to the
untrue-
roximately squid to tun duty
who buy domestic articles of the same class pay a sum at least a
picnic manufacturer. This referenceto the operation of our tar
on— ~
I should think not— I ’ .
but in order that we may be constantly reminded of the manner in which may iutipose a burden upon
those who cousumellomestic products as well as those who consume import ar cles, and thus create
a tax upon all our people.
Mr. President, is that the language of a protectionist or of a free-trader?
There is not a free-trade club in the United States or in England where
that would not be adopted and accepted as the language of a free-trader.
As I said, it is not aimed at irregularities, it is not aimed at inequalities, but
it is aimed at‘ what the president assumes to be the protective tax, and it is
that which is to be stricken down. , , '
Will some Democrat who insists that the president is a protectionist rise
to explain this language? Nay, more; there are 38' Democrats sitting on
that side of the chamber. Will any one of them rise in his place and say the
President of the United States is in his judgment a protectionist? They
dare not go. to the country on any such issue. They are like the animal that
is between the two bundles of hay. , :
Free Trade Fundamental Propositions.
I wish to look a little more particularly and carefully at what the fundamen-
talpropositions of the free traders are, and see whether the president stands
with them or Whether he stands with the 'protectionists. The first funda-
mental proposition of the free-trader may be stated thus: “The price of
the home made article is enhanced approximately by-the amount of the duty
on the foreign made article, and such enhancement is a tax which the con-
sumer pays to the home manufacturer.” I have stated, that proposition in
almost identically the language which, I have read from the president’s '
message, and it will be recognized as the fundamental proposition of even
doctrinaz're free-traders, professors of free trade and of political economy
in our colleges. Perhaps it was stated a little more strongly by the Senator
from Maryland [ML \Vilson] the other day in some remarks upon the edu-
cational bill. -
The senator from Maryland said:
The best informedstatisticians declare, and I fully believe,
imports,for every dollar that goes into the Treasury at least three will go into the ockets of the man-
ufacturers; so that if $200,000,000 are collected upon im ortations under the tari , some $600,000,000
at least will annually go into the hands of this favored cliiss. This becomes apparent when you remem-
ber that our last census reports, with a moderate allowance for the increment since 1880, show the an-
nual value of our home manufactures to be $6,000,000, and that if we ut at only 10 per cent. the aver-
age increase of the cost of these home products caused by our war tar if it will make the people of this
country pay to the producers of these manufacturers at least $000,000,000peranuum, whic is just three
times as much as goes into the people’s Treasury. .
Mr. Frye—Who said that? -
Mr. Flatt—That was said by the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Wilson]
in his speech upon the educational bill the other day. I speak of it merely
for the purpose of showing what the free traders’ proposition is, and al-
though it is not state‘dperhaps so boldly in' the President’s message, that is
the tone of the extract which I have read from his message.
If the manufacturers of this country could be assured that they were mak-
ing 10 per cent. profit upon the value of their goods manufactured, I do not
think they would care very mu, 1 what Congress did about the tariff or
anything else. It is not true, 1'. President. The truth is that 5 per cent.,
or 3 per cent., or 2g. per cent., or 2 per cent. average profit upon the goods
produced in this country by manufacturers would be a satisfactory profit to
the manufacturers, if they could be assured of it.
Upon this proposition of the free-trader where does the President stand?
Let me repeat at the risk of wearying the Senate what the President says:
So it happens that while comparatively a few use the imported articles, millions of our people, who
never use and never saw any of the foreign products, purchase and use. thin s of the some kind made
in this country, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced price w 1ch1 the duty adds to the
imported articles. , ,
I wish the rules permitted me to italicise those words in the Record, but
they do not:
Those who buy imports p‘ay the duty charged thereon into the public treasury—
Just what the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Wilson] said——
but the great majority of 'our citizens, who buy domestic articles of the same class, pay n. sum at least
approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer.
Competition Secures Low Prices.
Then on page 8 he speaks of our system as “a scheme which permits a
tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the benefit of our man-
ufacturers.” . '
Mr. President, the protectionist denies this doctrine of the free-trader
and the President. alike. The protectionist insists that whenever a duty is
laid which protects the American manufacturer, competition among home
producers always has and always will bring down the price of the domestic
article “approximately, at least,” to use the President’s language, to the
price of the foreign article on which duty is laid, less the duty. The Pres-
. ident ought to have known this, as it seems to me. Did he or his “better
half" , ever buy calico? If he did he must know that while the tax, as he
calls it, the duty, as the protectionist calls it, is 6 cents per square yard upon
calico. He can buy the American article for less than that at retail stores
here in the city of Washington.
