Producers and consumers [microform]. Some plain facts which show how protection benefits all the people of our country

98-84347-13 Producers and consumers Phila 1887 9S MASTER NEGATIVE # COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DIVISION BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET ORIGINAL MATERIAL AS FILMED - EXISTING BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD Producers and consumers. Some plain facts which show how protection benefits all the people of our country. Philadelphia, The Industrial League, 1887. RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Libraries. TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE; REDUCTION RATIO: //.V IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA IB MB DATE FILMED: S-afa-q-g INITIALS: 'fe TRACKING # : FILMED BY PRESERVATION RESOURCES, BETHLEHEM, PA. 7J 2 _ y> iS TARIFF TRACT No. 7, 1887. Published by THE INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE, at No. 261 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, where copies of this tract may be had for dietrihidim. Address The INDUSTRIAL League. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. SOME PLAIN FACTS WHICH SHOW HOW PROTECTION BENEFITS ALL THE PEOPLE OF OUR COUNTRY. Wages and Living Under Protection in Minnesota. A CORRESPONDENT Writing from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the New York Times gives some interesting particulars of the current wages and cost of living in that part of the country. The Times is a Free Trade paper. The correspondent says : Carpenters’ wages are as high now as ten years ago, and the bet- ter class of workmen receive from $1 to $2 a week more. Brick- layers’ wages are about the same. There is a good demand for all such labor, and had it not been for the labor troubles last spring, which prevented capitalists from starting new buildings and im- provements, there would be very few idle men in the Northwest to-day. Stonecutters got $3 and $3.50 per day in 1876, and get the same now. The strike in St. Paul last spring for $3.50 for eight hours’ work was’not successful. Plumbers’ wages are about the same, but some bosses are giving the same wages now for nine hours’ work as they did for ten hours in 1876. The average wages of job printers in 1876 were $14.65 in St. Paul. The average is now $16.25, an increase of $1.60 per week. Daily wages of first- class printers in 1876 were $2.47, against $2.71 now, an increase of 24 cents per day. The wages of tailors, sewing girls, shoemakers, and that class of people who work in factories have increased about 3 per cent. In those factories where work is done by the piece the introduction of improved machinery has enabled operatives to turn out more work and consequently earn more money in the same length of time at the same rate of wages. In the great mills of Minneapolis there has been a steady increase in wages. A canvass of the principal mills there shows that of the men who now receive $2.25 per day and under there has been an increase of ten per cent, in wages since 1876. To men who received from $2.25 to $2.50 per day •• 'i ■ • - . ■ ; ■■ ■ : .-u 2 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS their wages are as high now as then. Men who got SI. 50 per day in 1876 now get $1.75. Laborers on city contracts are very little, if any, better off now than they Avere ten years ago. The average price for day laborers then was $1.25, and that is about the average now. It is not enough. When it comes to the cost of living now as compared Avith ten years ago the difference is fully as great in favor of the Avorking- man as the increase in wages. Clothing is about twenty-fiA'e per cent, cheaper. A good honest suit of clothes which cost $25 ten years ago can be bought noAv for $18 to $20. There has not been so great a reduction in the finer qualities of clothing as in the common articles. A suit of clothes, strong, well made, and good enough for anybody, can be bought in any clothing store in St. Paul for $12 to $15, and a sixteen-year-old boy can get a complete outfit, except shoes and hat, for $8 to $10. These cost fully lAventy- five per cent, more in 1876. Heavy flannels and woolen goods of all kinds have declined about twenty per cent. The following table Avill shoAv the Avholesale prices of staple articles in 1876 and now, retail prices being only a trifle higher. 1876. 1886. Brown sheeting 8o. @ 9Jc. 6ic. @ 8ic. Bleached muslins 10c. @ 12ic. 9c. @ lOJc. Prints fi*’- ® 7c- 4c. @ 6c. Ginghams Oc. ® lOJc. 7c. @ 8c. Fine dress silks and high-priced Avoolens haA'e not declined much, but such things as stockings, underAvear, etc., are from 20 to 30 per cent, cheaper. In table supplies the folloAving comparison of prices of staple articles will be interesting. 