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THE
ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES
AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSE OF HIGH WAGES AND THEIR
EFFECT ON METHODS AND COST OF PRODUCTION
BY
Of*
J. SCHOENHOJl^
LATE U. S. CONSUL ; COMMISSIONED BY DEPT. OF STATE TO INQUIRE INTO
THE ECONOMY OF PRODUCTION AND THE STATE OF TECHNICAL
EDUCATION IN EUROPE; AUTHOR OF "THE DESTRUCTIVE
INFLUENCE OF THE TARIFF"; "THE INDUSTRIAL
SITUATION;" "WAGES AND TRADE"; "IN-
DUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE,"
ETC., ETC.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
THOMAS F. BAYARD
I,ATE SECRETARY OF STATE, U. 8. A.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NBW YORK LONDON
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
t>( lUutktrbocktr TQnas
1892
COPYRIGHT, 1882,
BT J. SCHOENHOF.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER
FROM HON. T. F. BAYARD,
Late Secretary of State, U. S. A.
WILMINGTON, DEL., June 10, 1892.
JACOB SCHOENHOF, ESQ., NEW YORK.
My Dear /Sir: I am gratified to learn that you are now
prepared to lay before the country, in a compendious form,
the results of the personal examination and intelligent
study which, under instructions of the Department of State
in 1887, you prosecuted in those industrial centres of
Europe where technical education had been most highly
developed and had proved itself to be productive of the
highest economy and best results.
Impressed by a necessity of a practical and thorough
comprehension by our countrymen of the actual condition
of their foreign competitors in the arts and manufactures,
to the end that their energies and intelligence could be
successfully applied to keep them abreast of the world's
column of artificers in the progress of science and inven-
tion, I considered it fortunate for the public that I was
j v INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
enabled to command your especial faculties in the execu-
tion of the task.
My only regret has been caused by the arrestation of
your work, pending its satisfactory completion, by your
removal from your position in the Consular service and
the consequent subtraction of that support and further-
ance which your official association afforded.
I had indulged the hope that the non-partisan nature of
your employment, and the signal ability you had displayed
in the execution of your Consular duties, would have con-
stituted a protection to the public interests, and have
shielded you from the desiccating blasts of " the spoils
system."
Nevertheless, I congratulate you upon the result of your
labors as now presented to the country, and which I cannot
doubt will prove of great value in the campaign of educa-
tion in political economy now happily in progress in the
United States.
The scope and purpose of your investigations were not
limited to reporting mere processes of manufacture and the
bare statistics of the hours of labor, rates of wages, cost of
machinery, of raw materials, utilization of wastes, etc., etc.
Such information, however interesting and valuable, was
not wholly wanting, nor was it difficult to obtain. Your
purpose was even more important, and its results were to
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. V
contain a higher significance, which was to indicate and
establish the power of education of the human hand and
brain, and the application of sense and feeling in the expan-
sion and improvement of the products of human industry ;
to show how " the sweat of the brow is lessened by the
conception of the brain," and increased wages accompany
increased efficiency.
The proofs contained in the reports of your investiga-
tions, go far to refute the shallow and repulsive theory that
a human being is a mere machine and to prove that, on
the contrary, true economy and philosophy join in declar-
ing that the cheapest labor is the labor that is most
productive, and that the more the forces of cultivated
intelligence, conscientiousness, and hopefulness shall infuse
themselves into human industry, the more abundant and
valuable the results, the greater the sum of human hap-
piness, and the more stable the political institutions of a
country.
No sophistry is more demonstrable than that contained
in the phrase "the labor market," a phrase which grates
upon the ear and offends the moral sense for it seems to
classify men with machinery, and fails to take into account
human impulses and feeling, the heart and brain in their
effect upon the energy and excellence of human industry.
When Turner, the artist, was asked with what he mixed
Vi INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
his colors, lie growled out, " Brains " and there is not a
department of human labor, however mechanical, in which
the enlistment of the brain, and with it the heart of the
laborer, is not in a degree and way of its own of practical
importance.
Amid the elements of the cost of production, labor is
ever present and essential, and consequently in the fierce
and strenuous competition of the industrial world the true
economy in labor, its quality as well as quantity, is the question
of controlling importance.
Before the item of profit can arise, the cost of the various
elements combined in any product must be first deducted.
Wages, taxes, rent, insurance, interest, capital, material,
waste are among these items, and labor is the ever-present
and essential integer which imparts vitality to the whole.
An increase of any of these items trenches upon labor,
and true wisdom instructs that labor is entitled to the chief
consideration and outranks all the others in its importance.
The facts you have adduced and your deductions irre-
sistibly establish the proposition that low wages do not
mean cheap production, and that the best instructed and
best paid labor proves itself to be the most productive
so that the rate of wages and the cost of production are
not alternative nor equivalent expressions, although so
frequently and ignorantly confused.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. v ii
As the efficiency of labor is increased, prices will be
lessened, and this creates new demands, so that successful
( and progressive industry implies a necessity for wider
markets, and a minimum of artificial restriction upon ex-
changes in the commercial world.
Mechanical excellence is one of the fruits of technical
education, and the command of every market follows the
workman who can produce what is best and at the lowest
cost.
Skill is the outgrowth of educated senses, and the superi-
ority of labor consists in the degree in which mind aids
muscle in its tasks hence the discrimination in the re-
wards between "skilled" and "unskilled" labor.
The information afforded by your studies as now re-
ported, cannot fail to prove a valuable contribution to the
just and rational solution of the great labor problem of the
present day, and will assist alike employers and employed.
I hail with satisfaction everything that tends to emanci-
pate labor from the control, or as it is delusively styled, the
"protection" of the State, and demonstrates the essential
truth that excellence in skill and labor comes from each
member individually, and not from an aggregate of mem-
bers in which individual excellence is not recognized nor
respected.
Nothing surely can be more unreasonable, unjust, and
viii INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
delusive than the view or scheme of regulating the rewards
of labor which excludes the value of individual intelli-
gence, industry, skill, and the attendant moral force which
are combined by the law of their creation with the labor of
mankind.
There is gratifying evidence of growing recognition of
the needs and just claims of labor in such institutions as
the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which is a great
public adjutant as a school of design ; a well-spring of edu-
cation of the earning capacities of manual labor, serving as
a model for imitation as well as technical and practical
instruction.
Akin to it in usefulness and beneficent purpose is the
Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry in Philadel-
phia another splendid illustration of well-considered indi-
vidual generosity and wise public spirit.
And thus in the education of the faculties for special
results, general results must also be achieved in the expan-
sion of their faculties and elevation of mankind.
Technical education, by means of which taste is culti-
vated and skill acquired, will greatly promote that healthy
and self-reliant independence so desirable for a nation.
It is by such means that the true elevation of the indus-
trial classes will be attained, and that relations of mutual
confidence and good understanding between employers and
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. i x
employed, will be established. It will, in fact, be a resort
to "the golden rale," productive only of benignity, and
which will be found the most reliable means of exorcising
from modern civilization its worst spectre the antagonism
of capital and labor.
I hope your work may hasten on the day when the hon-
est individual may be permitted to enjoy the calm content
of constant industry and the advantages of his own labor,
free alike from the tyranny of numbers in his own class or
of that other class "of prosperous plunderers who live in
abundance surrounded by the victims of their injustice and
rapacity."
You have certainly erected a modest porch to the great
edifice of sound sociology, and performed a service to the
people of the United States.
I am,
Yery truly yours,
T. F. BAYAED.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introductory Letter from Hon. T. F. Bayard, late Secretary of State,
U.S.A iii
PART I.
THE CAUSE OF HIGH WAGES.
CHAPTER I.
The Economy of Production and the Tariff interwoven 1
The Relative Positions of Producers 4
The Tariff Reform Issue 5
In what Foreign Tariffs are Distinct from American Tariffs 8
Wage Differences in Protected and Unprotected Industries 10
The McKinley Act a Monument of Legislative Ignorance 11
The Raw Material in Production 13
CHAPTER II.
The Labor Question in the Tariff 18
The Fallacy of the Old Theory of Wages 19
Relative Productiveness of Labor 20
Differences in Coal Mining 22
Increase of Earnings and Reduced Cost going Hand in Hand 24
The Same Labor Differences in Higher Products 25
Maintaining Power of Labor 28
What Causes High Wages 31
CHAPTER III.
Low Wages, Stagnating Causes. Improvement in Machinery more
Profitable in High-Wage Countries 35
A High Standard a Prerequisite to Improvement 38
Low Wages Indicate Low Productivity 39
Irish Industries as Object Lessons 41
Working for a Home Market 44
x ii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
Advantages of Old Methods in Certain Industries 50
How These Low Wage-Earners Live 51
How they Work in Lyons 53
Economic Advantages of the Old System. Capital left Free 55
The Evolution of Industries 58
The Producer and Consumer are One. Increasing Productiveness is
Increasing Consumptiveness 61
The Economic Value of High Wages generally not Understood 63
CHAPTER V.
The Efficiency and Productiveness of Labor increased by Education. 67
Cheap Labor and Ignorant Labor Synonymous 67
The Ideal Part in the Economy of Production 69
Teaching Industrial Art 72
The Industrial Art Museum 74
Antique and Modern Art Industry 76
CHAPTER VI.
Science and Art Powerful Factors in the Economy of Production. ... 81
Superiority of English Work 82
Helps in Technical Training 84
American Chemists Lagging behind 88
Scientific Improvements quickly adopted 89
CHAPTER VII.
Improvements and Inventions 91
Powerful Influence in Metallurgy 92
Steel Rails 93
Price Reductions in Other Forms of Iron 95
Other Illustrations of Superior American Methods 97
The Steamship an Illustration of Modern Development. Science
applied to Industry 103
CHAPTER VIII.
Proof of Principles laid down taken from Agriculture. Results of
Scientific Methods 108
Ignorance the Causa of Poverty 109
CONTENTS. xiii
PAGE
Difference in Results Traceable to Institutions Ill
Modern Russian Agriculture on a Thirteenth Century Level of Eng-
land 115
High Results of Ownership by the Tiller under Free Laws 119
General Farming Results in Europe Confirmatory of the Principle . . 122
Causes of Lombardy's Superior Agriculture 1 25
The Contrasts and their Causes . 180
CHAPTER IX.
Security from Famine guaranteed by Civilization. Auxiliary Advan-
tages by Improved Means of Communication 134
Truck Farming, a Creation of the Railroad and the Steamboat 136
The Richer Lands give the Poorer Crops 138
Poor Results and High Results due only to Poor or Good Farming. . 188
A Practical Illustration of Results of Best Methods 144
Extent of Land required under Different Methods of Cultivation .... 150
CHAPTER X.
The Condition of the Workingman under the Old and the New Dis-
pensation 153
The Standard of Living under the Best of Old Conditions 154
The Measure of Progress expressed by the Budget of Consumables . . 160
Comparison of Budgets 163
The German Workingman's Basis of Living now, on that of the Eng-
lish a Hundred Years Ago 167
PART II.
THE EFFECT OF HIGH WAGES.
Comparative Methods and Cost of Production in America and European
Countries.
CHAPTER I.
Unreliability of Statements of Protected Interests. The Potter's
Industry in Evidence 175
The Industry in America and England 176
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Assertions of the Trenton Potters 179
Inefficiency attracted by a High Tariff 184
Labor-saving Appliances in Pottery 186
Sanitary Ware 188
Brown Stoneware 190
CHAPTER II.
The Trust and Monopolies alone benefited by Tariff Legislation.
The Glass Industry in Evidence 194
Flint Glass, Table Ware, Hollow Ware, etc 195
Mode of Pay and Comparative Rates in England and America 196
English Rates 198
Cut Glass, Decorated and Fancy Ware 202
Window Glass 204
Plate Glass 205
CHAPTER III.
The Insincerity of the Claim for Protection of Labor. Demonstrated
by a Comparison of the Cost of Coal and Iron Mining, here and
abroad 208
America's and England's Position 212
Iron Ore 213
Coke and Pig-Iron 215
Steel Rail Making 218
CHAPTER IV.
The Injury of Protection to Industry. The Advantages America
reaps from Superior Methods and Low Labor Cost frustrated by
Protection 222
Manufacturers' Tools and Machinery 224
Cutlery 228
Arms, Ammunition, Machinery 229
Europe's Methods Different 231
CHAPTER V.
The Textile Industries. Labor's Higher Reward in America Due
entirely to Greater Exertion. Greater Output and Lower Labor
Cost in Cotton Manufacture. The Tariff Increases Profit Rates
but Reduces Wages. Print Cloth in Evidence 234
CONTENTS. XV
PAGE
Relative Positions of England and America 236
Print Cloth. The Comparative Cost and Rate of Wages 237
Republican Contradiction 242
CHAPTER VI.
Ability to Satisfy the Taste of Buyers Determines the Course of
Trade. Cotton Goods, Printing, Finishing. Our Importations
Caused by Inability of Home Producer to Answer the Wants of
the People. New Departure in Tariff Legislation 246
Cotton Velvets 250
Cotton Hosiery 255
CHAPTER VII.
Futility of attempting Industrial Creations by Protective Tariffs.
Flax Cultivation and Linen Manufacturing. Cotton Embroid-
eries and Laces classed under Linen for Tariff Increase. Reasons
why they cannot be produced here 258
Linen Manufacturers 262
Cotton Embroidery, Cotton Lace 264
Embroidered and Hemstitched Handkerchiefs. . . 267
CHAPTER VIII.
Science and Skill in Manufacturing Industries. Silk Manufactur-
ing. Lyons and Paterson compared. Superiority of Lyons
Goods. Lower Cost Due to Other Causes than Differences in
Labor 269
Loading of Silks 273
Comparative Cost of Spinning 275
The Dyeing of Silk 277
Weaving 278
General Conditions of Silk Manufacturing in America 281
CHAPTER IX.
Silk Plushes. Increased Duties to Foster Non-existing Industries..
Marked Decline in Silk Manufacturing in General. Tariffs can-
not Supply the Absence of Skill and Knowledge 283
xv i CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
PAGE
Wool and Woolens. Protection frustrated by its own Excesses.
Wool artificially Dear Limits Consumption. Decrease of Sheep.
Increase in England. Decline in Wool Manufacturing Trace-
able to the Tariff. Great Increase in tbe Use of Wool Sub-
stitutes 294
The Wool 295
American Wool 298
Other Disastrous Effects of a Wool Tariff 301
Decline in Wool Increase in Shoddy 307
CHAPTER XI.
Woolens and Worsteds. Methods pursued in Comparative Inquiry. . 310
Worsteds and Combed- Yarn Goods 313
The Labor 314
The Yarn 318
Italian Cloths 323
Mohair and Other Combed- Wool Dress Goods 325
CHAPTER XII.
Carded-Wool Goods. Labor not Higher than in England 328
Dress Goods 329
Answering by " If " 333
The Proof is in the Selling Price 337
All- Wool Kersey Cloth 338
6-4 Cheviots 340
CHAPTER XIII.
Plushes, Pile Fabrics, Knit Goods classed with Clothing for Duty
Increase 342
Knit Fabrics 345
Carpets 348
Summary of Comparative Cost in Woolens and Worsteds. What is
the Cost Difference under Free Wool 351
CHAPTER XIV.
The Making-up Industries. Industries protected, but not by Tariffs. 356
The Manufacturing System of Berlin 361
The Sweating System 363
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
PAGE
Improved Methods and Division of Labor. Labor in Ready-made
Goods here and abroad. Great Export Articles. Foreign
Commerce restricted by the Tariff 370
Boots and Shoes 373
The Foreign Trade Aspect 375
Reciprocity Treaties 379
CHAPTER XVI.
The Tariff in its Relations to the Industrial Problem. Comparative
Labor Cost in Principal Industries in America and England.
High Wages and Reduced Hours resulting from Improvement
in Economy of Production 383
The Cost of Production 385
Economic and Sociological Deductions 390
The Cotton Industry, an Illustration 395
The Cause of Progress and Prosperity 401
Addenda 406
Index 409
2
THE CAUSE OF HIGH WAGES.
Eine einzige Thatsache vermag die Systeme ganzer Jahrhunderte tiber
den Haufen zu werfen und ganze Bibliotheken in Makulatur zu ver-
wandeln. Gegen die Thatsachen hilft kein Strauben und Protestiren.
Frauenst&dt.
A single fact is able to upset the systems of centuries and to turn
whole libraries into waste paper. Neither resisting nor protesting avails
against facts.
CHAPTER I.
The Economy of Production and the Tariff interwoven. Impossibility
to treat the One without a Thorough Understanding of the Ele-
ments of Production. The Difference of Tariffs here and abroad.
The Raw Material, the Natural Starting-point in Production. The
Inherent Differences to be considered.
THE protective theory starts from the assumption that
an act of legislation can equalize the differences which eco-
nomically considered exist between one country and another
in the ability of producing whatever is not absolutely with-
held by nature. As within this wide limit there is very
little which cannot be called into being in the range of
products consumed by the people, provided the differences
in cost can be balanced by enabling the home producer to
charge the difference on the consumer, there can be very
little difficulty to understand the genesis of protection.
The taxing power of nations has not been loath to avail
itself of the advantages which this dogma offered. By per-
suading the workingman that he could find more remunera-
tive employment he was made an easy proselyte, wherever
he had anything to say in the selection of his rulers, to the
policy of excluding foreign products by tariff taxation,
which might interfere with the sale of the products of his
own industry. The manufacturer, of course, would be the
1
2 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
stanchest advocate of the policy, as he could collect all the
profits from the consumer which lie between his enhanced cost
of production and the price he could realize from the sale of
his goods. It was his interest, therefore, at all times to have
this margin as big as possible. He did this very effectively,
as is known to all generations of tariff-afflicted peoples, by
getting the legislators to keep raising the duties to heights
as demanded by every interest. Many things, however,
have escaped notice, which, had they received due weight,
would, have tipped the balance in the opposite direction.
Taxation of foreign imports for revenue, selects only
such articles as dutiable which will not interfere with home
production. Articles of luxury or of immediate consump-
tion not requiring a process of remanufacture are fit
objects of such taxation. Taxation for protection, necessarily
must gradually extend over all articles which go into every
species of remanufacture. Every one concerned in the pro-
duction of consumables will consider himself injured unless
he gets his share allotted in the enterprise of creating universal
prosperity by universal taxation. Taxation for protection,
therefore, covers the raw material of the fabric as well as of
the worker, the sustenance on which he must feed to keep
up his tissue. It covers every advance in the scale of pro-
gression. Every new feature in the metamorphosis of pro-
duction is made a subject of additional caretaking by taxa-
tion. Finally, by this inflating process constantly going
on, the cost of production is increased so that protectionism
would become extinct more by the curses of its beneficiaries
than by the kicks of its enemies, were the former as enlight-
ened as one might expect the producers to be on the econo-
mies of their own crafts and trades. Another cause of dis-
tress to the protected, growing out of protection, is in the
attraction of capital and enterprise to these artificially fos-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3
tered industries by which the very reverse of the early ben-
efits frequently follow to those who embark with hardly any
other qualification than the possession of capital.
The pressure which the unusually keen competition fol-
lovying therefrom exercises on prices cannot be alleviated
by relief which foreign markets would give. The inflated
cost of materials, though labor and capital become alike
depressed in the struggle for survival by a merciless compe-
tition, would prevent this, if all other things were equal.
The difficulties interposed by protection to the normal
growth and expansion of industries are increased when
further abnormities have been introduced which make it
doubtful by what name to call a system of fiscal taxation
such as encumbers the statute books of the United States.
It has been doubtful at all times, from 1870 on, whether to
call it a system of protection, obstruction, or destruction.
It may be said to be one thing or the other as the parties
concerned are affected by such a system of hybrid legisla-
tion. When the so-called Morrill tariff the war tariff
was enacted, the terms were moderate compared to what
they have become since by successive layers. The later
increases, required by the exigencies of the war, in 1865
and 1867 were found necessary, in part at least, as offsets
against the newly introduced system of internal revenue
taxation, which taxed home products specifically, besides
taxing the manufacturer on his sales, the banker and the
merchant on their turnover, and then the net incomes of all
concerned over again. All these internal rates have long
ago become extinct, and nothing remains of the whole sys-
tem, except those on intoxicating liquors, beer, and cigars,
which are properly called excise duties and do not bear on
the subject of discussion except in a very remote way.
The tariff on foreign imports, however, has not been
4 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
reduced. We cannot call the tariff act of 1883 a reduction.
In all its essential features it was as burdensome as that of
1867 ; in one sense greatly more so, inasmuch as the de-
cline in prices of almost all commodities since 1867 had
thrown out of proportion the relations of the specific duties
to the prices of the articles on which they were imposed.*
Hence the tariff of 1883 weighed more heavily upon the
people as consumers and producers than that of 1867, which
was strictly a war measure.
The Relative Positions of Producers.
It is evident, confining ourselves more strictly to the
concrete question as it presents itself in the United States,
that the industrial interests would long have rebelled against
this war tariff and its further excrescences had they not
been held in check by fears and threats. The latter were
more powerful than they would have been had they been
met by a more thorough understanding of the principles
which govern the economy of production than is the case
among so intelligent a people as the producing classes of the
United States, including the manufacturers. The latter
soon found out that the taxing of raw material for protec-
tion's sake practically confiscated the advantages given by
* In illustration I will refer to the price of raw wool. In 1867 the price
of greasy Australian was 12|d. (25 cents gold) London price. The duty
was 11 cents a pound and 10 per cent, ad valorem, equal to 54 per cent.
The same wool is now quoted at 8d. or 16 cents a pound, and was a few
months previous to this writing as low as 7}d. or 14| cents. Specific duty of
11 cents makes the ad valorem percentage to come to 70 to 75 per cent.
so that, even without the 10 per cent, ad valorem of the old tariff taken
off (changed in 1883 to a net rate of 10 cents per pound), the new tariff
taxes wool one-third more than the extremest war tariff rates have been.
The specific rate of 11 cents in 1867 equalled 44 per cent. ; in 1892 it
equals 70 to 75 per cent.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 5
protection to their respective industries. A large class of
them, chiefly among those whose products had exceeded
the limited markets to which they were confined thereby,
made protestations. As early as 1882 they organized, and
later took more decided action asking for radical reform of
the tariff on the basis of free raw materials. In 1884 they
sent the writer a representative to Chicago to urge the
adoption by the Democratic National Convention of their
views, contained in the following resolutions :
"First The abolition of all duties on raw materials, such as wool,
iron, and other ores, coal, jute, hemp, flax, dye stuffs, etc., in order that
we may compete in home and foreign markets with other manufacturing
nations, not one of which taxes raw materials.
"Second The adjustment of the tariff, so that manufactures approach-
ing nearest to the crude state will pay a lower rate, and manufactures that
are further advanced, requiring more skill and labor, will pay a higher
rate of duties."
The convention adopted these views, and they form now
the credo of that party.
At first sight it may seem unjust to free the products of
the farm or the mine and to protect the products of the mill.
I admit the stricture to be correct. I consider all protective
taxes injurious to that extent that they increase the cost of
production. I consider them superfluous, as the economy
of production in the United States clearly shows. It is the
object of these pages to show that production is conducted
on so essentially different a basis in the United States than
in other countries that all the arguments hitherto employed
for the maintenance of the protective principle become more
than hypothetical. But no matter what the demonstrations,
though they be based on the most reliable facts obtainable
by personal investigations, the practical conditions are that
the fiscal laws of the country cannot be changed at will.
6 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Accustomed methods of raising revenue must b& followed.
Whatever the opinion of the most radical reformer, he must
take existing conditions, the bias of the public mind, into
very serious consideration. A tariff on imported commodi-
ties will maintain itself for some time to come, and it remains
here only to say that a tariff on finished articles is the only
possible way of meeting the difficulty. To raise a revenue
and give relief from burdensome taxation to the producer
and the consumer can only be done by cutting away some-
where. Leaving the raw material taxed and taking off the
duties from manufactures would be too absurd even for
mention. A child could see that it would shut up every
workshop and mill. The producer of the raw material
would not need to concern himself further about the advan-
tages of his special protection. He would have killed the
goose which lays the golden eggs. There would be no mar-
ket whatever for his protected raw material. But, on the
contrary, the best protection for the producer of the raw
material lies in the healthy expansion of manufacturing
industries an axiom which, stated by the author, has
always given extreme satisfaction to protectionists. The
only difference is in the methods found necessary. The
writer considers non-interference, his opponents constant
interference, the best means to the great end.
The natural advantages and resources are so great, the
impulses to exploit them for individual benefit are so pow-
erful, in the United States, that no matter what other nations
may deem necessary in consequence of a different historical
development, considerations which may guide them do
not apply here. In agriculture these differences of an
economico-political character have at all times had the most
decisive influence. It can be demonstrated from the most
substantial facts, that the freest institutions give the great-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 7
est excess of products. The rude system of agriculture in
America cannot be classed with the systems of the advanced
countries of Europe. The settlers of new lands are not
given to intensive cultivation. What gives the quickest
returns to the labor of the husbandman is an extensive
cultivation of comparatively large tracts of land requiring
little manuring and preparing. A comparison of yield per
acre is therefore inadmissible. But the great total result is
that America, feeding her own people in abundance, sends
perhaps twenty -five per cent, in value of agricultural prod-
ucts to make up the deficiencies of Europe.
A tariff for protection of agricultural products in America
stands therefore much in the position of blinding the farmer
while his pockets are rifled by highwaymen. The effect of
a tariff stimulation on such products of the soil which for
inherent differences have been previously imported in more
or less important quantities, has always been an extended
acreage allotted to the crop, in the anxiety of the farmer for
something " that will pay." The consequence of fostering
by " protection " has therefore always been an oversupply
of undesirable and often unmarketable products within a
year or so of the enactment, and a greater distress of the
farmer than he had felt before he received the treacherous
gift.
It is plain from this brief statement of an undisputable
fact, that the American farmer cannot be protected by pro-
tective legislation. All threats of certain interested people
would, from this cause alone, have been met with contempt
had not the living generation of industrials been so filled
with the protective mania that their understanding of con-
ditions under which production is conducted had become
obtuse. No wonder that this condition of the mind of the
two classes of producers, the agricultural and the manufac-
8 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
turing, has been considered an excellent field for the design-
ing politician to cultivate in his interest. By playing one
interest against another the Eepublican party has been able
to strike fear among all and thus make anxious victims be-
lievers in benefits largely the children of the imagination.
From the agriculturist's point of view the only remedy for
complaints, he has had ample reasons for advancing of late
years, lies in the removal of import duties of a protective
character affecting the price of his consumables, and not in
the imposition of duties on what he produces. The surplus
determining the price of his entire product, the price for him
is made on European exchanges, buying that surplus. Ab-
solute free trade being out of consideration for reasons
stated the practical question remains to find a nearest ap-
proach, which would relieve the consumer without prevent-
ing the collecting of revenue by means conformable to
ingrained notions of the people.
There remains then no other way to bring all these exigen-
cies and seemingly conflicting interests into harmony than by
such a policy as is demanded in the resolutions referred to
as the only practical basis of tariff reform.
In what Foreign Tariffs are Distinct from Amer-
ican Tariffs.
From the American manufacturer's point of view the pro-
tected interests chiefly the only rational basis of a tariff is
one based on free raw materials. The fact that no other
industrial nation, with whom American manufacturers aim
to compete in neutral markets, taxes raw materials, should be
an object lesson strong enough for them. When we hear of
Germany or France taxing raw materials it always means tax-
ing food supplies. Foolish as this must appear, raising the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 9
oost of living, reducing the standard of life and in consequence
reducing the productive capacity of the working classes, jet
it is something quite mild in comparison with raising the
price of the manufacturer's raw material his " matiere
premiere " (first materials) fifty to a hundred per cent, above
the cost at which his foreign competitors use the same.
In a sense the foreign agriculturist stands towards his
tariff in the position in which our industrial classes stand
towards our tariff. There the landed classes, chiefly the
landed proprietors, draw all the benefits from the tariff, while
the small peasant, agricultural laborer, and all the rest of the
people are heavily taxed on their food supplies. To benefit
a few the whole nation is taxed and the nation's productive
power curtailed. Here in America agriculturists cannot be
protected, as has been shown. They are merely taxed, to
support an artificial system in which make-believes go a great
way to make burdens seem a blessing.
Of course, the same relates to all the occupations which
are engaged in the professions, personal services, and the
distributing trades. The same relates to all the industrial
occupations which cannot possibly be benefited by a pro-
tective tariff: the building trades, railroad building, slaugh-
tering, and other trades connected with food supplies, and
all occupations operating on non-transportable objects. All
told, there are barely 5 per cent, of bread-earners to whom
any direct benefit can be said to accrue from the protective
tariff, while all of them (even the 5 per cent.) suffer to the
full extent of the whole measure of double taxation, viz., for
revenue to the government, and for protection to a favored
few. But even this very small class reduces itself to a
smaller and smaller number, the closer one examines into
the industrial fabric which is said to be benefited. It is in
evidence that the greater the amount of protection dealt out,
10 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the lower the rate of wages; while the freer the industry
from all such influences, the higher the rate of wages.* In
the cotton industry the daily wages are not materially differ-
ent from English wages. If we take the greater number of
looms and spindles worked, and the greater number of weekly
* I will give here the wages paid in the building trades and in cotton
manufacturing, as evidence. The wages for Germany are taken from the
wage lists prepared for regular periodical publication by the Sociological
Society Concordia, in Mayence. For the building trades I take the
wages for the Hansa towns, where the highest rates are paid. For Eng-
land I take the wage rates for Manchester, Liverpool, and London from
the lists prepared by the Trade Unions' Committee for the Royal Com-
mission on Trade Depression. For America I take the rates ruling in
New York City.
The wages, reduced to the hour, compare as follows :
GERMANY. ENGLAND. AMERICA.
Cents. Cents. Cents.
Bricklayers (34.7 pfg.) 8* 16 45
Stonemasons 8J 16 to 18 45
Carpenters (30 pfg.) 7i 16 30 to 35
The percentage of wages of England over Germany is a round 100 per
cent. ; of America over England, 180 per cent., and over Germany, 430
per cent, and 330 per cent. , respectively.
In the cotton goods industry 1 take the wages of spinners and reduce
them also to the hour, so as to bring them to a common basis.
These wages are taken from mills which I visited, and they were
given me by the parties paying, and corroborated by those receiving
them.
RHENISH GERMANY MAvruFSTFR I OWFT T
AND SWITZERLAND.
Cents. Cents. Cents.
Mule spinners (men) 5.2 to 6 14 to 17 15 to 16
Ring spinners (women) 4.3 to 5.2 6 8.4
The English and American mule spinners stand about on a par, while
they earn from 165 to 200 per cent, more than Swiss or German spinners.
The American spinner-girl earns 70 per cent, more than the Swiss or Ger-
man, and 40 per cent, more than the English girl. But this is balanced
by handling eight sides with 960 spindles, against four sides with 576
spindles in England. The American spinner gets less pay per work than
the English, Swiss, or German.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. H
working hours into consideration, they are decidedly below
the English rates. In woolens, taking all the differences
into consideration, 25 per cent, would cover the higher rate
of pay which our working people can call their own, and
even this is frequently balanced by a higher output. In the
building trades, which are certainly independent from all
benefits a tariff can give, as houses cannot- well be imported,
the differences are from 200 to 400 per cent, in favor of the
American artisan. Entirely different considerations than
tariffs bring about the higher rate of wages which prevails
in this country. What these causes are, will be the subject
of the succeeding chapters. Here it can only briefly be
mentioned that the wage earner does not draw any benefit
from protective duties, and that so long as the tariff on
raw materials prevails, he, along with the employer, is
directly injured by the system. The facts in support of this
will be brought out in the course of this treatise. Blind
prejudice may strenuously oppose their application, but the
force of facts is too strong to be long delayed before sweep-
ing away artificially bolstered-up theories.
The McKinley Act, a Monument of Legislative
Ignorance.
The legislators responsible for the act did what they were
expected to do. They simply delivered the goods for value
received in 1888, with a tentative hint to future campaign
contributions. Still they might have shown an apprecia-
tion of the consumers' interests. They could have learned
that they are entirely compatible with the true interests of
the manufacturers. An inquiry into the productive methods
of European countries would have shown them that these
are based on vitally different principles. They would then
12 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
have seen that our importations are due to only a limited
extent to cheaper labor cost in Europe. They, as well as
the recipients of legislative favors, should know that tech-
nical and artistic skill are elements of very great importance
in manufacture. If we are deficient in the one or the other,
it is only natural that we import what we cannot find equally
satisfactory at home.
Our labor, being machine labor, is generally cheaper than
European labor, which is to a large extent hand labor or in-
ferior machine labor or unproductive underfed labor, as com-
pared with higher productive American labor. What our
labor suffers from, is the high cost of taxed materials. Free
raw materials and a higher technical and artistic develop-
ment would result in lasting benefits to our manufacturing
industries, which periodic additions to already extreme tariff
rates can never do. They increase the cost of production in
spite of our cheap labor, and continue the congested condi-
tion so frequently complained of by manufacturers.
It was my good fortune to be charged by Mr. Bayard,
the late Secretary of State, with the important mission of
inquiry into the economy of production and the state of
technical education in Europe. The information gained
from my investigations fully bears out these views. I had
not been able to make a final report, and it shall be my en-
deavor now to give to the public a review of the industrial
situation from personal observation in the foremost indus-
trial countries of Europe and the United States. From the
insight into the competitive side of the productive process
gained thereby, it will be not difficult to understand that the
McKinley tariff is opposed to the best interests of our pro-
ducing classes, the manufacturers included ; that it failed
entirely to accomplish what it set out to do, and that it
could not end in anything but failure, because starting on
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 13
entirely erroneous premises, even when it honestly strives
to benefit American industries.
The Raw Material in the Product.
Before speaking, however, of production and the proc-
esses by which it is conducted in the different countries, of
labor, its reward and its productiveness, of the true causes
which lead on to progress, the basis of prosperity of the
working classes, it is essential to say a word or two of
the raw material, especially as the most important part
the inherent part, which gives character to the fabric is
given but little consideration by the tinkers in legislation.
Since nations have risen from barbarism and isolation
they have become accustomed to exchanging their products.
This exchange of commodities served to create more wants
and develop taste. What is not produced, for reasons too
varied to specify, by one country is obtained through com-
merce from another.
Now, among all things impossible to produce by all coun-
tries, gifted with the same intelligence and advancement in
science and the arts, is that which is the product of nature,
and this we call raw material. Everything else in the fin-
ishing into an article of use may be reached even by nations
not having the same natural adaptation and artistic feeling,
by proper teaching and training. To the raw material can-
not be given the essence by cultivation which it derives
from the soil and the climate. Great are the variations in
minerals even. Take clay and stone. One of the reasons
adduced for crazing in pottery is in the different properties
which the clay of this country possesses compared with the
clay and kaoline of Cornwall and Devonshire. In iron ore,
not one ore has the same qualities as another. We cannot
14 TEE ECONOMY OF HI&H WAGES.
use our ores for Bessemer iron, except from the remotest
sections of the county on Lake Superior.
In all these materials the chemical qualities and affinities
of the parts determine the character of the product so
entirely that only the grossest ignorance would endeavor to
build up industries and put restraint upon the free choice
of nature's gifts.
But even to textiles this applies with fullest force. For
fine yarn spinning no cotton equals Egyptian. Our own
Sea Island is something quite different from and superior to
the upland cottons.
It is only of late years that our cotton manufacturers
begin to see the advantages which they would reap from a
greater use of Egyptian cotton. Though in small quantities
yet, as compared with the use made of it by the English,
Swiss, and German fine yarn spinners, the rapid increase
during the last few years shows that even protected manu-
facturers cannot forever continue oblivious to the pressure
of trade facts. Rays of outside facts creep into the fool's
paradise of protection, and disturb the harmony of interests
so dexterously fostered, no matter how carefully the blinds
are pulled. Of the 500,000 bales of Egyptian cotton raised,
we imported in 1885 a total of 4,553 bales and in 1890
some 9,000 bales. The bale is of 750 pounds.
Egyptian cotton has properties which even Sea Island
cotton does not possess. Aside from the fact that it has a
long fibre and is therefore excellently suited for combing
purposes, making a very even thread, it has the very great
advantage of a higher lustre, so that the fabrics made of it
are softer and take more the character of silk goods. In
the dyeing, the goods made of Egyptian cotton have more
brilliancy of color, and for cotton and silk mixed goods it is
of especial importance that the respective fibres blend well.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 15
Besides all this the goods made from this cotton take a much
finer finish. All this is well known to foreign manufact-
urers and is the chief cause why we import most of our fine
yarn goods. In all American fabrics made to substitute
these foreign importations, a lack of knowledge of this first
principle in production, to have the proper raw material for
the goods, is painfully apparent.
In no branch, however, are the differences so great as
in wool. Our own wools show conclusively that almost
every State of the Union produces a different grade. For
instance: the wools raised in the far West in the new
Territories and States are considered very inferior to those
raised in the States east of the Mississippi. The pasturage
consists of wild grasses, which during the dry season be-
come parched, leaving the sandy soil underneath as a fine
dust or sand, which permeates the fleece, adding much to
its shrinkage and changing not only its appearance but the
strength of staple, more especially where the soil is alkaline.
Such wools lack in lustre and spring, and goods made from
them show a dead, cottony appearance. They could not
possibly be used as an offset in the manufacture of fabrics
which we Import, amounting in 1890 to $50,000,000, and
which, adding duties, $35,000,000, represent $85,000,000
American value laid down at the ports, exclusive of freight
and other charges.
For the replacing of this vast amount the American
supply would be entirely insufficient. We raise the corre-
sponding wools in very limited quantities (and, what is more
to the point, in receding quantities) in the older States only.
Texas and California wools have good felting properties.
For combing purposes they are unserviceable. Of combing
wools only a limited amount is raised in the States lying east
of the Mississippi. But most of the goods used for outer
16 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
wear have for years been made of combed and not of carded
wool.
The same differences we find in English wools. The
Southdown is different from the north country wool ; the
Scotch from the English ; the Welsh wool different from
the English and Scotch again. The best reputed kinds of
Scotch tweeds can only be made from a particular class of
Scotch wools. Irish wool is different again. Welsh, Irish,
and Scotch wools shrink but very little when manufactured
into flannels, knit goods, etc., in the washing ; German and
American wools, very much more so. Australian, Cape, and
Plate wools differ again. But these differences can be made
very valuable by adapting the varying qualities to the
respective fabrics to which they give their special character.
The same can be said of silk. China silk, Japan silk,
Italian, French, East India silks, they all differ. Breeding
and cultivation can improve the product, but cannot give it
the properties which it derives from the soil upon and the
sun under which it grows.
In articles of direct consumption, this is so well under-
stood that a reference to it will make the meaning plain to
everybody. Nobody accustomed to the taste of Rhine wine
will take American wines instead, nor would anybody who
had a preference for French wines take the Italian growth
in their place. No amount of cultivation will produce
Havana tobacco in any part of the United States. Nor
would tobacco grown in one part of the United States from
seed transplanted from another part of the country produce
the same tobacco.
A tax upon raw materials will always and necessarily
injure home industries, because the people who for one
reason or another prefer an article of foreign to one of domes-
tic manufacture on account of the inherent qualities of its
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 17
material, be they what they may, will buy the foreign
article if by virtue of the duty the raw material is excluded
from our workshops and factories, and thereby withdraw
support to that extent from home industries.
Protectionists who always are so full of concern in behalf
of the working classes and their employment at full wages
omit to give this side their consideration.
2
CHAPTER II.
The Labor Question in the Tariff. The Old Labor Doctrine opposed to
Experience. The Cheapness of Well-paid Labor. Iron and Coal
Mining-Machine Operating. Foreign Labor not capable of Exertion
like American. Mostly Crude Labor from Abroad. Slowness in
Adopting Labor-saving Improvements in Low- wage Countries.
NOTHING in the whole 'catalogue of argument for pro-
tection by its advocates has been used with so much effect
as the fact that the daily wage rate of American working
people is higher than that paid by manufacturing nations of
Europe. From this fact, that wages are higher in America,
a fact not disputed by any one, the conclusion has readily
been jumped to that the differences between the rate paid in
Europe by competing nations and in America in the same
lines of industry should be equalized by tariff duties laid
upon the article of foreign manufacture.
The question here arises, What connection is there be-
tween the daily wages of the workingman and the cost of
his work ?
Until very recently the theory had been accepted without
argument and criticism that a day's labor in any one line in
one country would produce the same results as a day's
labor in another country ; indeed, it has been handed down
as an axiom, and upon this the so-called iron law of wages
has been built, which to a large extent is the cause of our
present socialistic agitation. The so-called law arises from
another so-called law, promulgated by the English school of
economists, that, if wages rise in one part of a country
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 19
above the general rate ruling, very soon an influx will fol-
low of labor from the lower stratum, which will soon begin
to press on and reduce the rate of wages to the old standard.
This, then, necessarily would lead to a state in which it
would be hopeless for the working classes to expect any-
thing more than the mere means for their subsistence and
for the perpetuation of their race. How ever such a view
could have got abroad and taken possession of the thought
of generations is one of these incomprehensible features
which we meet in the history of thought. Views are
accepted without being questioned if put forth with suffi-
cient authoritativeness, even if the experience of every day
shows their futility.
The Fallacy of the Old Theory of Wages.
The theory of wages which we combat in these pages is
principally based on Ricardo. He formulates this so-called
iron law, as a kind of dogmatic prison-cell out of which
there is no escape for the working classes, and we cannot do
better than to quote him in his own words :
" If the shoes and clothing of the labourer could, by improvements in
machinery, be produced by one-fourth of the labour now necessary to
their production, they would probably fall 75 per cent. ; but so far is it
from being true that the labourer would thereby be enabled permanently to
consume four coats or four pair of shoes, instead of one, that it is probable
his wages in no long time would be adjusted by the effects of competi-
tion and the stimulus to population to the new value of the necessaries on
which they were expended. If these improvements extended to all the
objects of the labourer's consumption, we should find him probably, at
the end of a very few years, in the possession of only a small, if any,
addition to his enjoyments." (The Works of David Ricardo : London,
John Murray, 1886, p. 12.)
Instead of being not true that the laborer would by these
20 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES,
improvements be enabled permanently to consume four
coats instead of one, etc. (which is equivalent to reaping the
full benefit of the improvements in the economy of pro-
duction), history shows that the effect of these improve-
ments has always been to increase the well-being of the
laborer. The improvements referred to must by the natural
force and the momentum given thereby, lead by necessity to
the improvement of conditions wherein the laborer always
gets the largest proportion of the gain. The facts lead to
exactly contrary conclusions from those of Ricardo and the
schools accepting them. Any one who has experience in
manufacturing knows by his own observations that the
laborer's wages increase in the proportion that his produc-
tive capacity increases, whatever the causes which bring this
about. Not his money wages alone but his real wages,
expressed in their purchasing power.
Relative Productiveness of Labor.
Every employer of labor knows and will readily admit
that the laborer's value stands in exact proportion to the
quantity of work turned out.
The productive capacity of the labor is a varying quan-
tity, even aside from the aid given by machinery and inven-
tion. We find not alone that nation and nation differ in
the same occupations, but the different sections of a country
vary in results when output and output is compared.
Thomas Brassey, in his interesting book, "Work and
Wages," gives an abundance of facts to show the superior-
ity of English over continental labor in road-building and
railroad-building navvy work principally. For the best
and most difficult work, that of making curves, etc., he
could employ no other labor but English. English labor was
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 21
paid at a much higher rate than continental labor, working
alongside of it. But still, measured by the work done, in
many instances the cost was higher at the lower wage rate per
diem than the work done at the higher wage rate per diem.
The better feeding and better muscular development of the
Englishman is accepted now as explanation of this fact.
But in reference to the differences in the effectiveness of
crude labor employed in the same occupation, we can take
an example frorn the United States to show clearly and dis-
tinctly that a day's work in the same occupation is some-
thing quite different in different parts of the same country.
Pig-iron-making is, perhaps, one of the crudest industries,
so far as labor employment goes. The principal part of the
labor expense at a furnace is wheelbarrowing and yard-
work. In the Northern States, especially in the Pittsburgh
region, where most of the ore used is from Lake Superior, a
great part of the expense is due to the necessity of storing
the ore on account of climatic influences, interruption of
navigation in winter, and so on, thereby necessitating two
handlings instead of one. In England, with its open win-
ters, no such necessity exists. The ore is run from the
mine on tracks to the furnace to be filled into barrows, put
upon the lift, hoisted, and dumped into the furnace. If im-
ported ores are used, the furnaces being situated along the
coast, the steamers are run close by and the ore is taken
direct from the ship to the furnace.
In the Southern States the ore beds are situated so near
the furnaces that much the same condition prevails.
Crude labor per day there is certainly not more than about
two-thirds of what it is in Pittsburgh ; still, with the seem-
ing advantages of cheap day labor and the advantages of
situation mentioned, I found in a recent investigation on
the labor cost in iron-making in certain furnaces in Ala-
22 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
bama, that the labor cost per ton is nearly the same as in
Pittsburgh and a little higher than at furnaces in eastern
Pennsylvania, which I visited in 1888 a time when labor,
consequent upon high iron prices, had obtained twice an
increase in pay of ten per cent.
This, my own observation, is fully corroborated in a re-
cent statement published by the Labor Bureau at Washing-
ton. Taking about twenty -five furnaces from the Northern
States, and about the same number from the Southern States,
the average for both is nearly the same; leaving out of the
average for the Southern States three furnaces which are
given as making iron at the labor cost per ton of $0.595,
$0.784, and $1.008 (which is an impossibility on the face of
it, judging from the known conditions), the average for the
other twenty-one Southern furnaces is about $1.70 per ton.
This is a higher average price of labor than in Northern
furnaces. Southern ores, however, are mostly cheaper ores
of a lower percentage of iron, consequently, require more
wheelbarrowing and hoisting. Therefore, on the same basis
of work done, the cost would be about the same if any-
thing, somewhat higher showing clearly that though cheap
labor gets less remuneration per diem, its cheapness is no
saving to the employers. More hands are required to do
the same amount of work that better paid labor does at the
same cost. More efficient labor in the North accomplishes
greatly more in a given time, and thus renders its work, if
anything, at a lower cost than the cheaper labor elsewhere
Differences in Coal Mining.
Coal mining in the rich bituminous fields of America
gives a further illustration. Taking the data from the
census of 1890 for the mining industries of Alabama, Ken-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
23
tucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illi-
nois, and Indiana, we find the products, value, and wages as
follows (tons at 2,000 Ibs.) :
ANNUAL PRODUCT.
WAGES
PER TON.
VALUE
AT MINE.
3,378,000
$0.94
$1.10
Tennessee
1,925,000
82
1 21
Kentucky
2,399,000
70
99
West Virginia
6,231,000
60
82
Pennsylvania
36,174,000
58
77
Ohio
9,976,000
69
94
Illinois
12,104 000
69
97
The lower cost per ton goes hand in hand with the higher
day rates. An approximate idea can be given from this
table of the differences in the labor cost and relative work-
ing capacity in the same line of production in the different
sections. The annual earnings of the laborer would not
permit to base comparisons on, on account of the difference
in number of days worked in the year. The nature of the
coal and the depth and incline of the seams are also differ-
ences of importance in coal mining. But where a survey of
production is taken on so large a scale a fair average of con-
ditions may be assumed to exist. Allowing for all possible
objections and eschewing all other generalizations we can
certainly accept this as irrefutable evidence that coal is
mined cheaper in the Northern than in the Southern States.
As to the earnings, we cannot take the yearly earnings as
a criterion of daily wages. The days of employment in the
year, varying so much in the different States, are at hand
only for five of these States. But taking these and putting
Kentucky and Tennessee for the Southern and the remain-
ing States for the North we find the average day rate for
24 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Miners. Laborers.
$ $ Cents.
Tennessee 1.98 1.26 82
Kentucky 1.75 1.56 70
West Virginia 1.86 1.47 60
Ohio 2.01 1.77 69
Illinois 1.96 1.63 69
Increase of Earnings and Reduced Cost going
Hand in Hand.
The labor cost per ton, it will be seen, is lowest where the
average of day wages is highest. But if this demonstrates
satisfactorily our point, we can with equal certainty refute
the statement cited above that labor does not permanently
gain by the improvements which lead to a reduction in
price.
We can show this by putting the average annual earnings
of all employed in these coal-mining States, the labor cost
per ton, and the value per ton, side by side with the same
items from the census of 1880 :
Yearly Earnings. Wages per Ton. Value per Ton.
1880. 1890. 1880. 1890. 1880. 1890.
$ $ Cents. Cents. $ $
Tennessee 332 392 68 82 1.27 1.21
Kentucky 261 334 73 70 1.20 .0.99
West Virginia. . 295 391 72 60 1.10 0.82
Ohio 320 352 86 69 1.29 0.94
Illinois 382 357 99 69 1.44 0.97
A rise in the total of earnings is very marked, and goes
hand in hand with a very decided fall in the price of the
product.
The decline in the cost of production is due to nothing
else but to improvements governing the economy of pro-
duction in the mining industry.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 25
The same practical results show themselves in other
industries all along the line so far covered by the last
census.
In woolens the earnings of all employed have risen from
an average of $294 to one of $347. The price of wool hav-
ing declined, as shown in the opening chapter, as much as
twenty-five per cent, between 1879-80 and 1890, shows, in
combination with a greater use of shoddy, cotton, and other
wool substitutes in the industry, that a far greater bulk had
to be manufactured than is expressed in the difference of
values of raw material, which rose from $164,000,000 to
$203,000,000. Divided over the product, the cost of produc-
tion must necessarily be less. The bulk being, to say the
least, by one-third greater in each dollar's worth of material
consumed in 1890 over 1880, and the ratio in the rise of
wages equal to the ratio of values in material, leaves no
room for any other conclusion.
The Same Labor Differences Manifest in Higher
Products.
In the making of finished iron, I was told by the Presi-
dent of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers that the piece rates at Southern puddling furnaces
were the same as in Pittsburgh ; that the labor there, how-
ever, is very wasteful, and that experience has shown that
three white men do the work of five colored men. This
proves conclusively that even work done by mere muscular
labor, shows great gradations in efficiency of the workers ;
that no great competition and pressing down by help not
used to the work, or of a lesser efficiency, can ensue, or offer
serious dangers to those employed and possessing greater
efficiency, is obvious from these examples covering crude
labor processes.
26 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
It is held generally that labor-operating machinery of the
same nature and construction would turn out in a given
time the same amount of work. It has been my own expe-
rience that labor turned on the same kind of work, and using
the same machinery, showed the most varying results. Sew-
ing-machine operators in my employ turned out, in so sim-
ple a labor object as plain hemming, all the way from 2,000
to 6,000 and 7,000 yards a week, which, paid at the rate of
twenty cents a hundred yards, gave wages varying from $4
to $12, and sometimes $14, a week.
The lowest grade of earnings may be due to lesser experi-
ence and skill, as that of beginners; but even among opera-
tors of experience differences exist, if we take $12 as the
maximum, varying all the way from $6 to $12 under an
equally ready supply of work, and in the same number of
working hours. This is a very simple article, requiring
only deftness of hand, and no special change and shifting.
Equal variations I found in more difficult parts trimming
and adjusting. There is, however, one very important point
which will also be conceded by every one familiar with
manufacturing : that the work done by those who earn the
highest wages and do the work most rapidly is the work
which, based upon its selling value, would command the
highest prices, being done better, more regularly, and cleaner
than that of those who earn the lower wages. This is a very
important distinction, upon which too much emphasis can-
not be laid for the understanding of the labor question as
well as the understanding of the economy of production in
general. In all my inquiries, abroad and at home, I always
found this fact a predominating feature.
If such variations in the skill and productive power of the
individual workers under the same roof and under the same
direction, supervision, and training, impress themselves upon
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 27
our view, how much more must we expect to find variations
in the output when the production of the same lines of goods
is carried on in different countries.
In almost every employment of an industrial nature a very
great amount of training is requisite to make it effective or
make it serviceable at all. Only in times of very great
demand and scarcity of labor would any one employ crude
labor in factories where skill is required. The first question
at all times for an employer to put would be. What can
you do ? How skilful are you ? What are joar earnings ?
Never would he ask, How cheaply can you work? He
would surely take the one offering his or her services first
who had been in the habit of earning the highest wages, do-
ing the greater amount of work, etc. In times of depression
or lesser demand, he would surely dismiss those of his hands
who earn the lowest rate of wages, and keep those who are
best paid per diern, etc. How, then, can it be that wages
cannot rise beyond the point of mere subsistence of the
worker, when the skill of the worker is so powerful a
factor in determining the rate of wages ?
Nor can the rate of wages be seriously affected by an
influx of new labor, because new labor is seldom labor
accustomed to the occupation. There is never in any one
industry a perceptible amount of desirable labor floating
which could be used to effectively compete with the trained
help holding the field. No sensible employer would en-
gage new hands in place of the ones used and trained to his
work, even were it offering itself for employment*
* The most recent appearance of the bogeyman, that has come within
my notice, is in Prof. R. T. Ely's " The Labour Movement in America."
He says :
"The cost of production is the limit below which the price of other
commodities cannot permanently fall, for the production is diminished as
28 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
But a main point for consideration is this, that labor can-
not at the bidding of a sudden demand arising somewhere
else be removed from old homes and associations. If trans-
planted to new spheres, even in the same occupations, it is
seldom able, except after long application, to cope with the
trained labor of the place, especially when the labor is of a
the price falls, and at times ceases almost altogether. But the individual
labourer cannot diminish his supply of labour so long as he lives, and
misery and death are the factors which must bring about a decrease in
the supply of his commodity and raise its price to the cost of production,
in other words, to what it costs the labourer and his family to live and to
maintain the customary standard of life among the members of his class.
"Closely connected with the foregoing is the fact that the price of
labour does not at once rise when the demand increases, as is usually the
case with other commodities, for the first effect is that the unemployed
receive work ; and after the ' reserve army ' finds employment competition
among purchasers of labour raises its price.
' ; Finally, the only way to diminish the supply of the commodity labour
in the market in the future is, by prudence in marriage, to diminish the
birth-rate. But to accomplish this, will and intelligence are necessary,
and some probability that the labourer would reap the fruits of his self-
denial. No such guarantee exists, because the folly of his fellows will
render his prudence of no avail. In addition to this, the labourer in
America can hope to influence the supply of labour offered in the market
of the future only when he gains some control over immigration."
The professor moves the army of the unemployed about like a condot-
tiere, throwing it into this or into that camp which may be willing to bid
for its services. The fact is not considered at all that, however large the
army at any one time, those belonging to any one handicraft or employment
are usually few and rather scattered. Given a " reserve army " of 1,000 of
unemployed in a time of depression among a population of 50,000 (certainly
a very large percentage), there would be, let us say, 25 potters among them.
These would be the only ones that could possibly exercise a pressure on
the existing rates of potters' wages. The other 975 would not be of the
least consequence to the potting industry and could in no conceivable way
endanger the equilibrium. The tailors, the shoemakers, the tinsmiths,
the machinists, the seamstresses, the longshoremen could not possibly find
employment in any trade except their own specialty. As working-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 29
higher developed kind, as expressed in its higher earnings.
Most of the labor brought from foreign shores is of the
cruder kind, if industrial, or it is entirely agricultural and
attracted by the facility of obtaining land.
The labor brought from foreign countries to America to
work in American mills, even if used to the same machin-
men out of employment are usually the least expert ones, they cannot
exert a depressing influence, even while they are engaged in the nefarious
practice which haunts the vision of the professor. But the "reserve
army" broken up into corporal's guards of occupations becomes more
reduced yet in power of doing mischief. All manufacturing industries
are minutely subdivided to-day. The sewing-machine operator on a
Willcox & Gibbs, would be out of place where Singer, or Wheeler & Wil-
son machines are in use. The white goods sewer would not be able to get
along in a factory working woolen goods. The straight sewer could not
compete with the trimmer. In pottery, as we have chosen that example,
the turner, the handler, the flat goods presser, the dish maker, the sani-
tary ware maker, the mold maker, the dipper, the decorator, etc., etc.,
would all be classed among our 25 unemployed potters. But each one
ever so expert, let us assume, in his own branch would find it hard to
make a day's wages in any one of the other branches of his trade. In a
factory of boots and shoes employing 500 hands it is doubtful that as
many as twenty are engaged in one and the same occupation, each one
forming in itself a specialty, which to become expert in requires a good
long apprenticeship. But wages are paid by the piece in all manufactur-
ing industries, and it can well be understood what cleverness and skill it
requires to make high earnings, and the advantages of the trained over
the untrained are therefore entirely unassailable.
I can assure the professor that in a business experience of twenty-five
years I never was able to find desirable accessions among the " reserve
army," whenever business required me to increase my stock of help. I
know that the experience of other manufacturers is of exactly the same
nature.
Of course, the remedy of diminishing the supply of labor by voluntary
or involuntary death increase is unfolded. The Malthusian skeleton is
taken out of the cupboard and shaken whenever we find ourselves
hemmed in by perplexing economic phenomena. But the performance is
too anachronistic even for appeal to the gallery gods.
30 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ery, is found at first to be entirely unable to compete with
American labor. It is only after considerable time that it can
take its place and earnings in common with American labor.
Here these new-comers work side by side with the old prac-
ticed hands at considerably lower rates. But their lower
wages are expressive of lower working capacity. Ameri-
can higher earnings are only, in other words, an expression
of a higher working capacity. In England I frequently
heard it said that laborers brought from Ireland usually
break down after the first week's trial ; had then, living
with friends, to first get used to the English standard of life,
and feed up in order to be able to do work at the English rate.
Gradually, in keeping with their better feeding and living,
they become as good and strong workmen as the English.
Now, in American mills the very same holds good. The
labor which we bring from Europe is seldom employed
directly in manufacturing, except in special lines where the
work people are brought over for industries newly created
for which we have no American labor ready, wanting the
training and experience requisite for their operation.
The foreign labor entering mill life usually takes up the
crude labor processes, and with growing efficiency makes
claim to and quickly obtains the standard rate of wages
ruling in the respective occupations. Skilled labor does
not emigrate so freely as is generally taken for granted by
those who make definitions for text books, and take facts
and conditions supposed to exist but really as far removed
from the living experience of the day as the study of the
writer is removed from the workshop of the worker.
In 1885 the emigration from the United Kingdom to the
United States, of adult males, having been employed in
mechanical employments, showed a total of 9,541 only. Of
these 2,257 were miners and about 1,750 were employed in
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3i
the building trades bricklayers, masons, carpenters, etc.
the rest, of something over 5,000, were distributed over
different manufacturing industries. In England I found,
far more so than in America, that the artisan classes and
mechanics can only with difficulty be brought to leave their
occupations and homes. Their earnings are remunerative,
their expenses low, on account of low cost of commodities due
to free trade, their love of home and surroundings is intense;
and I found during my consulship that very few left the
potteries to emigrate, but that a goodly number were at all
times returning from America, preferring, as they said, the
old associations and steady employment with a sure income
to the high earnings in America, frequent stoppages of work,
and wages spent as freely as received. This applies even to
Germany and certainly in the strongest measure to France.
As to the former country very few skilled workmen are found
among the myriads who leave the shores of fatherland, com-
paratively speaking. Of the French, not an emigrating people
under any circumstances, the number of skilled workmen
coming over by no means cover the demand which is
always at hand from special industries for their higher skill.
What Causes High. Wages.
It is a fortunate sign of the times that we are at last
beginning to recognize the all-important and redeeming fact,
that cheap labor by no means means cheap production;
that, on the contrary, low cost of production and a high
wage rate go hand in hand. This may seem paradoxical,
but on closer examination it will be found to be entirely
logical and in keeping with the facts and philosophy of the
economy of production.
The leading principle can be stated in a few words.
32 THE ECONOMY OF SIGH WAGES.
The United States, with its vast resources, free laws, and
extended territory, gives a field for employment of labor
which no other country possesses, excepting perhaps the
Australian colonies. The great stretch of unoccupied soil
gives an opportunity for the satisfaction of what is one of
the chief desires of man, to be the possessor of a homestead
upon his own land. From the widely distributed ownership
of land radiate all other employments. A high wage rate
and a higher standard of living are thereby insured. So
long as the land is able to absorb, in times of business
depression and collapse in manufacturing industries, the
surplus labor of the towns, a lower wage rate once reached
cannot permanently maintain. Labor under all circum-
stances, instead of being always ready to submit to a
pressing-down process by the exercise of the undue power
of capital, as maintained by the old economists, under free
laws and freedom of association maintains, and with slight
variations, always regains, if temporarily lost, its old position
and wage rate.
A perceptible rise in the rate of wages ruling in the
United States and in England, and even Germany and
France, has taken place within the last twenty-five years;
while at the same time a decline in the price of commodities
and provisions has gone hand in hand with this rise in
wages. The facts are so indubitable and have so incontest-
ably been demonstrated that we can dispense with intro-
ducing data in support of this.*
This in itself is sufficient to controvert the theory of wages
alluded to above. It shows plainly that Eicardo's four pairs
of shoes or four coats are absorbed by the workers and not
* See Schoenhof, The Industrial Situation. G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1885.
TEE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 33
by the capitalists. A rise in wages and a decline in the price
of commodities is the best evidence of this.
Even where the laborer's wages could become easiest de-
pressed by the large influx of foreign labor as in the coal-min-
ing industry, we find, as shown, not alone that the wage rate
maintains itself upon the standard of the workers of ten years
ago but shows a steady increase. This is quite natural and
in obedience to the powerful impulse given by freedom to
all labor to work up to the highest level of pay obtainable
or ruling in a country. It is admitted on all sides that im-
ported labor, like the month of February, comes in as a lamb
and goes out as a roaring lion. At first ready to accept any
conditions for obtaining work, no sooner does it feel itself
securely lodged and able by the acquisition of the necessary
skill to maintain the position, than it demands full rate of
pay. Hence this being the case with the only possible men-
ace to the ruling standard of wages, we cannot see that any
danger can be discovered to the continuance of the ruling
high standard of wages. The tendency of economic forces
is a rising one in wages, as will be further demonstrated, and
so long as freedom is the basis of action, the high rate once
gained must be considered a permanent one, which cannot
be interfered with or repressed. The influence of a protective
tariff as a force to bring about conditions which create this
happy state is, however, not more powerful than that of a fly
on a revolving wheel, with due deference to the opinion of
the fly.
Happy as the augury is for the working classes, the em-
ployer of labor is not only not injured, but fully as much
benefited by the inevitable results of a high rate of wages.
Indeed the law of gravitation is not more absolute than this,
that where, as in America, the rate of wages of labor per
diem is a high one, the first object of the employer is to
3
34 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
economize its employment. The result is that in no country
is the organization of labor in mills and factories so com-
plete as in the United States. In no country is the appli-
cation of machinery carried to the extent to which it is
carried in the United States. Here invention and improve-
ment are always most readily welcome in the labor processes
involved. Manufacturers introducing a change in manufac-
tures have a machine built to accomplish what in other
countries would be left to hand labor to bring about. Ma-
chinery, used to the limit of its life in Europe, is cast aside
in America if only partially worn, or while satisfactory in
this respect, if an improvement has come out that can do the
work quicker and consequently cheaper. The improvement
introduced by one manufacturer in any line is quickly
adopted by his competitors. Labor-saving is the result,
and a cheapening of production ensues, which is the due
outcome of the high cost of day labor in the United
States.
CHAPTER III.
Low Wages, Stagnating Causes. Improvement in Machinery more Prof-
itable in High- wage Countries. Peasant and House Industries. A
Picture of a Home-market Country.
IF a high wage rate is an impelling cause in this country
to the introduction of improvements and the adoption of
labor-saving processes, the low wage rate per diem ruling
elsewhere is an equally strong inducement for the continu-
ance of rusty and antiquated methods. The old labor
methods, going parallel with low wages, become quite in-
grained with the countries where they prevail, and offer
sufficient grounds for their perpetuation. To the employer
of labor, advantages are offered which are in themselves
sufficient not to make him anxious for changing the old for
the new methods. Conservatism becomes increasingly pro-
nounced in proportion as the rate of wages descends to a
lower and lower scale.
But the effect of this tendency in low wage countries to
adhere to old labor processes and continue the employment
of obsolete machinery and method, becomes obvious to all
when their products compete with goods in the same lines
produced by high wage countries. What in other instances
would be a commendable quality, here often becomes a
grave defect. Durability is considered an advantage. In
the economy of production it has become a disadvantage
when an improvement, or the introduction of new machin-
ery, can effect savings equal almost to the whole labor cost,
36 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
or reduce the labor cost to the extent that a profit can be
realized where none existed before.
A few examples will illustrate the effect on the cost of
production, of these rapid changes and improvements in
machinery. In 1886 (a rather dull year) I found in cotton
spinning in Oldham that, in ninety mills, thirty-four paid
neither dividends on stock nor interest on loan capital ; an
equal proportion paid no dividends, but paid interest on
borrowed capital, and only twenty-two were able to pay in-
terest and a moderate dividend on shares. All these mills
are conducted on the co-operative plan. The managers,
superintendents, etc., get very little more than workmen's
wages, and everything is managed on the most economical
basis. Even their basis of capitalization is one which would
give the greatest advantage to the profitable employment of
capital. These Oldham mills are all established on a capi-
tal of which only half is raised on shares, while the other
half is loan capital. As loans on a safe security and for per-
manent investment can be raised in England at the low rate
of interest of three per cent., of course, the profits going to
the shares must be correspondingly higher as soon as the
earnings of capital go above the rate of interest paid on the
loan, than if the whole capital invested were share capital.
But with all these advantages in the way of a substantial
dividend on the shares, the results were as stated.
The latest reports from the Oldham spinneries (for 1891)
covering the same number of mills, give even less satisfac-
factory results to the invested capital than those of 1886.
"While those Oldham mills, built mostly in the sixties,
were showing such poor results, the workings of newer erec-
tions were of a very satisfactory character.
A spinning mill at Rochdale, run on the same basis as
these Oldham mills, and whose work account I had the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 37
privilege to examine, and a statement of which can be found
in No. 70, Consular Reports, paid a dividend of 5 per cent,
besides carrying an amount equal to 2 per cent, as surplus,
to profit and loss. The mill was recently built, had the lat-
est improved machinery, and not alone was enabled thereby
to produce at a lower rate of cost in labor and expense, but
had a lower rate of waste than I found the case elsewhere.
This shows, if nothing else, an advantage of machinery
not being too durable. The adoption of an improvement,
principally in the lower numbers, of cotton spinning, some-
times saves more than the whole of the spinning cost. An
improvement in roving lately introduced promises a saving
of 5 per cent, in cotton by diminishing the rate of waste to
that extent. The mechanism is an American invention, was
taken over to England, and there, on trial, was found to do
all that it was represented to have done in America. An
insurmountable difficulty, as it seemed, arose. Manufactur-
ers who had shown themselves quite ready to adopt the
invention after having given it trial, reported that it was of
no use. It was soon found that the opposition came not
from the manufacturers themselves, but from their foremen
and mill managers, whose reluctance to adopt new devices is
proverbial. It is an open secret, as has been brought out in
many lawsuits, that an opposition of this kind is not an
insurmountable obstacle; that it can be overcome with
money.
If England is much slower in adopting improvements and
exchanging less advantageous machinery for more perfected,
the Continent of Europe shows this in a still more aggra-
vated form. In Switzerland I found looms and spinning
machinery that would be considered inadequate in England
and America. The manufacturers prided themselves on the
durability of their machinery, costing two and three times as
38 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
much as the English, but lasting five times as long. This
would in part explain that work done under such conditions,
though the wage rate per diem be much lower in Swiss than
in English cotton mills, is dearer than in England, barring
the fact of lesser proficiency of labor, due to poorer nutri-
tion. But the lower wage rate per diem accounts here also
for the persistence in using machinery to the full extent of
its natural life. The incentive is wanting for replacing,
with large capital outlay, old and obsolete for new and
improved machinery. Quite on the contrary, the cheapness
of human labor where it prevails is the greatest incentive for
the perpetuation of obsolete methods.
A High Standard a Prerequisite to Improvement.
A certain high rate of wages is essential for the profitable
employment of machinery. It is said that in railroad build-
ing and canal work in India, it is found that the low day
rate at which laborers can be hired for carrying the dirt
away from the banks, makes the employment of machinery
unprofitable and unnecessary.
" Many mickle make a muckle." A much higher rate of
wages and a considerably higher standard of living of the
working classes would have to be preexisting before rapid
and radical changes from one kind of machinery to other
and more improved machinery would be practical or become
an economic necessity.
In silk throwing I found the labor cost in English mills
to be higher than in American mills. The wages, however,
were in America double what they were in England.* I
* This was on a comparison of wages paid in Macclesfield, England,
with wages paid in a silk mill in Massachusetts. For further information
on this subject I refer to a succeeding chapter on the silk industry.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 39
stated then, in my report, that one mill in America had
lately exchanged old machinery for new, by which change
the speed had been increased from 5,000 to 7,500 revolu-
tions a minute. When my report was published in Eng-
land, a silk throwster who read it told me that if they ran.
their machinery at such speed in their mills all their girls
would run away, as they had not the nerve power to stand
such a high rate of speed.
Later on I found mills in America that ran their ma-
chinery at 10,000 revolutions a minute, and one which ran
at 12,000 and even 13,000 revolutions. Of course, to keep
in line, all others have to follow the same rate of improve-
ment.
The survival of the fittest is, therefore, so to speak, the
result of a high wage rate; and a high standard of living in
industrial countries, becomes the prerequisite to a low cost
of production. The lower the rate of living, the lower I
always found the industrial development of the country. I
visited Ireland with a view of ascertaining whether low
wages, even with the aid of improved methods of manufact-
ure which I found in some mills, were an aid in production.
Outside of Belfast and the linen industry, I found labor very
inefficient. In woolens, on improved power looms, the
results were far below those of English mills, while Ameri-
can mills exceed both.
Low Wages Indicate Low Productivity.
The peasant and house industries of Europe are sprung
from the soil, in the process of evolution, the progenitors
of the more improved systems of to-day. Small though the
income is to the peasant homes from industrial work, their
agricultural holdings are so small that without this addi-
40 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
tion the lot of these poor people would be still worse. In-
deed, the power mill has nowhere created so much distress as
among the peasantry who were accustomed to look to indus-
try for part of their income. The change from hand embroid-
ery to machine embroidery by the invention and introduction
of the so-called Swiss machine has at once taken out of
the hands of the peasant women of Ireland a source of em-
ployment and of earnings which cannot be replaced by other
occupations. By generations of adaptation they have ac-
quired remarkable skill and excellent taste. Living in the
most frugal and primitive manner, they can subsist on the
very lowest rate of pay, and hence make it questionable in
many industrial fields whether the economic advantages are
all on the side of the factory system.
How these people live and work can be seen from an
examination of life in Ireland. The examination is an inter-
esting object lesson. Two sister countries, only divided by
the Irish Channel, a three hours' run by steamer. The one,
England, holds the most advanced commercial and indus-
trial position in Europe ; the other, Ireland, the most back-
ward. In England wages for men average, say four
shillings a day ; in Ireland, all along the west and south
coast, where these peasant industries have given the popu-
lation a most remarkable aptitude and versatility, men would
be happy if they could be assured of regular earnings as
high as a shilling a day. England, though not raising more
than half her food supply, feeds her people with abundance ;
Ireland, exporting large stores of food produce, has a major-
ity of her people underfed and frequently on the brink of
starvation. All these conditions could not be coexistent if
the old labor theory were correct. The cheap labor ought
to have attracted capital sufficient to make it economically
of value, or by being drawn over to England have repressed
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 41
wages there. It is not possible here to draw all the deduc-
tions admissible from this parallel, but this one in proof of
our thesis, that labor to become economically valuable, must
have risen to a higher standard of living than these moun-
tain dwellers occupy. In other words, this would be, that
their standard of wages would rise with their greater effi-
ciency. The advantages and disadvantages would soon
outbalance each other, and practically this I found always
the case. Wherever I met power-mills in Ireland, I could
make a test of practical application. The low rate of
wages and of living to which the Irish have become reduced
through ages of oppression, has produced the result that at
about one-half the rate of wages ruling in England, not one
industry can hold its own against the latter country in the
same lines of activity.
Irish Industries as Object Lessons.
The Irish industries are of peculiar interest and a fruitful
source of study, as showing the conditions from which indus-
trial life in general has taken its rise.
In the remoter parts of the country Donegal, for instance
one finds the most primitive conditions of life ; a sturdy,
honest, and industrious population, anxious and willing to
work. I was there after the evictions of the poor peasants
from their homes on the Olphert estate. The men were
erecting turf cabins, dug-outs, with walls and roofs of turf,
as shelter for their families. After completing these primi-
tive habitations the men tramped in gangs of twenty or
thirty to Derry or the nearest harbor, to take ship to Eng-
land and Scotland for harvest work, to bring home 4 or
5 for the winter. I met men who had been two or three
times in America two or three years at a time, working for
42 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the support of their families at home. One was preparing
to go a third time in his married life of seven years. After
accumulating a few hundred dollars, they returned home,
living with their families till their savings were used up.
The children are sent to Deny and other Ulster towns,
where regular labor markets exist. Here they are hired
by the larger farmers and for work suitable to their tender
age during the summer. At the end of the season they
tramp home again with 2 to 4 in hand. In winter they
attend school. Neither mountains, rivers, nor oceans are
obstacles in the search after work and wages. Neither
young nor old hesitate to seek abroad what is denied them
at home.
This is in answer to those who ascribe the poverty of these
sections to the want of thrift and to lazy habits of the
people. Here we find labor at its lowest pay, and perhaps
its lowest efficiency, and the tools equally primitive. Con-
ditioned as it is, it finds no markets for its products, and
English capital, always eager to enter into the most hazard-
ous undertakings in distant countries, has not found the low
rate of wages under which labor can be hired there a suffi-
cient inducement for employing it, except on such work,
principally hand work of women, for which they have
a peculiar adaptation sprigging handkerchiefs, knitting,
etc.
The deftness of hand of these peasant women, spending
their time largely in house and field work, is very remark-
able. We find the same, however, in the mountain districts
of the continent of Europe. A great deal of the fine needle-
work and embroidery, hand sewing, kid glove making, real
lace making, and work in numberless notions known under
the name of articles de Paris, etc., is done by the peasant
women in France and Germany. The price paid for such
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 43
work would not suffice to pay the expenses of the most
penurious living here.
The linen industries of Germany, Belgium, Holland, and
Ireland have taken their rise from peasant industries. The
spinning wheel used to be found in every household. In
Germany, until recently, home-made linen of yarn spun by
the peasants was a regular article of trade. It is only of
late that hand-spun linens are gradually being replaced by
machine-made linen in the finer numbers, while the cheap-
ened production of cotton cloth is gradually driving the
coarser peasant-made linens out of the market. However,
in my recent visits, I found a good deal of hand-made linen
in use still in the northern part of France and Germany.
Peasant women still bring their rolls of linen to market
towns, and at Leipsic during the fair I found a good deal
exhibited by peasants and traders.
The earnings per diem in all these occupations are very
small. Still, taken collectively, they help to round out the
family's income. Field work occupies the peasant, espe-
cially the female part of the family, only a part of the year.
In the winter months these industries give very welcome
occupation and a means for bridging over periods of scarcity.
Many a highly developed industry of to-day, upon which
the wealth and prosperity of nations are founded, took its
rise from peasant and home industries.
It takes long periods of evolution till primitive peoples
alienate themselves from producing everything that is needed
in the home and on the farm, and till special trades arise to
supply their needs. In the records of Strasburg, up to the
thirteenth century we find no reference in cloth-making to
weavers. We find, however, dyers, fullers, and finishers.
It is evident from this that the weaving was done exclu-
sively by the women of the peasantry and of the burghers
44 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
as late as that. Before that period the dyeing of cloths was
done in the same way. On the west coast of Ireland condi-
tions of this primitive nature prevail to this day, which can
be considered fitting backgrounds for the industrial devel-
opment in progressive countries.
Working for a Home Market,
There almost everything is raised and produced on the
land by the people. The soil is poor and does not yield
much under the present system of agriculture. It is bog
land, badly drained, or not drained at all. Where there is
no bog the land is arid and stony. The soil has to be made
by the peasant actually created before he can. think of
getting any but the poorest crops. From a little patch of
land, not more than a few acres, under cultivation, I have
seen heaps of stones collected that would build a goodly-
sized stone fence. The bog has to undergo a far more
serious treatment. It has to be ditched and drained. Then
a subsoil has to be made. Sand and seaweed are carried from
a distance, the top of the turf is burnt, and a manure thus
procured which then, with the sand and seaweed, is mixed
with the soil to loosen and fertilize it. I have seen the men
and women carry seaweed in hampers upon their backs from
the shore up steep hills for miles into the country.
It is evident that land which has to be worked in this
way can only produce for the poorest living. Under con-
ditions existing it can only be worked by the spade. A
peasant arid his whole family working such land could not
raise much surplus for sale or exchange. Land of this sort
has to be worked constantly or else it falls back into a state
of aridity worse than before. The land where the tenants
had been evicted a year or two previous to my visit began
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 45
to assume the character of the surrounding bog and wild
land.
A people living under such conditions would consider
any addition to their earnings, no matter how small, a bless-
ing indeed. The invention and adoption of machinery, re-
placing hand labor, has dealt the severest blow to the poor
peasantry of European countries.