Has he ever heard of the manufacture of steel rails in this country and
the price of steel rails here and abroad? Does he know that the tariff up-_
on steel rails is $17 a ton, and that they have been sold in this country as
low as $28.50, and that if you deduct the tariff duty of $17 from $28.50 the
price would be $1 1. 50 a ton, when steel rails- cannot be bought abroad for
less than double that money? -
The statement is not true with regard to any single home-made article
which has been so protected by tariff duties'that it has been manufactured
here to any considerable extent, unless it be the single article of sugar, as
was suggested by the Senator from Maine [Mn Frye] the other day, The
woolen clothing which seems so_ much to trouble the Senator from North
Carolina [Mr. Vance], he repeats over and over again to the Senate, bears
a tax of about 80. Nothwithstanding that duty, woolen clothing can be
bought in this country, style, quality, and durability considered, as cheaply
as it can be bought in London. Even in the case of blankets. which seem
to be the bugbear and nightmare of the free-trader—ail medium quality
blankets can be bought in this country, nothwithstanding the onorous duty
which it is said we lay upon the foreign article, as cheaply as anywhere in
the world. So with regard to cotton clothing.
' Cost of Living at Home and Abnoad.
‘I like to have a free-trade witness once in awhile. Here is Consul
Schoenhof, consul at Tunstall, who was sent abroad ‘with a roving commis-
sion to see if he could not undo what some of our consuls had been doing
to enlighten the people of this country as to the cheapness of the necessa-
ries of life here as compared to their cheapness abroad, and as to the wages
paid in this country as compared to the wages paid abroad. This in one
of his recent reports. I quote it from a newspaper article, but I have veri-
fied it so that I know the quotation is correct. Writing fromTunstall, he
says :
1p lawsis not made by way of
that, so far as it is raised from duties on
0
So far as clothing and dry goods in general are concerned, I find cotton goods fully as cheap in the the amount of the weekly factory wages and the corresponding hours of
United States as here.
If you will not take the testimony of protectionists, if ' you will not take
the testimony of the Senator from Maine, who speaks of what he has seen,
and speaks from personal observation, I beg you to take the testimony of
this free-trade consul——
I find cotton goods fully as cheap in the United States as here. Shirtings and shootings, if anything.
are superior in quality for the same rice. Articles of underwear for women are superior in workman-
ship and cheaper in price in the U11 ted States. Nor are men’s shirts, when chiefly of cotton, any'
cheaper here. Of boots and shoes, factory-made, the same may be said. Articles made to order are
cheaper in England, owin to the lower rices of ham! labor, but the dlfi'erence in prices of ready.made
things is not so marked. 11 workmaush p and finish i find the corresponding articles of wholesale
manufacture superior in the United States. This is~true of clothing, as well as collars, cuffs, and like
articles.
There is a standing challenge in the office of a protection newspaper in
the city of New York, with the samples ready to be shown, to any. free-
trader to show that clothing in this country is not as cheap as it is in Eng-
land. The truth is that everybody, except the dude and millionaire, can be
clothed cheaper in this country than in England, and in woolen clothing,
too ; and I apprehend that we are not very anxious to reduce the tarifl'du-
ties for the purpose of benefiting the dude and the millionaire.
Take another article which has just occurred to me. Before the tariff of
1861 there was no duty on saws by name, and all the saws used in this -
country were imported. To-day under a duty of 8 cents per linear foot up-
oncrosscut—saws and 45 per cent. ad valorem upon hand-saws, buck-saws,
etc., the saw makers of the United States hold all the saw market of the.
United States, and export towards a million dollars worth of saws at the
same time. They must be as cheap here as in the foreign free trade coun-
try, or they could not be exported. ,
Now, take the second proposition of the free-trader. The next most fa-
vorite proposition of the free-trader is this: . He asserts, and it is mere as-
sertion, that the workingman is compelled under the protective system to
pa so much more than he otherwise would for the necessaries of life that
the higher wages he obtains undcr'the protective system are thus offset. and
so free trade would be equally good for the workingman. American wages
are the free traders’ stumbling block. The demand . of labor in this
country compels his attention, if it does not his respect; and therefore it is
industriously sought to be indoctrinated into the mind of the laboring man
that although wages are higher in this country than they are in any of the
countries of Europe, or anywhere else in the civilized world, yet really
things cost so much more here that it is not of much advantage to the labor-
ing man to have the higher wages in this country. I have partial] alluded
to this in what I have been saying upon the first proposition, but want to
see where the President standson this. - I take an-extract from his recent
message on page 9: -
Nor can the worker in manufactures fail to understand that while a high tarifi‘ is claimed to be nec.
essary to allow the ayment of remunerative wages. it certainly results in a ver large increase in the
price of nearly 111 sorts of manufactures, which, in almost countless forms, e needs for the use of
imself and his family. He receives—'
Now listen to this remarkable passage— ,
He receives at the desk of his employer his wuges,and rhaps before he reaches his home is obll ed,
in a purchase for family use of an artlc e which embraces is own labor, to return in the paymento the
increase in price which the tarlll’ permits the hard-earned compensation of many days 0 toil.