1876. Best coffee, per pound $0.21 @ $0.23J Best tea, per pound 85 @ 1.00 Common tea, per pound 60 @ 70 Best synip, per gallon 65 @ 70 Patent flour, per barrel 8.25 @ 8.50 Baker’s flour, i^er barrel 5.25 @ 5.50 Best butter, per pound 18 ® 20 Dairy butter, per pound 12 @ 15 1886. $0.12} @ $0.13} 50 @ 60 20 @ 23 40 @ 50 5.00 ® 5.50 3.75 @ 4.25 18 @ 20 12} @ 15 Beef, mutton, and all kinds of meats are' cheaper noAV than then. There is not one American in tAventy who is not clad from head to foot, out and out, Avith American products — his coat, boots, hat, linen, and flannels. His Avatch, his knife, his pencil, his gloves, and his jewelry are also American products. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS, 3 What We Export to Foreign Countries. Interesting tables are given in the first annual report of the Hon. AVm. F. Switzler, Chief of the National Bureau of Statistics, to show the character of our exports of merchandise in the fiscal year 1885 and in preceding years. In the year 1885 the exports were classified as folloAvs : Articles. ^ Values. Per cent. Products of agriculture Dollars. 530,172,966 72.96 Products of manufacture : 117,259,810 16.14 Products of mining (including mineral oils) 60,151,999 ! 8.28 Products of the forest 7,588,442 1.04 Products of the fisheries 5,955,122 .82 Other products 5,554,607 ' .76 Total 1 726,682,946 100.00 ( The folloAving table sIioaa’s the values of our exports of the prod- ucts of agriculture and manufacture in recent years, and their percentage of the total exports. Year ending June 30 — Exports of products of agriculture. Exports of products of manufacture. Total value of exports of merchandise. Value. Per cent. Value. Per cent. Dollars. Dollars. Dollars. I860 256,560,972 81.14 45,658,873 14.43 316,242,423 1870 361,188,483 79.34 47,921,154 10.53 455,208,341 1875 430,306,570 76.95 75,755,432 13.55 559,237,638 1876 456,113,515 76.67 81,374,077 13.68 594,917,715 1877 459,734,148 72.63 88,007,773 13.91 632,980,854 1878 536,192,873 77.07 91,416,576 13.14 695,749,930 1879 546,476,703 78.12 89,117,215 12.74 699,538,742 1880 685,961,091 83.25 79,510,447 9.65 823,946,353 1881 730,394,943 82.63 89,219,380 10.10 883,925,947 1882 552,219,819 75.31 103,132,481 14.08 733,239,732 1883 619,269,449 77.00 111,890,001 13.91 804,223,632 1884 536,315,318 73.98 111,330,242 15.35 724,964,852 1885 r- 530.172,966 72.96 117,259,810 16.14 726,682,946 Mr. Switzler says: "The exports of agricultural products and products of manufacture exhibit the magnitude and wonderful de- velopment of our resources. The relative growth of the exports fi 4 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. of these great products also shows a remarkable uniformity of prog- ress, the exports of manufactured products slightly taking the lead in rapidity of increase. Our exports of agricultural products rose from $256,560,972 in value in 1860 to $530,172,966 in value in 1885, an increase of 106 per cent., but the exports of manufactured products increased from $45,658,873 in value in 1860 to $117,259,- 810 in 1885, an increase of 157 per cent., both industries exhibit- ing gratifying evidences of progress and prosperity.” ]\Ir. Switzler gives the following interesting information concern- ing the character of our exports of manufactures : “ Among the ex- ports of manufactured products which show the most rapid develop- ment are agricultural implements, clocks, watches, and parts of, manufactures of cotton, manufactures of iron and steel, including sewing-machines, machinery, hardAvare, tools, etc., the products of industries requiring a high degree of skill to manufacture so as to compete successfully in the markets of the world with the products of European nations.” How' One Protective Duty Reduced Prices. — In the debate in the House of Representatives in 1870, on the bill of General Schenck, Avhich, inter alia, fixed the duty on steel rails at $28 a ton, Hon. Samuel S. Marshall, of Illinois, manifested great distress for fear that the proposed duty would be so high that it Avould to a large extent cut off the importation of foreign steel rails, thus de- priving our railroad companies of the opportunity to buy the steel rails that they w'ould need, “ except the few made in this country, and which are sold at an enormous cost.” At the time this sorrow- ful speech was delivered, in June, 1870, steel rails w'ere selling in this country at $110 a ton, and the average price at wdiich they were sold during the whole of the year 1870 Avas $106.75. The duty of $28 took effect on the 31st of December, 1870, and it did not produce any of the eA'il effects predicted for it by Mr. Marshall. On the contrary, it Avonderfully increased the production of steel rails at home, and it so reduced their price that every steel rail made in the United States since Mr. Marshall’s speech w'as deliv- ered has cost our railroad companies an aA'erage of less than $50 a ton, whereas the price Avas $110 a ton in 1870. The present duty is $17 a ton, and the present price is only $39, and steel rails have been sold as low as $26. Protection produced competition, and competition reduced prices. New South Wales, Australia, has adopted a Protective tariff. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 0 Plow' Protection Reduces Prices. — There lies before us a speech delivered in the United States Senate on February 27, 1832, by Hon. George M. Dallas, wdio became Vice-President under James K. Polk. BeloAV is Avhat he said, as coming Avithin his per- sonal knoAvledge, regarding the effect of the Protective tariffs of 1824 and 1828 in cheapening the prices of various articles manufac- tured from iron or steel : “ The reduction of the prices was a neces- sary consequence of the domestic competition created and excited by the policy. Since 1818, 1819, and 1820 the implements of hus- bandry haA'e sunk in price thus : Axes, from $24 to $12 by the dozen ; scythes, spades, and common shovels, 50 per cent. Iron hoes at $9 by the dozen have given Avay to steel ones at $4 by the dozen. Socket shovels, once sold at $12 by the dozen, noAV sell at $4.50; iron vises, once at 20 cents by the pound, noAV at 10 cents ; braziere’ rods were, in 1821, imported at $313 by the ton, and noAv are made at $130 ; and steam-engines ha\'e actually, since 1828, fallen 50 per cent, in price, while at the same time the amount of material and labor of AA’hich they are composed has nearly doubled.” Facts like these are worth entire tons of theories concocted by scholars who get all their knoAvledge from books, and who prefer to consult their libraries rather than go out into the actual world to ascertain what is there taking place in the daily experience of practical business men. — Chicago Morning Herald. The Delusion op Low Prices. — There is nothing so foolish as the habit of seizing upon the prices of a feAV articles in a foreign country and insisting upon comparing them Avith prices in this country. Take the Avorld over, and it Avill be found that Avhere prices, as a general thing, are loAvest the people are poorest and least enlightened. The people Avho clothe themselves in a breech- clout and grass mat, and live on Avild fruits and insects, are blessed Avith loAv prices, but Ave do not think they are to be enA'ied on that account. There is no country in the Avorld Avhere the Avorking classes buy so much as do the men and Avomen Avho labor in this country, and at the same time there are none so Avell off, none Avho are laying up so much money, all of Avhich proA'es that the mere fact of paying higher prices for a feAV articles than the same articles can be bought for in some other country, under entirely different circumstances, is no hardship to be fought against, and no ground for changing our system of political economy under Avhich, it will not be denied, the people and the country at large haA'e so Avonder- fully thriven. — Chicago Western Mamijacturer. I. 6 PKODUCEltS AND CONSUMERS. Protection Has Increased Our Foreign Commerce. — If anv of our Free Trade advocates were asked to show that the tariff lias ruined our commerce they would certainly be compelled to ignore the facts and figures. Not only has our commerce not been ruined during the last quarter of a century but it has more than doubled itself. And taking last year, said to have been a dull year, and comparing it with the best year under the old tariff for the encouragement of cheap labor abroad and slave labor at home these pessimistic doctrinaires must be constrained to silence. The foreign trade of this country reached its highest point under the old revenue tariff in 1860, in which year the exports and im- ports were valued as follows : Imported merchandise, $353,616,119 Exported merchandise 333,576,057 Total $687,192,176 The foreign trade of this country for the year ending June 30, 1885, was as follows : Merchandise exported $742,189,755 Merchandise imported 579,589,053 Total $1,321,778,808 Taking the year in which the foreign trade was the highest under revenue duties and placing against it one of the dullest years under Protection and we find that trade has doubled, though the doctrinaires assure us that it has been ruined under Protection. Under the former period there was a balance of twenty millions against us. Under the latter there Avas a balance of more than one hundred and sixty millions in our favor. — The North Americany Feb. Sy 1886. Wages Eight Dollars a Year. — The folloAving communica- tion appeared in the New York Sun. To the Editor of The Sun. Sir : I found this advertisement in the Dublin Freeman^s Journal of the 15th instant: Wanted — Strong, humble girl to assist in minding children and go of messages; age 15 ; 8s per quarter. Apply at 59 Harcourt St., 11 o*clock to 2, Monday. For minding the children and running on errands the “ strong, humble girl” will receive $S a year, or 67 cents a month. Happy laud ! B. F. F. New York, February 20, 1882. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. i Manufacturing Towns. — You may take the dullest and most prosaic town and erect within its borders a busy, thriving manufac- turing institution, where large numbers of workmen are employed, and a new life is at once imparted to the place. The dull monotony of the past gives way to the sound of the steam-whistle and the clangor of the shop. The streets no longer look deserted. People move with an active restlessness in strange contrast to the time when no manufacturing was carried on in their midst. The liveli- est towns we have in this country are those wholly devoted to man- ufacturing. The dreariest towns, where dry-rot is visible on every hand, are those wherein no work-shops are to be found. Manufac- turing towns are not only more active, but as a rule they are most prosperous, as being far more enterprising and affording better social and commercial advantages. The typical manufacturing towns are found in New England; in fact, the Connecticut river may be said to be lined with them. It is invigorating to the mind, as well as to the sight, to travel through these towns, which may justly be termed “bee-hives of industry.” An air of thrift and enterprise is everywhere displayed. The proprietors of industrial institutions, the artisans, and other citizens exhibit every outward indication of contentment and happiness which arises from a pros- perous condition. — Chicago Industrial World. The Free Trade Bulletin alludes to a new silk factory that has recently been established in this country as “ another pauper asylum.” That is the Free Trade way, is it? The laborers of the United States are to be called paupers because they desire to be protected in their industry. The skilled artisans employed in our silk manufactories are making better dress goods than are made at Lyons or anywhere else in Europe to day. M hile they have not yet reached the standard of excellence in fancy goods, they excel in plain fabrics, and will soon drive their foreign competitors out oi the market. That accounts for the dislike of the Free Trade organ for them. It is sustained and encouraged by foreign capital to do what it can to break down American industries and call honest American mechanics hard names. — Chicago Inter Ocean, The United States produces nearly all the flannels, blankets, and carpets we use ; nine-tenths of the woolen shawls, fancy cassimeres, suitings, coatings, and hosiery we w'ear ; two-thirds of the worsted goods ; four-fifths of all the wool our country needs ; and more than four-fifths of all the woolen fabrics worn by our people. 8 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. The Bugbear of High Duties. The following letter in the Bulletin of the Philadelphia Textile Association very forcibly ans^vei-s an objection to Protective duties which Free Traders constantly dwell upon. Dear Sir: “Why shall a duty of $17.00 a ton on steel rails or of 80 per cent, on coarse blankets be maintained when half the rate will serve all the purposes of Protection ? ” The above question is from the Philadelphia Record and is a sample Free Trade question. Now, in reply, I would like to ask a question, namely : If half of 80 per cent, on coarse blankets and half of $17.00 a ton on steel rails will serve all the purposes of Protection, what earthly harm does the other half of 80 per cent, and the other half of $17.00 do to Protection by letting it remain on the statute book ? K the other half is harmless why should these Free Traders spend their time fighting that little innocent “other” half? Which half is it that worries them the most, the half that serves all the purposes of Protection or the other harmless half? It is true that they pretend to fight the innocent half, but it is the other half that is in their minds’ eye. When a wall is built around a city to keep out the tide, the people, if possessing the least common sense, build the wall above the water-mark of the highest knowui tide. They do not build it a little lower than the tide, or just even, so that at one moment the wall will be higher than the tide and at the next moment the tide will be higher than the wall. No, they allow a big margin for accidents, “ you know.” When the tide goes down they do not ring the bells of the town and call out the people to level the wall, as our Free Traders would do, but thev let the Avail remain for the good it has done, and keep it in excellent repair for future use. So Avith the tariff Avail ; if in some cases it is above the present tide keep it so and keep it in perfect order, and remem- ber that Avhile man has the power to control the Avail the tide is mightier than man and Avill control him if he neglects his defenses. Yours Truly, Michael J. Brown. Philadelphia, NoA^ember 11, 1885. Americans are better and more cheaply clothed than the people of any other country ; so much better that a distinguished foreigner in one of our large cities, Avatching the croAvds in the streets on a holiday, wonderingly asked, “Where are your laboring classes? I have not seen them yet.” He could not comprehend that well- dressed people w’ere laborers. I A ♦ PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 9 Prices of Iron