Formerly, all embroideries were hand made. White
edgings and insertions in numberless quantities were made
principally by the peasant women of Ireland and constituted
a vast industry. All this employment has been taken from
them and transferred to Switzerland and Saxony, the em-
broidery machine being now found in the Swiss and Saxon
mountain homes, doing largely for an entirely new set of
workers what, before the advent of the machine, the needle
had done for the peasants of Ireland.
In such conditions the population, cut off from the sea for
want of harbors with landing facilities for ships and by the
absence of railroads from land communication, is obliged to
perpetuate the old state of living in making everything that
is required at home. The farmer is a farmer and a builder
too. All the houses are built by the farmers. The houses
built in the last few years show a great advance. They are
better built and more commodious than those of older times.
While the old houses were mere mud hovels, with the cow
and the pig under one roof with the family, without parti-
tions even, the new houses have separate buildings for the
animals, and the dwellings are divided into three rooms,
usually, the kitchen in the middle and a good-sized room on
each side ; windows and doors are well put in and the roofs
are slated. This is due, not to a new acquisition of skill in
the peasants, but to a change in the laws which prevents the
landlord from exacting increased rents from the peasant
46 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
upon every sign of improvement on the farm. Indeed, the
old laws and conditions spread like a pall over the whole
land and largely explain the anomalies mentioned above.
This I found not alone in poor, stricken Donegal, but in
the famed Protestant part as far north as Portrush. The
reputed Ulster tenant rights were by no means a guarantee
against rack-renting on any visible sign of farmer prosperity,
such as decent dwellings, slated roofs, and increased pro-
ductiveness of the soil. Since the establishing of the land
courts and other measures of protection against the rapacity
of landlords, improvements have sprung up which are the
natural outcome of greater security of tenure and a guaran-
tee of the unhindered enjoyment of the fruit of one's labor.
This only in parenthesis, and to return to our peasant
industries.
The clothing of the people is made by the women. They
shear the wool, scour it, card it, spin it, and, if they have
looms, weave it, or give it to a weaver, also a peasant. The
dyeing is done with especial skill. They have many lichens
and other plants which they gather and use in making dyes.
Their friezes and tweeds look especially well when made
up. They make very handsome cardinal arid blue friezes
for women's wear, frequently adorned with a colored
border. I have been shown by a peasant woman some
blankets and quilts of wool of a rich cardinal, very evenly
dyed.
Such are the natural industrial powers, now going to
waste for want of employment, of perhaps the poorest
peasantry of Western Europe. They are a world by them-
selves. They show us more than anything else how easy it
is to establish manufacturing industries where the population
is naturally gifted with all the elements of knowledge per-
taining to manufacturing. These peasants are confined to a
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 47
home market. They work for a home market. They eke
out a precarious living only by going outside of their own
districts and home surroundings for earnings which they
cannot possibly make at home, under the conditions that
have been forced upon them by the ruthless conquerors who,
in successive waves, have taken possession of the more pro-
ductive soil, and whose spirit was well characterized in their
ultimatum to the poor Irish, "to hell or to Connaught."
But the picture given here shows us approximately what
must have been the beginning of the industries of the
modern world, the foundation from which Europe started
in its industrial development.
On the continent of Europe other and far more compli-
cated industries have taken their rise in the peasants' homes
and are still successfully carried on there, some requiring
great skill of hand and showing a depth of artistic feeling to
an astonishing extent. I refer to the wood-carvers of the
Bavarian and Tyrolese mountains.
These poor peasants, without any art-school training, with
a hand made heavy by field-work, display a fineness of ex-
ecution and a depth of feeling in some of their work which
I have not seen approached by any of the numberless pro-
ductions of pupils and graduates of the many industrial art
schools of Europe. In Ireland, charming objects of wood-
carving done by peasants are thrust under your eyes on
every roadside by peasant women. They are cut from bog
oak, an extremely hard wood. Though the designs are
limited to Irish emblematic figures of a rather conventional
character, they still show much natural taste. The carvers
are entirely self-taught. The few art schools in the larger
towns are certainly not reached by them, and have so far
not exercised any influence upon this art.
Another industry, also largely a peasant industry, is the
48 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
making of real lace. It used to be a source of income to the
poor peasantry of Ireland, but fashion, more than anything,
has made this in all countries where the industry exists a
precarious source of income. Irish lace designs are stiff and
conventional, and while the lace industry of Belgium and
the Saxon and Bohemian mountain districts has received a
new impetus-of late years, Irish lace-making can hardly be
considered an industry now.
The proper teaching in design by art schools, brought
into proper contact with the lace workers of Belgium, Aus-
tria, and Saxony, is freely acknowledged by the people as a
constant and beneficent stimulus.
I can only passingly refer to the varied industries of Thu-
ringia in glass, porcelain, toys, and other varieties of fancy
goods too numerous to specialize. They reach into every
household in the plains and the mountains. A far more
complicated industry, however, than any of these that of
watch and clock making may also be classed among the
peasant industries. In the Black Forest of Southern Ger-
many and in Switzerland this industry arose in the early
part of the century. The work is distributed to every ham-
let and home in the mountains. The earnings, small as
they are, have helped to keep away starvation, which was
formerly a frequent visitor. Lately, machinery has been
introduced to make competition with American clocks and
watches possible.
America, with its high-cost labor, is always the dreaded
competitor of these poorest paid working people of the
industrial countries of Europe. The employment of labor-
saving automatic machinery of American origin in these
trades is intended to bring about the basis upon which they
hope to be able to maintain themselves. The use which I
have seen made of American machinery in a watch and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 49
clock factory in Trieberg, in the Black Forest, has given me
the impression however, that the results obtained there will
fall quite short of the results obtained here, and that the
machinery used in a country whose industries are entirely
built upon the employment of machinery, largely automatic
machinery', is something quite different when employed by
a people whose industries have been built upon hand pro-
cesses, and where the cheapness of labor is a bar to the
introduction and economic employment of the American
system of work.
CHAPTER IV.
Advantages of Old Methods in Certain Industries. House Industries
economically considered. The Silk Industry of Europe. The Mode
of Living. The Rate and Method of Paying. The Master and the
Weaver dividing the Piece Rate paid by the Manufacturer. Aux-
iliary Help, how paid. Neither Risk nor Expense to Manufacturer.
ONE of the leading industries, the silk manufacture of
Europe, spreads far into the country districts from the
respective centres. It is as well a country as a town
industry. The work is still distributed into the individual
homes, although power mills are run for some of the staple
goods, ribbons, etc. The silk and velvet industry of Ger-
many, Switzerland, France, and Italy is conducted on about
the same basis.
In 1885, in Crefeld and surroundings, the power loom
stood in its relation to the hand loom as one to twenty.
The weavers receive from the manufacturer the silk and
warp yarn dyed and ready to be put on the looms. The
system has its advantages, certainly, in articles like silk
and satin, over the new system of manufacturing in power
mills. The advantages are so great, although the price
paid by the piece to the weaver in power mills is below
what the very poorly paid hand-loom weavers receive for
their work, that it is not likely that the factory system,
economically considered, will be found preferable, except in
a country like America, which, for very weighty reasons,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 51
cannot possibly conduct its industries upon the basis of
manufacturing just mentioned.
To illustrate the working system on this plan I will give
a few examples. We obtain thereby the output, the price
paid, and the standard of living of the working classes under
the old system. For instance, a hand-loom weaver had a
piece of satin on his loom, of which the following is an
account : it was of two widths on the loom 47 centimeters
wide each (17 to 18 inches) and 40 meters long. The price
paid him per double meter was 58 pfennige, or about 15
cents. The quality was of 1,362 reeds of 4 threads each.
(Power-loom weaving in America would not be paid at a
higher rate, but a fairly good weaver would turn out three
times as much. This class of goods, however, is made very
little in this country.) Of this quality the Crefeld weaver
could make three and a half meters a day, working twelve
hours in summer, and in winter, by the aid of lamp light,
longer hours yet, frequently as late as ten at night. The
children did the spooling, and out of 24 marks for the
piece he had to pay about 3 marks per piece to the loom
fixer. It takes the loom fixer about a day for a double-
width piece of satin of this description. The loom fixer
goes from house to house to the weavers to make ready
their warps.
All the weaver can earn, therefore, net for two weeks'
work is 20 marks, or 10 marks ($2.40) a week. The
question as to saving, where such scanty wages prevail,
is naturally met with a laugh.
How These Low-wage Earners Live.
The mode of living of these poor people is of the poorest,
and their pallid color and emaciated condition tell the whole
52 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
sad story, "but also that better-fed people and less run-down
labor would undoubtedly produce more than what these
were doing.* They do not work very steadily either. A
good deal of time is spent in pauses. Every gossip brings
a welcome interruption. I found in the whole district,
wherever I went, pretty nearly the same state of things.
Men's earnings on work of this and similar character were
from 10 to 12 marks a week, and women's from 7 to 8.
* I came to one of these weavers at dinner time. They were husband
and wife and two children and a baby on the breast. Their dinner con-
sisted of soup, sourcrout, sausage, and bread. Under a plentiful supply this
might be considered a fair meal. But the soup was water with milk. I
could not detect a trace of fat even on the soup, though an evidence of it
would have shown on the soup in the plates. The children, however,
seemed to relish it. Remarking on the character of their soup and on
my question what else their dinner consisted in, the wife lifted the cover
off the pot on the stove, in which I saw sourcrout enough to fill a soup
plate not overfull, and one little sausage of the size of a Frankfurt. Low
as this fare is, and little strength as it can impart to the people who are
raised, live, work, and die under it, it is by no means the lowest which
supports life of the working classes of this and other districts of Germany.
In the eastern provinces, Silesia for instance, the sausage even is not an
everyday occurrence.
These people made silk velvet, 50 centimeters, or 19 inches wide, for
which they received 2.70 marks (64 cents) per meter. They work 13 J-
hours, commencing at 5.30 in the morning, and do about 80 centimeters
(about 32 inches) a day. The wife at intervals relieves the husband, or
she works on a separate loom (at the time worked by another working-
man). They gave as their earnings for the past year 630 marks
($151), and estimated the husband's part of this as 450 marks, and the
wife's part as 180 marks. This, however, I will add, was the lowest rate
of earnings I met with. Leaving out the wife as an independent worker,
as she cannot be counted as doing more than relieving the husband, we
can say that their combined earnings would have represented at that
time the higher wage rate of adult male hand-weavers, to wit: 12 to 13
marks, and the husband's earnings the lower wage rate, dependent either
on the better paying work or on the greater capacity for work of the
weaver.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 53
Quite a number of them, however, have little patches of
land, which supply them vegetables and potatoes, and thus
render them considerable assistance. A few from better
times own their own houses, but where they depend entirely
upon the result of this industry they are frequently placed
in a very pitiable condition, as so much in silk depends on
fashion.
In the very article just mentioned, what was then being
paid under a limited demand at the rate stated, of 58 pfen-
nige a meter, used to be paid a few years previous on a
brisker inquiry at 92 pfennige (22 cents) a meter. In this
industry, therefore, more than in any other, the weaver's con-
dition alternates between times of prosperity and fair living
and times of depression and semi-starvation. Power-loom
weavers at the same time and in the same district, were earn-
ing in sixty-eight hours' working time per week, from 18
($4.32) to 22 marks ($5.28).
How They Work in Lyons.
In Lyons, hand-loom weavers make the finest goods, for
which Lyons is renowned and unapproachable.
The master weaver takes his tram and organzine from the
manufacturer and brings back the finished goods. He usu-
ally employs a number of workmen and women, with whom
he and his wife work along, each on a separate loom. The
master pays the rent of the workshop and furnishes the
looms to his help. One master whom I visited had four
looms on very fine silk and beaded stuff then in fashion (1887),
for which he received 61 ($1.15) a meter. To show the
alternations of high prices and high earnings, and low prices
and low earnings, as influenced by fashion and demand, I
will state that for that very material the year previous the
54 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
weaver master received 12f. ($2.30) a meter, and of course
paid the workmen accordingly. Under the reduced demand
and price of 6f. per meter, the workmen, doing two meters a
day, received 3f. per meter. Their workday is from 7 A. M.
to 8 P. M., with two hours for meals. Out of these 6f. the
workman pays a girl helper 1.25f. (24 cents), and the mas-
ter pays her an equal amount. This reduces the net part
going to the master to 2.37f. (45 cents) per meter. The rent
for the premises in which to place four looms, inclusive of
house room for the master and his family, was 350f. ($68) a
year. This master made 4.75f. (93 cents) a day on each of
the two looms then worked by workmen, besides the full
amount of what was made by himself and his wife on the
loom worked by themselves. Of course full earnings could
not be made by either on their looms, ^the master being occu-
pied part of his time in going backward and forward to the
manufacturer and doing the outside work. Part of the
wife's time is taken up in household duties.
Another master, helped in a similar way, was engaged on
furniture velvet of a very fine quality. He received 20f. a
meter for a piece of fifty meters long. It takes an expert
weaver about four months to finish a piece. It takes two
weeks to mount the loom. The weaver gets IGf. a meter and
makes about four to four and a half meters a week. He pays
the boy helping, often a son or other relative of the weaver,
3f. (58 cents) a week, and the master pays him the same
amount. This leaves to the workman 37f. to 42f. ($7 to $8)
a week, or from 6f. to 7f. ($1.16 to $1.33) a day. The master
makes an equal amount gross from the loom worked by his
workmen, less the mounting of the loom and the preparing
of the warp, which he has to pay alone out of his share.
This sort of work was also then not in very brisk demand,
being somewhat out of fashion, and showed the influence of
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 55
depression in trade on the earnings of the workpeople. On
the whole, these three examples show how different the
earnings of workpeople are, engaged in the same industry
and in the same manner of home industries, supplied with
the material from the manufacturer, and doing the complete
work in their own homes or in shops under the eyes of
masters.
The most depressed condition in the trade I found in Ger-
many, where the average of wages was not over two-thirds of
what it was in Lyons, and earnings in silk weaving varying
between fifty as the mark of depression and a hundred as
that of active demand.
Lyons is especially renowned for the beauty of its work in
all silk goods of a rich character. It is the leader in fashion
in silks all over Europe and America. Its taste in design
and color is equalled nowhere. When silk fabrics are in
fashion, its workpeople are the first to feel the effects, and
it is difficult often to execute the orders pouring in upon
them. Not alone does the wage rate per yard rise, but work
supply is abundant, and high earnings result from both
causes. Of course, the opposite effect results from decline
of demand.
Economic Advantages of the Old System to the
Manufacturer. Capital Left Free.
It seems to be settled in the minds of thoughtful observ-
ers that the system of work prevailing in the silk industry
of Europe, as described, cannot easily be superseded. It
offers to the manufacturer advantages which fully counter-
balance the advantages accruing to him from the smaller
rate paid per yard in power mills. First, the all-important
fact that the manufacturer can employ all his capital as free
56 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and floating capital. He requires no fixed capital. He has
not hundreds of thousands invested in brick and mortar and
machinery. The looms belong to the weavers without any
risk of ownership to the manufacturer. Mostly all manu-
facturers, owners of power mills, and especially so in
America, are bound by the necessity of keeping their work-
people together. They feel impelled by this to supply work
to them, even in times of slack demand. In America the
workpeople are apt to leave the neighborhood for other
employments wherever they offer. The manufacturers, hav-
ing perhaps spent years in training their help to their
work, know the difficulty of getting a supply when needed.
For these reasons they quickly overstock themselves with
goods made for stock instead of goods made on orders, soon
become involved, have to raise money to keep themselves
afloat, and have to sacrifice stocks in order to raise money
and keep going. In times of prosperity and active demand
earnings and profits are high. But few in America are cir-
cumspect enough to lay by their surplus profits to tide
them over a rainy day, sure to come with the high-pressure
industries in America.
The European manufacturer is not so eager to extend his
works, adding machinery and buildings, but is satisfied to
lay up his surplus profits as reserve capital. The American
system gives great results in times of active demand and
unrestricted outlet, but shows frequently disastrous results
when depression sets in. The manufacturer in Europe in
this and similarly conducted industries has no responsibil-
ity and no engagements. He works on orders ; he does
not start his looms till he has received the orders which
come from all the markets of the world. Except in articles
for which he is certain that he has a ready demand in the
near future, he seldom does give work except after it has
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 57
been ordered. A change of fashion can be easily met by
him, and although dulness may be a loss of profits and
trade, yet it is no risk to his investments, because he has no
capital invested in a factory, and is not compelled to work
on stock to keep his help.
The system of working on the domestic industry plan
saves, besides all general manufacturing expenses, the inter-
est on fixed capital employed and most of the auxiliary
help necessary in the running of a mill. His items of cost
are always given, fixed quantities. The savings in the
general expense part of the manufacturing cost, inter-
est, and fixed charges are so great that they would com-
pensate for any saving in the power-mill rate of wages per
piece.
There are, however, other advantages in hand-loom weav-
ing in silks. First, cheaper silks can be used to advantage,
while in power-mill weaving, and especially in America,
with less skilled workpeople, a much stronger and better
quality is required.*
Another point is this, that goods made on hand looms are
quite different from those made on power looms. The
hand-loom product shows greater softness, suppleness, and
character than power-loom work. Of course, in a general
sense what can be made on a power loom can be made on a
hand loom, but to the eye the two are quite different things.
People are guided by their tastes, and are determined to
have that which pleases their senses most, their eye and
their touch, and it is plain that they will continue to be
guided by preferences in this direction. The hardness of
American, the softness of Lyons fabrics are features well
known to all wearers of silks.
* See chapter on silk.
58 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The Evolution of Industries.
It is very important to keep these distinctions in view as
starting points for an understanding of the industrial prob-
lem under examination. The industrial development of all
Europe has sprung from conditions like those of Ireland,
described. The conditions as we find them in outlying
countries of Europe, mountain districts of the continent, the
islands and highlands of Scotland, and the west of Ireland,
are those which prevailed in more advanced industrial
countries at more or less remote periods.
We can follow the process of industrial development of
centuries under our own eyes if we go from the stagnant to
the more advanced countries. We observe in the economy
of production a process of evolution that has been going on
from the remotest to the present time. We need not go
back into the historical records preserved to us in libraries,
or in authropological museums, to get back to the begin-
ning. The past from which our civilization has sprung is
still living with us. All we need to do is to go among
primitive people and study their methods of work, their
tools and employments, and mode of living, and we can
surely find the prototype of our own ancestors in the differ-
ent stages of their development. As the tools have changed,
so have the systems of work changed. The simple work-
shop is a step beyond the original house industry ; the work-
shop of larger dimensions, with divisions of labor added, is
an extension of the primitive workshop ; the factory is an
extension of the workshop, and the power mill an advance
on the factory. The people employed are the people born
and bred on the soil for generations, used to all the employ-
ments by heredity, as having been for generations, perhaps,
the occupation and source of maintenance for all the mem-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 59
bers of the family. The introduction of machinery collected
larger numbers under one roof, but they were always the
same people, and always working the same materials. Nor
has the power mill changed very much in that most impor-
tant part of manufacture the nature of the workpeople.
They have all the peculiar fitness resulting from heredity
and long contact with the industry in which they are em-
ployed. The workers in the Staffordshire potteries are all
Staffordshire people. They all talk the same dialect and
have the same interests. One does not find many that are
not born in the same county. The cotton mills of Lanca-
shire are all peopled by Lancashire people, the Yorkshire
mills by Yorkshire men and women, and so on in all the
countries of Europe.
Here, in America, industrial life starts from entirely oppo-
site grounds. We have no house industries to start from.
The population is a migratory one. Americans seldom
keep to one industry all their lifetime. The children of
Americans hardly ever now enter factory life. The factory
is started on an artificial basis ; that is to say, a collection
of capital, building of a mill, stocking with machinery, and
a collecting of workpeople from wherever they can be
brought together.
While the American system has its great advantages, it
has certainly its disadvantages equally pronounced. The
highest stage of development in the productive process,
however, has been reached in America. Of all others, the
working classes are benefited by this industrial develop-
ment. The conditions of the working classes necessarily
are improved by every progress made in the economy of
production. Actual wages measured by their purchasing
power rise with a rise in the productiveness of labor. Where
the labor processes are most advanced and aided by science
60 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and the application of its findings and discoveries to pro-
duction, there, naturally, labor is most productive, and the
share going to labor for its remuneration is the highest.
The labor cost by the piece is reduced, but the earnings
of the laborer are increased, by the application of a new-
invention. ( The quantity produced in excess of the quantity
produced by the former process must be large enough to
outbalance by far the deficiency caused by the reduction in
the piece price. The introduction of machinery or any im-
proved method in place of an old one, without this compen-
sating result, would not alone find serious opposition on the
part of the worker, and therefore be adopted with reluctance
by the manufacturer, but the manufacturer himself would
otherwise not consider the inducement sufficient for the
capital sacrifice it would entail on him.
The working classes, however, are not only producers, but
consumers; and as consumers the purchasing power of their
wages is of equal importance to them as their rate in the sense
of earnings. Now, every improvement in the method of pro-
duction which increases productiveness of labor not only leads
to higher earnings, but also to a cheapening of commodities.
The cheapening of products means nothing less than making
the product accessible to classes of the population who had
not been able before to make use of the article at all, or in a
more limited way than they would and could under new and
cheaper processes of production.
If we were to return to-day in our processes of manufact-
ure and production to the economy of production ruling a
hundred years ago in the most advanced industrial coun-
tries, we could not produce one-fourth of the goods which
now, on account of their abundance, have become necessa-
ries of life of our people. Their price would be so high that
none but the wealthy could afford to buy them. The widen-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 61
ing of markets, the necessary aim and object of manufactur-
ers, can only be reached therefore by a cheapening, which
follows improvement in the economy of production. The
poorer classes, meaning the bulk of the nation, being those
where an increasing ratio of absorption is almost unlimited,
, are therefore necessarily those benefited by every progress
made. The inventor and employer of improvements is
by necessity compelled, in other words, to carry into the
humblest home, comforts to which it had not been used
before. This is, so to speak, an automatic process, con-
stantly going on, by which gradually but surely the progress
in the economy of production brings comfort and well-being
into wider and wider circles.
The Producer and Consumer are One. Increasing
Productiveness is Increasing Consumptiveness.
In this self-acting principle of an ever-ready market
opened by increasing productiveness, the statement quoted
from Bicardo, and on which the general theory on labor and
wages criticised above is based, and from which our dreary
labor views obtain their principal support, finds its easy
refutation. The four coats produced with the same amount
of work which was formerly required to produce one coat,
have to be consumed. If they could not find consumers,
the employer of the machine or of the improvement by
whose aid the plus-product in a given time can be turned
out, would not go to the expense and inconvenience of the
change. The economic inducement would be wanting the
change would not be made. But, leaving out the wealthy
classes, the absorbing power of the people is in an increas-
ing ratio with either a lowering of prices of commodities at
steady wages, or with rising wages and steady prices, and,
62 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
certainly, as the practical case stands now, with rising wages
and declining prices. Either one or the other, and, as we
have seen in our own time, the latter case results from
improvements in the economy of production. The standard
of living of a country makes the general rate of wages.
From reasons given above (Chapter II.), the standard in
America being, through general causes, a very high one,
the rate of wages is a high one. The absorbing capacity of
the people is the only limitation of market to which the
plus-product is subjected. So long as 90 per cent, of our
population have to support families on incomes below $500
a year,* it is self-evident that we have an open market at
our immediate doors to absorb products which are now only
accessible to that class of the population which lives at a
somewhat higher rate of expenditure, i.e., can expend a
larger amount on products of labor. But $500 expresses a
maximum average of earnings. A very large half of our
population has to subsist, with a family group of three, f on
less than $400, and from there downwardly, say $300,
another large class have to subsist. If all these bread-win-
ners could be made to live on $500 per family group, by a
sudden change in their incomes, there would be a market
for commodities created which would set our mills and
workshops to a very severe test of ability to supply the
demand. The endeavor to obtain the highest rate of wages
ruling in the country and the industry, and the other
endeavor of the working classes to maintain the rate of
wages once reached, are not stronger ruling economic forces
than the passion of man to obtain as high a rate of comfort
* For detailed statement of incomes of working classes see Schoenhof,
" Industrial Situation," Chap. XII.
f This is based on the table of "occupations," in the census, where one
wage earner represents three heads of the population.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 63
and well-being as his income, under due provisions for the
future, will allow him to indulge in.
To maintain themselves in their standard of life has given
impulse to the most heroic struggles of the working classes.
They have sacrificed immediate well-being, and even the
wherewithals to maintain themselves and their children,
rather than submit to wage reductions which, in their views,
threatened a reduction in the standard of life.
But while sacrifice of immediate well-being for an ulterior
end deserves our admiration, from the point of view gained
so far by our inquiry into the " Economy of High Wages,"
it will be seen that, economically, these acts speak of a high
degree of wisdom. On the other hand the attempts of the
employing classes to depress the rate of wages show fre-
quently an entire misapprehension of the principles under
which production is conducted. Most of the strife would
disappear if it were more fully recognized that a high rate
of wages has all the time been the powerful lever to reach-
ing the low cost of production which practically rules to-day
in the industries of the United States.
The Economic Value of High Wages generally
not Understood.
A high rate of wages expresses a high rate of productive-
ness, and its converse a high consuming power. A relatively
high consuming power, high standard of living, is required
to make the laborer efficient, strong in body and in mind.
Without this, labor remains economically more or less ster-
ile, for which an adequate proof will be given in the further
progress of this work, treating the industries of the country
seriatim. Employers can therefore under no possibility lose
where a permanently high rate of wages rules. They cannot
64 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
possibly lose under a rising rate of wages even, as a rise in
actual wages is only possible with a rise of the productive
power of labor. A higher rate of wages than the one of a
previous period simply registers the change which has gone
on in the direction of improvement in the economy of pro-
duction. But, instead of being injured, the employer gains
positively by the rise in the standard of wages through the in-
creasing demand thereby created for the increasing product.
The demand for this plus-product can come from the labor-
ing classes only, the wage earners, and the people of small
incomes. The well-to-do are numerically not a large class.
Considerably less than one-tenth of our population would
cover them. Of them, however, it can be said that they
would not increase their rate of consumption of the neces-
saries of life either from a cheapening of prices or an
increase in income. It is therefore of the working-classes
alone, that a market for the plus-product can be expected.
Of course, I include here the farmer who tills his farm
without the aid of hired help, except at harvesting. With
all of these a rise in income means an increased consump-
tion of commodities.
Everything in the wide field of economic phenomena
tending to show the benefits arising to the employing
classes of a high rate of wages, it is not a little astonishing
that such constant repressing force should be employed to
oppose a rise in wages. In the lower wage countries this
tendency exerts itself the strongest. In Germany, we find
in mills a certain maximum day rate fixed. This is fixing
the piece rate on the time wage basis. The workers to earn
this rate have to turn out a fixed quantity. If they do less,
proportionate deductions are made. Under more encour-
aging aspects they could produce greatly more. But not
receiving the benefit out of the plus-product which is
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 65
clearly due them, but on the contrary knowing that a
greater quantity of work done would lead to a reduction
of rates or increase of the ratio of output for the day rate
fixed, they certainly in return make an economic use of
their only salable commodity: their working power, vital
power, which the employer considers himself not concerned
to replenish.
Many manufacturers in Germany expressed themselves to
me in deploring terms of this state of affairs. They were
wise enough to see that this short-sighted policy is the chief
cause of Germany's low productiveness of labor. Those
following an opposite policy had most satisfactory results.
" They don't eat and don't work," said a shoe manufacturer
of Vienna, when we compared notes on the productiveness
of Austrian and German labor and of American labor.
"Bread and beer-swilling and an occasional bit of sausage
cannot give strength sufficient to compete with you."
It is then clearly evident that there is no greater fallacy
than the doctrine that a low rate of wages is necessary to in-
sure a low cost of production. In fact, the opposite is shown
to be the true principle upon which the productive processes
of nations rest. Yet, how far are we still from recognizing
this redeeming fact? The whole armature of possession,
governments, and the schools of learning, were put into
active service to defeat the attempts of the working-classes
at bettering their position; to wit: increasing the rate of
wages to enable the buying of sufficient food to replace the
wear and tear of tissue. In^England this was the condition
in the first half of the century. It is the condition of the
continent at the end of the century. The improvements in
the condition of labor are due to this, that the working
classes were in a position that they could wrench from
the privileged classes the necessary concessions which alone
5
66 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
could enable them to reach the position which they occupy
to-day. This fortunate position is the only vantage
ground which England possesses and which secures to her
the safe and undisputable rulership of the commerce of the
world. Reluctantly, sullenly even, the employing classes
there, acquiesce in the new development. By education and
association they are made to still cherish the belief, despite
the world-facts surrounding them, that a low rate of wages
is necessary to a low cost of production. The growing tide
of democracy in England can afford to laugh at an occa-
sional outbreak of rhetoric repression. It is not dangerous
there, this sort of atavism.
But not so on the continent There the governments are
still the willing instruments. Recent years have brought so
many examples, that we need not fear contradiction when
we say that the repression of the working-classes is still con-
sidered to be one of the functions of governments. The
more or less active interference of the military forces depends
simply on the more or less extensive or intensive mode of
protest of the working-classes against the old, incarnate labor
theories, so destructive to the countries where they prevail
and guide the economy of production.
CHAPTER V.
The Efficiency and Productiveness of Labor increased by Education. The
Ideal Part in Production. Change of Sentiment in Europe. Aid
given by Art Instruction to Industries. The Effect on English In-
dustries. The French System of Education directed to Industrial
Ends. The Industrial Help of Art Museums.
Cheap Labor and Ignorant Labor Synonymous.
PERNICIOUS as the labor views just treated were, and little
calculated to reach the end at which they aimed, the ideas
prevailing in regard to the intellectual outfit of the laborer
were still worse. They were a necessary sequence of the
low wage theory. Given the one, the other must follow.
A plentiful supply of cheap labor can only be secured by
depriving the laborer of all means of cultivating his mind.
If he becomes intellectually improved and instructed he will
become restive, dissatisfied, and ask higher and higher
wages. This can be avoided only by reserving the educa-
tional facilities of the age to the privileged few.
In England, especially, the battle fought against educa-
tion of the working classes was a long and bitter one.
Manufacturers held, and I have met not a few who still hold,
to the creed that labor would be the more satisfactory the
less it knew, outside of the work in which it was employed.
Starting on this doctrine, as a matter of course, the intro-
duction of common schools was opposed by the employing
classes with a vehemence reminding us of the Dark Ages.
The science and art schools are frequently spoken of as
68 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
instruments for spoiling good material, not alone in Eng-
land. Though these voices are isolated, yet they are echoes
from a not distant past, when they expressed the opinions
of the employing classes generally.
These crude opinions are making room for more enlight-
ened views since experience has taught a different lesson.
Countries more backward in industrial competition were
soon to make rapid strides toward gaining trade which
English manufacturers were in the habit of considering
their own heirloom. If anything, a loss of trade is an eye-
opener in England. This successful competition was recog-
nized by England as well as by France to be due to a more
thorough teaching in science and art schools, especially
in Germany, and the wider dissemination of knowledge
among the German working classes. Now, of course, a
different spirit is beginning to manifest itself in England and
in France, the two countries where the introduction of more
enlightened systems was opposed most bitterly by class
interests.
As I have shown in my report on industrial education in
France* the system of education introduced into and now
extending over the whole country is based on the most
enlightened and comprehensive theories of education. The
end in view is to give to the people, the poorest included,
all the advantages of mental, manual, and technical training
that can be given in the school years up to the age of fourteen,
and as much supplementary education as may be needed
and desired by the youth of both sexes for special pursuits.
As a practical educational system, with the object of
making efficient workers, I do not believe that there is else-
where a system of education equal to that of France. Eng-
* Technical Education in Europe. Department of State, Washington,
D. C. (1888.) Part I. Industrial Education in France.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 69
land, in its Technical Education Act passed two years ago,
has laid the seeds for a most thorough reform in school
education on as wide a basis as that of France.
In theory, at least, it is now everywhere conceded that
the efficiency of the workpeople grows in proportion to
their intellectual advancement. All the ages behind us
have historically demonstrated this as a fact. But it is
well known that facts were not always by deductive politi-
cal economy considered a necessary ground for theories to
stand on. If the facts contradict the theory, "so much
the worse for the facts."
The brightness and quickness of youths who had gone
through the schools, in the manufacturing districts of Eng-
land, contrasted very favorably with the dulness of many
of the adults who had none of the advantages of the
younger generation. With the advantages which the in-
dustrial nations of Europe possess in the hereditary skill
of their working classes in a variety of special industries,
over America, and with a dissemination of knowledge and
education among them, they occupy a very strong vantage
ground. Europe is now full of the eagerness of nations not
to be outdone by competitors in the establishment of such
educational advantages as give the greatest facilities for the
development and strengthening of industries.
The Ideal Part in the Economy of Production.
The ideal part relates not alone to the intellectual outfit
of the laborer, but also to all the intellectual forces set to
work in the creating of the huge productive machinery of
the age.
For the full understanding of our problem we must
separate industries into two classes : Those relating to
70 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
finished products, articles of use and fashion, and the
cruder manufactures. In the former, art is the great
teacher ; in the latter, science.
First, art teaching. Here England has been the first to
recognize the importance of a national system of industrial
art education. Experience of a disappointing nature has
given the impulse to the creation of a system which has
undoubtedly borne excellent fruit.
The Universal Exhibition of 1851 showed to the Eng-
lish how poor and tasteless in design and color many of
their industrial productions were, as compared with those
of France. Far-seeing and leading statesmen recognized
the necessity of action in order to insure the full main-
tenance of the position of Great Britain in the world of
trade and manufacture. To this the science and art
department of South Kensington owes its origin. Art
schools are now distributed all over the industrial centres
of the United Kingdom. They produce good draughtsmen,
designers, modelers, etc. To my mind, however, the sys-
tem needs remodeling, and requires more independence of
teaching in the different centres. All the work of the dif-
ferent schools bears one and the same imprint, that of South
Kensington. It is too much after the same pattern, not
enough scope being given to individuality and to the per-
sonal intuition of the art master as well as of the pupil. The
paying by results is held by many to make the masters too
anxious for drilling and getting prizes.
In spite of all this, the schools undoubtedly benefit the
decorative industries. The pottery, metal, and glass in-
dustries, in their continued ascendency over their Conti-
nental competitors, would alone speak favorably for the
schools. The mere fact that Continental competitors copy
so much from English pottery and reproduce the richer
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 7J
work of English origin in cheaper production, not by any
means through their cheaper labor, but mostly by following
the same design, leaving out a great deal of the richer work,
however, gives a silent but eloquent acknowledgment of the
superiority of English work and taste in this branch of in-
dustry. The English take talent from wherever they can
get it when they find it superior to the national product.
Native talent, however, is coming more and more to the
fore. A few of the leading art potteries and other art
industries employ French directors. Foreign talent is un-
doubtedly attracted by the high pay which the English are
always ready to give to superior skill and talent, but it
plays no important part. Native talent in pottery, paint-
ing, modeling, cameo-cutting, in glass, and in metal chasing
produces work in design and execution inferior to none of
France.
The Eoyal Worcester factory's work ranks with the
highest. If imitation is the highest kind of flattery the
homage paid to this remarkable firm is certainly the great-
est acknowledgment of its superiority. Yet, as I have
been assured by the director and principal owner of the
factory, they educate all their artists themselves. The
director showed me, however, very costly pieces in their
museum, which they buy regardless of price if they con-
tain elements which, either by their originality or beauty
of composition, color effect, etc., they can make useful in
their own work. They do not shrink from spending hun-
dreds of pounds for objects small in size, but full of leading
ideas. A very small Japanese vase was shown me, picked
up in 1876 in Philadelphia, for which an extraordinary
price had been paid, by which, it appeared to me, many of
the Royal Worcester ideas must have been suggested.
The Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876 showed us the
72 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
greatness of Japan as an industrial art country. In Amer-
ica articles of commerce of Japanese art are only cheaper
specimens, selected with a consciousness of the high-tariff
duties to which they are subjected when they enter this
country. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 was full of pieces
which the trade of England even, free of any tariff charges,
would be afraid of handling. They gave an idea of the
capacity of that wonderful people for art work. There is
object teaching ready for every one able to understand and
profit by it
Teaching Industrial Art.
I take it for granted that everybody will understand that
when I lay such importance upon industrial art teaching I
do not mean that it is only the regular school which can give
it The school is only one of the many methods open for
teaching. If art taught in schools connected with facto-
ries like that at Sevres, the Koyal Worcester, etc., makes
the future workman more proficient in his special branch
than in the special school, this mode of teaching is only
substituting one for another. A proper teaching in well-
organized schools, however, gives undoubtedly a broader
foundation.
Industrial art schools abound especially in Germany.
The World's Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia did much
in opening the eyes of governments and industrial insti-
tutions in Germany by impressing them with the poverty
of their productions compared with those of other nations.
Great support has been given since to industrial art schools
and technical schools, with a view to giving much-needed
help to industries. The graphic arts especially have found
great development through the influence of industrial art
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 73
schools. In ornamentation, design, color, and general out-
side appearance, they have made great progress. This
shows in the pressure which they have been exercising on
foreign competitors in neutral countries, especially on the
English. The intrinsic value and quality of their products,
however, have not improved equally. It is undoubtedly
due to this inferiority in quality that they not infrequently
lose position in foreign markets. What progress Germany
does make, however, is, more than progress anywhere else,
traceable to the influence of the art and technical school,
especially in color and chemical industries.
Some of the schools, like that at Crefeld, show remark-
able completeness of organization, teaching all the elements
of production in that most complex of all industries, the
manufacture of silk. Schools of this character would be of
the highest value to America, where industries are a matter
of creation, and not of gradual growth and development, as
in Germany and the industrial countries of Europe, and
therefore only the more needful.
In France, art teaching as an organized course in public
instruction is of recent times. The inherent artistic feeling
of the French was considered a sufficient fund to draw from.
The teachers and directors of art schools in Germany are to
the present day fully conscious of this superiority in the
French, and readily acknowledge it. The natural sense of
taste shows so prominently in all articles of French origin,
that little need be said on the subject. Still, with all this
natural advantage, thorough art teaching in all branches of the
industrial arts, wherever it can give additional impetus, has
been considered necessary by those shaping the destinies
of France. A course of art teaching has been estab-
lished which could not be broader, covering the whole
system of public instruction, nor higher in its reach, as it
74 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ultimately connects with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the
crowning edifice. At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 the
exhibits clearly showed to any one following the industrial
development of nations the great help which the schools
have given the industries of France.
The exhibits at the Exposition of the different art schools,
which I visited in 1887, were especially gratifying from the
industrial point of view, giving a clear indication of what
class of workers would soon be spread over the industries
affected thereby. On the whole I found industrial art
teaching in France more satisfactory than anywhere else, in-
asmuch as there is not the gulf between what is generally
called real art and industrial art.
No nation understands so well as France, that art in its
highest productions is but speaking the language of the
people. The greater the art, the more direct and eloquent the
appeal to the common understanding. The greater the art,
the truer to nature. Hence, a saturation of industrial pro-
duction with the true spirit of art cannot have any but the
most salutary practical results. The more this quality be-
comes part of industrial productions accessible to the masses
of the people, the more extended the markets, of course.
And so it follows, that though the cost of production need
not be enhanced, the benefits and profits to industries must
grow with an extension of art teaching and artistic feeling to
all classes engaged in production appealing to taste.
The Industrial Art Museum.
The superior advantages given to the industrial countries
of Europe and the workers engaged in these industries,
which we may class, for want of a better name, under the
general name of taste industries, are by no means limited to
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 75
hereditary skill, natural taste, and art teaching. The culti-
vation of taste bj the sight of beautiful objects, the special
productions of different countries, is certainly a great help
in raising the art standard of a nation. There can be no
doubt that the high perfection in industrial art works of the
German master craftsmen of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies was due to the custom of making it a condition for
admission into the craft that every Draftsman applying for
his diploma of mastership should have spent some years
away from home and in foreign travel. The workingman
travelled from place to place, and frequently visited far dis-
tant countries. This custom prevailed up to recent times,
being still in vogue within my own recollection. I remem-
ber the familiar figure, knapsack on back, stick in hand,
tramping the highroad from town to town.
The workingman's tramping it certainly did not detract
from his ability to take in the varying aspects and impres-
sions of different countries. The trades then were, however,
conducted on different principles from the modern idea and
the factory system. The master workman had to be master
of all the parts belonging to his craft. The builder was not
only a bricklayer or mason, but also skilled in the art of
drawing his plans and doing practically what a modern
architect does to-day ; the same with the cabinetmaker, the
weaver, the worker in textiles and metals, etc.
By the modern system of division of labor, much of the
task is taken out of the hands of the individual worker and
given to special hands ; still there is 'no doubt that even
work so subdivided will be benefited if the worker doing
only a part in the whole possesses trained skill and developed
taste. The printer in calico print works does not make the
design, but if he has no eye for the harmony of color he is
very apt to spoil a good pattern.
76 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Now craftsmen can no more take their lessons from travel
in foreign countries. The importance of having the great
storehouses of the past and present open has, however, been
recognized, and art industrial museums have been created
which offer an always-ready opportunity to everybody who
wants to cultivate his taste and enlarge his ideas.
Here, again, England has been a leader, followed now
by almost every natign of an industrial character except
America. The South Kensington Museum contains treasures
in every conceivable branch of industry, collected from all
parts of the world, and leading us back to remotest times.
Every industrial centre in England has an art museum of its
own, to which South Kensington periodically sends exhibits
from its vast stores, which loans are replaced from time to
time. The South Kensington Museum, with its numerous
branches and its whole organization, is a result of the Exhi-
bition of 1851. Being first in the field as a collector from
old treasures stored up in palaces, monasteries, and in the
hands of private collectors, its task was an easier one than
that of its imitators.
It does not belong to my present task to describe in detail
these vast collections. Still, it may be well to call attention
to specimens of what we are pleased to call industrial art, to
show what treatment was given it by the ancients, to the
collection of Tanagra figures in South Kensington and the
British Museum. A figure of a reclining lady, four inches
by eight and six inches high, was paid for at the price
of 270 10s. The inimitable ease of pose, the grace and
beauty of the figure, brought out even more by the charm-
ing arrangement of the drapery, which the Greeks employ
to cover the nude form, not to conceal it, make the impres-
sion that such treasures are well acquired at any cost, though
they be terra-cottas and produced in quantities as articles of
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 77
trade and manufacture by the potters of Tanagra. Indeed,
we see in the British Museum the moulds in which they were
cast and a partly-finished model, part of the nude not yet
covered by drapery.
Another specimen of ancient art may be mentioned here.
It is the most expressive lesson extant of the highest per-
fection in what we should call to-day industrial'art objects.
I speak of the famous Portland Vase. It is the greatest
masterpiece of its kind, and is fitly placed in the gem room
of the British Museum. It is made of two layers of glass*
The lower layer, forming the body of the urn, is of black ;
the top layer, of white glass. By cutting away the upper
part, enough is made to remain to make the design, as in all
cameo cutting. The difficulties of the task are very great.
The Webbs, of Stourbridge, who have made a specialty of
cameo plaques, and produce beautiful pieces on this prin-
ciple at a value of a hundred guineas and upwards,
showed me a piece which cracked in the hands of the artist
when only a few hours more work was required for com-
pletion. The bringing out of the design depends on the
darker or lighter tones. These are produced by the cutting
away of more or less of the white substance. Now, mis-
takes cannot be remedied as when the matter is only laid on
as in paste-on-paste decorations in pottery. If the technique
offers great difficulties in a plaque, a flat surface of the size
of a dinner-plate, how much more in a round body like a
vase! Yet the figures of gods and mortals actually live and
speak. Posture and bodily perfection would do high honor
to the greatest sculptors of modern times. The limbs show
that they are meant to do service on earth ; that even if
some of the people represented are used to living in am-
brosial heights part of their time, their feet and ankles are
in proportion and fit for use among mortals.
78 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
In the work of Sevres and of Mintons' in Stoke we Bee
still too much of a pandering to a taste which runs more after
an imaginary than the real type of the beautiful. In ancient
plastique art we see the best living models reproduced ; in
the modern we see*them "improved" and "idealized."*
*How the "improver" and " idealizer" is equipped for his ambitious
task is apparent from the many examples of his skill, which he has
seen fit to place along with the specimens of ancient art which have
received his attentions in the restorations. They fill all the museums of
Europe. The forms of gods, heroes, and mortals are made grotesque by
fhe additions of arms, hands, and feet evidently stolen from some clumsy
clown of awkward manners and appearance. They had even attempted
to restore the holy lady of Milo, the goddess of incomparable hauteur and
loveliness, of unsurpassable lines and forms. The artists who attempted
the work were unable to come within an approach to the task. The
age seems at least to have reached a first step to progress, a conscious-
ness of its incapacity, and so the restorations were removed and the foam-
born Aphrodite stands to this day, in her solitary retreat in the Louvre,
without arms and without her left forefoot, and without toes to her
right foot. More fortunate than her brother of Belvedere, though muti-
lated, she will never be an object of derision should the gods ever return
from their exile among the barbarians, who have gone so far as even to
scrape the classic forms and thereby destroy their beauty forever.
But the most astonishing example we find in two statues in the
Louvre two statues called "Venus Accroupies." The one was found at
Vienne, and the other at Tyre. Though sepulchered at distant places,
they were evidently twin sisters, exact likenesses of one another in size,
pose, and character. The one was found in a perfect state of preserva-
tion, the other only the upper part of the body including the hips.
The missing lower body had to be restored by the artist, equipped with
all the art cunning of his craft. The restoration stands an eloquent
admission of " non possumus. " At about thirty feet distance from the
complete classic work stands this half-classic, half-modern work of art, a
sort of hermaphrodite, because the upper part is that of lovely woman-
hood, the lower seems to belong to one of the more massive, coarser sex.
Aside from the absence of the fine accentuations in lines, which make
classic statuary so wonderfully alive, this restoration, with the original
actually completed before the restorer's eye, is in dimensions of a body
twice the weight of its upper part. The statue restored is a standing
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 79
Therefore, a return to classic art means a return to nature
arid its never-closed storehouse of information.
These few types show us how the ancients regarded
" industrial art."
We cannot go astray if we follow closely in the track
cut out for us.
From my observations I carried away one general im-
pression, the expression of which will not be out of place
here : that, at least in the aesthetic side of industrial art,
the present, no matter where, with all its unbounded aux-
iliaries, has no standing before its ancient teachers. The
skilled weaver who makes his own design and dyes his
own colors is not reached by all the complexity of modern
textile industry. The illuminations in the old missals of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries show a delicacy and
richness of tints which after five and six centuries have
more wealth of color than if products of yesterday. While
the wall paintings of Pompeii and Egypt, not to speak of
those of the Renaissance, live to the present day, the fres-
cos of the Maximilianaeum in Munich, hardly forty years
old, have already crumbled away.
The most remarkable work of graphic art is the Book
of Kells in the National Library at Dublin. This is a work
of about the seventh or eighth century of our era, a time
when all Western Europe was still steeped in barbarism.
The delicacy of colors, the treatment of concentric lines,
the general harmony, give the illuminations an ornamental
effect unexcelled in any period or any country.
Nowhere, however, have I found a museum as an aid to
accusation that our age has lost, or, perhaps, not recovered the correct
vision which antiquity possessed and which enabled it to produce master-
pieces in the workshop, perhaps, where the atelier and the studio stand
aside in dull mediocrity.
80 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the development of a special industry so complete as the
industrial museum at Lyons, of which I have given a full
description in my " Report on Industrial Education in
France." Here, also, the remoter period shows the greater
wealth and warmth in color and design. There we see all
the greatness of the Venetians of the thirteenth century
mirrored in their silks and velvets, as we see it in South
Kensington and elsewhere in their ancient glassware. We
understand why they prohibited their craftsmen from going
abroad, why they made hostages of the relatives of these
craftsmen, even to the penalty of death, if they did not
return within a given time.
In the aesthetic part of art industries we have a great deal
to learn ; we find, when examining the treasures of these
museums, very little to be proud of in our own achieve-
ments. In Germany and Austria almost every town has
its museum, many of them organized with a view to help-
ing existing industries. They are, however, on a smaller
basis than the South Kensington Museum, but are all excel-
lent in their way. Yet being new, supplied only with lim-
ited funds and largely dependent on aid given by private
individuals, they cannot, of course, be put in the same
category with their English prototype.
In addition to the objects exhibited in these museums,
the art libraries attached to them are of great usefulness.
These libraries are open to everybody, and contain almost
every known work relating to industrial art. Their port-
folios are full of designs and reproductions of artistic work.
In this manner a constantly flowing source is open, from
which those interested can take refreshing draughts.
CHAPTER VI.
Science and Art powerful Factors in the Economy of Production.
Cheapening of Price. Influence of Science Schools. Technical
Training. Art and Technical Schools greatly needed in the United
States. Scientific Methods are quickly adopted. American Invent-
ors easily lead the World in improving Mechanical Appliances and
are ably assisted by the Workmen who handle the Machines, but
the Chemists of this Country are far behind those of Europe.
Cheapening the Cost of Production.
I HAVE endeavored to outline the elements which combine
in giving character and value to manufactures, aside from
the material part of the work that may be in them. I have
found it necessary to show the superiority of Europe over
America in possessing a stock of working people, born and
trained to the trades in which they are engaged. They bring
to their work a certain indefinable skill of eye and touch
which shows itself in the fabric, and which cannot be put
into it by any substitution from without. How this mani-
fests itself practically in all our importations from Europe, I
shall show later on in dealing with the special schedules of
our tariff act. The word taste alone will hardly express the
full meaning I wish to convey. But I find no better word
by which to express all that makes an article attractive and
induces people to pay a higher price than for the American
counterpart. Our large importation in finished goods is due
to the fact that they show attractive points in their general
appearance, color, design, and finish, which for lack of skill
or adaptation are wanting in those produced here. Others
we cannot manufacture, because other conditions may be
6
82 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
wanting. In what we do manufacture successfully against
foreign competition, the labor cost is very seldom a consider-
ation. Wherever quantity of production comes into play,
our superior machinery, working methods, and the energy of
our workpeople are fully able to cope with that part of the
question. In many lines training given in art and technical
schools would be of much greater service to our industrial
classes than all the tariff increases repeatedly enacted for the
fostering of home industries. To this proposition our manu-
facturers generally answer that they can buy talent culti-
vated abroad much better trained than they could expect to
get here, even if they had these schools. This may be true
so far as leading artists and designers are concerned. It
certainly cannot apply to the many who would be benefited
by this training and distributed into very important though
minor subdivisions of manufacture. Besides, experience
speaks against it. The same views were formerly held in
European countries, but they are abandoned in the light of
the manifest advantages of the introduction of art and tech-
nical training in the different excellent schools that have
sprung up all over Europe.
Superiority of English Work.
There is no manufacturer or workman so proud of his
rule-of-thumb efficiency as the English, and speaking from
practical results no one else has a right to be so proud of it
Strange to say that in many lines of manufacture where
technical skill and science play the greatest part, Germany,
with all the help it receives from its school training, has not
been able to approach the superiority of British work. The
color and finish of cotton velvets, for instance, and of seal
plushes in silk, to name only a specimen or two, are of such
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 83
acknowledged superiority that the English more than hold
the market against the rivalry of Germany. Still England
recognizes the importance of technical training, and has gone
to work with open hand to supply its coming generations
with the means of increasing efficiency. This is due to the
fact that while Germany has not been able to supersede
England in neutral markets, the English see clearly that
their rivals are approaching them perceptibly, and by means
of nothing else than their technical and art schools. If any
nation by reason of its development from an agricultural
into a manufacturing nation (whose working classes are
mainly recruited from European unskilled labor) has the
need of such institutions as we have been describing art
schools and technical schools it certainly is the great
republic of the United States. Strange to say that, few as
have been the attempts to establish industrial art schools,
most of them seem to die of inanition due to the neglect
of government and industrials. General McClellan, while
governor of New Jersey, interested himself earnestly in
establishing an art school in Trenton. He succeeded so far
as to get it started with the support of the manufacturers.
But even this useful enterprise in a centre whose chief indus-
try is an art industry, viz., pottery, went to pieces again
after his retirement from the governorship. The waste in
American mills and much of the bad work done are due to
the absence of special skill in labor as well as in the labora-
tory and the management in different branches of the works.
Loose and even corrupt practices on the one side and in-
competency on the other have frequently led to destruc-
tion of wealth where all other elements of prosperity were
present. Since the establishing of the Institute of Technol-
ogy in Boston it is acknowledged in that centre that much
has been done toward the eradication of these evils.
84 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Helps in Technical Training.
The great corporations in our leading textile industries
would be especially benefited by schools furnishing trained
American help in science and in art Our people are still
engaged in the task of subduing a continent. The extent
of the territory progressively covered by an enterprising
population still absorbs, so to speak, the intelligence of the
nation. Quantity and immediate results are the main objects
of all enterprises, The railroad engineer in uniting conti-
nents, the inventor turning out a new machine, the scientist
discovering a new process, all have the same purpose to
make production serviceable to the masses and all classes
of people. Necessity is the mother of invention. We are
inventors by compulsion. Some of the greatest inventions
and improvements for cheapening production were either
made here in America or adapted and improved from foreign
types. All industrial countries must be quick in accepting
scientific discoveries of a far-reaching nature, but that the
United States outrun the world in the contest for mechani-
cal and scientific improvement is proved by the fact that
in iron-making, steel-making, cotton-spinning, silk-throwing,
and in the coarser wool fabrics (after reducing the cost of raw
wool to the foreign free wool basis), though paying higher
wages per diem, America fully holds her own, frequently
at a lower cost of labor by the piece. The higher wage
rate per diem ruling in the United States enables the opera-
tives to enjoy a better mode of living and better nutrition
of body and mind. They eat more and better food than
any of the operatives of Europe, and their general mode of
living is upon a higher standard. They operate more spin-
dles, more looms in the textiles. In steel-making, coal-mining,
coking, etc., an equal number of hands turn out more tons
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 85
in a given time than any of their competitors in Europe,
England not excluded. They work more steadily in every
hour of their working day. The steadiness of the worker,
the application of his whole time and energy to his work, is
most intense, and is only possible where good nutrition pre-
vails. Every moment is made use of to turn out the great-
est number of pieces that can be ground out of his machine
or run out of his hand while at work. This alone explains
the high rate of earnings in some occupations, coupled with
the low piece-price paid, which, when I stated it to manu-
facturers in the same industries in European countries, caused
astonishment. Many of our foreign rivals are aware of this
and dread a reformed tariff (in the Democratic sense), a low
tariff on a basis of free raw materials.
Much of this is due, aside from the superior quality of
American labor, to the scientific development of the age.
Many a new industry has been called into being of which
the last generation was entirely ignorant. Quickest of all
are the United States to avail themselves of these. Thus,
what may be called the new science of our generation
electricity has found new developments and applications
in America. I will not speak of the telegraph and the tele-
phone, which play so important a part in the world's com-
mercial life, and, in saving time and employment of capital,
have become very important factors in cheapening prices,
but of the application of electricity to productive processes.
Here we have an entirely new vista of possibilities still in
store for us. The feats accomplished within the short time
since the application of electricity to industries are so won-
derful that we may well indulge in prophecies which a
decade or two ago would have been considered flights of
imagination of the most fanciful kind. In metal industry
especially, is electricity destined to play a most important
86 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
part, and I will allude to only a few of the results attained
within the last few years. The welding of different metals
had resisted all attempts. Electricity has solved the prob-
lem very effectively, and a process has been invented by
which iron and copper, or any other metals are welded now
at a nominal cost. Welding by electricity cheapens many a
form of iron that had formerly to be welded by subjecting
the different parts to a separate heating process. Another
direction in which electricity has shown its wonderful capac-
ity for cheapening cost is in the recent development of the
manufacture of what maybe called a new metal, aluminium.
Aluminium possesses qualities which make it of the highest
value industrially. It unites with great tensile strength
great specific lightness. It does not oxidize in moist air,
nor is it affected by water. Its softness makes it easily
workable. It can be hammered and drawn into wire. For
these reasons it would be an excellent material for almost
every article of use now made of iron, steel, copper, or
brass. Its specific weight is 2.56 against 7.84 of iron.
Wherever lightness combined with strength is desirable,
and this is the case in almost everything made wholly or
largely of metal, its capacity for employment is unlimited.
For military equipments it would, for this reason alone,
prove of the greatest value, either pure or as an alloy with
other metals. The supply is unlimited, as it is contained
in all clay to the extent of about 35 per cent The use of
this valuable metal was, however, up to recent years almost
impossible on account of its high cost. Aluminium was
produced for practical purposes and in a compact form by
Ernst Wohler in 1845, and by Deville in 1854. The
French Government, seeing the great advantages to be
derived from this metal, assisted with large sums and
enabled the erection of works at Javelle, and the manufac-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 87
ture in quantities. The process, however the Natron proc-
ess was too expensive to give the metal much scope
for employment. The price at first was as high as fr. 1000
per kilogram (about $90 a pound) and was gradually
reduced by various inventions and discoveries to about
$10 a pound, at which price it was sold but a few years ago,
when the world was informed of the invention in America
of a process of reducing aluminium by electricity. Fac-
tories were started in America and in England and put in
successful operation. The price was quickly reduced to
$2 a pound, and something over a year ago to $1. It was
then said that this reduced price would not leave a profit to
those operating by the new electro-chemical process, that
the price was reduced to discourage the employment of new
inventions rapidly coming into the field, by which the cost
of production is again reduced considerably. The patentee
of a later process which has come under my notice claimed
then that the metal can easily be produced as low as 30 or
even 25 cents per pound.
But before any new process had been put into operation,
the employers of the electric process who had claimed that
aluminium could not be profitably produced at $1 a pound,
have since seen fit to reduce the price to 50 cents a pound.
It is useless in a discussion of the kind that we are engaged
in, to task the reader with technical explanations as to the
difference between one invention and another. I only wish
to point out the effect of scientific discoveries on the cost of
production. The difference in wages, whatever their day
rates may be, sinks into insignificance when compared to
this destroying factor in price making. Last summer it was
stated in England before the British Association that the cost
of aluminium bronze (with 10 per centum of aluminium)
was but a few years ago $1.20 per pound, and at the time
88 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
of the reading of the paper 33 cents. At the present price
of aluminium, the aluminium bronze can be produced at
considerably less cost. The governments of different coun-
tries are preparing for the extensive use of aluminium as
an alloy with steel in their ordnance and small arms, ship-
building, armor-plating, etc. Here, then, science has again
called into existence new industries, a new metal of great
serviceability, probably to be produced in the near future at
what, compared with the past, will be merely a . nominal
cost.
American Chemists Lagging Behind.
In chemistry equal results can be noted. But here
America lags behind European countries, and science
schools and technical colleges with extensive laboratories
would be of the highest value. In this branch Germany
especially has had remarkable success. Many of its most
flourishing industries are pre-eminently chemical industries,
and their establishment and very profitable operation are
traceable to the excellence of its polytechnic schools and
the high science training in its universities. Some of our
colleges have very good chemical schools and laboratories.
But they seldom reach high enough. In most instances
they lack the means for sufficient extension. American
colleges and universities are generally endowed schools,
based on bequests and legacies ; hence they are in most
cases hampered by provisions which direct the applica-
tion of the funds and interfere with the free exercise of
judgment as to the teaching. The direction of the teach-
ing is taken from the faculty and left to the trustees. But
teaching must be as free as science in order to show the
best results.
Returning now to applied chemistry, I will cite an
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 89
example to show the cheapening effected by the intro-
duction of science into manufacturing industries. Paper
making has especially gratifying results to show, and this
within a very brief space of time. I take here the Eng-
lish prices, because England has for a long time had the
advantage of cheaper prices for its materials, and has been
the seat of the industries which furnish the chemicals for
most paper makers, and largely so for our American manu-
facturers. A fine quality of glazed packing paper, known
to almost every user of English goods, sold in 1879 at
39 per ton. In 1890 it had come down to 18 10s., or
less than one-half the old price.
This reduction is partially due to improvements in
machinery and the manufacturing methods. The largest
part, however, is owing to the improvements mostly chemi-
cal in the reducing of the manufacturing materials used.
It costs less to make the pulp because, as we discover
improved processes, chemicals used in reducing the fibrous
matter are cheaper. Bleaching powder, which had been
14 the ton in 1879, is now 5 to 6 a ton. Soda ash,
etc., have come down in proportion. Soda pulp when first
introduced sold at 22, and sells now at 9 unbleached
and 11 bleached, a ton ; while the mechanical pulp, mostly
from Germany and Sweden, sold last winter at Hull at 34
shillings or $8 a ton. Sulphite pulp is a long fibre pulp
which owes its creation as an industry to the chemistry
development of Germany. It largely replaces rags in paper
making. In England it is now sold at rates between 11
10s. and 12 10s.
These improvements in pulp making have, of course,
largely reduced the value of rags. Jute end cuttings and
rope ends, formerly largely used, have come down from
14 to 6 in sympathy with the decline of price in the
90 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
other materials. America has kept in line in the progress
made in the industry. A number of improvements are of
American origin. Although it has to import its soda ash,
bleaching powder, and other chemicals, and pay duty, it
produces soda pulp as cheaply as England, and by means
of its consolidation of works and a quicker eye to improve-
ments is even able to export pulp.
The labor cost here is also infinitesimal, independent of
the remuneration per diem. A product of 5,000 pounds a
day of one converter would not require more than four or
five men at $1.50 a day. The wage rate per pound would
not be more than one-tenth to one-seventh of a cent. Re-
duction of wages would not accomplish very much toward
reduction of price, alongside of the cheapening influences
recorded above.
Great saving of expense and cost has been effected by
improved methods in the recovery of soda ash and other
chemicals used in the manufacturing process. In this the
Americans have made great strides of late, and in soda pulp
making are fully able to compete on a free trade basis with
the whole world, and carry off the honors besides.
Equal progress has been made in America in paper mak-
ing. In spite of the onerous burdens on materials, we are
able to export to England with higher prices for our chemi-
cals, and even pay the freight for the paper, and undersell
English makers in their home markets.
This is due to the fact that in America, wherever indus-
tries can be so conducted, a special article or special line is
made by one mill, year in and year out. Infinite machinery
keeps grinding away and produces infinite quantities. The
general cost is reduced pro rata with the increased quanti-
ties run out by the mill.
In England, as I have repeatedly been told, paper makers
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 91
make all kinds of paper that are wanted. This principle
applies as well to other industries to which I shall have
reference hereafter. One of the leading men controlling
and selling the output of a number of mills, told me that
one house prides itself on manufacturing not fewer than 160
different sorts of paper. By its different methods America
is enabled to pay high wages and undersell Europe.
CHAPTER VII.
Improvements and Inventions. Labor Cost enormously reduced. Iron
in Finished Forms. Metallurgy. Automatic Machinery. Its Effect
on Cost. Labor Cost an Insignificant Item. Cheapest Cost and
Highest Wages with Highest Scientific Development. The Steel
Rail and the Ocean Steamer, Creations of Science.
Powerful Influence in Metallurgy.
THE greatest savings in the cost of production have, how-
ever, been realized in metallurgy, and in the production of
pig iron and steel the most astonishing and gratifying results
have arisen. It is not more than sixty years ago, as I was
told by an old ironmaster of North Staffordshire, that it
took six tons of coal for the production of a ton of pig iron,
where one and three-quarters are used now. The introduc-
tion of the hot blast and the better construction of furnaces
have brought this about. Not only is less coal used, but
the ores yield now almost all the iron they contain, while
formerly there used to be considerable waste. Of course the
labor of carting the materials was then proportionately
greater too. The value of the fuel saved alone is sufficient
to more than cover the present price of pig iron. The dif-
ference is equal to the labor cost in ten tons of pig iron at
the furnace average labor cost in England. While we may
say that labor employed about furnaces receives from one-
third to one-half more pay, the cost of pig iron has been
reduced to less than one-third the price it commanded then.
In the manufacturing of steel, both on "the Bessemer and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 93
the basic process, improvements have led to economies by
which the price of steel has been reduced far below the
price of puddled iron, which is gradually making room in
almost all employments for steel. English steel rails, which
had been in 1869, $55, and in 1873, $80, are now about $20,
and were as low as $18 in 1888. American steel rails had
to follow, of course, in this price decline. In 1869 they
were $132 currency a ton, or $88 gold. They are now $30
a ton, and were sold as low as $25, about three years ago.
American rail mills, it is not saying too much, are the best
equipped in labor-saving methods and appliances, and an
American rail can be produced now from the pig iron at less
cost on the average in labor, although the daily rates
are considerably higher, than in Europe. These are truly
achievements of science applied to industry. The far-reach-
ing effect is brought home now to every understanding.
Railroad building could otherwise never have attained the
extension which it has. Hundreds of thousands of homes
and farms would not have been established. The food sup-
plies of Europe, principally of England, would be still sub-
ject to scarcity, and want and misery still be the lot of the
working classes of England, not to speak of Germany and
Prance, if iron and steel were still produced at the cost and
by the methods of the time when railroads were first
started.
Some of the most important inventions for reducing the
cost of rolling the rails are American. But whatever their
origin, they are applied to better advantage here than abroad.
The effect is a much smaller number of men employed for
the same output, even where we compare American with
English rail mills. The resulting higher wage rate per day
and lower labor cost per ton will not surprise, therefore.
The invention and introduction of the three-high blooming-
94, THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and rail-mill instead of the two-high mill did a great deal in
cheapening the cost of production. Automatic tables and
travelling cranes do now the chief work in American rail
mills. "Before the introduction of automatic appliances,
from fifteen to seventeen men were required to operate a
three-high rail mill. The automatic tables reduced this
number to five, including the roller in charge of the train,"
says one of our great engineers, Mr. Hunt, the inventor of
the tables, in a paper in the Engineering and Mining Journal
They were first introduced in 1884-85, and we can well see
from this that the labor cost of steel rails from the ingot to
the rail is a necessarily decreasing quantity in the train
of these inventions and improvements.
To give the reader an idea of the workings of an Ameri-
can rail mill of to-day, I will quote from the paper referred
to above :
" After the ingot is reduced in the blooming mill it is carried by
power rollers toward the first rail train, and through a shear by which
the end, which was the top of the ingot, is cut off, and the long bloom
sheared in two, each half making two or three rails, according to the
weight of the intended section. The first half at once passes through
the rail roughing rolls, the second one being held for a few seconds, or
until the first has made three passes, when it is also sent forward.
"If from any reason the bloom when sheared should have become
too cold to be safely and successfully finished, an overhead traveller is
provided to carry it at a right angle into a ring at the side of the mill,
in which heating furnaces are located with a Wellman charging and
drawing crane in front of them. When sufficiently heated the same
carrier conveys the steel back to the table rollers.
" By this arrangement cold cobbles, or other rail blooms, can be
heated and delivered to the rolls. In the roughing rolls the bloom re-
ceives five passes in three-high rolls. It is then passed to the second
roughing tables and is given three passes in three-high rolls. The par-
tially formed section is elevated to the back tables of two-high rolls, and
making one pass through them reaches a dummy table in front, from
which it slides down to driven rollers, and is by them carried back to the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 95
three-high set of rolls which are in line with the first roughing rolls, and
driven by the same engine. In these it receives four passes, making, in
all, thirteen rail-mill passes. It is now a finished section, long enough
to cut into three 30-foot rails. This is done at one operation by four
saws. After passing through the cambering machine, the rails are car-
ried by power down the hot beds. When sufficiently cool they are loaded
by power on a spider car, which is handled by a special locomotive. The
rails are conveyed to the several cold beds, located conveniently to the
cold straightening presses, and are unloaded on these beds by an auto-
matic arrangement of arms or levers, receiving their power from steam
taken from the locomotive boiler. "
Here it is all self-acting machinery which does the work.
The few men seen about in an American rail mill direct and
guide. In Germany, near Aix-la-Chapelle, and in England
(Middlesborough, and Darlington) I saw at what was reputed
as the best equipped works no arrangements even approach-
ing this complete system of scientific apparatus. In rolling
and handling the rails men were employed to do what is
done here by automatic appliances. We turn a ton of rails
out of the pig iron at a labor cost of $2.50 at the present
time, which in England costs $3.04. At the same time our
labor per diem receives two-thirds more pay than the com-
paratively well paid English labor.
Price Reductions in Other Forms of Iron.
If we look into the prices of iron at remoter periods, with
their crude methods, we can well understand the backward-
ness of European countries. Indeed, the progress of the ages
can almost be measured by the progress made in the produc-
tion of iron. In the early Middle Ages especially, iron had
become so scarce an article, that almost every remnant of it
brought down from the Roman period was made use of in one
form or another. Thus, for instance, it is recorded that the
iron clasps which had been used in the huge masonry of the
96 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Porta Nigra at Treves were removed and forged into weap-
ons and utensils. For the fifty years previous to 1830,
when railroad building took its rise, the price of English
pig iron, according to Tooke's " History of Prices," aver-
aged about 7 per ton. From old accounts we learn that
the price of bar iron not further back than the seventeenth
century was 25s. 8c?. a hundredweight, which is equal to
25 13s., or about $125, the gross ton, which the value of
money at that time would make considerably higher yet,
compared to our present prices. tAbout the middle of last
century the price was yet 20 a ton. At the present time
English bar iron varies between 5 and 6.
The reduction in price of finished articles of iron, caused
by the application of improvements and mechanical inven-
tions, is greater yet, and here again America shows most
astonishing results. Our principle laid down above, that
high wages lead to cheapened production by a necessity
like a natural law, finds excellent proof in the iron industry,
principally in finished forms. Here automatic machinery
replaces hand labor in almost all except the finishing proc-
esses. By this means we are able to indulge in the luxury
of what, compared with the prices paid in free trade coun-
tries, must be called high-priced iron and steel (to help the
infant industries of Pennsylvania and their millionaire
owners), and still undersell European free-trade countries
with the finished products.
The drop-hammer has been lately introduced in Ameri-
can plow works, and contracts are taken at $4.50 a plow.
I heard of one order for 20,000 plows to Argentina at
that price. This was in 1890. In that same year I visited
one of the principal English works of world-wide repu-
tation. There the hammer and the anvil alone were in use,
and the blacksmith wielded his craft unassisted by any
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 97
mechanical auxiliaries. The cheapest plow which they pro-
duced was 80s. or $7.29. But as in other trades so in
agricultural implements, their trade, being principally an
exporting one, has adapted itself to the local variations
of the demand. We know how tastes and habits determine
the character of tools and implements no less than of com-
modities. England, trying to give the people of foreign
lands the articles which they claim to be suitable to their
purposes, accommodates her manufacturing system to the
conditions most suitable to the purpose. The many varia-
tions do not permit of a system, except under very great
modifications, which can afford to build and use machinery
for one specialty or pattern even. This factory not alone
produced a variety of plows for the different countries, but
mowers, reapers, and other agricultural implements. Our
system of work may somewhat interfere with a rapid exten-
sion of exports by not being elastic enough to adapt itself
to special local demands. Much can be done, however, to
assimilate the American working system to a readier com-
pliance with foreign tastes. But be this as it may, we hold
the inner circle. We certainly cannot be dislodged from
the hold on the home market by any possible emergencies
arising out of foreign labor and manufacturing conditions
as here outlined.
Other Illustrations of Superior American
Methods.
One of the most interesting labor processes by which the
difference between the old methods and the American
methods can be illustrated is that involved in the making
of an article largely used in building a piece of iron for
uniting beams, turned into its proper shape after it has
98 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
been heated. The uniting of beams by means of this
beam hanger is preferable to mortising, as mortising
weakens the beam to the extent that the timber is cut
away. The beam hanger leaves the beam intact, and
unites the two beams equally firmly. In Germany and
other foreign countries it is forged by the blacksmith on
his anvil. In America, where its use is far more extensive
on account of the more general employment of wood as a
building material, it was formerly made in the same way.
Lately a machine has been invented by which, after the
iron is heated, it is rolled by one operation into the proper
shape.
In Germany, as I found out by personal inquiry, a black-
smith and his helper would not make more than twenty of
these irons in a day, and wages at three marks (or 72 cents)
a day would be considered high pay. The selling price
of these irons is about 9 cents a pound in England and
Germany. In America, though iron is higher than in
England and Germany, the roller at the machine earns from
$3 to $3.50 a day ; the helper, $1 to $1.50 ; and the iron is
sold at 3| cents a pound, with a good profit to the manu-
facturer. A day's work on one machine turns out 600 to
700 finished beam hangers. The cheapened product and
the rapidity with which orders can be filled now, creates
markets which formerly were wanting through lack of
ability to supply them. Here again cheapness is not at
all due to any individual labor exertion (except that close
and exhaustive application which is possible only to well-
paid labor), but almost entirely to the inventive spirit so
characteristically American.
These labor processes are always paid at piece-work rates.
The time occupied in rolling is the same, whether the irons
be of larger or smaller size. It takes ten seconds to run a
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 99
bar through the rollers. The heating of the larger pieces,
however, takes more time than that of the smaller, and on
this account the larger irons occupy more time in making.
A machine can roll three tons of iron a day at less
than a cent per pound for the labor, as against perhaps five
cents under the old hand process. Other forms of iron are
treated in the same way, but this will suffice as an example
to illustrate the influence of invention upon prices. In pin
making, screw making, chain making, and kindred indus-
tries, automatic machinery does all the work, while human
labor is confined to feeding the machine which turns out
the work. It sounds almost ludicrous to hear the question
of wages or labor cost mentioned in connection with opera-
tions of this kind.
What difference would it make in the cost of the product
in pin making whether the day rate of the workman tend-
ing the machine be $2 or $3 under working methods like
these? In a factory in Connecticut I found 70 pin-making
machines in operation. They were tended by three men
and one machinist and a boy helper for the repairing. The
combined output of these self-acting machines is 7,500,000
of pins a day or 25,000 papers.* The pins are even put on
the paper by the machine. The difference in the cost,
whether the combined wages of the five men be $7.50 or
$10.00 per day, is infinitesimal. Allowing for stoppages,
and taking the output at 20,000 papers, the difference would
not be more than one-eighth of a cent.
* It was considered a great triumph of progress of his time by Adam
Smith that ten persons under proper division of labor could make among
them upwards of 48,000 pins a day.
Forty-eight thousand pins the product of ten men a hundred years ago,
against 7,500,000 pins the product of five men to-day. A four-thousand
times greater product by the aid of modern machinery than possible by
the aid of the best system then known.
100 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The most surprising results are attained, however, in com-
posite products, articles of immediate use and wear, when
different parts of so complicated an article as a watch, a
clock, or a pair of shoes can be made by an application of
the American system.
As shown in the Introductory Letter to the Secretary of
State to my report on Technical Education (Industrial Edu-
cation in France) a Waterbury watch is made at the trifling
labor expense of fifty cents. The material in no instance is
further advanced, when it enters the mill, than sheet steel.
All the springs, wheels, screws, pins, pinions, etc., are made
by self-acting machinery. Yet the factory had at the time
of my visit 420 employees on its pay-roll, fully one-half of
whom were women, at an average of wages of $10.71. We
see here a remarkable illustration of a low cost of labor
consequent upon a high rate of wages. But here every
improvement or device tending to cheapen cost is quickly
introduced. A machine was lately put in by which 1,200
to 1,500 springs are turned out a day with two machines and
two men, to take the place of other machinery which exacted
the employment of twelve men for an output of 1,000
springs. In Germany, in the Black Forest, I visited the
works of a u stock company " turning out clocks by the help
of machinery and power. Screw-making was done by a
man putting pieces of copper cut from the rod into the
required sizes into the receptacle of the machine. Of course
the machine had to stop for each operation of turning out a
finished screw. The whole looked somewhat funny to one
accustomed to the operation of automatic machinery, grind-
ing out incessantly without any human labor, except that of
a boy, putting in a new rod when the old is worked up and
the last screw has fallen into the bag. Under such differ-
ences and distinctions, it becomes apparent that labor in
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 101
watch and clock making at $10.71 is cheaper in Massachu-
setts than labor at ten or twelve marks ($2.40 to $2.88) in
the Black Forest.
We find the best illustration of the superiority of Ameri-
can workpeople in quantitative production over their English
and foreign competitors when using and handling the same
kind of machinery.
The application of these methods and employment of self-
acting machinery, plays nowhere a more important part than
in machine building itself. Not alone that a machine made
by machinery can be made more cheaply than by hand labor :
the parts also are usually more exact in the fittings, and
offer the very great advantage that they can at all times be
easily replaced simply by specifying the number of the part,
and therefore of great practical value for shipment into
countries where skilled labor for repairs is scarce. Here,
also, every part is usually accompanied with the building of
a new machine for the purpose.
The effect of these tool machines may be measured from
one little example that I noticed in a factory making dyna-
mos. The cutting of threads in the racks in the electrical
mechanism was formerly done by hand, and the racks (about
eighteen inches long) cost about fifteen cents apiece in labor.
This is now done by a machine specially constructed for the
purpose, with unvarying exactness, at a quarter of a cent.
With such help, utilizing machinery wherever possible, one
of the dynamo works which I visited lately turns out one
dynamo per day, of sixty arc lamps, with all the lamps,
hanging boards, cut-out boxes, amperes, switchboards, and
all the innumerable little supplies, too numerous to mention,
for equipping so complicated and highly-developed a mech-
anism. For 160 persons, with a large proportion of helpers
(boys and young men), the weekly payroll is $2,200, includ-
102 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ing superintendents, office and shop rent, as well as office
help. The help employed in the factory averages about $12
a week. Considering the large proportion of minor help,
the rate of pay for the more skilled occupations, of course,
is very much higher.
But whatever the amount of weekly earnings might be,
would here again not be of great importance if held against
the commercial value of the article produced.
