UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00028139425 OUR TARIFF Why Levied and Why Continued AND THE COrJDEN CLUB C&e mbtatj? of m Onfoewtitp of JI3ottb Carolina CEniotoeD ftp Wbt SDialectic ano 337 F32o OUR TARIFF. WHY LEVIED AND WHY CONTINUED. THE REASONS WHY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WISH TO PAY BETTER WAGES THAN ARE PAID IN EUROPE ; ALSO A SKETCH OF THE COBDEN CLUB. BY r- JACOB HAKPJS PATTON, M.A.; Ph.D., Author of "A Concise History of the American People;'''' "Natural Re- sources of the United States;'''' " The YorTctown Memorial (1781- 1881) " The Democratic Party— Its Political His- tory and Influence" Etc. NEW YORK: The Americax Protective Tariff League, No. 23 West Twenty-third Street. 1887. Copyright, 1887, By JACOB HARRIS PATTON. WILLIAM GREEN, Printer, Electrotyper and Binder, 324, 326 and 328 Pearl Street, NEW YORE. PREFACE. This booklet was written to bring before the minds of in- telligent Americans— whether employers or employed— the reasons why the tariff or tax was imposed upon foreign pro- ducts or property, in order to obtain funds for defraying the expenses of the National Government. That mode of rais- ing this special revenue being less burdensome to the people; and also to show the beneficial influence of such trariff upon our mechanical industries, and through their extension and success, the benefits that accrue to our own workpeople. I. It is shown why our tariff was imposed— because that when we became a nation, it was necessary to bear the expenses of two separate governments. II. That while the term protection may be misinterpreted and so used as to mislead, our tariff of to-day is pre- eminently designed to equalize the cost of production ; that is, to counterbalance the low wages paid work- people in Europe. III. That property in the form of imported merchandise ought to bear a proportionate share of the expenses of government, as well as property in the form of real es- ^ tate, and that a tax levied upon the former, benefits the 4 PREFACE. people of the entire Union— rich and poor; the employer and the employed. IV. That our present tariff has in view two objects equally important : one, to so adjust its rates as to induce capi- talists to invest in manufacturing; the other, to aid our own workpeople by furnishing them employment at re- munerative wages. V. It is shown that from 85 to 90 per cent of the cost of American manufacturing, is paid for the labor of those employed, while in Europe — in consequence of low wages— only about 30 to 35 per cent of such cost goes into the hands of the employes. VI. A brief history is also given of the avowed purpose, and of the efforts made at different times — from 1815 to the Cobden Club of to-day— by British manufacturers and merchants, aided by their American allies, to break down the mechanical industries of the United States. CONTENTS. PAGE Section I. — The Two Governments 7 The Forms of Application, 8— The Three Theories, 8— Effects Produced, 9— The Summary, 10— The Eesult, 11— The Competitors, 11 — Facts Worth Remembering, 12. Section II.— Protection for the Workpeople 14 A Change of Base, 14— Political Equality, 15— The Effects of Common Schools, 15 — An Englishman's View, 16 — In- terest and Duty, 17. Section III. — Advantages to be Transferred 18 The National Policy, 19— The Transfers, 20. Section IV.— England wishes Free Trade... 22 The Comparison, 22 — Raw Material Sometimes Taxed, 23 — Difference in Appreciation, 24 — The Irishman's Revenge, 25— Misrule and Votes, 26. Section V.— The Two Kinds of Capital 28 Capital, Whence Derived, 28 — The Two Investments, 29 — Distribution of Wealth, 30 — Standing Armies, 30 — The Farmer's Grievances, 31— Two Illustrations, 32. Section VI.— The Real Effect of the Tariff of 1846 33 English Views, 33— The Effect of Finding Gold, 34— Tac- tics of Theorists, 35 — Interest and Sympathy, 36 — The Ret- rograde and the Advance, 36. Section VII. — The Philanthropic Theory 38 Reciprocity Treaties, 38— A Tariff Based on Wages, 39 — An Equal Basis of Cost, 40 — A Worthy End to be Secured, 40 — Misleading Statements, 41 — Luxuries, 42. Section VIII.— Wages , 43 The Illustrations, 43— Shipyards, 44— Statements of Ex~ CONTENTS. PAGE perts, 44 — A Further Illustration, 45 — The Virtual Protec- tion, 45 — Report on Wages Paid in Europe, 46 — Efforts not Relaxed, 47. Section IX.— Low Wages, How Caused 48 The Discussion, 49 — Results of Low Wages, 49 — The Cor- rupting Influences, 50 — The Disclaimer, 51 — National Train- ing, 51. Section X. — Wages Seek Their Level 53 Cure of Overproduction, 53 — Higher Wages, 54 — Con- trast in Populations, 55 — Employment of Females, 56— Kind 1 and Unkind Treatment, 56 — The Contrast ; Paisley and Willimantic, 57 — Workpeople's Library and Recreation, 58 — John Bright's Lament, 59. Section XL— Buy Where You can Pay Easiest 61 Workingmen's Views, 62— Higher Wages; Higher Prices, 62— Savings Banks, 63. Section XII. — Successful Industries . Benefit all the Workpeople 64 Mutual Interests, 64 — Home Competition, 65— The Bal- ance of Trade, 66— Effects of Low and High Tariffs, 67. Section XIII. —Development of Our Resources 69 Harmony Needed, 69— The Misleading Term, 70. Section XIV. — English Efforts to Ruin American Man- ufacturers 72 The Unique History, 23— Lord Brougham's Suggestions, 74— The Mode of Operations, 75 — Reasons for Alarm, 75 — Mr. Thorneley's Report, 76— Sympathy for the Rebellion, 76 —An Englishman's Remarks, 77— The Bland Advice, 77— The People Constitute the State, 77— The Retort, 78— Quo- tations from Blackwood, 78. Section XV.— The Cobden Club 80 The Obstruction, 80— The Jubilant Dinner, 81— Medals to American Students, 82 — Benevolence of the Cobden Club, 83— The Animus of the Club, 83— The Singular Advice, 85 —Tactics of the Club, 85— The Conclusion, 86. Our Tariff. l The Two Governments. The present government of the United States took a na- tional form under its constitution when George Washing- ton was inaugurated President in 1789. Immediately questions arose in respect to the manner of conducting the affairs of the young nation thus called into existence ; only one of these we now propose to notice— that in relation to defraying its expenses. There were now, instead of thirteen, two distinct governments to be supported by taxation— the national and that of the separate States — there were, like- wise, two distinct classes of property that could be made subjects of this taxation; the one coming into the Union in the form of importations of merchandise from foreign countries, the other the land or real estate. As the States had conceded the control of foreign affairs to congress alone, it was fitting and in consequence so arranged as to defray the expenses of the national government by means of a tariff or tax levied upon these importations, while the ex- penses of the State governments were to be met by one levied upon the land or real estate. {Hist. American People, pp. 573, 576.) This was the general theory on the subject, the details being left for future adjustment as time and experi- ence dictated. It is strange that this historical fact is so little recognized by the mass of ordinary intelligent men, 8 OUR TARIFF. and indeed of all those who have not sufficiently studied the subject. Great numbers, taking their cue from certain writers and speakers, seem to think that somehow this tariff or tax on foreign goods or merchandise was imposed in the interest of the American manufacturer, rather than to supply funds for defraying the expenses of the National government, and thus benefiting the people at large. The Forms of Application.— This system has supplied am- ple funds for these expenses, except only when untoward causes increased the liabilities of the National government. Then in order to obtain revenue, it became necessary to avail itself of an internal tax, while the States meet a deficiency when it occurs by simply increasing the rate of taxation in proportion to their needs. The latter system having only one object in view— to raise the necessary funds — is com- paratively simple, but the former, having several ends to attain, is in consequence very complex. For illustration: we import manufactured goods, and often of classes we make ourselves, so that it becomes essential to adjust the tax or tariff on these importations in such manner as to raise the desired revenue, and at the same time not in- jure the industries of our own workpeople. It seems the fairest mode of adjusting the difficulty would be in so ar- ranging the rate of this tax — called tariff when applied to imported property — as to equalize the cost of production of the various classes of these manufactured articles when laid in our market. The Three Theories. — In this discussion three theories present themselves : First, " free trade," according to which no duties at all are to be levied on imported foreign mer- chandise or property; the second, " exclusively for public purposes" or "for revenue only;" The latter's primary object being to impose on these importations such rates of duty as to secure the most money for the United States treasury. In addition, the effects produced by these rates of duty upon those industries of the people that come in THE TWO GOVERNMENTS. 9 competition with similar ones of Europe, are deemed only of secondary importance, which idea the advocates of this theory have sometimes expressed by the term ' ' Incidental protection," or more recently by the apologetic phrase, " it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries.' ' These two theories we shall treat as nearly one and the same, since when put in operation they have produced similar results. That they are intimately connected in their in- fluence is well understood by their respective advocates, who are both consistent when they virtually sustain each other in every election that may have a bearing directly on our mechanical industries or indirectly on the financial measures of the government. The third theory, for want of a more correct definition, is briefly called " Protection," but which is more clearly de- fined when designated as a measure to " equalize the cost of production" The application of this theory is designed for articles manufactured in Europe which are similar to those made in the United States— that is, to so levy the tax or duty as to secure the requisite amount of revenue, while at the same time making that feature secondary to the policy of encouraging our mechanical industries, and, what is in- finitely more important, affording employment to the peo- ple who work for wages— estimated by political economists to be three-fourths of our adult population. So many of our farmers owning the land that they cultivate, makes this ratio less in the United States than in Europe. Effects Produced.— It may not be without profit to show concisely the different effects produced by carrying out in practice the theories of free trade and for revenue only. Practically, there is very little difference in relation to the influence of these two systems upon our mechanical indus- tries, as in that respect they both are injurious, but not quite in the same degree. The first, on account of the low wages paid abroad, unless we put ours down to the same level, would effectually prevent competition of any kind in the production of articles of the same class manufactured in 10 QUE TARIFF* both countries. The second, in its application, accomplishes a similar result in crippling most of our mechanical indus- tries, the wages paid our workpeople, meanwhile, becoming very nearly the same as that paid in Europe. The explana- tion of this difference in wages under the two systems is found in the small amount of duty levied — for experiment proves that with us the comparatively low, not the high, tariff on high priced goods produces the most revenue, as the former becomes a temptation to increase importations of common articles, which in turn overwhelm the home productions. In addition, the second theory places the Na- \ tional government in the attitude of a heartless tax-gather- er, in contrast with the third, which places it as the friend of the masses — those who work for wages — in so legislating as to afford them an opportunity of obtaining by means of their own labor a self-respecting and comfortable support. The Summary.