and Steel and Cost of Transportation. It is admitted by all except mere theorists that Protection aids in the development of all the resources of the country; that it stimulates the investment of capital ; that it gives steady employ- ment to our OAvn people ; that it cheapens the cost of manufactured products Avhile enhancing the Avages of labor ; that it cheapens the cost of transportation ; that it furnishes a home market, and there- fore a sure market, for much the larger part of our agricultural products; and, finally, that it keeps at home and in circulation large sums of money that Avould otherAvise be sent abroad. But the assertion is sometimes made that a Protectiv'e tariff is a tax on consumers because it increases the cost of articles the manu- facture of Avhich is protected against injurious foreign competition. Those Avho make this assertion ignore the benefits of Protection to Avhich Ave have alluded, and they ignore also the price bsts and market quotations in recent years, Avhen the inflation of values caused by the expansion of the currency as an incident of our ciA'il Avar had passed aAvay. The folloAving table will shoAv that Protec- tion, instead of being a tax on consumers, has cheapened the price to them of leading manufactured articles of iron and steel since the break in 1873 of the inflated prices which the financial legislation of the Avar period had created. Prices under the Revenue Tariffs of | Prices under our Present Protective 1846 and 1857. \ Tariff. Years. Pig iron. Bar iron. Iron rails. Cut nails. Years. Pig iron. Bar iron. Steel rails. Cut nails. 1846 .$271 $91.66 1874 .$301 : ^67.95 $941 $3.99 1847 . 301 86.04 $69 $4.46 1875 . 251 60.85 68| 3.42 1^48 . 261 79.33 621 4.30 1876 . 221 52.08 591 2.98 1849 . 22| 67.50 531 4.00 1877 . 181 45.55 451 2.57 1850 . 20i 59.54 471 3.65 1878 . 17f 44.24 421 2.31 1851 . 21| 54.66 45| 3.30 1879 . 211 51.85 481 2.69 1852 . 22f 58.79 48| 3.08 1880 . 281 60.38 671 3.68 1853 . 361 83.50 771 4.50 1881 . 251 58.05 611 3.09 1854 . 361 91.33 801 4.60 1882 . 251 61.41 481 3.47 1855 . 27| 74.58 621 4.10 1883 . 22f 50.30 37| 3.06 1856 . 27J 73.75 641 3.94 1884 . 191 44.05 301 2.39 1857 . 26| 71.04 641 3.72 1885 . 18 40.32 281 2.33 1858 . 221 62.29 50 3.50 1859 . 23f 60.00 491 3.96 I860 . 221 58.75 48 3.13 Average.. . 261 71.52 58| 3.87 Average.. . 23 53.09 521 3.00 The prices we giv^e embrace the rev'enue tariff’ period before » IQ PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. the war and the Protective tariff period which was ushered in bj the Morrill tariff of 1861. These prices an; yearly averages for No. 1 anthracite foundry pig iron, best refined bar iron, and iron rails, all per gross ton, at Philadelphia ; nails, per keg, wholesale, at Philadelphia ; and steel rails, per gross ton, at Pennsylvania mills. These figures show that pig iron, bar iron, and nails have been cheaper under Protection than under a revenue policy, and that steel rails have been sold under Protection at much cheaper prices than iron rails were sold under a revenue tariff. Yet we do not contend for cheapness as the most desirable result of the Protect- ive policy. Steady employment of the people, good wages, gen- eral prosperity, and the ability to consume the products of indus- try are of far more importance. The charge has also been made that Protection is especially a tax upon the farmers because by increasing the cost of railroad materials it increases the cost of transporting agricultural products to market. That this charge is also made without reference to the facts is shown in the prices of steel rails already given and by the following table of average freight charges per bushel for the transportation of wheat, a representative product, from Chicago to New York from 1868 to 1884. This table was compiled by the Hon. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., late Chief of the Bureau of Statistics. Bv lake By lake By By lake By lake By Vp.fl.rs. and and all- Years. and and all- canal. rail. rail. canal. rail. rail. Cents, Cents. Cents, Cents. Cents. Cents. 1868 24.54 29.0 42.6 ! 1877 11.24 15.8 20.3 1869 23.12 25.0 35.1 1878 9.15 11.4 17.7 1870 17.10 22.0 33.3 1879 11.60 13.3 17.3 ( 1871 20.24 25.0 31.0 1880 12.27 15.7 19.7 { 1872 24.50 28.0 33.5 1881 8.19 10.4 14.4 \ 1 1873 19.19 26.9 33.2 1 1882 7.89 10.9 14.6 1874 14.10 16.9 28.7 ' 1883 8.40 11.5 16.5 1875 11.43 14.6 24.1 i 1884, Jan. to Sept., 6.60 9.75 13.0 1876 9.58 11.8 16.5 1 Quotations are wanting for 1885. It is shown by this table that since 1868, Avhen the above sta- tistics commence, the freight on wheat from Chicago to New York has steadily and rapidly declined. The railroad companies have largely been enabled to reduce their rates of freight because Pro- tection, by encouraging domestic competition in the manufacture of steel rails, and in the manufacture of iron and other articles entering into the construction of cars and locomotives, has cheap- ened the cost of building and equipping