The total labor employed in the production of an appa-
ratus as described would be $400 (on the basis of calcula-
tion given above) while the gross selling price is, or was at
least at that time (1890), $4500. The high selling price,
quite disproportionate to the cost of production, is due to
an extent to the guaranteeing of the dynamos. They
require constant attention and repairing on account of the
binding of the journal in the bearing, arising from the heat-
ing, through the high-speeded machine. Many inventions
are being put into requisition which are calculated to
obviate this difficulty and to bring down the price.
So far as the labor cost stands to the value of the product
it can be easily seen that the question of wages is but
an unimportant item. The manufacture of products so
thoroughly protected by patents as these are, becomes an
absolute monopoly, and the profit rates are large as bespoken
by the high dividends on watered stocks and other evidences
of rapid capital accumulations out of the earnings.
The question of the relations of labor to the cost of
production resolves itself entirely to one of equipment
"Whether labor be equipped with all the improvements and
inventions or not, whether labor be well conditioned and fed
or underpaid and overworked, decides the contest, not the
relative difference in day wages. It is the output after all
which makes the price of a commodity.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 1Q3
It has been my unvarying experience that, even with the
employment of machinery, the number of people employed
for a certain output is proportionately much larger where
the rate of pay is lower. In other words, that a higher rate
of pay more than compensates in the output by the results.
The Steamship an Illustration of Modern Devel-
opment. Science applied to Industry.
A collective picture of what science has done for the
progress of the race in the field of industry is given by
the steamboat. The greatest results of the combination of
science and work are seen in the iron monsters which
traverse the oceans and balance the deficiency of one zone
by the abundance of another. All the sciences hold con-
gress here. The latest achievements are quickly intro-
duced, lest some rival line would offer cargo space at a
fraction less. But comfort and health of the passengers,
steerage or cabin, have to be studied no less than the ability
of carrying the greatest bulk at the minimum of cost. The
economy of space and of power becomes the chief end here.
Chemistry supplies cold storage room and removes from
sea-water the salty substance. Electricity gives lights and
signals and power to the many inner arrangements of these
swimming hotels or rather towns, considering the number
of temporary inhabitants. There is hardly a trade which is
not set to work at the building and equipping of a steamer.
But none of the advances in the other sciences would have
availed had it not been for the great improvements in
machine building. It would hardly be possible to carry
bulky freight long distances on board steamers, were their
machinery still constructed on the patterns in use some
thirty or forty years ago. Nearly all the storage room now
104 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
consigned to freight tonnage would be given to fuel. The
compound engine, first introduced by Randolph, Elder &
Co. in 1854, was soon followed by the triple and quadruple
expansion engine. I will not do more here than allude to
these facts and let the reader judge of the economic impor-
tance of these marine inventions by the results. The first
steamship which crossed the Atlantic (1819) was the Savan-
nah, an American vessel. But as she was a sailer fitted up
for steam, partly sailing, we cannot bring her in except as a
matter of record and to do homage to the flag. In 1833 the
Royal William crossed from Quebec, but all her hold had to
be filled with fuel. It was said by a competent authority
in 1835, that " As to the project which was announced
in the newspapers of making the voyage directly from New
York to Liverpool it was altogether chimerical, and they
might as well talk of making a voyage from New York or
Liverpool to the moon." If prophesying was a hazardous
undertaking even in an age of faith, it is still more so in the
age of science. The Great Western sailed from Bristol first in
1838 and consumed between 12 days 7 hours, her shortest,
and 22 days her longest passage. Carlyle said in connec-
tion with this, that " The success of the Great Western left
our still moist paper demonstration to dry itself at leisure."
These earliest steamers used 10 pounds of coal per hour to
the indicated horse-power. From this, by the rapid intro-
duction of improvements, the consumption of coal has
gradually come down to less than 1 J pounds per horse-power
per hour. With less than one-eighth of storage room re-
quired for fuel,* the impetus given to steam navigation and
* I give the concise history of the improvements from a paper of Mr.
Henry Dyer in the Scottish Review :
" The chief stages in the development of the marine engine are clearly
marked by the pressure of the steam used, and the amount of coal con-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 1Q5
the carrying trade can be readily imagined. The reader is
too familiar with all the great gifts, civilizing, liberalizing,
enfranchising from the thraldom of poverty and want even,
to need much demonstration from the author, whose object
it is only to point out the road upon which the human
family is progressing from misery and dependence to free-
dom and prosperity.
But what is of equal interest in the consideration of the
steamboat, in our review of the industrial aid given by
science, is the parallel illustration of the method applied to
the building of the iron monster of the sea, and the result
sumed per-indicated horse-power per hour, and these may be briefly reca-
pitulated. Until about 1830 the pressure seldom exceeded three pounds on
the square inch above that of the atmosphere. Prom that date a gradual
increase took place, and in 1845 the average was about ten pounds on
the square inch. By 1850 it had reached fifteen pounds. In 1856, Ran-
dolph, Elder & Co. employed pressures of thirty pounds in their com-
pound engines, but it was not till almost ten years later that such pres-
sures became general in the merchant service. On the compound engine
becoming common, pressures rose suddenly to sixty and in some cases to
eighty and one hundred pounds on the square inch, and now for triple
expansion engines the average is over one hundred and fifty pounds,
while for quadruple expansion engines it is two hundred pounds on the
square inch. With regard to coal consumption, the earliest marine
engines must have used nearly ten pounds per indicated horse-power per
hour. In the well-known side-lever engines it was about seven pounds,
while for engines in use before the general introduction of the compound
type four to four and one-half pounds was the average. Randolph, Elder
& Co., as we have seen, had an average of from two and one-half to
three pounds. In 1872, when two-cylinder compound engines had been
in use for some years, the average was found to be about 2'11 pounds,
being a saving of nearly fifty per cent, over the ordinary engines, while
in 1881 there was a reduction to 1 '828 pounds, or a further saving of
13 - 37 per cent. With triple and quadruple expansion engines there has
been a still further reduction of about twenty-five percent., the consump-
tion of fuel in some of these engines being as low as one and one-half or
one and one-quarter pounds per indicated horse-power per hour."
106 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
expressed in wages. The outfit of a yard is a marvellous
collection of labor-saving appliances. Operations are now
conducted by machinery of the highest efficiency, which
formerly were all done by hand and hand tools. It is im-
possible here to do more than to notice in a general way
an all-important fact with which we can fitly conclude the
general discussion of the cause and effect of a high wage
rate in the mechanical arts. A general statement will, how-
ever, cover the whole case. The effect of all the improve-
ments and inventions in the immense mechanism required
has been a constant reduction in the cost of building per
ton. The wages paid in the yards of Scotland and England
are the highest paid in any calling. At times of activity
the earnings in the trades connected with the building rise
to 4: and 5 a week, two and three times the rates paid in
outside occupations. Still England is the iron-boat builder
of the world, and is only equalled by America in regard to
high wages paid to the worker and low cost of construction
by the ton. In 1888 I visited the yards of the chief steam-
boat builders in Philadelphia. They were building then
one of the fast cruisers. Their equipment with labor-saving
apparatus for riveting and other processes was as perfect as
one is accustomed to find in American shops. The firm's
protective proclivities are known. Yet they had to confirm
my conviction that protection did injury to their trade by
preventing them from building steamers as cheaply as the
English, by the following statement :
In the centract for the cruiser, estimates were invited
from English builders. Their estimate on the same specifi-
cations was $1,200,000. The American firm obtained the
contract for the sum of $1,350,000. But the American in-
side fittings are far superior and more expensive than those
submitted by the English firm. A member of the firm told
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 107
me that on the basis of the English specifications and with
the materials at the English level of cost, they could have
produced the cruiser at the same price. The force of the
argument that the labor differences would not stand in the
way of Americans in the building of iron steamers, were
the duties on their materials abolished, is increased by the
statement of a fact illustrative of the development in ship-
building. The firm referred to above employs a riveting
machine for riveting boiler shells, the shell turning on a
rotary platform. Before the introduction of the machinery
the riveting engaged the work of a gang, composed of two
riveters, one holder, and two boys, for two full weeks. The
same work is now performed by the same number of hands
in one and a half days' time.
A saving of seven days out of eight enables the payment
of a higher rate without interfering with the competitive
capacity of the builders.
With this we will conclude this general consideration of
the economy of high wages in industrial employments, and
turn our attention to the question of the supply of the
wherewithals which uphold the force and strength of the
labor, the supply of the staff of life which determines
the actual value of the rate of wages.
CHAPTER VIIL
Proof of Principles laid down, taken from Agriculture. Application of
Scientific Methods. Great Results. Extending the Margin of Star-
vation. Every Addition to the Productiveness of the Acre an Addi-
tion to the Soil.
THE questions treated in the preceding chapters find no-
Tvhere better illustration and support than in agriculture.
In no other branch of industrial activity are the gratifying
results so easily traceable to what we must consider the pri-
mary cause of all progress and prosperity, freedom from
restraint and security of possession, as in agriculture. In
no field of employment can it be shown so clearly that even
the difficulties which nature may impose are as nothing
against the indomitable will of man employing his best
faculties for the acquisition of possessions guaranteed to
him by free and just laws. The question of a high rate of
wages is practically the question of food, etc., the raw
materials of which are the produce of agriculture. It is evi-
dent that we cannot well consider the questions here intro-
duced, as satisfactorily treated, without examining the de-
velopment of agriculture along with the other branches of
human activity. It will serve, therefore, a double purpose :
first, in allaying apprehensions that growing populations
are necessarily causes of poverty ; and second, to show in-
tellectual force to be equally effective in this as in all other
employments, and able to overcome difficulties of the most
formidable character.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 109
Ignorance the Cause of Poverty.
The end of the eighteenth century gave birth to theories
which made everlasting poverty the preordained condition
of the working classes, death only alleviating the miseries
which would be the inevitable consequence of growing pop-
ulations.
It is reserved for the end of the nineteenth century to dis-
sipate the fears which have ever since haunted the imagina-
tion.
Poverty abject poverty was the general characteristic
of that time. Negro slavery, with all its disgracing features
to the civilization which bred it, had this silver streak in the
cloud that it fed its victims. Hunger and want did not
infest the cabins of the slaves, any more than the stable of the
horse or other four-legged cattle. But who can read the
history of those days, and not be moved at the condition
of nine-tenths of the people of England and Continental
Europe? There bread was scarce indeed, and hunger, the
gaunt spectre that haunted the poor man's home. The pop-
ulations were sparse compared to to-day. In England the
population has trebled, while it is not too much to say, the
consumption per head has doubled. True, the population
could not subsist on to-day's cultivated area, under the
present system. But that a much greater population could
subsist if the land were more distributed among cultivating
owners, admits of no doubt. As it is, every year more and
more land goes out of cultivation and is put under grass.
In the last twenty years not less than three million acres
have gone out of tillage. What this means can be seen from
the fact that three million acres would grow nearly all the
wheat which is imported now from abroad. By improved
cultivation the average yield per acre has risen to thirty
HO THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
bushels. We can easily appreciate the significance of this
fact, when we consider that the average yield in wheat, for
France is from 16 to 17 bushels, for Germany 21 bushels,
and for America 12 bushels. English soil and climate are
by no means as propitious to agriculture as those of the
other countries.* England's superior yield in all branches
of agriculture, root crops and hay as well as cereals, is due
* On this point it is well to hear the testimony of the highest authority
on comparative agriculture, since the days of Arthur Young, Mr. Leonce
de Lavergne, " Essai surl'economie ruralede 1'Angleterre, de 1'Ecosse et
de PIrlande (1854) ": " Le sol et le climat de 1'Angleterre seront-ils done
naturellement superieurs aux notres ? Bien loin de la. Un million
d'hectares sur 13 sont restes tout a fait inproductifs et ont resistes jus-
qu'ici a tous les efforts de 1'homme ; sur les 12 millions restants, deux
tiers au moins sont des terres ingrates et rebelles que 1'industrie hu-
maine a eu besoin de conquerir."
(Are, then, the soil and climate of England superior by nature to our
own ? Far from it. Out of 13 million hectares one million have remained
entirely unproductive and have resisted so far all human efforts. Of the
remaining 12 millions two-thirds at least are irresponsive and rebellious
soils, which the industry of man had to conquer.)
He then 'proceeds to analyze the country by sections and to speak of the
unpropitious climate, its proverbial fogs and rains, and of the excessive
humidity, "est peu favorable au froment qui est le but principal de toute
culture " (little favorable to wheat, which is the chief end of agricul-
ture), and winds up in the comparison: "Combien le sol et le climat
de la France sont superieurs ! Encomparant a 1'Angleterre, non plus seule-
ment le quart, mais la moitie nord-ouest de notre territoire, c'est-a-dire
les trente-six departements qui se groupent autour de Paris, a 1'exclusion
de la Bretagne, nous trouvons plus de 22 millions d'hectares qui depassent,
en qualite" comme en quantite, les 13 millions d'hectares anglais."
(How much superior the soil and climate of France ! Comparing to
England, not one-fourth but the northwest half of our territory, to wit :
the thirty-six departments grouping around Paris, with the exclusion of
Brittany, we find more than 22 million hectares which surpass in quality
as in quantity the 13 million hectares of England.)
And with all this natural inferiority, there results : nearly two bushels
of England to one of France.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
alone to the more thorough husbandry and introduction of
improvements dating from the early part of last century
and continuing through modern days through conditions
peculiarly favorable to agriculture.
Capital, enterprise, and free labor (though handicapped
and depressed) were turned to the soil at a time when all
Europe was looking with contempt on agriculture, and,
excepting the countries where a free peasantry had survived,
agricultural labor was chafing under oppression worse than
that of slaves.
A reaction has begun to set in which makes capital with-
draw from land. This may be a forerunner of a new era in
the tenure of land, by which even a greater productiveness
of the soil may be brought about than is the case there now.
A survey of the field shows distinctly that where holdings
are cultivated by the owner, supplied with sufficient stock
and capital, in gross and net yield he surpasses by far the
great landowner or the tenant farmer, even of England.
This is to show how rash it must appear to set a limit to
the food-producing capacity of an acre of ground of which
an immense area is yet awaiting the advent of the tiller. It
is equally shortsighted to base deductions and predictions
on existing facts. It is safer to accept the present as a
halting station from a remote past, and if we have to do pre-
dicting, let at least experience guide us.
Difference in Results traceable to Institutions.
Four to six bushels an acre was the average net yield,
after allowing two bushels for seed corn, in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries in England. It was clearly an ex-
tensive cultivation of a large area of soil by economically
112 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
dear and individually cheap labor. Under conditions then
existing this was the best system, if for no other reason than
because it was the only system available. The modern sys-
tem gives a net yield of twenty -eight bushels. Subdrainage,
proper manuring,* rotation of crops, etc., after six centuries
* The efficacy of manuring was not unknown to the early periods of
husbandry in England, but the practice was of a very rudimentary kind.
The sheep were driven into the corn-fields after harvesting, as the drop-
pings gave the manure before another crop was sown. The owners of
flocks were paid a rent in money, or in kind, for the lending of their
flocks for the purpose by cultivators who had no sheep. " Sheep were
occasionally hired to lie on the ground. This must evidently have been
in inclosures. A hundred and fifty sheep were folded on an acre at from
Is. 4<Z. to 2s. the acre, or two hundred sheep were kept on a field at 8d.
a week for eight weeks. It would seem, then, that such a flock was kept
on land from three to eight weeks in order to fertilize it, the owner, of
course, feeding them." (J. E. Thorold Rogers, " Six Centuries of "Work
and Wages.")
The results were satisfactory enough where even this sort of manuring
could be applied. But it must be seen, from what we know of the state
and condition of live stock in the middle ages, that even this fertilizing
method could not cover a very large proportion of the land then under
cultivation, proportionately greater as the yield per acre was so much
smaller than to-day. Fodder was scarce, root crops unknown, and what
live stock could not be carried over the winter was slaughtered and salted
at Martinmas.
The advantages from this natural manuring explain why so much land
is allowed to go out of cultivation and become grazing land in England.
The best general results of farming, on the one hand, and a relapse of
the same agricultural land into grazing, on the other : An anomaly, a
paradox. Yes and no. If the cultivator and the owner were one and the
same person, he would probably continue to cultivate the soil and besides
raise and keep a large amount of live stock, as in Holland and Belgium,
etc., on the farm. As it is, the two interests clash. Each wants to draw
as much out of the joint business, and put as little into it, as possible.
The landlord wants to get his rent. The tenant is restricted by his lease
in ways hardly known to outsiders. For instance, he must not sell any
straw or hay, as it is expressed in some leases of which I know. The
object of this is to force him to feed it all to live stock on the farm, so as
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. H3
of cultivation, not alone yield five bushels where one grew
before, but the net results, after all deductions are made for
labor and capital employed, are far greater and are in dis-
tinct opposition to maxims handed down, of diminishing
returns, etc. This can be shown to have followed in the
to keep the property in good condition, though it be ever so hard to get
the landlord to do anything in the way of improvements or even repairs,
his part in the transaction. A friend of mine, a pottery manufacturer in
Xorth Staffordshire, bought a stack of hay at quite a reduction for imme-
diate delivery and for cash, because the landlord's agent was soon expected
to be on the farm. The farmer feared that, if the landlord knew that at
the time so near haying he had hay to the value of 75, he would raise his
rent, while, on the other hand, the farmer wanted a reduction. The
reader can understand that the results, ever so satisfactory from a statis-
tical point of view, are by no means equally pleasing to the farmer. That
he could make his position greatly superior to what it is to-day (even
paying his rent of 25s. to 30*. per acre of good wheat-land) I can prove
by facts gathered in my investigations. But to do this would require
more space than I can give the subject here. I am not writing a treatise
on general economics, but simply on the facts which have contributed so
powerfully to make the position of the working classes superior to any
which they have ever occupied in the history of man.
Here I will only say that a good deal of land is allowed to go out of
cultivation because, under present conditions, stock-raising pays better.
A landowner of my acquaintance had about a thousand acres of land.
Part of it he let to a tenant, another part he farmed himself. The
tenant's holding came back to him because of his inability to pay the
rent, 25s. to 28*. The owner turned the land into grass, and put lean
cattle on to fatten. It has become quite an extensive practice to buy lean
Irish cattle in the spring. After grazing five months the cattle are sleek
and rounded. After allowing for the help required, a man and a boy for
about 300 head, the year's operation yielded to my friend about 3.10 a
head. This, deducting for the value of the land a rent of 25*., still
leaves a net income of 2.5, and points a very strong moral in the
direction indicated. But the point which I want to emphasize^ the
natural manuring, comes here into view. The land on which the cattle
had been grazing, and over which I went with the proprietor, was decid-
edly the richer for it, as was shown by the density of the growth com-
pared with adjoining grass-land on which the cattle had not been. A
114 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
successive stages marking the period of evolution from
the rudimentary to the high cultivation of the soil. But the
distinctions which mark the two ends of our chronological
line exist to-day, though the line is now a geographical one.
Let us take Russia and its mode of cultivation. The gross
average yield per acre for all Russia is not more than that
of England was then. It follows that the yield of the more
backward provinces is smaller yet than this average. The
system of cultivation (if it can be called a system) is of
such nature that it would be surprising if better results were
reached. The terrible famine now devastating a territory
where twenty millions of human beings drag out a miserable
existence even in good years, is eloquent testimony. Plow-
ing is done in the most superficial manner, with wide spaces
left between the furrows. A German traveller, pointing out
to a nobleman farming his own estate, the wastefulness of
this system, was answered, " Oh, we grow corn enough for
our own purposes. If we grew more we should not know
what to do with it." And this, in part, explains, as it illus-
trates, existing conditions. As it is, the commissioner sent
by Germany on a mission of inquiry as to the prospect and
aspect of the wheat cultivation of the world, told me that he
found that the peasants and cultivators cut only what corn
they require for their own use or what they can find a mar-
ket for, and let the rest stand for the hogs to feed on. Im-
provements in methods follow in the wake of an extension
double advantage, which, of course, explains a great deal in the chang-
ing agricultural conditions of England.
Of course, the best quantitative returns are not produced thereby, as by
the combination of the two systems in Holland, Belgium, the Rhinelands,
Lombardy, Switzerland, and the best farmed parts of France and the
Scandinavian countries. But here I desire only to explain certain rather
contradictory phenomena in contemporaneous agricultural history and
the efficacy of natural manuring under certain conditions.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. H5
of markets, or rather, of roads and railroads. But even such
advantages as would elsewhere arise from this, are largely
neutralized by the prevailing system of political and eco-
nomic oppression standing in the name of government.
Where roads are absent, plenty may rule in one province
and famine in the adjoining one. Still, no relief can be
given to the suffering neighbor, while the plenty may be of
no economic value to the possessor of it. This is the nor-
mal condition of countries like Eussia, plenty alternating
with scarcity and starvation. The present famine is only
an intense aggravation of evils which show themselves
almost every year. They show themselves where agricul-
ture has no other resources than the rudimentary labor
processes of olden times, and has to trust to the elements
for the rest.
Modern Russian Agriculture on a Level with
English Agriculture of the Thirteenth Century.
How the peasantry of Russia are equipped mentally and
materially for their struggle with mother earth can be seen
from an extract of an article in the Fortnightly Review for
February, 1891, by Lanin, a writer most fully informed on
the economic conditions of what Carl Emil Franzos very
properly calls " Halb-Asien " (Semi- Asia) :
" Plows are so scarce among petty farmers that the Moscow Zemstvo
lends a number of them gratis every year in the hope of inducing the peas-
ants to buy them ; and as for scythes a primitive instrument enough in
these days of mowing machines the peasants of large districts of some of
the finest meadowlands in all Russia have not yet begun to see their util-
ity. In the rich meadows of the Dvina Valley, the peasants mow the grass
with an implement called a ' hump ' a large reaping hook, two feet in
diameter, which, though too heavy for one hand, has but one handle for
both. In order to mow with this the laborer must double himself up,
holding the short handle in both hands, and turn the ' hump ' round after
116 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
each stroke from right to left and from left to right, so that its edge may
be turned towards the grass to be cut down by the next stroke. It is a
species of torture to mow thus : ' It is hard to breathe, the blood rises to
your head, and on a hot day you have not the faintest shade around,"
says the Moscow Gazette to emphasize the torturous proceed-
ing-
Agriculture is not conducted on a higher level in Poland
either. Cause and effect are everywhere the same. Stupe-
fying the tiller by oppression, and robbing him of the fruit
of his labor, cannot produce other results.
Instances related in "Die Grrenzboten," the experience of
one who studied the conditions by living for years among
them, explain in an unmistakable manner the low state of
agriculture resulting from the oppression under which the
Polish peasants have languished.
" I lived for nearly a year on the estate of a Pole, as a guest. I had con-
sented to introduce some German improvements into his economy. My
first act was to have the stones and boulders removed from some of the
nearest fields. The peasants helped with pleasure. But now there was
to be an attack on their beloved fruit-trees. When I gave the overseer
the order to remove these wild trees the next morning they looked at each
other with long faces. I had hardly gone to sleep when by a hundred
voices the cry was raised : 'Oh, dear sir, we beseech you.' They asked
for a hearing. I was more-gracious than is the custom here, sprang from
my bag of hay a bag of hay under the sleeper, a silk quilt over him, and
a horsehair pillow under his head, is the bed of the Pole and opened the
door, which led immediately into the open, as is very frequently the case
in Poland.
" Some thirty men and women, the tears running down their faces and
screaming wildly, rushed into the room. Their only words were : ' Oh,
we beg of you, forgive the fruit-trees ! ' meaning, preserve the trees. I
assured them that it was on account of the injury to the growing crops
that I wanted to remove them. But this did not quiet them. Finally I
promised every head of a family a dozen cultivated fruit-trees as a present
by next spring. 'Oh, no, no, sir,' they answered ; 'these we cannot
have.' 'And why not?' ' No, the count would not allow it.' 'And
why not?' 'Such fruit is reserved for the nobility.' 'And have you
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. H7
asked the count about it ? ' ' No, but we know it.' ' Yes, kind German
sir ' (gii tiger Herr Deutscher), a venerable peasant returned, 'we know
it for certain. I once planted behind my cottage two plum-trees, which
a seed-dealer had given me in payment for some carting I had done for
him. Hardly had our gracious lord (der gnadige Herr) noticed them
than he broke them up with the remark, " Such fruit does not become the
peasants to eat." And I got some cuts from his whip into the bargain.'
"Of course," continues our author, " under such conditions it would
have been barbarous to execute the order. I revoked it, and the abomin-
able trees are no doubt on the field to this day It is easy to see, from
this, how closely connected the low state of Polish agriculture is with
the conditions of the people and how difficult it is to reform it."
"Every face bespeaks the relation of serfdom; laziness, hopelessness,
dread and fear show at once in look and gesture. If possible, the peas-
ant evades the noble and the well dressed as every such he considers a
nobleman. But if not possible, he uncovers his head at a distance of
forty to fifty paces, and passes with his head bowed nearly to the ground
and his cap stretched towards the recipient of the homage."
Everything in the life of the peasants depended on the
good will of the owner of the soil. Any sign of prosperity
would result in greater exactions. His direct efforts were,
therefore, to make the part open to observation look as mis-
erable as possible, the land bear the poorest crops, and the
hovel in which he lived as forlorn as a human habitation can
be. All his cunning was directed to concealment from the
rapacious eyes of the landlord.
" If the peasant cultivates his farm with care, and realizes good crops,
the owner would not hesitate long to take away a piece of land. If the
peasant has luck in raising stock, if he raises a few bullocks, or increases
the number of his sheep, immediately the landlord will appear and take
away his surplus stock with the remark that he has no right to own more
than what had been turned over to him, and that he is entitled to raise a
head only, if he has killed or lost one from the inventory. Consequently,
if the peasant would utilize stock raising, he has to act like a thief, conceal
the additions in every conceivable manner (to which proceeding the pasture
in the dense, dark forest offers the best opportunity) and to bring them
as slyly as possible for sale to the nearest town. He has to anticipate the
robber proclivities of the landlord by the cuteness of the thief."
118 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Such conditions explain everything in the political, eco-
nomic and social situation of these countries.* We need not
* Serfdom was abolished in Poland in 1807, but the peasantry, though
nominally free, had, in return for land, stock, etc., to give the landlord
their services, and were held in a state of dependence and oppression
fully as bad as it had been under serfdom. That the state described above
pretty fairly illustrates the general condition and is not overdrawn, is
proven by the fact that in the Polish revolution of 1861-63 the peasantry
sided with the Russians. All the endeavors of the Insurrectionary Com-
mittee to draw them to the national cause by ever so many fine promises
would not prevail with them. But on the contrary they sided with the
Russians and were the only effective instrument to break up the revolu-
tionary bands. In return for these services the Russian government
materially advanced the position of the peasants by making them free
owners of the land which they held, wherever it was found that the land-
lord had sided with the revolutionists. But though the conditions have
changed outwardly, the improvements in agriculture and in general pros-
perity are not yet very marked. For this an entirely different system of
government is required than Russia can give. The facts here stated are
a lesson of great significance. The Nemesis of history has wreaked her
revenge on the Polish nation. By separating the peasantry from the life
and interests of the nation by cruelty and oppression, the privileged
classes gave the chief instrument of destruction into the hands of the
Russian executioner.
If we took our lights from the history and conditions of the common
people, we should easily understand the political aspect and prospects of
nations, which the descriptions of the doings of kings, of wars and diplo-
matic scheming, can never make clear. Searching the archives helps us
little if we neglect to look into the open book of a people's daily life. If
we find a nation so separated, as by impassable barriers, that nine-tenths
are in a state akin to slavery and a very small class of the privileged
exercise power, it can be easily understood why the, apparently, most
powerful nations are so easily overthrown whenever they come to a test-
ing of their strength. Little are we inclined to look into the economic
status of the Russian peasant when we try to explain the almost proverbial
discomfiture of Russia on measuring her strength even with Turkey.
Little do we look into the socio-economic fabric of Poland when we write
about her overthrow and the futile attempts of her people to regain their
liberty. The " people" were always a few. The masses were serfs, and
took little interest in the heroic struggles of their superiors. The peasantry
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. H9
search for other causes in explanation of the low yield of
their agriculture.
Compare this with the best systems of cultivation, such
as pointed out above, for England, as regards large tenant
farming, not nearly so productive as where proprietorship of
holdings under fifty acres prevails, and land worked under the
best methods with sufficient stock etc., as in Holland, Flan-
ders, Lombardy, the Scandinavian countries, and many parts
of Germany and France, and draw a balance. We can then
compare what an acre can be made to yield by the grace of
nature and the work of barbarians held in ignorance by a
despotic govenment, and what by the work of intelligent
beings helped by all the appliances which modern science
has put at their disposal.
High Results of Ownership by the Tiller under
Free Laws.
Holland is the best field from which to draw the proof
that some of the worst natural conditions can be changed
so that they produce the very best results. The alluvial
regions made by the deposits of the three rivers the Rhine,
the Scheldt, and the Meuse are extremely fertile. The
flat lands require constant, careful labor to protect them
from being swept away by the ocean. Up to the early part
of this century great inundations were matters of regular
occurrence. They destroyed the fields, swept away the
improvements, cattle, and men. It is stated that from 525
to about 1825 a period of 1,300 years some 200 great
floods have gone over the land, which would make an aver-
cou-ld not possibly fare worse in changing masters. The Russian was
looked upon with favor even, if for no other reason than because of the
enmity of the Polish nobility to him.
120 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
age of one in seven years. To lay dry the Harlem Meer
and to build the works of defence of the 17,000 hectares
(about 40,000 acres) gained therefrom, took an outlay of
9,000,000 florins. To keep the lands in cultivable con-
dition implies constant pumping operations. Wind-mills
are erected all over to operate pumps emptying the water
into the network of canals traversing the country. The
annual expense to the government for its water-works is
about 6,000,000 of florins. This is independent of the bur-
dens of the communes incurred for the purposes indicated.
The good soil is considerably less than one-half of the total
acreage of the kingdom. It comprises but 1,500,000 hec-
tares (3,700,000 acres). The other part, about 1,800,000
hectares (4,400,000 acres), is mostly indifferent, and a very
large proportion very poor land. One-fourth of the acreage,
or some 800,000 hectares (2,000,000 acres), about twenty-
five years ago were waste lands. But even these heath and
turf lands are gradually brought into subjection. The most
refractory soils are brought under the yoke of cultivation.
Of course, the labor expended is so incessant, so meagre of
first results, that no inducement could make people undergo
the hardships involved unless directed by the most dire
necessity. No incentive could hold people on such land
except ownership of land so directly the result of the labor-
er's exertions. This is not the place to give an account in
detail of the labor involved to make the sands of the dunes,
the unproductive soil, of the heath, and the bog become
gradually but permanently productive. They become pro-
ductive with increasing yield to the free peasant owner.
Capitalistic exploitation would be entirely inadequate. But
possession of the fruits of one's labor is here, as in other
fields of employment, the incentive for the fullest exercise
of the individual's exertions. As it is, with the land owned
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 121
by the farmer all over Holland, and under the most intelli-
gent methods applicable to the varying conditions of the
soil, the 6,500,000 acres now under cultivation produce
enough to feed abundantly the 4,500,000 of the population
of the kingdom. The imports and exports of food products
about balance each other in value. No farming population
of the most favored countries of the world can be compared
with the Dutch in wealth, comfort, culture and general
well-being. The treasures of gold, silver, rare china and
furniture heaped up for generations and found in plain
peasant farmers' houses, would in themselves be a most
forcible demonstration of the difference, were not other and
more direct testimony at hand. But what escaped the
covetousness of the powerful in the critical centuries when
land grasping made serfs of the peasantry of most European
countries has now become the corner-stone of Holland's
prosperity when all other resources have given way before
the rivalry of more powerful nations. Even in the thir-
teenth century the Hollanders and Frisian peasants sent
home with bloody heads the barons who had ready for
them the yokes of feudalism and serfdom, then slipped so
deftly over the shoulders of the peasantry of less fortunate
countries. William of Holland had no more satisfactory
results from his mission of armed persuasion than the Leo-
polds of Austria in Switzerland.* Switzerland and Hol-
*The lessons here written in the impressive language of the bloody field
are as interesting, and, in their consequences, far more important to the
Anglo-Saxon student than those of the battles of Marathon and Plateea.
(I by no means undervalue the importance of these.) But how many out of
a thousand who know of the Athenians beating in open battle the hosts of
the Persian, have ever heard of the day when the peasants of Drenthe,
Groeningen, Friesland, and Oldenburg, defeated William, his valorous
knights, and an army of 30,000 men ? Poor William ! A Dutchman him-
self, he ought to have known something of the nature of the mind of his
122 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
land, the guardians of the sources and of the mouth of the
Ehine, were left in the fortunate possession of the only
incentive powerful enough to overcome all other obstacles
the possession of liberty. They were left in the posses-
sion because they had the manliness to defend it against all
who were rash enough to try to wrest it from them.
General Farming Results in Europe Confirma-
tory of the Principle,
Figures, if correctly read, convey more intelligence than
argument. To be convincing they must not contain in their
make-up unrelated parts, and their application must not be
misdirected. Comparisons of agricultural returns of all the
countrymen. A Dutchman, the most unimaginative of men, to value cor-
rectly the romance and glory of the Middle Ages, monkery, chivalry, and
lordly manors, chatelains and chatelaines, and the benevolence of mighty
lords to humble serfs, in exchange for such unpoetic realities as time-old
liberty and freehold, allodial instead of feudal tenure and serfdom !
Well, William paid dearly for the mistake. In trying to make proselytes
of his countrymen to the new idea, he lost his crown and his life. His
German kingship, no more than his fine armor, protected him against the
irresistible argument of the Saxon battle-axe. The Dutch blows fell
with equal impartiality on the heads of the highest and of the lowest on
that day almost forgotten by history. The victory was as important and
far-reaching in its consequences as any event in the days when the battle
was fought against Spanish oppression on the same fields. Without the
former the latter would not have taken place.
Nor were the bishops and knights more successful when they tried
their efforts on parts to the southwest. The peasants of Utrecht, Har-
lem, and other parts of Holland were equally unwilling to bear a yoke
which their neighbors to the northeast had so rudely rejected. It was
some fifteen years later that they, too, made short work of the missionary
hosts in armor sent against them. Ever after, the soil to the south of the
German Ocean was very unpropitious to the growth of a landed, privi-
leged class, a rich and powerful nobility, and a poor, enslaved peasantry.
Neither of them ever took root.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
123
different nations leave us free from any imputation of indi-
rectness. The annual returns of farming in Europe prove
so fully the correctness of the views expressed, that it seems
strange that, published as they are from year to year by the
respective governments, they have not made more of an im-
pression on the public mind and dispelled the fears still
haunting the imagination. Not to weary with too many fig-
ures I have reduced the total product and average of each
crop of the cereal products to number of bushels per acre,
leaving out decimals for easier tabulation. I have usually
averaged the crops of three years, so as not to fall into
spurious comparisons, such as comparing an extraordinary
harvest of one country with poor harvests of other coun-
tries, falling into any one year.
YIELD IN BUSHELS PER ACRE OF THE DIFFERENT COUN-
TRIES OF EUROPE IN THE DIFFERENT CORN CROPS
AND POTATOES.*
a
8
_g
n
>>
M
f
^
ts
cj
p
a
a
33
i
a
*fi
OJ
>>
q
S
W
V
&
3
03
d
si
s
2
<U
o
M
O
P
*
00
fc
o
Wheat
7
10
16
17
99
99
29
9,5
o/l
93
oq
SO
8
Spelt
49
Barley
9
19
19
91
9,0
^8
33 (.
SO
40
40
33
36
Oats
14
99
97
19
9,9
37 1
80
S7
40
40
Rye. . .
10
13
17
17
18
93
95
97
93
9,9
Maize
16
19
98
Buckwheat
19
19
18
10
15
9S
20
Potatoes
80
67
138
121
140
115
180
150
220
112
200
234
140
It will be admitted by everybody that the trinity of
causes, directing the current of civilization, according to
* Agricultural Returns of Great Britain.
124 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Buckle : soil, climate, and the general aspect of nature, is in
favor of the first-named four States and against the sequence
of States following. Italy certainly ought to give the rich-
est results ; Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the poorest.
The mere mention of the name of the southern country is
connected in our imagination with fecundity and abundance.
The north opens up visions of sterility and scarcity under
bleak winds and forbidding skies. And, indeed, the early
inhabitants of the thinly settled countries were driven from
the inhospitable shores by scarcity, and attracted to the south-
ern countries by the abundance which they promised. The
southern climes certainly held abundance compared to the
poor returns of the home farm under this rude system of
agriculture. The younger sons had to go abroad under the
lead of a chieftain, the dreaded rovers of the sea. The land
could only support a very limited number. But how are
things changed ! Italy has to import large quantities of
cereals under a system of cultivation which, with all the
advantages of nature's smiles thrown in, does not produce
more than one-half to one-third of the returns of the north-
ern countries. Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, it is
true, import corn ; but their exports of animal products
largely exceed in value the imports of bread-stuffs. With a
yield as high per acre as in the northern countries, Italy
would be a large exporter of bread-stuffs, as nearly half her
area under cultivation is planted in wheat. The average
represents the advanced farming of Lombardy as well as the
backward condition of the rest of Italy. Allowing for this
the pro raid for the rest of the kingdom would find a
diminution of 20 per cent, in the respective figures of the
above tables.
While the average of the provinces outside of Lombardy
and Piedmont would not be above 8 bushels in wheat and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 125
14 in maize, Lombardy gives over 22 in wheat and over 40
in maize. The 12,000,000 acres under wheat would at the
latter rate give 260,000,000 bushels, and the 4,500,000 acres
under maize, 180,000,000 bushels; instead of the actual yield
of 120,000,000 of the former and 75,000,000 bushels of the
latter cereal (the chief food of the common people).
Causes of Lombardy's Superior Agriculture.
Lombardy's agriculture not alone feeds her populous
towns but adds largely to the export values of the country ;
principally raw silk, rice, cheese, and even wheat are articles
of export from Lombardy.
" By means of her silk, Lombardy pays for her purchases from abroad,
and turns the balance of trade in her favor. It is estimated that the
product of silk amounts annually to a hundred millions of francs." *
This was written some thirty years ago. The silk prod-
uct amounts to much more now. The exports of raw silk,
alone, amount to some two hundred millions of francs, the
greater part of which is raised in Lombardy.
The wealth of Lombardy is based on agriculture chiefly,
widely distributed among a large number of peasant pro-
prietors. The foundation of its wealth could not be sapped
even by the rule of the Hapsburgs. The energy, as well as
the love of liberty, of. its early citizens planted the roots of
the tree from which, after centuries, the descendants reap
golden harvests. Nature, like the fierce Brunhild, has to
be conquered by the strong will of man before she yields
* " C'est au moyen de la soie, dont une grande partie est exportee, que
la Lombardie paie ses achats a 1'etranger, et qu'elle fait pencher la
balance des echanges en sa faveur. On estime que la soie produite
annuellement vaut plus de 100 millions de lire." E. de Laveleye, " Etudes
d' fie. Rur. : La Lombardie."
126 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
her rich treasures of love. Emile de Laveleye states the
case of this most interesting piece of wooing, which has gone
on on this classic soil since the days of the Etruscans, in
such graphic language that I cannot do better than to quote
him :
" But this happy country is under no sort of obligations to the favors
of nature, as it holds to a large part its fertility from the hands of man.
It required the labor of a hundred generations to raise these terraces
which hold the soil on the mountain sides, to lay dry these swamps, to
dig these canals, and dispose with an admirable art these water con-
duits, which, descending from high valleys, circumventing hills, crossing
each other and passing the one over the other at different levels, carry to
distant fields a marvellous fecundity. Without the embankments which
enclose the rivers a part of the plains would be a vast swamp ; without
the irrigation works another part would be burned by the consuming sun
of summer. The Lombard is not even allowed to enjoy the work of his
ancestors in peace ; he has, without relaxation, to defend himself against
the inundations of the Po and its tributaries with as much solicitude as
the Dutch employ to protect themselves against the attacks of the ocean.
. . . The Ligurians built the first cities . . . ; the Etruscans,
an industrial and painstaking race, built the first canals and under-
took the first irrigation works ; the Gauls established the basis of com-
mercial organization ; Rome gave the language and the laws ; the Ger-
mans founded the feudal system, of which the last remnants are passing
away in our days. Even Spain has left a trace of her short-lived domin-
ion, a sad trace, it is true, the example of idleness." *
* " Cependant cette heureuse contree est loin de tout devoir aux faveurs
de la' nature: c'est des mains de Phomme qu'elle tient en grande partie
sa fertilit^. II a fallu le travail de cent generations pour Clever ces ter-
rasses qui soutiennent la terre aux flancs des montagnes, pour dessecher
ces marais, pour creuser ces canaux, pour disposer avec un art admirable
ces conduites d'eau qui, descendant des hautes vallees, contournant
les collines, s'entrecroisant et passant les unes au dessus des autres i
differents niveaux, vont porter au loin dans les campagnes une fecondite"
merveilleuse. Sans les endiguements qui contiennent les rivie'res, une
partie de la plaine serait un vaste raarecage ; sans les irrigations une autre
partie serait brulee par le soleil deVorant de Pete 1 . II n'est pas meme per-
mis au Lombard de jouir en paix des travaux de ses ancetres ; il doit sans
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 127
Leaving out the last-mentioned element, the mixture of
races left a population such that fifteen years after Barba-
rossa had razed Milan to the ground and passed the plow
over its ruins, the freedom-loving burghers rebuilt their city
and completed the great canal, il Naviglio Grande, as far as
Milan, an entirely agricultural end. Two hundred years
before this, Milan had hardly begun its rise among Ital-
ian cities. The land was still in great part cultivated by
slaves. The country was largely covered by forests, and
large tracts were stagnant waters. It was brought under
cultivation by the men who, fifteen years after their terrible
visitation, could break forever the power of the feudal hosts
which Frederic brought a second time against them.*
The excellent system of cultivation is in keeping with the
great works mentioned. Arthur Young gives an equally
glowing account, visiting Italy three-quarters of a century
relache se defendre centre les inondations du P6 et de ses affluents avec
autant de sollicitude que le Hollandais en met a se preserver des atteintes
de 1'Ocean. Tous les peuples qui tour a tour ont occupe le pays y ont
laisse des traces toujours subsistantes de leur passage ou de leur domina-
tion. Les Ligures ont bati les premieres villes et 1'etymologie retrouve
encore dans certains noms modernes les racines de 1'idiome primitif. Les
Etrusques, race industrieuse et laborieuse, ont creuse les premieres irriga-
tions ; les Gaulois ont jete les bases de 1'organisation commerciale ; Rome
a donne la langue et les lois, entr' autres celle du colonat ou metayage ;
les Germains ont fonde la feodalite dont les derniers restes s'ecroulent
de nos jours. L'Espagne meme a laisse une trace de sa domination pas-
sagere, trace funeste il est vrai, 1'exemple de 1'oisivete." Emile de
Laveleye, " Etudes d'^conomie Rurale : La Lombardie."
* At the peace of Constance (1183) the free republics of Lombardy were
given equal recognition with the bishops and princes of the empire. A
new element was thereby introduced in the body representative, the
burgher. To the Lombards belong the everlasting glory of having made
the breach in the constitution of the empire by which society and the
body politic became transformed. Legnano (1176) is the birthplace of
modern society.
128 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
before M. de Laveleye. Contrast these pictures with another
account of the state of agriculture concerning the greater
part of the rest of Italy, and we can well understand the low
average of yield in our table as contrasted with the high
yield of countries where the same causes are at work which
made Lombardy's prosperity.
" In the matter of implements the Italian agriculturist is far behind.
The old Roman plow, as it is described by Virgil and Columella, may be
still seen in use in various parts of the country. In Sardinia, the plow
which figures on the ancient monuments of the island, might have been
copied from that at work in the fields. Great improvement, however,
has taken place in the more progressive regions ; iron has taken the
place of wood, and the coulter and share have increased in massive-
ness. But even in the Veneto the heavy plough drawn by as many as
six pair of oxen, cuts the furrow not deeper than nine inches. As we
proceed southward the fashion becomes 'more simple and antique. Ma-
nuring, even of a very ordinary kind, is but little attended to in a great
part of the country."
Though Italy is so distinctively an agricultural country
and has been subject so long to regular processes of cultiva-
tion, a large proportion of its arable land is still in a state
of utter neglect. Large tracts formerly cultivated have
become wastes. Unhealthy marshes distribute fever miasms
where the husbandman would create a paradise were he
supported by the spirit which animated the creators of
the Lombardian republics. Their wisdom saw clearly the
source of wealth was to turn to the soil the enterprise and
energies of the people. The works created by them are
lasting monuments of a liberty-loving race. The builders
have long passed away, yet, through all the vicissitudes
of war and turbulence, all succeeding generations have
annually reaped wealthy harvests from these wise invest-
ments.
Jacini, the Italian economist, says, in "La proprietk
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 129
fondaria e la populazione agricola in Lombardia " (Milan,
1854), on this subject:
" It is the general belief that the expense of introducing the system of
irrigation could not be less than a milliard of francs ; and, in fact, it
would be above that sum. This assertion will not appear exaggerated if
one reflects on the number of canals necessary to carry the waters to the
land under cultivation, and on the work which made it ready to receive
them. To this end one had to change entirely the surface of the plain, to
construct, if I may express myself that way, the soil on which we live in
the same way in which the Venetians have constructed their wonderful
city. Venice displays its magnificent edifices and its sublime master-
pieces where formerly the desolation of the lagune ruled. With us, one
admires the richest vegetation of Europe in a plain which nature seems
to have abandoned to the marsh, and to the sands and the pebble. This is
what has been done in the ancient times, what conserves itself and grows
each day in this dead land in the country of sweet idleness." *
* What lends this picture a peculiar charm and background is that the
irrigation works which challenge the admiration of Europe, were begun
by the barbarians who overthrew Rome and the antique world. The
great Theodoric employed an engineer whom he had come from Africa to
teach the Italians the art of controlling the waters for irrigation. It is
recorded that the African was publicly rewarded for his services by the
king. Pavia, the residence of Theodoric as well as of the Longobardian
kings, who were equally earnest in this meritorious work, seems to have
the honor of having built the first canals. At least, the first part of the
great canal from the Tessin to Abbiategrasso was completed long before
the Milanese took up the work to unite the Tessin with the Adda and
their city.
" If one takes an impartial account of the time, of the circumstances, of
the beauty of the work, the canal of Milan, which unites the Tessin and
the Adda, can pass as the masterpiece of what we possess of the kind.
From what Sigonio says, it appears that the first part, between the
Tessin and Abbiategrasso, exists since the oldest times, commenced and
finished by the Pavesans for irrigating their land. It was in 1177 that
the Milanese carried it along from Abbiate to Corsico and Milan."
"Con tutto questo pero, si imparzialmente si vorra avere riguardo al
tempo, al le circostanze, alia maestria del lavoro, il naviglio di Milano che
forma la communicazione del Tesino e dell' Adda, potra passare, per il
capo d'opera che abbiamo in questo genere. Per quanto dice il Sigonio
9
130 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
A population of four millions subsists and has to spare for
export. But what is the extent of this land, reclaimed, so to
speak, from the desert and the marshes ? The territory of
Lombardy, according to Jacini, had of its 2, 141, 700 hectares
(about 5 million acres) only 1,132,795 under regular cultiva-
tion. The rest, or nearly one-half, is uncultivable mountain,
mountain pastures, forests, watercourses and lakes, houses,
and some large stretches of bog which have so far withstood
cultivation, "but which are being put into contribution by
planting them with pines." An arable soil of less than 3
millions of acres is made to support more than 4 millions.
Three-quarters of an acre of refractory soil suffices to sup-
port a human being and to create the material upon which
the wealth of the country is built.
The Contrasts and Their Causes.
The resources of the new kingdom are consumed in the
attempt to be a great military power. This policy taxes the
country beyond its ability, drives the tiller from the soil
and sterilizes the land. Were the hundreds of millions spent
on armaments, employed in works of irrigation, of drainage,
and improvements, as in Lombardy, Italy would as intended
by nature, be the richest instead of being the poorest of all
the modern countries of Europe.
The people are the makers of their own destiny. The
institutions make the prosperity of the citizens. Agricul-
ture languishes, and the returns show it, wherever oppression,
whatever the agency, rules the nations.
nel libbro XIV. del regno d'ltalia all' anno 1179, pare che il primo
tronco dello stesso naviglio dal Tesino ad Abbiategrasso fosse gia dai
tempi piii antichi, incominciato e finite dai Pavesi per irrigare le vicine
loro campagne. FA nell' anno 1177 che i Milanesi condussero lo stesso
cavo da Abbiate a Corsico e a Milano." (Verri, Nuova raccolta.)
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Arthur Young, one of the keenest observers and most en-
lightened critics, in speaking of France and Flanders gives
the correct explanation of this phenomenon a hundred years
ago, which is applicable to the parallel as if it were written
to-day.
He notes that the soil from Orleans on is of the same
nature as that of Flanders. Yet the returns are so far infe-
rior in the old French provinces to those of French Flanders
that he looks for an explanation of this remarkable fact.
He says (" Travels in France ") :
" It has to be noted as a curious subject for reflection for all who occupy
themselves with the nature of governments that Bouchain (the border of
French Flanders) is situated a few miles from the Austrian side of the old
border of the kingdom. The line of division drawn between the good
and bad cultivation corresponds then pretty nearly with the old boundary
of the provinces of France and of the low countries. The French con-
quests, as everybody knows, have carried their dominion far beyond these
old divisions, but without effacing them. It is remarkable to see the agri-
cultural merit form a frontier corresponding not with the actual politi-
cal borders, but with.the ancient, and dividing the despotism of France so
hostile to agriculture, from the free government of the Burgundian prov-
inces which encouraged it. This fact cannot be attributed to the nature
of the soil, because there is hardly a finer one than the greatest part of this
vast and fertile plain extending almost uninterruptedly from Flanders to
the neighborhood of Orleans."
On the one side of the ancient line, excellent cultivation
of the same soil gives a remarkably rich product, while the
other side shows the most meagre results. French Flanders,
though for a hundred years under the discouraging regime
which had sapped the energies of what, under more favorable
conditions, is the most thrifty and toilsome population of
Europe, preserved all the advantages resulting from the
enjoyment of the laws. The land gave rich harvests every
year under the lessons derived from the fathers, while the
people living on the other side of the old line still clung to
132 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the primitive system of three-field cultivation: fallow and
two crops. The comparatively small yield of the France of
to-day is traceable to these historic causes. For good and
for evil the past has its hand on the future:
" Laws and rights become transmitted
Like an eternal malady ;
From place to place are dragged, and fitted
From fathers down, by slow degree." *
To understand the present we must study the past. The
economic development of to-day cannot possibly be under-
stood or explained without a glance at the institutions which
created the conditions upon which it stands. The agricul-
tural development is expressed in the yield of the acre. No
other branch of human industry can be used to such good
purpose in proving the principles laid down as those upon
which the prosperity of nations is built : liberty the mother
of all progress ; because here the results can be so directly
traced to cause. What brings about the remarkable phenome-
non represented in the tables of the comparative yield in agri-
cultural product may involve collateral causes calling for
further elucidation. But after all is said, the chief factor
remains, that no exertion is equal to that of the individual
who hews out his own road, under the guarantee of free
laws, to possession, the fruit of his unhindered toil, and that
countries with the freeest institutions show the highest re-
sults. In all states where this is the case, property in land
is nearly always in the hands of the cultivator, and though by
no means endowed with all the knowledge at the disposal of
* Es erben sich Gresetz und Rechte
Wie eine ew'ge Krankheit fort ;
Sie schleppen von G-eschlecht sich zum Geschlechte,
Und rticken sacht von Ort zu Ort.
Goethe, " Faust," Part I.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 133
his industry, nor faultless in his method of cultivation, yet
he has arrived at a stage as favorable as presented above and
not reached by any other system of tenure. Property be-
comes cut up into small holdings wherever free institutions
prevail, because no one finds land so valuable as he who tills
it and knows that the results of his thrift and toil belong to
him and his children after him, that neither the landlord
nor the state can despoil him. The highest wages obtainable
are those resulting from the cultivation of the soil by the
owner himself. They are limited only by the degree of
intelligence he employs to extract fecundity from the soil.
What these variations are has been shown in a general way
in an illustration of farming as conducted by different nations,
where every indication points to the irresistible conclusions
pointed out.
In another chapter I will bring proof that in no apprecia-
bly near future time the question of pressure of population
on the means of subsistence need cloud the apprehension of
the social reformer, and that the rate of wages will not suffer
a diminution from that source. I will do this from an ex-
amination nearer home. It will be seen that the present evil
is not a scarcity of land but a wasting of energy consequent
on an over-supply of land.
CHAPTER IX.
Security from Famine guaranteed by Civilization. Auxiliary Advantages
by Improved Means of Communication. Truck Farming. Creations
of Railroad and Steamboat. Results of High Farming in America.
Farming Results contrasted and applied to Territorial Dimensions in
America. Conclusions concerning Food Supply.
The Famine Danger, always threatening under
Barbarism and Oppression, becomes Extinct
under the Rule of Freedom.
THE rude, unintelligent farming of Russia is an illus-
tration of the condition of the forward countries of Europe
in remote times. The Slav of to-day occupies the position,
intellectually and materially, of the Teutonic nations of six
hundred years ago. In the wake of barbarism we have
plenty and starvation in frequent alternation among scanty
populations. Civilization secures to the densest populations
an equable supply of food. General failure of crops is not
known in countries whose early establishment of free insti-
tutions turned enterprise and intelligence to good account,
as for instance Lombardy and Holland. The illustrations
stand for all other countries similarly conditioned. Their
intelligent cultivation knows, under the most adverse
circumstances of unpropitious seasons, how to exact an
equal tribute from the inimical forces of nature. While
short corn crops were general in Europe through equally
unfavorable and unseasonable weather, the failure was com-
plete at the eastern terminus of the line, marking the lowest
stage of civilization. In a western direction, with increas-
ingly civilized methods of agriculture, the decline of yield
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES, 135
becomes gradually less and less, and almost disappears in
England, etc.*
What we have said so far has not at all taken into
account the great machinery which civilized countries pos-
sess to-day for supplying deficiencies or distributing surplus.
The railroad and the steamboat have made one country of
the globe. Every hamlet within reach of the lines of com-
munication has the abundance of the remotest part at its feet.
Except so far as hampered by stupid protection laws,
which are interposed to prevent the blessings of civilization
from reaching the working classes in the form of cheap food
and life's necessaries, no country in the world supplied with
roads and railroads has to suffer from the absence of a
full supply at uniformly cheap prices. Distribution and its
huge machinery is but a part of production. Whatever
improvements are realized in the former by the inventive
spirit of the age are the same in their results as if an im-
provement had brought about a price reduction in the more
direct elements of production. Civilization draws from the
remotest corner, and has nature under its dominion. Bar-
barism is confined to the immediate soil, and is the abject
* England had the roost inclement weather all through the summer of
1888. Up to the end of August there was barely any sunshine to break
the monotony of cold and rain. Of course, the prophecies of calamity
were universal. The journals were full of predictions which, had they
been verified by events, would have produced universal bankruptcy among
the farmers. The outlook fully justified the lugubrious forebodings, the
wheat beaten down by incessant rains and everything wearing the most
forlorn air. But after all, when the disastrous season was fairly booked,
the genera] average was 28.05 bushels of wheat against 29.36, the average
of the three preceding years, barely five per cent, difference. In all the
other crops smaller differences still appeared, except in potatoes, where
1888 gave 5.18 tons against 6.27 tons the average of 1885-87.
The starvation limit is extended, food is supplied in abundance to the
generation that knows how to bridle even the most destructive forces of
nature and make them obedient conductors of man's will.
136 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
slave of nature and her caprices. Not only that an acre can
be made to yield an illimitable product, up to $2,200, as is
the case with kitchen gardens near Paris (maraichers), but
that it is immaterial now what the distance between the pro-
ducer and the consumer. What the railroad and the steam-
ship can do in this connection is familiar to everybody, in so
far as it relates to bringing wheat and other coarse agricul-
tural produce to Liverpool. Transportation over 10,000
miles of sea or 2,000 miles of land is as nothing, seeing that
with competition so distanced, English wheat does not com-
mand a higher price than 4s. to 4s. Qd. (Mark Lane prices) in
a year of general failure over the chief agricultural states
of Europe. The tremendous crops of America of 1891-92,
and a generally rich yield in India and Argentina, have
equalized things, so that in England, where the law does not
interfere to help the producer exact a tax from the consumer,
the difference in corn prices is but between 32s. 9d in Jan-
uary, 1891, and 36s. in January, 1892. In March the old
price of 32s. was reached again. Truly, progress has done
something for the working classes.
Truck Farming, a Creation of the Railroad
and the Steamboat.
But the railroad not alone guarantees cheap food to count-
less millions, it creates new agricultural pursuits, otherwise
impracticable. No other branch shows so well what agricul-
ture under the best available methods can produce, as does
truck farming as conducted in the United States.
Truck farming is a comparatively new industry. Fifteen
years ago it could hardly be said to exist. It is the creation
of our modern means of transportation. Like kitchen gar-
dening, it caters to certain localities, centres of large popu-
lations. But while the former is conducted in the immediate
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 137
neighborhood of populous cities and towns, the latter is car-
ried on in remote parts of the country, hundreds and even
thousands of miles away from the consumer. The truck
farmer has a free choice of territory among all the States of
the Union. He has only to keep one point in view in choos-
ing his ground, that the railroad or water connection with
his market is good and works with reliable accuracy. Truck
farming has grown to such dimensions within a little more
than a decade, that the shipment of this perishable freight
has become a very important factor in the earnings and cal-
culations of railroad and steamship lines. It is to be taken
as a matter of course, therefore, that transportation lines
will study the convenience of their patrons and not interfere
with their prosperity. The kitchen gardener is usually his
own distributor ; the truck farmer, on the contrary, ceases to
be connected with his product as soon as he has handed it over
to the common carrier who delivers it to the commission
agent at perhaps 2,000 and 3,000 miles distance. Whole
fleets of steamers carry cargoes of truck from Norfolk,
Charleston, Savannah, and Jacksonville to Northern ports,
just as the trans-continental roads carry their loads from
California to the Eastern termini.
It is not my province here to describe at any length any
system or part of a system, but simply to give an idea of
what height of yield an acre can be brought to if conditions
exist which make the further advanced system the more
profitable to the farmer. And here we have by the mere
ad vent of the great transportation systems and their more
useful employment in America than anywhere else, an
industry which yields annually a product of $100,000,000
from 534,000 acres of land.*
* The Census year gave $95,000,000 gross. Alter deducting transporta-
tion expenses and charges of commission merchants, the farmers netted
138 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Of course, the yield varies according to the greater or
lesser degree of energy and intelligence applied to the indi-
vidual farm. " New and better methods of culture are grad-
ually introduced with the growth of wealth of the poorer
producers." As it is, we have even here differences, accord-
ing to the census, which make the net income per acre in
New York and Philadelphia as the higher rate, and the
Peninsula of Virginia as the lower rate for
Asparagus $183.60 and $84.00
Beets 150. 00
Celery 214.00
Cabbages 133.00
Watermelons 81.00
Other Melons 158.00
Peas 67.00
Irish Potatoes 90.00
Spinach 80.00
Sweet Potatoes 75.00
Tomatoes.. ..165.00
80.00
66.00
95.00
43.00
51.00
26.00
77.00
32.00
48.00
43.00
Whatever the causes of the differences, the poorest returns
are so far ahead of the proceeds of ordinary farming, that
we can very well observe what gradations exist in the food
yield from an acre of ground and to what heights it can be
carried, starting from the lowest returns of cultivation.
The Richer Lands give the Poorer Crops. Poor
Results and High Results due only to Poor
or Good Farming.
The difference in net yield between the Northern and
Southern districts is by no means due to the greater distance
$76,500,000. The labor cost consumed of this sum $9,919,000, seed
$1,420,000, fertilizers $9,919,000, and other charges $3,794,000. There
was left a net profit of $48,106,000, $90.00 for each acre of ground so
employed (Census for 1890).
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 139
from the consuming centres. It does not cost more to ship
a barrel of potatoes or other produce to New York, Boston,
or Philadelphia by steamship from Savannah or any other
of the South Atlantic ports than from any of the truck farms
located within a dozen miles from any of the places of des-
tination mentioned. The Southern farmer competes with
the home farmer on fairly even terms so far as transportation
charges go. And he has a great advantage : he has the
monopoly of sunshine, while the Northern farm lies buried
in snow or is subjected to summery winters followed by
wintry springs. Being a month or two ahead of the home
supply, the Southern truck farmer realizes much better prices
than his competitor, and the freight rates become but nomi-
nal charges.
The charge for carrying a barrel of potatoes or other veg-
etables from Savannah to New York, Philadelphia, or Bos-
ton is thirty cents (in shipments of 100 bbls. to one con-
signee, twenty-five cents). Early potatoes bring to the
shipper from $4 to $5 per bbl. according to the state of
supply in the receiving markets. At the time of this writ-
ing (May, 1892). I find in one of the Savannah papers the
statement that truck farmers send their potatoes to Cincin-
nati, because there potatoes command $5.50, while a sudden
accumulation has reduced the price at New York to $3.25
per barrel. Watching the markets is not the least of the
truck farmer's tasks. Indeed, few industries offer a more
varied field for the employment of a high degree of intelli-
gence and handsomer rewards in compensation. Now it will
be seen that all the natural advantages are on the side
of the Southern truck farmer, and his yield ought to be
the reverse of the actual, both as to gross and net results.
I will show here what the gross and net yield per acre is
in the principal articles, taking the New England and the
140
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
New York and Pennsylvania divisions for the one extreme
and the Norfolk and South Atlantic divisions for the other.
INCOME PEE ACRE (AFTER DEDUCTING FREIGHT CHARGES).
1
B
s
V
m
V
S
o.
i.
=3
03
>
.0
S
s
s
3
03
i
a
Q
o
<a
1
^
O
o
1
PQ
6
U
PM
o
i*
02
H
New England
$
916
$
900
$
9fi6
$
183
$
130
$
*2,000
$
100
$
100
$
175
$
300
New York and Pennsylvania. .
183
150
914
133
67
81
90
80
165
Norfolk
93
88
68
101
9,7
25
46
80
R3
45
South Atlantic
93
95
113
57
175
32
101
70
94
The soil of New England is not known to be possessed of
any extraordinary degree of natural fertility. The wail of
distress which we hear from the mother of the country down
to New York and Pennsylvania, supported by the constant
demonstration of the increasing ratio of abandoned farms,
accuses nature of having done poorly by her first born, the
Eastern tillers of the soil Neither has the South Atlantic
farmer any reason to be proud of his soil. Though the sun
smirks and smiles on him, yet he often suffers by drought to
such a degree that the climatic advantages would seem fairly
counterbalanced. Still, with all these admissions, it is fair
to say that the long stretch of territory from Baltimore to
Mobile (including some very rich soils), covered by our cen-
sus report, showing all over the same differences as against
the North in the yield, enjoys sufficient advantages to jus-
* The high yield of cucumbers is explained by the fact that in New
England they are grown under glass, which adds largely to the labor
expense. But how trifling in comparison to the enormous net profit real-
ized by the farmer.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
141
tify us in saying that nature's favors go with the sunny
South.
That man, by means of higher intelligence of work, here
again is the instrument of wresting the high prize from na-
ture's forbidding attitude, is seen from the following state-
ment of labor expense, and of the amount of fertilizers
expended on the respective crops :
LABOR EXPENSE PER ACRE OP THE FOLLOWING CROPS :
-
1
<
15
I
i
3
O
Cabbages.
Cucumbers.
Watermelons.
Potatoes.
A
\
C
'S,
t
Tomatoes.
New England
$
34
36
18
21
$
75
18
22
12
$
58
44
17
17
$
36
26
20
16
29
26
10
10
$
*137
16
15
7
$
24
14
13
7
$
16
16
12
16
$
37
14
15
13
$
75
30
27
22
New York and Pennsylvania. .
Norfolk
South Atlantic .
COST OF FERTILIZERS IN DOLLARS PER ACRE OF THE
FOLLOWING CROPS IN EACH OF THE NAMED GEO-
GRAPHICAL DIVISIONS:
1
<
$
52
31
21
25
V
H
J?
3
O
Cabbages.
Cucumbers.
Watermelons.
Potatoes.
Spinach.
Tomatoes.
New England
$
40
40
26
16
$
93
42
47
$
68
31
36
22
$
40
27
10
11
$
30
28
28
10
$
21
24
13
7
$
50
24
32
27
$
65
32
25
15
$
60
45
21
21
New York and Pennsylvania
Norfolk
South Atlantic
142
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Deducting the cost of labor and fertilizers from the income
per acre (freight being already deducted), the truck farmer
receives as
NET INCOME IN DOLLARS PER ACRE OP THE FOLLOW-
ING CROPS IN EACH OF THE NAMED GEOGRAPHICAL
DIVISIONS:
ID
0>
<
"S
n
1
3
O
Cabbages.
Cucnmbers.
Watermelons.
Potatoes.
1
a
'5.
02
Tomatoes.
New England
$
130
116
44
47
$
85
92
40
67
$
140
128
4
$
79
76
45
75
$
61
14
7
36
$
1,833*
$
55
43
20
28
$
34
50
36
591
$
73
34
t
42
$
165
90
49
New York and Pennsylvania. .
Norfolk
t
168
South Atlantic
The labor is more intelligent in the Northern sections than
in the Southern. Its higher rate of wages controverts the
time-worn theories that low wages are a requisite to high
profits.
The day wages on truck farms are: for men, in New
England, $1.25 ; in New York and Pennsylvania, $1.19 ; in
Norfolk, 75 cents, and in the South Atlantic division, 85
cents. For boys and girls they are 65 cents in New Eng-
land, 50 in Pennsylvania and New York, and from 85 cents
* See note, p. 140.
f Minus income of $18 per acre, but unexplained.
% Minus income of $7 per acre, but unexplained.
Minus income of $3 per acre, but unexplained.
|j High prizes realized in comparison, on account of early growth.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
143
down to 25 cents in the South. Here again a demonstra-
tion is given of the difference between piece-rate wages and
time wages, wherever piece rates find employment, as in
gathering the crops. The higher day rates simply express
the higher working capacity and greater productivity of the
worker. While the day rates are higher in the North,
the piece-work rate is less than in the South, showing in the
few instances stated that in a given time the cheap labor of
the South turns out considerably less work than the better
paid labor of the North. Picking string beans, for instance,
is paid per bushel at the rate of 10 to 12 cents in the
North and of 12 to 15 cents in the South ; peas at 15 cents
North and 20 cents South. Not alone are higher day wages
expressive of higher intelligence and working capacity of
the laborer, but they always carry with them a higher
working of the farm. The Northern farm employs more
hands and more farm animals to the acre, more manure,
and, all told, the highest degree of tillage under scientific
methods.
The differences in intensity of cultivation are made clear
by the subjoined exhibit of the varying ratios of hands and
farm animals to the acreage of truck farms. (I count two
women equal to one man.)
|
^
S&o-
l!&.
6 o
"!
o 5
O S 8
iS
w
S 1
New England
6838
7.810
3 468
1.14
50
New York and Pennsylvania . .
Norfolk
108.135
45 375
69.654
20.152
26.232
5 790
.64
.44
.24
.125
South Atlantic
111 441
34 983
6 686
31
.06
144 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
As truck farming does not employ labor equally through-
out the year, the above figures could not very well be taken
as illustrative of anything more than that the different sec-
tions employ labor, in greater or smaller degree to the acre,
in the ratio given. Nearly the same proportion of farm
animals being employed, and these not being supplied accord-
ing to demand, but being a fixture of the farm the year
around, it is evident that the general test of intensity of cul-
tivation by the labor employed is as correct as the other
test of the fertilizers employed.
A Practical Illustration of Results of Best
Methods.
The best proofs of the high results of farming on the
most approved scientific methods, employing labor as ex-
tensively as in the New England section, and fertilizing
as freely, I collected on a recent visit to the South. From
Savannah to Jacksonville, Florida, and from there to
Suwanee Springs, about a hundred miles west, and thence
north and east again to Savannah, I found nothing but
sand in endless abundance. The forest stretches in every
direction. But the soil is so poor that the pine, though
getting all the fecundity which is in the soil, disputed only
by a sickly looking growth of very thin grass, seldom grows
to be a respectable tree. The land around Savannah does
not look more inviting. The live oak, rooting strong and
deep, seems to be the only growth courageous enough to
spread out We have seen the average yield of the South
Atlantic division. The division includes a large stretch of
country from above Charleston down to and inclusive of
Florida. If the Savannah district alone were investigated,
it would perhaps show a smaller yield than given in the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 145
above abstract. Mj visit to the truck farms around Savan-
nah was in May, and at a time when for six weeks not a
drop of rain had fallen. Field after field of early vegeta-
bles lay parched and withering, and with many of the farm-
ers the results, not always satisfactory at the best of times,
were quite discouraging. Everything seemed changed when
I came to the fields of one of the most successful farmers in
the district. Here not a yellow leaf was visible, and I found
the farmer directing his help who were busily engaged in
gathering crops and packing for shipment. Deep plowing
and a thorough preparation of the soil allow his roots to go
deep enough to get all the moisture and thus to escape
the drought affecting surrounding fields *so injuriously. He
keeps the soil and the plants in good condition by successive
plowings. He uses on every acre of his farm fully thirty
dollars' worth of artificial guano and twenty dollars' worth
of farm-yard manure, part of which he gets from his own
stock, and part from the town, brought out by scavengers.
He employs from 35 to 40 hands permanently, and
from 200 to 300 at gathering time. He works now 120
acres. When he obtained the farm, only 60 acres were in
fairly good condition. The rest has since been broken,
drained, and cleared. All is now in fine condition, the land
well built up by rotating crops and rich fertilizing. He has
three crops from the land, if he can gather his first crop so
that he can plant corn in May. June planting is injured by
worms. He raises on one acre from 150 to 200 crates of
cabbages, as a second crop 40 bushels of corn, and after har-
vesting the corn from two to two and a half tons of hay.
In Irish potatoes he gets 200 bushels to the acre, after which
follows a crop of hay. He could raise larger crops of pota-
toes, but that early potatoes are frequently frost killed.
This happened to him a year ago ; then he plowed them
10
146 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
over, planted cabbages, and came out with a good profit on
the cabbages and two crops of hay on top. Crowfoot and
crap grass spring up immediately after a good rain where
the land is well manured, though without manuring nothing
would grow. The money yield of these crops depends so
much on the conditions of the market that the prices fluc-
tuate very greatly. The quantities of produce raised give
therefore a better impression of the most improved methods
of farming when we hold them against the results of farm-
ing as generally practiced in Georgia, where, be it remem-
bered, the average in corn is not more than twelve bushels,
and, for South-eastern Georgia, ten bushels per acre.
The salable value of one species of farming is $6. of
the other $200. After providing feed for stock 35 head
on the farm, among them 18 mules, and 5 pleasure horses,
which my informant keeps in Savannah for the use of him-
self and family he sells annually from 200 to 250 tons of
hay, netting from $2,500 to $3,000. His permanent help
is paid at the rate of 50 and 60 cents for males, and 40
to 50 cents for females. He houses them in cottages on the
farm (for which they pay no rent) and allows them what
vegetables they require for their own use. Yet he has
realized as much as $25,000 from his sales in a single year
under favorable conditions of the market. The net results
are not less satisfactory and may well be classified among
the best in the country.*
* Equally important data can be introduced from an examination of
other agricultural departments. The average per acre planted with cot-
ton is about 160 pounds for Georgia. This represents the well and the
poorly farmed acre, the fertilized and the non-fertilized. The land with
constant cropping takes five to six acres to produce one bale. The same
land supplied with 2 hundredweights of fertilizers produces a bale to two
acres. Land has lately been given 10 hundredweights of fertilizers by a
class of farmers who have but begun to bring intelligence to the cotton
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
147
Greater concentration of effort, a higher cultivation, more
intelligent working of a smaller acreage seem to be the only
fields, with the yield of a bale and a half from one acre. The highest
net profit resulted from the highest degree of cultivation.
Even under the present low price of cotton, giving but 6 cents to the
farmer, high cultivation leaves a fine profit. The cost of raising cotton
under the two last-mentioned degrees of fertilizing distributes itself as
follows :
COST PER ACRE AND NET PROFIT RESULTING FROM RAISING COTTON,
FERTILIZING WITH
B : 10 hundredweights.
"50 Ibs. cotton @ 6 ctu $45.00
Cost of fertilizers $16.00
1 hoeing* 1.00
Ginning . . . 3.00 20.00
A : 2 hundredweights.
Yield : 250 Ibs. lint cotton, @ 6 cts. $15.00
Cost of fertilizers $3.00
2 to 3 hoeings 2.50
Ginning 1.00 6.50
$8.50 $25.00
This assumes the farmer to do his own work, as is now very generally
the case.
The picking expense is about covered by the price received for the
cotton-seed.
But even when hired labor is employed, the results are highly sat-
isfactory under the improved method. Four dollars for plowing is taken
to cover the cost of man and horse per acre.
The two statements of cost under hired labor to cultivate twenty acres
in cotton would be as follows :
A.
Cotton: 10 bales. $30
Seed, 300 bushels @ 15 cts. to 18 cts.
. 50
$350
5 months' labor, man, @ $10. . . .$5)
5 months' support @ $5 25
Picking @ 50 cts. per 100 pounds
seed cotton 75
Ginning per bale, $2 20
Fertilizing per acre, $3 60 230
B.
$900
900 pounds seed 150
$1,050
Labor $50
Support 25
Picking, 450 cwts. @ 50 cts 225
Ginning 60
Fertilizing 320 680
$120 $370
Whatever deductions may have to be made yet from these net results,
commission and freight ($2 to $2.50 per bale covers these two items)
must be balanced by the consideration that the labor of the owner is here
replaced by hired labor.
* One hoeing, I am told, is enough with richer fertilizing, where 2 to 3 are required
on the poorer farmed laud.
148 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
opening the Southern farmer has left for improving his by
no means satisfactory condition. The planter is becoming
more and more a part of history. The pressure of prices,
the consequence of improvements and discoveries, is becom-
ing too intense to allow wastage and high expenses. Farm-
ing as described, scientific farming alone remains profitable.
The large truck farm worked under the eye and management
of the farmer by hired help, may be only a transition to the
ten-acre farm worked by the farmer and his family with the
same satisfactory results of a surplus at the end of the year
after providing a comfortable living for the family condi-
tions which the forty or fifty acres of a one-horse farm of
the white farmer, and the twenty -five acre farm of the colored
man, cannot begin to secure. Everything, by the force of
competition, is in a moving condition, and, as Goethe says :
"Und wer nicht schiebt, der wird geschoben."
(Who does not push, he will be pushed.)
We have here only given the product in the different
countries, per acre, under cultivation by the plow. The pos-
sibilities under spade culture have not been considered at
all. The Lombard saying is : " If the plow has a share of
iron, the spade has an edge of gold." *
Two pieces of land of equal fertility and equal manuring
have given on a test a result of 66 by the spade and 28 by
the plow.f
A laborer employed by the landlord of the Glengariff
hotel (in the southwest of Ireland), had a piece of land of a
quarter of an acre free of charge from his employer, which
he worked with the spade in his spare time, and on which
he raised, as he told me, 25 bags, or 75 bushels, of potatoes.
The land itself was no better than the average in that
* " Si 1'aratro ha il vomero di ferro, la vanga ha la punta d'oro."
f &. de Laveleye, jficonomie Rurale : La Lombardie.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 149
section, mostly bog and reclaimed mountain land. Either
requires much preparatory work till it is brought to a point
where the spade can be set in.
Those living in large cities can easily inform themselves
on the results of the highest degree of cultivation practiced
by the market gardener. An example of it has lately been
reported in the Contemporary Review, in describing the
maraichers in the suburbs of Paris. The yield of an acre,
it will be seen from the example, can be carried, indeed, to
an extent to which it would be as rash to set a limit as it
would be to set a limit to the inventive faculty of the mind.
I will quote the illustration in evidence. Speaking of the
gardener, it says :
"His garden is only 2^ acres in extent ; \ acre is given up to aspar-
agus. From Sept. 1 to April 30 he sends every day to Paris from 200 to
1,000 bunches, getting for them on an average through the eight months
6d. a bunch. They grow in frames 50 feet long, 5 feet wide, floored with
slates ; under these, hot-air pipes, above them a shallow layer of earth.
The roots are crammed in as thickly as possible, covered with two inches
of good soil, and the glasses are drawn over ; in eight days they are
ready to cut, the stocks lasting for two months. He has also 1,000 bell-
glasses, costing If. each, for salads. Every year the whole surface of the
garden to the depth of six inches is taken out, sold to the neighboring
bourgeois for their flower gardens, and replaced by manure from Paris,
which we saw standing in large ricks ready to be spread. He employs
fifteen men and pays 35 per acre rent on a fifteen years' lease, with
right of pre-emption. We sat down with him to calculate his profits.
Here is the balance sheet we made out :
Wages 1,000
Rent and taxes 100
Manure 100
Firing and repairs 200
Interest on capital 150
Horses and carts 100
Sundries 50
Balance (profit) 1,028
Total 2,728
Sale of asparagus 2,550
Sales from rest of garden 178
Total 2,728
Net profit of 1,028 on a little over two acres of ground."
150 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Here fifteen men find employment on 2 acres. They re-
ceive wages of $320 a year, as high a rate as is paid in
many of the trades of Paris, requiring considerable skill.