.I wish the President had told us what that article was, of family use,
and the worker’s own manufacture, which, as he went from his shop,
where he had, received his wages, compelled him to. pay, in addition to
that he stands with the free-traders.
come down at last to the proposition that the laborer here is no better off .,
'. i ' NORWALK GAZETTE SUPPLEMENT.
what he would, pay under free trade, “many day’s wages.” Mr. President,
if anybody but the President of the United States had made a statement of
that sort, I should apply a word and a term characteristic of it which it is
not proper for me to do in regard to him. .
He makes the same argument with regard to to the wool grower or the
wool producer:
Above all, when it must be conceded that the increase of the cost of living caused by such tariff,
becomes a burden uplou those with moderate means and the poor, the em loyed and unemployed, the
sick and well, and t e our: and old, and that it constitutes a tax wh ch, with relentless grasp, is
fastened upon the cloth ng 0 every man, woman and child in the land, reasons are suggested why the
removal or reduction of this duty should be included in a revision of our tariti‘ laws.
The only trouble about this reasoning is that it is not founded on fact.
I assert once more in my place in the Senatqsthat there is no one article
of domestic production which is manufactured to any considerable extent
in this countrv in which the price is approximately the same as the foreign
a
article with the duty added.
Are Our Laborers Better off Here Than in Europe 3
But I am reading these passages from the President’s. message to show
These arguments of the President
than elsewhere. It is the favorite argument of the free-trader,and although
on may six days in the week refute that argument in the newspapers, upon
the platform,"wherever'you meet laboring men, it will be reiterated again
and again by the free~trader. " '
Mr. President, the laborer of this country is better off than he ever was
before. With wages higher on the average, with the-price of living lower
on the average, he is in this respect immensely better off. than anywhere
else in the whole world. The wage-earners in this country own more
property than all the other wage-earners of the world ut together. Nay,
more, I think I would not overstate the matter if I ma c it stronger. I see
my friend, the Senator from Rhode Island .[Mr. Aldrich], sitting by me.
The wage-earners in Connecticut and Rhode Island own more property
than the wage-earners of the whole world outside of the United States.
This effort to make the laboring man believe that he could live as well and
as cheaply here under a system of free trade as he lives now under a system,
of protection is not worthy of even a free-trader, in view of all the statistics
and‘the refutations which have been made.
The Condition of Ireland. » ‘
I wish to read a word from the last consular report. I should like to ind
corporate in my remarks all that the Senator from Maine [Mr. Frye] said
the other day from personal observation, but that is protection authority,
and that is the way the free-trader, in appealing to the laboring man, an-
swers it. “Oh,” he says, “the Senator from Maine is a protectionist; you
cannot believe what' he says.” Now I want to see what you free-traders
say. I take this same Consul Schoenhof, because he is an avowed free-
trader. Writing from Ireland, in the very last number of the Consular Re-
ports,-No. 86. November, 1887, on page 307, he says:
It is useless for me to dwell much on the linen industry of Ulster. It is well known that in Ulster
hey are foremost in this branch in the whole world. Still I find that the-earnings of the people em-
«'41 in the linen mills in Ulster are far below those of any class employed in the textile branches in
lm
liiingland. Mill regulations and working of time of course are the same for the whole Kingdom. Flax-
breakers, men who have to do very exhaustin work, earn from 153. to 208. per week; hacklers, from
189. to 238.; spinners and girls, from 88. to 101.; ialf-tiuiers, bo 's 53. and girls 43.; and weavers, mostlv
women tending 2 looms, fromgizs. to 15:. By others I was to] that the earnings were only, for weav-
ers, 88. to 108., and up to 158. only for the finer goods. ,
A shilling is 25 cents. At 10 shillings they have $2.50 a week, or prac-
tically that. Then he comes to the woolen mills of Ireland, and says:
The wages I have noted down are: For men, from 123. to 148., 145. being about the limit of the best
men. .
Three dollars and a half per week forthe best men in the woolen mills
of Ireland.
Spinner girls, as. to 10s; children, 55. to 65.; and weavers earn from 10s. to 12s. The mill—
And I commend this to free-traders—
The mill em loyin about 750 hands, pays out about £400 er week in we es. This 1 l d . -
seers, etc., which is d; trifle over 10s. per head. 1) 3 no u es 0‘ "
There might be some occasion to attack the manufacturers of the coun-
try if they were paying these wages m_the United States. But I go along
a little further. I Want to come to their method of livino'. He found a man
who was a hand-loom weaver, and he says : .
Be wasa cheery old fellow, in fact like most of the cor people of Ireland whom I met. In his
ouuger years he wits a bricklayer in Eu laud ; now he as returned to irelaud, and is well satisfied if
lie can ply his old trade and earn enoug to kee ‘him in bodily repair. Work, however, only lasts
forhim from summer until after Christmas, an very little work can be found for the first six months
of the ear, which is the case with all hand~loom weavers, Most of them, however, as said above,
have a lttle land to keep them supplied with the merest necessities for these dull months in the
weavin trade. and don’t entirely depend on their looms for'a living, as this old man does. I asked
about h s diet, and he gave me a piece of bread made 9f yellow meal, which I have been shown by.
nearly all the poor people and small farmers whom I Visited.