railroads; and because the use of cheap steel rails, which Protection alone had made pos- V PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 11 sible, has largely increased the carrying capacity of the railroads without correspondingly adding to their operating expenses. The competition of the railroads compelled a reduction of freight rates by lake and canal. Protection, therefore, has not hindered but has greatly helped the farmers to send their products to market. — Letter to Secretary Manning by The American Iron and Steel Association. Why the South Seceded and Why the Southern Confed- eracy Failed. The following provision is contained in the Constitution of the Confederate States. It will be seen that it prohibits Protective duties. “ Sec. 8. Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, du- ties, imposts, and excises for revenue necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and carry on the government of the Confederate States. But no bounty shall be granted from the treasury, nor shall any duty or tax on importation from foreign nations be laid, to promote or foster any branch of industry.” That the South seceded partly that it might establish Free Trade is frankly confessed by a distinguished native of South Carolina. In the course of an open letter to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Free Trade Association of South Carolina, writ- ten on the 23d of April, 1886, the Hon. George D. Tillman, who served as a private in the Confederate army from early in 1862 to the close of the Avar, and has since been a Democratic member of the Forty-sixth and part of the Forty-seventh Congresses, and now represents the Second district of his State, said ; “ Shall Ave of the Palmetto State ahvays be self-idolatrous Bourbons, never forgetting, never learning, anything? Was it not our intemperate zeal for Free Trade that led to nullification, and Avas it not as much to en- joy Free Trade as to protect slaA’ery that South Carolina seceded in 1860?” In a leading editorial the NeAV Orleans Daily City Item discusses the economic causes Avhich brought about the failure of the South- ern Confederacy. It says : “ With the South Avas courage, convic- tion, and unparalleled strategic ability in the field. There Avas a limited stock of mechanical supplies on hand. There Avas the right to sell in the dearest and buy in the cheapest markets of the Avorld. So long as these supplies continued and this trade Avas free the Con- federacy could ai*m and equip its armies, and even import comforts and luxuries. Without shipping or sailors, or general commercial credits abroad. Free Trade soon ceased to be a sufficient reliance. 12 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 13 I As there were no manufactures adequate to supply the rapid con- sumption of goods imported before the war, the privations of a highly civilized people were very grievous, while the suffering of the soldiers in camp or on the march was an element of depression and positive weakness. In this positive deficiency the occasional arrival of a blockade runner or capture of Yankee stores was an insufficient compensation. The disparity in resources told like the avoirdupois of the slugger against the pluck and science of the light weight. AVhile such was the destitution of the South the condition of the North was never better.” It was better, continues the City Item, because the North had developed its manufactures. A similar Southern tribute to the excellence of our Protective policy, and to its influence in Avrecking the hopes of the friends of the Southern Confederacy, Avas ex^iressed a fcAV. years ago by Gen- eral Richard Taylor, of Louisiana, a Considerate officer of dis- tinction, in a revicAv of the A'ery Avar Avhich Avas expected to estab- lish Free Trade as a means of prosperity in the South. General Taylor says: “ We made tAvo great mistakes. Had Ave av'oided them Ave should have conquered you. The first was that Ave did not substantially destroy the Protective features of the tariff in the winter session of 1857-8 by an act Avhich provided a rapid sliding scale to Free Trade. As a Democratic measure Ave could have passed such a laAV and held it tight on you till it closed the furnaces, workshops, woolen and cotton mills, and steel and bar iron Avorks of the Avhole North and West, and scattered your Avorkmen over the prairies and territories. When the Avar was ready for you you Avould not have been ready for the A\'ar. You could not have armed and equipped and put in the field a large army nor built a na\'y. You Avould have been Avithout supplies, machinery, an<l Avorkmen, and you Avould have been AA’ithout money and credit. Our second mistake Avas in AvithdraAving our Senators and Representatwes from your Congress. . . . How we blundered in these tAvo respects I can not understand, except upon the hypothesis of an overruling Provi- dence.” We are glad to add to the above that the South is uoav realizing in its increased attention