A rent of $168 is paid an acre, and still this victim of
diminishing returns and of the rent gatherer pockets 454,
or $2,200, net profit from each acre of soil, impoverished
by successive generations of cultivators since the days of
Julius Caesar.
Without wishing to avail myself in the argument of these
examples of highest cultivation, and returning to general
agriculture, we get the most striking proof of the inadmissi-
bility of the ruling theories, here criticised, when we apply
the varying results to territorial comparisons of the United
States. The crops of the United States in 1887 covered
an area of 200 million acres. Of this the corn crops covered
42 million; potatoes, 2.4 million; cotton, 18.6 million; hay
and grass, 37.7 million acres. Considering the exports,
this acreage would have been sufficient to feed and clothe
seventy millions of people. Allowing ten millions of
acres for small crops, not here enumerated, tobacco, etc.,
kitchen- gardening and truck farming, this ratio would
take three acres of soil for every head of population. To
raise all this enormous product under the rough methods
still prevailing, and under a therefore comparatively small
yield per acre, a territory of the size of the states of Texas
and Louisiana would be sufficient, and leave all the rest of
the states and territories open for increasing population to
settle upon.
Advancing to more intensive systems of cultivation, as in
the chief agricultural states of Europe, but only selecting
the self-supporting ones, we arrive at the following interest-
ing comparisons, as we progress from the lowest to the
highest yield :
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
151
Austria-Hungary, on the same method of computation,
averages If acres per head of population, allowing for excess
of exports. On this basis of yield the territory required for
the United States would be 125,000,000 acres, and be cov-
ered by the State of Texas, with one-fourth of the territory
to spare. The same ratio represents France. Germany's
cultivated lands cover 65,000,000 acres, and with a popu-
lation of 50,000,000 requires 1| acres per head : equal to
88,000,000 acres on the American basis of population, cov-
ered by a territory half the size of Texas. Of the cultivated
area of Belgium and Holland, one acre suffices, and for the
United States this ratio of cultivation would only require
70,000,000 acres, equal in size to the State of Colorado.* On
the basis of Lombardy, not more than 53,000,000 acres
would be necessary, or a territory of the size of Minnesota.
On the ratio of yield per acre, as instanced by the truck
farmer at Savannah, whose farming account 1 examined,
half an acre would suffice where three acres are employed
now. On this basis, 35,000,000 acres, or a territory of the
size of the State of Wisconsin, would be required.
* I give here the acreage under different crops supplying food for man
and beast in the European countries here named. Fallows are not in-
cluded.
CORN CROPS.
POTATOES.
ROOTS, GRASS,
MEADOWS, ETC.
VINEYARDS.
TOTAL.
POPULATION.
Acres
(Millions).
Acres
(Millions).
Acres
(Millions).
Acres
(Millions).
(Millions.)
Austria-Hungary. . .
France
38
37
3.7
3.6
30
22
70
62
40
38
Germany..
34
7.8
17
60
50
Belgium
2 4
.5
1 8
5
6
Holland . .
1 5
4
3 1
5
5
152 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The same measure of comparison applied to European
countries would be equally impressive. From the applica-
tion of the highest degree of cultivation to the countries
subject to the lower degree, an extension of the supply of
products is realizable there, which, figuratively speaking,
would be equal to adding new continents to the cultivable
area of the world.
With these data in hand, we can safely relegate the ques-
tion of food supply to remote generations. Even these may
not feel more grateful to us for our worry on their behalf
than we have occasion to feel obliged to our ancestors at the
beginning of the century for the fears they entertained on
our account. The question of pressure of population on
subsistence is taken out of the possibilities of ages to come.
The growth of intelligence, the application of science to
production under the protection of liberty, has given us the
surest guarantee that the positions gained are safe posses-
sions of the race. The source of poverty is not to be sought
any more in increasing populations, but in the yet imperfect
organization of the machinery of distribution of the products
of toil and science. More and more we begin to learn to
master the new development. As the masses progress in
intelligence they will become able to absorb and to enjoy
the great prosperity which all classes of workers, by the
hand and the brain, have been instrumental in creating.
The chief obstacle in the way to this end, however, is in the
mistaken policy of governments, that they can contribute to
the well-being of the masses by interference and by taxa-
tion.
CHAPTER X.
The Condition of the Workingman under the Old and the New Dispensa-
tion. Progress measured by the Budget of Consumables. The Ger-
man Workingman on the Basis of the English of a Hundred Years
ago. The Great Purchasing Power of England the Result of the
Plus Earnings of her Working Classes.
THE condition of the working classes a hundred years ago
and down to the time when the new development began to
break down the old barriers, compared with their condition
to-day, furnishes the strongest evidence in support of the
positions here taken. So plainly do the facts point in this
direction, that it appears strange that so little use has been
made of them for refuting the contrary theories from which
so much misdirected agitation has sprung.
The comparison will show that the comfort and well-being
of the working classes of to-day are due entirely to the eco-
nomic progress outlined in the preceding chapters, and that
the contrary conditions still prevailing are entirely due to
the neglect of the causes which have led to that progress.
The effect of high wages in cheapening production has
been correctly estimated by old writers. Not to mention
earlier apostles of this sound theory, Arthur Young (" Trav-
els in France ") declares most directly in favor of it, and was
the more worthy of practical consideration, because his
declaration is the result of actual comparisons after long
years of observation by travel in France, Italy, Spain, Eng-
land, and Ireland.
" The great superiority of English manufactures in general over those
of France, in connection with the higher cost of labor, is a subject of
154 THE ECONOMY OF HI&H WAGES.
great interest and of the highest political importance. It shows that
manufacturing industries are not benefited by a nominally low price of
labor, as they flourish most where, on the contrary, labor is nominally
at the highest price. They nourish perhaps on account of this that
labor nominally the highest is in reality that which costs the least. The
quality of the work, the skill with which it is performed, go for a good
deal in the balance ; these depend to a great extent on the ease in which
the workman lives. If he is well fed, well dressed, if his constitution
preserves all its vigor and activity, then he will surely do his work far
better than a man to whom poverty leaves but a meagre pittance.'
(Arthur Young on " Manufactures in France.")
The Standard of Living under the Best of Old
Conditions.
But this superiority of English wages over French by no
means entitles them to be called satisfactory in the light of
the position gained by the English-speaking nations of to-
day. The French average of wages is stated by Young as
13d for men, 7%d. for women, and tyd. for spinner-girls.
For England he gives the average as 20d. for men, 9d. for
women, and Q\d. for spinner-girls.
In Germany the rate of wages was much lower still than
in France. The degree of comfort and working power
which the English working classes could buy for their
higher wages was balanced to an extent by the high price of
wheat then beginning to make itself felt, the effect of the
corn laws which made the succeed ing fifty years the darkest
in their history.
Nothing perhaps has been so productive of good to the
working classes of England and contributed so much to the
greatness of the nation as the remarkable period of fifty
years of low corn prices from 1715 to 1765. It was during
this time that the working classes were enabled to get that
superior strength and working power on which Arthur
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 155
Young dwells and which laid the groundwork for the indus-
trial revolution which has since overturned the world.
The average price of wheat for that period was about
35s. a quarter of eight bushels, varying from 23s. in 1732, as
the lowest price, to 53s. in 1754, as the highest price, for the
fifty years of the period. This must have been indeed the
golden time of the working classes, compared to the later
period in which the price of bread was doubled, to say the
least ; while, as Frederic Eden says, in " The Condition of
the Poor " (1797) :
"To counterbalance this the rise in price of labor was very little, if
anything, more than 2d. in the shilling, except what money is earned in
piece-work, which ten or twelve years ago was not nearly so plentiful as
at present."
He gives the wages for 1737 and 1787:
1737. 1787.
For out-door labor per day IQd. I2d.
" thrashers dd. ~i%d.
" laborers near great towns 16d. IQd.
" scribblers 14d. 15d.
" shearmen I5d. 18d.
" weavers, 2d. higher.
" women spinners J5d. Id.
For the period of 1765 to 1796 the average price of wheat
stood at about 50s., with 42s. in 1776 and 1786 as the low-
est, and 81s. in 1795 as the highest, price of the period.
The 25 years from 1796 to 1820 were terrible years indeed
for the working classes. The average price of wheat was
near a hundred shillings. The lowest price was 60s. in
1803, the highest 128s. in 1801 ($4.00 a bushel).
That matters did not improve up to the time of the
repeal of the Corn Laws is presumed to be a fact so well
established that we need not dwell upon this part of the
156
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
subject. The time when the worst aggravation had not
yet been reached, when war, gold premiums, and all the
evils of taxation for the maintenance of government and of
the privileged classes had not yet brought things to their
climax, may, therefore, be selected as a fair basis for com-
parison. The time is, furthermore, well suited for the pur-
pose, as it represents the " good old time " when the factory
system had hardly begun to invade and press upon the
house industries. The whole idyl of the good patriarchal
period was still in full bloom, with the manor-house at one
end and the " home " * at the other end of the social
structure. Work was still distributed and done entirely as
it is still done in many parts of Germany f and other Euro-
* The name given to the poor-house by the people in England.
f According to the Industrial Census of Germany in 1882, more than
one-half of all engaged in manufactures, where small groups of workers
can at all be employed, were employed in groups of less than 5 to each
establishment. In
A Total of
Worked in
groups of less
than 5 persons.
Worked in
groups of more
than 5 persons.
459,713
298,125
161 588
In machinery, instruments, etc
356,069
127,565
228,524
In chemicals
71,777
16,867
54,910
In textiles. . . .
910.089
440,573
469,516
In paper and leather industries
221. 6S8
469 695
107,293
367,688
114,395
102 007
In nutriments, food and drink
743,881
468,652
275,229
Total
3,232,932
1,826,763
1,406,169
Organizations large enough for profitable employment of power ma-
chinery would have to be aggregates of many more than 5 persons.
The number of people employed in domestic industries, those working in
their own homes, for account of business-houses, merchants, exporters or
manufacturers, is very large. A total of 754,550 persons are so engaged.
The kingdom of Saxony alone employs 138,000 persons, and Rhenish Pros-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
157
pean countries, England herself not excepted. Steam
power certainly had not yet begun " to run down human
labor " and " made human flesh so cheap," as we are so
often told in speech and song. Manufacturing was entirely
based on home industry. Even spinning was done in the
rural homes. Weaving was a house industry well into the
first half of the nineteenth century. As late as 1830 the
cotton industry of Lancashire employed 250,000 hand looms
against 50,000 to 80,000 power looms, according to Porter
("Progress of the Nation"), and Ellison ("The Cotton
Trade "), who is authority for the latter number.
The work of Sir Frederic Eden gives us a full insight
into these halcyon days, which, in contrast to the suc-
ceeding period and the bread-riot times, were certainly to
be remembered with longing. Nearly the combined earn-
ings of a family were consumed in bread alone. Two ex-
amples, one of a smaller and one of a larger family, may
serve for many, reported by Eden, to give the earnings and
explain how they were expended.
sia and Westphalia 102,000 in domestic industries ; 230,000 are engaged in
textiles, mostly in weaving. Hosiery still occupies over 40,000 people in
house industry. The principal lines in textiles occupy in home indus-
tries the following position ; I set side by side the total of all engaged in
the representative branches :
PERCENTAGE OF ALL EMPLOYED.
Engaged in
House Indus-
tries.
Total in
Industry.
Per<
Silk weaving and velvet (Rhenish Prussia 49,022). .
Woolen weaving
xnt.
70
22
40
4-2
30
55
53,286
23,799
41,045
52,295
22,212
40,5-28
76,264
108,007
103,808
125,591
73,750
73,828
Linen "
Cotton "
Mixed good? weavi ng
Knit goods,hosiery(kmgdom of Saxony alone,30,513)
Total
42
233,165 561,248
158 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The first family consisted of husband, wife and three
children, one of them able to earn a little money.
s. d.
The husband's earnings per week were 8
The wife and oldest child earned 4 6
Parish aid . . .16
14 ($3.40)
This was laid out for :
s. d.
Bread, 12 loaves (4 Ibs.), @ 11 d. or 11
Butter, 3 Ibs. (bought of the master at a reduction),
@6d 1 6
Clothing and other expenses 1 6
14
The house was built on waste land, and, " the landlord not
having asked rent for many years, may now be considered
freehold."
Had they had to pay rent, the contribution from the
parish would have had to be larger or the bread cut smaller.
One shilling and sixpence a week, or $20 a year, for cloth-
ing and other expenses of a family is not a reducible sum.
The wardrobe could not be more fully supplied than that of
many of our German house weavers of to-day.
As the second case, I will cite that of a weaver in Ken-
dall, wife and seven children. They earned :
s. d.
Man 9
2 daughters 4 6
3 daughters 2 6
Oldest boy 2 6
One girl knitting 6
Parish allowance 1
20
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 159
This was spent as follows :
s. d.
Provisions 14
Other expenses, soap, fuel, rent, clothing 5 6
Of the first part :
s. d.
Bread and flour absorbed 6
Meat, 6 Ibs. @ 4* d 2 3
Milk, 7 qts. lid 10
Butter, 2 Ibs. @ 9 d 1 6
Tea and sugar : tea, 2 ozs. ; sugar, 1^ Ibs 1 6
Potatoes, 2 pecks 1 2
Ale.. .06
14
Bread was 11 to VLd. a quartern loaf; flour, 2s. 3d. to
3s. 2d. a stone of 16 Ibs. ; potatoes, Is. 9d a bushel ; beef, 4d ;
pork, 3 to 5d. ; mutton, 5d. If the wife baked the bread,
instead of buying it, a family of nine good bread eaters
would not have had more than 5 pounds of flour for bread,
and perhaps 2 pounds of oatmeal a daj^, out of the shilling
spent under that heading.
Meat at 4%d. would give 6 pounds a week. Milk at l%d.
a quart allows one quart per day. Tea and sugar, at the high
prices which these articles then commanded, gave precious
small quantities for the 2d a day left for them. Potatoes
would allow something over two pecks a week at Is. 9c?. the
bushel. So we find the daily consumption of nine eaters to
have been :
In bread and flour 7 pounds.
" meat f pound.
" milk 1 quart.
" potatoes 5 to 6 pounds.
This was all the obtainable supply of food of the great
majority of the working classes in the good old times.
160 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The Measure of Progress expressed in the
Budget of Consumables.
Let us now see how a workingman's family lays out its
earnings to-day, and what is the food supply it consumes.
I shall give the earnings and budget of an English potter
from his own statement to me. From other personal
inquiry I know that it is a fair average of earnings as well
as of living expenses. Many individual earnings are less
than given in this case; others are considerably higher.
But in manufacturing districts the wife is usually a far
greater wage-earner than in this case; in the potteries
especially so.*
* That this represents very fairly an average of earnings is proven by
copies which I made from the wage lists of a pottery manufacturer at
Hanley in 1889 :
A jollyer, 5 2s. 8d. He pays out of this two lads at 8*. and 6s. Gd.,
and three women at 10s., 16s., and 10*. = 1 16s., and has left, therefore,
2 12s. 2d., or $12.81.
A second one earns gross 5 16s. Wd., and with the same deductions
for his help has 3 6s. 4d., or $16.11.
A third earns 5 14s. gross, and net 3 3s. Gd., or $15.38
Women jollyers : First case, 2 13s., out of which go 1 4s. for three
helpers at 8s , which leaves her net 1 9s., or $7.04.
A second one, 2 5s. gross, less 9s. and 7s. each to two helpers, leaves
net 1 9s., or $7.04.
A man plate maker earns 3 16s., less 12s. for helper, net 3 4s.,
or $15.54.
Still another earns net 3 3s. Gd., or $15.42. He has between 200
and 300 in the savings bank.
Another (a young man of 24), 2 18s., with 16s. Gd. off, nets 2 Is.
Gd., or $10.08.
A turner, 2 14s., less 9s., net 2 5s., or $10.93.
A mould maker, 2 5s., less 6s., net 1 19s., or $9.48.
Another mould maker, 2 7s., less 6s., net 2 Is., or $9.96.
A kiln man, 3, less 14s., net 2 6s., or $11.16.
A woman in fancy work potting made 30s., or $7 30.
To take these earnings and say they represent the Staffordshire potters'
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 161
The family under consideration consists of husband, wife,
and three children.
The husband earns 30 shillings.
The wife 6
Total 36
We can here safely set a man's wages of 30 shillings
against a rate of 12 shillings in corresponding occupations a
hundred years ago, and, as in the case of male weavers, of
24 shillings against 9 shillings in the good old times. But
let us see what we get for a shilling to-day in food supplies
as against the period we have dealt with above. Bread is
about 4|c?. a loaf to-day. This is 11 Ibs. for a shilling,
while at lie?., the price then, the workingman could only
buy 4j\ Ibs. Of flour, a shilling bought from 5 to 6 Ibs.
Now (Is. 8d. the stone) it buys 9f Ibs. Meat is the only
article which has become dearer. But it has become so,
because the workingman has become a great consumer of
flesh food, which he was not then glad enough, then, if
there was always enough bread and potatoes.
Of beef a shilling bought about 2^ pounds on an average.
To-day imported frozen beef is sold at 4d. to 6d a pound,
wages would be as unfair as the practice usually adopted by American
manufacturers for an effect, and which practice has been criticised in
these pages. That 30s. ($7 30) is below rather than above the average,
and 36s. ($8.74) more expressive of the individual worker's earnings in
the potteries, is proven from a statement of the average wages of fifteen
pottery works, taken from their books at the time of a general strike in
1882-83. They are as follows : (1) Flat pressers, $7.75 ; (2) dish makers,
$9.67 ; (3) cup makers, $9.97 ; (4) saucer makers, $7.97 ; (5) hand-basin
makers, $9.71 ; (6) hollow ware pressers, $8.18 ; (7) hollow ware jiggerers,
$11.69 ; (8) printers, $6.59 ; (9) oven men, $6.59 ; (10) sagger makers,
$8.50; (11) mould makers, $10.29; (12) turners, $8.05; (13) handlers,
$8.43.
11
162 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and English beef Sd. to 12c?. for the choice pieces. A shil-
ling buys 2 to 3 pounds of the former and 1 to 1 pound
of the latter.
The same is true of mutton. New Zealand mutton of
very fine quality is sold at &d. to 5d. a pound. Were the
English workingman not so fastidious, he could have his
meat as cheap as his ancestors, what meagre portions they
could buy. But he insists on his home-grown beef and
mutton. He even wants the best cuts, and disdainfully
leaves the poorer pieces to be taken by the " classes/' A
story is current in the potteries, that in the flush days of the
early eighties a lady asking the price of a fine cut of beef
was answered, " Oh, you won't buy this nohow ! None but
the collier ladies buy these pieces."
Butter averages Is. 4d. a pound now. Hence a shil-
ling buys | pound against 1 pounds a hundred years
ago.
Tea was 4s. Id. to 8s. 6d. at the company's warehouses ; at
retail 6s. to 10s. Taking the lowest price, a shilling bought
2f ounces. To-day, at 2s. 60?. or 60 cents a pound, a shilling
buys 6f ounces.
Refined sugar was 7%d. ; now it is 2%d. a pound. A
shilling's worth was then If pounds, and. is now 5
pounds.
Potatoes are now 8d. a peck. In 1797 they were Qd. to Qd.
a peck (Is. 9d. to 2s. a bushel). Hence a shilling buys 1
pecks now, against If to 2 pecks then.
We see from this, that a workingman in England can not
alone buy to-day more food products all around for Is. than
his forefathers could a hundred years ago, but that he has
a far greater number of shillings at his disposal.
As this is a very instructive object lesson, we will tabulate
here:
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 163
WHAT A SHILLING BOUGHT IN 1790, AND WHAT A SHIL-
LING BUYS TO-DAY, IN THE CHIEF FOOD PRODUCTS
CONSUMED BY WORKINGMEN IN ENGLAND.
1790. 1890.
Wheaten bread, pounds 4ft 11
Wheat flour, pounds 5 to 6 9
Beef, pounds 2k to 3 1 to 3
Mutton, pounds 2 to 3 1 to 2
Butter, pounds Ij
Tea, ounces 2| 6
Sugar, pounds If 5
Potatoes, pecks 1| to 2 1
When three-fourths of the earnings of a family have to
be devoted to food, and most of this goes to the purchase of
bread and flour, we can well understand the significance
of these figures.
Taking now the budget of the working potter mentioned
above, comprising a family of 2 adults and 3 children, we
find him laying out his 36s. as follows :
s. d. $
1. Food supplies 15 7 = 3.74
2. Other expenses, rent, taxes, fuel, sundries,
clothing 14 2 = 3.40
3. Balance 63 = 1.46
Food takes only 43 in a hundred of earnings, leaving 39
per cent, for other commodities and expenses, while 18
per cent, go to savings. The savings bank has taken the
place of the poor-house. But what is more to the point
yet in illustration of our case, we have here a family of 2
adults and 3 children consuming as much and, taking other
products than bread, more than a family of nine mostly
grown up persons in the old days.
We have here the following items as the weekly food
bill of the potter :
164 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
i. d.
1. Bread, 6 loaves, @ 4&d 2 3
2. Flour, 4 pounds 5
3. Meat, 7 pounds 3 11
4. Milk, 4 quarts 1
5. Butter, 1$ Ibs 2
6. Lard, lb., @ Qd . 3
7. Tea, 10 ounces 1 3
8. Sugar, 5 pounds, @ fyd 1
9. Potatoes, 1 peck 8
10. Ale and tobacco 1 2
Besides these articles, which also appear in the food
budget of the workingmen of 1797, we have :
11. For spices, other vegetables, etc 1 8
Making up our food bill of 15 7|
I inquired into the finances of another family which con-
sisted of father, mother, and six grown-up children, all
earning money, except the youngest boy of the age of fifteen.
This family baked its own bread, and consumed a sack of
flour of 224 pounds in five weeks. Hence per week :
*. d.
1. Flour, 45 Ibs 4 5
2. Meat, 16 Ibs., @ 9d 12
3. Milk, 10 qts 2 6
4. Butter, 4} Ibs 6
5. Tea, 1 lb. 2 6
6. Sugar, 5 Ibs 1
7. Potatoes (about), \ pks 7
Does not smoke or drink.
8. Other food products 9
Placing side by side the two groups, we behold the rela-
tive positions of the working classes of the two periods.
One is representative of the old, the other of the new civil-
ization and development. We cannot better show the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 165
advantages resulting from the progress made than by set-
ting in parallel columns the quantities of food consumed by
Family A, 2 adnlts and Family AA, 2 adults and Difference in
3 children. (1790.) 3 children. (1890.) Consumables.
Bread 12 loaves 6 loaves 6 loaves
Flour 4 Ibs + 4 Ibs.
Meat 7 Ibs +7 Ibs.
Milk 3qts 3 qts
Butter 3 Ibs li Ibs - H Ibs.
Tea 10i ozs + 1(H ozs.
Sugar 5 Ibs + 5 Ibs.
Potatoes 1 peck
Extras 2s. 8d + 2s. 8d.
But here we may be told that the outlay of the family's
earnings of a hundred years ago in bread alone was not
judicious, as bread was so high and meat relatively cheap.
Very well, let us reconstruct the table of outgoings on a
basis of six loaves of bread and assimilate the bill of fare to
the more diversified plan of our modern example. Accord-
ing to the prices of commodities stated above :
Plus or Minus
Family A. Family AA. of AA.
a. d. s. d.
Bread, 6 loaves, @ lid 5 6 6@4d 2 3 equal.
Flour, 3 Ibs., @ 2\d 7 @l{d 5 + 1\ Ibs.
Meat, 4 Ibs., @ 4*d 1 6 7 @ 7d 4 1 + 8 Ibs.
Milk, 3 qts., @ l$d 4} 3 @ 4d 1 equal.
Butter, 1| Ibs., @9d 1 H H @ 1*. 4.d..2 equal.
Tea, 2| ozs 1 10$ 1 8 + 7| ozs.
Sugar, 2 Ibs., @ 7$d 1 3 5 @ 2$d 1 + 3 Ibs.
Potatoes, 1 peck 6 1 8 equal.
Sundries 10 ..0210 + Zs.Qd .
Omitting sundries 1110 and 13 1
represent the money value of the respective budgets.
But on only Is. Sd. more outlay the workman of to-day
can live so much better than a workman of one hundred
years ago, as the plus figures above indicate, not to speak of
the large surplus left over for other purposes.
166
THE ECONOMY OF SIGH WAGES.
On the basis of consumption of 1790, to-day's budget
would stand as follows :
Family A.
s. d.
Bread, 6 loaves, @ lid 5 G
Flour, 3 Ibs., @ 2\d 7
Meat, 4 Ibs., @ 4<2 1 6
Milk, 3 qts., @ \\d 4
Butter, H Ibs., @ Qd 1 U
Tea, 2f ozs 1
Sugar, 2 Ibs., @ 7$d 1 3
Potatoes, 1 peck 6
Family AA.
S. d.
.2 3
.0 3J
.2 4
.1
.2
.0 5i
.0 5
..0 8
4 @ Id . .
3@4<Z
2@2|d
1..
11 10 9 5i
A minus expense of 2s. 4%d.
At the same rate of living, the workingman of to-day
can buy for 9s. 5%d. what it took a hundred years ago 11s.
lOd to obtain. If he were to live on bread and butter, as in
the first illustration taken from Eden's amount, 8s. Qd. would
buy what required an outlay of 12s. 6d. then.
The parallel is more complete when we take the actual
budget preserved by the Kendall weaver's account and of
the potter's family of eight members for comparison, the
letters B representing the former period, and BB the latter :
Family B.
Bread baked at home.
t. d.
Flour, 24- stones 6 3
Meat, 6 Ibs., @ 4^d 2 3
Milk, 7 qts., @Ud 10
Butter, 2 Ibs., @ Qd 1 6
Tea, 2 oz., @ Qd 9
Sugar, li Ibs., @7ifZ 9
Potatoes, 2 pks., @ 7d 1 2
Ale.. .06
Family BB.
3 stones
8.
4
d.
5
6
6
i
7
9
Plus or minus
of BB.
+ I stones.
+ 10 Ibs.
+ 3 qts.
+ 2^ Ibs.
+ 14 oz.
+ 33 Ibs.
-li pks.
16 Ibs., @ Qd.
10 qts., @ 3d .
4i Ibs
.12
..2
1 lb
g
5 Ibs
1
1 pks . .
None.
Other food prod-
ucts . . . .0
14
29
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 167
This fairly characterizes the change in the conditions of
the working classes, the progress from the old to the new.
The transition from a bread and potato diet to a meat diet
is unmistakable. The surplus of earnings applicable to
the purchase of commodities other than food, the savings
put into banks and loan and building societies, are the
direct result of this higher and better living. The beef eater
overcomes the bread eater as the latter overcomes the
potato eater. The economic position of nations is one of
food and of standard of living. Only the ratio is the
reverse of the general assumption. The lower the rate of
living, or the rate of wages, the higher the cost of produc-
tion. Of course, the economic position of the nations cor-
responds to this.
The German Workingman's Basis of Living now,
on that of the English a Hundred Years Ago.
The rate of living of the working classes explains every-
thing, the standing of nations in industrial competition
as well as all other phenomena in the economic world.
Germany's present status is not farther advanced than
England's before the free-trade era. The living of the work-
ing classes is not so high to-day as that represented by case
B of a hundred years ago. From the many investigations
undertaken by governments, economic societies and individ-
uals, T will introduce two examples, representative of the
better situated. The fact that a large proportion live beneath
this rate, stated in these pages, in speaking of the condition of
the poor weaver (Part I., Chapter IV.) adds weight and force.
I take the budget of a German workingman from Profes-
sor v. Schulze-Gaevernitz's admirable book ("Der Grossbe-
trieb, ein wirthschaftlicher und sozialer Fortschritt, Leipzig,"
1892) and one from my own examination. If we place these
168 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
exhibits beside the showing of B and BB, the demonstration
will be complete.
The family consists of husband, wife, and four children.
The father earns 15 marks a week, and the two oldest chil-
dren, employed in a textile factory, contribute 7 marks.
These combined earnings of 22 marks are spent mainly for
food 17.85 marks. Eent takes 3.20, and barely one mark
remains to pay old age insurance and school rate. For
clothing, no provision is made at all. But the composition
of the budget for food speaks volumes :
WEEKLY FOOD BILL FOR A GERMAN WORKINGMAN AND HIS
FAMILY, IN ALL SIX PERSONS.
Marks. $
Rye bread, II. quality* 42 Ibs. 5.60 1.35
Rolls 2 " 2.00 .48
Wheat flour, II. quality 2 " .40 .10
Meat (Sundays only) \ "\ AF- 11
Lard |")
Vegetables, peas, beans, rice, etc 3.40 .80
Potatoes 30 qts. 1.80 .44
Corn coffee .20 .05
Butter 2$ Ibs. 3.40 .80
" Half " milk (skimmed milk) 6 qts. .60 .15
17.85 4.28
The price of bread and flour is stated here somewhat higher
than I had it quoted to me by workingmen in 1886, at the
time of my visit among the Crefeld silk weavers. But it
must be remembered that the duty on corn was raised since
that time. The budget of supplies, taken down by myself,
however, does not vary materially from that given by Dr.
von Schulze-Gaevernitz. The family was composed of father,
mother, grown-up son, and widowed daughter with three
* Rye bread is here quoted at the rate of 3 cents a pound against
wheaten bread in England at (9 cents the 4 Ib. loaf) 2^ cents ; wheat flour
at 5 cents against 2 cents in England.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 169
children. They owned the house and about a quarter of an
acre of land. In the previous year (1885) father and mother
had earned 624 marks together, or 12 marks per week. At
the time they did not work, as trade was dull. The daughter
earned 10 marks and the son from 12 to 18 marks, accord-
ing to the work. It will be readily understood from the
fact of the house being owned by the father, and through the
aggregation of earnings of the family, that this is one of the
most favorable cases, from my own observation as well as
reported on by others.
BUDGET OF A FAMILY OF FOUR ADULTS AND THREE
CHILDREN. (FROM MY OWN INVESTIGATIONS.)
1. FOOD.
Marks, Marks.
Rye bread, 20 Ibs., @ 10 pfg 2.
White bread 2.
Rolls .50
Home-baked white bread :
Flour, 10 Ibs., @ 13 pfg 1.30
Yeast 30
Milk, 1J liter, @ 15 pfg 22
Baker's wage 50
2.32J
Flour, 4 Ibs., @ 13 pfg .52
Butter, 2 Ibs., @ 1 mark 2.
Milk, 6 liters @ 15 pfg .90
Beef (Sundays), 1^ Ibs., @ 60 pfg .90
Salt pork, 2 Ibs., @ 65 pfg .97
Sausage, 1 Ib. , @ .80
Potatoes, 1,000 Ibs 24.
about an equal amount raised on
own land 24.
Cabbage for sourkrout, 400 Ibs., @ 1 mark
per 100 Ibs 4.
Cabbage, cutting 10.
Coffee, 40 Ibs., @ 1.25 marks 50.
For 52 weeks 112. 2.15
Carried forward. . . .15.07
170 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Marks. Marks.
Brought forward 15.07
Sugar, lb., @ 40 pfg .20
Olive oil and spices .44
Soap, 1 lb .20
Beer 1.20
17.11
2. CLOTHING.
Father 40.
Son 40.
Three children 54.
(Children's shoes are 3.50 and boy's shoes
5 marks a pair.)
Mother and daughter 78.
212. 4.08
3. FUEL AND LIGHT.
Coal, 4 tons, @ 7.50 marks 30.
Coal oil 12.
42. .80
4. RENT.
Owns the house, mortgaged for 2,400.
Interest 120.
Repairs 20.
140. 2.70
Total expense 24.69 *
No allowance is made here for taxes and school money,
or for any other unavoidable expense. Nor must it be for-
gotten that no full allowance for rent is made, which would
be considerably higher were the house not their own. The
two statements, together with the other illustrations, clearly
explain the position of labor and of the laborer in Germany.
We see that a German workingman of to-day cannot live
as well as an English workingman lived a hundred years
* The mark at 24 cents round, and 100 pfennige the mark, will help
computing German into American money.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ago, poorly as the latter was situated as compared to con-
ditions of to-day.
Meat disappears almost entirely. So do tea and sugar.
Everything is reduced to a point below which it is hardly
possible to produce the strength necessary for earning even
the scant wages that keep the family alive. A surplus is
unimaginable. The purchasing power for other commodi-
ties is destroyed,* as every possible increase in earnings
* A few cases taken from the better situated classes of workingmen
will evidence this fully. Other proof exists in abundance. " A family
of a type-setter at Leipsic consequently belonging to the highest class of
workingmen with only two children has only 174. 40 marks ($37) to spare
for shoes and clothing." " To save shoes the children have to go bare-
foot in the warmer season." " The house-furnishing of a German work-
ingman's family is hardly ever bought new, but, as in numerous cases,
the clothing also from second-hand dealers, or obtained through charity."
(" The factory system, an economic and social progress." Dr. Gerhardt
von Schulze-Gavernitz, Leipsic, 1892.)
" Eine Leipziger Buchdruckerfamilie also der hSchststehenden Klasse
der Arbeiter angehorig mit nur zwei Kindern hat f iir Bekleidung und
Schuhwerk jahrlich nur 174.40 M. tibrig. " Urn Schuhwerk zu sparen,
laufen die Kinder in der warmeren Jahreszeit barfuss." Der Hausratder
deutschen Arbeiterfamilien wird fast nie neu gekauft, sondern, wie in
zahlreichen Fallen auch die Kleidung, vom Trodler, oder durch Wohl-
thatigkeit erworben."
" A workingman's family with four children and an income of 1145.19
marks ($283) spent for clothing, linen, furniture, and repairs only 100.78
marks ($24). The head of the family buys once in a while a pair of
working trousers, or some other indispensable article, but has not for
fifteen years bought a new suit of clothes. As a rule with workingmen,
the furniture is bought second-hand when the family starts housekeep-
ing. A sofa or lounge is absent in most cases. A separate sitting-
room is found nowhere, the same room being used to sleep and to live in.
Frequently the same room serves the whole family as living and sleeping-
room, and in many cases is shared with boarders."
" Schriften des freien deutschen Hochstifts,Frankfurt-a.-M., 1890. Eine
Arbeiterfamilie mit vier Kindern und 1145.19 M. Einkommen gab fur
Kleidung, Wasche, Haushaltungs gegenstande und deren Reparatur nur
172 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
would be consumed in meat food, so necessary for the nerve
of the worker.
The contrary position in England, allowing for so large a
surplus over food expenses, explains the great absorbing
character of the English market, the dumping ground of the
surplus products of the whole world.
The high importance, the economic and sociological value
of a high rate of wages, the preponderating power it gives
to nations blessed with it, has been so fully demonstrated
by the facts here adduced, that further argument seems
superfluous.
Nor need I dwell here upon the conditions in America,
where the forces that have been so powerful in creating the
advanced position of England have had fuller sweep yet.
The results have been fully dwelt upon. Their effect will
be made clear in the second part of this volume, when the
different industries will be separately reviewed, and when it
will be shown that the hindrance to reaching the highest
development is the interposition of laws, mistakenly called
protective, but in reality preventive.
100.78 M. aus. Vom Familienvorstand heisst es : " Er kauft wohl
einmal eine Arbeitshose oder ein derart unentbehrliches Kleidungsstiick,
hat aber seit 15 Jahren keinen neuen vollstandigen Anzug mehr sich
angeschafft." Die Mobel der Arbeiter sind meist schon bei Begriindung
des Haushaltes gebraucbt gewesen. Selbst das Sofa fehlt in den meisten
Fallen. Einen besondern zum Wohnzimmer benutzten Baum giebt es
nirgends, vielmehr wird in demselben Raume geschlafen und gewohnt.
Haufig dient ein Zimmer der gesamteii Familie zum Wohn- und Schlaf-
raum, in vielen Fallen wird derselbe mit Aftermietern geteilt."
II.
THE EFFECT OF HIGH WAGES.
COMPARATIVE METHODS AND COST OF
PRODUCTION IN AMERICA AND '
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
IN the first part of this treatise it has been shown that a high rate of
wages is the primary, the moving cause to all industrial progress, and
that a low cost of production must necessarily follow where favorable
conditions have created this basis. It has been shown that these con-
ditions are created by freedom, and that restrictions, like tariffs, even be
they called protective, cannot possibly be otherwise than obstructive.
In the second part the chief industries of the world, competing in
trade, will be discussed and reviewed in the light gained from the general
inquiry into the causes of high wages, contained in the first part. It
will be shown by an analysis of competing industries, methods, and cost
of production, that all the available facts prove the correctness of the
principles treated in the previous pages.
The analytical review will fully corroborate the main contention, that
the industries of America want the reverse of what the McKinley Act has
given them room for freer and higher development. The latter can
only be given by what has been suggested, a higher training, technical,
scientific, and artistic. These are the requisites which would make
America industrially independent. A few millions annually spent on
these necessary elements in the productive machinery would conduce
more to this end than ever so many efforts in the direction which Mr.
McKinley has induced the Republican party to follow.
That the act he has identified with his name would prove a disastrous
failure ought to have been self-evident at the outset, from a consideration
of the true principles of the economy of production. Blindness and
mere party greed alone could have prevented a correct estimation of the
logical results which are now open to everybody's view.
CHAPTER I.
Unreliability of Statements of Protected Industries. Exaggerated to
obtain High Rates of Protection. The Pottery Industry in
Evidence. English and American Positions contrasted. Sanitary
and other Ware. Making High Rates of Profit though selling
Goods considerably under English Prices. Brown Stoneware.
PROTECTION has its strongest ally in the general ignorance
of the relation between the method and cost of manufacture
in countries competing for our market and our own. Not
able to cover the field of inquiry for themselves, the law-
makers had no other sources of information than the manu-
facturers themselves. Where the latter did not wilfully
mislead, it is certain that they showed only such facts as
would most surely prove the need of continuing or imposing
excessive duties. Facts from abroad were entirely wanting.
The consular reports had no information on the subject worth
considering. The consuls gave all they could give the
daily rate of wages, the mode of living, the hours of labor,
the commercial statistics of industry, etc. But upon such
data no intelligent comparison can be based. No points on
industrial competition can be determined therefrom. With
the object of obtaining the information required for estab-
lishing a basis for comparative manufacturing statistics, I
commenced my investigations with the pottery industry, it
being the chief industry of the district to which I was
appointed. The pottery industry has always attracted
general interest. It is, strictly speaking, an art industry,
and as such offers many useful hints and points for com-
176 THE ECONOMY OF HIQH WAGES.
parison. The technical processes are very important sub-
jects of study. In many directions, industrial improvement
would follow a more careful consideration of them than they
seem to have found among American manufacturers in the
scramble for high protective duties. Under the cheapening
of prices following the adoption of improved methods of
manufacture, and under a rising standard of life among the
masses, white ware in pottery finds a very much wider
market than in former times. White and decorated pottery
can now be brought into every cottage, giving an inviting
appearance to every dinner table by replacing the pewter
and common earthenware of former days. Increasing com-
mercial importance is thereby secured to this article of
manufacture, in addition to the importance attaching to it
from the educational point of view.
The Industry in America and England.
An industry like this naturally invites the attention of
everybody who is interested in the general question of the
aesthetic and industrial development of a country. What
lends to pottery in England especial interest is that it has
there, unaided by government support, developed into one
of the leading industries, and holds a position which enables
it to send now to the United States twice as much as Ger-
many, France, Austria, and all other exporting countries
combined.
To get to the cost of production, it becomes necessary to
examine into the cost of materials, the cost of labor, and
piece-work prices. In a report on the pottery industry of
North Staffordshire I made a comparison of the English
and American potteries, the weekly earnings in both, as
well as the piece-work rates, transportation charges, methods
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 177
of working, improvements adopted in the methods ; and I
added a description of the system of art education in
England, the cost and mode of living, and finally the
methods employed between master and man for the settle-
ment and adjustment of disputes by boards of arbitration.
It will be taken as a matter of course that in an industry
like the finer pottery, white earthenware and china, America
cannot produce on equal terms with England or other Euro-
pean countries. America lacks everything that European
countries possess in abundance skilled workmen who have
imbibed all the elements of their art from childhood, fore-
men, managers and masters, knowing by intuition and rule
of thumb the requirements of their trade, the treatment and
combination of materials, the body and the glazing, the
degree of firing requisite, etc.
Many of the manufacturers who have had the greatest
success started as workmen from the bench. Their sons, if
raised in the same way, devoting close attention to the
management, bring to greater prominence the works in-
herited from their fathers. Where this is not adhered to,
capital and reputation do not save from bankruptcy.
If such be the case in England, where the industry, so to
speak, is to the manner born, how much more so in America,
where it is ingrafted upon a not very willing tree? Our
manufacturers, periodically laying claim to an increase of
protective duties, are in the habit of pointing to the higher
rate of wages paid in this country. They want it under-
stood that their inability to keep out importations is due
only to the insufficiency of protection, insufficient on
account of higher labor cost. They never point to other
deficiencies which are far more important.
I had endeavored to inquire into these. I alluded to
them in my report without, however, enlarging upon them.
12
178 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
It was important to show the methods of manufacture pur-
sued in England and the aid given to this industry by the
state as well as by individuals. As pointed out, all the aid
consisted of the intellectual aid given, that of science and
art education. I was not remiss in stating the difference
of wages, both by the week and the piece rate between
Trenton, N. J., and North Staff ordshire.
My report was of February, 1886. The potters of Tren-
ton, under the headlines, " Shall the pottery industries of
the United States be destroyed ? " in a pamphlet dated
March 12, 1888, and presented to the Ways and Means
Committee, took exception. Their contention will be quite
interesting and instructive to the reader as illustrating a
system of arithmetic, which may very properly be called
protection arithmetic. According to this system, 3 plus 4
are made to figure 8 or 6, as the exigency of -the case may
require. Though I had cited in my list of comparative
piece rates quite a number of items at over 100 per cent.
above English rates, they considered the case unfairly stated.
They objected that in comparing piece rates of wages and
rates of cost, I did not accept the whole list and draw a
general average. My reasons for not taking the whole of
the list, and for confining myself to such items of comparison
in piece rates as were made by the same processes in both
countries will prove ample in the light of later information.
Various improvements in the mode of manufacture in
England had not been adopted in Trenton. They had not
adopted them even in 1888, a year or two later, when I
again visited Trenton. The reason given was the same as
is always given, that the workmen would object to their
introduction, and not be willing to accept a lower wage rate
with the new device than with the old. In England the
manufacturer had met with the same difficulties, but the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 179
higher wages per diem possible under the improved methods,
in spite of the reduced piece rate, had gradually overcome
these objections.
High protective tariffs are preservers of obsolete methods
until closely pressed by home competition. In this instance
the cheapening in England was especially prominent in flat
dishes and pressed ware, where improved methods led to
great savings in the labor cost. I confined myself to hollow
ware and larger dishes, where by the nature of the articles
the process could not vary much in the two countries.
The drawing of an average can only be misleading. It
is unscientific and must lead to error. A comparative list
of prices may contain articles paid at equal rates, but
employing most of the time of the workmen, while other
articles may be paid at double the rate, but be of small
importance in the output. Thus a much higher average
would be established than that practically existing.*
Assertions of the Trenton Potters.
The claim, however, of the Trenton manufacturers will
stand in very good stead here. No figures could be more
* This is only one of the methods resorted to, when claim is made for
legislative favors. The Trenton manufacturers in their statement give
full week earnings, while the English in my report only cover actual
time employed. The time of 58 hours in Trenton against barely more
than 45 hours in Staffordshire ought to be considered. The work-people
are still devoted worshipers at the shrine of Saint Monday. But the
Staffordshire aggregate earnings are further increased as the weeks of
work are 48 to 50, while in the Trenton earnings only 34 to 42 weeks'
work appears in the occupations and for the year in comparison. All this,
of course, gives an entirely different construction to their wage lists,
especially when we bear in mind that the Trenton manufacturers, like
their brethren in other industries, select for required effect the highest
paid individual earners, and set them against an average or against lower
earnings in the same occupations for England.
180 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
profitably invited for the proving of the unreliability of
averages, to use a mild term. By adding the articles which
are made in England, either entirely by machinery in press-
ing moulds, or with improved tools, batting machines, steam
jiggers, etc., they show differences of 158 per cent, and in
.some instances as high as 275 per cent., and finally draw an
average and say " that where the whole list is taken, English
and American, the difference is 112 per cent, instead of 57
per cent, [what they make my comparisons to average], and
these figures in England are good ' from oven ' prices, while
the American prices are good 'from hand,' a difference vari-
ously estimated at from 10 per cent, to 20 per cent, additional,
in round figures, therefore a difference of 125 per cent in
wages." Now let us see what a comparison of the actual
conditions demonstrates.
It is important for an understanding of the general factors
in price making in pottery, and especially that kind of
pottery which is most extensively used in the United States
white earthen ware or white granite ware to know that in
the cost of production the labor cost stands in about one-
half of the net selling price, the material (coal, clay, etc.)
and the gross profits taking the other half. In Staffordshire
the exact relations, as from the account books of manu-
facturers (copied by myself), stand: Labor, 47; gross
profits, 23|- ; material, 29 equal to 100 as price unit
Clay and coal are higher in Trenton than in Staffordshire.
Coal is nearly double. Ball clay, much of which is imported,
pays $3 a ton duty, about 50 per cent. If, on top of all this,
labor is 125 per cent, higher than in England, it would be
difficult to see how it is possible that many a manufacturer
in potteries, who twenty years ago was a poor man, has
realized a fortune since. And this, up to 1883, under a duty
of not more than 40 per cent on white ware, since raised by
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 181
various pushing?? and the application of the methods usual
on such occasions, to at present about 55 per cent.
That the increase of duty obtained in 1883 was not
demanded by the exigency of the case might be taken from
the fact that even up to then the manufacturers had pros-
pered when they understood their business. It was, how-
ever, only partially an increase, important in higher cost
goods, but insignificant in the lower cost ware, where value
was comparatively small in relation to the bulk. How
these increases were brought about will be seen from the
following computation :
The net cost of a crate of white granite ware was at that
time 5 15s. Id. ($28.14). The net charges upon this are
1 6s. 9d, ($6.36), bringing the cost up, when landed free of
duty, to 7 2s. 4tcL ($35). The duty before 1883 on these
goods at 40 per cent, was levied on the whole amount of 7
2s. 4d. ($35). This made the duty borne by the goods equal
to 49 per cent, on the invoice value. The tariff of 1883
raised the duty to 55 per cent, but abolished the duty on
charges. The McKinley tariff bill makes no change in the
rate of duty, but the McKinley administration bill restored
the duty on packing charges. These amount to about 16s.
6d, or $4 ; hence, an additional protection of $2.20 has been
realized, making the duty on the net cost of the goods
($28.14) $17.68, or 62f.
Of course, in decorated goods and finer ware the charges
and duties upon these latter become comparatively insignifi-
cant. The white ware, however, is the most important in
this consideration of comparative values and costs. It is
upon this, also, that the contention of the Trenton potters
was based in answering my report.
Having shown what rates of duty are being levied, and
how the increase in rates was brought about in a roundabout
182 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
way, we can now build up a cost comparison on the state-
ment of the men of Trenton.
Staffordshire. Trenton.
Per cent. Per cent.
Material 29^ 29^ plus 50 44i
Labor 47 47.]? plus 125 = 107
Profit and expense... 23^ 23^ plus 97 J 4G*
Total 100 198
But the American manufacturers, in the statements pub-
lished by their association, themselves show a higher per-
centage of profits than the English manufacturers. These
relations of labor, material, and profit also appear in the
census figures of 1880.
These statements show material 26, labor 46, and
gross profit 27 in 100 as the selling value.
Hence, according to this, they show a cost statement which
compares with the English normal rate of 100, as follows:
English. Trenton.
Material 29^ 26^ plus 50 39J
Labor 4?i 46 plus 125 105J
Profit 23| 27 plus 100 54
Total 100 199
Accordingly the relations of profit to the rest of the
manufacturing charges are 10 per cent, higher than those of
the best showing of English pottery manufacturers.
The English gross profit, however, is above the normal
average. The year 1882-83 was highly profitable for the
potteries. The impending change in the American tariff
threw a very large business into the hands of the Stafford-
shire potters. The American shippers, anxious to make use
of the time given them for filling their warehouses with
* The plus percentage of 97i is arrived at by taking the English material
and labor of 77 and the American co-relative cost of 152 as a basis.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 183
goods under the old rates, were foolishly wasting the duties
saved, in the enhanced prices they paid to the Staffordshire
manufacturers. The latter did not fail to improve the oppor-
tunity. The year 1884-85, for which I made my examina-
tions, was therefore more normal. This only showed a
profit rate of 12 per cent.
It would be utterly impossible for the Trenton manufact-
urers to keep going and pay running expenses under a rate
of gross profit which would pay a handsome income to a
Staffordshire manufacturer. The waste in manufacturing,
the allowances for claims from customers, etc., are in them-
selves sufficient reasons for necessarily greater gross profits.
But waiving this for the present, and accepting the rate as
above, the question remains to be answered, how manufact-
urers can exist with goods costing (according to their show-
ing) a full 100 per cent more to produce than English
goods under a protection of 49 per cent (up to 1883), and
55 percent, up to the present tariff bill. But this is not all.
American goods do not command the prices of English
goods. They are, so far as quality goes, considered inferior.
At equal prices everybody would buy the English goods in
preference. As it is, a great many white goods are brought
from England to be decorated here. The decorating works,
putting considerable labor on the goods, prefer paying a
higher price to the taking of risks that the goods on which
they have expended much time and labor would craze after
being put on sale.
The selling prices of English and Trenton goods show
the corresponding positions very plainly. The goods are
sold at equal prices in English shillings. But the shilling
of Staffordshire goods (after deducting the discounts and
adding duty, etc.) is sold at 18 cents by the importer, the
Trenton manufacturer's shilling at 16 cents.
184 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Thus a difference of some 15 per cent, is considered to
exist. In the face of such facts, it becomes difficult to
see how the extraordinary wage-rates can be paid by
the Trenton manufacturers, and leave them sufficient mar-
gin to exist and to make very handsome accumulations
besides.
We can see the absurdity of the statements upon which
their claims are rested, when we observe that the English
goods costing 100, paying duty 55, charges 5, and importers'
profit, say 15 per cent, equal to 25, are sold accordingly at
182, and that against this the Trenton makers have to
sell their goods at only 160, goods which at their own show-
ing cost them a full 200 to put on the market. Arithmetic
of this kind is not apt to impress business men seriously.
It would invite contempt rather than the consideration of
Congress, were it weighed there in the balances in use in
the commercial world.
Inefficiency attracted by a High Tariff.
If the average cost of labor were 125 per cent, more than
in England, it would be difficult to understand how so many
of the manufacturers, twenty years ago poor men, could
realize large fortunes under a tariff of 40 per cent., or add-
ing duty on charges, 49 percent. One of the manufacturers,
a thorough-going old English potter, who at all times
opposed the endeavors of the later generation of Trenton
potters for higher duties, emphatically declares that he
made most of his money under a tariff of 25, and later on
40 per cent. This is quite natural. The higher tariffs in-
flated cost and increased competition by incompetent hands.
Of these, after depressing the industry, a number have
failed. In view of the general prevalence of high profits,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 185
these failures must be attributed not to insufficient tariff
duties, but to incapacity and mismanagement*
Few things eat into the profits and the capital of a pottery
so much as waste, due to breakage, to imperfections in the
firing, and to crazing. Here is the touchstone of capacity,
skill, and technical knowledge of master, manager, and work-
man.
At the time of the great coal strike in the anthracite
region, Trenton potters suffered especially heavy losses from
crazing of their ware. They had to substitute bituminous
coal, and this change in the fuel led to some very disastrous
results, not universal, however, thereby proving the effi-
* The high profits made by the Trenton manufacturers have recently
been brought to light by the prospectus of the " Trenton Potteries Com-
pany," organized by the union of five of the leading firms. Of the
$3,000,000 capital, the $1,250,000 of preferred stock represents nearly
the whole property, undoubtedly at the highest possible valuation.
(The value of real estate, machinery, patterns, merchandise, and cash in
bank is given at $1,31)0,000). The $1,750,000 of common stock is, there-
fore, almost all water to absorb the surplus earnings over the 8 per cent,
on the preferred stock. The prospectus shows that for the last three
years the average earnings on the common stock were 11 per cent., and
for 1891 they were 16 per cent, after providing for the expense of man-
agement. On the appraised value of the entire property, the average
annual net profits for the three years 1889, 1890, and 1891 were equal to
a dividend of 22i per cent. The net earnings for 1891 were $401,000,
equal to a dividend of 29 per cent, on the same basis.
This is in singular contrast to the statement of one member of this
consolidation made before the McKinley Committee on Ways and Means
in the spring of 1890. Said he : " It is for you, gentlemen, to say whether
this struggling industry shall be destroyed for the benefit of foreign manu-
facturers."
Struggling infants, and deeply concerned for the wage-earner are they,
when the tariff is discussed. But no sooner have they carried home per-
mission to levy increased taxes, than they reduce the wages of their
workmen.
186 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ciency or inefficiency of the management as the cause of
the difference. The trouble in crazing is that it often shows
itself months after the ware has been burned, and so the
manufacturers often get goods back long after they have
been sold.
This condition of the industry largely explains the scram-
ble for higher rates, though discountenanced by the older
and wiser heads in the trade. To cover and perpetuate
inefficiency ought not even be the object of paternal legis-
lation. To this inferiority alone is due the continued and
increasingly large importation of ware from the Stafford-
shire potteries despite high duties. It has been a common
saying among leading North Staffordshire manufacturers
that they do not wish the American tariff reduced on their
own ware ; that the American manufacturer now lives in a
fool's paradise, and does not make improvements and savings,
and a close study of his business, such as he would make if
harder pressed by England.
Labor-saving Appliances.
How the introduction of labor-saving devices in pottery
making has helped in reducing prices of the ware, and at
the same time increasing the workingmen's earnings, will be
seen from a few facts which I took from the books of a pot-
tery in Hanley (North Staffordshire). Dinner plates (the
unit of price is per score dozen, or 240 pieces) in 1880 were
made by hand tool and jigger, at the rate of 4s. 6d, or $1.10;
men could make one score dozen a day. In 1889, employ-
ing the steam jigger and steam tool, or monkey, they could
make two score dozen a day, at the rate of 85. a score, or 6s.
day wages ($1.46.) Slop jars used to sell at 6s. 6d. ($1.58) in
1880, and sell now from 2s. Qd. to 3s. (61 to 73 cents). The
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 187
quantity made bj hand was not over a dozen, and is now
six dozen a day. Jugs were paid for in 1850 at the rate of
15d a dozen, when a workman made four dozen a day. In
1880 the rate had gone down to Wd. a dozen, and the work-
man could make six to eight dozen a day. Now they
are made by machinery. In 1889 they were paid for at
tyd. (9 cents) a dozen. In 1880, with an output of forty
dozen a week, at the rate of lOd. (20 cents) per dozen, the
workman made 33s. 4d. ($8.08) a week. At the present
time, with the help of machinery, at the rate of 4Jc. a dozen,
he makes from 250 to 300 dozen a week, earning from 94s.
to 112s. 6cL ($22.87 to $27.35), leaving for himself, after
paying his help, about 3 ($14.58).
Equally important with the improvements just noted in
cheapening prices has been the improvement made in the
building of kilns and the consequent saving of fuel. The
cost of fuel in ordinary white ware is about one-third of the
cost of all other materials used in English potteries. A
manufacturer in the Staffordshire potteries told me that
when he began he used for firing a bisque oven fourteen tons
of coal, but that now, with the down draught, he could do
the same with ten tons of slag and two of coal, and slag does
not cost more than half the price of coal. In America the
quantity is larger by one half.
The cost comparison in this instance would be, taking
coal as it stood in 1885, at the time of my report, coal, $2.07
per ton and slag $1.09 ; and including cartage from the pit,
$2.31 and $1.33, respectively. With the old firing method
the firing of a kiln stood $32.34, against $17.92 with the
present mode a saving of $14.42 in one firing. In Trenton
as much as 50 to 60 per cent, more fuel is consumed in the
firing, as I am informed by the best authorities.
It is well to bear these facts in mind. They show how com-
188 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
plex the questions are that we have to consider when estimat-
ing price-making in so variegated an industry as pottery ; and
that it is one thing to set up claims, and another thing to have
them tested in the light of reality. At the same time it is
necessary to keep in mind the fact, here so strongly marked,
that high protective tariffs are an injury rather than a help
to an industry. They attract people unfit for the work, lead
to wastefulness, perpetuate obsolete methods; and while
the well-qualified make fortunes in the end, the gift is for
them, even, not an unmixed benefit.
Sanitary Ware.
Many manufacturers admit that competition among them-
selves, and especially the rushing in of incapable men into
a branch of which they have little or no knowledge, are far
greater dangers than English competition. This has shown
itself to a marked degree in sanitary ware. A number of
manufacturers have gone into this branch originally on ac-
count of higher profits and the large demand resulting from
the almost universal employment of stationary washstands
and sanitary appliances instead of the chamberware of old.
Competition in consequence has become so keen among
them, that, if price alone were considered, some of the articles
could not be imported even if there were no duty at all.
English goods are taken in preference by builders and
architects, on account of their superior quality ; yet the
price differences are so greatly in favor of the Trenton goods,
that this alone must insure them a considerable market.
The manufacturers would wish to raise prices, but they are
deterred by the fear that so much competition would be
invited, that they soon would be worse off than before. I
have obtained the price of some of the leading articles from
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 189
an importer of English and jobber in Trenton sanitary ware.
They are as follows :
JOBBING PRICE.
Best Best
English ware. Trenton ware.
14-inch round plug basin $1.12 $0.65
15 x 19-inch oval plug basin 2.50 1.90
Large Bedfordshire urinal, lipped 6.30 3.80
Washout 10.80 7.35 to 8.50
In England the manufacturers of sanitary ware maintain
their prices far more easily and more firmly than the Tren-
ton potters. The same is true of almost every industry in
the two countries.
A most important economic principle derives its vital sup-
port from these trade facts, and a few words on the subject will
not be out of place here. The manufacture of sanitary ware
requires a much larger capital than ordinary white ware. In
this latter branch, inEngland, many workmen andsmall begin-
ners start almost every year on their own account. They rent
small factories, they and their wives work on workingmen's
wages ; and by economy and close attention frequently suc-
ceed in building up a lasting business, if things keep run-
ning smoothly, industrially and commercially. Others not
so fortunate, or wanting in the commercial requirements,
are forced, after a life's savings are worked up, to return to
the bench, which they had better never have left. These
men are always pressed for money, and keep a close run
with the older, wealthier houses. This has much to do with
the closeness of prices and smallness of profits in English
pottery, referred to above. It is by no means American
competition and the American tariff which reduces prices
and profits there, as we are taught by the economists of the
American school.
In sanitary ware the situation is different. No small
190 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
man can engage in it. The manufacturers are all wealthy.
The outfit in moulds alone absorbs a small fortune. The
new era, the era of change, requires a constant additional
outlay for new patterns. Another important fact is that
the heavy body of clay of these large pieces takes much
time to dry. It takes a month to turn out sanitary goods
against a week in ordinary ware. This has enabled the
sanitary ware- manufacturers to maintain their prices and
rates of profit
In Trenton the very opposite has occurred. The money
rapidly made in the highly protected pottery ware turned a
very fierce competition into this, with results as noted.
Yet, in spite of all these unfavorable influences, the profits of
sanitary ware manufacturers are so high that they yield the
dividends pointed out above. The five firms which have
formed the combination mentioned above, besides manu-
facturing toilet and table ware, make " about 75 per cent,
of the entire output of the famous sanitary plumbing ware
made in this country," as the prospectus says. The pub-
lic remember the strike of the Trenton sanitary ware
makers of last winter, lasting several months, in resistance
to the reductions which the masters wanted to impose on
them. The facts here stated bring the wages question in
the tariff into proper relief.
Brown Stoneware.
The owner of a pottery, manufacturing brown stoneware,
requested me to obtain for him the prices paid in England
for corresponding work. A strong tariff reformer, he had
his suspicions that the claim of the protectionists that the
high wage earnings of American potters implied high labor
cost, requiring high duties as an offset, was not borne out
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. \o,\
by the facts. In his branch he was of opinion that the
higher earnings were due only to the greater quantity
turned out. I obtained the revised price list from the Sec-
retary of the Associated Stoneware Throwers, England, for
1889, and my correspondent in Minnesota supplied me with
the data from his wage books. I take articles which are
well known, and which are called in both countries by the
same names. I will quote the essential parts relating to
this branch from the letters of my correspondent, Mr. O. M.
Hall:
" The Red Wing Stoneware Company, of which I am secretary, and in
which I am personally interested, claims to be the largest single stoneware
pottery in the United States. It has been in existence fifteen years, and,
after a struggle for life, is now in a highly prosperous condition. The
demand for our ware so far exceeds our capacity that we make all we
can ; we do not limit the amount of work which the men are allowed to
do. They, however, work by daylight only. In accord with the techni-
calities of the business, men are paid by the ' day,' that is, the ' potter's
day,' which consists of a fixed number of gallons of a certain kind or size
of ware. The average potter will do five ' potter's day's ' work in one
calendar day, and he can do six if an expert and not limited in quantity.
The potter at his wheel, even though he only turns out the common jug
and pot, is a skilled laborer. He commences on the smaller sizes of ware,
and as he becomes more skilful he advances to the larger sizes. Conse-
quently, the skill of the workman is indicated by the size of the pots he
turns.
" The data I send is absolutely reliable, and is taken fresh from the
company's books. You are at liberty to use it, and the name of our
company and of its president, John H. Rich, and my own name, in any
manner you wish."
This company ships ware to Winnipeg, where it com-
petes with ware made in Ontario, although the Canadian
tariff imposes a duty of 3 cents per gallon, equal to 60 per
cent, ad valorem, the selling price on cars at Eed Wing being
5 cents per gallon for butter tubs, and 6 cents per gallon for
jugs.
192 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Comparing, after this explanation, the English labor
price with the American, the reader will find a flood of light
thrown on the subject of high wages and low cost of pro-
duction. As the English price is per 100, I reduce the
American ratio of day work to the same unit of 100 :
Number
Wages, Red Wing, turned out per
Gallon Butter Pots. English, per 100. per 100. calendar day.
One-half 4s. Qd. = $1.09 $0.71 A *420
One 6s. 6d. = 1.58 1.00 *300
Two 12*. = 2.93 1.62 *200
Three 18s. 64. = 4.50 2.44* f!62
Four 255. = 6.00 3.75 fl20
Five 80s. = 7.30 5.33 f90
Six 50*. = 12.00 6.66J f72
The first two numbers are now mostly made by machinery
and moulds at Red Wing, at a cost of 35 cents for the half-gal-
lon size, and 50 cents for the gallon size per 100 about one-
half of the turner's rate. The men pay 25 cents per day for
steam, and 50 cents to the ball boy, in the smaller sizes, and
$1 in the larger ones.
The weekly earnings, taken from the pay roll, of five
good average turners, for fourteen consecutive weeks, show
the following, the conditions being normal and wages at the
standard rates above specified :
Kind of work.
Gallons. 14 weeks' pay. Reduced to week. Net weekly.
A 2 $218.59 $15.61 $11.31
B 3 269.35 19.24 14.74
C 4 310.25 22.16 16.16
D 5 335.00 24.00 18.00
E 6 463.65 33.12 25.62
I am informed by my friends in England that London
potteries pay rates somewhat below those obtained from the
* Five potter's days. f Six potter's days.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Secretary of the Associated Stoneware Throwers. The dif-
ference would not be material, and would in no way invali-
date the proposition that high weekly wages, where the best
energies of master and men are engaged in the work, by no
means preclude a low cost of production. But such results
are reached more by close attention to, and thorough under-
standing of, all the manufacturing details than by politics
raising duties even after they have become inoperative as
protective measures, as to an extent in ordinary white ware,
and to a much larger extent in sanitary ware.
13
CHAPTER II.
The Trust and Monopolies alone benefited by Tariff Legislation. The
Glass Industry in Evidence. The Piece Rate of Wages Lower than
in England. Dividends declared of 30 and 50 Per Cent. Tariff
Increase in Spite of these Facts.
IN the preceding chapter we have demonstrated the
sophisms employed by manufacturers in vindication of their
claims for high duties. The industry described is one of
which we admitted at the outset that it could not exist, in
white ware at least, and under present conditions, without
a protective duty. The people are willing to pay protective
duties for cultivating home industries, and if any industry
deserves cultivation, certainly pottery as an art industry
does. We only object to the methods at hoodwinking the
public, and to the constant claim for increasing duties, when
the lower rates had proven ample. None of the extenuating
circumstances, however, can be applied to the glass industry.
None of the difficulties exist which have to be contended
with in the white earthen ware. The pots of glass matter
are easily made if you have the right materials, and these
are not difficult to obtain. Poor workmen are not so apt to
spoil good material, though the low piece rates would give
them but a poor chance for making a comfortable living.
But in spite of all this, tariff increases were asked for and
granted when no need for any protective duties was apparent.
To ask for increased duties here, shows plainly the insatiable
nature of protectionism.
In the whole line of tariff exactions imposed upon a long-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 195
enduring nation, nothing offers a more impressive showing
of false pretense, of the debasing of the law into a handmaid
of exacting monopolies and selfish interests, than the tariff
status of this industry. Indeed, it is a regular pons
asinorum, calculated to inspire the most timid politician,
afraid of his constantly menacing bugbear, " the labor vote,"
with confidence in the importance and strength of the tariff
reform issue as an ally to secure the support of every think-
ing workingman.
Flint Glass, Hollow Ware, Table Ware, etc.
From beginning to end the law is full of increase of duties.
I will briefly state the old rates, and the new rates replacing
them :
Green and Colored and Flint and Lime Glass Bottles, etc. New duty,
1 cent per pound ; old duty, 40 per cent. Increase in the heavy grades of
some, 50 per cent.
Flint and Lime, Pressed, Plain Glassware. New duty, 60 per cent. ;
old duty, 40 per cent. Increase, 50 per cent.
Flint and Lime, Cut, Engraved, Painted, Colored, etc. New law, 60
per cent. ; old law, 45 per cent. Increase, 33^ per cent.
Thin-blown Glass, including Glass Chimneys, etc. New law, 60 per
cent. ; old law, 40 and 45 per cent. Increase, 33j to 50 per cent.
Heavy-blown Glass, Plain, blown with or without a Mould. New law,
60 per cent. ; old law, 40 per cent. Increase, 50 per cent.
Now, then, there must have been tremendous importa-
tions of European pauper-labor goods to justify an increase
of 50 per cent, in duties. To discourage these importations
and to give the American workingman a chance to maintain
his preponderatingly high wages is undoubtedly the object
and reason of this new addition. By no means ! Of the
goods which come into competition with the class of glass-
ware now under consideration, and which form the bulk of
196 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH' WAGES.
our manufacture, we imported in the fiscal year of 1889 a
total of $830,000. In this sum is included $530,000 worth
of bottles and vials which came in filled, and are separately
dutiable. So the whole extent of flooding the American
markets with plain glassware is about $300,000. But if it
were not for the high duties, we should have our industries
at once destroyed on account of the high wages ruling in this
country, and the reverse conditions prevailing in Europe.
Well, we shall see in the sequel on what foundations of
facts this pretense stands.
Some highly interesting facts bearing on this subject in
England and America will throw light on the relative cost
of labor.
Mode of Pay and Comparative Bates in England
and America.
In America generally, flint-glass workers are paid by the
move or shift. A move means half a day's work, and con-
tains a varying number of pieces, according to their size, etc.
The day is divided into four shifts. One shift commences
at 7. At 1 P.M. another shift comes in. The first shift
comes in again at 7 P.M., and at 1 in the morning the second
set of men relieve the first again. The set of men working
one pot are called a shop. A shop consists generally of one
blower, a gatherer, a helper, and three or four boys. In the
glass-bottle department the wages per move for the blower
are $2, for the gatherer $1.10. The boys are paid by the
day, and average less than a dollar a day.
Some of the works work by the day. Flint-glass works
in Pittsburgh gave the output as about forty gross in half-
ounce bottles and about fifteen gross in sixteen-ounce
bottles as a day's work. Those works were operating from
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 197
7 in the morning till 5 P.M. The list prices per shop (three
men and four boys) of a gross of two^ounce flint bottles is
58 cents, or less than five-twelfths of a cent apiece ; of six-
teen-ounce French bottles, $1.45 a gross, or about 1 cent
apiece. These bottles of blown glass are used very exten-
sively by druggists and in all putting-up industries. The
quantity turned out is greater per move or turn than any-
thing I have seen in Europe.
In another leading factory I found a day's work of large-
size beer mugs with handles to be between 1,000 and 1,500.
This work requires considerable labor. The glass is put in
the mould and pressed with perpendicular pressure by the
presser ; he gets $2 per move of from 500 to 700 pieces,
according to the size. The finisher gets $1.65 per move,
and the gatherer $1.30, total, $4.95 ; which for two moves
per day makes $9.90 ; adding the labor of about five boys
at about 75 cents per day (the boys, mostly sons or other
relatives of the workmen, are paid from $8 to $6 per week),
makes a total for the day's wages of a shop of glass press-
ers $13.65, equal to $1.36 per gross for the largest beer
mug with handle, and something less than a cent apiece for
the pony beer glasses. For the further illustration of the
lowuess of the piece rates in this industry of pressed ware,
I will give the quantities turned out in a move for the
wages paid.
Pitchers, three-quart, cylinder mould, $1.90 per move ;
presser, $2.50; finisher, $2.25; gatherer, $1.60; handler
(the one who puts on the handles), $2.50 ; total, $8.85.
Seven boys at, say, the rate of 50 cents a move, average,
$3.50 ; total, $12.35 ; bringing the cost of labor on a three-
quart pitcher to 6^ cents. One quart pitcher, number per
move 305, wages same, or 4 cents apiece. In solid stem
bowls, unfinished, the wages are for the presser, $2 ; for the
198 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
gatherer, $1.20 ; for four boys, $2 ; total, $5.20. The out-
put of 4-inch bowls % is 650, and of 10-inch, 300. So the
former cost about f cent, and the larger size about If cents
apiece in labor. Comports finished run from 3-inch to
10-inch, at an average of $7.15 for labor of presser, finisher,
and gatherer, and four boys. The output is 900 pieces for
the smaller, and 300 for the larger size from f cent to 2^
cents. Berry dishes, 4-inch to 10-inch, finished, average
labor of three men and three boys, $6.60. Output, 825 for
the smaller, and 300 for the larger size; cost, per piece, from
cent to 2 cents apiece. Finger bowls, round finished
total labor, $7 ; output, 550, or about 1J cents apiece.
Fruit jars (one quart), presser, $1.92 ; gatherer, $1.20 ;
four boys, $2; total, $5.12^; number per move, 500 in
block mould, and 600 in joint mould, or -| cent and 1 cent,
respectively.
I confine myself in this statement to a few articles well
known to every housewife. By comparing the wage rates
per piece paid for the making, with what the purchaser has
to pay, how small the actual labor cost does appear !
Having shown the royal pay given to our labor in one of
the most exacting industries, let us see now what the British
workman gets, this living example of unbridled free trade.
English Kates.
The method of arranging pay and the regulation of out-
put are nearly the same as ours. According to a rule of
the Glass Blowers' Trade Union, the makers or blowers
work three hours, which is called a "move," and they work
two moves at a time, which is called a u shift " or a " turn."
According to a very old custom, eleven moves constitute a
" week's work." All over that is reckoned as overtime, and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 199
pid for at about the same rate ; eighteen moves, i.e., from
Tuesday morning to Saturday afternoon, is considered a
full week's work. In some cases the men produce three of
these moves in a turn of six hours, so that with eight turns,
the usual number per week, they can make twenty-four
moves.
In dishes, lamps, bottles, tumblers, goblets, etc., the eleven
" moves '' or " week's work " are paid :
Presser 1 6s., or $6.32
Melter 1 6s., or 6.32
Gatherer 16s., or 3.82
Three boys, 6s 18s., or 4.38
Total $20.84
Or per single move 1.90
In blown work the pay of the blower is higher than the
presser's, but, with two boys only, aggregates about the
same:
Workmen 1 16*.
Servitor 1 6s.
Footmaker 17.
Two boys 12s.
Total 4 11s. = $22.11
Or per move . .... 2.01
We can now make a few comparisons :
FIRST Bottles, Sixteen ounce. American, | cent to 1 cent apiece ;
English, 220 in a move, at $2.01, equals \$ cent ; two ounce American, ,\
cent apiece ; two ounce English. 350 in move, equal to -,^ cent apiece.
SECOND Decanters, one quart. American, 275 per move, total pay
$10.10, equals per piece, 3J cents ; English, 45 per move ; total per move
$2.01, equals per piece, 4J- cents.
THIRD Pitchers, one quart. American, 4 cents apiece ; English, 40
in move, at $ 1 . 90, or 4J cents
FOURTH Goblets. American, 650 per move; total pay per shop, $8.40,
or per piece, 1-$, cents ; English, per move, 150, per piece, l^r cents.
FIFTH Tumblers. American, 700 per move ; total pay per shop,
200 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
$6.62|, or per piece, cent ; English, similar size, 240 per move, of
cent.
SIXTH Finger Bowls. American, per piece, 1.25 cents ; English,
130 in a move, or 1.46 cents.
These few examples must suffice, taken at random from
the respective trade lists. They have to be confined to items
which are easily distinguishable and cover the same article.
They dispose of the myth of the high pay which American
workingmen receive. In most instances the piece rate is
below the English ; and if American workingmen obtain a
higher weekly rate, it is due solely to their greater exertion
during each working hour of the week, and to their working
a much greater number of hours in the week than their
English brothers. To this alone (the cheapness of American
labor) is due the fact that we export annually nearly a mil-
lion dollars worth of this class of American glass ware.
But in this industry, the same as in the pottery industry,
the higher weekly rates by no means express the earnings
correctly. The time not worked makes so serious an inroad
into the workingman's earnings, that, on a yearly computa-
tion, he is really not so much better off than his brother in
England, with his evenly distributed work, as the weekly
comparisons would lead to believe.
The average earnings of glass blowers in Pittsburgh by the
week, rated on the statement of the president of the Flint
Glass Workers' Association at about $30, do in reality not
give more than an aggregate of $900, or $18 a week the
year around. The English glass blower, with his well regu-
lated control of the working machinery of his trade, earns
under full employment 54s. for 18 moves at 3s., or $13.12.
If he has 24 moves coming to him, as happens under the
regulations of the trade when work is plentiful, at 3s., he
earns as high as 72s., or $17.28. The difference between
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 201
actual and ideal earnings is quite a considerable one in glass
as well as in pottery.
The materials which compose the body of flint glass are :
Sand, 52 per cent. ; potash, 14 per cent. ; and lead, 33 per
cent. Sand and potash are not different in price from,
foreign cost. But lead, dutiable at 2 cents a pound about
70 per cent, ad valorem adds two-thirds of a cent to every
pound of glass made beyond the foreign cost, and helps the
Lead Trust.
But besides the low cost of labor, we have advantages of
another nature in glass making. First, the factories are
usually situated where land is cheap. Indeed, the land
becomes valuable only through the erection of the factory.
Townships are eager, therefore, to obtain the location, and
grant valuable privileges. This is no slight advantage in
competition with old countries, where every acre of land
has at least the tenfold value of similarly situated land in
America. ,
Secondly, the fuel is cheaper, even where coal is used, as
in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (where two-thirds
of the capacity is situated) than in Europe, not excluding
England, prominently in Belgium and France; but they
have now the great advantage of natural gas. This is a
twofold benefit first, in that it saves the crucible, which
lasts three times as long as under the use of coal ; second,
saving is effected in the labor, as in a six-furnace glass
factory in Pittsburgh, as given me there, the saving in
labor amounts annually to $5,000, formerly paid out for
supplying coal to the furnaces. Another considerable sav-
ing, although gas charges are high and the waste is very
great, is in fuel cost by the introduction of gas in the
place of coal.
After what has been said, everybody can see that the tariff
202 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
argument is here used merely to throw dust into the eyes of
the consumer and the workingman. The same wages could
be paid with a fair profit to the manufacturers without any
tariff. A fair protection in an article like glass ware to the
manufacturer and the work-people arises from the low price
comparative with the nature and bulk of the goods. In
this line of goods plain hollow ware of flint and lime glass
the packing charges and freight rates pro value are very
high. Much loss is furthermore suffered by the importers
by breakage in these goods carried from so great a distance,
and subjected in the reloading to a great deal of handling.
The McKinley Administrative bill, by doing away with the
former rebates on breakages, and by imposing duties upon
packing charges, adds considerably, by this change, to the
former rates of duties. What, then, is to be said of the
new tariff, which, besides this covert increase of tariff exac-
tions, enormously increases duties in an industry entirely
independent, so to speak, of European competition ? The
answer is always the same, dropping an anchor to windward,
fostering trusts, and thus enable them to grab "what the
traffic will bear " when opportunity is favorable.
Cut Glass, Decorated and Fancy Ware.
In decorated and fancy glass ware, America has attained
an equal efficiency. At one of the leading glass works
which I visited in Western Pennsylvania they turn out,
among a variety of other articles, a large product in etched
globes, and I have it from the superintendent himself that
he can make them cheaper than any one in Europe, that he
can sell them in England, and does send a good many to
Norway and Sweden. The superintendent came from one
of the leading glass works in England. The chief designer
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 203
and head of the etching room was a Grerman, as, in fact,
nearly all the designers in America are, there being very
little native talent to select from.