Then he quotes from him : _
“As to tea, coffee, or beer, and meat he said] we know nothing at all of that. Cold water is what
we drink and yellow meal we eat. If -have two ounces of tobacco a week I am Very haPP
He ays no rent, as his neighbors, also very poor people, gave him the little shed which
free 0 charge. , .
Report of Labor from Germany.
I must not detain the Senate to read longer these interesting extracts, but
I wish especially to call attent1on to the report of Consul Neuer,'at Gera, in
Germany.
Mr. Frye.—Is that a Democratic appointee?
Mr. Plath—There are no consular agents I
Democrats, so I assume that he is a Democratic appointee. Gera is a very
large manufacturing center in Germany. Consul Neuer says:
Though the city of Gore has only 85,000 inhabitants, it is one of the most prominent manufacturing
laces in Germany. 0f its industries the manufacture of worsted goods stands in the front rank, eni-
hracing about thirty factories, some employing as many as 1,000 steam looms.
There is where our Worsted goods come from.
Besld s, it contains 5 dyeing and finishing establishments 3 worsted-yarn s inuln mills 7 carpet
factorieii, 4 tobacco mills, 7 accordion factories, 5 iron foundries and en ine wgrks, 3‘horse hair s u-
nlng mills, 4 piano factories, 31 tauneries, aside from a considerable uum er of manufacturing ”gab.
“drummer of smaller importance.
It may fairly be taken, then, to be a representative manufacturing center.
Then he says :
Under these circumstances it is extremely difficult for the workin'gman to make both ends meet, and
there is no uestiou that the sition of the American workman is eminently superior in all that per-
tains to the applness and we l-being of himself and family and in his ability to save for the future.
I like to get this kind of testimony once in a while from Democratic
sources, which as I understand the term is synonymous with free trade
sources.
The fare of the factory hau
bread and potatoes. On risin
or black bread an
toes, and a small 15
cups of poor wtl‘ee aga
sausage with black bread and a glass of beer.
the are to be considered as exceptional. )
T 1e married workman takes his meals partly in the factory and partly at home; the single one either
with the famil of a fellow-lobarer or in a cheap restaurant. For the support or s. famil the we 95 of
the husband ar); generally inadequate, and therefore the wife and elde; children have ti; contri ute a
share to their sustenance.
The lodgings of the laboring classes are of a very oor kind. In most cases they are two or three
comfortless rooms. Owing to the lar e and constant ncrease of the population rents are steadily ris-
ing, and range from 150 marks ($35.70 to 180 marks ($452.84) per year, according to location and condi-
tion of the premises. . _
I will put into the Record a table which Consul Neuer furnishes, giving
iii: occupies
ds in this region is of a simple kind. Their princi al food consists of
in the morning they will have a cup of common co co and some white
iece of meat, but very often without the latter; at four o’c ock they have one or two
in, with some black bread and butter, and in the evening a supper of cheese or
There may be u change to this diet in some cases, but
lakor at Gera. It embraces the employment in weaving mills, dye-houses,
finishing works, accordion factories, iron foundries and engine works, tan.
neries, tobacco mills, flour mills, carpet factories, chinaware, horse-hair
spinning mills, and worsted-yarn spinning mills.
Rate of the weekly wage: and the corresponding hours of labor at Gem.
i
Hours
of labor
Lowest. Highest. Average.
per day.
Description of Employment.
Weaving mills:
Overseers............................,.....
Shenrers............
is
to
O
u .
6‘
i822 assesses
......oo-..u....
rruwrwu*
creases
Weavers,women..............
Gluers............
Fasteners .. . .. .
.sresrg
3&88333’
I“.
'88 2228 s
Winders, women .
Dyefiiouses :
6: mun-ewuqc,
.::::
that
0e
Apprentices.
Finishing works
Shearers............. ....... ...............
Fullers....
Finishers. . . . . . . .
Assistants.........
Ap rcutices...... ................................... .....
Accord on factories
Joiners......................... ........ ..........
Tuners '
Journeymen ..
Ap rentices..........
Chldren............ ........
Iron foundries and engine works:
Tumors
Founders. . . . . .
Journeymeu. . .
Tannerles:
Tanners
Jonrncvmen.
Tobacco mills:
Twisters.......
Journeymcn . . . . .
Female hands. ..
Children.......... .
Apprentices............... .
Flour mills:
Millers.
Journeymen...............................................
tfactorles:
Veavers ...........................'.........
Shearers.. . . .
Journeymen.
chalehands
Apprentices.................
China-ware:
Painters.
Turners..
Finishers"
Journeymen.
Female hands
Horse-hair spinning mills
Spinners..............
Journeymen...... .
- Female hands....... .....
Worsted-yarn splnuuing mills :
Spinners............................................'.......
Carders, overseers..... .. ..