— The results of the two systems, "free trade" and for "revenue only" or "exclusively," as found by experiment in the United States, thus sum up. Free Trade: no revenue from imports; the National government supported by funds derived from internal taxation ; wages on a par with those paid in Europe. For revenue only or exclusively : an abundance of revenue, owing to a low tariff but very large importations, mechanical industries crippled if not ruined; the workpeople without remunerative em- ployment, and a large portion of the population bankrupt. Now for the proof of this statement. First, we never en- joyed but once the pure unalloyed blessing of free trade. That was during the six years (1783-1789) immediately pre- ceding the formation and adoption of the U. S. constitution and the inauguration of George Washington as President. Says Bolles in his History of the Finances of the United States (II. p. 487): "From 1783 to 1789 the trade of the thirteen old States was perfectly free to the whole world. The result was that Great Britain filled every section of our country with her manufactures of wool, cotton, linen, leather, iron, glass, and all other articles used here; and in THE TWO GOVEBNMENTS. 11 four years she swept from the country every dollar, and every piece of gold." Again; the only instance when we fairly put in practice the theory for revenue only, was toward the close of the gradually lowering process of the rates of duty in the famous Compromise tariff adopted in Nullification times, 1833, and which reached its netheration in a horizontal tariff of 20 per cent upon every article of im- ported merchandise. This was perhaps the most injudi- cious tariff ever framed, as it entirely ignored the almost innumerable differences that ever exist in the cost of pro- duction of the various manufactured articles ; especially is this the case in the United States. It is in proportion equally absurd to apply the horizontal principle in lowering the rates of an existing tariff. The Result.— Under the influence of this unique com- promise measure (March 3, 1833), began the gradual with- drawal of almost the entire capital invested in the manu- facture of articles that came in competition with those made abroad. The result was that nearly the whole Nation stood idle and went in debt for that class of goods which the people once made for themselves ; meanwhile the principle for " revenue only " was working out legitimate effects. The United States treasury was becoming richer and richer — had forty million dollars surplus — and the people them- selves poorer and poorer, till finally the majority of the latter became bankrupt, the business of the country cul- minating in the financial crash of 1837, all things consid- ered, the most tremendous in our history. The Competitors.— In the case of free trade the American manufacturer enters into competition with the foreigner, the latter having an immense advantage in the low wages he pays; in the case of for " revenue only " or (l exclusive- ly," he and his workpeople enter into a sort of competition with the United States treasury, with the latter sure to win in the accumulation of money drawn from import duties, not because they are high, but because they are low, 12 OUR TARIFF. thus filling the vaults of the treasury to the detriment of the labor and capital of the people themselves, meanwhile making the latter less independent of foreign manufacturers. Strictly speaking, both these theories in this application are in direct opposition to our boasted doctrine, that " the peo- ple constitute the State," and, consistently, the government is only their agent ; but, on the contrary, we have seen the latter in this mode of raising revenue sacrificing the indi- vidual interests of the people. Facts Worth Remembering.— Let it be borne in mind that the funds derived from the tariff are appropriated to de- fray the expenses of the National government, and in that respect every citizen — the employed as well as the employer — is benefited ; and, moreover, this money is obtained from the well-to-do and the rich, the latter being able and willing to purchase the high-priced goods that pay correspondingly high duties. It is therefore a gross and willful misrepre- sentation to say that the tariff is only for the advantage of the manufacturer, when the benefit derived from it accrues to all the people of every class and condition. It has been argued by certain advocates of free trade and for revenue only or exclusively, that our recent overproduction in manufactured articles could be disposed of to other nations if we adopted free trade or nearly so, and thus the whole civilized world would be thrown open as a market for our surplus of mechanical products. At first sight this appears plausible, and indeed might be applicable until we had dis- posed of our present surplus. But what of the future ? Under the influence of a system that did not equalize the cost of production by means of import duties, we could not again create a surplus of manufactured articles, as our in- dustries would be so crippled by the necessarily low rate of wages. Had the latter during the last twenty-five years been nearly as low as that paid in our great free trade rival, England, the result would have been, instead of an over- production of manufactured goods, there would have been a deficiency. The money surplus that the United States THE TWO G0VEBNMENT8. 13 treasury now holds — be it remembered — was derived on principles entirely different from those on which the forty millions previously alluded to were obtained. That of to- day is the outcome of the unprecedented industrial success and general progress of the country for the last twenty -six years, and which enabled those who chose to purchase foreign high-priced goods to pay a correspondingly high duty, which found its way into the common treasury of the Nation, while the income from internal revenue was also in proportion to the vast production of the articles thus taxed. Meanwhile the laboring class had plenty of work and at fair wages, and capital sufficient to carry on our different industries was invested and at a profit. 14 OUR TARIFF. XL Protection for the Workpeople. The political economists of the for-revenue-only school continue to urge there is no necessity for a tariff to protect " infant manufactures," and often exclaim that long ere this they ought to have passed the period of infancy. These gentlemen seem to be unaware that the demand for a tariff to-day is based on different grounds than that of the period to which reference is made. In addition to making a cer- tain class of property pay its share of the National ex- penses, there is also necessity at this time for a tariff to equalize the cost of production, and thus protect our work- people in receiving fair and remunerative wages, in contra- distinction to those familiarly known as starvation in Eu- rope. No one of our mechanical industries that has been developed fully needs on that ground a tariff for its pro- tection ; but, notwithstanding, living wages must be paid or we cannot obtain the workmen, and of course, some such arrangement is necessary, or our industries that com- pete with those of Europe must either cease or our em- ployes receive the same amount for their labor that is paid on the other side of the Atlantic. At the present time the tariff is levied in behalf of our workpeople, and seeks to secure them a comfortable living if they are industrious, economical, and, more than all, temperate in their habits. This policy accomplishes another end in which the whole people are interested and benefited, inasmuch as the $800,- 000,000 of foreign property that annually comes into the country in the form of merchandise pays, by means of a tax or tariff, its share of the expenses of the General government. A Change of Base.— -Thus the ground is shifted; at first PROTECTION FOB THE WORKPEOPLE. 15 the primary object was to encourage our own manufac- turers and train our people to do for ourselves that which we had hitherto employed manufacturers in Europe to do for us, but now we have with but few exceptions acquired the requisite skill ; but another element crops out — we want to stand by our own workpeople, and as a humane and pa- triotic measure advance their interests, and not subject them to the disadvantage of having their wages lowered to the standard paid in Europe. Political Equality.— The Americans in a political sense are on an equality with each other, the vote of the em- ploye being of itself as influential as that of the employer. On this principle we repudiate class legislation. Our states- men are bound by this unwritten law to so legislate as to promote the interests of the greatest number, and, also, not to infringe upon those of the smallest. We h?we seen that about three fourths of our adult population work for wages, and in giving them a living chance, we benefit them as well as the capitalist who invests his money, and also the farmer who owns his own farm and who raises the food that both classes require. This policy recognizes the principle that "the people constitute the State," which notable fact our friends of the for-revenue-only school seem to overlook when they introduce measures that would, lower the wages of much the larger class, and also indirectly injure the in- terests of the other. The Effect of Common Schools.— The most striking con- trast between the advantages the American workmen have, when compared, for instance, with those of the British Isles, is in the former's surroundings and comforts, and in his family, as all his children are freely taught in the public schools. These in the North have been in existence and patronized for generations, and thus the native born adults of that section, under this influence, appreciate an educa- tion that prepares them to perform their duties as citizens. Seldom, perhaps never, do we find persons thus educated 16 OUR TARIFF. willingly become paupers, as is so often the case in England If we wish, therefore, to induce a willingness on the part of our workpeople to become such, we must abolish our public schools and bring wages to the requisite low point. It is worthy of note that owing to this same influence, our natives, those whose parents, and frequently grandparents, have been native Americans, differ in their characterestics from those of other antecedents. They may be poor, but there is no cringing in their natures ; they have self-respect, though they may not be as well off as their neighbors. Observe a group of children of such parentage in our coun- try schools, and while there are many discrepancies in point of wealth between their parents, yet they meet on an equal- ity, and there is scarcely any, if at all, a perceptible feeling of caste among them. The farmers nearly all own their farms and cultivate them by their own labor, and are the more respected because they are industrions and temperate. An Englishman's Yiew.— Owing to these schools our work- people are more than usually intelligent, when compared with the workpeople of Europe. Observant foreigners have commented on this characteristic of the native born Ameri- can mechanic. Says an English writer and manufacturer, the late Mr. Alfred Field, of Birmingham, England, 1 4 the greater intelligence, versatility, and adaptiveness of the American workmen, their freedom from rules of trade, their readiness, not merely to adapt but profusely suggest new ideas, patterns, and improvements, enables them to supplant the products of British manufacture." Again, u It is this superiority of the American workingmen that causes their productions to supersede ours. . . . That just in pro- portion as an article offers an opportunity by altering its shape, lightening it, making it look stylish, or introducing machinery into some of the processes of its manufacture, or by some direct action leaving out unnecessary work, in short by putting brains into it, just in this proportion the American article supersedes the English." The reason that American workmen " put brains into their work" is be- PROTECTION FOR THE WORKPEOPLE. 17 cause they are more self-respecting and independent, better educated, and are taught to think for themselves. Their only prejudices are in favor of the usefulness of the object in hand ; they exercise their reason as well as their hands, hence they become skillful workmen, and are more apt to notice improvements, whi?e suggestions with them soon become subjects of experiment, and, if successful, a perma- nent advantage. This superior excellence is due to their having been taught in our public schools; while the latter are striving more and more to give elementary instruction in mechanics, so that the children, in addition to their ordi- nary book learning, may have as far as possible trained hands and eyes, and thus be better able to fill their sphere in life, whether they work in factories or otherwise. This requiring a certain amount of education among those who work in factories has the tendency to make that class of labor more respectable than it is even at present. Interest and Duty.