Our importations in cut glass amount to about $1,000,000.
The goods are mostly of a lighter, fancy character. This is
work dependent much on the taste of special industrial sec-
tions, work in which we have not attained efficiency. Our
product is mostly heavy cut-glass ware. America has made
great progress in this class of goods, in which it outruns
Europe. The body of this heavy glass ware is largely im-
ported from Europe, on account of the greater purity of the
foreign casts, and is then cut in American works especially
devoted to the purpose. The work being laborious stands
to the cost of the body at least as ten to one. Still, with all
the high wages paid per diem to our workmen, the work is
done as cheaply as in Europe, or at least very much below
duty-paid rate. Practically, all importation of this kind
of work has ceased long ago.
A glass cutter at Stourbridge, England, gets about 32.?.
($7.80) a week of fifty-eight hours' time. In Meriden and
other American glass works glass cutters earn from $14 to
$21 a week, according to efficiency. This shows plainly
that the day rate does not, so largely as the output, deter-
mine the cost by the piece. The higher character and effi-
ciency of American labor fully compensate in the larger
number of industries, especially where physical endurance
is of importance, for the difference in day wages. The
pieces sent from America to the Paris Exposition in 1889
always drew a large circle of admirers. Although of high
cost, they were bought very freely by people of wealth, who
had, in annexed exhibits, the work of all other nations for
comparison. This shows that where we boldly strike out
on original lines, we can easily become masters of the situa-
204 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
tion, and hold our own against all odds. The imitator and
copyist will always lag behind in the race. Still, with all
this gratifying condition and virtual independence of our
industries, and the special character of our importations, our
lawmakers have seen fit to advance duties in this line also
from a former 45 per cent, to 60 per cent when, so to speak,
protective duties had already become obsolete.
Window Glass.
The rates on window glass are specific. They were,
before the new tariff came into force, over 100 per cent.
Certainly so excessive a rate of duty as 100 per cent, on
common window glass is not necessary for the protection
of labor. The window-glass making combinations knew
before this how to make use of the opportunity given by
the Government for enriching themselves by taxing the
people all they can get out of them. But still, in spite
of that, some of the duties have been raised even in plain
window glass. The increase of duty affects a class of
window glass, the ad valorem equivalent of the specific duty
on which amounted only to the bagatelle of 132.29 per cent
A short review of the situation will show us how much
in need of an increase of protective duties these manufac-
turers stand.
They have the same advantages related above land, fuel,
gas. The capacity has doubled in the last ten years in
Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Indiana. They have
a very strong organization the American Window-Glass
Manufacturers' Association which regulates prices and the
output. They allow importations to the extent of a million
and a quarter dollars, and keep up the prices of their own
goods to about duty-paid prices of foreign glass rather than
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 205
have indiscriminate competition and the consequent forcing
down of prices and profits. They are helped in this by the
workingmen's association, which regulates and limits very
strictly the employment of apprentices. In an industry
which requires years to learn and get efficient in, and sup-
ported otherwise by the alien labor law, it is practically
impossible to break down a monopoly, as unrestricted com-
petition undoubtedly would.
In consequence of this closely managed organization, win-
dow glass in America, with slight variations in one kind
or another, stands on an average at about the same prices it
stood in 1860. On the other hand, foreign window glass
within the last twenty years has fallen in price about 50
per cent This is a fair example to show how the tariff
reduces prices, and yet things are not always serene between
workingmen and manufacturers. There are disputes and
even strikes. The situation could not be better expressed
than by quoting from a speech of Senator Plumb:
" They [the window-glass manufacturers] are in a quarrel about half
the time out there, and it seems to me, from the investigations of the
quarrels as they appeared in the newspapers, that the manufacturers
make trouble with their employees in order to have a pretext for cutting
down and shutting up, and they take only such portions of the market
as they can make the best profit out of. It is certainly thoroughly well
understood. I do not think that it can be successfully disputed that, not-
withstanding their plants have been enormously increased in value, they
have made very large profits. They have made such large profits that
they have become the objective of the English syndicate, which has been
seeking to buy them up, I understand ; at any rate, one of their repre-
sentatives has so stated that the profits have been as high as 130 per cent.,
and they have never been lower than 30 per cent, or 40 per cent."
Plate Glass.
Such are the results of legislation in favor of trusts and
combinations. They show more tellingly yet, however, in
206 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES,
this line of goods, how easy it is, under the aegis of these
pernicious laws, to roll up immense fortunes within a few
years, and at the same time keep labor down to the grind-
stone. The increase in the consumption of plate glass of
late years has been very heavy. The production in 1880
measuring 1,700,000 square feet, of which 1,042,000 square
feet was polished and 377,287 feet sold rough, has risen to
a capacity of 8,000,000 square feet. Three new works in
process of erection in Pennsylvania will raise this soon to
10,000,000 square feet. With the advantages stated above,
the profits present an equally dazzling spectacle. No plates
are cast smaller than 24 by 60 inches. Smaller sizes are cut
from plates that have been broken or are otherwise defective.
On plate glass above 24 by 60 the duty is 50 cents per square
foot, an ad valorem rate of 141.43 per cent.; and on 24 by 30
to 24 by 60 the duty is 25 cents, equal to 72.49 per cent, ad
valorem on the importation lists of the custom house. But
as the sizes above 24 by 60 chiefly concern our manufactur-
ers, it is easy to see what an advantage they have in hand,
and how deeply they must feel in the perpetuation of the
paternal principle in government.
The dividends of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., with
works at Creighton, Tarentum, and Ford City, Pa., were
31 per cent, last year. The workmen fare not quite so well
in the division of the spoils. In no other occupation requir-
ing equal skill, and equally exhaustive, are wages so low. In
the casting hall, wages are from $2 to $3 a day, the latter
for the master teaser; in the grinding room, from $1.50 to
$3 ; in the polishing room, from $1.80 to $2.75 ; and in the
cutting room, from $1.50 to $2.50 ; in all averaging, perhaps,
$2, as the lower rate always means the most numerous class
of workmen. Indeed, the census of 1880 shows an outlay
of $292,253 for wages in the plate-glass industry, divided
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 207
among 822 men, 91 women, and 43 children. Counting
women and " children " at half the rate of men, we get 889
men, which gives a grand yearly earning to each adult work-
ingman of $328. " Tant de bruit pour une omelette."
But the " workingman " will continue to send committees
to Washington, and prove to a nicety to the lawmakers in
the House and the Senate that a great industry would per-
ish if anything were taken off the existing duty, or if the
increase demanded by his employer were not granted. These
poor people do not see that by their action they most effect-
ively help to build up the immense capital power which in
the end will crush them into slavish submission.
On polished cylinder glass, or German looking-glass plates,
the duty has been raised 10 per cent, in spite of the fact
that none is manufactured here, and against the earnest pro-
test of furniture manufacturers, who for that reason wanted
it put on the free list. The high duty on this article is a
bar to the extension of our export trade in furniture where
this kind of glass forms a very important item. But it so
happens that glass knows how to make its power felt, and
furniture had no influence in court. Furniture and the
innumerable other industries similarly placed, as well as the
consumer, ought to have remembered that nothing different
could be expected from the Congress and the party which
they elected and put into power in the memorable election
of 1888.
CHAPTER IIL
The Insincerity of the Claim for Protection of Labor. Demonstrated by
a Comparison of the Cost of Iron Mining here and abroad. Pig-
iron and Steel Rails. Large Profits secured to the Steel Rail Mak-
ers. The Men on Strike to resist Wage Reductions.
THE insincerity of the claim, that protective duties are
required for the sake of the laborer, cannot be better demon-
strated than by a thorough discussion of the facts of our
mining and iron-making industries. Nowhere has the gen-
eral ignorance of the corresponding facts of foreign cost been
exploited to such a degree as in these branches. Nowhere
has the difference in the day rates of wages been used so
tellingly to advance the selfish interests engaged, and nowhere
more injuriously than against those who use the products
of the mines, furnaces, or steel works as raw materials.
It is not a little astonishing that on a question of constant
public discussion during the lifetime of this generation so
little should have been done to gather the facts of cost of
production and rate of output per man, employed in com-
peting countries. The industries here concerned are the
industries upon which the industrial life of the nation is
founded. The whole structure of modern society rests upon
them. Take coal and iron from the support, and the whole
structure falls into ruins. The cheap and unhindered sup-
ply of coal and iron is the first essential of life of industrial
States. To make a country, or sections of a country, tribu-
tary to the rapacity of other sections, in such vital materials,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
209
out of political considerations, is nothing short of a crime.
It could find extenuation and apology only in the general
belief, that legal restrictions were required to protect Ameri-
can labor against the underpaid labor of European mining
countries. This belief had nothing to rest upon, except what
was known as the rate of wages paid by the day. How mis-
leading this is will be seen from the sequel.
It was one of my first endeavors, after entering on my
mission of inquiry, to examine into the comparatives men-
tioned above. The results were given in a report to the
State Department (No. 64 Consular Eeports) of June, 1886,
of which the following statement represents the chief items:
COAL MINING.
Country.
Gross Tons
Mined per
Cost of Labor
per Ton
Annual Wages
Earned per
Head
Head . . .
United States, 1880, bitumi-
nous (census report)
Pennsylvania, 1880 (represent-
ing one-half product of U. S.)
North Staffordshire, Great
Britain, 1884
377
560
322
Cents.
SQk
66
79
$326.00
387.00
253.00
Prussia, Saarbruck Collieries,
(Government)
256^
89
225.12
Dortmund Collieries (private). .
281
79
222.00
The tons are all reduced to the gross ton of 2,240 pounds.
The census average cost per ton is higher than the labor
cost at our great bituminous fields, chiefly in Pennsylvania,
which here, for our consideration, stands as the chief factor.
The coal of the Western States is mined at a higher cost.
But this coal could not possibly be interfered with by foreign
coal. As has been seen in one of the previous chapters,
14
210 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
even that coal is not mined at a much higher labor cost than
the mining cost in Europe, as seen from the above.
The American average cost per ton is but little different
from that of North Staffordshire, England, taken from actual
working accounts of collieries by myself. It is lower than in
Prussia in the Government's mines, and by a few cents above
the labor cost of the principal Westphalian mines. The
greater output per miner alone explains the high earnings
of Great Britain over Prussia, and of America over both.
The average for Pennsylvania, from where all the clamor for
protection comes, is away below all other countries of the
world. The total labor cost per ton of an output of no less
than 32 million gross tons is 66 cents (60 cents the ton of
2,000 pounds). To protect, then, 66 cents' worth of labor, a
tariff of 75 cents is imposed. The grirn irony of facts.
Every four years a fierce battle is waged, and half the nation,
to say the least, made to tremble at the fearful consequences
if, by their neglect to vote in the right way, this wholly
imaginary safeguard of their prosperity should be removed.
The travesty could not be more complete.
With all the details of the case added, it will be seen not
only is the English mining cost higher to the mine owner,
but the miner himself receives more pay by the ton, as
indicated, than the miner in America. The English
miner receives pay for the slag, which the Pennsylvania
miner does not get, but the colliery owner takes as a
profit. The total mining cost in the Staffordshire potteries,
including materials and expenses, and exclusive of royalty
(amounting from 18 to 24 cents), was between $1.09 and
$1.42 in 1885 (a year of depression and low prices).
The total cost in Pennsylvania for the product of 1890 (the
census year) was 85 cents. With the royalties added, coal
costs the mine operator nearly double what it costs to the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 211
mine operator in Pennsylvania. In the Clearfield region
the mining cost, formerly 52 cents, has been reduced by one-
fourth by the introduction of machinery since 1886.* At
Connellsville coal is mined at considerably less cost than in
both these regions. The mines are deeper (about 8 feet
deep). The miners are paid on a sliding scale, according to
the selling price of coke. At the time of my inquiry coke
was selling at $1.35 (in 1883 it had been selling as low as
90 cents). The labor for mining 100 bushels was 90 cents
to $1.10 then (1887), and twenty-seven bushels to the ton,
equal to about 25 to 30 cents a ton, or the long ton 27 to 33
cents. In Durham, the coking coal district of England, the
labor cost of mining and putting into trucks a ton of coal
was 51 cents at the time of great depression in the iron and
coal industry in England.
* While the cost has been reduced since 1880, the earnings have risen
in obedience to the principle formulated in Part I. Chapter II. The cost
per mined ton in 1880 was $1.02j against 85i cents in 1890. The output
per head, 504 tons gross, in 1880, rose to 617 tons (685 short tons) in
1890. The earnings, $337 for the year 1880, were $391 in the latter year,
a most forcible demonstration of the fact that reduced cost, increased
output, and higher earnings go hand in hand. The earnings of miners
would be much higher in Pennsylvania but for the existence of the per-
nicious truck system. To this is due the practice of drawing a great
many more miners to the mining settlements than would be needed under
full employment. The truck stores are owned directly, or indirectly
through some relative, by the superintendent or the owner of the mine.
He naturally finds it to his interest to have the men al ways dependent on
his truck store, always under advances, and seldom with cash in hand,
which can only be done by having a surplus of labor about and the earn-
ings at a minimum. This accounts for the short time worked by the
Pennsylvania miner, which is not more than three-quarter time in the
bituminous and not quite two-third time in anthracite coal. In the latter
branch the evil effects on wages show themselves far more gravely on that
account.
The English miner with full employment and the truck system entirely
stamped out is therefore better off than his American competitor.
212 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
America's and England's Position.
The advantages of cost difference in coal are clearly on
the side of America. In regard to the nature of the coal,
the Pittsburgh fields and the Staffordshire and Lancashire
fields for ordinary soft coal, Connellsville in America and
Durham in England for coking coal, would stand on a fair
basis for comparison. What operates against the British
coal owner the heaviest, are the royalties which he has to
pay to the owner of the soil.
In America, where mining lands are owned by the min-
ing companies mostly, royalties are charged only in cases
where the mines are leased. In Prussia no royalties are
paid, or are at most only nominal. It is necessary to call
special attention to this fact. In England, as well as here,
great stress is laid by protectionists on the higher wage rate.
Though the causes be different, it can invariably be shown
that if the cost of production is a higher one, it is due to
other causes than the labor cost. The royalties in the
materials contained in one ton of pig iron in England run
from 91 cents to $1.58. The cost of labor in these mate-
rials, roundly speaking, two tons of coal and two tons of
ore, amounts to $4.46. This gives the Prussian ironmaker
a premium of nearly 25 per cent, against England, which,
if there were anything in the plea of higher labor cost on
account of higher earnings per diem, would surely enable
the Prussian ironmaker to flood England with cheap iron,
especially as freights are in his favor. English railroads
are corporate concerns, which " charge what the traffic is
worth." Each line is independent by agreement with the
other roads, and controls its own field. Inland charges are
higher than transit charges for foreign shipment or from
foreign ports to inland places. In Germany, the state own-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 213
ing the roads, much care is taken to foster commerce by
low charges. All the southern ports of England can be
supplied with iron from Prussia at lower transportation
rates than from North of England furnaces. Yet but little
of that takes place, although England has no duties to
protect any of its industries.
From what has been said above, it is clear that what price
differences do exist are due to extra capital charges and
privileges enjoyed by the landed classes and railroad cor-
porations, and not the higher pay of labor. Privileged
classes always attend to covering themselves from the
searching eye of public inquiry, by making their victims
believe that it is to their benefit that obsolete conditions
continue. The names are different ; the game is the same.
In America, away from the mines, coal is high because the
outlet from the coal-mining district is controlled by trans-
portation companies. They either charge extravagant rates,
making the development of the whole section impossible,
or giving otherwise cheaply-mined coal an inflated price ;
or they own the coal fields themselves, as in the anthracite
coal fields, and put a price of transportation on the coal to
pay dividends on enormously watered stock. It is only
competition between the lines which reduces the price of
coal at terminal points.
Iron Ore.
The same argument applies to iron mining. The cost of
mining, the labor cost, does not differ much in America,
England, and Prussia, The cost of mining ore in the rich
ore fields from Virginia down to Alabama and in Pennsyl-
vania is as low as in Europe, if not lower. The same may
be said of the Lake Superior region. The only differences
214 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
that do exist are again in transportation charges. Iron, in
an industrial sense, is a rather varying quantity. The ores
of different sections possess different qualities, and for
different purposes different iron is required. For this
reason, with all our great production of iron, we cannot do
without some special qualities of foreign iron. Steel is now
largely taking the place of puddled iron. The Bessemer
process of steel making is principally employed in America.
For this process few of our ores, except from Lake Supe-
rior, have so far been available. Large quantities are im-
ported annually from Spain, North Africa, and Cuba last
year 646,000 tons at an average value of $2.25. To this
has to be added the cost of transportation from these
countries. In times of great demand ocean freights are
high, at periods of depression correspondingly low ; 5s.
expressing about the one, and 10s. the other extreme of
protection to the poor mine owners on Lake Superior by
ocean transportation. But an additional cost of 75 cents
per ton from tide water to the works in Eastern Pennsyl-
vania must be reckoned, when ore is turned into iron and
steel, which compete in the east with iron made of Lake
Superior ore. These high transportation expenses explain
the difference in the cost of iron making of a higher grade.
In parts of the country where the iron is situated near
the coal fields, we can produce iron as cheaply as any
country. That class of iron, however, cannot be used for
Bessemer steel, though it is an excellent iron to use for the
basic open-hearth process. Now, in spite of the high cost
of imported ore, the mine owners exact a duty of 75 cents
on each ton brought into this country, for the protection
of labor. A ton of Bessemer ore without a duty on can-
not be landed at tide water, freight paid, at less than $3.50
and up to $5. If carried only 80 miles inland, it has an
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 215
additional 75 cents to pay. Its being carried to Pittsburgh
is an impossibility. The Lake Superior ore owners have,
therefore, a clear field for the whole country west of 100
miles from tide water, and still, with a mining cost for
wages of not more than $1.40 a ton, as the average for the
Lake Superior ores of Michigan, census of 1880, and $1.19
in the census year of 1890 * in Pennsylvania the softer
ores of the Cornwall hills are mined as low as 20 cents a
ton in labor expense they have the audacity of claiming
75 cents duty on imported ores for protection of American
labor, as they say. As it is, the 55 per cent, ore cost from
$4.50 to $5.50 a ton in the eastern district for Bessemer
steel making, changing according to freight rates, etc.
Coke and Pig-iron.
Coal being cheaper in the United States, the cost of coke
follows in the same wake. Coke in Connellsville varies, put
on board cars, from 90 cents a ton to $1.75. The basis of
price on which the sliding scale of wages rests is $1.35.
The cost of production is $1.17 on the statement of the
masters, and on the men's basis, 99 cents, according to Mr.
Joseph Weeks. Accepting the former calculation, which
includes all additionals, this is $1.30 the gross ton.
* Here, also, we observe the same tendencies as pointed out in coal
mining, reduced cost per ton and increased product per head, and higher
annual earnings. Michigan furnishes now nearly one-half of all the iron
ores of the United States, to wit : 5,856,000 tons out of a total of 14,-
518,000 tons; and what is said of Michigan herein this connection, applies
to other mining districts so far as comparisons can be traced.
1880. 1890.
Labor per ton $1.40 $1.19
Mined per head, tons 295 450
Annual earnings $413 $535
216 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
In Durham I found the net cost, barely covering ex-
penses, to be 7*. 6d, and the price put on board cars 8s., or
$1.95.
This was at a time of very severe trade depression. Since
then the price has made the most remarkable gyrations up
to 32s., or $7.78, and commands now in the neighborhood of
125. a ton.
Laid down at Middlesborough, the iron-making district
nearest Durham, an additional 2s. 6d. (60 cents) for carriage
has to be added, which would more than equalize the
freightage from Connellsville to Pittsburgh.
This, then, exhausts the subdivisions contributing to pig-
iron making. All these positions are lower than in Eng-
land. The labor at the furnace, however, aggregates more
in Pennsylvania. Most of it is rough labor, wheelbarrow-
ing, and yard work. The rate of day wages would not so
much affect the cost per ton, though about 40 percent, above
English rates ($1.58 in Pittsburgh, $1.25 at Bethlehem, Pa.,
against 87 cents in Staffordshire), but that there is a great
deal more labor connected with furnace work in the North-
ern States. In England the Bessemer furnaces, at least, are
so situated that the ocean steamer carrying the ore can be
run almost within a stone's throw of the furnace. It is
loaded on trucks and run on rails close to the furnace. In
Middlesborough the mines are situated equally fortunately.
In America, where the mines are separated, and either ocean
or lake navigation has to bring the ore and coal to the
furnace, storing of the ore and consequently a great deal of
extra hauling are required. But still, with all these draw-
backs, I did not find the actual labor cost in a ton of
Bessemer pig-iron in Eastern Pennsylvania to exceed the
English costs by more than 50 cents.
The comparative cost of labor of making a ton of Besse-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 217
mer pig-iron, including the ore, the coal, and the coke,
stands as follows, from actual working accounts :
Middlesborough, England. Pittsburgh, America.
2 tons of 50# ore, @ $1.46... $2. 92 If tons Lake Superior 60#
ore, @$1.19 $1.99
1 $ tons of coal, @ 51 cents. . . 89 1 tons Connellsville, @33 cts. 50
-j^r ton Pittsburgh, @ 79 cents. 08
1 ton of coking, including in- 1 ton coking 45
cidentals 48
t ton of limestone, @ 50 cents 20 Limestone 25
Furnace labor. . . 79 Furnace labor. . . .1.58
$5.28 $4.85
The total labor cost is therefore less by 43 cents in a ton
of pig-iron in America than in much-decried England and
the Continent with their " pauper labor."
The cost of production, inclusive of extra charges to
cover the economic quantity of natural disadvantage of
distance from the ore, as in Bessemer iron, compared in 1887
for Bethlehem, Pa., was about $7 above the English price
of 1888, though the total of labor did not foot up very
differently. The causes of this have been explained as
partially legitimate extra transportation charges, and partly
due to inflation, caused by the boom in iron and steel dur-
ing 1887 in America, and great depression in prices in Eng-
land. At present the difference in the cost of production
has nearly disappeared. The cost of coal and ore has
become diminished in America, and coal and coke have
advanced in England. The selling price of Bessemer iron
is now $14, while in England it is now 48s., or $11.65. Under
free trade the difference would be wiped out by freight and
other charges. The development of the iron industry
within recent years has been of such a nature that the vastly
increased means of production and the improvements intro-
218 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WA9E8.
duced will make this lower cost of production permanent.
The high duties, however, do the useful service of enabling
the producer to make the large extra profit between the full
duty charge and his low cost, whenever opportunity favors
him.
Steel Rail Making.
Cheap iron makes cheap rails. The cost in the rail mill
is a very small item now under conditions demonstrated
in Part L Chapter VIII
At the time of my inquiry, trade and prices in rails being
at their highest since 1881, as noted above, and English
trade and prices at their lowest, I found the labor cost in
England and America to be about the same. But wages
have been raised twice in that year, 10 per cent, each time, in
America, while in England they were at their lowest. At
the present time the labor is lower in America by nearly 20
per cent. ; that is to say, a rail which costs at Darlington, in
one of the best English mills, 3.07 cents in labor, is turned
out at about $2.50 from one of our well-equipped rail mills.
The difference in 1888 stood as per my report to the State
Department as follows :
COST OP PRODUCTION OF ONE TON OF BESSEMER RAILS.
England. Eastern Pennsylvania.
1-iV tons pig-iron, @ $10.93. $12.03 1 ton pig-iron $18.00
1 cwt. spiegeleisen, @ 97c . . 1.44 3 cwt. spiegeleisen ... 4.00
14 cwt. coal, @$ 1.85 1.26 Fuel 2.00
Labor.. 3.07 Labor.. 3.04
$17.80 $27.04
To-day, taking iron at the market price, though it must
not be forgotten that the rail mills make their own iron
(and, therefore, an additional profit), the cost comparison
stands as follows :
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 219
COST COMPARISON ON PRESENT BASIS OF IRON.
England. America.
l^o- tons pig-iron, @ $11.65. $12. 81 1 ton $14.00
1| cwt. spiegeleisen 1.44 3 cwt. spiegeleisen . . . 4.00
Fuel 1.45 Fuel 2.00
Labor 3.07 Labor $2.50 to 3.00
$18.77 $23.00*
To sum up, I subjoin in parallel columns :
COST OF LABOR CONTAINED IN A TON OF BESSEMER STEEL
RAILS AND THE MATERIALS ENTERING INTO IT.
In England. In America.
Pig-iron per ton $0.73 to $0.97 Eastern Pennsylvania $1.25
Bessemer rails 3.07 " " $2.50 to 3.04
Coal mining, Stafford- Average " 0.66
shire 0.79 Pittsburgh 0.79
Coal mining, Durham 0.51 Clearfield 0.50
Coking, Durham ... 0.24 Connellsville 0.33
Ore mining, Stafford- " 0.32
shire, 50 per ct. ore. 1.46 Lake Superior, 55 to 65 per et. 1.19
Ore mining, Cleve-
land, 33 per ct. ore. 0.30 Cornwall ore, Pennsylvania. . 0.19
The difference in the cost of a ton of Bessemer rails is $4 ;
the difference in the selling price, however, is $10 ; the
price of rails in America being $80, and in England 4 2s.,
or $20. A profit of $7 and above is realized by the Ameri-
can steel-rail maker at a time when the English maker has
to be satisfied with $1. Under the present prices in iron and
steel the steel-rail combination secures a profit of three times
* On the basis employed in the English mills, 1 T L - tons of iron and 1|
cwt. of spiegeleisen and labor taken at full rate of $3 a ton, the cost
stands : Iron, $15.40 ; spiegeleisen, $2 ; fuel, $2 ; labor, $2.50 ; total,
$22.40. The additional weight of iron going into the furnace covers rail-
ends and scraps. They have a value, however, and cover the additional
expense, or whatever extra charge there may be.
220 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the amount paid to all the labor employed. A steel mill
employing 1,048 men and turning out 4,500 tons a week,
and having a pay roll of $13,680 (as taken from the amounts
kindly given to me by a rail mill in 1888), would in a year
produce 225,000 tons and pay out $684,000 in wages, but
make a profit, on present computation, of fully $1,680,000.
But with all this enormous profit guaranteed by act of legis-
lation, at the present rates the outlay for wages would now
not be more than about $575,000 (about $2.50 a ton).
This, however, by no means exhausts the golden effects of
protection to the protected enterprise. The usefulness of
the tariff was seen again, after the golden shower of 1880, in
its fullness in the time of brisk demand in 1887. The sell-
ing price of rails had fallen in 1886 to $28, but the demand
springing up in 1887 raised the price to $40, and it averaged
for the year $35. To a single concern turning out 500,000 tons
a year, this extra profit guaranteed by the tariff is equal to a
bonus of from $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 above the ordinary
profits at the $30 price. Should the benevolent and patri-
otic mill owner not urge the maintenance of this blessing
to the American workman urge it with intense eloquence
and energetic zeal ?
The combination of rail mills has it in hand to raise the
price at will to any height within the tariff limit. While in
slack times the prices are, as now, below the foreign duty
paid price, the full price is always sure to follow in the
wake of an increasing demand. Combinations and trusts are
the logical consequences of protective legislation.
The laborer's share in the value of the product, as has
been shown by an abundance of proof, is less in the United
States than in England and on the Continent
If there are any advantages derived from protective tariffs,
the laborers engaged in mining, coke-burning, iron and steel
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 221
making certainly do not receive a particle out of the fund
contributed bj the nation, in the erroneous belief that it is
required for the laborer's protection against the "pauper-
ized " European labor.
The two million odd tons of rails annually manufactured
give the combination of manufacturers a profit of $15,000,-
000, three times the wages paid to the ten thousand men
engaged in turning them out "Cultivated fruit is not for
the peasant to eat," said the Polish nobleman in uprooting
the trees.* The present strikes against wage reductions in
the steel mills show very plainly the meaning of a protective
tariff to the workingman.
* See page 117.
CHAPTER IV.
The Injury of Protection to Industry. The Advantages America reaps
from Superior Methods and Low Labor Cost frustrated by Protec-
tion. Comparisons which are beyond Con tro version. Fighting over
the Shell long after the Substance is gone.
IN no other branch of industry is the effect of high wages
in reducing cost of production shown so plainly as in all
forms of finished iron and steel. The genius of the nation
shows here to the best advantage. Labor saving by invention
is enhanced by the best constituted help of all times and coun-
tries congregating under our factory and workshop roofs.
The earnings are higher, the labor results cheaper than in
other industrial pursuits, generally speaking.
But in no other industrial line has tariff protection be-
come so plainly tariff oppression as in manufactures of
metals in the finished form.
If, as a measure of protection to labor, the tariff has grown
out of all proportion to the cost of production in all forms
of crude iron and steel, which, barring the additional trans-
portation charges on account of geographical disadvantages,
can be produced cheaper than in Europe, its application to
finished forms becomes decidedly a most harmful hindrance
to full industrial development.
It is certainly one of the most forcible objections raised
against the protective system, that it is unjust to the con-
sumer to make him pay a high bounty to the American
producer, so as to balance the favor nature dispensed to his
foreign competitor and withheld from him. Yet, severely
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 223
as it bears on the consumer, the system is not less burden-
some to the American producer, to whom, in one form or
another, these crude and unfinished forms of iron and steel
serve as material for remanufacture.
If it is just to put a duty on iron ore and on pig-iron
because of the differences in the cost at which Lake Superior
ore can be placed at Pittsburgh, and the price at which
foreign ore and foreign iron can be landed at Eastern ports,
it is certainly a very unjust proceeding against the East-
ern manufacturer. It, virtually, is a prohibition against
manufacturing crude forms of iron in the Eastern States, and
makes them tributary dependencies of the Pennsylvania
iron lords. A tariff on these crude bulky materials coal
included is tantamount to a confiscation of the natural
advantages of situation. But this is practically the purpose
of protecting the raw material, to balance nature's gifts by
piling dead weight on those able to make freest use of them.
Location on the seaboard is an advantage, so it must be
guarded against by discriminating duties, lest the markets
for Lake ore, Pennsylvania coal and pig-iron should become
impaired.
The tariff is made a sectional measure, which adds not a
little of the gall of injustice to the wormwood of vexatious-
ness. With the exception of puddled iron, where the labor
cost is about $5 over the English cost (being all hand labor),
the labor does not differ materially from foreign cost. Why,
then, not give New England, New York, and Eastern Penn-
sylvania the same facilities ? Free ore, coal, and- iron would
enable the Eastern States to make their own iron and
steel and give them cheap materials for their hardware,
machinery, and mill work. Free pig-iron would take from
Pittsburgh only the Eastern trade, and leave to the present
iron kings all the field from Harrisburg west. What a
224 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
start this would give to the iron and kindred industries of
the Eastern States can be estimated when we examine the
positions these industries have made for themselves in the
world's markets even handicapped as they are by the tariff.
Manufacturers' Tools and Machinery.
If one has made it an object to examine the tools and
other automatic machinery and the working methods in the
metal and machine industries of this country, and has made
parallel observations in Europe, he can hardly help speaking
in words of admiration of the genius of our people, who,
impelled by causes already discussed, have worked from the
most difficult beginnings into fields never trodden before,
where a tariff could hinder, but never could help. I will
take the reader to a few of these industries, where machinery
works and men or boys only guide or feed ; where ma-
chinery, as a porter taking me through a factory fitly
said, "can do all but speak."
The old and the new cannot be more fitly contrasted.
While here the fittest only survives in the struggle, in the
old it is hard to shake off the tenacious hold of the unfittest
upon the industries it controls.
When I speak of the "survival of the unfittest" in the
methods of manufacture, I do not refer to the Hebrides, or
Orkneys, Donegal in Ireland, or some mountain districts in
Germany, but to England and to the very heart of this most
progressive of all manufacturing nations of Europe. Some
years ago, the present Superintendent of the Census, Eobert
P. Porter, went about to collect information for the New
York Tribune. I remember the black picture he unrolled
of the pitiable condition of the nail makers of South Stafford-
shire and Worcestershire, commonly called " the black
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 225
country." He was wise enough not to mention the working
methods or the output, so different from American condi-
tions. A statement of such facts would have entirely frus-
trated the object of his mission, which was, to impress the
American public with the danger of degenerating into simi-
lar conditions if they reduced their high tariff. His picture
was not by any means overdrawn. But without the applica-
cation of the other part alluded to well " A half truth is
worse than a lie."
Work there is not limited by the factory act, as it is scat-
tered all over a large district entirely a house industry. Old
and young, husbands, wives, and daughters, all work at nail
making from four or five in the morning until late at night.
Tea and bread constitute almost exclusively their diet. An
expert nailer, working a whole week, would not earn more
than 12s.; man and wife working together not above 16s.
From this pittance about 2s. would have to be deducted for
firing. Eivet makers earn better wages, about 20s. a week,
because, on account of the heavy work, women have not
encroached upon this branch. Exhausting as the working
methods are, they cannot give very great results in an age
in which machinery, more and more perfected, automatic
machinery even, is encroaching constantly upon the domain
of hand labor. The principal tool is the so-called u Oliver."
It is a sort of spring-tilt hammer, operated by the foot of
the worker, mostly of home construction. It is a clumsy
and heavy instrument, trying the strength of the worker to
the utmost extent. Besides this, the nailer uses a hand
hammer in addition to the blowing of bellows. As consid-
erable force is required in the use of the " Oliver," the
effect upon the woman's health is very injurious. But in
spite of the very pitiable wages, women have grown so accus-
tomed to looking on this sort of work as their allotted task,
15
226 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
that, even where the husbands work at other trades and
earn fairly good wages, the wives go on as nailers or chain-
makers. As a consequence, the women are mostly flat-
chested, pale, and thin, and home life is at the lowest ebb.
Nails are paid for by the bundle, which means 56 pounds of
iron. Of ordinary nails, two bundles of the larger size con-
stitute a good male nailer's day's work ; of the smaller sizes,
proportionately less. For horseshoe nails, now also made
by machinery, the price paid is 2s. per 1,000, which here
means 1,200. Six thousand is a good week's work. Rivets
are paid for at the rate of 5s. 6d. a hundredweight, and
a half hundredweight is considered a good day's work.
Spikes 4 inches by inch, are Is. 6d; 5 by | inch, Is.
3d a bundle. That working by such antiquated meth-
ods cannot produce better results is not so much a
matter of surprise as the fact, that it still gives employ-
ment to from 15,000 to 20,000 people a clear proof that
old trade habits are not so easily superseded as many
imagine.* How this compares with American methods,
output, earnings, and labor cost, will be seen from a few
parallel facts. Nail making, as well as rivet making, spike
making, and even chain making, also a considerable product
of the " black country " in England, are in this country car-
ried on by machinery. One nailer can attend three machines.
The output of ten-penny nails is 18 kegs per machine a
day, so that three machines turn out 54 kegs a day. The
list price per keg is 16 cents, or one-half the English cost.
The English nailer earns from 10s. to 12s. a week. If
helped by a lad, the combined earnings do not exceed 16s.,
or $3.87. An American nailer, employed in a Pittsburgh
* See J. Schoenhof, "Destructive Influence of the Tariff," G. P. Put-
nam's Sons (1883), for parallel facts from the nail makers in the Taunug
district in Germany.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 227
nail mill, gave me $5 a day as a fair average of a nailer's
earnings, and $1.50 for the feeder, or some $30 a week for
the nailer alone. But we have here an output of over two
tons and a half against barely two hundredweight in Eng-
land. Twenty times the output against ten times the wages
still leaves a comfortable margin of 100 per cent in favor of
the new method. Of late steel nails have been largely tak-
ing the place of wrought-iron nails. The price is somewhat
lower even than that of the latter.
Spikes 5 inches and below by f inch, per keg of 200 Ibs.,
40^ cents, against English, Is. 6d. per bundle, or 6s., or $1.46
the two hundredweight ; 5 by | inch American, 22 cents
per keg, against Is. 3d per bundle, or 5s., or $1.21 per two
hundredweight in England.
A rivet-making machine which . I saw in operation not
long ago would turn out easily from one and a half to two
tons of rivets a day, and required one machine tender and a
heater. They got between them $5 a day, but at not one-
fifth the English labor cost, though six times the wages.
Still, in a recent speech, the author of the last tariff act
pointed, "with pride" I presume, to the fact that the famous
act to which he gave his name, reduced the duties on iron
and steel nails and spikes from 1 cents a pound to 1 cent,
the heavier grades of the wire nails from 4 to 2 cents. Where
has Mr. McKinley been while all these revolutions in the
economy of production were wrought revolutions which
would give America the world's trade, were the low cost of
its labor not neutralized by such measures as the McKinley
act?
Screws, pins, etc., are made automatically. A wire rod,
or a coil of wire, is put into the machine, which performs a
number of operations, as the results of which the finished
screws drop into a receiving bag, and the finished pins are
228 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
fastened on the papers. An attempt at protection of labor
of this kind, aided by the quickest and most inventive brains,
is like helping the speed of a race-horse by tying cannon
balls to its legs.
Cutlery.
Cutlery of American make is almost entirely of a heavy
character, very serviceable for farm and country use, some-
what clumsy, but only the more appropriate for the pur-
poses it is put to. Machinery is used for almost every part.
Our plated table-knives do not cut, it is true, as they are
neither ground nor polished, nor are they a thing of beauty
when the plating has worn off ; but, being of one piece of
iron, give everybody a ready impression that very little hand
labor, aside from the casting, has been expended on them.
American cutlery has never been interfered with by foreign
importations. It even finds a ready sale abroad. Foreign
cutlery is of an entirely different character. It is essentially
hand-made. In Germany, Westphalia is the chief seat of an
industry which sends the different parts far out into the
country districts from two or three centres. The smith-
work, the grinding, the finishing, may be done miles away
from the other. The smiths, grinders, finishers are all small
masters, supplying their own shops, fuel, and tools.
The work of the so-called manufacturer is confined to
paying the different labor items as the work is delivered in
its various stages, and to packing up and shipping the
finished articles, the same as the Lyons and Crefeld manu-
facturers in silks, most of the Chemnitz manufacturers in
hosiery, etc. To Sheffield, England, excellence more than
cheapness has given its world-wide reputation. Even
there, though we find large factories, most of the work is
distributed in small shops. But, small shop or factory, the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 229
working is pretty nearly the same kind of hand- work, skill
and experience giving to the steel that excellent temper and
finish which make a Sheffield blade, after many years of use,
retain its keenness. As we have nothing to fear for our
cutlery, and cannot easily supplant foreign cutlery for the
reasons stated, one ought to have supposed 35 per cent, to be
a sufficiently high tariff tax. But no ; probably to satisfy a
few greedy individuals who are looking out for the great
possibilities in store, the old expedient is tried of remedying
lack of skill and experience by an additional infusion of
tariff taxes. Henceforth anybody who wants a serviceable
pocket knife or razor has to pay an additional specific duty
which will more than double the old rate. On table knives,
forks, and all other knives, like plumbers', " painters' palette,
and artists' knives " (to encourage art and the arts), the
addition will be at least one-half the old rate of duty.
Arms, Ammunition, Machinery.
Whenever machinery can be set to work to turn many
parts into a completed article ready for use, no competition
need be feared. The world moves slowly on the other side
of the Atlantic. In nothing is this better shown than in
highly composite articles, where frequently hundreds of
small parts form a very complicated mechanism.
Let us take, for instance, the manufacture of rifles. What
a gigantic plant to bring out the best results ! What a
variety of machinery is here required ! One of the principal
and most successful firms, employing 1,400 work people
(including a large proportion of girls and women employed
in the cartridge department), with a weekly pay roll of from
$12,000 to $14,000, has no less than 6,000 machines on its
premises used in the manufacture of ammunition and fire-
230 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
arms. Wages are a small consideration, when, as is the
case of most automatic machinery, three or four machines
are tended by one man. This firm finds it unprofitable to
work for governments on account of the precariousness of
work, the risks, and the expense connected with obtaining
contracts. It finds it the same with the home government.
The firm made application some time ago for a contract to
the United States government, under great expense, had to
make extra tools, etc., to suit the specifications, and had 300
stands ordered. Nothing further was ever heard from
there. They have a general and widely-distributed trade,
and have to cater to taste and changing fashions.
They find it profitable to lay out $20,000 at a time for tool
machines for a special piece of work required by a change
of pattern or style. The number of hands a rifle has to
go through, and the pieces of machinery required, can be
estimated from the fact that the lock alone goes through 131
different operations. A fine magazine rifle is sold at retail
at $18, with a discount to the trade.* Under no other
system of work and organization could such a result be
reached. As these goods go all over the world, it is evi-
dent that high-priced labor does not stand in the way of
the great achievement of underselling the labor of lower-
wage countries in their own domains, but directly leads to it.
Cartridges are made in a like manner ; i. e., with special
machinery for each separate part of work. In this depart-
ment mostly girls are employed. Even the wads are made,
felt-covered, cut, and oiled by machinery. The same system
of working and an equally high average of wages, as com-
* Trade discounts are always pretty high. The expense for advertis^
ing, etc., are all included, and the list prices are in no possible way a
criterion to estimate the cost on, or even the price netted to the manu-
facturer.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 231
pared with other industries employing an equally great
percentage of female labor, is found in the clock and watch
industry of New England.
But machine making itself is now carried on mostly by
self-acting machinery, and several pieces require chiefly
the eye and very little the hand of one attendant. One is
surprised, in going through the vast workshops, to see so
few people about, so much work turned out, and still so
many hundreds on the pay roll. This impression is espe-
cially strong in going through the rifle company's works as
well as through the works of a concern engaged in making
tool-machines for machine makers, and instruments of pre-
cision for measuring gauges, screw-threads, etc. It can be
well understood of what perfection and exactness this work
has to be. Yet, though they employ some seven hundred
men, five or six machines tended by one man was nothing
unusual.
Europe's Methods Different.
This, the American system, stands still in remarkable
contrast with Europe. I have pointed out in my report on
"Industrial Education in France" how the Government as
well as industrials exert themselves to keep the people to
the old hand method. The technical and trade schools
have all the same end in view, to give the new generation
the same opportunity of perfecting itself in hand work.
Excellent as it rnay be from their standpoint and traditional
development, yet it must be seen that it is not likely that
our metal and machine industries could be seriously pressed
by competition trained under such diametrically opposed
views.
But more than anywhere else, I found proof of this in
232 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Germany, at the very heart of industrial push, Berlin. The
Ludwig Loewe-Company have been made an object of
special mention in the Reichstag, as they pay fully double
the wages ruling in the trade. Ludwig Loewe, the founder,
had lived in America and studied the system described
above. On his return to Germany he established a small-
arms and machine factory. The first machinery he em-
ployed for fitting up on the American plan he procured
from the firm whose works are mentioned above, but now
his company make all their own tools. This I heard inde-
pendently from both parties. Messrs. Loewe told me it
pays them well to adhere to this plan. They have none
but picked men, and with the system borrowed from America
the day wages are not such a consideration as the output
and the reliability of their help. This fully proves how
slowly the world follows in our footsteps. The reason is
plain : it requires American conditions, not American
example alone, to bring the world to the same high stand-
ard of production and productiveness.
But why demonstrate further ? Handicapped as America
is by high-priced iron and fuel, she exports in manufactures
of iron, hardware, cutlery, mill work, machinery, and imple-
ments, agricultural machinery and cars, 65 per cent more
than Germany, and about 25 per cent, of England's exports
in corresponding articles.
The positions are :
Exports of England, 1890 $150,000,000
Exports of America, 1890 37,000,000
Exports of Germany, 1890 22,000,000
What better proof can there be that labor and capital are
discriminated against to favor a few noisy and domineering
interests ? The higher cost of raw materials on account of
" protection " is an impediment to extension of trade.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 233
The duty on tin plate raised from 1 cent to 2| cents
shows more than any other the unpardonable ignorance of
the lawmakers, and their indifference to the rights of the
producer of finished articles, as well as of the consumer.
Tin is an article that is not manufactured in America
and cannot be manufactured in this country even under the
new rate of duty, because the conditions are absent in
America which are so abundant in Wales hand labor, male
and female, which for generations has brought down hered-
itary skill. After a year's operation of the new tariff it
has been made clear by experience that, unless at rates far
more exorbitant than the new duty, tin plates cannot be
manufactured for commercial purposes in America against
Wales, which, by long traditional development, has acquired
a monopoly of the world's trade. The attempt of Germany
is not considered successful in this line. It has still to
depend on Wales for its supply. In view of these facts,
which ought not to have been unknown to the makers of
this law, the act of saddling the people with an additional
eight millions of taxes on their tin plate appears as sheer
madness.*
* The high rates of duty put on tin plate seem to have frightened the
producers in Wales. The heavy falling off in their trade, after the new
act had gone into operation, gave support to their fear that the business
was going to be diverted from them. They were reported to be active in
making Australia and Argentina rivals of the United States in the can-
ning industry. If they succeed, the American farmer will have another
illustration, added to the many he has already received, how he has his
markets stolen away from him by the protective tariff. The necessity
for such action, however, will become less urgent to the English mer-
chant and the Welsh manufacturers when they see the real nature of the
tin plate industry created by the McKinley act. The importations were
very heavy in anticipation before, and became, of course, correspond-
ingly light after the act took effect. But now, over a year that the act
has come in force on tin plate, the shipments are as heavy as ever.
CHAPTER V.
The Textile Industries. Labor's Higher Reward in America due en-
tirely to Greater Exertion. Greater Output and Lower Labor Cost
in Cotton Manufacture. The Tariff increases Profit Rates but re-
duces Wages. Print Cloth in Evidence. Senators' Pettifogging
Methods to stifle Results of Investigations.
THE woven fabrics used by every country under the old
dispensation of things had almost entirely been produced
by the people themselves. Since steam has given such
development to manufacturing, with the help of machinery,
and to transportation, many inroads have been made and
much displacement of labor used to the old methods has
been going on. A priori reasoning would lead to the belief
that nations of the highest potentiality in manufacturing
development, especially in lines where machinery can be kept
running constantly on the same goods, as in plain cotton
goods, would produce the cheapest fabrics and command the
trade of less advanced countries, did not general statistical
knowledge of the facts of trade support these rational con-
clusions.
The political economists of protectionism in America,
however, have persuaded a good percentage of otherwise
acute reasoners, that a curved line is shorter than a straight
one, and it is for this that so much work had to be under-
taken to set the people right again. An inquiry into the
cost of production of industrial articles here and abroad
would certainly furnish the only reliable premises to build
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 235
upon. I selected print cloth in this instance, and for the
following reasons : It is made in America of the finer count
of yarn than the bulk of our cotton fabrics (28 warp by 36
weft). If the spinning cost in these numbers does not ex-
ceed the foreign labor expense, the test will then certainly
cover fully nine-tenths of American spinning, which in the
low numbers is admittedly cheaper than in England, the
cheapest spinning country of Europe.
Print cloth is easily described and found in different
countries, as representing the same goods -under the same
formula 28 inches wide, 64 by 64 threads to the square
inch, against 28 inches wide, 16 by 16 threads to the
quarter inch, in England, which means the same thing.
In America it is made in mills which run entirely on
this one article, and hence produced under the most favor-
able circumstances. This is true, more or less, of all our
cotton manufacturing. It is different in England, where
mills are engaged on a great variety of goods. The spin-
ning is done separately, with very few exceptions. Gener-
ally the weaving alone is considered to be legitimately
called cotton manufacturing. Going through a mill at Sal-
ford, near Manchester, which spins its own yarn and con-
sumes weekly about 150,000 pounds of cotton, running
3,100 looms on twills and fancy cottons mostly, I found not
twenty looms employed on the same article. The variety
of their fabrics was something amazing to one accustomed
to American methods. In print cloth this is different. I
found Burnley, in Northeast Lancashire, to run exclusively
on print cloth. As the weaving of print cloth gives so
much greater output per hand through the greater num-
ber of looms worked in America than in England, the
proof is certainly equally conclusive for the heavier yarn
fabrics.
236 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Relative Positions of England and America.
I found the relative positions to be as follows : Ameri-
can print cloth is made, as said before, of 28 warp bj 36 to
38 weft yarn, while the English make it officially of 32 by
40 to 42 weft, but in reality the clothmakers take from three
to four numbers finer. This gives them at the outset a very
great advantage. A pound of yarn is thereby made to give
a greater quantity of yards, and a saving of cotton plus the
spinning cost is effected, which very largely outweighs the
advantage we have in the cheaper labor cost of turning a
pound of cotton yarn into seven yards of print cloth, the
standard American weight. I had been told by an Ameri-
can manufacturer of print cloth that he knew that his spin-
ning was cheaper than the English, and that if, as he said,
our weaving was cheaper, he could not understand why he
could not export to England. He had tried it by sending
goods over to England, but had not found it a success.
The English practice above described offers a sufficient
explanation. But to make doubly sure, to have a demon-
stration of facts which could not be contradicted by any
"ifs," I bought a piece of print cloth of the width and
count mentioned above, and found it to measure exactly
nine yards to the pound. A saving of two-ninths in the
weight of the yarn is, therefore, at the start carried to the
credit of the English, as competitors with American manu-
facturers. We certainly cannot become successful ex-
porters of American cotton goods if we neglect the study
of such simple lessons, the exact analysis of the goods of
our successful competitors, the purveyors of the markets
we hanker after. A little more alertness of our manufac-
turers and shippers would be of some use in the endeavor
to extend our markets in cotton goods, which even Mr.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 237
Elaine's reciprocity treaties cannot prevent from making
progress in a backward direction.
Protectionism, chiefly concerned in defending a home
market against intrusion, dulls the intellect of all who come
under its baneful influence. The safe possession of neutral
markets is thereby guaranteed to all those who have eman-
cipated themselves, and are thereby able to strike out for
themselves, unaided by laws and untrammeled by imperti-
nent restrictions.
Print Cloth. The Comparative Cost and Kate of
Wages.
In England the wage rates are by no means universal in
the same line of industry, and it is by no means an easy
matter to get to the bottom of things. One section pays
differently and has different trade rulings from another,
even in so plain a thing as cotton spinning. Still, the rates
paid for the counts of yarn given below cannot vary much
from those paid elsewhere in England. I obtained them
from a mill at Rochdale for mule spinning, and will set them
side by side with those paid in America, according to the
price list of the Mule Spinners' Trade Union at Fall River :
WAGE RATES TO MULE SPINNERS.
(PER 100 POUNDS.)
No. of Yarn.
20
Fall River. Rochdale.
$0 45 $0 50
28
064 0.61
32
72 0.73$
40
. 0.98 1.00
46
1.14 1.12
50..
. 1.29 1.85
In the lower numbers the American rates are below the
English; in the medium numbers they approximate, and
238 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
only in the numbers above sixty the English begin to show
a progressively increasing difference in their favor. Mule
spinning is all male labor. Throstle spinning is done by
girls ; but while in England one girl attends four sides of 144
spindles, in America one girl supervises as many as eight
sides of 120 spindles each, 576 spindles against 960 spindles.*
Doubtless, in consideration of these facts, which must have
found their way in some yet unexplained manner into the
Ways and Means Committee room, the tariff on cotton yarns,
" whether single, or advanced by grouping or twisting two
or more single yarns together, except spool thread," was
amended by reducing the rate of yarn in one instance from
23 to 20 cents a pound ; but in order not to be found guilty
of getting too near the free-trade heresy they increased the
duty of yarns costing not less than 25 cents and not more
than 40 cents a pound, and yarns costing not less than 50
cents and not more than 60 cents a pound, each three cents
a pound. If this is not trifling with the industrial demand
for lower taxes, then language must invent other terms.
English yarns, especially warp yarns, are superior to
American yarns, being far more even and better twisted.
They are preferred for manufacturing purposes on this
* The daily earnings in the leading
I found to be :
SWITZERLAND
AND GEBMANT.
Cents.
Mule spinners 57 to 66
branches taken f r<
ENGLAND.
Rochdale and
Salford.
Cents.
125 to 168
64 to 72
50
48 to 71
60 to 68
65 to 83 2
am mills accounts
AMERICA.
Lowell and
Fall River.
Cents.
150
60 (boys.)
84
90 to ISO 3
Helpers
Spinners (women) . .
Carding (women). . .
Drawing
48
88
38
Weavers . .
.44 to 55
Pine yarn spinners at Bolton earn 50 shillings a week, equal to $2 a day.
The day wages stand in an inverse ratio to the cost of production.
'2 to 3 looms. " 3 and 4 looms respectively. 3 6 and 8 looms.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 239
account. Even in the lower numbers, which cost no more
to produce than English yarns, we import considerable
quantities, and pay a duty of 50 per cent. In mixed goods
of silk and cotton this is not a light burden, but where
nobody objected, except the consumer, the framers of this
odious law did not seem to consider it their duty to reduce
rates even where a necessity for the continuance of duties
had long ceased to exist.
While in the spinning of lower numbers of yarn we
possess advantages, we possess them to a still greater degree
in the weaving. In England four looms is the most a single
weaver would tend. Some tend six looms, but then they
invariably have the help of a boy. In Switzerland and
Germany two is the rule, and exceptionally three, while in
America four looms is the lower and eight looms the higher
limit. I found in the Lowell mills six and three-quarters to
be the average tended by one weaver.
The average earnings per loom in Burnley are 5s. 3d, or
$1.25. This gives $3.75 to a three-loom weaver and $5 to a
four-loom weaver. " A guinea a week is considered very
good wages for good weavers." The rate of pay per 100
yards was 51 cents, and the output of a four-loom weaver
was stated to me to be 980 yards. In Lowell the rate of
speed is slower, but the average of six-loom weavers in one
mill I found to be 1,270 yards, and in another mill 1,350
yards. But in Lowell the pay per cut of 50 yards is 20
cents, per 100 yards 40 cents. A six-loom weaver would
average $5.08 in one mill and $5.40 in the other mill. Hence
a six-loom weaver in America is not much better situated
than a four-loom weaver in England. Eight-loom weavers,
of course, earn correspondingly higher wages, from $6.40 to
$7.30, according to the above ratio.
In both instances I took my data from mill accounts.
240 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Making allowance for all of these differences, I found the
COST OF MANUFACTURING A POUND OF PRINT CLOTH :
SPINNING COST PER POUND OF YARN.
Average No. Average No.
37*. 32*.
Lancashire. Lowell.
Total wages 1.708 1.992
Power and taxes 418 .298
Supplies 240 .240
Repairs and depreciation .6 .475
Interest on loan, etc .36
Carriage .18
Expense, etc .150
Addition. . . .090
3.506 8.205
WEAVING COST PER SEVEN YARDS TO THE POUND.
Weavers' wages 3.57 2.8
Dressing or sizing .479 .469
Beaming, twisting, winding, etc .753 .428
Extra board .039
Labor 4.803 3.736
Supplies and expense 1.38 1.335
6.182 5.071
OR A TOTAL COST PER POUND OF FINISHED GOODS.
Labor cost of spinning 1.708 1.992
Labor cost of weaving 4.802 3.736
Cost of supplies and other mill charges 3.175 2.823
9.685 8.551
"We have here a credit of 1.134 mostly due to cheaper
labor cost, against which stands a credit of two-ninths pound
of yarn in the English cost of seven yards of print cloth.
With cotton in England (inclusive of waste) at 11.8 cents,
this makes a difference of 3.258 cents, and, deducting cheaper
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 241
American cost of 1.134 cents, still leaves a balance of 2.124
cents in each seven yards of American cloth ; or, allowing
for the difference in the cost of cotton on account of freight
to Liverpool of, say, half a cent, about If to 1 J cents.
The American cloth stood (cotton and waste, 10.695
cents) at 19.246 cents a pound, or 2.766 per yard, which
yard the Englishman is enabled to sell at about a quarter of
a cent less to our " natural customers " by giving them a
finer cloth. Though with less cotton and more sizing, it
seems to be taken by them willingly in spite of our con-
vincing one another of its unwholesomeness and inferiority
as to "intrinsic quality." It is not necessary to deal
seriatim with Germany and Switzerland. The fact that the
Mulhouse and Elberfeld printers use English print cloth for
exportation, in which case they get the import duty refunded,
does of itself prove conclusively that they cannot produce
as cheaply as England, and far less America, without intro-
ducing direct and detailed evidence.
That this applies with equal force to heavier cotton
fabrics, drills, sheeting, etc., is seen from another com-
parison touching a 4-4 sheeting. My sample represented
goods counting 48 by 40 threads to the inch, and measuring
2.90 yards to the pound. For these our labor cost for weav-
ing, inclusive of warping and beaming, etc., comes to 1.186
cents per pound, which is .405 cent a yard. English goods
of the same count are paid at the rate of Is. 5d. for weaving
a piece of 80 yards, and 2s. 3d. for beaming and warping
720 yards of warp, or about 3d for the 80-yard piece total
Is. 8d, or 40 cents, the 80 yards, which is .5 cent against
.405 cent in America. Still, although cotton is about |- cent
higher on account of ocean freight, the English goods, with
a finer yarn, but more dressing, were a shade lower in price
than my American samples.
16
242 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
It must be admitted that, no matter how we may be
affected as exporters by these important facts, the ability of
the United States to exclude from its own shores foreign
competition in cotton goods, even if there were no tariff pro-
tection whatever, cannot be denied. The higher duties are
maintained, and are of great use in times of great demand.
Then prices are put up. For instance, in print cloth, which
when I made my investigation sold at 3 cents to 3J cents
per yard, and later on, under a brisk demand, at 4 cents a
yard, cotton being not more per pound. This gave a very
wide margin of profit, and showed that a high tariff is not a
thing to be despised, even if not required for the protection
of labor, which, per work done, gets less than any other
labor the world over. But these violent changes in prices,
while competing nations keep their prices stable, are great
inconvenience in our efforts to become extensive exporters
of cotton goods. Many a time had I to hear English mer-
chants make the remark that it was of little use to buy
American goods : that no sooner was there an active trade
in the United States than the prices were raised so high that
the goods could not be used any more. This is an addi-
tional hint to those who cannot see that it requires some-
thing besides reciprocity treaties to extend foreign trade in
cotton fabrics.
Republican Contradiction.
I do not know why such efforts should have been made
to contradict my statements, in my official reports to the
State Department, bearing on the cost of manufacturing here
and in England, except that the proof of labor being paid
less per piece or pound than in the Old World was damag-
ing to the claim, that a high rate of duty was required to
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 243
protect American labor. Facts need no defense. They
stand on their own merits. " But on the other hand, broad
denials and " refutations " on the Senate floor by such
authorities, for instance, as ex-Senator Chace, a cotton
manufacturer himself, could not fail to make an impression,
and might throw doubts upon the accuracy of the state-
ments, which, if correct, must be of vital importance, not
alone in the tariff issue, but in their applicability to the
labor question and the whole range of social and economic
dynamics.
But to show the nature of this " refutation " is also to
show its futility, and is, perhaps, the strongest indorsement
of the accuracy of these reports. On this account it will
serve a public purpose to call attention to it. In answer to
Senator Gray of Delaware, who referred to my reports to
the State Department, Senator Aldrich said :
" If the Senate will turn to the speech made by my late
colleague, Mr. Chace, in this body in the last Congress, he
will find the statements of Mr. Schoenhof taken up seriatim,
and shown by figures and facts within his knowledge to be
inaccurate."
The speech referred to is contained in the Congressional
~Record, vol. 20, Part II., page 1,041. A brief statement will,
therefore, suffice, as any one wishing to obtain the full facts
can get them by reading over those pages. From the above
sentence reported in the papers I had expected to learn ter-
rible things about my "inaccuracy," and it turned out to be
as follows : My report stated that No. 33 yarn was paid for
in spinners' wages at the rate of 75 cents a pound, No. 37 at
84 cents, and No. 39 at 93 cents a pound, while, as Senator
Chace correctly stated, the whole pound of yarn, No. 40, is
sold at 18 cents. But he did not quote my statement imme-
diately following, that the whole labor expense for turning
244 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES,
a pound of cotton into yarn (average No. 33) is not more
than 1.992 cents.
The whole difficulty arose from the omission of decimal
points. The figures ought to have read, ".75, .84, and .93,"
etc. Senator Vance called the attention of Senator Chace to
this fact, but quickly the senator from Rhode Island pointed
to other figures equally damning. I will give the senator's
words. " He [Schoenhof] says : ' They spin 1,792 pounds at
$540, which is equal only to ^ cent a pound.' I have
figured it all sorts of ways, but I cannot figure it out," etc.
Now, I had given the explanation myself in the very sen-
tence quoted; namely, that 1,792 pounds at -^ cent equals
$5.40 (or, closely figured, $5.37|). The omission of a decimal
point by the printers, here again as above, was all the senator
could find to base his attack on. But it was evidently suf-
ficient. It served the purpose, as Senator Aldrich's answer
to Senator Gray plainly shows.
Another example of almost amusing pettifogging may be
stated yet. Senator Chace quotes me as saying in one place
that the charge per pound of cotton yarn in Lowell for
water power and taxes was .298 cent, and in another place
saying that it is .568 cent. The one referred to yarn, and
the larger sum to the pound of finished cloth, including the
yarn, as I had explicitly stated. Printer's proof was sent
to me as I had requested, and when I saw these misprints
I cabled from England to delay printing for corrections.
But the matter had gone through the press already. This
was fortunate for Messrs. Chace and Aldrich. What would
they have done for a basis of attack had the decimal points
been put in their proper places ? Truly, if the defenders of
a discredited system have to stoop to puerile tactics in order
to find a foothold for attacking an opponent, then their case
must be a weak one indeed.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 245
It may be asked why these supreme efforts on the part
of manufacturers and their representatives in the houses
of Congress to uphold the high tariff even on cottons,
when wages, measured by the piece, are below the English,
and we export the products of the cotton mills.
The answer is easily given.
It has been shown that with cotton at 10.695, the finished
cloth cost 19.246 cents. This was from mill accounts for
October, 1886. Print cloth was selling then at 3 cents a
yard, and even at 3 cents, at one time, as trade was de-
pressed. This is 21 to 22f cents the pound, and no great
margin was left for profits. But since then print cloth has
sold as high as 4 cents a yard, with cotton no higher,
and gave, therefore, not less than 8 to 9 cents, or about 50
per cent, over cost of production. For print cloth not the
best quality of cotton is used, and the present price of
cotton, best middling at 7f cents, would give an extra
profit of 3 cents. The price of print cloth to-day is 3f
cents, or 23f cents the pound. On the basis of present
cotton prices we have 16.246 cents as cost, and 7.379 cents
as profit, or 1.651 more than the cost of all the labor con-
tained in a pound of print cloth.
I take only 3 cents as the difference in the cost of cotton
between 1886 and to-day. The price having varied between
Qw cents and 7|- cents during this year, the average would
be 7 cents, instead of 7| cents, and give an additional f cent
to the profit of the mills. The whole of the decline in cot-
ton, so disastrous to the farmer in the South, is absorbed in
extra profits.
If labor receives more pay by the piece to-day than in
1886, 1 have not become aware of it. At any rate it will be
seen that there is sufficient inducement in the other quarter
for the strongly urged injunction " not to disturb the tariff."
CHAPTER YI.
Ability to satisfy the Taste of Buyer determines the Course of Trade.
Cotton Goods, Printing, Finishing. Important Points in Exporting.
Our Importations caused by Inability of Home Producer to answer
the Wants of our People. New Departure in Tariff Legislation.
BEFOKE taking up the branches of cotton goods which
we import, I shall have to say a few words of what the Ger-
mans call the " Yeredlungsprozess," which I may translate
into " aestheticizing." It comprises color, design, and finish
in dry goods, everything that makes the article attractive to
the eye. I shall confine my remarks more to printed fab-
rics, because the subject throws additional light upon our
exporting trade, and likewise explains why we import fab*
rics regardless of price and the duties heaped upon them.
The printing of cotton prints is done by means of en-
graved rollers. For each color in the design a roller is sup-
plied, which is fed from a separate color box. The separate
colors closely fitting into the design together form the pat-
tern. Three, four, as well as ten and twelve color patterns
are thus printed in one running of the printing machine.
In America, where quantity is the end and aim, 400 pieces
of fifty yards each were given me in Lowell print works as
an average of output for three to four patterns, and 250
pieces for eight to twelve color patterns. This is 20,000
yards of the former and 12,500 yards of the latter as one
day's work. An owner of print works in another part of
the country told me that in his works they run as high as
700 pieces a day. With a printer at $4.50 a day, and a
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 247
helper at $1.50, the direct printing cost in labor (and accept-
ing the first statement of output for the example) is not
more than three one-hundredths of a cent per yard. The
finishing is done by running the prints through a calender-
ing machine, which would not add very materially to the
cost
English print works, as well as Mulhouse and Blberfeld
printers in Germany, whom I visited, are unable to turn out
work as cheaply as we do. A leading Manchester printer
who took me through his works showed me an endless
variety of patterns in his pattern book. Some of them
are years old. But still he has to keep his rollers on
hand, as orders may come at any time from the remotest
corners of the world. Working for all countries and zones,
each has to be supplied in its own peculiar tints and tastes.
They buy the cloths as they require them for their orders.
This printer had about 10,000 to 11,000 engraved copper
rollers on hand, and some 800 living patterns. Rollers
which are not to be used any more are ground off and re-en-
graved. Of course, they cannot keep grinding out the stuff
for days without a change of rollers, as we do, and their
cost is consequently considerably higher. The labor cost
in Manchester for printing was given me from the books.
It is 7fd for a piece of thirty yards, inclusive of finishing,
engraving of rollers, and designing. Half a cent against less
than one-twentieth of a cent in America. "What applies to
England, as against America, applies with greater force still
to Germany, which gets the gleanings where England har-
vests the bulk.
I was told by the owners of extensive print works in
Elberfeld that they had given up trying to compete with
America in Mexico, for instance, or wherever the peopie
have accommodated themselves to our style of goods. This
248 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
does not seem to have cut as deeply into their trade, and
certainly not into England's trade, as they imagine in Ger-
many. And for very good reasons. Cheapness alone does
not conquer foreign trade. Especially not where the tastes
have to be considered. Southern countries, with their fine
color sense, large consumers of printed fabrics, would cer-
tainly not be largely influenced to turn to our goods because
of a difference of a third of a cent, even if this difference
were not so effectually wiped out by savings in other direc-
tions, as shown in the preceding chapter. As it is, England
exported in 1890 11,450,482, or about $56,000,000 of cot-
ton prints. Of this sum $15,000,000 went to the West
Indies, South and Central America.* Of dyed and colored
cotton fabrics an additional amount of 8,765,000 was
shipped, and to the South Americas about $7,000,000 of
this sum ; to all countries some $98,000,000, and to Central t
and South America and the West Indies about $22,000,000.
Our export trade in colored cottons is $2,800,000, and half
of this expresses our trade figures to the American divisions
named.
What gives England this firm hold of the world's trade
in cotton goods (in all kinds of cotton fabrics 75,000,000,
or $375,000,000 in 1890 against our $12,000,000) is not
cheap labor as against America, her only possible rival in
cotton goods, as has been demonstrated. It is not alone the
saving effected by giving a lighter cloth, but that the English
really give a sightlier fabric. The finer yarn, though it be
sized up, does something toward this ; but that in color and
finishing they are far ahead of us, and by being ready and
able to give to the different markets what they require, is a
fact of greatest force, and makes it certain that they cannot
easily be supplanted unless we do likewise.
* Including Mexico. f Ibid.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 249
Our colorings show a certain crudeness against the Eng-
lish, which makes them somewhat harsh to the eye. Theirs
have more of a softness and pleasing depth. Skill in color
mixing there is more or less a matter of rule of thumb. Art
schools and technical schools have not had much to do with
the forming of the staff of English factories, but if the secure
possession of the world's trade is a proof of the superior
character of the goods, then no one can deny that skill is
inherent there which we do not possess, and, moreover,
neglect to acquire by proper training. The poverty of col-
oring effects may be due to ignorance as well as to other
and worse causes. Corrupt practices in the buying of sup-
plies, taking commissions, etc., especially in the dye depart-
ment ; the consequent using of inferior dyes and supplies,
and wastefulness as a general result, have not infrequently
been brought out before the public eye as the cause of disas-
ter, or at least serious losses, of manufacturing corporations.
At any rate, close watching of all details by a thoroughly-
posted owner seems to be the only reliable safeguard against
these dangers.
The material, out of which the leading officials of Ameri-
can textile corporations are usually taken, is not apt to be
endowed with the necessary practical knowledge.
The question may here properly be raised whether the
English system of subdivision of branches of industry, each
under its own responsible management and ownership, is
not more satisfactory in the results, though profits be saved
in the subdivisions, and only one general profit be the charge
in the other system. In machinery the English hold in this
department a leading position, nor are they afraid of expense.
A so-called Scotch finishing machine is attached to a print-
ing machine, prints and finishes the cloth in running it over
hot rollers and folding it at the same time. Other finishing
250 TR ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
machinery shows equal perfection. To give description of
it here would be going too much into details which have
only technical interest We are here only concerned in
results, and a passing notice of the means employed in
reaching them suffices. The operations for the higher finish
given to finer goods are mostly conducted by special firms.
They are outside parties, who take the goods from the print
houses and return them when finished. The charge is by
the yard, at a comparatively low rate.
A plant for finishing 500 pieces a day would cost about
5,000. The finer the finish the smaller would be the out-
put, so that a high satin finish, the silky lustre not the one
applied by a heavy varnish of glue, as given by our finish-
ing concerns would only turn out 300 pieces a day.
By pains-taking and a close attention to details a stage of
perfection and results have been reached by the English,
which our system, in cotton goods at least, has not yet
attained. The wish to make everything in which the Eng-
lish excel is a very praiseworthy one, but it is not a suffi-
cient qualification for the doing, as will be seen more point-
edly in other cotton manufactures.
Cotton Velvets.
Up to the time of the conception of the new bill, protec-
tionists were satisfied with the claim, " Give our industries
protection until they are firmly rooted and can stand alone,
when we shall gladly accept free trade, as it is the only
rational end to strive for." They could well afford to be
generous in promises. To-morrow is a strong bank to
draw upon, as it will break only when the last to-morrow
is reached. The people gave extensions willingly, though
they knew the day of honoring would never come. But
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 251
who had ever heard this claim : " We have never made
these goods, in fact no one has ever attempted their manu-
facture; but if you put on a duty of 100 per cent, or double
a 35 per cent or a 40 per cent duty, we will go to work and
show the world what we are capable of " ? It required only
a few yards of velvet and other things of equal reality to be
laid before the author of the act, and to him the demonstra-
tion was complete and satisfactory evidence that the goods
could be produced in America without limit. Forthwith the
decree was passed, and millions of taxes were added to the
consumer's burdens.
Cotton velvet is not an article of luxury. It is a sightly
and dressy fabric, serviceable both for dress and ornament
The working classes, especially, are large consumers. Some
one in Rhode Island made the statement that he could very
well make the velvet, which is now imported, and keep the
money in the country, if the duty were so adjusted that the
foreign goods could be kept out The duty was raised,
actually more than doubled. This was not done openly, but
by the old trick of changing an ad valorem duty to a specific
one. The duty was 40 per cent, ad valorem, and was then
and there changed to 14 cents per square yard and 20
per cent, ad valorem. This applies to colored and dyed
velvets, etc. The rates on gray are 10 cents, and on
bleached 12 cents per square yard and 20 per cent
ad valorem; but none of these are imported. Now 14
cents per square yard and 20 per cent ad valorem to those
unacquainted with the run of prices does not look materially
different from the old rate. In answer to Senator Carlisle's
remark that this change implied an increase up to 100 per
cent, Senator Aldrich stated that he had sent to all the re-
tail stores in Washington, and had not been able to find any
velvets cheaper than seventy-five cents, hence there could be
252 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
no increase. A perfectly logical demonstration if the im-
port price were anything like 75 or 60 or even 50 cents.
But the senator's premises were wrong. The Washing-
ton retail stores are not the best sources of information on
the country's import trade. The great importing houses of
New York volunteered information gratis, as the senator
knows. I obtained from one of the principal importers a
copy of an importation order, which may serve as illustra-
tive of nearly all our importations. I will copy it here and
give alongside the ad valorem equivalent of the present com-
pound duty :
Colored Velvet. Width, in. Price. Duty, Per Cent.
8,500 pieces. 18 5$d. 88
1,000 " 19 7K 70
315 " 22 9K 69
4,815 pieces.
Black Velvet.
1,600 pieces, 18 4K 102*
800 " 18 41 d. 92
400 " 18 5d. 90
400 " 19i 5fd. 92
5GO " 19i 6$d. 82
400 " 2H 7id. 77
160 " 2H 8d. 72
120 " 2H Qd. 66*
40 " 2H 6K 63*
40 " 21* 10 d. 61*
4,520 pieces.
In an importation order of 9,335 pieces, 7,260 pieces pay
duties between 82 and 102 per cent, ad valorem, against a
former 40 per cent; 1,875 pieces between 69 and 77 per cent.,
and only 200 pieces between 61 and 66 per cent As pack-
ing charges are made dutiable under the new law, they add
something like 2 per cent, more to the duty.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 253
The lower quality black velvet under the old law and
under the new law would stand the wholesale buyer as fol-
lows:
Old Tariff. New Tariff.
Cents. Cents.
Cost, 44^ 8.50 8.50
Boxes, commission and freight 1.60 1.60
Duty, 40 per cent 3.40 Duty, 105 per cent., 9.00
Cash discount, 7 per cent 1.10 1.60
Importer's profit 1.60 2.30
Total 16.20 23.00
Add 25 per cent, to cover retailer's
profit 4.05 5.75
And we have a total of 20.24 against 28.75
or a charge over the old duty of 8.50 cents on the lowest
quality of velvet by the time the consumer gets hold of it
in the most direct way an extra charge, due to the tariff
increase, equal to the price at which, the goods are put on
board ship in England. But velvets go mostly through
more than one hand. They are distributed through jobbers
to country dealers, or are converted into other articles of
manufacture, and it would be a fair estimate to say that the
bulk of these goods cost fully 10 cents a yard more to the
masses than this eight-and-a-half -cent velvet would have cost
them under the old 40 per cent. duty. Some people are silly
enough to maintain, and some are sillier yet and believe,
that the foreigner pays the duty. This example is intro-
duced to demonstrate ad oculos who pays the duty, the
increased duty, plus profits on duties and charges paid to
the importers, dealers, manufacturers, and middlemen, who
make themselves useful to the public as distributors of this
fabric.
Now all this has been done because of the assurance given
254 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
by a few claimants that velvets could be produced as good
as the English goods, if the duty were raised high enough.
What " high enough " means has been shown. We have not
heard anything of American velvets since the increase was
engineered through, though the law is in force for nearly
two years. For very good reasons we shall not hear of
them again. The manufacture of velvets is one of the most
difficult processes of all textile industry. In cotton velvets
England is unapproached by Germany or any other country.
The dye and finish of English goods alone are something to
which all users of these fabrics will attest superiority. I
know this by my own business experience. But this is
only the final stage. Before we get to this the yarn, the
weaving, and pile cutting have to be considered. In the
two former we are deficient ; in the last process, and the
most important and difficult one, we are entirely ignorant.
It is all done by hand. The goods are stretched on a frame
some eight to twelve yards long, and the cutter walks up
and down the frame cutting the pile with a knife. An un-
skilled handling of the knife would spoil the goods. The
work is distributed all over the country, to towns as far as
thirty miles from Manchester. Towns near the Stafford-
shire potteries, especially Congleton, are extensively engaged
in velvet cutting.
The wages are extremely low. Special skill and very
dexterous work are necessary to enable the workman to
earn 12s. to 18s. Girls and women, also largely engaged in
this work, earn less than that. The employment of ma-
chinery was talked about at the time of the new tariff
enactment. If we had special machinery which could do
the work, we should be far ahead of England. But
England seems to know something about machinery in
velvet cutting. It is a near relation to the Keely motor
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 255
full of promise of a great future, but never success-
fully worked. Many inventions have been tried, but none
has proved satisfactory. I have it stated from manufacturers
that the chief difficulty has always been the pile being
burnt wherever machines, by no means new inventions,
have been tried.
These considerations should satisfy any one that cotton
velvets cannot be an article of manufacture in this country,
and no duty increase can make them so. We may take this
as an illustration of the way the late tariff act was pre-
pared, when any one who wanted an increase even for ex-
perimenting had only to step forward and ask for it. The
greater the lump the surer the grant. The only thing re-
fused with scorn was a demand for lightening tariff duties.
The claimants made good use of the golden opportunity.
Cotton Hosiery.
Cotton hose rank with velvet as objects of criticism in
the recent tariff legislation. In order to understand fully
the wanton character of the proceeding, it is necessary to
consider the character of the hose we manufacture and of
that which we import. The two do not at all interfere with
one another. In times past, happily for the wearer's sake,
the goods were cut out of the piece and sewed together.
They were clumsy, ill-fitting abominations. We make now
an entirely different class of goods mostly men's half hose,
and a small quantity of ladies' hose. They are full knit
on knitting machines, of heavy yarn, very serviceable,
though they could be improved in make and character all
around. Labor does not need protection in this class of
goods, neither do the goods. I have taken the account of a
knitting mill. These are the figures :
256 THE ECONOMY 0V HIGH WAGES.
LADIES' HOSE.
2{ pounds of yarn, @ 20 cents per pound $0.45
Knitting cost 23
General labor 10
General expense 12
6 per cent, discount 07
6 per cent, commission 07
Total $1.04
Selling price 1.20
MEN'S HALF HOSE.