Carders,eomm‘on hands......
Washers......................
‘ Sorters........................
Winders..... 1. ......
Engineers................_.........
8'2
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know of now who are not
dbutter or cheese; their dinner will consist of some chea vegetables, mostly pota- _
‘ skilled mechanics, the honest, intelligent artisans who have stood by the
' It will be seen that the hoursof labor are generally-elevenhonrs per day,~ Saturday, January 14, the dividends for fifteen ydars of the cotton mills in
and the highest average weekly wage 15 $5.76. ‘ . , . _ Maine, Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire, possibly in Rhode Island, I
_ - . ',
Mr. Frye—F or a man. am not sure :
Mr. Flatt—F or a man, and from that down for other men and for women , . 'r ‘
and children. As to the cost of living Consul Neuer says: Dl‘iden‘ls ’0‘” “me" Yum 1373"“- 1885: 18“- 1387- 1335"“
"hing; iiiifi°ytciiiiii¥£nifiifiifei'é’d’iiifiiSi'iiié'lent m" '° “m "“3 "m""‘“smhc‘mndpfl Ava'ogc. .3 3 Average
Retuilpricea ofnccessuries oflife. Au usta: Edwards.. ......................... .......... if; i i 4.83 I
Bmiil'ime - . m 'ifigigia 0.33 6 51* s 53.1
”...-...-......-.--........n ........ nun-...“.......u-nu'. er ll .... . I...” 1 ’ . I
neglect“... .......... .. ....... 31.3? $3.... “.333. “5:3; :gf‘lc,,,,o,_ ‘;-°° 1~; ...“.-. I; 13%
fit::§l-.ss....uun.u' ........ ...-”...... ...... .......................--,dg.--n.u $0.? {0 .33 Clii‘ggféf; ce................."...”...unuuuun 105° "...-.... 6 2m
--------- ..................... .... . o .. ,, . . .. ~“'"‘"' ~
'dhlriktfiiliiiiiiiliii...u. ":2:':'_"_:::""'""- xxx-.flmmxz: .w to 211:6}; Dovg-‘ilfioiaiiééoiiiiiil.... if: s‘ s .....o... lg
mm ----- "...... 0mm- 13,”; fifitifl‘tyfiii‘tffi‘ffzzz:.....::::::::::::::::::: 2% :::::::::: i if.
.. .. .. ...... :13 , “Kimmie . 5.00 3 00
.135 :3 ii: Eve'e‘t..::lu...-......nu. ..... oucsoeo-c-ooosenc' 3,58 :::::::::: :::::::::: 2 12m
3 . to 28 Pacific.............. ....... .......................... “.58 in ma)
'3” ‘0 "’8 uwfi‘ii‘dsoo gin 1.01 r 6 — 667
g {g 1333 Bates... '8 7.66 i s i a};
-. rinse a“. 3 2 2 as
. .. .::: Iliififi 12%. Mw;|1=,', ' m
iim‘” ....... “3'3"“ :33 ggififn' :fi ”"300
Can anybody find that the necessaries 'of life 'where the highest average Lilia-2:09 - . 8-1‘ ""io'm "'73:"
Weekly wage is $5.76 are not fully upto the net price of the necessaries of fixifihflffijjfijfijfijji ifs: i i ‘6 i173
life in America? I have quoted this somewhat, I fear, to the weariness of mafiag‘, “‘1 s“‘°lk---~ ------ 7‘87 - 2" 3 ‘ 333
the Senate, because I wanted to put on record» this Democratic free-trade tes- in... ...... 3.75 s e no
timony upon this question. , _ 1:33 ‘3 i3 11%?)
Does Protection Make Higher Wages? . :32 5 g, lg :fi
Oh, but the free-trader says" rotection does not make higher wages. The _ " .
Senator from Delaware [Mr. gray] the other day, when the Senator from '73: ......m ”6.... i 3733
Maine was making his speech, interrupted him to ask the Senator from Sm, York . 3-3 ‘ 0 ‘ 6 5-33
Maine if he claimed that protection made higher wages. No, sir, no pro- Salem: Nedixi'kdiéiiiiih. 52m Zr 2 3:70
tectionist claims that protection of itself makes higher wages; but it does sum" “u“ sum” Fm“ us ‘ 5 3'00
this, it makes it‘possible for the manufacturer to pay higher wages than can A Fall 31'" ”"10"“ -
, . . . . mericau Lineu...................................,. ‘01!) ,......... 123‘ 133‘ 9.75
be paid under a system of free trade. Strike down these protective duties Barnard-"...”... 7.83 5% s 333
and it would become impossible for the manufacturer to pay the rate of fig‘r'd'gfg,'t3,fi;j ; '1 W05 f g 1* 7-0”
American wages now paid. If he is to have no protection he must stop or Barnaby...:....:.::::... e a” 13,; 2);,
meet foreign competition by paying foreign wages. This is so plain that cm“ """ “a 6 2 iii
“he who runs may read.” 1‘5 3°
The. question of wage between the laboring man and the employer is one 2 i3
which must be settled between them. If the wage~earner does not ‘get all . 3 7-57
that he‘ ought as his share of production, then I hail every honorable, wise, o 1: Iii);
honest effort for him to get a greater share of production; but he is not to Mechanics'. ' :1"; f, 2'?
be helped by striking down the ability of the manufacturer to pay him the 2:332:33;- 9“ 3/ 7 5;"-l
American rate of wages. and that is just what the removal ofthe protec- Narragansett: . ""‘i”’.';"“‘;,"“ 2 :2
five duties does. . . . ' 8:33.212222..- ; .....f'ff. ........... 3 f; 2»?