— It is under all circumstances for the interest as well as the duty of the man who works for a liv- ing to vote intelligently and in such manner as to secure as fair wages as he can; yet it is strange that multitudes of the workingmen of the United States give their suffrage for that political organization which by its crude legislation has been — of course not designedly — an obstacle, to-day as well as previous to the civil war, to the development of the re- sources of the country and our mechanical industries. The latter's great progress was brought about before that period by the energy of the people themselves in spite of this mis- guided interference ; the difficulty seems to have been the lack of comprehensive views of statesmanship on the part of the leaders of that day. 2 I 18 OUR TARIFF* ni. Advantages to be Transferred. With a free and open competition in the markets of their own land and in those of the outside world, the American manufacturer need not fear, if the cost of production could be equalized. It is often urged by the opponents of a tariff thus adjusted that our successful inventions of labor-sav- ing machinery should enable us to have free trade or nearly so, and these gentlemen even argue that our more intelli- gent workmen can thus be able to compete with the low wages paid in Europe. What advantage can the American people gain by this? Let us look at what this statement means when stripped of its plausible humanitarian theory. Here it is assumed that free trade would confer upon the American people a vast benefit. We may in due deference ask in what respect? Is it because the $800,000,000 worth of merchandise, on an average, annually imported is to come into the country without paying duty or tax, and the rev- enue derived from this source be thus sacrificed, while the funds for the current expenses of the National government must be otherwise provided? Why shall not this class of mercantile property pay tax and aid in supporting the government as well as real estate? Meanwhile, instead of aiding to supply their own wants, our skilled mechanics and workpeople generally are to stand idle or work for wages equally low as those paid in Europe. And all this in order to put in practice the theory of certain professors of political economy and self-constituted experts. It is acknowledged that our inventions of machinery or improvements upon that which is foreign, enables us to ac- complish by its means much more than could be done by ADVANTAGES TO BE TRANSFEBBED. 19 hand labor. Here is an advantage legitimately due to our own efforts, but our " exclusively "or " for revenue only " friends demand that we virtually surrender this advantage —and to whom would they have us transfer it? Would it not be to the foreign manufacturer? Certainly not to those whom he employs. Statistics, for illustration, show that not- withstanding the enormous increase of wealth in England for the last quarter of a century, the wages of her work- people have not by any means increased in the same ratio. The Rational Policy.— How much more rational is the policy that would transfer a certain portion of European skilled workmen to our own country, rather than to hand over the advantages of manufacturing to the foreign capi- talist, as would be tho result of our adopting the policy of low wages. This transferrence of skilled workmen to our shores is one of the good effects of the tax or tariff on prop- erty in the form of foreign made articles, that we ourselves could produce. Foreign manufacturers on this account often transfer their machinery and appliances to the United States, and make on our own soil the articles we need and would otherwise have to purchase abroad. They bring with them numbers of skilled workmen, who remain as citizens and teach our native born who may be employed in such factories — the latter also becoming skilled in the art. In three respects these advantages accrue to our own people; the first , in their obtaining employment in the mills thus established ; second, to furnish these workpeople with bread and meat, becomes the province of the western farmer, while the produce merchant and the market gardener in the vicinity supply them with other household provis- ions; and third, the articles thus made are equally good and under the circumstances equally cheap. It is evident that the benefit that accrues to the public of having these essential articles and of common use made on our own soil, and by our own workpeople, far outweighs in importance the advantage that would even accrue to the Nation at large on the supposition, that these articles were made abroad and 20 OUR TARIFF. paid into the United States treasury the usual import duty. This statement, as a general rule, does not apply in the case of high-priced goods, that have required in their production great skill and experience, for in these two requisites in such manufacturing we are as yet lacking. Such classes of mer- chandise are purchased by the comparatively rich few ; the tariff on such articles being judiciously high, the duty de- rived from them furnishes a great proportion of the revenue for the support of the National government. The Transfers.— Of the many instances that might be noticed in which manufacturing establishments have been in part transferred from Europe to this country, we will mention only three, as they happen to be in the same line- that of flax thread and that of cotton thread, the former represented by Barbour Brothers, and the latter by two firms, Clark & Co. and Kerr & Co., the former from Ireland, the latter two from Scotland; the first two are located at Paterson, New Jersey, and the last at East New- ark in the same State. These firms found it to their advan- tage to transfer their spinning and reeling machinery to this side of the Atlantic, and also a portion of their skilled work- men, and to make on our own soil a portion of the thread which they would hereafter supply to the American peo- ple. These firms employ altogether in their mills more than 2,000 persons, not counting those who are employed incidentally. They pay their employes living wages, so that what they would have to pay in the form of tariff, before entering the American market, on their thread, if made abroad and imported, goes to those whom they em- ploy here— our own working people— and thus the cost of thread production is equalized in the United States and in Great Britain. Mr. Ira C. Davis, superintendent of the mills belonging to the last of these firms, Kerr & Co., writes: " We import the yarn from our Paisley (Scotland) mills, and the only process of manufacture we carry on in the United States is the winding of the thread on the 200 yards spools." " If the ADVANTAGES TO BE TBANSFEBBED. 21 tariff is not taken off, we may, perhaps, spin and twist in this country— that is, manufacture our thread in all the processes from the raw Sea-Island cotton." Again: "Of course if 200 yards spool cotton could be imported into the United States free, we could not manufacture here, unless we had factories, machinery, and wages at the same cost as in Paisley. We are paying, as nearly as possible double the wages here that we pay in Paisley." 22 OUR TARIFF. TV. England Wishes Free Trade. England has one reason for adopting free trade with other countries that does not apply to the United States, and that is in relation to her supplies of food for her workpeople. Yet, in her own market, her own food producers, if they had only land enough, could compete with the outside world, because of the low wages paid farm laborers. Her land for cultivation is very limited in extent ; so much of it being taken up in hunting grounds and parks around the castles or homes of the nobility. Under this system the great ma- jority of the working people must engage in mechanical in- dustries. It is different in the United States; their terri- tory being so much more extensive, a greater number in proportion are engaged in agriculture than in any other sin- gle pursuit, and what is still more in contrast, it is esti- mated that nineteen-twentieths of American farmers own the land they cultivate. The Homestead law was designed, among other excellent features, to prevent vast accumula- tions of land in the hands of one person or family as it is in England ; we have no law of primogeniture, nor one prevent- ing the creditor from levying on the land for the liquida- tion of a debt. With us great landed estates do not remain in the same family more than one or two generations — wit- ness the entire breaking up into moderate sized farms of the great Straughn plantation in the State of Illinois, at one time said to have been the largest in the Union. The Comparison.— -In the United States— not including Alaska— there are (1887) about twenty inhabitants to the ENGLAND WISHES FBEE TBADE. 23 square mile, while to the same amount of surface in Great Britian there are about 287— in England proper 476. In con- sequence the land cultivated in the United Kingdom cannot by any means afford sufficient food for the inhabitants, and it is vastly important for the people at large to have food from outside sources and as cheaply as possible. The latter, as raw material, is as essential to sustain the working power among her employes as coal is to melt iron ore or to gen- erate the steam which drives the machinery in her facto- ries. The low wages paid in England has its source in the surplus of work people incident to an overcrowded popula- tion, and not to free trade, as is sometimes assumed; this state of things is taken advantage of by the employers in order to lower the price of labor, thus enabling the former to compete with manufacturers elsewhere in the markets of the world. This feature of low wages the American law- givers, in defence of their own workpeople, must contend against. The rapid and increasing commercial intercourse between the United States and the countries of Europe has a decided tendency to bring wages to the same level on both sides of the Atlantic, and by a law as stringent as that by which water seeks its level. We see this result to-day in the uniform low wages paid workpeople throughout the countries of Europe, and because they lie near each other. It will only require time and the embodiment in law of the usual theories pertaining to the trade held by our free trade friends to equalize, or nearly so, the wages paid in the United States with those paid on the other side of the At- lantic. Kaw Material Sometimes Taxed.— -England raises only a very small portion of the food her people require, and she treats grain as raw material and admits it free of duty. Her own production of food is so limited, she is compelled to supply the deficiency from abroad, and thus ignore the claims of her own farmers for the protection due their agri- cultural interests. The case of England in respect to the provisions she herself can produce from her own soil, and 24 OUR TARIFF. that of the United States in relation to two important items of raw material — wool and iron ores — cannot be adduced as parallel, as the latter have ample means for supplying both these from their own resources. Our farmers have facilities for producing an abundance of wool, while our mountains and their foot hills abound in iron ores. There may be grades of wool that we cannot raise, and there may be for- eign ores that produce an iron having unique and valuable properties. If there is a class of wool that we cannot raise at all, as a general principle let it come in free or at a nom- inal rate, and we can apply the same rule to the ores — but we are not aware that this is the case absolutely, in either instance. But by all means, let the principle be maintained, that no raw material which we ourselves can supply shall be made less valuable by adverse legislation in admitting a similar foreign article as free, or taxed so low, as to interfere with the home production. Iron ores come from other countries, especially from cer- tain portions of Europe, and can be laid down at our wharves very cheaply, because of the low wages paid for mining and placing them on board the ship in which they are trans- ported in ballast, and at a mere nominal f reight rate. Our iron ores are found in the interior, and to freight them to furnaces located at the seaboard would be expensive, while the latter could receive ore from abroad at a much cheaper rate. This would give the iron-makers thus situated a de- cided advantage over their brethern in the interior. The only means by which to remove this inequality is to impose a tariff upon foreign ores, so as to equalize in all our furnaces the cost of making iron. Difference in Appreciation.