26 ounces of yarn, @ 17 cents per pound $0.27
Knitting 17
General labor 08
General expense 10
6 per cent, discount 05
6 per cent, commission 05
Total $0. 72
Selling price 80
This class of goods is our main product, and the tariff
was not increased on their account. But we import some
five million dollars' worth of cotton hose and half hose, which
somebody seems to have convinced Mr. McKinley could be
made here if the duty were doubled. These importations
are full-fashioned goods, made on frames, and sewed to-
gether so-called seamless hose, with flat, even seams with-
out any ridges. Heels and toes are doubled, and in the
half hose the elastic part being separately knit and after-
ward knitted on makes a close, even fit and appearance, in-
stead of the somewhat raw and ruffled looks of the elastic
end of the article mentioned above. The people who buy
the imported article are not of the well-to-do classes exclu-
sively. All classes buy them, the poor as well as the rich ;
all who desire fine, even-yarn goods, well shaped, and fitting
the foot well, in color effects pleasing the eye, and answer-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 257
ing a somewhat subtler taste. But they are to be prevented
from doing so hereafter, by making the lower grades so high
by tariffs, that by excluding the foreign they will be kept
more strictly to the American article.
The prices at which goods having all these requisites are
produced, principally in the Chemnitz district, are so low
that even with a 40 per cent duty they remained an article
of large consumption. We have never made these goods,
and, what is more, could not make them if the duty were
trebled. But some manufacturers seem to feel that no
foreign goods, be they ever so different, but interfering in
price, at least, with their goods, ought to be brought to this
country. Hence they claimed, and easily succeeded in ob-
taining, a specific duty additional to the ad valorem rate.
Goods in the lower price-range pay as high as 80 per cent,
now, while the average duty amounts to 65 per cent,
against the old 40 per cent. The importations continue,
however. They are as extensive as ever, if we take into
account the increase in 1890 and 1891. Both years show
abnormal figures, expected increase in duty having been
anticipated in increased importations. The year 1889 is
better fitted for comparison. The year shows in all kinds
of cotton hosiery $6,300,000. The eleven months for the
fiscal year of 1891-92, of which reports are just published,
show $5,500,000, with the month of July added, on the basis
of last year's figures (over $600,000), then certainly the
normal importations continue, undisturbed by our fostered
home industries. The additional duties will be borne by the
consumer without even the solace which the consciousness
of contributing to a patriotic duty would give him.
CHAPTER VII.
Futility of attempting Industrial Creations by Protective Tariffs when
Natural Conditions are wanting Flax Cultivation and Linen Manu-
facturing. Cotton Embroideries and Laces classed under Linen for
Tariff Increase. Reasons why they cannot be produced here.
/Ins cultivation of flax for the fibre and the manufacture
of linen are by no means infant industries. The old mum-
mies unearthed after 5,000 years are wrapped in linen.
Babylonia carried on an extensive trade in linen fabrics cen-
turies before Herodotus chronicled the fact. Tacitus tells
us of the ancient Germans being clad in linen, and away into
the Middle Ages linen tunics and sheepskins were the chief
articles of clothing of the peasantry. The lake dwellers,
too, were acquainted with the cultivation of flax and the
use of the fibre for weaving into garments on their crude
looms, as any one can see for himself if he visits the mu-
seum at Zurich. This takes us back to the first beginnings
of civilization. The serviceability of the fibre as a suit-
able material for dress must have impressed itself upon
primitive man. There are valid reasons for the assumption
that flax was the first fibre used in the preparation of arti-
ficial dress when stone and wood were the only materials
out of which his rude implements were wrought. Hence,
the cultivation of the fibre and its manufacture cannot be
reasonably called infant industries.
Nor can they be be called so in America. The North of
Ireland Scotch Presbyterians are the principal cultivators
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 259
of flax in Ireland. We know what a large percentage of
our early settlers they were, and how well they returned in
the War of Independence the injuries which England had
inflicted upon them, and which had driven them over to
this side of the Atlantic.
Before the spread of cotton manufacturing, pretty nearly
all the "linen" was made of flax spun and woven in the
homes of the people. Necessity does not wait for govern-
ment to protect and to guide, but makes use of the most
serviceable means for supplying wants. It is different
when, as now, commerce carries to the remotest hamlets
whatever can be more profitably bought than produced by
the exertions of the people. By natural selection, so to
speak, gradually the fittest occupation of the individual has
become the surviving employment out of the manifold and
almost unlimited industrial occupations which our early
ancestors practiced by compulsion. Consequently, all these
questions of occupation become questions of competition of
employment, expressed in three words : " Does it pay ? "
From this standpoint alone can we consider these questions,
not from that of mock patriotism, which only means serving
a few at the expense of the many.
To properly see this in relation to the flax fibre it is
necessary to examine the processes from the time of growth
to the procuring of the pure fibre. The difficulties are
many. At the start it is well to say that moist and moder-
ate climates are best suited for the cultivation. The flax
must have time to grow and mature in the stalk. It must
be pulled at the proper time, before the seed has ripened.
Hence, flax cultivated for the seed is not suitable for textile
purposes. The fierce summer heat quickly following in
America the long and severe winter makes the plant shoot
up quickly to great height, thereby weakening the fibre.
260 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
This statement does not at all become vitiated by the fact
that we have grown flax in the time when we made our own
linen. It is one thing to grow flax for home purposes,
spinning and weaving it at the fireside, far away from the
roads of commerce, and quite another to have the power
mill manufacture for us, able to choose the best suitable
raw material from all the climes of the globe at a mere
nominal transportation expense.
Not only is a proper, heavy soil required, but also an
unremittent care is necessary from the time the flax gets
ready to be pulled. When it has attained the proper height
(three to four feet) it is pulled by the root The root ends
must be even, the stalks parallel and of equal length. Then
the process of retting the flax takes place. Though other
methods are in use, water retting is the only one giving
satisfactory results, and therefore still generally applied to
freeing the fibre from the resinous substance of the stalk.
For the steeping, a pure, soft water is required, free from
iron, lime, or any mineral substance which might affect the
color or the tenacity of the fibre. The flax is tied up in
bundles and immersed upright in ponds built four feet deep,
after which the process of fermentation begins. This takes
about ten or twelve days till complete. During the steeping
the stalks must be examined frequently, and when ready for
the purpose must be spread evenly on grassy meadows, fre-
quently turned and watched so as not to miss the proper
time for the gathering. Great care has to be taken in all
these operations. Neglect in either of them makes a great
difference in the value of the flax. Twenty-four hours of
inattention may destroy the expected profit of a whole
season's work.
Now, besides the toilsomeness of all these operations, there
is not a little unwholesomeness connected with the proper
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 261
management of flax cultivation. Standing iri water away
above the knees, and the endurance of the malodorous smell
which the rotting stalks spread about, are some of the incon-
veniences.
Under these circumstances it will be seen that much toil
and small compensation would be the result to the farmer.
Flax cultivation is incompatible with our systems of exten-
sive cultivation of land, the only one suitable where human
labor is scarce and land is in plenty. What gives the greatest
results with the smallest amount of labor here becomes choice
and necessity. Hence so many industries are left untouched,
although they would give splendid results, according to
book farmers and political tinsmiths and political weavers,
if our farmers only could be brought to do this thing, that
thing, or the other thing. Cultivation of flax for the seed
pays them well ; cultivation of flax for the fibre does not
pay them under conditions prevailing and illustrated. So
long as labor is left free to choose its occupations it will
certainly take up what is most remunerative and what is
most inviting, and refuse to be lured into the other alterna-
tive. The views here expressed are supported by the fact
that even European countries like Ireland and Germany,
countries where small culture and the cheapness and abun-
dance of farm labor conspire to make the industry a perma-
nent resident, recede more and more as producers, and leave
the honors to Russia, which now produces two-thirds of all
the flax fibre of Europe. Germany, some twenty years ago,
had over 200,000 hectares (about 500,000 acres) under flax,
but has now not more than half that number. Ireland in
1867 had 253,257 acres under flax ; in 1884, only 89,225
acres ; in 1889, there were 107,000 acres.
Nor is the yield, after all the hardship the cultivator has
to endure, so very dazzling. Some 300 to 400 pounds of
262 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
fibre to an acre, according to the years, is the product in
Ireland, and less in Russia. The yield here would certainly
not be as high as in Ireland. The highly superior Irish
flax; is landed here at under ten cents a pound. Our inferior
growth would bring to the farmer not more than seven cents,
perhaps. A not very alluring prospect, considering all the
hardships a'nd risks of flax culture for the fibre.
Linen Manufacturers.
Probably in order to make the increase of duty by the
recent act on household linen (from 35 per cent the old, to
50 per cent the new) more palatable to the farmer, the
argument was most liberally used that an encouragement of
the linen industry by the increase of duty would benefit
him enormously. A market for his -flax would thus be
opened which he could not obtain otherwise. At the most
superficial examination, this promise cannot be meant
seriously. Nothing interfered heretofore with the use of
American flax. But the flax raised went into the rope-
making mills, and hardly a pound of it into the linen facto-
ries or the yarn mills. Will a higher rate of duty on linen
make the flax more valuable to those manufacturing the
higher grades when it is rejected on account of its unser-
viceability in the commonest grades ? The question hardly
needs answering. It answers itself. There is no market
for American flax in American mills at the present time,
and it is not a desirable consummation that there should
ever be, considering all the changes in the farmer's condition
this would imply.
But our linen industry has never, during the whole period
of war-tariff legislation and protection inebriety, gone
beyond the crash stage. We have never been able to make
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 263
anything above common crashes, in the production of which
the character and color of the fibre, the bleaching and
finishing, play no such important part as in the higher
numbers. And even here, with the exception of a few
concerns backed by the wealth of their owners, the crash
came back to roost in the other sense of the word. Many
hundred thousands of dollars have been sunk in unsuccess-
ful efforts, and failure is the general verdict of history. If
this is the experience in the most rudimentary lines, the
coarsest linens, what can be expected when we touch the
damask and finer linens up to one hundred threads to
the square inch, which the new law assumes as the limit of
ability of our manufacturers ? To any one knowing the
requirements of successful linen manufacturing, the pro-
ceeding seems so absurd that it becomes almost impossible
to speak of it in serious terms. Not alone the external, but
the internal conditions are wanting. The dryness of the
atmosphere, the cold winters, the parching heat of summer,
the absence of skilled help and capable technical manage-
ment, except of foreign adventurers trading on the ignor-
ance of mill owners and capitalists all these are so many
drawbacks, and very seriously interfere with spinning,
weaving, and bleaching operations. The arguments ad-
vanced by would-be manufacturers and their advocates
show that they are utterly unacquainted with the manu-
facture of any kind but political linen. The new tax is
laid on the people. They will have to pay some millions
more a year. But the manufacture of fine linen will remain,
as before, a matter of longing. The few yards of linen pro-
duced before Mr. McKinleyand his committee in demonstra-
tion of what could be done if the duty were raised " high
enough " will be the last we shall see of American linen of
a higher grade than crash linen.
264 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Cotton Embroideries, Cotton Lace.
Increasing duties by a change of classifications is a trick.
The law here does covertly what the authors have not the
courage to openly promulgate. Otherwise why should
cotton embroidery and cotton lace be brought in under the
caption of flax and manufactures ? But so the law decrees.
A sweep of the pen could thus raise duties formerly 40 per
cent, to 60 per cent, which is the new duty on all em-
broidery or laces, whether of cotton or flax. " They are
articles of luxury." By no means. Some $10,000,000
worth are imported annually. Cotton lace, lace curtains,
etc., are bought by the lowest wage earners, as well as by
the farming and middle classes. Cotton embroidery has
become an article of immense consumption since the
so-called Swiss machine has pushed aside the human hand
the machine of former times. The cheapening has gone on
from year to year in Switzerland and the Saxon district
about Plauen. The result is a consumption more than
double that of a dozen years ago. But cheapness is a
curse, according to Mr. Harrison, Mr. McKinley, and others
of the protectionist creed, a curse which has to be counter-
acted by legislation. Those who have to support a family
on $1 to $1.25 a day, and they compose a good majority of
our people, begin to appreciate the Republican axiom.
" Yes, but we can make them here and establish a new
industry." Fortunately I happen to know something about
machine embroidering in this country from personal experi-
ence. There were brought here from Switzerland in the
course of en to twelve years some two to three hundred
embroidering machines. They are employed mostly on silk
embroidery, fancy trimmings, embroidering of robes in silk
and wool. Most of the work could be imported, duty paid,
TEE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. ' 265
and sold cheaper than the American work on which they
are employed. But a very strong protection of home
industries exists, which is not found in the statute book.
This is protection in the supplying of immediate demands
by the agencies in touch with the variable tastes of this
country. The risks of importations in such fancies are
immense and powerful deterrents. Some six or eight years
ago, when embroidered cashmere robes were in fashion, the
early importations were bought eagerly. The machines in
the country were kept busy to the utmost. Second impor-
tation orders became out of date, and a good many were
brought over and had to be sold and slaughtered in the
auction rooms. The home machines, feeling the pulse of
demand, could easily be shifted to other work ; the foreign
goods had to carry the full loss under the whims of fickle
Dame Fashion.
The men working these Swiss machines are all brought
over from Switzerland. The machine is expensive and
requires careful and experienced tending. In Switzerland
some 30,000 machines are employed. The work is paid on
the stitch basis. Competition has brought down the rate of
pay to so low a point that 3f. a day would express a fair
average of earnings. Yet I remember that, although the
earnings of the embroiderers were as high as $15 and even
$20 a week, it was difficult to resist their demand for higher
pay whenever they felt their work was more in demand
than ordinarily. It is a common experience that labor
brought over from abroad for special pursuits is -far more
intractable than American labor, whether of native origin
or of foreign, but, by long contact, imbued with American
ideas. This is matter for serious consideration in more
ways than one. I cannot enlarge on it here. In " cotton
embroideries " it is a very formidable factor.
266 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
There is no risk attached to the importation of white cotton
embroideries. Were there no other obstacles in the way, it
can be seen that we cannot possibly engage in this new
"infant industry," even under a 60 per cent. duty. But
there are other obstacles. The cloth and the cotton for
embroidery are about 40 per cent, higher than in Switzer-
land, all for the glorification of protection, which, as a matter
of course, takes away with one hand what it gives with the
other. The materials on which these embroideries are made
are sheerer and finer than our general line of goods. They
do not cost very much more to produce, at least not in the
lower class of prices, than English goods, but are sold nearly
up to the foreign price plus the duty, although inferior in
character and finish. * The final finishing is a matter of
no small importance, but I will waive it as one of the
things attainable by study and application. The other
objections must convince everybody, outside of a small
charmed circle, that we are not able to produce these goods
on commercial principles.
The same strictures, somewhat modified, according to the
character of the branches, apply to cotton laces and to cotton
lace curtains. The raising of the duties on these articles of
large consumption by the poorer classes a full 50 per cent,
is almost incomprehensible, even from the standpoint of the
new departure in protectionism under the McKinley act.
Here certainly no claims worth considering could have
been brought forward that an industry " could be established "
* The English and Swiss manufacturers use almost entirely Egyptian
cotton for their fine yarn goods. It makes an even thread, shown in the
absence of knots and uneven places so abundant in the American goods
intended to replace the former. Self-sufficiency, negligent and wasteful,
opens the back-door, while protectionism anxiously keeps guarding the
gate.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 267
under the plea dealt with before. That an increase in duty
means an increase in the selling price is proved by the fact
that the importer's selling price of the franc under the
old tariff was 30 cents less 7 per cent, cash discount, and
under the new tariff is 36 cents with the discount. The
consumer, of course, pays a greater difference still, as
demonstrated in our cotton velvet example.
Embroidered and Hemstitched Handkerchiefs.
That we make no embroidered or hemstitched handker-
chiefs of linen in this country need hardly be stated. That
we cannot make them, even with the 60 per cent, protection
so lavishly dealt out by Mr. McKinley in place of the former
80 per cent, on embroidered and 35 per cent, on other linen
handkerchiefs, hardly needs emphasizing after what has
been said above. All who have used linen handkerchiefs
will have either to pay the increased price, or confine them-
selves henceforth to the use of American cotton handker-
chiefs. The makers of these did not feel themselves able to
prevent the importation of foreign linen at 30 and 35 per
cent, and of cotton embroidered hemstitched handkerchiefs,
neither of which they can produce. Nor can they prevent
it now. But with them any exclusion, by whatever cause,
is considered equivalent to an extension of market for their
quite inferior goods.
The finer, sheerer goods used in Switzerland and Ireland
for cotton handkerchiefs, embroidered and hemstitched, are
seldom employed in handkerchief making here. The class
of goods made here is of a rougher sort. The hemstitching
in Ireland is done by machinery now, and the goods are
woven so as to leave the threads open where the stitching is
to run in, which makes this operation one of trifling cost.
268 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Our goods do not show that even the manufacturers possess
the best machinery for hemstitching, employed on the other
side. The finishing and doing up also leave much to be
desired. The increase of duty here shows most plainly the
object of the Dew tariff to saddle the consumer with high
taxes so as to give a greater margin of profit and room for ex-
perimenting to the makers of a very inferior class of goods.
It is not likely that American industries will be benefited
much by this sort of legerdemain tariff increase in cotton
embroideries, cotton lace, cotton lace curtains, and embroid-
ered and hemstitched handkerchiefs. Our importations in
1890 were $13,000,000. The people will pay on these here-
after some $8,000,000 duty, or nearly $3,000,000 more than
formerly, with not even the semblance of a showing that
any existing (or even prospective) industries will be bene-
fited, except in paltry and insignificant ways. On the con-
trary, many industries are injured by the high rates wan-
tonly imposed on articles that cannot possibly be produced
here. Branches of magnitude in America, which in Ger-
many and England work largely for export, in which we
show superior capacity, could be profitably extended and
their products exported but for these duties. In these em-
ployment could be found for ten times the labor that will
ever be employed in the additional manufacture encouraged
by the increase of duty on cotton embroidery and cotton
lace and kindred goods.
Thus it will be seen that an amount of ignorance on the
one hand and recklessness on the other has been displayed
in the formulating of new tariff provisions, which can only
be explained by the fact, patent to all, that the makers of the
law had only political ends in view, and that their considera-
tions for the industries of the country were conditional on
the latter, serving these ends.
CHAPTEE VIII.
Science and Skill in Manufacturing Industries. Silk Manufacturing.
Lyons and Paterson compared. Labor Cost about Equal. Superi-
ority of Lyons Goods. Lower Cost due to other Causes than Differ-
ences in Labor.
THE powerful effect which science exercises on prices,
along with the skill of the workpeople, is well demonstrated
by the silk industry as conducted in the representative
centres of Europe and America. Here we can show most
distinctly the popular fallacy that the lower rate of per diem
wages causes the difference in prices, which is so manifest in
the fabrics of the two countries. To do this with full clear-
ness, we have to follow the industry from the fibre to the fin-
ished fabric.
Silk is a tender tiny thread as reeled from the cocoon.
Perhaps for this reason it has at all times been considered
a fit subject of government's protecting hand. From the
time the first eggs were brought from China to Europe by
Byzantine monks, governments have been anxious to provide
hospitable homes, even under unfriendly skies. The worm,
however, obstinately refused to prosper, except in Southern
France and in Northern Italy. In America early attempts
were made. The kings, from the Stuarts down to the time
of the Revolution, spent much money and offered prizes to
encourage the cultivation of silk. The legislatures and col-
onies followed in the wake of royalty, and left no attempts
untried to get the people to leave or neglect remunerative
270 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
occupations and turn to the raising of silkworms, despite
repeated experience of barren results.
Attempts in the same direction were" not given up,
though. The legislature of California, a State whose cli-
mate is eminently fitted for the successful breeding of silk-
worms, early passed a law offering a bounty of $300 for
every 100,000 cocoons raised, and one of $250 for every
5,000 mulberry-trees planted. The results did not prove
more satisfactory than in colonial times, and the law was
soon repealed. Agriculturists do not seem to take kindly
to silk raising for the same reasons that they do not take
kindly to flax raising. They seem to think that their labor
can be more profitably employed than in the rearing of silk-
worms and cocoons in opposition to Chinese, Japanese,
Hindu, and South of Europe labor. "Were it not for this
emphatic refusal of our rural classes to have themselves
cajoled into silk raising, even by the aid of government
bounties, we might now have a duty of some 25 or 50 per
cent, on raw silk to pay, and thereby have prevented the
growth of an industry which gives employment to far more
hands in a year than could have found profitable employ-
ment in the raising of the raw material in a lifetime.
The industry is a most important educational lever when
properly conducted, and for this alone would deserve the
most serious consideration. It repays careful furtherance.
But whatever the most effective means, high protective
tariffs have not proven that they are able to supply the
necessary qualification. The instruments mentioned in the
preceding pages are far more important to industrial effi-
ciency and sufficiency. These ends can only be reached
by the proper educational facilities, entirely wanting here,
and neglected by the ruling passion for tariff protection.
Science, art, individual skill, leadership of no common sort
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 271
must combine in silk manufacture not to create a moment-
arily successful enterprise, but to carry it through good and
bad report to more than ephemeral success. "Whether silk
manufacturing could have ever become the great industry
which it is undoubtedly to-day without a high tariff (50 per
cent.) is an academic question, and not necessary for us to
inquire into. We do not deal with theories and supposi-
tions, but with facts. It may be stated in a broad sense,
however, that no amount of protective duty could have
created a silk industry in America under the old method of
manufacture, strictly one of hand labor. Neither 50 per
cent, nor a higher duty could have enabled our home talent
or provided us with the necessary auxiliaries from abroad
to produce goods in quantity and of quality able to
supplant the work of the old-time industries of Europe.
Mechanics has taken a great part of the work out of the
hands of the old-time plodders, and made the successful
introduction of this great industry possible. Chemical
science, on the other hand, has put obstacles in our way
which again call our success somewhat into question. Pro-
duction by the aid of machinery and power is the only
possible method of production on a large scale in this
country. This is not saying that it is the best method, in
silk weaving at least. But by the aid of power, improved
machinery, and complete mill organization, we have become
able to produce, so far as price is concerned, goods that even
under a very moderate revenue duty foreign goods could,
not be landed, if all other things were equal.
But here many other influences come in, which in a
general way have been dwelt on before, but are of greatest
importance in silks, chiefly on account of the costliness of
the goods, and the susceptibility of the fibre, which enables
the skilled worker to enhance its value to almost any rate
272 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
above that which an inferior handling gives it The dye-
ing, the weaving, the designing, the selection of colors, the
finishing, all become matters of greatest importance. Skill
and taste in all of these are essential to success. Their pres-
ence in the fabric does not increase the cost of production,
but their absence detracts very materially from the value.
How well this principle is understood in Lyons is seen
from the fact that in a specimen of work intended for the
Paris Exposition of 1889, I found that every part was exe-
cuted by the manufacturer himself, who happened to be the
President of the Lyons Silk Manufacturers' Association.
He would intrust no part to anybody else ; the result was
work equal to the very best that could be produced. To
the hereditary skill distributed among all classes of silk
workers in Lyons is due the fact that depression in the silk
trade is seldom felt as severely in Lyons as elsewhere, in
America, for instance. In Lyons every one concerned puts
a certain amount of feeling into the work, if I may so
express myself. In this country everybody concerned is
bent on but one end to grind out the greatest possible
quantity in a given time.
It may be suggested that Europe could very easily adopt
our methods and substitute power for hand-loom weaving.
This is done to an extent. To those unacquainted with the
economic reasons, it must seem hardly consistent with the
spirit of otherwise progressive trade centres to cling mainly
to the old mode. On examination we find, however, that
for Europe the advantages are all with the old system ; for
us, on the contrary, with the new, because, as said before,
we have no choice in the matter.
The advantages of the old system were explained in
Chapter IV. of Part I. The power mill under these circum-
stances makes naturally but slow headway and takes up
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 273
only the cheaper fabrics. These mills are usually situated
in the country, and take the work from the Lyons manu-
facturers on the same terms, -to wit: half of the piece rate
to the weaver and the other half to cover the other items,
such as winding, warping, power, expense, and profit, as ex-
plained.
Loading of Silks.
The loading of silk plays a prominent part in silk manu-
facture. Few who wear silks, especially black silks, know
that they often carry more chemicals, salts of iron and tin, with
them, than silk as reeled from the cocoon. Silk is an absorbent
of moisture to a very high degree, and this quality has been
taken advantage of by the profit-making propensity of man.
With the aid of science he has found means to retain the
absorbed material and thereby increase the weight and
thickness of the thread. It must be remembered that the
silk as reeled from the cocoon is of such great fineness that
it takes from forty to eighty threads, according to the dif-
ferent kinds, laid closely side by side, to cover the space of
a millimeter. A number of the filaments (from three or
four up to twenty) are therefore united in the reeling to
make one thread as it comes into the market as raw silk.
When one cocoon is exhausted, the reeler puts a new one
in its place, and so an endless thread of even thickness is
produced by proper reeling.
In the throwing of silk, two or three strands of raw silk
are spun into tram (the weft), and several of these twisted
are made into organzine (the warp). Now science comes in
and puts it into the power of the dyer to make a pound of
raw silk weigh, when returned, all the way from a pound to
three pounds in black. In light colors, weighted with vege-
table matter (mostly sugar), and less injurious to the wear-
18
274 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ing quality of silk, 20 per cent, weighting in organzine, and
50 to 70 and even 100 per cent, in the tram is practised.
Now, it will be seen that when in this black art a pound
of thrown silk (worth $5, to take a round figure) can be made
to take the place of two pounds ($10), and by the gentler
handling on hand-looms, heavier weighted and therefore
more brittle silk can be used and produce even a sightlier
fabric, a saving of a few cents in weaving the yard ceases to
be a matter of the importance which it otherwise might have.
Our high duties have certainly contributed to the causes
which led to the practice of overweighting, by which silks
have come to be regarded with suspicion. The low prices
at which foreign silks were invoiced were frequently at-
tributed to undervaluing, which low prices could, neverthe-
less, be distinctly traced to the disproportion between real
silk and the weight of lustrous and beautiful silk fabrics.
Weighting with metallic compounds, even, is required to give
black silks the richness of hue which makes them so much
more attractive than pure dyes. It is only the heavy weight-
ing which is dangerous to the fabric.
But here the difficulty lies to make the manufacturer keep
the safe line. It is easy for the buyer as well as for the
appraiser to determine the rate of the weighting practised.
Every species of silk has a specific gravity. By counting
the number of singles in the thread the specific weight of
pure silk can be easily ascertained. By comparing the re-
sult of the calculation with the weight of a certain quantity
of the weighted fabric it can speedily be determined what
percentage of weighting matter has gone into the goods and
swelled up the fibre sufficiently to make the silk feel as
heavy and stocky as a much greater number of filaments
in the thread of pure silk. With these explanations it is
perhaps easier to understand how so much cheap silk is
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 275
brought into the market, and also the difficulties which have
beset our silk industry as well as that of other nations.
Of this I shall say a few concluding words, and deal now
with the general question of comparative cost of production,
Comparative Cost of Spinning.
In America the fierce competition among the throwing
mills has in a very few years brought about such improve-
ments in machinery that, whereas in 1885 I found machinery
spinning at the rate of 6,500 revolutions, I found in 1887
and 1888 a mill in Bethlehem, Pa., running at the rate
of 9,500, and one at Paterson as high as 12,500, and new
machinery in view of being put up, to run 15,000 revolu-
tions a minute. In Macclesfield I was informed by silk
throwsters that if they attempted to run above 3,000 to
3,500 revolutions their girls would run away.
In a product per month of 3,300 pounds of tram and
3,500 pounds of organzine, which, at the rates at which the
throwing was done by these mills for silk manufacturers,
would net $4,120, the labor stood $2,600 (120 hands, 60 per
cent, of which are women), and the remainder of $1,520
would stand for other expense, such as power, rent, interest
charges, and profit. This is an average of 37.6 cents for
the tram and organzine. The silk taken in this is Japanese
for the tram, and for the organzine three-fourths Japanese
and one-fourth Italian.
Now, in making a comparison with the English cost, it
must be noted that we take in America the best reeled
Japanese silks, which are exceptionally good winders and
require little or no cleaning. The English throwster takes
the same silk, but of the second or even third grada I
therefore leave out of the English labor statement the items
276 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
for cleaning and recleaning, and take the winding cost from
a superior Italian silk, so as to obtain an even basis. This
gives us an average labor for tram and organzine as Is. 8d.
per pound, or 40 cents, as taken from the mill statement of
one of the leading silk mills. The weekly wages in wind-
ing are from 6s. to 9s. ($1.52 to $2.18) ; for spinner girls, etc.,
10s. to 12s. ($2.43 to $2.92); and for men, 18s. to 24s. ($4.44
to $5.83) a week. In Bethlehem a mill with an output of
2,000 pounds per week employs 200 hands and has a weekly
pay roll of $600 to $650. This gives us 32 cents as the
labor cost, and an average of $3 to $3.25 per hand employed.
In Paterson the average monthly earnings stand 2,600-120,
or $21.66, or per week (counting 26 working days in the
month) $4.98. A mark of greatest significance Bethlehem
against Paterson $3 to $3.25 against $4.98 in weekly wages,
and only 5 cents difference in the cost of production.
England's average of weekly wages (12s. 9d, $3.10) rates
on a par with Bethlehem, but the throwing labor cost is
higher by about 20 per cent. We can understand very well
why, upon trial, American manufacturers do not find it
profitable to transfer their mills from a manufacturing centre
like Paterson to country towns like Bethlehem, Allenton, or
Boonton in the run after cheap labor.
Even in silk spinning, skilled and well-trained labor
stands for something in the battle for industrial pre-emi-
nence. The lower the day wage, the smaller the rate of
improvement in labor-saving methods and machinery. In
Italy, where labor is cheapest, the progress is the slowest.
They do not find it profitable to employ improved ma-
chinery. They stick to their hand methods. They can do
the work by the cheap labor of peasant girls as cheaply as
if they employed the new processes with all. the expense
and capital involved in them.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 277
The Dyeing of Silk.
Dyeing is done cheaper in America than in Europe on
account of the greater quantities sent to the dye-houses.
Some of our large mills even do their own dyeing. But the
dyeing done in Lyons and in Zurich is far superior to our
dyeing, if the richness and softness of color presented in
their fabrics can be considered valid proof of the assertion.
The dyeing establishments, as a rule, have an expert chemist
at the head. It is a common saying among them that they
understand dyeing, and certainly loading, far better than
we do. In this, too, they are correct. We have practiced
this art far more extensively of late, and have to a good
degree injured the reputation which American silks used to
enjoy on account of their greater purity.
In Lyons the charge to manufacturers was at the time of
my visit 4.50/1 to 7f. a kilo, 42 to 66 cents a pound, for pure
dyes, and in black up to 12/ and 15/ a kilo, or $1.05 to
$1.26 a pound, weighted to 24 ounces, or 100 per cent. In
Zurich the charge was Wf. for black, weighted 50 to 60 per
cent., 88 cents per pound ; and if weighted 100 per cent.,
13/ the k'ilo, or $1.14 the pound.
In America the dyeing charge stood then (1886-7) for
large lots, unweighted, 35 cents; weighted black (100 per
cent.), 85 cents. This price was increased after a strike of
the dyers on March 1, 1887, to stand 40 to 50 cents for pure
colors and 50 cents for pure black, and $1.10 for black
weighted 100 per cent, with a discount under the depression
ruling in the silk trade. It is not to be assumed that the
increase prevails now.
We have here the two most important preliminary labor
processes in silk manufacturing, spinning and dyeing, on a
nearly even basis with the cost of European countries, where
278 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the lowest wage rates are paid. If there are differences in
cost, they incline favorably to the American side with its
highest wage rates. We have now to examine the weaving
part in order to determine our standing in the matter of cost
in silk manufacturing.
Weaving.
For comparison I took a colored silk, faille frangaise, from
one of the best American manufacturers. Having given
already the cost of throwing and dyeing, it only remains to
speak of the relative manufacturing cost, from the weaving
and connected parts up to and including the finishing of the
product.
The silk is 54 centimeters (21 inches wide). The Ameri-
can piece, calculated on 80 yards length, came in the wind-
ing to $1.46, the warping $2.50, the weaving 10 cents the
yard, the quilling at $2.50, and the finishing and general
expense, including all mill charges, was given as $6, then a
rather high estimate. This brings the piece up to $20.50,
or 25.62 cents per yard. Under pressure of dull trade and
the consequences of tariff-bred congestion the labor price in
the silk trade has come down considerably. Later inquiries
show that for the labor processes quoted above the rates are
now : 1. Winding, $1.46 ; 2. Warping, $2 ; 3. Weaving,
7 cents per yard, $5.60 ; 4. Quilling, $1.50 ; 5. Finishing
and other expense, $3 to $4 ; in all, $14.50 the piece, or 18
cents the yard.
The same silk, calculated on the basis of a hundred-yard
piece, costs in Zurich : 1. Winding, 12.90/, $2.48 ; 2.
Warping, 3.05/, or 60 cents ; 3. Weaving, 46/, or $8.90 ;
4. Finishing and other expense, 10/, $1.96 ; in all, $13.94
the piece, or 13.94 cents the yard.
This is on hand-looms. The weaving, it will be noticed,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 279
is at the rate paid in America, if we include the incidental
operations which are done or paid for by the hand-loom
weavers, but in power mills paid by the mill. The general
expense is naturally higher in power mills. In America
warping and winding are done by machinery, while in
Europe hand labor is still practiced. The cheaper labor in
Europe enables them to do the work at less expense than
hand labor could do it here. But machinery comes to the
rescue. Yet there is only a difference in the finished j^ard
of a silk worth 85 cents, manufacturers' cost, of 3 cents in
the labor between Zurich and New York. For Lyons the
calculation is more simple. The manufacturer pays a speci-
fied price, which includes all operations from the dyed tram
and organzine up to the finishing. The finishing is done
separately by finishers at the rate of 5 centimes the meter,
about | cent per yard. For this class of silk 80 centimes is
paid per meter, or 14| cents the yard. The weaver gets
half, or 7^ cents, and for the other 7|- cents the master fur-
nishes all the rest shop, rent, harnessing the loom, wind-
ing the tram, and all incidental factory expenses. The total
cost, therefore, is a trifle over 15 cents per yard. The
power loom work is given out on the same principle. The
owner of the mill, situated away in the country, to avail
himself of the cheap labor of peasant girls, pays one-half of
the price he gets to the weaving girl, and the other half
supplies the incidental labor expenses and profits.
In Crefeld some power mills have been started. They
pay at the rate of 3 marks or 72 cents a day. For this pay
the weaver has to turn out a certain number of meters, ac-
cording to the number of shoots to the inch. If he does
less than the regulated quantity a corresponding deduction
is made from his wages. Of a quality like the one under
discussion he would have to do about 12 yards a day, which
280 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
would bring the weaving wage per yard to 6 cents, not very
different from our price per yard. But here the weaver
has two looms, while in Crefeld, as well as in the south-
ern centres, one loom is the rule. The American weaver
turns out 20 yards a day, and earns for this reason his
higher wages in silk weaving, the same as in other employ-
ments which we have traversed in our journey over the
world's industries. How small the differences in the labor
cost, after all this clamor of selfish interests.
But what savings are effected by the other agency is
illustrated in our sample, too. In America the silk con-
sumed in a piece of 200 yards as given by the manufac-
turers is 10.27 pounds. Organzine pari (not loaded) and
12.17 pounds of tram loaded to 20-22 ounces, or about 65
per cent In Lyons the experts at the consulate, to whom
I submitted my sample for analysis, stated that this silk
would be loaded more heavily in Lyons, and would consume
7.68 pounds of organzine and 10.20 pounds of tram. The
saving is therefore 4.56 pounds of silk in the piece, equal
to 20 per cent. Besides this, that the silk would be some
40 to 50 cents cheaper per pound than the silk we are using
in America. This is only putting the heavier loading
against a lighter loading, leaving a much greater margin
from lighter weighted down to pure dyes. But as it is, the
two silk accounts stand as follows per yard :
Lyons. America.
Cents. Cents.
Value of silk 44.7 60.7
Dyeing of silk, 85 cents per pound. . . 7.7 (65 cents per pound) 7.15
Labor, etc 15.25 18.00
Total , 67.65 85.85
Manufacturing cost differences (labor) over Lyons + 2jj
Differences due to heavier weighting of silk +16
Total difference +18J
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 281
We see by this practical demonstration how much greater
the cost differences wrought by invisible than by visible
causes.
General Conditions of Silk Manufacturing in
America.
Weavers under the old rates could make considerably
higher weekly wages from $14 to $16 where they earn
from $8 to $9 now. The high pay formerly given attracted
a great deal of help from European countries. The high
profits obtainable under a 50 per cent, tariff (which covers
the duty-free silk as well as the labor cost in the goods)
started people in silk manufacturing who had little under-
standing of its requirements and character. Manufacturers
paid willingly whatever price capable labor could be got
for. This to an extent depleted the European labor market
and somewhat raised the cost of weaving there. But the
tide turned. The abundance of weavers thrown over here,
under stagnating trade, soon enabled the manufacturers
to reverse matters, and to dictate terms to the weavers in-
stead of being dictated to by them. The increased supply
and lessened demand from change of fashion reduced wages,
of course.
Silk manufacturing cannot be established in a rush and be
a lasting success. It wants closer study and greater knowl-
edge of a greater variety of detail than is required in most
other industries. Here, however, less is brought in under
the artificial stimulus given it than in most other industries.
The waste in American mills is greater on this account.
Profits are realized by American manufacturers thoroughly
understanding their business, while loss is marked where
this qualification is absent. Truly it can be said that the
282 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
industry suffers from indigestion. As a manufacturer, hav-
ing mills here and in Europe, told me recently, " People go
into manufacturing without any previous knowledge and
understanding. A man came to me not long ago, saying
that he had a capital of about $30,000 which he wanted to
employ in silk manufacturing. He wished to start in the
business, and wanted me to tell him what machinery he
would require and how to go about it. He had not the first
idea of silk manufacturing, and still was ready to embark
in an enterprise so costly and risky. I advised him to keep
his money and put it in a safe deposit company, and he
would make more out of it than out of the silk manufactory
if he asked me such questions."
I only repeat what capable manufacturers have stated,
when I say that the silk industry would be in a far health-
ier condition to-day if the tariff had never exceeded 25 to 35
per cent, ad valorem. The class of men of whom the above-
described enterprising capitalist is a typical example would
certainly have been kept out of the business and have de-
voted itself to more congenial occupations ; as it is, more
such men than a few are silk manufacturers. As in all
tariff-bred industries, the pressure comes from over compe-
tition at home and far less from foreign countries, and least
of all from France, the world leader in taste and fashion.
CHAPTER IX.
Silk Plushes. Increased Duties to Foster Non-existing Industries.
Marked Decline in Silk Manufacturing in General. Tariffs cannot
supply the Absence of Skill and Knowledge.
WE imported for the fiscal year 1890, $38,686,000, and
for the year 1891 (nine months of the new tariff), $37,880,-
000 of silk goods, a falling off of $800,000. That this
slight reduction is due to other causes than our improved
ability to keep out of our markets the fabrics of Europe
under the tariff is seen from the far greater falling off in
importations of raw silk. We imported in 1890 to the
value of $24,325,000, and in 1891 to the value of only $19,-
077,000, a falling off of $5,250,000 in raw silk, inclusive of
waste silk.
The value of manufactured silk, however, is fully double
that of raw silk, considering the increased product which is
turned out of a pound of pure silk nowadays, under the pro-
cesses already described. This decrease of $5,250,000 in
the consumption of raw silk is therefore equal to a falling
off of some $10,000,000 in the production of silk goods.
" The tariff was not increased in plain silks," I shall be
answered, "hence we do not see how the McKinley act
could have contributed to the depression in silks." True,
but we cannot but see that tariffs cannot force people into
buying what they do not find to their taste. We have seen
that American goods, so far as regards cost of production,
can easily keep out of the country foreign duty-paid goods.
But this is not sufficient. The great falling off in the
284 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
American product, compared with the small decrease in
importation, shows that we have to look for relief to some
other remedial agency than a high tariff ; to wit, excellence,
through whatever may be the means required to reach it.
The manufacturers, whose position as pioneers of the trade
makes them the fittest judges of its requirements, deprecated
any increase of duties. Still, some pushing outsiders, mostly
engaged in other lines, succeeded in getting their specialties,
present and prospective (but more the latter than the former),
taken care of, " Velvets, plushes, or other pile fabrics," as
in other textiles, were singled out in silks for special legis-
lative favors. The tariff, formerly one of 50 per cent, was
changed into a compound tariff as follows :
1. Goods containing less than 75 per cent in weight of
silk to pay $1.50 per pound and 15 per cent, ad valorem.
2. Goods containing more than 75 per cent, in weight of
silk to pay $3.50 per pound and 15 per cent, ad valorem.
"But in no case shall any of the foregoing articles pay a
less rate of duty than 50 per centum ad valorem.' 1 No
danger. Few goods, except all-silk velvets, cost over $10 a
pound. Most of the goods coming under this clause have
a heavy cotton back ; the silk is schappe, or waste silk, and
would average nearer $3 than $4 a pound. All of them are
necessaries and not luxuries. Our higher standard of life
makes the working girl, the servant girl, and the farmer's
wife and daughter the principal consumers of these fabrics,
which are used for millinery, as well as for cloakings and
trimmings. No American woman would go bareheaded or
without a cloak or mantle, whatever the fashion, on a holi-
day excursion or to her daily work, as her sisters do all
over the continent of Europe. We live on a different plane,
on a higher level. With us things have become necessaries
which in other countries may well be called luxuries. To
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 285
call them so here is rank nonsense. To use the plea as a
cover for filching higher taxes out of the slender incomes of
our female wage earners is perfidious, and adds insult to
injury.
How the new imposition acts on prices can be seen from a
comparison of the importer's selling prices of velvet and
plushes under the old 50 per cent, duty and the new com-
pound duty, foreign price and measure reduced to cents and
yards :
PRICES OF COTTON-BACK VELVETS, EIGHTEEN INCHES WIDE.
Cents. Cents. Cents.
Foreign price 32 40 \ 47
Price in New York under old tariff 52 75 85
Price in New York under new tariff 70 86 95
Increase per cent 33^ 15 12
Difference foreign and present American ... 38 44| 48
Difference per cent, over foreign price 120 110 102
PRICES OF PLUSHES FOR MILLINERIES, ETC.
15 in. 18 in. 18 in. 18 in. 24 in.
Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents.
Foreign price 18 23 24 26
Under old tariff 3U 39 41 50
Under new tariff 45 55 57 65
Increase per cent 40 40 40 30 33
Difference, cents, foreign and Am-
erican 27 33 83} 39 46
Difference foreign and American
per cent . . 150 140 145 150 136
The increase is heaviest in plushes, because the relative
weight is greater of cotton in the fabric. The cotton back in
plushes is of a heavier, coarser yarn than in velvets. We
have never made velvets. Our manufacturers understand the
difficulties, and have not attempted an enterprise which has
offered small prospects at best. If a protection of 75 per
286 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
cent, (practically this is the rate of protection, the difference
between the foreign shipping prices and the American im-
porter's selling prices) gave no stimulation, the increase will
not supply the want of ability the main cause of our neg-
lect These cheap velvets and plushes are made on power
looms to a considerable extent now in the Crefeld dis-
trict. The cheapest grades of schappe and waste silks are
used. In the handling of these we are very deficient, while
in Crefeld they are very expert These goods, with cotton-
back satins, form the principal industry there, and give em-
ployment to multitudes of weavers for twenty and thirty
miles into the country.
They know how to make a little go a great way. When
the Crefeld and Lyons cotton-back satins corne out of the
finisher's hands they have a brilliancy of face, softness of
touch, and richness of color tint far ahead of that which
goods of the same composition would have here. Even a
larger percentage of superior silks in the American satins
show lack-lustre, dull, leaden colors compared with the for-
eign product, while the finish usually gives a hard si/ing
which leaves creases when handled. In plushes the outlook
at the first glance seems a more promising one.
The goods are wovea in two layers, and the pile is cut
automatically. On power looms two widths are stretched,
and two lower and two upper pieces are turned out in one
operation. But the reasons which stay our hands in velvets
must stand for something in plushes, else we could have
made them successfully under the old tariff. The protec-
tion was ample, the inducement sufficient for starting any
number of mills. But we did not make any. The demand
for these goods is a fickle one, as every manufacturer and
dealer knows. The inducements are not great enough to
counteract the risks of starting a mill with machinery for
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 287
the manufacture of goods which might be blocked up in the
storehouses on a change of fashion from velvets and plushes
to flowers and ribbons. The heavy decline in the importa-
tions of plushes is taken in some quarters as a realization of
the early promise that after the passing of the McKinley act
we should make our own plushes and cotton-back velvets.
The reduced importation of waste silk, however, tells
plainly enough that this cannot have been the case. To
make the goods here on a basis of importations of previous
years would have required an importation of waste silk of
many millions of pounds. But actually we imported less in
1891 than in 1890 (1,300,000 pounds against 1,404,000
pounds).* In point of fact, fashion has changed so quickly,
that but few velvets and plushes are bought as compared to
a year ago. For all these reasons it is easy to understand
why old-established manufacturing houses did not feel inter-
ested in and even advised against the increase. But to quote
Pope : "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
The impetus came from quarters where silk was only an
incidental industry. The aim was to get a greater profit
and experimenting margin for manufacturing seal plushes,
then in large demand for cloaks, than under the 50 per cent,
tariff, or rather to exclude the English plushes by putting
the price up so high that people would be forced into buy-
ing the American substitute. Furniture plushes had been
very successfully made by some of these parties ; so success-
* For the eleven months of the fiscal year of 1891-92, just past, the out-
look for these new national wards, waste silk plushes and velvets, is a
more dismal one yet. The importations compare for a like period of the
preceding year as $575,026 against $955,100. In weight 1,033,730 pounds
against 1,190,486 pounds of the preceding year. This is the more remark-
able, because the importation of reeled silk has increased again to the old
position, under a better demand for the plainer silks, where we are able
to hold the field, as shown in the preceding chapter.
288 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
fully, that for quite a number of years foreign goods were
entirely excluded from our markets. Under the old duty
(an ad valorem one, too) the manufacturers made very hand-
some fortunes. But this must have whetted the appetite
for the great seal plush trade. They obtained their morsel,
but, alas ! the expected revel turned out a Barmecide feast.
The great increase of tariff duties induced English manu-
facturers to bring over their machinery and their help to
transfer the manufacture from foreign to American soil.
This could have been foreseen by any but greedy would-
be manufacturers. Under a declining demand and increas-
ing production, the increased home competition would have
at once taken the advantage to be derived from the increased
tariff out of the hands of the American manufacturers.
English friends of mine came here last winter for the pur-
pose of prospecting the field. I advised against their
transfer. They said that these goods had been made of late
years only for the American market. The machinery was
on hand, and it would cost little except the duty on old
machinery to transfer the manufacturing plant entire ; other-
wise the machinery would prove a dead loss. This party
did not come over. Others, however, did. But they did
not make much out of the venture, and will probably regret
not having stayed at home.
The industry was started, but the results of a year's oper-
ations are not very brilliant. The demand for the article
was on the decline previous to the enactment of the Mc-
Kinley bill. " At the end of 1890," I am informed by one
of the leading cloak manufacturers who knows the market
most thoroughly, " there were probably 5,000 pieces in the
hands of manufacturers and importers to supply the demand
for 1891. When the various domestic factories were estab-
lished, they received orders for fair quantities, but hardly
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 289
any of the broad goods (fifty to fifty-two inches wide) made
in this country were satisfactory ; they were inferior in color
and finish even to the poorer qualities of English goods, so
that they had to be sold at cost or below. The narrow
(twenty-four inches wide) domestic goods were better, and a
fair quantity was sold ; but the demand proved to be much
smaller than was anticipated, and did not equal that of
former years by perhaps 50 per cent, so that, it is stated by
competent authority, there are now quite large stocks in the
hands of manufacturers and commission merchants.
" But there is a worse side than this in the way the work-
ing people are affected by this system of establishing
industries by act of Congress. In order to manufacture
these goods here, a large portion of the factory hands had to
be imported from England, while, at the same time, quite a
number of resident working people found employment in
these mills. As it is, most of these imported hands have
been thrown out of employment at the beginning of winter;
they intend to return, or probably by this time those able
to defray the expense have returned, to England, where
things have changed to the better for them. The demand
for English plushes, slacking here, has largely increased on
the Continent, so that, after all, we have not succeeded in
causing great injury to England, which, from utterances
cast about freely at the time, seems to have been the main
object of the McKinley bill. Those who elect to stay along
with the resident American help will scatter and look about
for other occupations, as hardly any of the newly-established
plush factories can either continue to work at present or
resume operations for months to come at the best."
The benefits which the new industries established under
the McKinley bill brought to labor are not very prominent.
The account which the enterprising manufacturers may yet
19
290 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
have to score may prove more costly in the end than the
loss on the sale of undesirable surplus stocks left on their
hands. That the goods needed no extra tariff stimulus to
make the enterprise remunerative, if conducted with the
skill and technical knowledge required, will become evident
from an examination of the English cost of production,
which I have obtained from a prominent manufacturer there.
I have two qualities of 50-inch width. The cheaper quality
weighs 24 ounces a yard, and is sold at 10s., or $2.43. The
old duty equalled $1.2 LJ-; the new duty is $1.50 per pound,
or $2.25 per yard, plus 15 per cent., or 36 cents; total,
$2.61, or 108 per cent. The importer's selling price under
the old tariff could not have been less than $4.50, allowing
for 7 per cent, discount (the usual rate) and a' 10 per cent,
profit. This left a margin of fully $2 to pay the difference
which American labor usually gets as its share above
foreign labor. But what is the foreign labor cost ?
(1) Cost of yarn per piece of 28 yards.
No. 2-40 cotton warp, 6 pounds 3 ounces, 15|s $2.27
No. 2-14 weft, 13 pounds 7 ounces, 10s 2.69
No. 2-17 spun silk (Tussar), 21 pounds 12 ounces, 8*. . 43.21
Total $47.17
This is material per yard $1.69
(2) Weaving 8
Incidental labor, etc 4
Dyeing and finishing, 8^d 17
Total $1.98
Leaving 45 cents for general mill expenses and profit.
The better quality weighs 25 ounces and is sold at 14s., or
$3.40. The new duty on this quality stands ff x $1.50,
equal to $2.34, and adding 15 per cent, ad valorem, 51 cents ;
total, $2.85, or 84 per cent The importer's selling price
came under the old duty to $6.50, which left a very con-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 291
siderable profit to be divided between labor and capital to
any enterprising manufacturer (which is always a fixed
quantity 90 per cent, labor and 10 per cent, profit).
The materials in this quality were :
No. 3-60 warp, 9 pounds 7 ounces, 44 cents $4.15
No. 2-30 weft, 8 pounds (14s.), 28 cents 2.24
No. 2-35 silk yarn, 26 pounds (10s.), $2.43 63.18
Per piece of 28 yards $69.57
or $2.48i a yard.
A margin of $4 sufficient, one would suppose, to satisfy
the most exorbitant demands of both labor and capital
without a raising of duties.
In this quality the weaving rate is 1^ c., or 3 cents, above
the lower quality. The other elements of cost are about the
same. The dyeing and finishing include all incidentals be-
longing to the two operations. The direct labor cost in
these would not exceed one-third of the price quoted for
dyeing and finishing.
The cotton yarns do not cost more here than in England.
The labor cost in these is not above the English. That we
have the proficiency of the English for spinning spun silks
may be doubted, generally speaking, but the mills that were
making these goods are certainly proficient in the handling
of the silk in their furniture plushes. They make their own
yarns, and what they pay in their spinning department more
than is paid in England, would not add much to the labor
expense of a yard of seal plush. The weaving cost, if it
were double and treble the English rate, would not have cut
a deep hole in the margin left over the English cost
The difficulty in successfully making seal plushes could
at no time have been in the difference in labor cost.
The old duty gave to the manufacturer here in the lower
quality a margin of $2 over the English cost, inclusive of
292 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
charges and profit. In this $2.43 of the English price, the
labor cost is 29 cents, including dyeing and finishing ex-
pense. The dyeing and finishing done in England by outside
parties contains the cost of supplies and dyes plus the profit,
which in American mills is not included in the mill account,
but goes into the general profit. Allowing, therefore, double
for all this, twice 29 cents, or 58 cents for manufacturing in
America (of which at least 18 cents ought to go to dyeing
materials, etc.), it will be seen that a certain profit of $2 was
in store for the American who could give to the trade goods
in every way as satisfactory as the English plushes.
In naming this margin of profit I set the increased cost on
account of labor against the profit of the English manufact-
urer, which, of course, is included in the price of $2.43.
In the second quality, the profit to the American manu-
facturer would have been as high as $3.08 over the English
shipping price. The labor cost is but a few pence higher
than in the lower quality. The margin of profit, however, is
considerably above that what it is in the lower quality. On
a basis of net cost, i. e., minus the profit of the English
manufacturer, the American, under the old duty, had a profit
guarantee of $2.25 a yard, and in the finer goods of $3.50,
or 100 per cent, and 150 per cent, respectively.
From this it must be plain that under the old duty the
goods could have been made as well as under a higher
duty. What is required cannot be supplied by protective
duties. It has been stated above that Germany, with all
the advantages it derives from its many universities and
technical high schools, could not equal England in the dye-
ing of seal plushes, and less yet in the finishing, where the
difficulties are equally great.
The Germans as well as the French are drawing their own
supply from England. A demand springing up from these
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 293
highly developed manufacturing nations means an immedi-
ate activity in English mills. Our people had to learn for
the hundredth time the same old lesson, and pay dearly for
it, that an ounce of foresight is better than a pound of hind-
sight. But experience must be bought at a high price to
be of value as a lesson.
America has found out, too, that the main difficulty lies
here also in the dyeing and the finishing. Many of the
goods that were cut up proved well-nigh worthless. Many of
these goods, looking well enough in the piece, when made
up and worn and subjected to the influence of perspiration,
changed color and became rusty-red and rather undesirable
luxuries. Goods gaining an unenviable reputation through
such vital defects cannot easily come into favor again, and
so this industry, too, has become extinct after a brief debut,
and will be known to posterity only from the fame it
received as being one of the remarkable industrial creations
of the McKinley act.
These creations are a fine sight, to be sure. Advertised
far and wide with great flourish of trumpets as the solution
of the question how to employ our surplus labor, they one
and all have either not been able to start, or when started
have been doomed speedily to wither and sink into an early
grave. Like Potemkin's painted prosperity, villages and
towns, they fill the prospect for an hour, and disappear as
soon as the royal cortege has passed.
CHAPTER X.
Wool and Woolens. Protection frustrated by its own Excesses. Wool
Artificially Dear limits Consumption. Decrease of Sheep. Increase
in England. Decline in Wool Manufacture traceable to the Tariff.
Great Increase in the Use of Wool Substitutes.
ARIADNE'S thread is required to lead us through the maze
of the tariff in its relation to the woolen industry. The in-
dustry is so complicated and comprises so many subdivisions
that, without a systematic treatment of its most important
branches, the space here available would not permit me
to give an adequate idea of the importance of the subject
Not alone is a greater line of industries affected by the wool
tariff, but the very health of our people pays tribute to it.
The raw wool, varying as it is, is but a uniform article com-
pared with the variety of manufactures wrought of it. Wool
and shoddy, cotton and wool, woolens and worsteds, dress
goods and clothes, knit goods and knit "fabrics," all are
covered by the one general name. Each implies such differ-
ences in manufacturing and in work, that all similarity dis-
appears outside of the fibre and of the common name. The
name, even, is no guarantee for the possession of the quality.
Some fabrics contain so little wool, that it is an abuse of
language to call them woolens. Cotton and ground woolen
rags form the material upon which much good labor is
wasted. We have to treat seriatim the leading branches.
But if dissimilar in all respects, they have this in common,
that they all proclaim the unavoidable necessity of free
wool for the consumer's interest, as well as the producer's.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 295
The Wool.
It is conceded by all whose opinions are worth consider-
ing, that in a climate like ours wool is, of all materials used
for clothing, the most conducive to health. Our cold winters
and the frequent, sudden, and great changes in our temper-
ature make woolen clothing of as great importance to health
as pure drinking water and unadulterated food. Fortu-
nately wool has become so cheap that nothing could prevent
a vastly greater consumption in America if things and prices
were left to find their own level. But here again the Repub-
lican lawmakers say cheapness is a curse, and must be pre-
vented in the interest of the producer, which means so
many electoral votes from Ohio, etc. " We'll put on a specific
duty of 11 cents a pound for the wool, and 11 cents for each
pound of grease, sand, and dung that may be found mixed
with or contained in each pound of absolutely clean wool as
it goes in the manufactured state into clothing." But how
will this wool producer stand if outside prices keep dropping,
dropping, dropping, to which fact our own meddlesome laws
have contributed not a little, and the buffer only helps make
a breach in the wall for foreign manufactures and shorten
the market of American woolens made of American wool ?
Wool, as a fact, has become provokingly cheap. How cheap
can be seen from a brief history of prices.
England was all through the Middle Ages, as she is now,
the great wool-producing country of Europe. The price of
wool in the fourteenth century averaged about 4s. 6d. a
stone, or 4d a pound, which, money at only twelve times
the present value, is equivalent to 4& (97 cents) a pound.
A nearer appreciation of this we get when we consider
that the price of wheat averaged about 5s. a quarter, or 7|c?.
a bushel. A pound of wool was then worth half a bushel
296 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
of wheat, or a day's wages of a master carpenter or a master
mason. At the present time, wool worth about 20 cents
and wheat one dollar, a bushel of wheat buys five pounds
of wool. One pound of wool buys now only one-sixth
to one-eighth of an English carpenter's, bricklayer's or
mason's workday. Wool was the chief article of impor-
tance ; almost the only article of export, it was also the
only one which gave revenue to the crown. Agriculture
was the principal occupation then. The produce of the land
alone could yield revenue. Wool manufacturing barely ex-
isted as an industry. Flanders, however, was the seat of a
great woolen industry, and raised little wool. Hence the
great demand for English wool, even at double the price
ruling in England, and the facility of collecting an export
duty as high as 100 per cent, from it.
In the seventeenth century, woolen manufacturing became
a great industry in England. The manufacturers wanted
cheap wool. In consequence, the exportation of wool was
prohibited and made a felony in 1662 in England and
Ireland. In 1690 a law was passed, practically closing the
English ports to Irish woolens, thus ruining the industry
formerly flourishing there. The Navigation act had pre-
viously excluded them from the colonies. Arthur Young
declares it one of the most infamous statutes that ever dis-
graced a legislature.
Under the sway of these laws, English wool was worth
about 25 cents a pound.* But Spanish wool, which up to
* Arthur Young, in " The Question of Wool Truly Stated," gives very
interesting details, which are worth quoting, if only for the moral they
convey, and to show that legislative interference with trade has never the
desired effect : "In 1660 the laws first seriously avowed the absolute pro-
hibition of exporting wool. In 1662 it was made a felony. But the
severity answered so ill the intention, which was to encourage the manu-
facturer, that in 1665 the act passed, directing all persons to be buried in
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 297
the middle of this century occupied the position that
Australian wool holds to-day for fine wool, was worth from
60 to about 80 cents a pound. After this policy was aban-
doned, a small import duty was put on wool. But under free
wool in 1850, English wool had become worth about 45 cents,
and Spanish wool commanded about the same price. Free
trade in wool evidently did not depress the price of wool, but,
in extending the markets of the manufacturers, extended
the market of the farmer for his fleece, and so benefited
.him to a greater extent than any protective duty could have
done. These high prices for English wool remained up to
about 1875. Fashion favored the demand for English wool,
woolen, by an extraordinary policy forcing the dead to consume what the
living were inadequate to purchase. In 1688 the prohibition was repeated,
a sure proof that it had not answered ; which was more formally avowed
by the statute of the 7th and 8th of William, which repealed the felony of
1662, declaring it to be too severe to be executed. In 1699 the law passed,
that subjected Kent and Sussex to those restrictions which the bill of 1787
proposed to extend to all the coasts of the kingdom. In 1699 the Irish
woolen fabrics were destroyed by one of the most infamous statutes that
ever disgraced a legislature, manifestly proving how little the new system
had answered. In 1717 the act passed, that made the non-payment of the
fine punishable by transportation, marking decidedly enough that smug-
gling was then as much complained of as ever. In 1732 the Boards of
Trade made a report to the House of Commons against the plan pushed
by the manufacturers for a general registry of all the wool grown in
England. In 1739 the general Wool act passed, the preamble of which
declares that the clandestine export is great and notorious, etc."
" From this deduction it appears clearly , through the long course of 128
years, that severity and restrictions are not the means of putting a stop to
smuggling." A further good illustration bow the farmer fares in the
partnership of protection is also given by Young. In a speech he says :
" The manufacturer says to the farmer, ' I will have your wool 100 per cent,
cheaper than you could sell it for abroad.' ' Very well,' replies the farmer,
' then you will let me buy my coat at the cheapest market.' ' Not at all,'
returns the other; ' you shall buy it of no one but me, let the price be what
it may.' "
298 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and long after the fine wools had become depressed in price,
English wool held its high price of twice the value of colo-
nial wool. The unparalleled increase in the supply from the
antipodes (in 1860, 189,000,000 pounds ; 1875, 619,000,000
pounds ; 1885, 880,000,000 ; and now about 1,000,000,000
pounds) did not alter this until fashion pronounced her
unalterable decree, which shows, aside of all other points to
be deduced from a consideration of these facts, that demand
makes prices for commodities, and that wool and wool are
different things.
American Wool.
English wool has rapidly declined since, and is now barely
worth more than Australian wool. A long and strong
staple, formerly the principal combing wool, it finds now,
with the improved combing machinery, a formidable rival
in New Zealand, Botany, and other similar wools. Still,
the flocks of sheep increase in England. The present num-
ber is stated to be 33,000,000 to 34,000,000 head. Per capita
of population, this is more than in America, In America
sheep raising for the fleece recedes with the growth of popu-
lation. The Territories, even, cannot keep it up long as a
paying enterprise. The inferior quality of the fleece pre-
cludes a high price for wool, protection or no protection.
The . losses from all causes, principally from winter ex-
posure, are extremely heavy. In 1889 the loss in the
new Western States and Territories, including California,
amounted to 15 per cent. (2,500,000 in about 17,000,000, in
some of these reaching as high as 21, 23, and even 34 per
cent).
The farmers of the older States show their real apprecia-
tion of the American sheep by letting him die out by gentle
diminution. Even Ohio goes back on the poor sheep which
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 299
has been such a mainstay in politics. But politics knows
no friendship, either in sheep or man. Except for the mut-
ton, sheep raising in the States would become a lost art,
despite all the efforts of our political shepherds. This is
shown by the following tables for the years 1870 and 1889,
taken from the Eeports of the Department of Agriculture :
NUMBER OF SHEEP IN THE OLD SHEEP-RAISING STATES.
In Thousands.
1869-70. 1889.
1. Maine 551 542
2. New Hampshire 466 193
3. Vermont 976 362
4. New York 4,350 1,548
5. Pennsylvania 2,850 945
6. Virginia 557 444
7. North Carolina 325 415
8. Georgia 275 412
9. Tennessee 866 511
10. West Virginia 827 508
11. Kentucky 942 806
12. Missouri 1,579 1,198
13. Illinois 1,991 688
14. Indiana 2,160 1,278
15. Ohio .' 6,250 3,943
16. Michigan 3,340 2,240
17. Wisconsin 1,670 809
18. Iowa 2,003 475
Total 31,582 17,317
Number of sheep in all the States and Territories in 1869-70,
40,853,000.
Number of sheep in all the States and Territories in 1889, 44,336,000.
Increase in population, 50 per cent.
Total increase in sheep, 8| per cent.
Percentage of total in the old States in 1869-70, 77 per cent.
Percentage of total in the old States in 1889, 39 per cent.
Decline in number of sheep in the old States, 14,250,000.
Decline in number of sheep in the old States, 45 per cent.
300
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
But to make the lesson to be taken from this compara-
tive statement more conspicuous yet, it is only necessary to
show what progress has been made in the status of other
live stock in these agricultural States, foremost in sheep
raising twenty years ago.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF OTHER LIVE STOCK
(IN THOUSANDS).
Horses.
Oxen and
Milch Cows.
Hogs.
1869-70. 1889.
1869-70. 1889.
1869-70. 1889.
Maine
87
91
385
333
45
62
New Hampshire. .
48
52
228
219
31
52
Vermont
65
84
333
404
44
79
New York
600
674
2,116
2,336
995
686
Pennsylvania ....
501
607
1,450
1,791
1,014
1,193
Virginia
220
259
535
692
904
1,009
North Carolina. . .
125
154
501
G71
850
1,292
Georgia
108
116
651
935
1,335
1,627
Tennessee
317
303
541
862
1,505
2,242
West Virginia
90
147
311
466
357
486
Kentucky
321
391
630
841
1,955
2,255
Missouri
460
790
1,060
2,290
2,300
5,090
Illinois
881
1,124
1,583
2,786
2,005
5,433
Indiana
555
668
1,002
1,560
2,025
2,845
Ohio
724
772
1,502
1,778
1,700
2,611
Michigan
259
477
685
1,002
462
979
Wisconsin
275
438
813
1,480
427
1,087
Iowa
514
1,995
1,162
3,909
2,500
5,805
Total. .. .6,150 7,842 15,488 24,355 20,464 34,855
These figures tell the story. The decline in sheep raising
is evidently due to the fact that the farmer long ago found
out that his farm, and, along with it, his income, are benefited
more by the raising of live stock than of sheep. The
shepherd and the agriculturist soon part company. The
myth of Cain slaying his brother Abel gives early emphasis
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3Q1
to an old historical fact. The myth is the epitome of
history.
The United States emphasize this historical commonplace
by the decline of sheep from a status of 31,000,000 in
1869-70 to one of 17,000,000 in 1889. When agriculture
expands, the wool sheep becomes an unimportant incident.
The chief value centres then in the mutton. But as the
more desirable mutton sheep carries a different character
of wool from our wool breeds, it is the more apparent that
the wool tariff cannot help the farmer, but work only injury
to the manufacturer. That the number of the English sheep
is not allowed to decrease is due to the fact that he carries
under his wool what in time becomes most excellent mutton.
Though our mutton is inferior to English mutton, yet it
brings equally good returns, and so do the tallow and the
skin. But advocates of a wool tariff would have us believe
that the only salable value is in the wool, and that a pos-
sible loss of 60 cents in the entire fleece would ruin the
farmers, a majority of whom do not own a single sheep, and
nine-tenths not above three sheep on an average. Still they
keep on paying fifty times that amount each year on their
woolen goods in order to keep up the sixty-cent protection
on the sheep. The Irish statutes referred to above prompted
Dean Swift to say : " Ajax was mad when he mistook a
flock of sheep for his enemies, but we shall never, be sober
until we have the same way of thinking." And this senti-
ment very fitly applies to the situation created in America
by the high wool tariff.
Other Disastrous Effects of a Wool Tariff.
One of the greatest disadvantages to the manufacturer,
and to the grower, reversely, is the exclusion of foreign
302 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
wools. He cannot mix his wools properly, and seldom has
the right wool in the right place. Unless fashion gives
him a chance for profitably using his favored American
brands, he will continue to see foreign wools imported in
the manufactured state and given a preference over his own.
The manufacturer, by protection, has become an exclusion-
ist. This is more the case in wool and woolens than in any
other branch. He does not study the progress made in
Europe, principally in England and Germany, with as keen
an eye as he would if the pressure of competition were brought
nearer home to him. But worst of all, he is deprived of
the chance of a fair selection, because many most desirable
wools never come to him. They are excluded by the tariff or
neglected by the wool importer. But to the English manu-
facturer they are a very profitable material, either for the
back, the filling, or the entire fabric. Despite their cheap-
ness they have a spring and elasticity which ever give cheap
English goods so much life and character. The absence of
these features in our wools, their dryness and dulness, make
our goods appear quite dead and uninteresting by the side
of English corresponding fabrics.
A dense ignorance seems to prevail as to the character of
the different classes of wool so essential for giving the fab-
rics the stamp of genuineness, without which they cannot
pass the critical eye of trade. Neglect and ignorance are
the worst enemies of industries, but they become rampant
under protective legislation. It would be strange if woolen
manufacturers made an exception to the rule. A duty
averaging some 75 per cent, made them believe that they had
fullest control of the home market. The duty on wool, neu-
tralizing this to a very large extent, took away much of their
chance, and besides made them look to the home growth as
the only source of supply (except as to the carpet wools, not
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3Q3
grown in America). The quantity of clothing and combing
wools imported is ridiculously small, considering their
greater desirability at nearly equal prices, duty added, than
the corresponding home product.
But some of these wools are practically excluded by the
tariff taxing the grease and dirt the same as wool, so that
high shrinkage wools cannot be imported at all, and, of
course, remain unknown. Others again could be very ad-
vantageously brought in on account of light shrinkage, but
remain unknown on account of the stream of foreign supply
not running our way. Hence, an ignorance of the particu-
lar merits of the various kinds has become all but universal.
This was brought home to me very forcibly in wools used
for sackings in England (6-4 sackings, flannel weave, used
for ladies' dress), on which I sent a report to the State De-
partment. The wool used in the English fabric I described
as " Cape or Sydney wool, for which they pay 6d, or 13
cents, a pound. The wool shrinks 50 per cent, in scouring,
with an additional loss in manufacturing, and yields 6i-
pounds of cloth to 16 pounds grease wool. The wool would
then stand at 16d, or 32 cents, per pound in the cloth."
Another mill used in similar goods "New South "Wales
greasy lamb, pieces and locks, of which the present price is
5Jc?., or 11 cents, per pound." This wool was much greasier,
and yielded only 25 per cent, of cloth to the pound of greasy
wool hence dearer in the cloth, though cheaper in the
wool price. No one would think of importing this class
of wool and paying 44 cents duty, or 100 per cent, on suffi-
cient wool to make a pound of cloth. The editor of the
Boston Journal of Commerce gave expression to doubts con-
sidering these prices quoted in my reports. He said : " The
comparative cost of stock is evidently wrong, for if Sydney
or Cape could be bought in England at 13 cents per pound,
304 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
shrinking 50 per cent., the American manufacturer would
certainly pay the duty of 10 cents a pound, and get his wool
at 46 cents clean, instead of paying 70 cents." The matter
seemed to me somewhat questionable too, and I expressed
my surprise to the manufacturer from whom I got my in-
formation first, at his office in Leeds. He invited me out
to his factory, and there took me through the different de-
partments. The wool in question was very fine, but very
short and burry. It was not more than from half to three-
quarters of an inch long, and some parts did not measure
that The burs were extracted by the acid process ; that is,
the wool is subjected to an acid bath to eat out the burs,
and then carbonized to kill the acid. This I witnessed with
my own eyes. Why our manufacturers do not make use of
these wools of lighter shrinkage can only be explained on
the above premises. On the other hand, it must be ad-
mitted that what our goods of this character lack in bril-
liancy and lustre they gain in strength. So far the long
fibre of Ohio wool, as represented in an American sample
which I used for comparison, was superior in wearing qual-
ity to the short staple referred to above. In this instance
the short staple and the difficulty of extracting the burs
may offer an explanation, though by no means a sufficient
one, for their exclusion. But this would not at all explain
why our manufacturers do not use Scotch wools and Irish
wools for flannels and for tweeds. They are of very low
shrinkage, and would give an article vastly superior to our
inferior looking substitutes.
At Inverness the best cheviot wool, with very light
shrinkage, sells at 22s. 6d. to 24s. the stone of 24 pounds.
This is equal to 24 cents a pound. The ordinary Scotch
wool sells at about 10s. the stone of 24 pounds, or at about
10 cents a pound. The price at Leeds is about 12 cents.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 305
Nothing makes a more desirable article for outside wear,
men's suiting, ulsters, and wraps for hard weather, than
Irish wool. It is suitable for all purposes. It is worked
into tweeds, friezes, worsteds, knitting yarn, etc. Irish
wool has always ranked high, and when it was a felony
under the old English law to export wool, the most lively
contraband trade with France was conducted along the
whole south and western coast of Ireland. Now the best
Irish, wool sells at 11s. the stone, or about 17 to 18 cents a
pound. This wool shrinks from 10 to 12 per cent, in scour-
ing. Knitting yarn made of it is sold by the mill at IQd., or
32 cents a pound. Against this our corresponding wools
cost near 30 cents, with a shrinkage in scouring of from 35
to 50 per cent. I have kept samples of all the fabrics in
which these wools are used. The most superficial exami-
nation would convince any one of the superior character of
these wools, and that it would be profitable to employ
them in our tweed, serge, cheviot, and worsted mills. The
crispness and spring of an Irish tweed before me, 54 inches
wide and 23 ounces in weight, at 3s. 9c?., less cash discount,
85 cents (all pure Irish wool), and the dull, cottony appear-
ance of an American tweed, 22 ounces in weight (the filling
wool and shoddy), and selling at the time at $1.25, less the
discount, would convince anybody that these wools would
give character to our goods and make them more desirable
than the spurious ones going under that name, without
increasing the cost.
Many other kinds of foreign wools could be mentioned,
equally low in price as these, and cheaper than American
wool of corresponding character, duty paid, on account of
their lower shrinkage in the scouring. I submitted some
o c
wool samples of American growth to Mr. Bowes of Liver-
pool, an acknowledged authority in all matter concerning
20
306
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
wool, for comparison with foreign wools used in England.
He selected the corresponding brands and sent them to an
expert in Leeds for analysis with these results :
1. Ohio XX.
2. Fine, year's growth, Texas.
3. Fall shearing, Texas.
4. Medium Colorado.
5. Spring California.
6. Coarse Colorado.
7. Superior New
washed.
8. Average New
washed.
9. Ordinary New
washed.
10. Ordinary Cape, unwashed.
11. Montevideo, unwashed.
12. Georgian, unwashed.
Zealand, un-
Zealand, un-
Zealand, un-
They stood after scouring as follows :
NUMBERS.
PBICES UNSCOURED.
SCOURED PRICES.
PER CENT. Loss IN
SCOURING.
American.
i
Tab
j
American.
j
"Si
p
M
American.
1
"Sb
a
m
1 and 7
Cents.
33
23^
21
20
21i
m
Cents.
22
15
13
10
13
Hi
Cent*.
67.5
61.4
65.6
48.8
70.7
14.0
Cents.
35.9
33.0
23.4
23.5
24.7
14.0
51.12
61.71
68.00
58.00
69.70
27.81
38.67
54.57
44.05
57.31
47.39
16.74
2 and 8
3 and 9
4 arid 10
5 and 11
Carpet wool. . . .
6 and 12
We have here three numbers of colonial growth (7, 8, and
9), at 13 cents, and below and at even a lower shrinkage
than the one referred to by the editor of the Journal of
Commerce. The fact, as he states, that " the manufacturer
does not pay the duty and import these wools," does not
at all disprove their existence, their profitable employment
by foreign manufacturers, and their importation in the form
of manufactured goods. By their aid, more than by the
cheapness of the labor, can so many goods be brought in
under the present high tariff, and much to the astonishment
of our manufacturers.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 307
Decline in "Wool Increase in Shoddy.
But if sheep and wool have not increased, despite an in-
crease of 50 per cent, in population, the importations of wool
and woolens have by no means been proportionate to the
gap to be filled. Our wool imports for 1870 were 49,000,-
000 pounds, and for 1890 105,000,000 pounds, 81,000,000
pounds of which were carpet wools, leaving only 25,000,000
pounds of clothing wool. The increase in clothing and
combing wool importation is slight, relatively speaking.
The woolen importations for 1870 were $34,500,000, and
$56,000,000 for 1890. Much of this large importation of
woolens is traceable to the tariff on wool. These woolen
imports show a considerable falling off for 1891, bat they
are by no means made up by the increase in raw-wool im-
portations of Class 1 and Class 2 (an increase of $3,000,000,
against a falling off in woolens of something like $15,000,-
000 to $20,000,000). It is admitted that the woolen indus-
try of the country had for some time not been in so
depressed a condition as in the two years following the
passage of the McKinley bill. Combining all these facts, it
will be seen that neither wool nor woolens based on the con-
sumable quantity of wool are produced in anything like the
quantities of 1870, considering the increase in population.
At the same time we cheerfully chronicle the fact that
we have not gone back to paradisaical conditions, but that
our people apparently wear woolen clothing. The supply
was never so abundant, if the trade aspects (depression in
woolens) reported by trade papers far and wide have any
meaning. More machinery is employed and more backs are
covered. Mr. Porter says that we manufactured $344,000,-
000 in 1890, against $276,000,000 in 1880. But where does
the wool come from ? Well, can woolens be made of wool
308
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
only ? By no means. "We live in a progressive age, and
if wool is made artificially high, we help ourselves by re-
course to art, and substitute "art wool" (the German term
" Kunst-wolle "), shoddy, for real wool, more and more from
year to year.
A comparison of the quantities of wool and wool substi-
tutes entering our mills in the two census years will make
this plain.
QUANTITIES OF RAW MATERIALS CONSUMED IN 1880 AND
1890 IN WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS (IN THOUSANDS).
Wool
ecourad.
IDS.
Shoddy.
Ibs.
Camel 's-
hair and
noils.
Ibs.
Mohair
and
noils.
Ibs.
All other
hair.
Ibs.
Cotton.
Ibs.
All other
materials,
including
yarns.
1890
155,236
54,470
6,192
2.09&
10,702
41,040
$33,500
1880
135,095
46,773
1,441
115
4,498
26,501
21,480
19,141
7,697
4,751
1,983
6,204
14,539
$12,020
The reader can draw his own inferences from this parallel.