Protection does another thing—it saves us our own market. It makes :1 Richard Borden------------ """ 6 i233
demand for labor in this country, and that is, after all, the real thing which £3,533; ""l‘gjgé' " 1? 3'6“,
results in high wages. Strike down the protective duty, open our ports to gm“: - - fig 5 , 3350
foreign manufacturers upon the ground that we should buy where we can Stafford...” 10:53 13"” if;
buy the cheapest, and by so much you have destroyed the home market and sflfififif” , "'"5" f; 1'”
lessened the demand for labor, and made it impossible for high wages to "I‘Jrgy-u - .310 _ 17 3g
prevail in this country. Wnagipdiibd : of: ....... 9;; ii “73%
One is that the Weeimon . aw . ..g s 4 24,7
' Let me group two favorite claims of the free-trader.
manufacturer of protected articles is a robber on general principles; that he
robs everybody, and has grown immensely rich by robbery. The other is
that he is growing rich by the robbery of a particular class, namely, the ag-
riculturist. It is the'favorite theme of the free-trader to out upon this idea,
that the protective tariff is all for the benefit .of the manufacturer and to the
disadvantage of everybody else, and especially of the agriculturist.
' . . Is a Protected Factory 3 Nuisance ‘?
Professor Sumner, who does not hesitate as he says, to take blows when
they are given, called a protected factory a nuisance. Somebody took him
to task for it, and he replied. Now I want to read a word and see what
such a free-trader as he thinks of a protected factory. He says:
- I have called suchafactor a“nnisance." The word has been objected to. The word is of no
consequence. He who, when e goes into a debate, begins to whine and cry as soon as the blows get
sharp, should learn to keep out. Whati meant wasthis: "A‘uulsancejis somethin which, by its
existence and presence in society, works loss and damage to the soelet —works _n a nst the general
fhverage for 4 years. ‘Average for A's-years.
For the last three years the average is 5 L6 per cent. upon the capital
employed, and that is not a fair way to estimate-it.
I asked a question of a gentleman in New York as to what the profits of
our cotton and woolen manufacturers were, and. he sent me. a letter from
Henry F. Coe, of Boston, dated Janna 16, 1888, than whom no man in
my Judgment is better able to speak. e says:
. -- Bos'rox, Jan 16, 1 .
DEAR Sm z—I ours of the 14th instant received. I know no better test of the chef-meson? cot.
ton munufactnre than amount of dividend paid. - While it may be true that the s have earned more
than dividends paid, yet it is true that they flyide the ester part of their earnings. Martin's tables
are authority upon t is subject, and I find upon in ng a careful computation that he reports the
names of seventy corporations working cotton, upon his list, located in Maine, New Ham shire and
Massachusetts. The companies represent acupital stock of “Lib-".000. The amount 0 dividends
paid by them for three years past amounts to .9 786,740. This is 15}; per cent. on the capital stock, or
ill t'hphrate of 5.17 dr :53. 111111me . This hardly tel‘lséhestory, hpwever. it would befalr to say
a e average 11 e uess 0 on co to ous s er cent. 0 their ital a a .
that they employ their own capital plus bormed capital: p . _ cap took, t least 80
interest. not for it. Afactory which gets in the way an hinders us rom strain 113 the comforts
t‘lhkhtwe “ll allbtrying tq getawhiich mafes bipolar; tin; terms oif afoul-giogfuihepiwe or: all the Capital owned ...... ....... .... ............... ..................$m,158,m
mes ru g n yourarsau sc cuces ornn e ose erms eas or so ar 11 t u an noxious . .
to thecoriimoiiginterest." : 3: Capital borrowed ....... . ...... .. ............ ..........i2;u;-2oo
' ' a. ' ' p _ Totnlca ital used..... ...... ..... ..............
Now, what says ... p....d....1..°.h....... 1” ..., ... expres ...... . ...... ..... . .......... ........ can:
This would only be at-fherate of 3.09 per cent.
He might have said that'if they have accumulated a surplus they pay no
interest upon that, although it is really capital invested.