— The lack of sympathy for one another among the different classes of the English peo- ple strikes the observer with pain. Labor and trade as oc- cupations are not respected in England as they are in the United States. In the former exists a sort of Anglicised caste feeling — orignating among the aristocracy with royalty at its head— which has little regard for the welfare of those who ENGLAND WISHES FREE TRADE. 25 work for wages. This feeling the middle class of English- men, as they are termed, promoted by what Hamerton in his Intellectual Life (page 424) calls "The pathetic spirit of deference and submission to superiors, which characterizes the English people. The wonder is that the great active ma- jority of the nation, the men who by their industry and in- telligence have made England what she is, should ever have been willing to submit to so insolent a rule as the rule of caste, which, instead of honoring industry, honored idleness and attached a stigma to the most useful and important trades." This influence of caste descends to ranks below the aristocracy, and the one higher despises the next lower; hence there is no, or at best but little, sympathy between the employer and the employed. On the other hand the American manufacturer looks upon those whom he employs as his equals in a political sense, and he has for them a feel- ing of which his English brother is not conscious, as the lat- ter is imbued with this ' ' caste" sentiment, so unknown to the native American. This unfortunate feeling of " caste" is likewise cherished in England because of the union of the Church and State, as between Dissenters and Churchmen, while such feeling has no existence among the American people, who in their church relations are on a perfect equal- ity, each denomination voluntarily supporting its own or- ganization, and not in addition unjustly ta^ed to support a State church. The recognition, also, of political equality is one of the strongest elements in influencing the American employers to treat kindly those whom they employ. The Irishman's Revenge.— Justin MacCarthy, in his sketch of the troubles of Ireland, shows in what manner the man- ufacturing interests and other industries in that island were ruined. English policy did it, by depressing them in pretty much the same way that the adoption of free trade or for revenue only would do here, by lowering the profits to such an extent that capitalists would be forced to with- draw their money and live upon it, rather than lose it by engaging in manufacturing. A similar operation could not 26 OUR TARIFF. affect agricultural products in the United States as it did in Ireland, because in the former the farmers nearly all own the land they cultivate, though in respect to our mechani- cal industries the result, in time, would be virtually the same. Yet, astonishing to say, Irishmen— American natu- ralized citizens — with this example before them of the ruined industries of their native island or that of their fathers, have hitherto voted year after year for those polit- ical leaders, who, though professing to be the special friends of the laboring men, have never done otherwise, when they had the opportunity, than to pass laws whose influence was to injure, rather than benefit, the industries of the Union. If these leaders and theorists are not mis- guided, but are truly in favor of promoting the interests of the skilled mechanic and of those who make their living by the simpler forms of manual labor, how can they consist- ently advocate principles that lead to lowering the wages of that class of workmen to a level with that paid for simi- lar service in England, France, Belgium, and other coun- tries in Europe ? Misrule and Totes.— Does the Irishman really reflect on the condition of his native Isle, whose misfortunes he at- tributes to English misrule ? Does he remember that his- tory tells in what manner the industries of Ireland were first crippled and then ruined by English legislation ? If he really wished to avenge Ireland's wrongs, his most effect- ive means would be through the medium of the United States, the chief rival of England in commerce and in man- ufacturing ; that is to say, he would vote to sustain and promote our own mechanical industries in opposition to those of England, while at the same time keeping up the wages of his countrymen, who work for hire, and have cast in their lot with us. But if he votes as he usually does, he thus far aids his old enemy, inasmuch as the English man- ufacturer has the advantage over the American in the low wages he pays his operatives, and the only remedy for the latter is, either to have a tariff sufficiently high to equalize ENGLAND WISHES FREE TRADE. 27 the cost of production or put down the wages of his own workpeople to a level with that paid abroad. Does the Irishman still wish to aid his old enemy, as he terms the English landlord and manufacturer, by voting in such man- ner as to put our industries in the latter's power ? 28 OUR TARIFF. V. The Two Kinds of Capital. In carrying on manufacturing enterprises, especially on a large scale, two classes of capital are brought into requisi- tion — one much concentrated, the other much diffused. The. first is the money invested, which furnishes the build- ings, the machinery and the raw material to be operated upon, and the wages paid those who perform the labor ; the second is the brain, the skill and the muscle of those who do the manual or mechanical part of the work. The em- ployers own the one class of capital and those employed own the other. The one class is as truly property as the other, and each possessor has an absolute right to the con- trol of his own. According to the economy of civilized society, these two classes of property owners, are mutually dependent upon each other in making their respective capi- tal available in producing incomes, which are in reality of the same nature, though custom calls them by different names— the one dividends; the other wages. There is no less merit in acquiring one class of this property than of the other— both in their acquisition demanded labor of body and mind. Capital ; Whence Derived. — The money capital is the re- sult of labor performed by some one, somewhere and at sometime; it may have been by an ancestor in a former generation, or it may have been by the individual himself, be that as it may, he has an absolute right to its use and the endowments derived therefrom; the workingman's cap- ital has also been acquired by hard labor, but by the owner himself, because it is of a nature that cannot be derived THE TWO KINDS OF CAPITAL. 29 from an ancestor or a friend. God has given him brain and strength of muscle, while his own merit consists in his cultivating them both by correct moral habits and labor, making his capital proportionately available and valuable. In one respect he stands upon higher ground than he who merely inherits wealth, as he has acquired his capital by his own exertions. As one class of capital— money— can ac- cumulate from time to time, so can skill by a different pro- cess acquire force from one generation to another, as each succeeding one avails itself of the experience and teaching of the past. This is evident from the fact that mechanical skill, especially among American workmen, increases so rapidly that what seems remarkable for its proficiency in one generation is often deemed crude and almost useless in the next. There is no more interesting subject for our statesmen or political economists to investigate than this progress of the arts of manufacturing, as it pertains not only to our own invention, but also to the acquisition of skill by our individual workmen. The Two Investments.— The parallel may be drawn still further. If the money— one class of capital— is not invested in some way the owner cannot derive from it a dividend ; and if the other's capital — his skill, his brain and his muscle — is not invested; that is, if he does not work, he will re- ceive no wages. The former has this advantage, that if he does not invest his money in business, he can live upon it ; but the latter can invest his capital only by individual ex- ertion or working ; he cannot put it out at interest or live upon it alone. It thus follows that the opportunity afforded the working people for employment is far more important to them than to any other portion of the community. The proprietors of manufacturing establishments, in addition to their capital, give the aid either of their own skill and ex- perience or pay for that of others, in order to develop their money investment. In proportion — if it can be thus rated — to the money value of the workmen's capital, their skill and muscle invested by them, is not the percentage of 30 OUR TARIFF. their dividends equally large if not larger ? In the cost of manufactured goods in the United States, 85 to 90 per cent is due to the high 'price of the labor bestowed upon them, while in Europe owing to the low rate of wages — an average of about one third of what the American capi- talist pays— the labor cost of the manufactured article is only about 25 or 30 per cent. Distribution of Wealth. — In connection with the feature of the subject just mentioned, the following summary may be of interest. According to statistics adduced, it is esti- mated that the wealth of the United States is $50,000,000,000, while that of Great Britain is $40,000,000,000. This would average to each inhabitant of the United States (1884) about $875, and to each one of Great Britain about $1150. The same authority states that of the " wealth of the United States 72 parts go to labor, 23 to capital and 5 to govern- ment, while in Great Britain 41 parts go to labor, 36 to capital and 23 to government." There must be a reason for the difference in this distribution of national wealth ; is it not because of the higher wages paid in the United States that out of every $100 of this wealth 72 accrue to labor, more than three times as much (23) as accrue to capital, while because of comparatively low salaries of officials only 5 per cent goes to the government. On the other hand, in Great Britain, because of low wages, 41 parts go to labor; 36 to capital, because taking advantage of an overcrowded population it demands and enforces low wages, while 23 parts go to government in order to sustain the dignity of royalty and the corresponding heavy expenses. Standing Armies.— Another feature is worthy of mention. In Europe the combined standing armies of all the States under the names of empires, kingdoms, or republics, num- ber about 4,000,000 men. These armies earn nothing, and are supported by the unremitting toil of the laboring mil- lions, and in addition about 10,000,000, are known as a re- serve force, the latter, though now in civil life, having THE TWO KINDS OF CAPITAL. 31 served a number of years in the regular army to the detri- ment of their industrial habits. The United States has an army of nominally 25,000 men, who ordinarily are sup- ported by funds derived from import duties. The armies of Europe are used to maintain the balance of power be- tween the different nations and to watch each other, and keep a few crowned heads on their thrones, and every branch of their families in stations of luxury and idleness. The army of the United States is scattered all over the country in little groups, either doing garrison duty on our seaboard, or on the frontiers watching Indians and keeping them in order. The Farmer's Grievances.