Wool has increased 19 million pounds, about 15 per cent.
Wool substitutes, shoddy, hair, and cotton, have increased
35,000,000 pounds over the 79,000,000 pounds consumed in
1880, or about 40 per cent. This does not take into ac-
count the great proportion of cotton warps contained in
the item of "All other materials." Nor do I draw into this
comparison a similar decline in the proportion of real wool
to substitutes which took place in the decade from 1870
to 1880.
In 1870 the consumption of shoddy in our woolen mills
was 17,500,000 pounds ; in 1880 it was 46,000,000 pounds.
Exclusive of carpet wools, we consume in woolens and worst-
eds some 260,000,000 to 275,000,000 pounds of grease wool,
home growth and imported. This wool shrinks more than is
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3Q9
given in the census report. If we assume the shrinkage in
the scouring to be only 50 per cent., there would be left 135,-
000,000 pounds of clean wool to be put against 112,000,000
of substitutes, shoddy, hair and cotton. Such facts in their
brutal, massive force point out a state of decadence under
oppressive tariff taxation, principally taxation of raw mate-
rials, far more graphically than any dissertation could.
CHAPTER XL
Woolens and Worsteds. Method pursued in Comparative Inquiry.
Inadequacy of Inquiry of National Bureau of Labor. Labor Cost in
Worsteds in America and England. Failure of America in Spite of
Tariff Increase. Reasons. All the Benefits reaped by Great Cor-
porations. General Depression in Woolens and Worsteds following
the Tariff Increase.
IN an industry as varied as "Woolens," it will readily
be admitted no satisfactory evidence could be gained for
comparing cost of production, except by the plan here
adopted : to select American samples of products of leading
branches of the industry, find the places in England where
corresponding goods are manufactured, and there obtain all
available information for comparison with the American
data. Nobody at all conversant with manufacturing, or
commercial matters, even, could possibly think of any other
method. There are dozens of different articles, and as many
qualities in each leading branch. Each article bears a dif-
ferent percentage of labor to material. The finer tissues
have more yards to the pound of wool, hence higher spin-
ning cost and greater weaving expense than the coarser or
heavier goods. In mixed goods, in shoddy and cotton, etc.,
the labor cost would be rather more than less than in the
all-wool article, on account of the greater difficulty of work-
ing poor yarns than good, sound ones. Yet the ratio of
labor to material, equal in the shoddy or mixed goods,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3H
would under the same labor cost be 1 to 2 or 3 in the all-
wool Jabric. But still so plain and natural a method has
never been followed, while others which could not lead to
any bat spurious results were pursued for want of better
knowledge, showing again that the most commonplace
truths are most liable to be overlooked in the theoretic
treatment of economic questions. Taking 50 for wool and
25 for labor in a pound of all-wool cloth in England, the re-
lations are 2 material and 1 labor. In the shoddy article
we should have, let us say, 20 for material and 20 for labor,
and get relations of 1 to 1. Finer goods, requiring more
labor, would perhaps stand : wool 60 and labor 90, or 2 to 3.
This is the case in a great number of the higher grade fab-
rics. Adding these three representative formulas, we get 5
for material and 5 for labor : cost of material and cost of
labor would be equal in such classification as pursued by
the census, though the items be as different as has been
shown. Upon such statistical data our economic deductions
are based. Adding up columns of unrelated parts and
drawing averages from them has been the chief employment
of official labor statisticians. Eecent publications show
that this is not an exaggerated statement. For comparison
with other countries such methods would become still more
hazardous. In America, with the high cost of materials,
an} 7 given ratio of labor to material would express condi-
tions entirely different from those expressed by the same
ratio in countries where the raw material is untaxed, and
therefore represents not more than one-half or two-thirds the
American cost.
For example, if we take the ratio of England in the three
kinds of goods named, and translate the formula into Amer-
ican prices of wool, with equal cost in labor as paid in Eng-
land, we should obtain the following relations:
312 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
(a) ENGLISH COST.
Material. Labor. Ratio.
1 50 25 2:1
2 20 20 1:1
3.. ..60 90 2:3
5:5
(6) AMERICAN COST.
Material. Labor. Ratio.
1 90 25 9 :2
2 30 20 3:2
3 100 90 10:9
The total here reached would be 22 : 13 5 , or about 63
per cent, material against 37 per cent, labor. Labor, though
at the same cost as in England, would be quoted as less
in the cost of the fabric, a fact of not infrequent occurrence
in deductions and debates based on statistical tables. So
without going much farther, it will be seen that comparisons
on averages and percentages are out of the question. For
the same reason a comparison between European and Amer-
ican cost on the basis of the pound weight " in woolens,"
as has lately been attempted, will be equally impracticable.
Another method pursued is the subject of the report of the
Commissioner of Labor at Washington. His report covers
not less than 237 numbers of woolens, worsteds, dress-goods,
flannels, etc. But strange to say, though quite a number
of the bureau's agents were scattered over Europe for the
last two or three years to collect data, none of the foreign
goods reported on resemble either in name or character any
of the goods classified as from America. Comparing an
article with itself does not impart much information. But
even percentage calculations or pound comparisons from
this report would be entirely impossible aside from the
strictures made above, because in the English materials we
have the yarn as the basis, in the American, the wool. In
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. SIB
the English the dyeing, done outside, is an entirely different
coefficient than in America, where it is done in the mill. In
America it is part of mill labor ; in England it appears
under a different heading. Comparisons must be based on
commercial realities, figures, weight, and measure of identi-
cal objects, and report facts which can at all times be proven
or disproven. Subject to the dissecting criticism of politi-
cal and industrially interested opponents, their accuracy
must be considered established if they stand this severest of
all tests.
Worsteds and Combed Yarn Goods.
People have of late years become familiar with worsteds,
by the attention the article received in the press through
the discussions in Congress and litigations in the courts.
The tariff was increased from 35 cents a pound and 35 per
cent, ad valorem for goods over 60 cents and under 80
cents a pound (the goods forming the bulk of importations)
to the new duty of 44 cents a pound and 50 per cent, ad
valorem. The manufacturers obtained four times the duty
of grease wool in the pound of cloth, though it barely takes
3 pounds of Ohio wool to manufacture a pound of worsted
cloth. A worsted mill whose accounts I was permitted to
make extracts from had used 275 pounds of wool in 100
pounds of yarn. Bradford manufacturers in a recent state-
ment declared that when using Botany wool in warp and
weft the} 7 " require 34 ounces of grease wool in every 16
ounces of cloth. This would be 212| pounds of grease
wool only in 100 pounds of cloth. With a full 11 cents
extra protection in the cloth (allowing 3 pounds of wool
even to the pound of cloth protected by 3x11=33), and 50
per cent on the total value, all difficulties ought to seem
removed, the foreign imports to be stopped, and satisfaction
314 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
and quiet to rule supreme among the manufacturers of
worsteds. But no. By their own admission things are not
as expected when they obtained their full allowance in
the McKinley act. It will be an interesting object lesson
to go hunting for the causes of failure while outside appear-
ances all seem to be favoring success.
The Labor.
The first consideration is the labor. "We are willing to
concede its higher cost in worsted manufacturing. In Phila-
delphia, especially, the worsted mills have to pay higher rates
than in the country near by, or in Ehode Island and Mas-
sachusetts. Labor .is scarce, and, on account of the great
variety of kindred industries, in constant demand there.
But still it is a determinable quantity. I made an inquiry
into the relative labor cost of a yard of sixteen-ounce black
worsteds (so-called corkscrews) from the wool up. I took
an American sample of the goods, with all the details of
cost of the various divisions, and made comparisons on the
same article in Bradford. It must be understood that Brad-
ford is the lowest place in England, and Philadelphia the
highest in America for the manufacture of these goods. At
Huddersfield the cost would be higher for England, in
Ehode Island lower for America.
There are differences in the manufacturing methods, as
in almost all other manufacturing branches treated in this
inquiry, relative to America and England.
The American mill manufactures the cloth from the wool.
The English buys the yarn, weaves the cloth, and has the
dyeing and finishing done outside. The supplies and gen-
eral expense account in the American mill are distributed
over the whole cost from the wool to the cloth. In the Eng-
lish account the spinning mill as well as the dyeing and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 315
finishing establishments had to be investigated separately.
Each of these three stands in the nature of commission spin-
ner, commission dyer, or commission finisher toward the
weaver or manufacturer or the commission merchant, who
frequently employs all four. Each of the four, of course,
charges a profit on the product of his own works. The
labor, however, is net expense in every item.
In the cost of spinning, doubling, and twisting, no differ-
ence exists. Nor could I find any in the combing, which is
a separate branch in England. A difference only exists in
the sorting cost, being hand labor. The comparison will
show this :
1. The cost of spinning a pound of No. 2-40 yarn :
PENNSYLVANIA. BRADFORD.
Expense,
Labor. Expense. Labor. etc.
Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents.
Sorting ....................... 3.00 ____ 1.5 ____
Scouring and carding .......... 1.13 . . . . i n ~ OR
Combing ...................... 2.48 ...)
Spinning ..................... 2.63 ....) 45 3g
Doubling and twisting ......... 2.29 1.32f
11.53 1.32 9.5 7.0
The total cost of the yarn is higher in England, because
of the profit of the wool comber and the spinner, contained
under expense, which is not contained in the American
mill account
2. In the weaving I found the labor and expense :
PENNSYLVANIA. BRADFORD.
Expense,
Labor. Expense. Labor. etc.
Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents.
Weaving ...................... 16.2 ____ 7.N ____
Warping ...................... 3.7 .... 1.8 7.17
Mending and burning .......... 4.5 .... 1.8 ....
24.4 10.77 7.17
316 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
3. In the dyeing the account stands :
PENNSYLVANIA.
Supplies
and
Labor.
Expense.
Cents.
Cents.
Dyeing. . .
1.0
4.3
Finishing, etc
3.1
1.0
Total. .
. 4.1
5.3
BRADFORD.
Sup-
Labor, plies, etc.
Cents. Cents.
2.7 2.9
2.0 4.0
4.7 6.9
The 4.3 cents in the dyeing includes soap and coal besides
the dyestuff. The mill used water power besides. In
recapitulating, we obtain the following collective data:
. PENNSYLVANIA. BRADFORD.
Labor. Expense. Labor. Expense.
Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents.
No. 1. Sorting, scouring, and
carding, combing and spinning. 11. 53 1.32 9.5 7.0
No. 2. Weaving, etc 24.4 .... 10.77 7.17
No. 3. Dyeing and finishing 4.1 5.3 4.7 6.9
To the expense has to be added,
weekly wages and salaries 2 . 70
General expenses and sundries 1 . 32
Total 40.03 10.64 24.97 21.07
A difference of 15 cents in labor, mainly in the weaving,
while in all other departments the labor cost is nearly the
same. And this is all the labor difference in worsted coat-
ings. The cost difference, however, is only one of 5 cents
between the goods leaving the finishing room in America,
and the English goods re-entering the office of the manufac-
turer or the commission merchant, when returned from the
finisher's shop.
The cloth in England was then worth 4s. 2c?. net, or $1 a
yard. The labor and other associated items given above as
46.04 cents bring up the cost to 94.04 cents. Landed in
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 317
New York with duty at 35 cents a pound and 40 per cent.
ad valorem
Brings the cloth to cost $1.75
Add 7 per cent, discount 16
Add importer's profit 25
These goods could not be sold at less than $2.16
from first hand.
The asking price of the American goods was $2.25, less
5 per cent., and 7 per cent, cash discount, which is $2.13,
less 7 per cent, or $1.98 net. From this we have to deduct
the selling expense, 7 per cent, to the commission merchant,
and other possible charges, say 10 per cent., and we have
net $1.78 to the manufacturer's credit. The goods cost in
Labor, etc. , as shown above 40.03
Supplies and other expenses 10.65
The wool stood. ., 84.10
Total $1.84.78
leaving under the old law 43 cents for profit and to what-
ever capital charges. The difference in the labor and
general manufacturing cost is 5 cents, but in the cost of
the wool 36 cents, or 10 per cent more in the former and
75 per cent, more in the wool.
In order to be able to test the general applicability of this
account, I obtained a corroborating statement from a Phila-
delphia manufacturer who buys the yarn. He stated the
weaving price in his mill to be 19^ cents, or 3fy cents
more than paid in the mill cited above. The Philadel-
phian's admission of paying higher rates than elsewhere fully
corroborates the above. This manufacturer is an importer
as well. He has the yarn -bought, the worsteds woven, and
frequently imported in the gray, and dyed in Philadelphia.
He finds labor in dyeing cheaper in. Philadelphia than in
318 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Bradford. At any rate, he can get worsted coating dyed in
outside establishments at 6 cents. Hence the dyeing rates
are not different in his finding from those stated in the com-
parison. The other parts in the weaving department he
covers by 40 per cent, of the weaving rate, and this part,
along with general and finishing expense, supplies, etc. in
fact, every item of getting the goods ready for the market
would be fully covered, according to their rule (the rule of
the Bradford commission weavers) of reckoning, by the
additional charge of the weaving rate.
Hence the two compare :
Outside
Philadelphia. Philadelphia.
Gents. Cents.
Weaving labor 19.6 16.3
Other labor in weaving and finishing, weekly
wages, salaries, and supplies 19.6 16.32
Dyeing 6.0 5.1
45.2 37.72
The Yarn.
The spinning cost, as has been shown above, is not differ-
ent from Bradford rates. The American mill from which I
got the above data turned out 6,500 pounds of yarn a
week, woven into cloth on the premises. Here the spinning
cost is 12.85 cents and the wool 84 cents a total of 96.85
cents. That this is a substantially correct net cost statement
for yarn spinning is proven by the fact, that the Philadelphia
house referred to, and whose reputation for ability and fair
dealing stands second to none, imported Bradford yarns of
the same numbers and corresponding quality of wool at 30
pence, or 60 cents, and paid duty on yarn, 18 cents a pound ;
35 per cent, ad valorem, 20 cents; charges to land, 5 cents ;
a total of $1.03.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 3 19
As domestic yams are always held somewhat below Eng-
lish yarns, the two come remarkably close. The American
yarn could certainly not cost the spinner, then, above the
price stated and find a market among manufacturers of
worsteds, who are but sparingly supplied with machinery
for combing and spinning worsted yarns. An additional
cost is probably to be added to the yarn for loss in the weav-
ing. But this would not exceed 10 cents in the pound of
cloth in our calculation. Making allowance for all the contin-
gencies, under the old law the manufacturer who made his
own yarn had a profit of 35 cents, and if he bought his yarn,
of 20 to 25 cents, a yard. It must be said, however, that
American worsteds never ranked with English worsteds. It
is, therefore, by no means to be taken for granted that the
above-quoted selling price at all represented the price gener-
ally realized. Still the margin of profit was large enough
under the then existing tariff to give ample protection to
competent manufacturers. But an increase of protection
was asked for under many misrepresentations at the time.
Under the new tariff the duty on these same goods is four
times the duty of unscoured wool, or 44 cents a pound and
50 per cent ad valorem. This brings our 4s. 2c, or $1,
cloth up to $1.94, instead of $1.75, as above an additional
20 cents, even where not necessary from the producer's stand-
point. He ought to be satisfied surely from the face of the
thing. But he is not ; and, what is more, he has reason for his
dissatisfaction. He probably knows by this time that pro-
tection cuts both ways. We have here a most forcible illus-
tration of the neutralization of protection by the burdens it
creates. Yarn has been increased in duty from 18 cents a
pound and 35 per cent, ad valorem (in this quality) to three
and a half times the wool duty, or 38 cents and 40 per cent.
ad valorem. The manufacturer who used to import foreign
320 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
yarns at $1.03 a pound would now have to pay 60 cents pins
38 plus 24 plus 5 cents, or $1.27, a clear 100 per cent, duty
on yarn. In reality, No. 2-40 worsted yarn, made of Austra-
lian wool, is worth in the Philadelphia market from $1.22| to
$1.25, and of American wool about $1.17$ to $1.20. Great
profits are made by the yarn makers to the detriment of the
cloth industry. The manufacturer who has to buy his yarn,
and the majority of the makers of worsteds are in that posi-
tion, is now worse off than before the increase.
On the cost of the worsted cloth in reference, the results
are as follows :
Protection before the advent of McKinley, 75 cents.
Protection after the advent of McKinley, 94 cents.
Yarn '. . $1.03 $1.27|
Dyeing, shrinkage of yarn in manufacturing, etc. 15 17
Manufacturing cost, including labor and expense. . 39 39
Total $1.57 1.83*
He has 19 cents extra protection, but has to pay 26 cents
more, or 7 cents in excess of what he got in the great
bargain he brought home from Washington Fair. But the
troubles invited by the tariff increase are not ended here.
Of course, the foreign manufacturer will not let his best
market slip from under his fingers. He improves the oppor-
tunities which the incapables who framed these laws offer
him so freely. He has the free choice of all the wools of the
globe. We have seen how he profits by it. He makes the
sixteen-ounce summer article to weigh fourteen or fifteen
ounces ; the twenty-two-ounce winter cloth to weigh twenty
ounces, and thus saves first one-eighth pound, or one-eighth
of 44 cents 5 cents. He reduces the cost a few cents here
and a few cents there and there is always some margin in
manufacturing for economy, when closely pressed and, by
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 321
practicing these and by the savings in duty, is enabled to sell
his all-worsted cloth even at a little less than the price before
the new law went into effect. Of course, we know that this
is not fair in our cousin on the other side of the water. He
ought to have given warning to our Philadelphia friends.
But we are not moral teachers, and have to regard the de-
pravity of human nature in trade matters as a fact to be
accepted without discussion. Our manufacturers endeavor
to meet this. But how ? An analysis recently undertaken
by the Dry Goods Economist gives the following facts :
A worsted fabric, weighing twenty-two to twenty-three
ounces, varying in price from a piece-dyed, solid black at
$1.50 to fancy weaves from $1.62 to $1.75, was found to
be made up of a worsted warp, which only composed the
face and constituted 28 per cent, of the weight, and the
filling making the balance of 72 per cent, and entirely
cotton and shoddy, in the proportion of 92 per cent, of
cotton and 7 per cent, of shoddy. A finer fabric, sell-
ing at $2.42, was to all appearances a solid worsted
fabric, both face and back. An examination, however,
proved these appearances deceptive. The worsted of three-
eighths and delaine stock, yet every alternate pick of filling
was cotton, as also the warp between the filling cord and
the back warp. Thus we have a cloth which every one but
an expert would call an all-wool worsted cloth, containing
21 per cent, of cotton and 79 per cent, of worsted.
A third example shows that the percentage of worsted to
the rest of the fabric varies from 35 to 40 per cent., accord-
ing to the pattern. The remainder of the cloth was cotton.
Another fabric, a worsted-faced suiting cloth which sells
at $2, was composed of 58 per cent, delaine worsted, while
the back, composing the rest of the piece, was entirely
cotton.
21
322 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Another cloth was a cotton-filled, piece-dyed worsted,
three-fourth width, ranging in price from 38 cents to 52
cents per yard. The worsted warp is chiefly composed of
quarter-blood, and comprises from 20 to 45 per cent, of the
total weight of the cloth. The filling is entirely cotton,
and makes up the balance of 80 to 55 per cent, of the
weight
From these cotton and shoddy and part-worsted fabrics
we rise to the better and best grades. But even these are
only half worsted yarn and half wool yarn. The consumer
has to be content with three-quarters cotton and shoddy,
and one-quarter worsted, at prices for which he could
get all- worsted fabrics if wool were free of duty. He has
the choice between wearing heavy and baggy cotton-and-
wool suits, or paying the difference and keeping to the
foreign article. In the lighter weights he has selected this
latter course, and appearances seem to indicate that he will
incline to this even in a large measure in the heavier
weights so long as worsteds will keep in good demand.
But in either way he gets cheated. He either gets for his
dollar's worth of worsteds more cotton and shoddy, or less
weight of wool in the yard than before. A clear blood tax,
take it as you please.
That under such conditions large importations would con-
tinue is but a matter of course. In no year was the depres-
sion so deep as in the year and a half following the Mc-
Kinley act. That the importations fell off considerably in
this line is due entirely to the change in fashion from
worsteds to cheviots and other soft wool fabrics, and not to
the duty increase, as is manifest from the above compar-
isons. The real worsted cloth is brought from abroad, and
is not to any greater extent interfered with by the home
product than was the case before the enactment
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 323
Italian Cloths
were not very successfully brought out as articles of manu-
facture in America, though the duties ranged way up in the
eighties and nineties.
Some $5,000,000 worth of Italian cloths were imported
annually under these rates of a compound duty : For goods
under 20 cents per square yard, 5 cents per square yard and
35 per cent; and above 20 cents, 7 cents per square yard
and 40 per cent; and if weighing over 4 ounces, 35 cents
per pound and 40 per cent, ad valorem. This has been
changed, and stands now as follows : For goods not exceed-
ing 15 cents per square yard, 7 cents per square yard and
40 per cent ad valorem ; for goods exceeding 15 cents per
square yard, 8 cents per square yard and 50 per cent ad
valorem; and for goods weighing over 4 ounces per square
yard, 44 cents a pound and 50 per cent ad valorem.
In the place of explaining what these increases signify, I
will give the cost under which identical goods were landed
before the new tariff went into force and what they cost
now. The goods are imported by a leading house in the
line of worsteds and'ltalian cloths. There is an additional
charge on the goods of 1 cent per running yard to cover
expenses, and 10 per cent to cover discount and interest to
carry stock. Otherwise net
LANDING COST OF THIRTY-TWO-INCH ITALIANS
WEIGHING UNDER FOUE OUNCES.
Fo
P
1
reign Cost
ier Yard.
Cents.
.12*
.m
Old Tariff ., VRlorpm New Tariff
Cost. Ad V alorem - cost.
Cents. Per cent. Cents.
24 103 27*
32 87 37*
Ad Valorem.
Per cent.
125
120
2
3
15*
.171
.28*
34i
OVER
29|
32f
52f
66?
FOUR OUNCES.
92
87
84
93
40|
44|
72
82i
163
158
159
139
4
5
6
324 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
"With the addition of the importer's profit, these goods
stand the wholesale clothier or dealer at the closest :
Foreign Cost. Old Price. Ad Valorem. New Price. Ad Valorem.
Cents. Cents. Per cent. Cents. Per cent.
1 12i 27 122 30* 150
2 17* 36 108 43* 140
3 15* 33 103 45 190
4 17} 36 108 50 190
5 28* 60 112 80 180
6 34* 75 118 92 167
The lowest quality of home-made Italians was protected
by 122 per cent., and none of these qualities could be sold
at less than 108 per cent, above the price at which any cloth
house or clothier could buy these goods in England. Now
the consumer has to pay from 30 to 50 cents for an article
which costs in England from 12 to 17|- cents a yard, and
in character of goods, color, and finish is superior to what
has ever been produced in this country. The history of the
manufacture of Italian cloths in America is not a very
bright one. Many tried the manufacture, none succeeded
in giving satisfactory goods to the trade. One mill kept up
the struggle and turned out fairly good*cloth, but even their
goods were always sold under the price which the English
goods brought. Italian cloth is one of the most difficult
articles to manufacture. The English take the finest and
best Botany wool and Egyptian cotton for the warp yarn.
Egyptian cotton has advantages barely known to our people,
judging from the limited quantity in which it is used. For
fine yarn goods and fine warps it is far superior to Ameri-
can, though in price not much above our good middling
cotton. It makes a silky thread and takes the dye far better
than American cotton. Hence the English are very eager
purchasers of it. By the lowness of materials and intelli-
gent selection they are able to furnish now a better cloth than
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 325
ever before, at prices that seem hardly credible from our
standpoint. We are so debauched in our ideas of wool and
woolen prices, that our standard of measurement has come
to be entirely out of relation with that of the rest of the
world. We force the people to either pay 150 or 200 per
cent, above the foreign price of so useful and common an
article as Italian cloth, or to forego its use and use cotton
instead. The beneficiary of this policy is at present one
very large corporation which has now a greater margin for
profit making as well as for experimenting.*
The profits which these corporations reap are enormous,
though the labor is not paid more than the rates usual in
Massachusetts and Ehode-Island in woolen mills, rates lower
than in almost any other industrial employment. One of
these corporations in its own report showed a profit of over
$900,000 on a capital of $2,000,000, or about 45 per cent.
The treasurer, of this corporation is the originator of the
woolen and worsted clause in the new tariff, and has for
years urged the tariff increase for the better protection of
American labor. The false pretense cannot be more clearly
shown than by an occasional reference to the proceedings
before the Congressional Committee on Ways and Means on
the one hand, and the facts as revealed from the mill and
the counting-room on the other hand.
Mohair and Other Combed-Wool Dress Goods.
The same tariff clause applies to dress goods with cotton
warp cashmeres, mohairs, siciliennes, alpacas, etc. Cash-
* The Italian cloths made here were deficient in the finishing, not to
speak of other defects. The sizing and color run more to one side, gave
lustre unevenly divided. In manufacturing them into garments they had
often to be returned after being cut up, as the shadings in the parts would
injure the salability of the finished goods.
326 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
meres, except in all wool, prospered well enough under the
old tariff. It seemed for a time as if lustre goods would
come into great use again for dress goods, but this proved
deceptive. As linings for men's wear they have come quite
in demand of late, however, which fact furnishes an expla-
nation of the duty increase.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF COTTON WARP, LUSTRE
DRESS GOODS. FOREIGN COST AND IMPORTER'S SELL-
ING PRICE UNDER OLD AND NEW DUTY.
MOHAIK BRILLIANTINE.
In.
English
Cost.
Cents.
Old Araeri- Above New Above
can Price. English. Price. English.
Cents. Per cent. Cents. Per cent.
27
13
27
108
82i
150
27
38
15
17
80^
36
102
112
36
43
140
154
38
m
40
108
48
150
MOHAIR
SlCILIENNE
(OVER 4
OUNCES) LARGELY
USED FOR
LININGS.
27
Itt
19
25
40
118
110
34
48
195
152
42
22
47
108
62
180
. .
29i
62
110
73
148
. .
40^
80
98
97
140
Whatever is produced in this class of combed-wool dress
goods, linings, etc., is made by a few powerful corpora-
tions. Their manufacture is so risky, and requires so
great an outlay for machinery, principally combing ma-
chinery, that the makers of carded-wool dress goods and
they are the mass of our manufacturers could not, even if
they would, take up these lines. Hence these few concerns
have everything their own way. It is they who managed
and carried the increase of duty in these branches. It is
they alone who reap the benefits under the tariff, limited only
by their ability of turning out goods satisfactory to the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 327
trade. In this, however, they have rarely succeeded, except
in the lower numbers.
But it is always the few great capital concerns who reap,
while the many hundreds of smaller manufacturers are ex-
cluded from the benefits. They have to plot and to grind
at the wheel, or are ground under the wheel, and the people
have to pay these tremendous taxes on dress goods, linings,
and necessaries of life. I hope nobody will dispute their
being necessaries of life.
CHAPTER XII.
Carded- wool Goods. Labor not Higher than in England. Flannels and
other Fabrics would be Exportable but for the Wool Tariff.
IN carded-wool goods American manufacturers are in
much safer position. The nap of the cloth covers up a great
deal which in worsteds and combed goods is provokingly
forward in making a display of itself. Still, they do very
well in flannels, sackings, and cloths, so long as they stick
to the genuine wool and keep to the standard both in wool
and in the goods, a thing not always practiced in woolen
manufacturing.
Whatever foreign importations are brought over are
brought on account of the superior character, and indepen-
dently of the American substitute as to price. This has
been so under the old tariff, and will remain so until we
learn to build upward instead of downward, which again
cannot be done unless we have the wools necessary for the
desired effects. The class of goods of which we treat now
under the old tariff would have paid 24 cents a pound and
35 per cent, an ad valorem equivalent of 68 per cent. Un-
der the new tariff they pay like all-wool dress -goods, Ital-
ians, etc., made of combed wool, 44 cents a pound and 50
per cent, an ad valorem equivalent of 110 per cent None
of this class needed extra protection, as will be seen in the
sequel. None of this class could be imported or were im-
ported under the old duty, except fancy fabrics of better
styles and superior workmanship, and better selection of
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 329
wools. They do not militate against our own goods. On
the contrary, these importations are the only healthful stim-
ulation which our manufacturers receive and of which they
are certainly very much in need.
Dress Goods.
In dress goods a change has taken place in favor of the
softer goods, the same as in men's wear, against cashmeres
(made of combed wool) which had a run for quite a num-
ber of years. The trouble in dress goods is that one can
seldom say from one season to another what class of goods
will be in demand. Hence, the domestic manufacturer with
his limited market is always tossed about between the rocks
of over-production and of inability to supply the goods just
in demand. In this the foreign manufacturer has an advan-
tage. He originates fashions and designs for America as
well as for the rest of the world. He can turn his looms
with ease and more readily than our manufacturers, partly
because he works on a smaller and more scattered basis (in
Germany * and France a very large number of hand-looms
are still in operation) than our big concerns, and partly be-
cause he has the world's nations as his customers, and is,
therefore, not engaged with his entire force on one and the
same class or style of goods.
Importations will for these reasons always go on. whether
we continue advancing the tariff or not, and the bulk will
continue to be made here after increase or reduction of
tariffs. Whether with a profit or without, depends entirely
on whether manufacturers happen to hit the things in de-
mand or not. That the labor cost plays no great part in
this can be seen from a statement of comparative cost re-
* See page 157.
330 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
lating to dress goods of carded wool, so-called sackings.
These goods are very extensively manufactured, and at
present are in good demand. They are of the flannel kind,
and what applies to these in the manufacturing and cost
is applicable to sackings, too, as also to stripes or plaids.
The principal difference is that sackings are dyed in the
wool or in the piece, plaids in the yarn. But even this is an
infinitesimal quantity in cost, as will be seen farther on.
The shuttle, of course, carries with equal speed and equal
good-will, whether freighted with yarns of one color or of
many colors or yarn in the gray.
The goods in America are made from the wool up, carded,
spun, woven, dyed, and finished in the mill. The English
goods, to which the comparison relates, are made complete
in the mill except the dyeing and finishing, which is done by
outside parties. I found the relation to stand thus :
Comparison of cost (in cents) of 6-4 sackings, 6f ounces
to the yard, calculated on the pound basis in
MASSACHUSETTS. ENGLAND.
Sup- Sup-
Labor, plies. Total. Labor, plies. Total.
Scouring, carding, and spinning. .. 4.8 1.1 5.9 4 1.5 5.5
Weaving, beaming, burling, etc. .. 9.62 .8510.47 7.4 ... 7.4
Dyeing 8 1.1 1.9 8
Fulling and finishing 2.6 2.6 4
Charges, etc.* 11.4 13
3'_>.27 37.9
Wool. . 70 32
Total $1.02.27 69.9
The general cost outside of the wool was stated by the
* The charges for the American goods cover the following items : Wool
expense, $836 ; general expense, $10,106 ; rent, $2,884 ; insurance,
$352 ; taxes, $1,009 ; interest, $3,461 ; and cover half a year, with a
product of 163,614 pounds of woven goods.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 331
manufacturer as being covered by 33 cents a pound. In
England the dyeing and finishing is higher, being done out-
side. The American dyeing cost has to be corrected, being
higher than given in my report on these dress goods. I inti-
mated then, that some corrections might be necessary. The
American goods are dyed in the wool. The mill manufac-
tures, besides the all-wool goods, a considerable quantity of
cotton mixed goods, and has the cotton dyed outside before
it is carded in with the wool. This item of cost has to be
added. An additional sum of 1.9 cents would amply cover
this, as by the account of the mill rendered to me subse-
quently.
Goods of the same weight dyed in the piece, in all colors
except navy blue and myrtle green, cost 4.6 cents the pound
by the account of the mills to the commission merchant,
who is the selling agent for the goods in question.
Allowing for this difference, there is still sufficient margin
in the general cost to make American flannels and carded-
wool dress goods independent of foreign competition were
there no tariff whatever. The American weaver gets 2.65
cents per yard of these goods, turns out about 300 yards per
week, and earns, accordingly, $7.95. The English weaver
gets (7. Sd. per piece of 72 yards) 2.56 cents per yard, turns
out 105 yards on an average, and earns $2.71. Both are
paid by the piece at nearly the same rate. The American
operator handles two looms, works harder and longer hours.
The Yorkshire girls handle one loom and are satisfied with,
earning 12s. a week. " Higher than 15s. their ambition
seldom goes," a manufacturer told me. This is the Alpha
and the Omega, the question and the answer, in the problem
of to-day. This class of goods needs nothing so much as
free wool to make it exportable. Manufacturers know this
very well, and have been very outspoken at times about it.
332 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
How could it be otherwise? The general cost of pro-
duction aside from the wool is somewhat below foreign
cost, but the wool costs more than twice as much as
abroad.
It was pointed out at the time by the editor of the Boston
Journal of Commerce that I had allowed 20 per cent, for
shrinkage in the manufacture of the clean wool in the Eng-
lish cost and not in the American cost My aim at that
time was more to get at the manufacturing differences than at
precise wool cost, which, as I stated then in my report, could
be corrected. With the 20 per cent, added, the relative wool
cost would have stood as 84 American against 32 cents Eng-
lish cost. Hence, the smaller price seemed the safer to accept
in consideration of the selling price of the goods. As to the
objections raised against the price of the English wool, I
have answered them on page 303. The statement made
there, in reference to the wool question in general, found
emphatic support from an American manufacturer and com-
mission merchant. He writes to rne on the subject:
"English goods are invariably made out of a blend, and in this blend
there are all the way from five to twenty different qualities of wool, each
of which is associated with it to give some desirable quality to the goods,
either of texture, finish, or price. ... I am obliged nearly every week to
refuse profitable contracts to make goods which would occupy consider-
able quantities of American machinery, simply because the raw stock and
the experience of handling the same do not exist in this country. The
importation of the former is prohibited by the tariff and the tariff, is like-
wise responsible for our inexperience in handling certain raw stocks, which
have been excluded from this market for upward of twenty-five years."
Here we have the whole difficulty. We have not the
experience in handling raw stocks, nor have we the stocks
of wool required for the blending, because they have been
excluded from the market for upward of twenty-five years.
Otherwise we could employ our cheap labor and working
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 333
methods very profitably on orders now going constantly to
foreign countries. It needs no emphasizing that this gen-
tleman asks for no other favors than free wool.
Answering by " If."
That the statement of the hard fact that the cost of pro-
duction, irrespective of wool, is not higher in America in
the labor, and in the total even lower, than in England,
should be assailed, and its refutation attempted by those
who were for years scrambling for higher duties on woolens,
was to be foreseen. Hence it can be well understood that I
took especial care to satisfy myself of the correctness of my
information. This explains why I acquaint the reader with
the manner of the investigation. As in our fight for open
markets and lighter burdens so much depends on the facts,
it is certainly necessary that facts like the above, upon which
the case is rested, should be unassailably correct and be
safely depended upon as absolutely correct, and, therefore, if
they are challenged by what appears competent authority, it
also follows that the challenge should be answered.
The report on this subject found wide discussion at the
time. The leading papers commented on the evident lessons.
Some one had to reply so as to save the theory that pro-
tective duties were required on account of the wages, and
the treasurer of the Farr Alpaca Company was good enough
to assume this duty of chivalry. The head of so large
a corporation principally engaged in the manufacture of
" dress goods " would certainly be the fittest person to
silence all who accepted, and possibly in argument made
use of the statistical facts and comparisons. And so he did,
judging from the quiet that reigned ever after. It escaped
notice, however:
334 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
First, that the Fair Alpaca Company, as the name, even,
would indicate, makes goods of combed wool only, such as
cashmeres, Italian cloths, and mohair and alpaca goods, and
that I had distinctly stated that " they are made of carded
wool, and are of plain flannel weave. They represent,
therefore, manufacturing flannels as well as sackings or
ladies' cloth." The two kinds of goods are so essentially
different, and are manufactured on such different bases, that
it would show either great ignorance or great disingenuous-
ness to substitute one for the other.
Second, it escaped notice that the treasurer of the Alpaca
Company offered no data from his own mill. He pro-
ceeded by ifs and innuendoes and by statements obtained
from dyeing establishments in Philadelphia. In regard to
the yarn, he says that, if the wool price were as low in
England as stated against the price here, the yarns could be
imported, and, with the manufacturing and dyeing done as
cheaply as appears from the mill account, "they [the
American manufacturers] would not only monopolize the
home market, but be able to export under the tariff clause,
for a drawback of duty on goods exported when wholly
manufactured of material imported." Precisely. But who
has ever heard of flannel yarns or carded wool yarns as an
article of export in England? Our flannel mills make their
own yarns, the same as in England. For combing yarns the
short wools in the English goods are entirely unsuitable, as
the gentleman undoubtedly knows. But combed yarns were
always imported in large quantities until the new tariff, as
the gentleman must likewise know, gave a monopoly to
the American spinners and to the Farr Alpaca Company
and a few other large corporations, the Arlington Mills, etc.
They undoubtedly know the reasons why the tariff on yarns
was put up so high, as they were the parties who prepared
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 335
the tariff clauses relating to these points so profitable to
them and so disadvantageous to all other branches.
It would be very interesting to get a detailed statement
of the cost of the company's goods ; but upon this subject
the treasurer is eloquently silent. Upon the cost of flannels
or sackings he is hardly a competent person to speak. Yet
he creates the impression that he is treating identical goods.
Not a very creditable method, to controvert by substitution
of different articles and by befogging the people. That he
had cashmeres in view, and not sackings, when he spoke of
" all-wool dress goods dyed black " is seen from the weight
of the goods, for which he obtained the price from " a job
dyer in Philadelphia." * They are 35 inches wide, six yards
to the pound, or two and two-thirds ounces to the square
yard about one-third the weight of sackings or ladies'
cloth, which are about two yards to the pound. Cashmeres
are certainly a more expensive article to dye on the pound
basis than flannels or sackings. One may send them to dye-
houses, and importers and others frequently do so, but
manufacturers of flannels and sackings are certainly not in
this habit. The job dyers make a good profit out of their
advantage on the cashmeres, which the manufacturers of
flannels and sackings find it useful to keep for their own
benefit.
The job dyers pay freight, general charges, and a number
of expenses which the manufacturers either do not figure or
classify with the total general expense. The job dyer also
expects to make a profit, and I am informed by a manufact-
urer who occasionally sends goods to job dyers that these
items amount to about 40 per cent, of the total price asked
by the job dyer. Accordingly what would stand on the
* The Farr Alpaca Company's mills are in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
33 G THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
books of a mill dyeing its own goods as 6 cents, would be
charged as 10 cents by the job dyer.
The dyeing charge of this Philadelphia job dyer is stated
to be 16 cents a pound, but with six yards to the pound.
Hence, the treasurer of the Farr Alpaca Company insists
that the dyeing of sackings ought to be charged at the
same rate, and other things in proportion.
The cost of labor in dyeing depends largely on the quan-
tities put into one dyeing. A job dyer doing work for all
comers and in varieties of goods cannot do the dyeing on the
plan on which a mill does its own dyeing, where one class
of goods is dyed one color at a time, let us say for a day,
without a change of vats. How cheaply the dyeing is done
by large quantity dyeing, is proved by other accounts col-
lected by me at the same time. A mill in Massachusetts mak-
ing heavy 6-4 indigo blue sackings for men's wear, weighing
from 10 to 18 ounces a yard, gave me 6,500 to 7,000 pounds
of wool dyeing as a day's work. They employ from 45 to 50
men at $1.15 a day in the dyeing. Including the foreman
they get $60 a day in wages. This is six-sevenths of a cent
in labor per pound. But the same hands do the scouring of
the wool likewise. As the accounts of the two operations
are not separable, we have to take the labor cost of scour-
ing from a mill in Ehode Island, where wages are on a not
very much higher level. This is three-eighths of a cent,
and leaves .47^ cent, about half a cent, for the dyeing
labor. Now, I hear it said that wool dyeing may involve
less handling than yarn dj^eing or cloth dyeing. Well,
I have here an account for yarns from a Philadelphia
dye-house, who pay much higher wages than are paid
either in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. A week's work
is about 35,000 pounds of yarn. For this work are em-
ployed :
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 337
Five sets of kettlemen at $12 a week $120
One set of kettlemen at $13 a week 26
Two poJers at $10 a week 20
One carrier up at $10 a week 10
One whizzer tender at $13 a week 13
Three scourers at $13 a week 39
One fireman at $14 a week 14
One driver at $12 a week 12
With a total pay roll of $254
or 0.725 a pound, barely three-quarters of a cent. These
men get fully 100 per cent, higher wages than is paid in
Yorkshire, but we can safely challenge dyeing being done
there as cheaply as .362</. a pound.
Of wool dyeing in the piece I have said enough under
worsteds. I am informed that, with the new kettles and
appliances now in use, from six to twelve pieces are dyed in
a kettle where formerly only two were put. All that is re-
quired is a good quantity of the same goods and dye to
make the cost of labor a matter of small consequence in-
deed. This is here as in all other manufacturing branches,
and wherein America distinguishes itself.
The Proof is in the Selling Price.
But we have most complete proof of the statement in
the selling price of the goods. Six-quarter width sackings,
weighing eight ounces, were sold in 1886 at 66 cents, and
in 1887 (the time at which the mill statement was taken)
sold as low even as 65 cents, less 5 and 2| per cent., or
60.21 cents, regular terms ; i. e., 7 per cent, cash discount
They netted the manufacturer, deducting 7 per cent, com-
mission, interest for carrying goods, etc., 57.21 cents and
51.80 cents, respectively.
The 6-4 sackings, weighing 6.6 ounces, the goods in ref-
22
338 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
erence, were 55 and 50 cents at different times, and netted
47.41 cents and 43 cents respectively. Extending the yard
price to the pound weight, the mill realizes for 8 ounce
goods, $1.14 and $1.03, and 6.6-ounce weight, $1.15 and
$1.04. (In scarlet flannels the same price relations could be
shown to exist.) In these sackings ll cents marks the
difference between cost and selling price of the heavier, and
12 cents of the lighter weights, at the higher prices realized.
Under the price declines resulting from the different phases
of trade, this profit frequently disappears, almost entirely.
Certainly not an excessive average rate, under nearly uni-
form wool prices (1886 and 1887). How these manufac-
turers would fare if they sent their goods to job dyers in
Philadelphia is needless to say. They could neither afford
to have their dyeing cost exceed 4 cents a pound (inclusive
of dyestuffs, etc.) nor the wool to exceed the price of 70
cents in the pound of finished clotL Wool at 35 cents,
shrinkage in scouring at 50 per cent., and an additional
shrinkage in manufacturing of 20 per cent., and a total wool
cost of 70 cents was due to the fact, as ascertained later,
that a certain percentage of noils (costing 45 cents then)
was mixed with the wool. The correctness of these accounts
is abundantly proven by the fact that nothing could be put
against their correctness except the above shall we say,
absurd attempt at controversion.
All- Wool Kersey Cloth.
I found the same relations to exist in heavier woolens. I
did not select fancy articles subject to fashion prices and
demands, but plain staples. Here I subjected to compari-
son a plain, army-blue kersey cloth. It is used in America
and England for the army, and here, as well as there, sub-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 339
mitted to bidders for army contracts, hence usually worked
on a close margin.
The cost of labor in scouring, carding, spinning, dyeing,
finishing, and other expense in America, I found to be
11.54 cents, and in England to be 9.376 cents, a difference
of only 2 cents in favor of England. But in the weaving
part, including warping, etc., the difference is greater 10.46
cents in America and 5J cents in England; altogether a dif-
ference of 7 cents a yard. The difference in the weaving
between the dress-goods' account given above and the differ-
ent cloths mentioned here is due to the fact that in the
heavier goods only one loom is managed by an operator.
But while the English weaver girl turns out in this class of
cloth 65 yards per week on her loom, the American aver-
ages 100 yards. Hence the earnings of the latter are con-
siderably in excess of what the difference in the piece-price
of weaving would indicate. The difference of 7 cents in
the total of labor cost is, however, reduced 3.43 cents by
the lower general cost in manufacturing, which is 14.2 for
America and 17.63 for England. It must always be remem-
bered that difference of manufacturing methods implies dif-
ferences in bookkeeping and accounting. Labor items are
contained in the English general expense accounts, which
in American accounts appear directly as labor expense.
Carding, spinning, and dyeing accounts contain items of
charges and profits, which in America are charged on the
general output. Hence, the total cost difference outside of
the wool price in a six-quarter indigo-dyed kersey cloth
(all-wool) is the difference between 36.2 cents, the Ameri-
can cost, and 31.25 cents, the English cost, equal to 5 cents.
The goods consume 28 ounces of scoured wool, and weigh
when finished 22 ounces. The wool costs 24 to 25 cents in
the grease, and loses about 50 per cent, in the scouring,
340 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
which makes the wool cost in the yard of cloth come to 84
cents. But the English cost is only 52 cents, which makes
32 cents more cost in the wool alone, against only 5 cents
difference in the labor. The charge for weaving was taken
rather high compared with similar goods made elsewhere,
or the approximation would have been still closer to the
English cost.
6-4 Cheviots.
The mill which made the above goods manufactured 6-4
cheviots very largely. These were only 35 per cent, wool
and 65 per cent, shoddy in the warp and in the weft. The
manufacturer said that they were driven to this by the high
price of wool, and that they would be glad to use pure wool
as being easier and cheaper to manufacture. On account of
the mixed character of the material and the difficulty of
fixing upon the same component parts in the fabrics of the
two countries, I leave out the comparison of the cost of
materials, and only state the manufacturing items of cost.
They compare as follows :
America. England (Dewsbury).
Sundries. Sundries.
Labor. Expense. Total. Labor. Expen.se. Total.
\. Preparing, carding,
spinning 3.97 1.34 5.31 4.00 3.40 7.4
2. Warping 0.96 .. .96 0.75 1.25 2.0
Weaving 7.00 .. 7.00 4.40 .. 4.4
Additional 1.50 . . 1.50 0.60 . . 0.6
3. Dyeing, finishing, etc. 4.64 11.01 15.65 3.00 12.60 15.6
Total 18.07 12.35 30.42 12.75 17.25 30.0
We have here the same total cost in both countries for
labor, sundries, and expense and charges incidental to get-
ting the goods ready to the mill's door. The weaving wages
TEE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 341
are only 2.6 cents higher. In the finishing, dyeing, and
additional in American labor account, items are contained
which in the English account are classed in the column for
sundries and expenses. Closely analyzed, the American
labor would not stand more than 3 to 3 cents above the
English cost. It is unnecessary here to give an account of
every detail. In the dyeing and finishing account for
America the scouring expense of wool is included, which in
the English part is contained in the spinning items. With
these explanations, the statement here presented will be pre-
cise enough to convey to the general reader the substantial
basis upon which these comparisons of manufacturing cost
rest.
That these statements of labor cost in America are rather
over the general average than below can be seen from the
weaving wages paid for 6-4 twilled sackings for men's wear in
a large mill in Massachusetts. These goods are somewhat
finer, hence have a greater number of picks to the inch. The
girls are paid at the rate of Q\ cents per yard, and, averaging
about twenty yards a day, earn $1.25, against 7 cents paid
for coarser goods in the mill quoted above. The help is
more expert, too, in the Massachusetts mill than in the
cheviot mill, which is situated in an isolated position in the
country. The average output in the latter is given as 116
yards a week, in the Massachusetts mill as 120 yards, but in
England as only 80 yards in a somewhat coarser fabric than
the quality under discussion. "Wherever our examinations
turn, we find that differences of cost in labor and in the
other general manufacturing items are either entirely absent,
or at the most so trivial that they hardly deserve notice,
especially when held against the wild assertions dealt out
so freely by protectionists and "authorities," of which the
party quoted is a very fair sample.
CHAPTER XIIL
Strange Bedfellowship made by the Tariff. Doubling the Rates by
Classification. Plushes, Pile Fabrics, Knit Goods classed with
Clothing. Carpets. Lower Cost of Labor than in England. Great
Trade Depressions at Home. High Wool clogs the Market.
THESE goods have been taken out of the company with
which they were associated under the old tariff and thrown
in with ready-made clothing. A strange friendship. Not
that the duty was not, considering the low foreign price, a
very high one heretofore, but that, clothing paying the high-
est rates in the woolen schedule, the division of clothing was
considered best fitted to serve as an infirmary for the infants
in the tariff asylum, even the small supply of fresh air let
in here and there in the general wards seeming to the ten-
der-hearted tariff doctors too strong and dangerous. Some
goods of this class are made with a cotton back and a face or
pile of wool, mohair, and, in the cheap fabrics coming under
this clause, of cow's, goat's, and other similar hair. Under
this heading come carriage robes and lap robes, travelling
rugs, plushes made of wool and mohair as well as of cow's
hair. Imitation astrakhan and similar fabrics are likewise
assigned to this class of goods. They have of late become
very favored in the eyes of our sisters for outer coverings
and for trimmings.
But no sooner did this become apparent to some manu-
facturers than they laid claim to the industry and lodged
their modest demands with Mr. McKinley, who submissively
did as he was bidden to do. And no sooner was the prize
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 343
carried home than mills set to work to manufacture astra-
khans. The term " pile fabric " was not meant, perhaps,
to cover this class of goods, but it at all events was a
good enough Morgan to do the desired service. Here was
an article coming into fashion, the protection of which
was suddenly raised from 100 per cent to something like
200 per cent. What an opportunity did this offer for
enriching ourselves, establishing an infant industry, and
preventing the money from going abroad ! Some hund reds of
pieces were made by two of the most capable manufacturers
in the country. But the goods had to be sold under the
cost of production ; the trade had declared them unmerchant-
able fabrics. They were failures, with a carpet-like back,
and a face of a hairy-woolly appearance, instead of being a
supple, pliable fabric with a crisp, curly face, as the im-
ported article undeniably is.
It was not difficult to get the duty raised to almost any
height, but no amount of duty suffices to supply the quali-
ties necessary for turning out goods satisfactory to the buyer,
who is the ultimate arbiter, and determines the value of a
fabric regardless of the cost of production or of the suffering
of incompetent infants. He is a cold-blooded, selfish crea-
ture, without enthusiasm, and guided only by his senses and
his sense. But if he wants proper goods he has to pay
duties of four and a half times the duty on a pound of
unwashed wool, or 49 cents (in some of these fabrics there is
no wool at all ; in most of those containing wool, not a third
of a pound of clean wool to the pound of finished cloth) and
60 per cent, ad valorem.
Some of these duties, chiefly in the lower grades, are
beyond any thing in the experience of our people even
under the present tariff, which is saying a good deal.
Under the old duty most of them, as valued under 30
344 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
cents a pound, paid 10 cents per pound and 35 per cent ad
valorem. These pay now as follows :
First. A seal plush made of cow's hair, but a very sightly fabric for
cloakings and trimmings, largely used in England for jackets of work-
ing girls, 49 inches wide, 25 ounces in weight, costs there Is. 5d. per
yard less 6i per cent, discount, or 31.79 cents net. This paid a weight
duty of 15.7 cents and an ad valorem duty of 11.12 cents, or 26.82 cents
equal to 84^ per cent. This article pays now :
Weight duty 78 cents.
Ad valorem duty 19 cents.
Total 97 cents.
equal to 305 per cent.
Second. An English article called "Polaris," and in the nature of
astrakhans, costs 44.88 cents net, and weighs 28 ounces, which is 25. 65 net
the pound. These goods paid formerly weight duty of 17.50 cents and
an ad valorem duty of 15.90 cents, a total duty of 33.40 cents, equal to
75 per cent. Now note the difference on the same value : Weight duty,
87 cents, and ad valorem duty, 27 cents ; total, $1.14^ duty on a foreign
cost of 44J cents, a compound duty of 255 per cent.
Third. A German astrakhan, 50 inches wide, costs 80 cents a yard
and weighs 23 ounces. This class paid formerly 18 cents a pound and
35 per cent, ad valorem, hence in weight duty 25 cents and ad valorem 28
cents, a total of 53 cents, equivalent to 67^ per cent, ad valorem. Now,
these same goods have to pay in weight duty 34 cents and ad valorem
duty 48 cents, a total of $1.32 on 80 cents cost, or 165 per cent.
Fourth. Travelling rugs, of which the Berlin price is 15 marks, or
$3.60, were sold under the old tariff at $6.25 wholesale, and retailed by the
large retail houses at $7.50 under the old duties. They cost now $10.50
wholesale, and have to be retailed by the same houses at $12 apiece.
Formerly the consumer paid 108 per cent., and now he has to pay 233
per cent., above the foreign price.
This, indeed, is tariff reform with a vengeance. But if
the good people of America do not like the Republican
way of lightening taxes, they have but to use the remedy
as laid down in 1 Kings, chapter xii., verses 16 to 18, i. e.,
change rulers and undo this vicious system of taxation.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 345
Knit Fabrics.
Knit fabrics were formerly called by an honest Saxon
name " knit goods." Under this homely name everything
made on knitting machines and frames and composed
wholly or in part of worsteds, etc., paid a duty (1) on goods
not exceeding 30 cents a pound, 10 cents per pound ; (2)
above 30 and not above 40 cents, 12 cents per pound ; (3)
above 40 and not above 60 cents, 13 cents per pound ; (4)
above 60 cents, 24 cents per pound, and in addition on all
these grades, 35 per cent, ad valorem ; (5) on goods above
80 cents a pound the duty was 35 cents per pound and
40 per cent, ad valorem. The duties averaged about 70
per cent.
But now on "knit fabrics " and " all knit fabrics made
on knitting machines and frames " the duties are on
goods (1) valued at not more than 30 cents a pound, 33
cents per pound and 40 per cent, ad valorem, equal to some
140 per cent.; (2) valued at not more than 40 cents, 38|-
cents per pound and 40 per cent ad valorem, and (3) valued
above 40 cents a pound, 44 cents per pound, and in
addition thereto 50 per cent, ad valorem, or 150 per cent.
Mark the difference. The fourth and fifth clauses are
omitted, and the highest rates are imposed on the 40-cent
value limit, instead of the 80-cent limit, as under the old
law. This is honest work. Brutally realistic. But we
know what it means when applied to knit goods.
But this was not enough for the law makers. One can-
not so easily cheat the people under Saxon names of things,
so if you have sinister designs you have recourse to the old
lawyer's trick and dive into Norman-English. Hence they
said, "Let us call 'knit goods' 'knit fabrics.' Under this
change of name the common folk will not see what you are
346 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
after." They soon learned it when the Board of Appraisers
of New York decided that the goods heretofore imported as
knit goods are not knit fabrics at all, but must be rated as
wearing apparel and clothing, and pay duties at the rate of
49 g- cents a pound and 60 per cent, ad valorem.
It is not my province to analyze minutely the error in
the judgment of the wise Daniels, nor to find fault with
them, as they may possibly not have had the case brought
before them with the full array of facts that ought to accom-
pany cases involving a good deal of technical detail. We
are here concerned only with the tariff and the cost of pro-
duction for the protection of which American consumers
are made to pay two and three times the entire value of the
goods in duties. It suffices to mention that what has been
said concerning cotton hose applies here also. The goods
we manufacture in America are of an entirely different kind
from what we import. I doubt and I base my doubts on
very substantial grounds and figures that any of these
goods which we manufacture successfully could be imported
even if all duties were removed. What we import is a
higher class of regular-fashioned half hose, hose, shirts, and
drawers. The knitting on circular frames, on which the
material is made for our shirts and drawers, is done so rap-
idly and so cheaply that we can dismiss the question of
labor in the product of knitting at once. A knitting ma-
chine which I saw in operation in Philadelphia, which made
jersey cloth 60 inches wide and weighing 10 ounces per
yard, turned out 120 pounds a day. We can judge from
this what the much heavier stock will be, out of which
shirts and drawers are cut* The making up is a very
* The heavier and coarser goods going into undershirts and drawers
would be turned out at double the rate of yards to the pound of yarn.
It is safe, therefore, to estimate that, taking 1 yards, roughly speaking,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 347
simple affair and of trifling expense, as it is all machine
work.
It is different with the so-called regular made goods. I
made comparisons of cost in Nottingham and America, and
behold ! the wages by the piece are pretty nearly the same
in the two countries. I will not go into the details of com-
parisons of machinery, output, and cost of production. It
will suffice to quote from an American manufacturer who
wrote to me after we had gone through his mill and had
compared notes :
" I think that as far as our industry is concerned you should modify
the statement that the labor cost by the piece is not so very different
abroad from what it is here ; viz., that while the cost of knitting is about
the same here as in England, the cost of seaming and finishing is more
than double here."
I accept this modification as perfectly correct. I want
those standing on the other side of the controversy to draw
every possible advantage from this substantial fact, when-
ever a new and, let us hope, rational tariff shall be enacted.
In America 50 cents a dozen was paid in 1887 for seam-
ing regular made shirts and drawers. In England 18c?., or
36 cents, was paid for hand sewing, and 12c?. (24 cents) for
machine sewing. For finishing men's shirts 85 cents, and
drawers $1.10, was the American average. This includes
hand sewing on the neck, the bands, buttons, and button-
holes, pieces set in, and all finishing labor. In England this
work is given out to be done by outside workpeople. But
allotting one-half only of the American expense to the Eng-
lish workingwomen, we have in all the making-up expense
to make a pair of drawers or an undershirt, one knitting machine tended
at the rate of less than" $1.50 a day would turn out material sufficient for
6 dozen shirts and 6 dozen drawers.
348 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
of a dozen regular-made shirts a difference of 60 cents, and on
a dozen of drawers of 75 cents. What formidable measures
were adopted for the protection of such trifling labor differ-
ences ! Truly, "diving into the ocean and bringing up a
potsherd." Of course, there was some other motive than all
this, the motive of the McKinley act, with which the reader
is familiar already, to wit: To exclude, wherever feasible,
foreign importations, as we might possibly at some unde-
fined time become expert enough to make " everything at
home," and in the meantime to be free to charge the con-
sumer whatever home producers may agree on.
Carpets.
A review of the woolen industry and the wanton charac-
ter of recent legislation would not be complete without an
examination of the carpet industry. As the strength of a
chain is determined by its weakest link, so is the absurdity
of tariff legislation shown by the strain it places on our in.
dustries.
Carpets are made at a lower cost here than even in Eng-
land, at least in the lower grades, such as ingrain carpets,
and as cheaply as there in Brussels, etc. A comparison of
the cost and manufacturing methods of two-ply ingrains
shows the following :
PHILADELPHIA. LEEDS.
Labor. Expense. Total. Labor. Expense. Total.
Yarn 38.75 28.75
Weaving 4 to 5.25) 4.5)
General labor .. 2.67) 3.76)'
General expense 2.4) . 5.0 )
Selling expense. 2.0 i 2.5 \
Total 7.92 4.4 51.07 8.26 7.5 44.51
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 349
In England much of this class of goods is still made on
hand looms. The rates quoted above are from a power mill
near Leeds. The hand-loom weaver gets 10 cents a yard (5
pence). He obtains the yarn and returns the finished carpet.
The labor cost is calculated at the same rate in the two
methods of work. What the hand weaver gets more (10
cents against 8.26 cents for the power-loom work) is taken
from the 5 cents charged in the above comparison under
" General Expense," which, of course, is considerably higher
in power-loom weaving than in hand-loom weaving.
After my report had been published, an English carpet
manufacturer wrote me that it would be erroneous to assume
that ingrain carpets were manufactured to a large extent on
hand looms. But, curiously enough, he insisted that I had
stated the manufacturing cost too low ; that burling, warp-
ing, finishing, and general expense would not be covered by
what had been stated. This by the way only. The com-
parison between English and American cost shows that the
labor cost, from the yarn up, is somewhat higher in England.
The lower American cost of " general labor " on the yard
price is in this instance due to the fact that it is distributed
over a much larger output. The same refers to the general
expense item. The higher cost of yarn is due entirely to
the higher cost of wool in consequence of the wool tariff.
"Without this tax we could easily export carpets, as can be
seen from the foregoing comparison, and from the selling
price of carpets. This at the time barely covered the cost
of production, and certainly would hardly do so now, under
the McKinley blessings (so assiduously invoked by certain
carpet manufacturers), culminating in the recent forced sales
of 2,500,000 yards of carpets at one auction sale and the
continued stagnation in the trade.
But the public was informed by a gentleman in Phila-
350 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
delphia, one of the largest carpet manufacturers there, that
I had considerably understated the manufacturing cost;
that he had given me figures which I had seen fit to dis-
regard, and adopt figures given me by others. He said that
it cost him 12.21 cents in labor to make a yard of ingrain
carpet from the yarn up, instead of 7.92 cents, as stated by
me, and that the yarn would cost another like amount of
12.21 cents in labor to prepare from the wool up. (This I
need not discuss, because I took the yarn cost in the amount)
He further stated to the world that where he pays 12.21 for
the weaving part, the English pay only 5 cents. Yet with
all this the English manage to get 2s. 2c?., or 52 cents a
yard, for what the American manufacturer gets 50 cents a
yard, or 47 cents net.
According to Mr. Dobson, the gentleman in question, not
unknown to those who have followed the history of the
tariff enactments under plushes and pile fabrics in wool and
silk, the 50 cents worth of carpet costs him twice 12.21, or
24.42 cents plus 4.4, or 28.82 cents, which leaves for the
cost of the wool contained in one and one quarter pounds
of yarn less than 20 cents, which he says (and 1 had admitted
it in England) is of better quality than the English wool.
What tremendous profits these Englishmen must be mak-
ing! Paying one-third less for their wool, with labor and
other items of cost, only 40 per cent, of ours, and selling
their goods at a greater price than we obtain in an entirely
reserved home market.
Mr. Dobson has to pay, according to his own statement,
an average of 100 per cent, more, counting labor and wool,
and cannot get a jot more in return than the English free-
trade manufacturer. Does he not see that he paints in the
most glaring colors the utter breakdown of the beloved
system? I must state that Mr. Dobson gave me the price
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 351
for weaving at 5 cents for plain and 5|- cents for the shaded
work. This he will undoubtedly find correct and in keep-
ing with pay rolls and trade facts. He gave me 47^ cents
as the prices netted to him from the sales, and a lot of other
data \vhich would make interesting reading if set side by
side with assertions made in the fall of 1888. But then
there was a political campaign in progress, for which char-
itable allowance must be made. The results of the cam-
paign did not prove very profitable. With the shepherds
he went to shear and came home shorn. Yet anybody
could have foreseen it except a political manufacturer. I
quoted 5| cents for weaving wages, taking Mr. Dobson's
average figures, and an output of thirty yards per day;
though on the new Knowles arid Crom-pton looms a lower
rate of only 4 cents is being paid, but an output of forty
yards keeps up the earnings to the same standard.
These facts and the quoting of the respective selling
prices alone would prove that with free wool and free dye-
stuffs we could export largely. Why, then, those extraor-
dinary efforts to silence the fact that the higher working
capacity of our operative, the better organization of our
mills, and the more extensive use of improved machinery
make high earnings possible, while at the same time they
produce goods cheaper than in countries where opposite
conditions prevail ?
Summary of Comparative Cost in Woolens and
Worsteds. What is the Cost Difference under
Free Wool ?
Having reviewed the positions which wool and woolens
occupy in England and in America, methods of manufac-
ture and cost of production of identical articles, representa-
852 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
tive in their nature of great branches, we can now answer a
question frequently asked ; viz., What is the relative position
of American labor cost in the fabric if the English is repre-
sented by 100 ? The question, as frequently asked, is " On
woolens," as if woolens were a uniform article like steel
rails or pig-iron. In this form it no more admits of an
answer than if it were on " a pound of machinery." But
in the form prepared by this present inquiry we can define
the relative positions in equivalent fabrics and leave to
others the drawing of conclusions. Whatever the ratio of
labor to material, it must be plain that where material is
free, the same percentage of labor cost would express a
value entirely different from that expressed where the raw
material is taxed. Furthermore, it will be remembered
that, while many labor items are considerably above Eng-
lish cost, chiefly in the weaving, the general cost differences
are almost equalized by the difference in manufacturing sys-
tems, etc., as fully explained above. I will, therefore, sum-
marize the comparisons under equal wool cost in both
countries, and unequal cost (taxed wool in America and
free wool in England), and compare these with the net labor
cost, as also with the general manufacturing cost. As this
latter makes up the cost of the goods and represents the
commercial aspect of the case, the only one of value in this
demonstration, it is necessarily the one to fix our attention
on.
ARTICLES REPRESENTING " NUMBERS."
Worsteds as No. 1.
Carded Wool Dress Goods as No. 2.
6-4 Cheviots (Shoddy and Wool) as No. 3.
6-4 All- Wool Kersey Cloth as No. 4.
Two-ply Ingrain Carpet as No. 5.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
353
RATIO OP LABOR AND OF THE TOTAL MANUFACTURING
COST IN AMERICA TO WOOL TAXED, AND IN ENGLAND
TO FREE WOOL.
WOOL COST.
LABOR.
TOTAL MANUFAC-
TURING COST EX-
CLUSIVE OF WOOL.
RATIO, ENGLAND
BEINO 100.
England.
America.
England .
America.
England.
America.
Labor.
Mfg.
Cost.'
Cents.
Cents.
Cents.
Cents.
Cents.
Cents.
1.
44
84
25
40
46
50
107
73
2.
32
70
14.4
18.6
38
33
88
61
3.
25
35
12.8
18
30
30.4
120
84
4.
52
84
15
22
31
36
100
80
5. .
28.7*
38.7
8.3
8
15.8
12.3
84
68
The reader will observe by this statement the fallacy of
statistical demonstrations of ratios if the co-efficients are not
of equal values. The labor expense in a pound of cloth is
higher in the five species of woolens (varying from 3 in car-
pets to +60 per cent, in worsteds). In percentage relation
to the total cost, the difference almost disappears, and if
averaged the ratio is the same as in England. The general
cost of manufacturing, exclusive of the wool, is nearly the
same in the two countries. The ratio of percentage, how-
ever, is 61, 68, 73, 80, and 84 against 100 in England. An
arithmetical absurdity, but statistical reality. The classifi-
cation of unrelated parts and the comparison of unequal
denominations lead to results as faulty in statistics as in
ciphering.
The only valid comparison, then, is of like and like:
material at even cost, and the labor cost, and the manufac-
turing cost
* Yarn cost.
23
354 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
The relations then are :
WOOL COST
EQUAL.
LABOR IN
MANUFACTURING
EXPENSE.
RATIO, ENGLAND
BRING 100.
England.
. America.
England.
America.
Labor.
Mfg. Cost.
1
Cents.
44
32
25
52
28.7
Cents.
25
14.4
12.8
15
8.3
Cents.
40
18.6
18
22
8
Cents.
46
38
30
31
15.8
Cents.
50
33
30.4
36
12.3
150
186
141
139
105
104
92
101
108
85
2
3
4
5
In these tables we have compared the single factors of
labor and of manufacturing expense. In the final value the
cost of the material is included, and this added to the other
elements of cost, of course, changes the relations of values.
Then the two positions are changed to this :
VALUE OF GOODS IN ENGLAND AND IN AMERICA WITH
FREE WOOL.
England.
Cents.
...90
.. 70
...55
...83
..44.5
America.
Cents.
94
65
55.4
88
41
Ratio to England, 100.
104.4
93
100.8
106
92
But it may be said that if the factory methods of Amer-
ica were employed abroad, and there lowered the cost of
production, outside of the direct labor expense, to that of
America, the difference calling for the intercession of the
protective tariff would by no means be so low as the last
column, representing the manufacturing ratio, indicates.
In that case even the American ratio against 100 of
England would be expressed in the following :
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 355
Wool.
Additional Total
English American Ideal
Labor. Manufacturing. English.
Present Ratio
Actnal American to
American. English.
1
Cost.
44
Cost.
25
14.4
12.8
15
8.3
Cost.
10
14.4
12.4
14
4.3
Cost.
79
60.8
50
81
41.3
Cost.
94
65
55.4
88
41
119
107
110
109
100
2
32
3
25
4
52
5
28.7
We cannot even here discover an impending doom. All
that " the enemies of American industries," the tariff re-
formers, have so far proposed in reference to woolens has
been in the extremest case free wool and a tariff of 35 per
cent, ad valorem. The above demonstration of facts proves
that the actual differences of cost in the ratio of 100 are ex-
pressed by the counter figures of 100.4, 93, 100.8, 106, and
92. Even under the complete approximation of English
cost to American methods and cost, the difference would
be ratio of 100119, 107, 110, 109, and 100 in the order
followed above.
But practically this is a non-existing condition, not likely
to become a reality under the principles governing produc-
tion, as explained in the first part of this book. In fact,
the differences would be covered, as seen from the showing
of the real cost of production, by less than 10 per cent.
The cost differences are so small that they would not weigh
in the balance in a question of tariff reform. The difficul-
ties in the way of our woolen manufacturers have been
great. But the dearness and isolation in raw materials by
tariff exclusion alone have handicapped them, and this to
such an extent that woolens form now one of the weakest
links in our industrial chain. They will be one of the
strongest when we have removed the impertinent barriers
which paternalism in government has interposed to their
free development
CHAPTER XIV.
The Making-up Industries. The Berlin Manufacturing System. Indus-
tries protected, but not by Tariffs.
A REVIEW of the development of textile industries would
not be complete without an examination of the making-up
industries. Beginning with the methods of the old countries,
the tailor in his shop, or, like the seamstress, in the customer's
house* and the shoemaker at his bench, we have here, in
America, gone through a most thorough process of evolu-
tion, and arrived at a stage at which the wholesale manu-
facturing and distributing system has absorbed the old
trades and the means formerly employed in making up the
clothing of the people. We were driven to it by the irre-
sistible force of circumstances the rapid growth of popu-
lation, the rush westward into the untrodden wilderness,
the sudden appearance of States with millions of inhabit-
ants (for what are ten or twenty years, which mark the
time of their life and phenomenal development?). All this
put it out of the question, that the old ways could prevail.
Most of the labor required is agricultural Outside of
this, the multitudes attracted are the trading classes, who
supply the country with necessaries not raised on the farm,
* The practice prevailed, from my own recollection, in the larger
towns even, some thirty years ago in Germany. In the smaller towns
and in the country it is the practice known to-day for the tailor to come
to the customers to make up the men's clothes. He is paid by the day
or the job, and takes his meals at the patron's house.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 357
and, in exchange, take the produce of the soil to the hungry
millions eastward.
It would be impossible to find skilled help at all adequate
to the wants of a population rapidly growing in numbers
and prosperity. The population is far too energetic, the
labor of men and women too much engaged on other more
engrossing work, to allow the use of time in the making of
homespun and of clothing as of old. Further, the necessity
has ceased to exist. The railroad follows, or rather goes
ahead, and marks the location of future settlements. Hence,
nowhere except in remote mountain districts do any of the
old methods prevail. Domestic industries have no footing
in our whirling, rapid, pushing life. Even in our old States,
similar causes have led to the same condition of things.
The " art tailor " and the " pedal artist " hang out their
gilded sign-boards and are patronized by the fastidious, but
the masses look to the stores for what is required to cover
their nakedness.
Indeed, take the male of the species, and you find not a
single article of clothing which he can not and, with few
exceptions, does not supply from a store. With the female
it is becoming more and more so from year to year. This
implies a complete transformation of industries. It implies,
also, an equally complete transformation in the distributive
trades of the country. In some lines it affects even the
question of exports of fabrics. It has been said before, that
the cause of England's heavy exports in cotton goods is not
her cheaper labor, but, by the use of finer yarns, her sav-
ing of cotton, and filling up by heavily sizing with clay
and other sizing materials. Now, we make our cottons
with very little sizing, because most of them, or so large a
proportion of them that they determine the character of
the output, go into the clothing or underwear factories,
358 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
where, under the sewing machines, heavily-sized cottons
would not be workable at all
The number of hands employed in the wholesale manu-
facture of clothing for men and women in 1880 was 185,000,
against 103,000 engaged in woolens and worsteds. In boots
and shoes 138,000 hands were employed, while all the
leather made in the United States did not give employment
to more than 40,000 working people. Yet the value of
leather tanned, curried, and varnished is $200,000,000 and
of boots and shoes $207,000,000. This shows how the ratio
of employment increases in the progress of industries from
the crude materials to the finished article of wear. The
total of employment given in all the different making-up
industries in textiles and leather is some 435,000 to 440,000
persons, while all the woolens, worsteds, mixed goods,
carpets, cotton goods, silks, and leather employ only 420,000
people. The new census will undoubtedly show a very
great increase in the ratio of ready-made goods to piece
goods, as the tendency has all the time been in the direction
of the wholesale manufacturer absorbing more and more
what remains of the old isolated shop. The cloak industry
had a most phenomenal rise in the eighties, to the nearly
entire extinction of the once very extensive shawl trade.
Now, strange enough, none of these trades has had much
to say for an increase of protective duties in the different
tariff deals through which our generation has passed. At
times they did raise their voices for a decrease of duties on
the materials which they consume. But of what avail is the
cry of the clothing manufacturer, the cloakmaker, and the
shirtmaker against the well-supported woolen or shoddy
manufacturer (the latter the most vigorous opponent of free
wool) ? The former do not threaten destruction to the party
when their interests are not taken care of, as the political
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 359
shepherds of Ohio do when the wool tariff's existence is
threatened, nor prophesy the extinction of an industry on a
reduction of duties equal to the compensatory wool duty in
the tariff on woolens, as many wool and shoddy manufact-
urers have been doing during recent campaigns. They
show, perhaps, less regard to politics than would be useful
to them in a business world whose aspects and prospects are
so largely at the mere} 7 of ignorant legislators. They attend
strictly to business; make money or lose money mostly
make. But, certainly, if the claim that the American
laborer and manufacturer cannot exist without high protec-
tion is true, then the protection remaining over for these
workers, after the subsidiary industries have taken their
slice out of the all-round allowance, must be insufficient
The low day wages paid to the sewing women of London
in the clothing, and to the female workers in Berlin in the
cloak trade, would make it seem easy for England and Ger-
many to flood us with their ready-made clothing, certainly
with their surplus stocks.
But even the importation of cloaks from Berlin, now
doing the principal exporting trade of the world in that line,
cuts but a small figure ; smaller and smaller from year to
year, though we still get a good many first importations for
fashion and style. Our whole importation of ready-made
clothes, about half of which are cloaks, does not exceed $1,-
750,000. The reason is plain the actual labor differences
are trifling in the end, though the daily earnings of some of
the workingwomen in the East End of London, whom I vis-
ited to inquire for myself into their condition, were so low
that no American woman would find it possible, to sustain
life on the pittance. The main cause, however, lies in the
impossibility of satisfying from foreign countries the tastes
and wants of so whimsical a market as ours. The difficul-
360 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ties increase as the manufacturing stages become more and
more removed from the raw material. In ready-made cloth-
ing the difficulties are insuperable. Few persons in Amer-
ica would wear, even if offered at a few dollars less than a
corresponding home-made article, the product of the Lon-
don or Leeds ready-made clothing industries, far less the
clothes which make the breast of Hans or Jean swell with
honest pride when he dons them on a Sunday afternoon. So
we need not fear an extinction of our civilization from that
quarter.
In cloaks this could be done more easily. They have in
Berlin great advantages over us in the selection of materials,
especially woolens. Their cloakings are much softer and
drape better. Even their mixed, shoddy-filled goods are
more pliable and hang better in the folds. Their styles are
all that can be desired, and furnish the patterns that ours
are formed on. Taking the difference between our high-
cost woolens, satins, and trimmings, it was easy to import
foreign cloaks under the old tariff, and is so still under the
new. Taxing the materials excessively neutralizes confis-
cates, so to speak protection on the finished garment.
American dry -goods dealers, as well as cloak manufacturers,
were not slow to perceive this and avail themselves of the
opportunities. Berlin-made garments were for some time
quite a feature in trade, and were advertised as articles of
particular attraction. American houses established factories
in Berlin, and, by consigning the products of their factories
there to themselves here, had the advantage of entering the
goods on a lower rate of valuation than houses that bought
their supply from Berlin manufacturers. They could even
obviate the great difficulty mentioned above, inasmuch as
they were to the manner born, and knew what the American
trade would want and what not.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 361
The Manufacturing System of Berlin.
But easy as it seems, pencil in hand, calculating the cost
the savings and the sure profit to order accordingly, it
is not a safe operation after all, as many have found out.
The difficulties are not very great ; quite the contrary.
Everything in the Berlin market is so habitual and in
customary trim, that any one who knows what his trade
wants, and whose individual requirements are of enough
magnitude to spend sufficient time in Berlin, or to have a
reliable and expert man to represent him, can go to work
and be a cloak manufacturer. The system is a remarkable
one. It shows how the old, ingrained, domestic industry
has persevered. It has been greatly extended, but has not
changed in character. The shop may be larger, it may em-
ploy more hands, but it has not lost its distinctive feature.
The shop may subdivide its labor, but alongside and in
large numbers are the operators who take the garment home
from the contractor and complete it, with the exception,
perhaps, of some finishing touches. The factory has not
absorbed or transformed an old system ; the cloak manufact-
urer has left it intact, as the best fitted for the people, and
has appropriated it to his purposes. He is more of a mer-
chant than a manufacturer. Berlin cloakmakers, in a way,
get their styles from Paris. They willingly pay a high
price for the brains in the ideas of the French fashion
makers. These are fully aware of the salable value of taste,
and govern themselves in their charges accordingly. A cos-
tume from Worth is paid at the rate of $200, let us say, which
from the sewing woman's point of view may not contain
more labor than one for $20. These patterns, however, are
not copied exactly, but they give ideas that lead to numerous
362 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
applications and adaptations in other patterns and styles, as
turned out in the Berlin establishments.