However considered, the results do not indicate that manufacturers of cotton are coining money. i
have excluded from above figures all corporations which work any wool. The average of woolen
mills are dolu very much poorer than cotton mills. The tariff of 15E] was a bad one for manufactur-
ers of wool. have spent the evenin in arriving at above results, and they ma be do nded upon as
a true statement of facts. Rhode Is and, Connecticut and New York are no . proba ly doing any
better than corporations uamefibg‘ve. 7 , .
A. M. GARLAND, Secretary, New 12:3,. very truly, HENRY P. CO!"
And right here, Mr. President, that I may get a little more Democratic
testimony, I want to refer to what the Secretary of ' the Treasury says about
the woolen and worsted manufacturing business in this country in his
.annual report, submitted to .the present Congress:
I am, however, so convinced of the imminent danger to large industries engaged in the manufac-
ture of worsted and woolen goods, unless a change I soon made in the duties on wool and manufac-
tures thereof, that i deem it proper to depart from my general practice in thus calling your attention
to this. particular provision o the tarifi'. ,
Notwithstanding his free-trade sentiment and argument he does think
that the‘tarifl‘ on worsted and woolen goods ought to be raised to save
them from immediate destruction; yet the President is talking about the
immense profits of the manufacturers! ' >
. New England Industries Again.
But espe‘cially'I want to speak of New England manufacturers, and I do
not want anybody to fall into the error of supposing that this protective sys-
tem is especially or mainly for the benefit of New England manufacturers.
There was a time, indeed, when New England, per haps, might have been
said to monopolize the manufacturing industries‘ofthc country. It was a
monopoly born of the genius and skill of its sons. That day has passed.
Manufactures have extended all over the country, and if this system of pro-
tection was such a benefit to manufacturers as the President and the free-
traders would have us believe, it would not be New England particularly
that was interested in its preservation. Manufactures have passed the bar-
rier of the Alleghanies away out to the Pacific coast, in the prairie towns of
the West, far down in the Scuth, in North Carolina and \Vest Virginia and
Georgia and Alabama—diffused all over the country:
.By the census returns of 1880 less than no per cent. of the manufactured
products of the United States were roduced in New England. More were
manufactursd west of the State of ew York, as the Senator from Ohio
[Mn Sherman] well suggests to me, than in 1860 were manufactured in all
the United-States. Let us look at these facts 3 little, because it is such a
familiar thing that we hear that tariff protection is for the benefit of New
England manufacturers. You may create a prejudice, if you please, against
New England, a prejudice against its manufactures and its manufacturers,
but if you are going to tear down the protective system, I want it understood
that we are not by any means the princi a1 sufferers. ‘
California, Illinois, New Jersey, and bio manufactured in 1880 more
goods than all New England. ' Indiana, Maryland. Michigan, Missouri,
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa _ manufactured nearly as much as New
England. New York and Pennsylvania’manufactured nearly half more than
New England. This has increased- If manufactures are not increasing
in New England, they are rushing forward with phenomenal rapidity in
other sections of the country, and when the census of 1890 comes to be taken
not more than 15 per cent. of the manufacturing in the country will be done
in New England. Let me give the exact figures.
The total annual product of manufactures in the United States was, by
the census of 1880, 5,369,579,191.
In the New England States it was as follows:
sion, he fairly rolls as a sweet morsel under his tongue what he says about
the “immense profits” of the manufacturer:
Relief from the hardships and dangers of our present tarifi‘ laws should be devised with especial pre-
caution against imperiling the existence of our manufacturing interests. .
I will see by and by whether the relief proposed by him imperils the ex-
istence of our manufacturing mterests:
But this existence should not mean a condition which, without regard to the public welfare or a
national exfgency, must always insure the realization of immense profits instead of moderately
profitable returns. .
Then he goes on to talk about the manufacture-r. He says:
So stubbornly have all efl‘orts to reform the present condition been resisted by those of our fellow-cit-
izens thus en aged, that they can hardly com lain of the suspicion, entertained ,to a certain extent,
that there ex sts unorganized combination a along the line to maintain their advantage.
I! i d i O t 0
Yet when an attempt is made to justify a scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer
in the land for the benefit of our manufacturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for governmental
regard, etc.
I will read what he says in speaking of competition. He is talking
about the. manufacturers who are robbing, the people, as the free-traders
say: - ' .
But it is notorious that this competition is too often strangled by combinations quite prevalent at
this time, and fre ueutly called trusts, which have for their object the regulation of the supply and
price of commodit es made and sold by members of- the combination. The people can hardly ope for
”any consideration in the operation of these selfish schemes.
. Then, on page 12, he sounds a note of warning, in which he says:
0p rtnnity for safe, careful, and deliberate reform is now ofi‘ered; and none of us should be nu.
min ful of a time when an abused and irritated people. heedless of those who have resisted timely and
reasonable relief, may insist upona radical and sweeping rectification of their wrongs.
Cleveland Attacks the Manufacturers. .