— The advocates of the " exclu- sively or for revenue only" theory, adduce another instance of grievance. They tell the farmer, in whom they profess to have an unusual interest, that in consequence of the tariff on iron, for illustration, he is compelled to pay a much higher price for his plough-shares, hoes and his other iron utensils. The absurd statement was reported to have been made on the floor of Congress by an ardent free trader, that in consequence of the tariff, the farmer paid 170 per cent on the iron he used. The author— a promi- nent Congressman— of 4 4 Free Land and Free Trade," also tells the farmer that he " pays 40 per cent average advance price out of his farm products for the goods (he buys) which come from abroad." This author failed to intimate to the disciple of Cincinnatus that his farm products are enhanced one hundred fold or more in value because he has near him a large population who are engaged in mechanical indus- tries, and whose households he supplies with their necessary provisions. The intelligent farmer who reads and studies on this subject recognizes the fact that the increased value of the products of his farm ought to be taken into considera- tion, since they would be for the greater portion almost valueless if the capitalists in his vicinity, who are engaged in manufacturing, were to cease or greatly curtail their operations and dispense with the labor of large numbers of 32 OUR TARIFF. their working people, whom the former supplies with pro- visions. This consideration far overbalances the enhanced price — even if the statements cited above were true — of the farmer's iron utensils, etc., since their cost is not one five hundredth part of the expense in carrying on a farm. Two Illustrations. — The application of the latter theory- is shown in the case of the great Cambria Iron Works in Pennsylvania, where are employed thousands of workmen, whose families have to be supported. It is a well ascer- tained fact that the existence of these works, has en- hanced the value of the farms from 50 to 100 per cent per acre, according to location, for a radius of ten miles or more around. The result is similar upon the value of farms in the vicinity of manufacturing villages everywhere. The latter class of small farms or gardens produces a greater amount of that kind of food which perishes more easily, such as the varieties of garden products, while a similar in- fluence extends to the distant prairies of the Great West, where the farmers furnish food supplies of wheat, corn, cattle, etc. Though the western farmer incurs larger ex- penses in reaching a market, this disadvantage is more than counterbalanced by his greater facilitiies in producing, comparatively, much larger crops, which from their nature are less perishable and bear transportation for a greater distance. A striking illustration of the principle involved is afforded by the State of New Jersey, though in the fertility of native soil it is not pre-eminent, yet from mere location, between the two great cities on the Atlantic slope, and also having cities on her own territory, her lands are estimated by the United States census to be the highest priced in the Union. For some unexplained reason our friends, the advocates of the for "Kevenue only or Exclusively," either persist- ently ignore or belittle this feature of the subject in hand. THE REAL EFFECT OF THE TARIFF OF 1846. 33 VI. The Eeal Effect of the Tariff of 1846. No tariff has been and continues to be so much eulogized by the advocates of for " Eevenue only or Exclusively " as that of 1846. Its history, its principles and its influence are recognized by them to-day as closely interwoven with their present theories in relation to sustaining or aiding the mechanical industries of the Union. This tariff, with slight modifications,- was in existence about fifteen years. Says a leading revenue-only ''Journal and Courier:" " Democrats who get mad every time they read the words * tariff for revenue only, ' should read up the history of this country between 1846 and 1861, and see what a cock of the walk and lusty youth was the United States under the ban- ner of ' for-re venue-only' during that period," This writer, however, ignored the fact that at the end of "that period" the National government was in debt $87,700,000, and the Secretary of the Treasury was unable to borrow funds to de- fray its current expenses, even at six per cent, in European money markets, where at the same time the usual rates were three and a half and three per cent. It is worthy of note that the platform adopted by Democratic National Con- ventions for a third of a century show, that when the ob- ject is noticed at all, the prevailing policy enunciated in re- lation to the tariff is for one embodying the theory for revenue only : witness their platforms of 1876 and 1880 and also that of 1884. English Views. — The London Times characterized the re- port of Robert J. Walker (1845), Secretary of the Treasury under President Polk, as being " The only Free Tra de docu 3 34 OUR TARIFF. ment ever presented to Congress by an American minister of finance;" is it for the same reason that the advocates of both Free Trade and for revenue only still eulogize Walker and his report so highly? On the principles em- bodied in that report were based the peculiarities of the tariff of 1846. Had the latter been enacted in 1842, instead of the one of that year, when our industries which com- peted with those abroad were almost totally ruined, they would never have revived at all, but instead become even more and more depressed, being to a great extent yet under the malign influence of the famous compromise — horizontal tariff (1883) of 20 per cent on all articles im- ported. (See. p. 11.) The Effect of Finding Gold.— It is very singular that the admirers of this 1846 tariff claim that under its influence alone the country prospered, and, while ignoring other stimulating elements, even assert that ' ' the foundation for our manufacturing on the largest scale was then laid." Where are the data for that assertion found in our indus- trial history? The truth is rather that the impulse derived from the tariff (1842) carried our industries forward in spite of the retarding influence of that of 1846, until they fell in with the stimulus incident to the Mexican war, which also urged them on till they received another impulse because of the discovery of gold in California (1848). Under these two forces, supplementing each other, the whole industrial energy of the Nation bounded forth and overwhelmed the demoralizing influence of that tariff — in principle almost free trade. The Mexican war commenced February, 1846; in the preparation for which, and afterward in the disbandment of the army, about two years were consumed. Meanwhile the National government disbursed for the time an abund- ance of money, amounting to $150,000,000 in the form of Treasury notes, which passed current in commercial trans- actions, because in due time they would be certainly paid ; and thus was afforded facilities for carrying on the business THE HEAL EFFECT OF TEE TARIFF OF 1846. 35 of the country. Immediately after the discovery of gold an immense tide of migration set out from the Old States for California, while it required an equally great amount of active industry to fit out and support the expeditions and to furnish supplies to the miners after they had reached the mines. This industrial activity continued for years. Mean- while, owing to the numbers of working men going to these mines, those who remained at home in the old States had employment and at good wages. Of two influences which our friends persistently ignore, one was the failure of crops in Europe for three seasons, 1847, '8 and '9, and an enor- mous export of grain from this country supplied the de- ficiency, and, in consequence, we paid our debts and soon had a balance in our favor. The other, the Crimean war (1854) and lasting nearly two years, when Russia contended against France and England. In the latter two their in- dustries were much deranged, and this circumstance also aided us materially, but at the close of the war the ports on the Black and Baltic seas were again opened, and Russia poured her surplus wheat into England and virtually shut us out ; meanwhile France and England resumed their manufacturing, while the output of the gold mines in Cali- fornia had already commenced to diminish. "But the low tariff or duties finally had their natural effect ; the country was flooded with cheaper-made foreign goods, our manu- facturers, stimulated by the excitement of the times, pro- duced more than they could sell under that foreign compe- tition, and within eleven years the inevitable financial crash came in 1857," when the balance of trade was against us to the amount of $335,000,000. Tactics of Theorists.— The free-trade and the exclusively or for-revenue-only orators and writers, usually keep in the background the advantages accruing to our people who work in factories in their having employment and at re- munerative wages; but on the contrary, often assert that if no tariff, or if a very light one, was imposed, these em- ployes could obtain foreign instead of home made articles 36 OUR TARIFF. correspondingly cheaper — we have already shown the fal- lacy of this assertion (p. 14). Again, these advocates uni- formly make prominent the alleged profits of the owners of manufacturing establishments, often intimating, and sometimes asserting, that these profits were derived from the only partially requited labor of the employes, while it has been shown that to the latter accrue from eight to nine tenths of the advantages derived from such establishments (p. 29). This mode of reasoning, if not designed, has the effect of arraying one portion of the community against an- other, of antagonizing, especially, the employed against the employer, by not presenting the subject in all its relations. When did these theorists take the trouble to point out the mutual dependence and the mutual benefits accruing to these two classes of capitalists — the one furnishing the money invested, the other the labor ? Interest and Sympathy.— From the general tenor of the arguments these advocates use, it would seem a legitimate inference that they have more interest in the success of the foreign manufacturer than they have in that of the Ameri- can. The latter by his greater skill in inventing and using machinery, and availing himself of the greater intelligence of his employes, has been very successful ; is it because of these requirements that the tariff should be removed or greatly lowered ? The effect of which would be that the foreigner, who has not been so skillful in inventing and ap- plying machinery, would derive an extra profit from his own lack of energy, as well as from the ignorance of his own workpeople. Has not the American a claim upon the proceeds of his skill and energy, and has not his employes the same for the outcome of their greater intelligence ? These advocates appear, also, to have more sympathy for the foreign workpeople than for the American, because in proportion as they take away employment from the latter do they enhance the price of the labor of the former. The Retrograde and the Adyance. — Our for-revenue-exclu- sively friends seem to have stepped back a half century or THE REAL EFFECT OF TEE TARIFF OF 1846. 37 more, away into the gloom of Nullification times, or even beyond, and virtually take the position then held, that the Americans ought to be satisfied if they supplied their own wants from their own workshops — nothing more. In that day nearly all the statesmen, and most of the intelligent people, little dreamed of the vast improvements in store for bur own mechanical industries that have since come into existence. The American manufacturers of to-day look far beyond that primitive idea ; their ambition is not only to supply the wants of their own people, but they even have the audacity of competing in the markets of the world with European manufacturers of the same class of articles. 38 OUR TARIFF. VII. The Philanthropic Theory. Here is an opportunity for the philanthropic professor of political economy to step in. He, far away from the tur- moil of practical life, has wrought out in his study a beauti f ul theory, a sort of humanitarian idea that all the inhabi- tants of Christendom, at least, are brethren — as they are in one sense — and, therefore, there should be free trade between the nations as of one vast brotherhood. That sounds well ; but unfortunately the professor ignores the fact that all the nations are not at present prepared for the adoption of his theory, and while he is experimenting the American workman and his family would be found in sad straits, be- cause his wages must be either lowered or stopped alto- gether. The odds are too much against the manufacturer in this comparatively new country, where workmen are not so numerous, and where from that fact alone, if for no other, wages must be higher than is paid for similar service in the crowded workshops of the Old World. Does the professor in order to carry out his theory desire the American workman to be denied many of the comforts of life, in consequence of his being cramped in his wages as his fellows are in the workshops of Europe ? Practical Americans do not wish to grind the faces of their work- people ; while they cannot see why property in the form of imported merchandise should not bear its share of the cur- rent expenses of the government, and so long as that prin- ciple is just, there ought to be a tax or tariff on that class of property. Reciprocity Treaties. — Men may patronize one another — nations never ; they must act toward each other with mutual THE PHILANTHBOPIC THEORY. 