When the season opens, the manufacturers have a large
assortment of patterns ready for all countries and tastes.
The buyers come, place their orders, with changes here and
there, or with other combinations and selections of materials.
Unless he is sure of his cases, the manufacturer makes no
stock ahead. When h has booked his orders, he buys his
stock, unless he purchased at reduced prices ahead of time
from holders needing the cash. But quite frequently he
gets the goods made by the large mill, or the large number
of small manufacturers and weaving masters. If he has the
stock on hand, or as soon as he has it delivered, he gets his
cloak-makers, who take the goods, trimmings, and belong-
ings to their shops, where they have to do all the incidental
and preparatory parts and deliver the goods ready for ship-
ment. If there are any defects in the work, the cloak maker
has to make them good. The manufacturer has no further
responsibility, except to pay the man the stipulated price.
This system prevails with the largest houses. One
acknowledged as the largest manufacturer in the line told
me that the only cutting he did on his own premises was of
jerseys, then (1887) manufactured and exported in large
quantities ; that, except for this, he employed not a solitary
cutter, and that most of his patterns were furnished by the
cloakmakers. It is the common custom that cloakmakers
make the patterns and furnish the cloaks at a stipulated
price for the making, and that the manufacturer has no
other function than the furnishing of the requisite number
of yards of goods, trimmings, etc.
Now, with all these advantages, it can be seen how easy
it becomes for Americans to supply their home market from
so inviting a manufacturing system. But the risks and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 363
losses were soon found by many to be greater than the
profits. When long garments were brought over, a ten-
dency to medium or short styles manifested itself, or vice
versa ; a question of loose or half or wholly tight fitting, or
some other similar discrimination would determine whether
the enterprise was a paying or a losing one. Then the
question of materials and trimmings is not less grave, and
has to be taken into consideration along with the other
risks. So it was soon found that even an unprotected
industry could stand the onslaught of fierce foreign cheap
labor, always anxious to keep its grip on the American
market. The business has gradually dwindled away, and
the American cloakmaker holds well-nigh complete control
of the field. Whatever the importations may have been
heretofore, now they are too inconsiderable to interfere with'
his trade, his profits, or the wages of the working people.
The Sweating System.
The world has of late heard so much of the sweating
system, that a general interest is aroused by the mere men-
tion of it. The first question is, What is sweating? The
House of Lords' Committee made a profound investiga-
tion. Some three or four volumes, thousands of pages folio,
were printed, containing the questions of noble lords and
the answers of common people (manufacturers, merchants,
and working people). But after going over all the evidence
we still ask, What is sweating? Of course, we know it
means the taking from working people a part of their
earnings and the appropriation of it by others, not workers
in the strict sense. The man who takes the work from the
manufacturer would then be a sort of middle-man, appro-
priate a certain portion, an unearned increment, and be the
364 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
sweater. So we have the sweating and the sweater easily
defined. It is just as easy to locate the victim and the
tyrant.
The next step, then, is to propose a remedy somewhat
more difficult even to legislative committees. The system
finds a foothold wherever distributed industries exist as
against the factory system. In England, even the furni-
ture and upholstery trades, as well as the boot and shoe
trades, and, as we have seen already, the nail and small
chain making trades, besides the clothing and cloak mak-
ing trades, are to a large extent conducted on this system.
In America the system of giving out work through the
medium of what we may term "sweating" until we shall
have found our own definition, has maintained itself as
against the factory in no line except ready-made clothing
and cloaks. The middle-man takes the work from the
manufacturer in larger or smaller quantities. If the goods
were distributed to individuals and finished by them, and
the middle man or woman appropriated part of the wages
for no other but mandatory services, this would properly
be " sweating." This sort of business is practiced frequently
by cutters in the trade or by department men, so far as
the English commission's evidence goes to prove. The
system of taking commissions for preferences has grown
rank, and has become one of regular practice for levying toll
on all work taken home or letting poor people, who come
from distances, go without work. A working woman, do-
ing work for a certain firm, the principal partner a member
of the County Council, told me that she had often to stand
for half a day vainly waiting for work, and then to walk
home empty handed, without work and without money. If
the poor white slaves should complain to the firm, generally
concerned only in getting the work at the lowest possible
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 365
price, it would be worse for them yet. Then they might
never get any work from the contemptible, petty despot.
The nefarious practice may not obtain in America now,
but I remember that in former times complaints were not
infrequent But this is not " sweating," in the meaning in
which the term is applied, though it be the genuine blood-
sucking and grinding of the faces of the poor working-
women.
It may seem stranger yet when I say that the sweater
who follows his vocation honestly and openly has even been
the instrument to make the other practices gradually be-
come extinct, or at least less harmful. The "sweater," as
we see him brought under public notice, is nothing more nor
less than a contractor, a contre-maitre, or foreman, a superin-
tendent in fact, the manufacturer proper. He stands in
the same position in which we have found the weaving
masters in Lyons. He takes the work from the firms, sub-
divides it among his hands, has to superintend the progress
as well as to examine the work before delivering it, to fur-
nish the shop light and fuel, and, as we learn from the Eng-
lish proceedings, tea and sugar for the afternoon tea.
What these people keep over is not usually a very large
sum, if the shop is not large. One whom I visited in the
East End of London, and whose statements before the Lords'
Committee I could thus verify in every respect, was a coat-
maker. He had good medium quality work for a well-dis-
posed house, with constant supply of goods. He employed
thirty-eight hands, eighteen men and twenty women, in a
well-lighted shop to the rear of his dwelling house. In fact,
what we read of the squalor and darkness of East End
London is more atmospheric than architectural. With
miles and miles of streets of small two-room, two-story
houses (I have been in houses with one room on each of the
366 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
two floors, the lower floor level with the street, and whole
streets of these houses exist), air and light, if there are any
about, are by no means the rare luxuries which they are in
the tenement houses, and principally the rear tenement
houses, of New York.
The " sweater " pays his hands by the day, except the
buttonholers, who are paid by the piece. The buttonholers
furnish their own silk and cord, while the "sweater" fur-
nishes the thread, silk, and findings for the rest of the help.
He pays the following rates per working day, from 8 to 8,
with an hour for dinner and half an hour for tea. First
machinist, 85. ($1.93) ; second machinist, 6s. ($1.46) ; third
machinist, 4s. 6d ($1.09) ; improver, 3s. (73 cents) ; first
presser, 7. Qd. ($1.83) ; second presser, 4s. 6d ($1.09) ; first
baster, 6s. ($1.46) ; second baster, 4s. Qd. ($1.09) ; female
hands, 2s. Qd. to 4s. (61 to 97 cents) ; the latter are buttonhole
makers, and are paid %d. or 1 cent a buttonhole. Four shil-
lings is an average of net earnings of good buttonhole
makers.*
This man made overcoats for which he got 3s. apiece, or
73 cents. If the man has a fair profit left over, it is cer-
tainly not by paying poor wages. It will be admitted that
they are high in consideration of what we usually glean
from reports about East End of London labor. I could not
see any evidence in the report of the committee that compe-
* In America 80 cents is paid on contract for a hundred cloak button-
holes. The contractor owns the machine, furnishes the silk, and pays the
workmen, of course. The direct pay to the workman is not more than
half a cent, about half the English rate. Yet the workman earns be-
tween $10 and $12. Another illustration, from personal knowledge, of the
subject of the absurd claims advanced and " the facts " on which they are
based Even in the sweater's shop the English get higher pay by the
piece, though they may earn less money than their American brothers and
sisters
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 367
tent labor can be obtained at a reduction from the above.
Here, again, the subdivision and intelligent direction of
labor pay good wages, and give the contractor a profit at so
low a price as 8s. for an overcoat. I bought one of these
overcoats, paid 15s. 3d. $3.86 for it (the wholesale price),
brought it home, gave it to a young friend to wear, and
after a winter's usage in rough weather, I find it in excel-
lent condition. The lining is a good, real Italian cloth (not
cotton Italian), and the cloth of good texture and face.
Now, this contractor is certainly entitled to compensation
for his work, and if he makes a profit in excess of what
would be a fair allowance for the work, etc., which he puts
in himself, it is only by the larger operations, the more
constant work he has command of, and the greater number
of hands he can employ. He does not take it out of his
working people, because he pays day rates. He even pays
top prices for the class of work he turns out. Yet this
man is a " sweater." Mr. Burnett, the Labor Correspondent
of the Board of Trade, says of this class : " They, as a rule,
have good regular work, fair prices, cheap labor, and large
profits." Mr. Burnett, then referring directly to my inform-
ant, gives substantially the rates which I have quoted above
from a statement written out for my use. If this is " sweat-
ing," then by all means give us more of it. The horrors
are certainly not as we imagine when we hear reports of it.
And still they are bad enough, in the general way. But
they are due to scarcity of work, whimsical supply, the
capriciousness of the men who give out the work, long
hours lost in waiting and then a rush for an immediate fill-
ing out of lost time all the sad results of labor unorgan-
ized and at the mercy of anybody who wishes to impose
on it. All these evils are excluded from the factory system.
A poor Englishwoman carried on for some years, on her
368 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
ground floor, a shop where she employed a number of ma-
chines and workingwomen making trousers and commor
shirts for a wholesale house. She told me, and it was cor-
roborated by the woman who occupied the floor above, that
many a week she had not two shillings over after paying her
help.
These "sweaters," in the absence of any other and perhaps
better organization, are the best protection the working-people
in these industries have. They stand as buffers between them
and the employers. They resist the grinding-down process
successfully. They are organized to an extent, and cannot
be dispensed with by the wholesale firms. They are respon-
sible, and can be relied upon to turn out satisfactory work
in quantities and in uniform condition. While labor in the
larger " sweater " shops is well paid for, and good earnings
and bad earnings are questions of time worked and employ-
ment found, the same cannot be said of the workers who
take the work directly from the firms to their homes, and
are not '' sweated," as the term goes. I found several poor
women who made pantaloons for leading English wholesale
firms. They got 5d. per pair. Two sisters worked to-
gether ; one did the machine part, for which she got 2|d,
and the other the finishing, the buttonholing, and the sew-
ing on of buttons for the remaining 2%d. They could make
eight pair a day, and earn about 40 cents each. But they
did not always get full work, frequently not more than four
pair a day. These are the cheapest grades. For the same
work " sweaters " testified that they got 6|d, or 13 cents,
from the wholesale houses. This shows how things appear
when freed from the conventional coloring which sentiment
has laid upon them.
That the factory system is an improvement on these older
forms will be seen later on. But under this system, and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 369
largely by the aid of the much despised and decried pauper-
immigrant labor, an enormous exporting industry has been
built up, which gives employment to an army of native
workers in the cloth and allied industries. Work begets
work. One employment puts another employment in
motion. Labor consumes the product of other people's
labor, and so prosperity is heightened all around, though
occasional hard rubbing may occur, even by an influx " of
foreign cheap labor " and of the downtrodden of other and
more unfortunate countries. Liberty attracts, and is the
spring to exertion, progress, and prosperity.
24
CHAPTER XV.
Improved Methods and Division of Labor. Labor in Ready-made Goods
here and abroad. Great Export Articles. Foreign Commerce
restricted by the Tariff.
.
IN the rates of wages paid by the contractor referred to
in the preceding chapter, we have a fair instance of the shop
rates in the clothing trade in general, as evidenced by the
testimony of the Labor Correspondent of the Board of Trade.
The wages are high, though the piece-rate is low. In Berlin
the cloak trade by far outweighs in importance the men's
clothing trade. In fact, as an exporter of men's clothing,
Germany plays no part at all. The day rates there are far
below the English. The general mode of living is lower,
and, knowing by long training how to make a little go a
great way, the workers subsist on earnings which ruled in
England a hundred years ago.
The average for female help is 1 marks ; for male help,
3 marks. Not that certain occupations do not pay higher
wages, but a great portion of workers also earn less than the
above. A white-goods factory in Berlin, operating with
steam power, and employing about 1,000 hands, had a weekly
pay roll of 15,000 marks. Now, we must consider that
this is a factory with all the modern accessories and its
complement of profit-eating, stationary expenses and capital
charges. The works must be kept going, the hands must
be kept working, or the fixed charges, etc., make sad havoc
with the profits and, ultimately, the capital. Hence, it
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 371
follows that an even employment for the best help obtain-
able is guaranteed by this modern system.
The proportion of female help to male is greater than in
most other industries. The male help here exceeds largely
in its earnings the general rate for male help. Cutters get
as high as 40 marks, and average about 30, so that the
average of female wages in this factory would scarcely
exceed 12 marks a week. Still, it did not strike me that
they turned out work more cheaply than we do here, though
ihe earnings here are higher.
The clothing industry in America is mainly conducted on
the same system as in England. Many large shops are run
by contractors who take the work from the wholesale firm
to their own premises, and return it completed with the
label sewed on, " Custom-made," etc. Small shops abound,
too, with all the evils connected with their London proto-
tj'pes. The wages paid both men and women do not so
much exceed those paid at the best English shops that the
contract price or .selling price would thereby be materially
enhanced. The goods are all cut on the premises of the
wholesale firm and delivered to the outside makers, with all
the belongings cut and ready for the workers.
The same holds good in the cloak trade, except that
a very large percentage of help is directly employed by
the wholesale houses. These do the finest work and earn
the highest wages. Excepting the finer work, where a dif-
ference of 25 or 50 cents or a dollar in the making up of a
high-priced garment would not tell, I found the labor cost
did not differ very materially. In many of the operations,
as they pass through the different hands, and where com-
parisons could be made, I found the rates below London
and Berlin. The work is conducted on different principles
here, largely with the aid of labor-saving machinery, while
372 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
abroad it is still turned out by hand processes in the main,
and what machinery they use is decidedly inferior to ours.
More goods are turned out in a given time by one operative
here than by three or four in the old countries. Cutting is
done here largely by the aid of machinery now. But even
where cutting is done by the cutting-knife, as in white cot-
tons for ladies' underwear, I found in the Berlin factory
mentioned that they have short cutting tables on which they
lay the cloth and consider 24 thicknesses an achievement.
The cutters, as I observed, set on several times until they
got the knife through the layers, and finally brought out
the pieces with uneven edges and hanging threads. Here
at that time they put 72 thicknesses on the table, spread the
cloth the whole length of the piece, some 45 yards long ;
the cutter passes his knife through with the greatest ease,
and, with steady strokes through the whole thickness, he
brings out the work smooth-edged. The same factories
were then getting tables made with grooves for the cutting-
knife to go through, by which to cut 120 thicknesses in one
cutting.
I will not go into further details. The results may be
summed up in one example : For the making of a jersey
waist, the cheapest quality, given out all cut and ready for
the workers, the Berlin house paid 60 pfennigs, or about 15
cents apiece, including buttonholes, etc. Starvation prices,
people would cry, if 15 cents were named here as the price
paid to sewing women for making a jersey waist, with 16
buttonholes, and buttons sewed on. Yes, in the Berlin way
it would be so. But a large producer in Philadelphia turned
them out in this quality at 12 cents or 10 cents, taking off
the cutting expense, as ought to be, in comparing with the
Berlin labor cost. The work is subdivided, and paid thus :
Two cents for running up the seams, 4 cents for making up,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 373
2 to 3 cents for buttons and button-boles, and 2 cents for
pressing. The buttonboles, of course, are machine-made
(self-finishing), and calculated at the rate of 15 cents a hun-
dred, though they cost less in labor, as a girl turns out
easily 1,200 a day. The buttons are sewed on by machinery,
too. The girls average $6 a week, while in Berlin, at the
same piece-price, their competitors would have to work long
over hours to earn $2 to $2.50 a week.
Boots and Shoes.
I presume it is now conceded that boots and shoes are
turned out in our factories at less cost of labor than in
either England, Germany, or Austria. Yet, when I brought
out the facts in a report to the State Department strenuous
efforts were made to impugn them.* Our methods of man-
ufacturing are as different as the results are startling.
Ladies' button gaiters, on which I based my comparisons,
cost, in the combined operations, from the leather to the
packing in boxes, at Lynn, Mass., 35 cents ; at Leicester,
England, 64 cents; at Berlin, 57 cents; at Frankfort, 61
cents ; and at Vienna, 71 cents. Yet the earnings in the
* For further details see Consular Reports No. 96, August, 1888. The
report treats exhaustively the comparative method and cost of labor, etc.,
in the different parts of work in the different countries. I stated plainly
what the boots were on which my comparisons were based. Yet a manu-
facturer was put in requisition by a protection paper in Boston to declare
that I had taken 'American common brogans and compared them with
fine goods of European make. By such tricks and devices the protection-
ists would only injure their own cause, but for the fact that the general
public is usually unacquainted with the points really at issue. Hence, I
think it is not more than a part of the duty imposed on the author by
his mission, to caJl attention to the nature of the " contradictions " which
his reports have received.
374 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
different places stand in an inverse ratio to the cost of
production.
We are certainly justified in saying in regard to this
industry that a low cost of production and a high rate of
earnings go hand in hand, and are the result of the most
intelligent application of the most improved methods and
labor-saving inventions in the economy of production.
Applied to the test of foreign competition, this is proved
with most convincing clearness by this statement of com-
parative cost and comparative earnings :
Cost, of Labor. Weekly Wages. Weekly Wages.
Male. Female.
Cents. 8 $
Lynn, Mass 35 12.00 7.00
Stafford, England.. 63 5.76 to 6.24 2.83
Leicester, England. 64 6.72 to 8.40 8.60 to 4.32
Berlin 67 4.80 to 7.20
Frankfort 61 4.32 to 7.20 2.16 to 3.60
Vienna 71 4.30 to 9.60 4.40
This is not, on a general question, based on averages, but
on a closely-defined article. An American sample, pro-
cured from a Lynn factory, formed at each place the sub-
ject of a personal inquiry, so that no doubt could be legiti-
mately raised.
The differences in the cost of production and in the rela-
tive earnings are all due to differences in the labor methods,
the results of the habits and trade conditions of the peoples.
They all employ machinery. The goods are everywhere
factory products. The machinery is nearly all American or
of American origin, with foreign improvement or adaptation.
Yet these are the results. The application differs under
the varying conditions imposed by national peculiarities and
trade requirements. The facts collected on this particular
branch, if fully brought out, would in themselves be a com-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 375
plete portraiture of the stages in the process of industrial
evolution, and be an explanation of many knotty points in
the labor question. The plan of this review does not per-
mit more than a glance at these facts.
Briefly outlined, I have stated the positions in the ready-
made industries in textiles and leather. I had to show how
other nations conduct this important business of covering
the descendants of Adam and Eve with clothing. I feel cer-
tain that henceforth the assurance will prevail that, what-
ever the tariff, the monopoly cannot be wrested from us by
the foreigner and his "cheap labor."
The Foreign Trade Aspect.
The industries here mentioned have become large manu-
facturing industries in the Old World, more by a catering
to foreign markets than in response to an urgent home
demand. The foreign demand on the three leading coun-
tries is a constantly increasing one.
The principal exports, for 1890, from Great Britain, and
for 1888, from Germany and France, show the following
figures :
In Millions of Dollars.
Great Britain. France. Germany.
Wearing apparel 25 18 26
Boots and shoes, etc 11.2 14 26*
Haberdashery-
Millinery 10.5
Hats and caps , 6.2 2.6 2
Hosiery 8 10 24
60.9 44.6 78
Millinery and gloves are leading export articles of France.
I have at present on hand no data to specify them. It is a
* Including gloves and other fine leather goods.
376 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
safe estimate to place them at $20,000,000. Adding this,
the total of the three countries would be over $200,000,000.
Our own contribution to the foreign trade of the world
is slim, so slim that it is hardly worth mention. But, as
we have to hang a very important argument on this tiny
peg, we have to exhibit the figures to public gaze, patriotic
feelings to the contrary notwithstanding. They were for
1890:
Wearing apparel, cotton $278,000
Wearing apparel, wool 424,000
Boots and shoes 651,000
Total $1, 353,000
This is the more remarkable, as in the different branches
of wearing apparel our labor is as cheap, and in a variety
of operations it can be shown that it is considerably cheaper
even than in England, Germany, and France. In ladies'
underwear the work is not alone cheaper, but the goods are
turned out in better style than in Germany or England.
French lingerie, being chiefly hand-sewn, does not come
within this category. In boots and shoes our greater cheap-
ness is hardly a matter of contention. Yet how small a
figure do we cut in the foreign trade !
The most remarkable thing about the figures given is the
fact that a very large portion of these exports of Europe
goes to countries from which we are so anxious to exact
special favors by means of reciprocal treaties under the
McKinley act France sends nearly one-half of her exports
of apparel and of boots and shoes to the countries to the
south of us. Almost all of these exports of the three
countries go to the Americas and to the colonial possessions
of England. We are excluded from participation in a pay-
ing trade by the primary cause of high tariff duties. What-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. S77
ever other impediments may exist in other branches, such
as plain or colored cotton goods, in these this cause is vital,
and it is hardl} 7 worth while to enumerate others, seeing
that all efforts are useless so long as this one is not
removed. There can be no possible success in an effort to
sell articles abroad, of which wool is a component part, so
long as we pay 11 cents a pound on wool which costs now
in the London market 8c?., or 16 cents (the latest quotations
of Australian wool were as low as 7fc?.), and of which it
takes at the least 3 pounds to make a pound of cloth.
But, waiving this, the McKinley tariff has raised the com-
monest supplies and ornaments to such a height, that the
duties levied amount to as much as the value of the labor
contained in the articles. On pearl buttons the duties are
so high that none but the upper ten can afford to make the
lavish use of them which can be made in the Old World
of the untaxed article. If we wish to compete, we have to
do for our customers as well as our competitors do. It
would not help much to use the "sour grape" plea so fre-
quently made use of by protectionists, that china, bone, or
cloth-covered buttons are better or more serviceable. This
article of common use has to pay now, in the lower grades,
as high as 200 to 300 per cent. A certain importation of a
low grade of pearl buttons, amounting to .some $400, and
still brought in under the old rate last year at 40 per cent,
would have had to pay under the new tariff about $1,500,
or well-nigh 400 per cent, as brought to my attention by
the importing firm. If a lady's waist or a boy's shirt had
pearl buttons, and they generally do have them at least so
far as foreign markets purchase them, the duty on buttons
would balance and even exceed the labor cost. In white
goods, lingerie, where we do excellently, France exports
$7,500,000 to $8,000,000 worth, and Germany a very con-
378 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
siderable amount, too. In this class of goods, Swiss em-
broideries and laces, used for ornament and trimming, form
a greater part of the value than the materials of which
the goods are composed. Our cheap labor and our excellent
cottons will avail us little when we have to pay 60 per cent,
duty on embroideries and from 200 to 300 per cent on pearl
buttons. I have found that in men's shirts we do as well
as in Berlin ; so in linen collars and cuffs, as far as the labor
expense goes. But who would venture on an export busi-
ness with linen duties of 35 per cent, in the fine and 50 in
the medium grades, when competing countries have all
these articles and materials duty free ?
Protectionism overreaching itself becomes self -destructive.
Tax the material and you limit production.
We may be told that in boots and shoes this does not
now apply, as we export leather. But it does apply, and
very strongly, too. A great many findings, kinds of leather,
and materials used in the foreign boot and shoe trade are
not those used or made in the United States. Whatever of
foreign make enters into the boot or shoe has to pay high
duties, and, if used to any extent, would soon outweigh
the advantages of the cheaper labor cost demonstrated
above. In hot countries lighter goods are worn. To these
countries our longing eyes are directed when we speak of
our trade possibilities under the famous reciprocity treaties.
But we neither should have the materials, nor could we
supply them at proper prices, so as to build a suitable
shoe for hot climates. The people of these countries are
fastidious, and those who are not wear some country
made foot-gear, or buy no shoes they go barefooted. So
it is idle to speak of an expansion of trade in these
lines under the treaties which are to open a new era in
trade.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 379
Reciprocity Treaties.
In Part II., Chapter VI., I gave a statement of English
exports in colored cotton goods to the different American
States with which we are negotiating these treaties, and our
own insignificant exports, hardly more than 12J per cent,
of England's trade. But in all species of cotton fabrics
England's South American trade is about $40,000,000 and
ours about $4,000,000 about 10 per cent The Brazilian
markets took $12,500,000 from England and $620,000 from
us. A bare 5 per cent. I stated the principal reasons, and
need not dwell on them further. That they are sufficient to
prevent any considerable expansion till we have adapted
ourselves more to foreign trade requirements is seen from
the facts of commerce.
The treaty with Brazil, the reduction of the Brazilian
tariff in our favor by 25 per cent, was to do wonders for
our cotton manufacturers.* Yet what are the results?
The treaty has been long enough in existence to show what
advantages can be realized under it. They are nil. There
was even a decrease reported in cotton goods for the first
six months in which the treaty was in force, as compared
with the same months of the previous year. A considerable
increase is reported to have taken place in the export of
locomotives, steam engines, and cars for tramwa} r s and rail-
ways. But the shipments from England in all kinds of iron
and manufactures of iron up to December 1, 1891, were
* The simplest economic facts are ignored in these speculative expecta-
tions. The Brazilian tariff is on the weight. The English cloth weigh-
ing by 20 per cent, lighter to the square yard than American cloth alone
would counterbalance any possible advantage America might derive
from one held in this remarkable treaty, not shared by England under
"the most favored nation " clause.
380 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
1,750,000, against 1,410,000 in the same months of the
preceding year, the more perfected forms leading. This
shows that the enlargement of our own trade in these
articles was not caused by diplomacy, but by a naturally
increased demand for them. The reductions amount to
little, and by no means equal the cost increase which our
high-priced iron causes in the cost of construction as com-
pared with English cost. But even when the differences
were far greater in the cost of iron and steel than they are
at present, these goods formed the chief articles of export in
manufactured goods to the American republics. As far
back as 1883, when the Spanish- American treaty was under
discussion, I compiled a table of exports, in which the
United States figured as sending $10,600,000, Great Britain
$21,000,000, Germany $1,000,000, and France $1,800,000 of
iron products to these States. In 1890 our exports in
manufactures wherein iron is the material of chief value to
these countries were $15,500,000, constituting nearly one-
half of all our exports of manufactures of the same class.
It is a matter of first importance in the consideration of
our problem that only those articles are exportable in
which the material forms the smallest part of the value, and
labor the largest. It is a common saying among manu-
facturers that this ability to export increases with the ratio
of labor to the cost of the material. Labor must exceed
40 per cent, in the cost of production before their manu-
factures become exportable. The articles of which our
exports are chiefly composed prove this as fully correct. A
great proportion of the English exports consist of railroad
iron, castings, and supplies in crude forms. We cannot
export these ; our exports are entirely of the other category.
We may safely deduce from this that we have in the metal
and iron industries the cheapest labor and the dearest
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 381
materials of any country in the world, arid that treaties of
commerce, such as can be framed under the act, will not be
very effective in changing conditions so long as this great
obstacle of highly-taxed materials is not removed.
Great promises were made to agriculturists of the advan-
tages that would accrue to them from the treaties. These
are as illusory as those given to our manufacturers. These
countries are all pastoral and agricultural. The chief
imports are manufactured goods, which they get from
Europe in exchange for their products. Climatic and other
causes force the countries under the tropics to import many
products of temperate zones, wheat flour, salt provisions,
etc. But nearly all of this trade had been safely in our
hands long before any treaty was thought necessary for
finding a market for the barrel of flour and the barrel of
pork, so sadly neglected in the McKinley bill until Mr.
Blaine made his dramatic effort in their behalf. All the
salt pork, lard, and other hog products entering these
domains came from the United States. All the wheat flour
came from America. Austria shipped some to Brazil, but
not enough to make much of a ripple. On the other hand,
Argentinia is beginning to dislodge us in Brazil, as being
nearer to her borders and ports. With these exceptions we
held supreme control of the field before the treaties. The
same with Cuba, which enters the charmed circle now. A
great market for our flour is to be opened, we are told.
But I cannot well see that what we did not already hold
of this trade can be very large. The principal competitor
of the United States in the flour trade of Cuba and Porto
Eico, up to now, was Spain. Under the advantages granted
to us we shall not any longer have Spain deprive us of
our rights to supply the Spanish Antilles entire. Now
the Spanish exports of wheat flour in 1880 amounted to
382 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
13,000,000 pesetas, or about $2,500,000. This gradually
dwindled down to 5,700,000 pesetas, or about $1,100,000.
in 1888. I do not know the figures of the last year, but
the amount, the one of 1880, or 1888 (take the highest of
the decade), will not make our agriculturists very prosper-
ous.
It is an idle fooling of the people. A mere examination
of the trade lists, a comparison of the imports of Central
and South America from all countries with our exports to
them in these commodities, will show that not one of the
promises that have been made the chief article of glory in
the Republican programme can be fulfilled. It is a trick
from beginning to end. Our agricultural classes would have
fared far better had the McKinley bill never been enacted.
To the south of us, English capital is rearing the most
formidable rivalry which they have yet had to encounter.
The great financial breakdown of a year ago has not at all
interfered with the material progress which the Argentine
Republic has been making. Her wheat and her live stock
will in the near future become most important factors in
the competition for European markets, and the increased
competition will be most keenly felt by the American
farmer.
CHAPTER XYL
The Tariff in its Relation to the Industrial Problem. Summary. Com-
parative Labor Cost in Principal Industries in America and England.
Treatment of the Labor Question by Economists in Entire Ignor-
ance of Facts. Resulting Chaos and Strife. Wages paid by the
Piece. High Wages and Reduced Hours resulting from Improve-
ment in Economy of Production. Conclusions.
WERE our tariff one for revenue with incidental protec-
tion, such a one as we enjoyed before the war, of moderate
ad valorem duties, or of specific duties on a basis of free raw
materials for industrial purposes, such as Germany's tariff
is, a reform or change of the tariff would not meet with
many technical difficulties. Whatever the impelling causes
for making it so, our tariff has become so cumbersome and
intricate that any one object of taxation directly affects a
variety of other objects, and a change in one would alter
the relations of a great many connecting interests.
This artificial system has finally culminated in the Mc-
Kinley act. Here we find all disguises thrown aside, and
meet with the bold declaration that the object of tariff
taxation is not the raising of revenue for the support of
the Government, but, on the contrary, the reduction of
revenue, and ultimately the extinction of revenue, by the
exclusion of imports by duties to be raised to a height
sufficient for the accomplishment of this end. The rates
were left to the manufacturers and other interested parties
to prescribe. We have seen how signally these extreme
rates have failed to do what they promised. We have
seen that the reasons for the failure are organic, and that
384 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the grossest perversion of the taxing power cannot succeed
in supplying what is internally wanting*
But, be this as it may, the inflating causes remain. The
war tariff and its late extension has so impregnated all
values and so deeply affects industrial pursuits that it is
not an economic political question, but, more than anything
else, an industrial question, closely interwoven with all the
most intimate relations of labor and capital. On this ac-
count it is clear that greater attention has to be given to the
industrial side of the tariff than to any other. We are all
agreed, except those who believe, or profess to believe, that
the duty is paid by the foreign shipper, that the tariff is a
burden. The consumer, apart from the industrial producer,
has been taught to bear the burden as a patriotic duty, so
as to give the producers of manufactured articles a chance to
exist in competing with the products of foreign cheap labor.
This, therefore, has become the salient point. No data
existed for a verification of either an affirmative or a nega-
tive opinion, except general statistical compilations. It was
necessary to establish a basis upon which so important a
work could be undertaken, a reform of the tariff without
injury to the producing classes. A comparison of the cost
of production by the piece in the principal industries, the
means and methods employed in production, the economic
conditions which underlie and determine production in this
country and in competing countries, would alone give a
satisfactory basis.
We all remember that in all campaigns in which the tariff
formed an issue, the difference in the rate of pay by the day
was presented as the impregnable wall before which all
efforts would have to cease. A reduction of the tariff
would imply nothing less than the tearing down of the
homes and firesides of hundreds of thousands, even mil-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 385
lions, of artisans and laboring men and women. Here in
America day wages were shown to be 200 per cent, above
those ruling on the Continent, and 50 to 100 per cent, above
those ruling in England. Exaggerated as the statements
were in most instances, the actual differences were high
enough to impress many a doubting mind. The reverse of
the medal was withheld from view ; viz., that the countries
paying the lowest wages worked the longest hours and pro-
duced the dearest goods. Positive proof was wanting to
establish the relative parts, known only from general trade
facts. To make any headway, it was necessary to take the
question out of the hazy atmosphere which had surrounded
it, and to give it positive shape and form under the bright
glare of facts. To do this effectively, all the leading indus-
tries had to be investigated and reviewed, and their com-
parative status and cost of production given.
If only a few industries had been treated by way of
example, the supposition would have been justified that
equally important industries would not be able to stand the
ordeal of tariff reduction.
The Cost of Production.
Labor is the chief element of cost in the product
Whether it be the unassisted hand labor of domestic
industry, the factory work of Continental Europe, with its
inferior organization and machinery, or the more highly
developed industry of England, brought to an all-pervading
system of highest perfection in America, labor is the chief
element of cost. In the former processes the labor is all
expressed in the pay to the worker ; in the latter the cost
of machinery, of buildings, of superintendence and manage-
ment, go into the cost as additionals. They are expressed
either as direct labor items, as " general labor " expense, or
25
386 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
as interest charges in the general expense charge on the
product. The value of buildings and machinery expresses
the labor put into their construction, and the annual charge
for interest and depreciation is not less legitimately a labor
charge because the outlay was made before direct produc-
tion could take place. It is labor stored up in buildings,
machinery, fixtures, etc.
In making comparisons I have taken this into full con-
sideration. I must confess that I was more than surprised
to find that, in all the leading industries, the general views
expressed in my book, "The Industrial Situation " (pub-
lished 1885), were verified to the fullest extent by these
specific comparisons. Whatever detractors may have said,
not one of them was able to show that the figures were
incorrect. Other inquiries undertaken since the first pub-
lication of my reports have given fullest corroboration. I
can, therefore, well challenge contradiction when I say that
the figures prove beyond peradventure that barring slight
exceptions, our labor is as cheap in all leading articles,
which supply the necessaries of life, the clothing, imple-
ments, etc., of our people, as the labor of any other nation.
The fact must be reassuring to those who think that we
cannot return to such a tariff as we had before the war with-
out injury to the working people engaged in those trades,
or without necessitating a reduction of their present money
wages. I purposely say money wages, because we have
frequently told the workingman that a reduction of his
wages under a lower tariff would be equalized by a reduced
cost of living. The cost of living will, undoubtedly, be
reduced by tariff reform, but the rate of wages need not
be reduced on account of the labor cost of the product.
Proof has been ample. It will be more assuring when we
present it in the close phalanx of parallel columns in this
summing up of the results of our inquiry.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
387
COST OF LABOR IN THE LEADING ARTICLES OP MANU-
FACTURING INDUSTRIES REVIEWED IN THE PRECED-
ING CHAPTERS.
AMERICA.
ENGLAND. Co I? E8 .
BROWN STONEWARE :
Butter Pots ^-gallon, per 100
" 1 " "
2 " "
3 " "
5 " "
" 6 " "
FLINT GLASS :
Bottles -16-ounce, per 100
" 2 " "
Decanters, 1 quart "
Pitchers, 1 quart "
Goblets "
Tumblers "
Finger bowls "
Bituminous coal, gross ton
" " (Penn., 1890)
" " (Connellsv.)
Cents.
71.3
100
162
245
553
666
42
375
400
130
95
125
Cents. Cents.
109
158
293
450
780
1,200
91
58
450
475
127
80
146
79t79to89*(Ger.)
Coke-making
Iron ore
Cheaper ores
Pig iron
(Lake Sup.)
(Cumberl'd)
(East'n Pa.)
(Pittsburgh)
64
33
32
119
19
125
158
(Durham) 51
34
(Staffordshire) 146
(Cleveland) 30
(Middlesboro') 73 to 96
(East'n Pa.) 250 to 304
45
98
40
45
1,153
yards
" . ..
pounds..
Bessemer steel rails
Cotton yarn, No. 20, per 100 pounds.
No. 40 " ".
Weaving print cloths
4-4 Sheeting
Worsted yarn, 2-40
6-4 WORSTED CLOTH :
Weaving per yard ........ 24 .4
Dyeing and finishing " ........ 4.1
6-4 WOOLEN DRESS GOODS :
Yarn pound ..................... 4.8
Weaving " ..................... 9.6
Finishing " ..................... 2.6
6-4 cheviot yrn, pound ............... 8.9
Weaving ............................. 7
Carpets, yard ......................... 4 to 5.25
Silk throwing, pound ................. 32 to 37J
Weaving wages, yard ................. 7
Total, yard ........................... 18
Ladies' boots, pair .................... 35
(Middlesboro') 307
50
100
48 to 51
50
950
10.8
4.7
4
7.4
4
4
4.4
4.5
40
8.9 6(Ger.)
13. 9 15.25 (Lyons.)
64 57toCl(Ger.)
71 (Austria).
* General for U. S. Census, 1880.
t Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia.
t North Staffordshire.
Hand-looms, Zurich.
388 THE ECONOMY OF SIGH WAGES.
I leave out here Trenton white earthenware, as laboring
under exceptionally disadvantageous conditions, backward
ness and poor management, according to the manufacturers
own contention. On the other hand, I leave out the kinds
manufactured on the old plan in Europe and by the most
advanced methods in America, as in nail, rivet, and chain
making.
I take only such manufactures as are conducted on the
same methods, and there we find only in the weaving
of worsteds and in some classes of woolens that the labor
cost in America is above the English cost. But even here,
as explained previously, owing to the different keeping of
accounts and the lower general cost in American methods,
the difference in the final cost is much smaller than given
in the above labor differences, and practically disappears in
a number of instances. The most gratifying part is that
even in silks we have reduced the cost differences to so small
a point that here also the period of tutelage may be de-
clared at an end. In all other branches named in the above
exhibit and they comprise the most important branches of
national activity our labor is as cheap as that of the
cheapest producers of Europe, and in a great number of
them cheaper.
While we have been anxiously debating the best means
of providing protection for our home industries, while the
relative heights of protective tariffs were the only debatable
ground for parties to divide on, the economic forces, fully
dwelt upon in these pages, have actually accomplished what
the most sanguine would have set down as one of the great
aims to be striven for. America has practically worked out
industrial independence, and can fairly claim release from
the interfering barriers of oppressive laws. She can take
up the contest with other nations, and only wants free ma-
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 389
terials to take a commanding position in foreign markets.
We have shown that, under natural conditions, she can do
this very well, but never under the artificial conditions of
the McKinley tariff and hybrid reciprocity treaties, with
their necessarily barren results and implied end, the re-
imposition of taxes on her own people by executive order in
retaliation, if nations should remain obdurate, and not find
this reciprocity as advantageous as Mr. Elaine would have
them believe. In trade, as in private life, the Golden Rule
works best.
Our industries, not less than our commerce, depend for
their healthful growth upon an exchange of commodities
and products with other nations. From our position, as
illustrated, it can easily be seen that, if the ideal of our
present school of protectionists could be reached by cutting
ourselves off from all intercourse with foreign nations, and
actual prohibition of imports could be secured, barbariza-
tion would follow. The first to suffer and decline would be
our manufacturing industries. Nor does it require complete
exclusion ; barbarization will be proportionate to the ratio
of exclusion dealt out.
Our industries are supplemented in a sense by those of
Europe. What their higher cultivation of the arts enables
Europeans to produce better and finer than we are capable
of, does not all interfere with our work, but forces our man-
ufacturers to put their best energies forward to attain, by
improved means of production, results which shall gradually
conquer the markets of America. It is only by this stimu-
lation that we have reached the position of the present day.
Great as the progress has been, we still are wanting very
much in the essentials ; how much, is seen from the impor-
tations constantly going on, no matter how high we place
the tariff.
390 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
People will keep buying what they want, so long as
they are led by their tastes and possess the means for
gratifying them.
Economic and Sociological Deductions.
Gratifying as the results of the inquiry, as indexed in
these tables, must be to national pride from an industrial
point of view, the lessons to be deduced from the humani-
tarian point are of greater importance yet The great social
questions will be brought nearer a solution, and the labor
question will lose its asperity, when we know that higher
remuneration, better living, shorter hours, and lighter toil
are the results of the most improved methods which have
fructified labor so that it scatters abundance now in every
direction. It barely needs asserting that no effort of the
social reformer could dispel poverty were the products
wanting with which to feed and clothe the masses, and for
which the commercial mind, ever on the scent for a profit,
is always perfecting the machinery of distribution.
That the higher earnings of our working classes are due
to the freer operation of all the causes and influences re-
ferred to in the course of this discussion, and not possibly
to an artificial cause like the tariff, is apparent from the
inquiry into the cost of production. The fact that labor
cost, generally speaking, is on a par, while the earnings are
considerably (from 50 to 200 per cent.) above the earnings
of the working classes of Europe, leaves room for but one
interpretation the greater productiveness of our labor and
the consequent greater well-being of our working classes.
Labor owes nothing to paternalism in legislation ; it owes
everything to the removal of the trammels put upon free
exertion by impertinent and obstructive laws.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAQE8. 391
Conclusions.
An elucidation of all the economic problems touched
upon would lead beyond the range set up for this treatise.
It was intended to give the proof that the causes which are
at work in building up a nation's prosperity are different
from those usually assumed. To do this effectively I had
to leave the trodden path of argument and confine my-
self strictly to the statement of the facts of commercial and
industrial life to use a vulgar phrase, "the knock-down
argument," which speaks for itself. Still, it would not be
doing justice to the subject to leave off without pointing
out some glaring defects in the old views, which have led
to much mistaken and ill-advised legislation. Our labor
theories are still based on the wage fund theory, which has
caused and still is causing much misery and strife. It has
fortified itself so firmly in the thoughts of the age, that the
London Times but expressed the views of a large portion of
the possessing classes on both sides of the Atlantic when it
said in an editorial not very long ago : " The clear profits
of business is the fund on which the employer and the work-
man must depend for their respective shares. If the work-
man has more, the employer must have so much less, and
there seems good evidence that of late years the workman
has been receiving more than his former recognized share."
Hence the converse : the smaller the sum paid in wages
the greater are the profits.
It is evident that, so long as this is accepted as axiomatic,
labor and capital will be constantly fighting a relentless
war for the bigger slice. The recognition of the truth that
labor and capital both derive their remuneration from the
product, and that an increase in the productiveness of labor
affords both labor and capital increased remuneration, gives
392 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
at once a different aspect to the question. The old view
resulted in material and intellectual repression of the work-
ing classes, and the new view must result in their material
and intellectual advancement.
Once recognize the fact that, after all, man is the great
wealth-producing machine, the source of all wealth, then all
our efforts will be directed to the elevation of this machine
to the highest potentiality.
What is labor? Physical and muscular exertion. It
becomes economically valuable by intellectual guidance.
The greater the intellectual force and physical power intro-
duced by the laborer, co-operating with equally well-devel-
oped auxiliary and surrounding conditions, the greater
must be the sum of the products created. But to this we
must add the further and most important fact, that labor,
be it ever so intelligently conducted, will always remain
physical exertion. This is to say that labor is an expend-
iture of vital force. Unless this is replaced by wholesome
nutrition (air, light, sanitation, and even cheerful surround-
ings, are part of wholesome nutrition), the frame will work
itself out, and labor will become economically of smaller
and smaller value.
Another fact of vital importance is the time during which
the human frame is capable of its best exertion. In going
over the contentions, not of fifty years ago, but of the pres-
ent day, we find the assertion, by the defenders of long hours
in factories, that the last hour is the one that gives the
profit. This is not borne out by the facts. It is found by all
who employ machinery that the work of the last hour is the
least satisfactory, and the work of the first hours the best
and most copious. I frequently found that after working
extra hours many of my help came late the next morning
or stayed away a day ; others showed a lack of spirits and
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 393
less efficiency. The spirit was wanting, the frame was tired.
I gave it up after repeated experiments, and reaped better
results with regular hours and premiums for any quantity
beyond the daily averages of output. A little encourage-
ment and consideration for help does wonders. We are all
human and of one kind. But to Guildenstern the flute is a
stick with holes and stops, to Hamlet an instrument out of
which to draw harmonious sounds.
Close attention to speeded machinery is a much greater
nervous strain than was required by the humdrum of old
routine and hand work. I have the statement of one of the
largest dye works in Zurich (mostly hand work, of course),
to the same effect. The works employ some 450 hands.
They formerly worked thirteen hours, with two hours for
meals. The senior partner had hard work to obtain the con-
sent of the other members of the firm to a reduction of the
hours to twelve a day, or ten working hours. They figured
out to him that it would entail a loss of 15,000/ a year.
The reduction of hours was introduced, more as a trial than
a determined policy. But after the first year it was found
that not only was no loss sustained, but, on the contrary,
the results were more satisfactory than those of the pre-
ceding year. The facts are not so astonishing as men's
obstinate resistance to their application. The concrete
thrusts itself under everybody's eyes. In the abstract we
continue the time-worn argument.
In England we hear the constant iteration that they can-
not compete with Germany on account of the sixty-six hours
and more of the German working week and the fifty-four
hours of the English week. The establishment by inter-
national agreement of a uniform working day is mooted by
influential voices in trade and manufacture, and discussed
by statesmen in congresses and by cabinet ministers. To
394 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
them it is the same whether labor is well conditioned or
half starved ; whether it has the old, slow, hand-tool method
or is supplied with all the improved machinery and outfit
which modern science has put at its disposal. A day's
labor is a day's labor. The cheaper you get it and the more
hours you can crowd into the day, the better off you are.
Learned works are written on the subject, and still the facts
point so strongly in the opposite direction that it is difficult
to understand that there should be a difference of opinion.
The opposition of Germany and of Austria to the reduction
of their hours to the English standard of fifty-four hours,
is based on substantial grounds. The length of the work-
ing day is an index of the productive ability of a nation.
The application of the most improved methods to produc-
tion (implying a better paid and better conditioned laborer)
makes a shortening of hours practicable and even neces-
sary, because of both the physiological fact stated above
and the economic necessity. Production must go hand in
hand with consumption. If, by the too rapid introduction
of labor-saving devices, production runs ahead of demand, it
must adapt itself to the altered condition by shortening
the working time. But this is a self-adjusting process.
The legislature can do no more than enact what the genius
of the nation has wrought out in advance. The legislative
enactment is the caption of a chapter in the economic his-
tory of the nation. But it follows from all this, that
what is one man's meat is another man's poison. The
means, methods, and general conditions under which labor
exerts itself in the different countries also determine the
hours of work. It would, indeed, be a dear price to pay for
all the great advance by the parallel destruction of all the dear
old landmarks, if the profits were only on the side of capital ;
if labor in England, and still more in the United States,
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 395
should toil the same long hours and at the same low rates
as in the more backward countries. But the great advances
made in the economy of production in the highest developed
industrial states have led directly to the short working day,
to the material, intellectual, and political advancement and
emancipation of the laborer, and hence are the cheering and
elevating signs of a great and bright future.
That this is not a mere figure of speech, but based on all
the collected facts of industrial life, we can show by an in-
dustry now conducted on the same principle by all nations,
who have gone beyond the barbaric stage ; that is to say,
all nations west of the Vistula and the Carpathian moun-
tains.
The Cotton Industry.
The average for weekly earnings from two factories shows
the extremely low figures of 3 florins ($1.54) for one situ-
ated in Eastern Bohemia, and of 5 florins ($2.20) for one in
Western Bohemia. This is 26 cents and 86 cents, respec-
tively, as the average day earnings of men and women. The
working day averages 12^ hours net. In Switzerland I
found 11 hours, with 3f. (58 cents) to 3f. 50c. (68 cents) for
men and 2f. (39 cents) to 2f. 50c. (48 cents) for women. In
Germany the hours are not fixed by law, but are matter of
agreement between workers and employers. In textile fac-
tories they are assumed to be about 11 to 12 working hours.
I accept the former, with 2 to 3 marks (48 to 73 cents) for
men and 1 to 2 marks (36 to 48 cents) for women, varying
in the different parts of the country.* In Eouen, at Mr.
* The municipal authorities of Berlin collected in July, 1881, from the
trade guilds and from the different benefit societies of workingmen the
status of labor and wages. The information is interesting, as it gives
the working time ruling in the different trades in connection with the
396
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
Pouyer-Quertier's mill, I found the'hours to be from 5 A.M.
to 7.30 P.M., with 2 hours for meals 12 working hours.
weekly wages. The Berlin returns allow us to judge of the conditions in
other parts of the empire. I will insert here the statement, as published,
of working hours and average wages of some 50 trades. It will be seen
that the statements in the different parts of this book in regard to Ger-
man working time and wages are fully sustained by this list :
Average
MALES. Daily Weekly Wages
Hours. in Marks.
Shoemakers 13 to 17 12 to 15
Basters and adjusters (frequently all day Sundays) 13 to 14 18
Tailors (half a day Sundays) 13
Ladies' cloak tailors (frequent Sunday work) 11 18
Tanners (no Sunday work) 12 to 13 18
Barbers (regular Sunday work, with board and lodging) . 14 9
Wigmakers (regular Sunday time of 10 hours)
Mason- (at piece-work, 21 marks; frequent Sunday work) 12 to 13 19J
Hoofers 12
Slater* (over hours highly paid) 12 80
Stonecutters 10 24
Hand and factory workers (frequent Sunday labor ; 18
marks ut piece-work) 12 131
Sculptors and terra cotta workers 9 to 10 18 to 27
Painters (in winter 12 M.) 11 18
PotU-rs 12 to 13 15 to 19
Beitmakers and leather workers 12
Coppersmiths (piece-work, 2r mark*) 11 to 12 18
Needle makers 10 to 12 16 to 17
Filecntters 11 18
Tinsmiths (the half of Sunday) 12 to 13 18
Locksmiths 13 10 to 15
Blacksmiths 13
Machine and ironworkers Hi to 12 12 to 15
Surgical instruments 10
Machinists and opticians (piece-work, 18 marks)
Soapmakers 12 15
Silk ribbon weavers (half a day Sunday) 10 12 to 15
Weavers
Cloth shearers 11 to 12 13J-
Passementerie 10 16J
Ropemakere 6 to 7 15
Saddlers and harness makers 10 to 12 12 to 21
Upholsterers 12 15 to 21
Cabinet-makers 13 15 to 20
Coopers 13 15 to 18
Brushmnkers 12 to 13 18
Combmakers 12 to 13 14
Varnishers 13 18
Gilders 12 16
Bakers (with board and lodging) unlimited 10
Confectioners (with board andlodging) unlimited 11 to 12
Butchers (Sunday work ; with board and lodging) 15 to 17 6 to 10
Brewers (J Sunday time ; free lodging) 15 22
FEMALES.
Silk weavers 14 8 to 9
Spoolers 14 7
Hosiery hands 12 to 18 7*
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 397
Men's earnings were 3f. to 3.50f. (57 to 68 cents), and
women's earnings, 2f. (39 cents). England's working time
is an average of 9 hours a day, and the earnings of men
would average about 4s., and of women from 2 to 3s.
That cheap labor and long hours do not produce cheap
goods is attested by the fact that all these nations defend
themselves against the results of England's high pay and
short hours by the familiar expedient of a high protective
tariff. Now, if this " cheap labor," at the rate of pay it re-
ceives now, were to procure the same conveniences for which
an English man and woman lay out their wages at free-
trade prices (that is to say, obtain more commodities for the
same unit of money), it would have to work the following
numbers of hours against England's standard of 9 hours.*
The wages of men and women are included in the table :
Average Day Present Necessary
Wages. Hours. Hours.
Cents.
Germany 48 to 60 11 15| to 19|
Switzerland 54 11 18
France 54 12 19i
Western Bohemia 36 12| 30
Eastern Bohemia 26 12^ 41i
England 86 9 9
I have here taken for comparison wages of adult, efficient
workers only. The work is all carried on by the coun-
tries here represented on the same basis, nominally the
same, at least. The differences in the employment of ma-
chinery, etc., have been the subject-matter of these chapters,
and are supposed to be familiar to the reader. Yet it is
all machine work, driven by steam power, and conducted
in factories under the best intellectual management which
* Five days of 10 hours and half a day on Saturday.
398 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
the countries afford. But how world-wide the differences in
the results !
If we extend this test to the workers in house industries
and compare their earnings, working time, and labor results
with the most advanced countries, then the results are start-
ling indeed. The poor house-weavers of Eastern Bohemia
(in the Giant Mountains district) do not earn more than 2.20
florins (92 cents) in the week, according to an inquiry
undertaken in 1884. All members of the household co-op-
erate. The children do the spooling. The wife relieves
the husband at the loom. The work goes on for 16 or 18
hours a day. The intellectual standard of these poor people
is about the lowest in all Europe. Intellectually dwarfed,
physically starved. They would have to work 96 hours to
accomplish what England accomplishes in 9 hours, and
America in a smaller number yet
But when we bring the old methods into comparison with
the results of self-acting machinery in pinmaking or screw-
making, or even in the hand-fed machinery work of nail-
making, we see at its brightest the great lesson that all the
benefits which labor has realized are the results of its
greater productiveness and of the forces which have co-oper-
ated to bring about this greater productiveness.
The nailmaker in the Black Country of England, earning
2s. in 14 hours' work, would have to work 126 hours to earn
the $4.50 or $5 of a Pittsburgh nailer the result of 10
hours' work. And still at his 2s. a day he does not turn
out the work as cheaply by a great deal as this remarkable
combination of intellectual and mechanical force does under
the American labor system.
Such conditions as we have depicted here, the substratum
upon which labor rests and acts in the countries farthest
backward, has been the state under which labor existed a
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 399
hundred years ago in the more forward countries. The
average earnings of an expert hand weaver were 10s. a
week * (40 cents a day) ; the quartern loaf (4 pounds) was
lie?, to a shilling (22 to 24 cents). Working hours unlim-
ited. Hold this against an average of 4s. a day for expert
male weavers, and bread at 4^d. the 4-pound loaf, and you
have in a concise form the results which the introduction of
the most improved methods in the economy of production
has wrought in the condition of the working classes. That
nothing at all equal to the present elevated standard of life
of American and English working people could have been
realized without the improvements and scientific methods in
the economy of production is self-evident. Without an
increased product no increase of consumables, hence nothing
to divide. But it is equally evident that the material
causes of well-being could not have been set in motion,
or become operative factors without the assistance of the
ethical forces which have created a new basis for an entire
reconstruction of social conditions, as seen from our examples.
Improvement has always taken its rise in the West. The
oppression and depression of the working classes increase
in an easterly direction. A hopeless acceptance of their
* The following quotations from Sir Frederic Eden represent the daily
earnings in 1787. Outdoor laborers, Is. ; threshers, Is. ; laborers near
towns, Is. 4d. Manufacturing wool : scribblers, Is. 3d. ; shearers, Is. Qd. ;
weavers, Is. Qd. to 2s. ; women spinners, Id. (spinning much reduced
through introduction of machinery formerly, Is. to Is. 2d. reduced to
5d. ; women in good health can only earn 2s. 6d. per week, some with
family not more than Is.). Coventry, ribbon weavers, 8s. to 12s. a week,
children winders, 2s. to 3s. Kendall, woolen weavers, 10s. a week ;
calico weavers, 9*.
The introduction of machinery, begun in about 1780, was strenuously
opposed by the workpeople. The result, however, was the same as illus-
trated elsewhere, a rise in the earnings of the working classes so engaged.
400 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
poor, miserable lot, as of the inevitable, characterizes these
laborers. They would hardly have an understanding of the
pitying sympathy which one cannot help feeling for them.
Yet the starting point for improvement cannot be gained
where hope does not light the way. As seen in our ex-
amples, the application of improved methods does not help
much where this stimulus is absent.
In Berlin, even, I found this narrow-minded begrudging
of a workingman's higher earnings. In piece work they
reduce the pay of the greater output which brings higher
earnings than the general rate. Hence the workingmen
take good care not to produce more than is necessary to
give that rate. The manufacturers returned to the day rate,
as I was told by working people in Berlin, because the
masters found that the men made too much money under
the piece-rate system introduced in the flush times after the
war. This characterizes the matter very well, and the
economic results make it apparent enough that the mechan-
ical improvements and scientific achievements of the age,,
open and free to all, are inoperative if they are not met by
a population under responsive conditions. Given the start-
ing point of free development and free play of forces, every-
thing follows as by self-acting process. The endeavor of
man to improve his condition is powerful enough to carry
society, meaning essentially the working classes, to that
stage of well-being which is the dream of our age, and the
striving for which has given to the world so many finely-
elaborated systems of social reform. But it has been shown
that freedom from restraint and security under the law are
all the guarantees required for securing the conditions
under which the self-acting process of constant improvement
takes place, and under which man can always be expected
to exercise his fullest energy.
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 401
The Cause of Progress and Prosperity.
There is no royal road to prosperity. We can reach it
only by hard and arduous toiling on the long and winding
road of progress. The forces leading forward have been
most powerful in the second half of our century, and the
world has received the most astonishing results of the con-
centration of the highest intellectual forces on production,
including the distributing branch. We have shown through-
out this discussion what debt we owe to the scientist who
quietly and unostentatiously has led to all these triumphs
in the struggle of man with nature without even knowing
to what beneficent results his discoveries would lead, in the
clothing and the feeding of the wretched and the poor, the
90 per cent of the nations. If abundance reigns where
poverty and a mild species of starvation have been signifying
the conditions, we owe it to him and to the leading minds
engaged in commercial and industrial pursuits. But a tear-
ing down of the landmarks, an entire upheaval of society
was required to make the advent of this new era of prog-
ress and prosperity possible. The keenest minds are now
engaged in the sciences, in production and distribution.
They leave in contemptuous disregard the employments
which in former times were alone considered proper for the
most gifted as well as for the select of birth and fortune.
Politics and war have lost their attraction, and the love of
gain and of distinction in the fields of industry and com-
merce is the master passion of the age. Whether for praise
or for blame, the fact exists. The keenest minds are all
engaged in the work of production and distribution, and
thus, though only intent on gain and personal distinction,
they lead on in the evolution of industrial progress to that
reign of plenty which is the necessary condition of the great
26
402 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
social improvement so ardently looked for by the lovers of
mankind, and never attainable by any other method than
the chase after "filthy lucre." The builder and projector of
a railroad, the inventor of a new machine, the discoverer
of a new process by which nature is made to yield her
jealously guarded treasures, the calculating and designing
merchant and manufacturer they all aim at money-making
and furthering their own private ends, even by the destruc-
tion of their neighbors. Consciously or unconsciously, this
is their aim. In the fierce competition of commercial life,
the destruction of the neighbor is only paraphrased by the
milder term of " trying to undersell him " by the hundred
and one different methods in which push, energy, con-
solidation, etc., stand only in a general way as expressions
of means by which the end is reached. A new method or
an invention destroys even more completely than all the
combinations of commercial energy. And still the scientist
who plans them, who evolves them from his retort or his
pencil, is as guileless as a new-born babe, and would be
horror-struck at the heart-burning among men, the havoc
and desolation among brick and mortar, machinery and
ledger accounts, which his inventions and discoveries create.
Yet, whatever the impulse and the aim, the result is the
same: society reaps the benefit and, as has been shown
with sufficient clearness, I trust, these greedy, self-seeking
individuals are all working for one end to reduce the
cost of bread a penny or so, of clothing and the rest of
the necessaries of life in like manner. And all engaged in
the struggle for reducing the cost of living, be the motives
never so selfish, are the real benefactors of their race. In
no country has this concentration of the greatest mental
energy on the subject of production vulgarly speaking,
"money-making" been so exhaustive and complete as in
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 403
America. The reason is obvious. In no other country
have the prejudices which hamper enterprise been so com-
pletely extirpated. A hundred years ago, or even more
recently, the gentleman " who did not soil his hands by
work or gainful occupations " was very fairly distributed over
the Eepublic. He has disappeared. In England, shop-
keeping England, he rules society, and his baneful influence
prostrates energy and drives enterprising young men, scions
of the nobility as well as of the middle classes, to these
shores, where they can work in the field, the mill, the mine,
as the slaves of the poor and the makers of their own
fortunes. I need not speak of the Continent, where social
prejudices increase in the ratio of the decrease of personal
liberty. So it is, after all, the seed which was sown a little
more than a hundred years ago in America and shortly
thereafter in the nursery garden of great ideas, Paris, which
bears all this luscious fruit Much rank vegetation may
be in the undergrowth. But what if there be ? We shall
learn by and by to get rid of noxious weeds and keep the
wholesome species. Without political freedom and the de-
struction of the trammels which held down the old social
structure, no progress is possible. The measure of prog-
ress and prosperity is the most complete where all the old
restraints have been most radically removed and thrown
into history's old lumber-yard. The middle ages of meta-
physical abstraction and hazy speculation are only begin-
ning to make room for the new era of practical creation.
The old notions of social distinction are only now giving
way to the much higher ideal and type of man, the maker
of his own fortune. The great fortunes are frequently
connected in America with the grimy hand and the sweating
brow of the original canal digger and the mill-hand who
owns them. If every drummer boy in France carried the
404 THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES.
marshal's baton in his knapsack, every laborer in America
has a million in prospect. The one possibility made Napo-
leon's army invincible; the other gives America the indus-
trial leadership of the world. Hope leads the imagination
and makes man dare in the face of all difficulties. While
under limitation of his freedom he would be but an indolent
tool, he becomes an eager creator under conditions made
possible by a Constitution which makes everybody free to
become the creator of his own destiny.
With the right of suffrage in his hands, the American
workingman is the state. He cannot blame his rulers, the
tools of his own creation, for whatever impediments may
prevent his reaping a fuller share of the fruit of his labor.
If he permits the taxing power to be exercised in the interest
of capital, under the false pretense of protection to him, while
piece wages are less than in Europe, he has no one to blame but
himself. If he permits taxes to be squandered on bounties
and other unjustifiable expenditures, no scapegoat can be inter-
posed on whom he may lay the responsibility. He chooses
the law-makers, who would not dare to vote for any measure
that is not supposed popular with the " masses." In fact, it
is not unjust to say that the legislators are too eager to
suppress their own better judgment and follow the popu-
lar drift Education and enlightenment are the necessary
adjuncts of universal suffrage, because they make political
power the source of real blessings in the workingman's hand.
All danger from misuse disappears with the insight into the
connection of causes and effects. The fruits of civilization
are safely lodged in the hands of those who are able to
appreciate their advantages. They will see to it that the
wealth accumulating from the annual production shall not
all be turned into the hands of a few men favored by pro-
tection, but that the means shall be found to supply the
THE ECONOMY OF HIGH WAGES. 405
educational facilities which will eventually make labor
independent, so that the hand that works and the brain
which designs and guides shall become members of the
same body. This is the natural tendency of economic
forces not interfered with by law. Capital's share in the
product becomes smaller and smaller with the increase of
capital. Capital without labor to employ it would sink
away and disappear. As capital grows, more labor must be
employed. Capital competes with capital, and the share of
profit becomes smaller, the demand for labor increasing con-
stantly. Wages, however, are not affected by the shrinkage
of profits.
It is evident that no gulf separates the laborer from the
Ultima Thule, the full enjoyment of the fruits of his work,
that he cannot bridge by his own intellectual advance-
ment
ADDENDA TO PART II., CHAPTER VI,
RELATING TO COTTON HOSIERY.
The fine laid plans of the subtlest of minds are often frus-
trated by the fact that the minds of all men are wiser than
the mind of any one man or of a combination of men.
Applied to commerce it follows, from this, that no sooner
is a law enacted obstructive to trade than the minds inter-
ested go to work to circumvent it This is the easier with
American tariff laws on account of the general ignorance of
the lawmakers of the commonest industrial and trade facts.
The very artifices and the complicated character of the law,
designed to hinder importations, lead to it. Cotton hosiery
shows the full bearing of this. The chief aim was here, as
in most of the tariff increases, directed against the low-priced
goods. The duty is graded according to value, as follows :
1. On value of not above 60 cents per dozen pair, 20 cents per dozen
pair and 20 per cent, ad valorem. 2. Above 60 cents and not above $2.00
per dozen pair, 50 cents per dozen and 30 per cent, ad valorem. 3.
Above $2.00 and not above $4.00 per dozen pair, 75 cents per dozen pair
and 40 per cent, ad valorem. 4. Above $4.00 per dozen pair, $1.00 per
dozen pair and 40 per cent, ad valorem.
The action was not so much directed against the range of
prices covered by class I. Few goods were ever imported
costing " not above " 60 cents the dozen. Most of the im-
ports to be prevented by the new law would fall under the
second class. Large importations of men's half hose would
come in at 65 to 72 cents. On this price range, the duties
would now be at 65 cents cost : 50 cents per dozen and 30
ADDENDA. 407
per cent, equal 69 cents or 107 per cent; at 75 cents cost:
equal 66| cents or 92 per cent. If the same goods would
fall under classification L, they would pay 20 cents per
dozen and 20 per cent, ad valorem, or something under 50
per cent. In order to be able to reduce the duty to the
lower basis, the Chemnitz manufacturers were helped by
the law itself in part, which makes packing charges, car-
tons, etc., dutiable, the same as the goods, by virtue of
the administrative McKinley act. By shipping the goods
without boxes, having the cartons made here ; by sending
them in the gray and having them dyed in America, when-
ever practicable; by economical changes in Chemnitz, re-
duction in the dyeing cost, which is done by outside dyers,
who made a very high rate of profit heretofore (the work
is distributed, a house-industry chiefly), etc., the foreign
manufacturers were enabled to so far reduce the cost that
they can bring in goods which otherwise would go into class
II., under the lower range of duties, and so frustrate the
part of the law intended for their exclusion. Very vexa-
tious this. Short of absolute prohibition no device seems
to be workable when it comes to the test.
INDEX.
Acreage and product, 150-152.
Adulteration in wool fabrics, 308,
340.
Advanced position of labor, causes
of, 39J-405.
Advantages, natural, and science,
139-144.
Agriculture in America cannot be
protected, why, 6.
Agriculture, comparative results of,
122-125, 138-147.
Agriculture depressed by protec-
tion, 7.
Agriculture, lessons from progress-
ing, 152.
Agriculture, results in, and institu-
tions, 111-133.
Agriculture and soil, 110.
Aluminum, price reductions illus-
trated in, 87.
American and Berlin methods, 370-
373.
American and English rates of
wages, 199, 209, 211, 214-218,226,
227, 237-240, 276, 280, 315, 348,
374.
American scientific methods, 86-
103, 136-138.
American system, differences in,
56-66, 85, 398.
Arms and ammunition, 229-281.
Ancient art objects, 76-80.
Art and industries, 71-80.
Automatic appliances and machin
ery, 94-107, 224-232.
Backwardness and low wages, 64-66.
Boots and shoes, comparative cost
of labor in, 373, 374.
Calico printing compared, 247-249.
Chemistry in Europe and in Amer-
ica, 88.
Cloaks, Berlin manufacturing sys-
tem, 360-362.
Coal mining, cost of labor com-
pared in, 24, 25, 209-211.
Coking, cost of labor compared in,
215.
Conclusions, 391-405.
Consumable quantities compared,
163-166.
Consumption and production, 60-
64.
Color and taste, 248.
Cost of labor and wages, 31-34, 215.
Cotton, Egyptian, 14.
" manufacturing, 233-242.
" manufacturing, time and
wages, ratio to output in, 397.
Cotton raising, comparative results
in, 147.
410
Cotton spinning, 36, 237.
Cotton velvets, duties on, 250-253.
" " not feasible to manu-
facture here, 254, 255.
Cultivation and ownership, 132, 133.
Cut glass industry in America, 202.
Disingenuous methods, 334, 338,
350, 373.
Distribution and production, 60.
Division of labor in ready-made
clothing, etc., 368-374.
Dress goods, cost of labor compared
in, 330.
Dyeing, cost of, 277, 316, 331, 336.
Errors and misconceptions regarding
wages, 63-66.
Economy and science, 92, 93.
Eden, Frederic, conditions described
by, 155. 399.
Education, art and industrial, 69.
" industrial, in France,
68.
Education and production, 68.
England, art industries in, 69-72.
' ' helped by American tariff,
232, 242.
Equipment of labor and wages, 102.
Evolution, industrial, 58-64.
Exports in cotton goods, 248, 378.
Exporters handicapped, 232, 242,
376-378.
Finishing of dry goods, 249, 250.
Flanders and France, agriculture
contrasted in, 133.
Flax raising, why futile in America,
258-261.
Floating labor no pressure on wages,
28.
Food and wages, 108.
Foreign labor and wages, 29, 30.
trade, 248, 250, 375, 376.
France, art and industrial educa-
tion in, 68.
Freedom and oppression, results in
agriculture, 118-133.
Free raw material, 5.
Fuel saving in iron-making, 92.
" saving in steamships, results
of, 105.
German workingmen, living of, 167-
171.
Germany, house-industries of, 50-
53, 156.
Germany, backwardness and low
wages, 64-66.
Glass manufacturing, 194-207.
Hand looms, 50-57, 157.
High wages, benefit of, to industries,
61-64.
High wages, general effect of, 173,
374.
Holland's early freedom, effect of,
119-122.
Home manufactures supplemented
by foreign imports, 389.
Hosiery, cost of production of, 255-
257.
Hours and product, 392-397.
House industries, 50-55, 156.
Ignorance and poverty, 109.
" working classes kept in,
67.
Imitating American methods, 232.
Improvements in machinery and
methods, 24, 36, 37.
Industrial art in Europe, 68-80.
INDEX.
411
Industrial and art education defi-
cient in America, 84.
Industnal art museums, 74-80.
" decline in wool manu-
facturing, 308, 309, 321.
Industrial differences, 12, 55, 56, 389.
Industries not helped by high tariff
duties, 232, 233, 248, 254, 257,
263, 267, 285, 293.
Inefficiency and high tariffs, 184.
Ingrain carpets, comparative cost
of, 348.
Ireland, industries of, 41-47.
Iron prices, 96, 217.
Japanese art, 71.
Kitchen gardening, 149.
Knit goods, duties on, 344.
" " comparative cost of la-
bor, 345, 346.
Labor, comparative cost of, 25, 192,
196, 209, 211, 214, 215, 216, 217,
218, 226, 227, 237, 240, 241, 276.
277, 279, 280, 315, 317, 318, 330-
340, 348, 353-356, 372, 374, 387.
Labor, cost of, 20-27, 387.
" and nutrition, 392.
" productiveness of, 20-22, 39.
saving, 107, 186.
" and the tariff, 18.
Laveleye E. de, agriculture in Lom-
bardy, 128.
Lavergne L. de, land in England
and in France, 110.
Leading articles, comparative cost
of labor in, 387.
Legislative ignorance in the tariff,
11.
Linen, failure to manufacture, 263.
Loading of silks, the, 273.
Lombardy, early institutions of,
cause of progress, 126-129.
Lombardy, irrigation, 126-129.
" superior agriculture, rise
in, 126-130.
Low standard of living, 52-395.
Long hours, detrimental effect of,
392-397.
Machinery, 93-100, 229.
Manufacturers' demand for tariff
reform, 5.
Manuring, 112, 113.
Master-craftsmen, 75.
McKinley tariff opposed to indus-
trial progress, 12.
Metallurgic progress, 92-98.
Metal industries, injurious effect of
tariff on, 222.
Metal manufactures, exports of, 232.
Method of inquiry, 310, 313.
Methods, persistence of, 55-66.
Monopolies and tariffs, 202-206,
220, 325.
Nail making in England and in
America, 225, 226.
Ore mining, comparative labor cost
of iron, 214.
Ownership of land by cultivator,
118-133.
Peasant industries, 40-48.
Pig-iron making, comparative cost
of labor in, 216.
Pile-fabrics, duties on, 344.
Pin-making, illustrating progress
by methods in, 99.
Plate-glass, expansion of industry,
206.
412
INDEX.
Ploughs, reduction in America, 97.
Plush and velvet industry in silk,
284-291.
Plush and velvet, excessive rates of
duties, 285, 290.
Poland, cause of downfall of, 118.
" primitive agriculture of,
116-118.
Poverty and home-market, 44, 46.
" and ignorance, 109.
Pottery in America and in England,
175-193.
Pottery, labor-saving appliances in,
186.
Prices of commodities, 155, 159-173.
Price reductions and science, 87-
102.
Price relations in pottery, 182.
Print cloth, labor cost, comparison
in, 240, 241.
Print cloth, manufacturing cost,
comparison in, 245.
Print cloth, profits, 245.
Producers, relative positions of, to
tariffs, 4.
Product and raw material, 13.
Product, increasing, of soil, 147-
152.
Production, comparative cost of,
25, 192, 209, 211, 214, 215, 216,
217, 218, 226, 227, 2:57, 240, 241,
276, 277, 279, 280, 315, 318, 330-
340, 348, 353, 356, 374.
Productiveness of labor depending
on wages, 39.
Product, the net, progressive in-
crease of, 139-150.
Profitableness of high farming, 139-
150.
Progress and prosperity, the causes
of, 401-405.
Progress measured by consumption,
160-171.
Protection by distance, 360-362.
" claims exaggerated, 177-
190.
Pulp and paper making, economies
in, 89.
Raw material, 9, 13-16.
" " differences in, 13-17.
Ready-made clothing industries,
355-369.
Reciprocity treaties, why illusory,
379-382.
Republican methods of controver-
sion, 243, 244.
Ricardo, David, theory on wages,
19.
Rise in wages and declining cost,
31-34, 64-66.
Russia, primitive agriculture of,
114-116.
Scarcity removed by science, 135-
137.
Science and agriculture, 134-152.
Science and prices, 87-102, 280.
Science in production, 85, 269.
Sectionalism in the tariff, 223.
Selling values in pottery compared,
183, 189.
Senatorial pettifogging, 244.
Sheep raising and agriculture, 298-
301.
Shoddy and wool cheviots, com-
parison of manufacturing cost,
340.
Shoddy and wool substitutes in
American woolen industry, 307-
309.
Shrinkage of wools, 308-306, 313.
INDEX.
413
Silk, comparison of manufacturing
cost, 280.
Silk, dyeing, 277.
" industry, the, 269-290.
" throwing, 275, 276.
" domestic industry, 50-55.
" weaving, 50-55, 278, 279.
Sizing of cotton, 241, 248, 357.
Skill in industry, 82.
Skill and wages, 27.
Spare culture, 148.
Specific duties, 4.
Spinning, 36, 238.
Standard of living compared, 154-
165.
Statistical vagaries criticised, 311-
314.
Steamship building, 106, 107.
" the, as a scientific
achievement, 103-10o.
Steel rails, comparison of cost of
labor in, 218, 219.
Steel rails, profit in, 220, 231.
" reduction of cost in,
93. 94.
Stoneware, brown, comparative
rates of wages in, 192.
Survival of obsolete methods, 29,
224, 226.
Sweating system, the, 363-368.
Tariff, the democratic policy, 5.
" differences in European and
American protective, 8.
Tariff rates, increase of, in cotton
embroidery, handkerchiefs, and
lace, 267.
Tariff rates, increase in cotton
hosiery, 257.
Tariff rates, increase in cotton
velvet, 251.
Tariff rates, increase in glass and
glassware, 195.
Tariff rates, increase in Italian
cloth and cotton warp dress
goods, 323-326.
Tariff rates, increase in knit fab-
rics, 346.
Tariff rates, increase in linen, 262.
Tariff rates, increase of, in pile
fabrics, 344.
Tariff rates, increase of, in pottery,
181.
Tariff rates, increase of, in silk
plush and velvet, 284, 285.
Tariff rates, increase of, in woolens
and worsteds, 323-326.
Tariff, preventive of exports, 378.
" to prevent revenue, 382.
Taste and value, 70-74, 246.
Technical education, 82, 83, 249.
Textile industries, the, 234.
Tin plate industry, the, 233.
Tool machinery, 224, 229-232.
Training, 82.
Trenton pottery manufacturers,
179-190.
Truck farming, 137-146.
Truck stores in the Pennsylvania
coal regions, 211.
Trusts and the tariff, 202, 205, 206,
213, 220.
Wages and consumption, 6, 158-173.
Wages, comparative rate of, in coal
mining, "25, 209, 211.
Wages, comparative rate of, in coke-
making, 215.
Wages, comparative rate of, in glass
ware, 196-200.
Wages, comparative rate of, in in-
grain carpets, 348.
414
INDEX.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
ladies' button boots, 374.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
nails, spikes, rivets, 226, 2^7.
Wages, comparative rate of, in ore
mining, 214.
Wages, comparative rate of, in pig-
iron making, 216, 217.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
print cloth, 237, 240.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
sheetings, 241.
Wages, comparative rate of, in silk
manufacturing, 276, 277, 279.
Wages, comparative rate of, in steel
rails, 218.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
woolens, 330-340.
Wages, comparative rate of, in
worsted coatings, 315-318.
Wages and efficiency, 26, 27.
Wage earners and the tariff, 9.
Wages, cause of high, 31, 34.
" highest in unprotected in-
dustries, 10.
Wages, low, an industrial detriment,
35.
Wages, high, result in low cost of
production, 32, 34, 215.
Wage theory, 18.
War tariff, the, 3.
Wool, different kinds of, 15, 16.
Wool duty, the, 4, 295.
Woolens, comparative cost, posi-
tions of, in England and Amer-
ica, 353-356.
Wool duty and manufacture, 302-
304, 332.
Wool prices, 295, 297.
Wool supply, 298.
Wool and woolens, 304-355.
Worsteds, comparative manufac-
turing cost of, 315-317.
Young, Arthur, Flanders and
France, 181.
Young, Arthur, Lombardy, 127.
" " workingmen's posi-
tion in England and France, 153,
154.
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