to manufactures some of the benefits of our Protective policy. If the duty is ahvays added to the price, as Free Traders assert, hoAv about the duty on wheat, barley, potatoes, corn, oats, rye, etc. ? Is that also added to the price ? Farmers know that it is not. The Tariffs of 1883 and 1846 Compared. Hon. Edward McPbers-on in the Gettysburg Star and Sentinel. It is the staple cry of the “ reA'enue reformer ” that the tariff taxes are levied upon 4,000 articles of consumption ; that the free list is disproportionately small and ought to be enlarged ; and that existing rates generally should be reduced, according to the princi- ple of the tariff of 1846, which, to the “ revenue reformer,” is the ideal tariff in our history. Let us examine this plea. We have taken the trouble to make a count of the articles on AA’hich duty was paid under the present tariff in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, the latest year for which we hav'e the printed results. They can be found in the Commerce and Navigation Re- port for 1886, pages 604-679. The total number of articles imported in greater or less quan- tities, on Avhich a duty Avas paid, Avas 982, or about one-fourth of the number alleged by the “ revenue-reform ” newspapers to be the number of taxed articles. So that this charge is about one-quar- ter true and about three-quarters false. The “free” entries for the same year Avere of 388 articles, or 28.32 per cent, of the im- port business, measured by that standard. The value of the articles imported “free” was $211,530,759, or 33.82 per cent, of the import business, measured by that standard. Hoav do these figures compare with like results under the much- lauded tarifi’ of 1846 ? In the year 1854, for Avhich the returns proA’ed most readily ac- cessible to us, the total number of articles imported in greater or less quantities, on w’hich a duty AA’as paid, Avas 330, or 92.18 per cent, of the articles imported. The “ free ” entries for the same year Avere of but 28 articles, or 7.82 per cent, of the import busi- ness, measured by that standard. (See Commerce and Jsa\dgation Report for 1854, pages 150-272.) And the value of the articles imported free was $25,579,693, or 8.69 per cent, of the import busi- ness, measured by that standard. So it is apparent that, comparing the tariff act of 1883 as tested by its results in 1886, and the tariff act of 1846 as tested by its results ill 1854, the “ free-list ” importations under the tariff act of 1883 are fourteen times the greater measured by articles and over eight times the greater measured by A^alue. Besides, it is shoAvn in the same report (page Ixx.) that over 80 per cent, of the duties on imports in 1886 were collected from ten classes of articles, (wool, iron and steel, flax and hemp and jute, silk, cotton, tobacco and the manufactures thereof, sugar, spirituous and malt liquors, Avines, and chemicals,) leaving but 20 per cent, of imports to represent 14 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. general business outside of them. This shows a concentration of taxation upon a few classes of articles, and the enlargement of the “ free list” far in advance of any other tarift' in our history. ^ « But it is said that the rates of taxation under the tarift’ of 1883 are enormous and amount to an intolerable oppression. We have seen that neither of the other charges is true. Is this likewise false ? The total imports of 1886, excluding specie, were $625,308,814 in value. They imid a duty of $188,533,171, being an average of 30.15 per cent. The total imports of 1854, excluding specie, were $294,554,752 in value. They paid a duty of $64,931,607, being an average per cent, of 22.43 in duties. These averages thus dift’er but 7.72 per cent. So that, taking the wdiole volume of imports, the pressure of taxation upon the country for them is now about 7i per cent, greater than it was under the tariff of 1846. This table tells the whole story. ACT OF 1883, EXCLUDING SI'ECIE. Year. ! No. of articles. Value. Duties paid. ^ t| 1886 Free 388 $211,530,759 413,778,055 1 Dutiable 982 J Total 1,370 $625,308,814 $188,533,171 1 ACT OF 1846, EXCLUDING SI’ECIE. Year. No. of articles. 1 Value. Duties paid. !j 1854 Free 28 1 825,579,692 ! 