39 recognition of rights— that is, on an equality. On this prin- ciple only can treaties of reciprocity in trade be negotiated. It would be worthy the effort of our philanthropic professors and lecturers in favor of free trade or even for-revenue- only to secure such treaties, and, for the sake of humanity, benefit the workpeople of Europe by increasing their wages and proportionately lowering the tariff on their exports to the United States, their principal customers. This would be a vast benefit to the European operatives themselves, and bring no loss to their manufacturers, as such loss, if any, would be more than made up by the diminished duty and by the increase of sales. Treaties based on these humane principles may be in the future, but meanwhile the Ameri- can government says to the people in Europe who wish employment, "come here and we will give you farms as your own to cultivate ; we will adopt you if you honestly wish to become citizens, and will educate your children equally with our own, and our working people will share with you the advantages they enjoy, but we cannot, for the sake of strangers, oppress our own laboring men by lower- ing their wages to the level of that paid you." A Tariff Based on Wages.— We can see no fairer adjust- ment — if it were possible — of this question between the United States and Europe, than to base the tariff on the ag- gregated wages paid in the respective countries in the pro- duction of the manufactured articles thus laid down in our market. For illustration, take an example that is among the less complex. We impose an average duty of 55 per cent on imported silk fabrics; now let us compare the wages of the operatives engaged in that class of manufac- turing in the several European countries. When the American manufacturer pays one dollar or 100 cents, the English pays 48 ; the French, 33 ; the Italian, the German and the Belgians, each 25. The average amount of wages paid by these five is 33 cents, which would require a duty of 67 per cent to be imposed on the silk goods we import, in order to equalize the cost of its production — that is 12 per 40 OUR TARIFF. cent more than our present tariff, the raw material being assumed to be equal in cost in both Europe and the United States. In accordance with this theory or arrangement, if the foreign manufacturers wish to lower our tariff, they can do so by raising the wages of their own employes. For example, instead of paying the average of 33 cents, they pay 66, that would bring our tariff on silk down to 34 per cent, and if they increased the wages to 75, it would bring the tariff down to 25 per cent, and so on. An Equal Basis of Cost.— The tariff thus regulated would be as far as possible an equalizer, but in respect only to the wages paid the operatives, and thus far the American manu- facturer would be on an equality with the European, but even then the former would be at a disadvantage, owing to the lower rate of interest paid on capital in Europe, and the lower rate of wages paid in erecting buildings and in provid- ing machinery, and in addition the greater skill acquired during generations in manufacturing. The latter statement is verified in the case of articles of a very high grade of workmanship, which as yet American skill has not been able to equal — such as certain classes of velvets and silks. The American manufacturers would, however, be willing to enter into competition with their European brethren, even on these unequal conditions, trusting to the general intelli- gence — an important element of success — of their own em- ployes to make their work more perfect, under their own invention of labor-saving machinery and its appropriate application, together with their own energy and skill in car- rying on their works and putting their goods in the markets of the world. When these facts and comparisons are taken into consideration, it is found that the present United States tariff, in every instance, falls below the average percentage of European wages that would in that respect make the cost of production equal in both countries. A Worthy End to be Secured.— If we happen to have more revenue than we want, let the tariff be adjusted on common- THE PHILANTHBOPIC THEORY. 41 sense principles, meanwhile making the interests of our own workpeople of primary not secondary importance. For il- lustration, if the choice has to be made, which is the better, high tariff to make the importation of certain goods almost prohibitory, or by a low one to make our own production of the same kind of articles almost prohibitory? Our friends for revenue only, or exclusively, etc., are often exercised lest the tariff should be so high as to prohibit the importation of certain goods that compete with those of our own make, but it seems they are not moved to much sadness because of a tariff being so low as to prevent our own workpeople having a fair share of employment. Misleading: Statements.-— These advocates often use argu- ments that are misleading. They tell the bewildered work- man or mechanic that the government imposes a tariff of 55 per cent on imported silk goods in consequence he — "the down trodden" — must pay for his wife's silk dress fifty-five cents on a dollar more than he would if there were no tariff, or in proportion if a very low one. The simple man imag- ines he has been treated ill, but his common sense wife, de- tecting the absurdity of his complaint, tells him she does not want high-priced silk dresses, if silk dresses at all. If rich men buy for their wives or daughters silk or velvet dresses of foreign make and at a very high price by all means let them. "Why should any one object to the purchase of high-priced materials of dress by those who are able and willing to buy them. For every hundred dollars they thus pay for foreign make velvets or silks, fifty-five go to defray the expenses of the National government, and thus these buyers aid the peo- ple at large, while in addition affording occasions of employ- ment to thousands upon thousands in our own silk factories, but producing a lower graded article. Under the influence of this duty — the highest we impose on textile fabrics — our workers in silk obtain fair wages for making ribbons and trimmings and dress silks, and likewise velvets of a lower grade, as we have not yet acquired the skill to make the very highest class of silk manufacture. If no duty or very 42 OUB TABIFF. little was levied on foreign silks, the low wages paid silk operatives, especially in France and Italy, would compel this particular manufacture to cease altogether in the United States, unless we paid our workers in silk the same rate of wages. This industry has grown so rapidly since 1861 that there are invested in it in the Union nearly 40 million dol- lars, and in consequence, in this manufacture, multitudes of Americans, male and female, especially the latter, find em- ployment. The present tariff pays well to the treasury; though the amount of silk goods imported is limited in quantity, yet, the duty being high, the revenue derived is very large. Moreover it comes from the rich, who choose to indulge their taste in that form of luxury. Luxuries. — The sum of the matter is, that those who pur- chase luxuries from foreign lands confer benefits upon the country at large, by paying the heavy duties usually im- posed upon such articles, and this principle is carried out, as the presumption is that none but the wealthy will purchase that class of goods. It is well understood by the intelligent that the introduction of elaborate works of art and speci- mens of skill and culture, such as bronzes, paintings, etc., have a refining influence upon the people, and for that rea- son the duty upon them should be only nominal This class of property stands in a different relation to American labor than that which is used in the production of articles that supply a common want, and yet such importations, when large, are among the evidences of the prosperity of the coun- try, and indicate that the majority of the people have em- ployment at remunerative wages, while the capital invested pays fair dividends. WAGES. 43 VIII. Wages. It is clear that the chief difficulty in the way of manu- facturers in the United States competing successfully with those of Europe must be the vital question of wages — esti- mated by practical men to range in this country, in propor- tion to the wages paid, from 80 to 90 per cent of the cost in producing the article made, while in Europe it ranges also in proportion to the wages paid. The money invested in lands, in buildings, in machinery, and raw material is found to be comparatively a small amount of the aggregate expended, when compared with the continuous expenses of hiring the workpeople. On account of the low rate of in- terest on money and low wages, it costs less to erect build- ings and obtain machinery in Europe than in the United States, but it takes no more heat to smelt a ton of iron in England than in Pennsylvania, no more power to weave a yard of cloth in Manchester, England, than in Lowell, Massachusetts, or to make a yard of silk in Lyons, France, than in Paterson, New Jersey. Yet there is a vast difference in the expense, arising from the fact that the American manufacturer pays from two to three times as much to his operatives as is paid by his European rival. The Illustrations.— Suppose a manufacturer in Lowell pays in wages $2000 a week, while a rival in Manchester, making the same style of goods, pays but $1000 in produc- ing the same amount. This alone enables the latter to sell the week's product of his factory $1000 cheaper than the former. Under these conditions the American must retire from the business or reduce the wages of his employes to 44 OUR TARIFF. the level of that paid by his rival, the Englishman. This statement in respect to the difference in amount of wages paid the workpeople in Europe and those paid the same class in the United States is based upon well ascertained facts. Again : Col. Carroll D. Wright, the chief of the Massachu- setts " Labor Bureau," in its annual report (1884), institutes a comparison between the weekly wages paid operatives in twenty four separate industries in Great Britain and the corresponding ones in Massachusetts, and with the follow- ing results: In Great Britain the average weekly wages paid was $5.33, while in Massachusetts it was $10.31. It is thus seen that the wages paid in the latter lacks only a few cents of being double that paid in the former. As we learn from other sources, very nearly the same rates of compari- son in wages prevail between the foundries and furnaces of the United States and those of Scotland and England, while it is strikingly true of the shipyards on the Clyde and on the Delaware. Shipyards. — As so much attention has recently been di- rected to the building of American iron ships and the revi- val of our navy, it is not out of place to notice this item more fully. A shipyard in England or on the Clyde em- ploying 2000 men of all grades, pays weekly $10,700, while on the Delaware the same number of men performing similar work, receive weekly $22,540. Mr. John Eoach, a builder of iron ships at Chester, on the Delaware, says that 90 per cent of the cost of an iron ship is in the wages, and the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, of New York city, a well-known statesman and manufacturer, is reported as confirming in general terms that statement in respect to the cost in other American manufacturing; with this opinion also coincides that of Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, a celebrated ex- pert and political economist. Statements of Experts. — At a meeting of the British Asso- ciation, held in Montreal, August 1884, the latter gentleman WAGES. 45 demonstrated that the proportion of wage-earners to employ- ers was 15 to 1. He assumed that in the United States the maximum rate of profit on capital " does not exceed ten per cent, and that the overwhelming mass of annual profit is shared by those depending on work for subsistence." "In the long run, the wage-earners must get 90 per cent of the annual profit." u The profits in manufacturing were only one half what they were fifty years ago, and while they were steadily diminishing the wages of work- men were advancing." In the same line of illustration is the statement of Col. Wright, of the Bureau of Statistics in Massachusetts, that in twenty years, from 1860 to 1880, the average annual wages for each one employed in making shoes, "men, women, and children, increased from $251.48 to $387.21, yet the shoes were cheaper and better made by the improved machinery." In connection with this is given the statement of Sir Richard Temple, made at Montreal, August 1884, "That the aggregate of British national industries was beginning to fall behind that of the United States, and that, regarding thrift, the growth of savings banks in England was moder- ately greater, though being much less than in the United States." A Further Illustration.