senator Reed
Smoot, owner of wooden mill at Pre-
vost. Utah. and chairman of the finance
com mittee in charge of tariff legisla-
ton in the senate, wearing apparel val
ued at 30 cents a pound now pays
206 % per cent duty.
This and other correspondingly high
duties on the manufactures of wool
are made to enable the manufacturer
to pay his labor an increased wage
over those of foreign countries. But
the duty on wooden goods Is nearly five
times the entire labor cost. while the
American manufacturers in 1905 paid
In wages only Is per cent of the total
value of their production.
At Lawrence in this most highly pro-
tected industry the laborers were oblig
ed to strike even for a living wage
Thousands of adult males were receiv.
inly only from So to so a week and
many only IS to Sc a week. AS a re-
suit of the strike the American Wooden
company gave its employees slight in
creases in wages.
The wool tariff bill vetoed by Pres;
dent Taft reduced the duties ON raw
wool from 1920 to 90 per cent and on
manufactures of wool from S7.G5 to
1896 per cent. Mr.. Taft said he We
tQed it because the proposed rates did
Int comply with the findings Of the
I a EoIlafta
tradicted the president, saying that the
proposed rates varied from per cent
lower to ll6 higher than the tariff
boards findings justified.
Low Wages In Steel.
Manufacturers of iron and steel in
1905 paid in wages only 10 per cent
of the total value of their production.
while the duty then would average
about As to AZ per cent. and on all
metals it now averages 34.51 per cent.
American ioages are really the cheapest
ica0es IN The lc0rld ichen vou take into dc-
count the amount OF production per man
An illustration of this appears in the
STANLEY report. investigating the steel
trust as follows:
'Ihe labor cost or producing pig iron
IN Pennsylvania fell from $l.25 ton
In 1902 to 50 cents a ton in 1909, yet
the realized value of the pig iron out
put was S15.64 in 1902. whereas 1t was
S17.44 in 1909. In other words. wage
workers in 1902 got Sl.25 for producing
only sl5.64 worth of pig iron and in
1909 only 80 cents for producing Si744
worth"
While thus treating labor the indus
trial combinations that have grown up
under the protection OF the tariff have
fixed the prices of commodities at the
highest point the home market would |
stand
When viii the laboring men of the
oYnntry east of this delusion that the
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