Did I use the right word when I said “warning,” or ought I to have used
the word “inciting.” or “threatening?" \Vhat free-trader could have writ-
ten this portion of the President’s message better? This attack upon the
manufacturers of the country is too open, too plain, too direct, and toose-
’ vere, to be allowed to pass withouta word or two.-
Are the manufacturers of this country realizing “immense profits Are.
they the millionaires of the land? You can count ~almost upon your fingers
and thumbs, and without counting them many times over, all the manufac-
turers of this country who in manufacturing have accumulated a fortune
equal to a million dollars, and in nine cases out of ten either those men or
their fathers have struggled from the bottom, where poverty pinched the
hardest and where privation was the greatest, up to their success. They
have been workmen at the bench, at the loom, in the factory, in the shop,
in the mill, and what they have got they have obtained in; a manner which
thecommon judgment of mankind says is honest and fair. There is not a
laboring‘man in this country who when he comes to think of it levels his
claim that men are obtaining the rewards of investment without the rendi-
tion of a fair equivalent therefor against the manufacturer. No, they are
not the millionaires. Who ever heard a manufacturer called a “king”?
We hear of cattle kings, and wheat kings, and iron kings, and cotton kings,
and railroad kings, but you never. hear that word applied to a manufacturer.
~We hear of trusts. as the President reminds us. Are they manufacturing
trusts? There is the Standard Oil trust, and the great Gogebic Iron trust,
and the coal trust. There is not a dollar of - protection on anthracite coal,
or oil, and no protection on iron.ore ,which leads to the formation of any
trust. We hear of a foreign syndicate purchasing. all the copper interests
of the world. We hear. indeed, of a sugar-trust, and if that be a manufac«
turers’ trust, it is the only one in the United 'States.
There‘have been combinations sometimes among manufacturers to main~
tain prices at a point which would keep thorn from absolute destruction is
indeed true, but whenever they have gone above a fair price some compet-
E’l
itor has come in and broken it up. The great trusts about which the coun-
try is now not unduly exerciser! are not to be found in the ranks of the Conn‘eotlcut. 01185.33“
manufacturers. G0 to New York. Try to raise mone in the city of New .gfmachusms- mimics
v - . . ew Hampshire... 73,979
, X ork for a manufacturing enterprise, and how many 0 the money kings do Rhode roman..." mansion
you think you will find to invest their money in that way? That is not the "WM“ """ ' """"" 11.11am
way manufactories are developed. They are developed from the humblest Total............. ----- 1,oro,iss;3oa
beginnings by hard, persistent labor, and by enterprise such as the world In the following States it was:
has never seen'in any other occupation of life. California............ $116,218,792
New England Manufacturers’ Profits. §2§°iiiib§ “fwd”
Our manufacturers make no more money than English manufacturers. . "h” """ 343398-390
They make less than any other class ofbusiness men. I speak for the man- Total ..... 1,133,762,091
ufacturers of Connecticut, about whom I know. Their enterprises have 11} these States as f°ll°W5= .
been ,wrecked over and over again. Most of those who are making any Indlflmfi theorem
money at all are making it in enterprises where capital has been sunk time wliiéiii'g‘i‘n. $535
after time, and now they are making less than would be considered a fair iiifsi‘iiisihi 113.3801”
profit in any other business or occupation of life. They make less than the Minnesota.. _ “jfififi
merchants of this country. The profit to the manufacturer upon manufac- 1°" """"""" ' 71,015,923
tured goods has been less than the profits of the middle men Oi“ merchants Torah....................................................... ....... 35-44mm
of the country. - , In New York and Pennsylvania:
'There is another thing which they have done. Not the alone, for when newrips.K...................... .............. 01.980.690.59?
I speak ofthe manufacturer,I want to speak Ofthflt great Ody ofmen who Penney van Tt.l............. .H,818,Ho
on. ........ .. ......... . 135,515,010
th r' ht h d f man facturers 'n this coun and tho ' l - ~
been e 1g an o u I try, 6e are t w Laborers More Interested Than Manufacturers.
No, I tell the men who are seeking to destroy the protective tarifi‘ that
the must not delude themselves with the idea that the are aiming their
blows against New England. The New England manu acturer is the man
as least interest of all other classes of men in the preservation of
have
manufacturers. They have made other business profitable. They more
than any other men support other business in this country. I do not know
how the Senators from those States will vote, but there are States to—day
that would not be represented-by a star on the flag if it had not been for the who l1 _ . . . . _ .
manufactures of the country. Here is Dakota, with its 600,000 people the protective system. He is interested in it indeed, but others, and all
knocking at the doors of Congress for admission, that would be a barren others, are interested more. If I were to. name the order in which the dif-
waste, and, as General Hazen reported only a few years ago, an uninhabit- ferent classes are interested 1“ the maintenance Of a protective tariff, I
able desert'if it had not been for the protected manufactures of this country. . would say 9 513$. the laborers ewhemi 1n whatever field» they wipe the
Let us see about these “immense profits.” I quote from Bradstreet’s of sweat from their brow; more than any manufacturers are the wage-receiv.
n
Norwalk Chronicler