— The iron ore and the coal in the mine, and the timber standing in the forest, are in theory worth nothing until the skill and labor of man manipulates them and finally puts them together in the form of some article, it may be the form of a plough or of an iron ship. From this data it is estimated that nine-tenths of the direct advantages derived from building iron ships or making ploughs accrue in the form of employment and wages to the mechanics, who prepare their materials and work upon them, and in this way they derive dividends from their capi- tal, their skill and their muscle. The Yirtual Protection.— It is proper to notice in this connection that the builders of iron ships on the Clyde have 46 OUR TARIFF. a very efficient, indirect protection, which becomes a great inducement for capitalists to invest in building them, for in consequence of this they can be sold to a much greater advantage. That protection consists in the enormous sub- sidies paid annually by the British government to the owners of these ocean-going iron steamships, in addition to ample remuneration for carrying the mails. These subsi- dies far exceed in value any aid American ship-builders in- cidentally receive from the operation of the tariff. The advancement of its marine is a benefit, to the whole British empire, and the encouragement thus given is in the form of paying liberally for whatever the government requires of these steamers, such as carrying the mails or transporting troops. A similar practical recognition of the importance of sustaining our merchant marine ought to be made by Congress. Reports on Wages Paid in Europe.— The very important item of wages requires further elucidation. The national government during the administration of President Hayes instituted for the first time systematic measures to ascer- tain the amount of wages paid the operatives in foreign manufacturing establishments. The Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, then Secretary of State, directed the United States consuls in the various cities of Europe to institute inquiries in re- spect to the hours of labor required, the rate of wages paid, and also as to the habits of the working people. The re- ports of these consuls (1879) proved, among other items, that the average wages paid in the United States for similar service were more than double that paid in Great Britain ; in France, two-thirds more; in Belgium and Denmark, nearly the same, while in Italy, Spain and Germany, it was more than three times as much, and in the Netherlands four times. The consuls also stated in their reports that bread and the ordinary necessaries of life were better and cheaper in the United States than in Europe ; that in the latter work- people could afford to have meat only once or twice a week, and frequently not at all, while the living in comfortable WAGE 8. 47 homes, as enjoyed by the industrious and temperate people in the United States who work for wages, were almost unknown to the mass of the laboring class in Europe. It is sometimes stated, however, by American tourists, that living is cheaper in certain localities in Europe than in some portions of the United States ; but that condition evidently results from the low rents of buildings and the low wages paid the caterers, and not because of the cheapness of the food itself. These consular reports also stated that great misery resulted to the working people, especially in Eng- land, because of their using intoxicating drinks to excess, and from strikes, the latter causing waste of time, while inducing habits of idleness and the consumption of savings. These reports attracted universal attention, and their sub- stance was quoted by the Pall Mall Gazette, London, which added: " More misery results in England and Germany from drinking, strikes, and socialism than from all other causes, hard times included." Efforts not Helaxed. — The general government itself has not thus far relaxed its efforts in this respect, since these reports were handed in, while the investigation has been carried still further by private enterprise. Mr. R. P. Porter, a member of the "Tariff Commission" appointed by Presi- dent Arthur in 1881, was commissioned by the New York Tribune to investigate the subject more fully. The results have been issued in its extras 84 and 85. The later reports (1882-1883) go very much into detail, and to them we refer the reader for the confirmation of the general truth of our statements in respect to the low wages paid in Europe, when compared with those paid in the United States. 48 OUR TARIFF. IX. Low Wages— How Caused. The cause of low wages in England may be traced to the over crowded population, and not to the System of free- trade; for the latter under the circumstances is certainly the best for her workpeople, especially in regard to their supplies of food. Her facilities for manufacturing far ex- cel to-day those of any other nation in the world ; because of her policy of protection in times past, her mechanical industries have been firmly established, and her workshops have never been broken up by foreign enemies, as the Island lias not been invaded for the last eight hundred years. During the wars that grew out of the French Ee volution —and which lasted for twenty-five years — her industrial interests progressed far beyond precedent, while at the same time the corresponding industries of the nations on the Continent were broken up again and again by hostile invasions, and manufacturing nearly ceased, except that pertaining to the carrying on of war. These influences combined to push forward the mechanical industries of England, especially of every kind used in the domestic life of her own people, as well as in that of the outside civilized world, and gave them an impulse which carried them so far in advance of those of other nations that in the main they have never yet been overtaken. Her laboring popula- tion, meanwhile, increased so much that her workshops were crowded to repletion, and multitudes were out of em- ployment ; the excessive competition thus induced brought about the reduction of wages. To supply this large popula- tion with food and as cheaply as possible induced the gov- ernment, in the interests of the laboring classes, to remit LOW WAGES— HOW CAUSED. 49 the tax which had been levied hitherto on that class of property known as corn, which term covered all cereals used in supplying food to this large portion of the popula- tion. Cereals thus took rank as one kind of raw material, and were as essential for carrying on England's manufac- turing as was the wool and iron ore or coal, or any other material which she put in shape for the use of her own peo- ple or to sell to the outside world. The Discussion. — There has recently been much discussion in relation to our own over-production of manufactured goods, and the reason given why we fail to dispose of this surplus to other nations is, that we have imposed a tariff so high upon the goods imported from the latter that they are unable to exchange with us on equal terms. Then it is urged that all our duties should be removed in order that we could exchange our surplus of manufactured products for those of foreign nations. This surplusage has been the outgrowth of the fair wages paid our workpeople, as by means of that they were induced to labor. Suppose that our manufacturers lower the price of these goods to what they could afford had they paid the same wages that are paid in Europe, and, at so much loss, dispose of the present stock on hand, what would be the result in the future? The inevitable answer would be, that they must hereafter lower the wages of their employes to the European standard in order to meet their European rivals in the markets of the world. The ultimate effect would be to speed our work- people on the way toward pauperism, at which goal un- told multitudes of English workpeople have either already arrived or are in the near vicinity. Results of Low Wages. — It is not out of place in this con- nection to notice the effects produced where low or inade- quate wages prevail. Since our commercial intercourse is more intimate with Great Britain than with any other country of Europe, and inasmuch as our mechanical pur- suits have equally close relations with those of her people, 5-V -'"'4/ - - ■' > : : . 50 OUR TARIFF. we will confine this notice to that country alone. In Greao Britain the system of low wages has reduced more to abso- lute pauperism in proportion to the population than in any other European country. American Consul-General Mer- ritt, at London, reports that, in 1883, in the British Isles the number of paupers was 1,010,061— one in every 33 of the inhabitants — and while the British government spent 20,000,000 dollars on its public schools, it spent 52 millions on its paupers. The same year $91,000,000 were spent in the United States on the public schools. The Corrupting Influences. — The degrading effects of pauperism are not limited to one generation alone, but ex- tend much farther, and corrupt the inner life of both parents and children, destroy the independence of those who labor, and fritter away their self-respect. The evil propagates itself ; the children, seeing their parents content with being paupers, look upon that condition of life as not disgraceful. This seems to be, as far as we are concerned, the worst feature of the case ; and its general truth can be partially verified to-day in the pauper asylums of New York City. In taking the census of the nativities of the inmates of these institutions, it will be found, that in addi- tion to the foreign born, that of those who claim to be natives, perhaps four -fifths are the offspring of foreign parents, and, still further, that about an equal number of the latter are from the British Isles. The American people must eradicate these evils or they will extend to future generations. To-day there is growing up among us, espe- cially in the large cities, a generation of this class that is more or less imbued with the negative elements of non-self- respect and non-independence of character. Such material does not produce industrious and self-supporting citizens. In the practical application of the theory of 4 ' for revenue only or exclusively" to the wages of those employed the United States government would drive a hard bargain with its own workpeople— those who earn their living by hired labor— and yet the American people are blandly invited to LOW WAGES— HOW CAUSED. 51 enter upon the first stage on the way toward pauperism, the natural outgrowth of low wages or an insufficiency of the means of self-support. The advocates of these theories pooh ! pooh ! the results of the low-wages system when ap- plied in the United States. Is it because, when compared with that of England, its evils have not yet attained so great proportions? The influence is evidently increasing, and will in time interfere with the progress of our mechani- cal industries if we lower so much the wages of the work- people therein engaged. The Disclaimer. — The advocates for free trade or for reve- nue exclusively exclaim, what have we to do with the pau- pers of England and the vile homes in which so many of her workpeople live? We answer: experience shows that even the limited application of either of your theories to our mechanical industries has hitherto crippled and, in some instances, ruined them, and if fully, put in practice, and thus lowering wages still further, will produce, though in a modified form, results in the United States similar to those existing to-day in England. National Training. — No intelligent patriot nor true states- man wishes to introduce measures that would demoralize the minds and habits of the people by frittering away their self-reliance and independence, but rather that they should support themselves and train their children in the same elevating principles, that they may become good citizens. This can be brought about, to a great extent, by the work- people themselves— male and female — having wages that will inspire them with hope and enable them by means of industry and judicious economy and temperance to live in comfort. But what are we to think of the grade of patriot- ism, or how shall we appropriately characterize the inhu- manity and selfishness of associated mechanics, for a tem- porary gain to themselves, preventing young men or boys learning trades or some mechanic art, by means of which they can honestly support themselves and become worthy 52 OUR TARIFF. and self-respecting citizens, rather than enforced idlers and perhaps, in time, criminals before the law? Can a greater wrong than this be inflicted upon American young men? Yet we often read in the newspapers of the day of such outrages being committed. That would be a singular process of training a virtuous and noble man, to permit him to pass his youth amid de- baucheries and vices, as if his soul would be more pure in after life because of being thus contaminated ! We would prefer the young man should be pure from the start and continue so through life ; and thus we want the American people to pass their National youth amid encouraging and elevating surroundings, educational, industrial, and moral. But, after all, it is easy to see that the over-production which arises from persistent and energetic labor, because of high wages and the hope of reward, as in the United States is preferable to the over-production which results because of low wages, as in England, and which tempts the manu- facturer to extend his operations oftentimes unwisely. WAGES SEEK THEIR LEVEL. 