268,975,000 I 1 Dutiable 330 T Total 358 , $294,554,752 ; $64,931,607 - In other words the “free-list” importations in 1886 were one- third of the entire importations instead of about one-twelfth of the whole as in 1854, and were in value eight times what they were when the tariff of 1846 was in its prime. The taxed articles, instead of being nearly 4,000 in number as is persistently stated, are less than 1,000 in number, as shown by ac- tual results, and are but 71.63 per cent. of. the entire number of articles imported, instead of 92.17 per cent, as in 1854 under the tariff of 1846. Not only are duties now imposed upon fewer classes of articles proportionately than in 1854, but the average amount of the duties collected is only a small percentage above the average of the tariff ' ( PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 15 of 1846, which in its final operation prostrated whole branches of domestic manufactures and precipitated the panic of 1857. Low Prices— High Wages. Mr. Edward Atkinson has prepared a series of articles for publication in the Century magazine on the subject of the low prices of labor products which have prevailed for several years in this country and the high wages for labor which have prevailed during the same period. His theory as stated by him in these ar- ticles is that these accompanying conditions were produced by la- bor-saving machinery and the increased intelligence of the labor- er. The following are his conclusions. First. AVhen organized capital is placed at the service of labor it becomes more and more effective, while in amount it diminishes in ratio to product. It therefore secures to its own use a diminish- ing portion of, or profit from, an increasing product. This is the economic law', so called, of diminishing profits. Second. Organized labor, when each member is left free to avail himself of every opportunity which capital, science, and invention place at his disposal, secures to itself an increasing share of an increasing product or its equivalent in money. Third. As capital and labor become more under the control of common intelligence they can not help becoming more closely al- lied ; under these conditions high wages or large earnings in mon- ey, or in what money will buy, become the necessary result or reflex of the low' cost of production. The diminished price of labor products and the increased wages in a series of years are thus shown : A HORSE RAKE. ONE DOZEN STEEL AXES— DAY WAGE. Year. Price. Day’s wage. Year. Price. Day’s wage. 1865. $35.00 $1.93 j I860.., $11.00 $1.70 1870. 32.00 0 19 1 1865.. 20..50 2.27 1875. 28.00 1.90 1870.. 14.50 2.35 1880. 24.00 1.76 1875.. 11.50 2.17 STANDARD COTTON SHEETING. 1880.. 1 8.50 2.26 Year. 1860. Price per yard. 8.17 Cts. Earnings per year. $207.00 SUIT 1 1 Year. OF FURNITURE FOR A Price. BEDROOM. Earnings per year. 1865. 50.61 “ 234.00 ! I860.. $35.00 $456.00 1870. 14.33 “ 275.00 : 1865.. 55.00 678.00 1875. 9.79 “ 280.00 1870.. 33.00 687.00 1880. 7.40 “ 260.00 i 1875.. 28.00 723.00 1885. 284.00 i 1880.. 20.00 723.00 id 16 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. What Senator Frye Saw in Europe. Senator Frye, of Maine, who has just returned from Europe, gives the following account of his observations while abroad. We have been absent about five months, and we have had a very enjoyable trip. We have taken a tour of the Continent and of Great Britain, and although we have seen many places we have seen no place like home — no place in all respects equal to Amer- ica. You will find in the Old World much that is admirable, but what impressed me most painfully was the poverty of the masses of the people. Why, the people in Europe live on the poorest food and mighty little of it. I found that laborers in Glasgow work for 2s. 6d. a day — 62 cents. I was charmed with Edinburgh, but when I saw women drunk, fighting in her beautiful streets, the modern Athens lost her charms. I can not convey to you the picture of the degradation and want throughout Great Britain caused by drink. I came back a stouter cold-water man than when I went aw’ay. The drink evil is a horror. Speaking of wages, I found girls in factories in Venice working with great skill for from 5 to 12 cents a day, the most experienced getting 12 cents a day, out of which they liave to live. But how they live is a wonder. Their chief diet is maccaroni. Farm hands all over Europe, women, earn 20 cents a day. Women do most of the field work. I saw no improved machinery on the farms of the Continent. I have seen twenty women in one field at work and not a man in sight. The plain people have no meat to eat but once a week on the Continent. The condition of American wage-earners is incomparably better than that of the working people in Europe. It is the difference between comfort and com- petence and discomfort and insufficient food and clothing. Perhaps the most contemptible person one meets abroad is the Anglicized American, the man who apes both in manners and lan- guage what he regards as the English aristocracy, affects to be- lieve everything in England perfect, and seems to be ashamed to institute any favorable comparison between this country and Eng- land. There was one of this type on the steamer, a graduate of Harvard, so delighted with English society that he claimed to spend every season there. He was inquired of at the public table as to the make-up of the Congress of the United States, and de- liberately told the gentleman who asked him, who by the way was an Englishman, that each State in the United States had one Sen- ator and two Representatives. An American woman at the table corrected him. Singularly enough the exposure of his ignorance did not seem to mortify him. ^0 :i I I 1