53 X. Wages Seek their Level. Owing to the easy and frequent intercourse between the civilized nations of to-day, the products of both agricultural and mechanical industries are coming more and more into competition in the markets of the world. The articles thus on sale will gradually approach each other in the cost of pro- duction, and if manufacturers find themselves working at a disadvantage in this respect with their rivals, they will use means to lower their expenses. Experience has shown that their most effective measure to accomplish that end is to cut down the wages of those whom they employ, because in that item is incurred the greatest amount of cost. This pro- cess, unless counteracted, will surely continue until the wages paid in the workshops of Europe, and in those of the United States, will become virtually the same in amount. Such will be the result of this excessive international com- petition, and which can be avoided by us in only one way, and that is by Congress imposing a tax or tariff upon foreign manufactured articles which come specially into competition with our own industries, in such manner as to equalize the cost of production. The Cure of Over-Production.— When competition be- tween our own manufacturers is carried to extremes it results in over-production—that evil must cure itself, and if proper prudence is exercised it need not occur. The fault is in the want of foresight in the capitalists, who for illustra- tion, when there is a sufficient number of cotton mills mak- ing a certain class of goods, and in such quantities as to supply the market, outside capitalists step in and establish 54 OUB TABIFF. more mills and add to the stock on hand ! In consequence the market becomes glutted ; the result, all the mills lose and the weaker become bankrupt, not because of a high tariff, but of a lack of common-sense business capacity in those who interfere with a market evenly balanced, both in production and in consumption. The charge that a high tariff stimulates industry too much seems to be a favorite argument with free traders, if we may judge from the number of their writers, who assert that over-production is such a result; one saying that 41 through excessive competition stimulated by high protec- tion, business is conducted with little profit ; " another, that " the excessive tariff stimulates the industries which it pro- tects into over-production." These writers do not appear to realize that the stagnation of business, because of our over- production, is not quite as bad as that brought by competi- tion with foreign low wages. But in this matter, however, the tariff is not at all in fault, as it does not propose to furnish brains nor business talent to capitalists who happen to have money lying idle. This lack of practical wisdom is by no means limited to the United States, as free-trade England has often been subjected to similar mismanage- ment. Higher Wages. — It is sometimes argued that a tariff im- posed on this equalizing principle does not have the effect of keeping up in this country the wages of those employed in mechanical industries. How do gentlemen using this line of argument account for the acknowledged fact that wages are higher in the United States, and always have been, than in Europe? This fact was recognized by our leading statesmen at the very inauguration of our govern- ment, and also that some measure must be adopted by which our manufacturers could meet, even in our own market, those of Europe on equal terms as to cost. That sentiment is embodied in the preamble to the first tariff (1790) enacted by us as a nation, and signed by George Washington. WAGES SEEK THEIR LEVEL. 55 It is of special interest in this connection to note the progress that has been made within twenty-five years in the increase of wages and in the cheapness of the neces- saries of life. Mr. Edw. Atkinson (already quoted) furnishes statistics which show that u the wages of mechanics in Massachusetts have been 25 per cent more in 1885 than in 1860, while the purchasing power of money was 26 per cent greater; the workman, therefore, could either raise his standard of living, or on the same standard could save one- third of his wages. " It follows from this that the mechanic or workman of 1885 was fifty-one per cent better oif than the mechanic of 1860. It is a question whether the capital in money, in its increase, has a better showing than the cap- ital of skill and brains, during the same period. Contrast in Populations.— If American employers even wished to pay wages as low as those paid in Europe, our sparse population would forbid it, we having only, it is estimated, 20 inhabitants to the square mile, in contrast with 287 in Great Britain — in England proper 476 ; in France 133, and in Belgium 443. Our only alternative is to equalize the cost of production by import duties, thus enabling us to pay our workpeople fair wages, or else reduce the latter to the same level with those paid in Europe. We do not ex- pect a shrewd American capitalist to invest his money in manufacturing enterprises in which he would pay his workpeople 50 or 70 per cent higher wages than his Euro- pean rival ; neither do we expect a common-sense American workman to invest his capital — his brain, his skill and his muscle — and for return receive as dividends starvation wages. The practical application as we have seen, of the " exclu- sively^ or for revenue only " theory, has almost the same disastrous results upon the mechanical industries of the country as that of free trade ; though the former produces revenue, it is at the expense of ruining the wages of the workpeople. From the nature of the case this would be the result, as the system practically treats the industrial rights 56 OUB TABIFR of the individual citizen as subordinate to the abstract money interest of the general government. Employment of Females.— At this point a word may be said in relation to the employment and the remuneration of fe- males in American mills producing textile fabrics. Says Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Wash- ington City, and an authority on the subject: "The wages we pay in the United States average 1.10 per cent higher than that paid in Scotland for identically the same class of work, the quality of the work being similar. The causes of this great difference in wages are in the very high compar- ative rates paid for the labor of females in the United States." In Mr. Lincoln's first administration (1862) the Secre- tary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, employed numbers of women as counters of money, clerks, copyists, etc. They were found to be competent for that class of work, and the system extended to the other departments, where similar work was required. At the close of Mr. Arthur's adminis- tration (March 3, 1885), the whole number of women em- ployed in the various departments, was about 1600 of whom 700 were in the Treasury. According to the grades of effi- ciency, their salaries ranged from 720 to 1200 dollars a year. The example set by Secretary Chase has had great influence, and merchants, bankers, publishers, etc., have since em- ployed increasing numbers of women in such clerical service as required more than the ordinary education that is obtained in the common school. In the schedule of wages paid in both England and Scot- land, that of females is in proportion low when compared with that of males, and much more so when compared with that of their own sex in the United States. For this act of justice and kindly feeling toward woman, let honor be given the native American manufacturer. Kind and Unkind Treatment.— It has been the custom since the introduction of manufacturing on a large scale into this country for the native American employer to care WAGES SEEK THEIR LEVEL. 57 for the comfort and the morals of those whom he employed, especially females. (Pattern's Hist, of the American People, p. 712.) Says Mr. R P. Porter, when speaking of the girls coming out of the thread mills in Paisley, Scotland— Clark's and Coates's: "Most of them were warmly clad, none had bonnets, and some barefooted tramped through the cold slush, yet upon the whole they were a superior class of girls to those I had seen coming out of the mills in Manchester, England." They "would not compare with the neatly dressed girls, with shapely American shoes, neat hats, tidy collars or ruching round the neck, with umbrellas in rainy weather and sunshades in summer, that one can see coming out of the Merrimac mills at Lowell, or Conant's thread Mills at Pawtucket." How could these poor girls of Paisley or Manchester dress differently or live comfortably on starvation wages? Boarding and lodging houses under such control as to protect the girls employed in the mills* and as far as possible, give them a comfortable home, as are found in Lowell or Willimantic, are in Paisley or Manchester un- known. The same authority says when speaking of the linen factories of Dundee, Scotland, in which great numbers of women are employed: "The operatives' quarter of the city contains hundreds of houses totally unfit for human habitations. They are low gray stone buildings, with but one room on a floor, and windows about two feet square. Some of them which I entered fairly reeked with filth, and I actually found in some whole families living like animals on the bare ground." These examples of poverty and squal- idness are the legitimate results of low wages, and belong more to the general rule than to exceptions. Neither are these terrible and degrading effects attributed alone to the improvidence and idleness of those employed, for the eco- nomical and industrious, and even temperate, can at best, under such circumstances, live only from hand to mouth, and finally for the most part end their days in the poor- house. The Contrast— Paisley and Willimantic.— In contrast with 58 OUR TARIFF. the facts just stated in respect to the care for the welfare and comfort of the workpeople employed in the thread mills of Coates and Clark in Paisley, we will notice the manner in which persons are treated who are employed in their great rival in the United States—the Willimantic thread mills, in Connecticut. How marked the contrast in the character of the houses in which live the operatives of the Paisley mills with the dwellings occupied by the employes in the Willimantic ! The latter company has erected nearly fifty cottages in a healthy and desirable location, to be oc- cupied at reasonable rents by the families of those employed in the mills. These cottages are of several styles of archi- tecture, and are generally painted in neutral colors to please the eye ; they front on a winding road ; each one has around it a grass or garden plot, and for flowers in front. The company even awards prizes for the best of the latter, on the principle, that if the spinners " love flowers they will make better thread," as was remarked by an official of the corporation. This may be assumed by a free- trade casuist as an impure motive ; but humanity deems it certainly bet- ter than to work employes at "starvation wages," and then when they are worn out provide them only with a pauper's home. Yet a Yale College Professor of Political feconomy — of the free-trade type, and a member of the Cobden Club, would blot this all out, as we infer from his reported aphorism when referring to "Willimantic: " We want thread, not thread mills." The Workpeople's Library and Recreation. — In addition, these employes have access to a circulating library, to which the corporation as well as the employes contribute to share the expense, and the interest which the latter take in the books of the library may be inferred from the fact that among them, on an average, are in use at the same time about 400 volumes. These advantages are fully appre- ciated by the native-born employes, because they have learned to read in the public schools; but unfortunately not so by the multitude of foreigners, who have not enjoyed WAGES SEEK THEIR LEVEL. 59 the same privileges ; especially can this be said of those who come to us from Canada and the British Isles. The mills run sixty hours a week, but it is so arranged that the operatives have the afternoon