Show FALLACIES A ridiculous ARGUMENT at LY lf th tiie wages of europe are lower ab ol uty a annl not ot relatively than in the united ettes sonie se striking kInz statement which are unanswerable the tribune published a letter written to the new york world by mr J which it atron strongly ty in indor domed sed containing certain arguments in favor of free trade it was intended that th following editorial should bo be printed in the same issue as the communication whose theories it controvert ed but the two got go disunited sir main contention is that tho the productivity of the american uner can workingman is far greater than that of his foreign competitor and that this is why wily his 1118 wages arc fire higher but that he lie is paid no more than europeans for the actual amount of work done Schoon hof saya says that ho lie found in mining coal that the german miner is paid but little more than one half per tor what tho the american is paid 79 u cent against to in illinois to 1 7 7 in ohio per ton mining coal by the ton is piecework and a workman mak make s wages in proportion to tho the amount of work ho lie does As th the e american gets about twice as much per ton he be makes double tho tile wages of the german coal miner this simple fact places 11 hors arguments arguments hora hors de do combat so t to 0 speak what is true of coal is truo of all work paid for by the piece unless the head of the establishment ie is in a great hur to fill 1 orders it matters little to him th thit t one man mail does his work more rapidly than another man what he be has to td pay for work is the tile thing which interest s dimand it is the sum he lie lias has to pay the workman und and not the number of h hours our or minutes the workmen workman is employed which fixes the I 1 price the employer a u k for the goods made in his factory the wages of compositors in chica chicago zo are nearly double what they are in england and the price per 1000 pms ams is ah al abort about double Sup supposing poin it to be true which it is not riot that the american compositor octor working by the 1000 ems is twice as swift as the english one what difference would that make to the employer when he lie has to pay twice as much for filling a column as the english employer does it would be for the interest of the newspaper to employ the english compositors po at a shilling per 1000 amb emb u which is about their pay the q quantity antiey of matter to be set up would I 1 be the came same in both cases but the cost of coir position would be reduced a half th e english printer printers might have to won wor 1 longer hours or more of them inight have to be employed bat but neither of thos things would affect the composition that would depend solely on tho the rate per thousand it follows then that oliero work ie is paid for by the piece the employer I 1 is concerned only abbat what he lie pays for tho work done and not the length of f time it takes the workman to do it it appears from the various reports on labor in foreign countries that all piecework is paid for at far lower rates thet i than hero here furthermore the prices pad for piecework regulate and govern to a groat great extent those paid pahl for work by tin day or hour tho the price paid a wor kingman for his bis days labor is based on ail estimate of what tho the average man would do it if lie worked by tho the piece it is a midway figure between what the beet best and the poorer workman would earn henro hence it will be seen that the lower wages of europe aro are lower absolutely and not relatively they aro are not lower because tho the men work slower but because they get lees len for each yard of cloth they spin lapin each ton of coal they mine each pound of steel or square foot of glass they make each 1000 ems of type they set and ana eo so on to tho the end of the chapter it is claimed by the free traders that the operatives opera tivee in american cotton mills tend more looms and spindles spin dlee than those in foreign factories supposing Suppo eing it to b so those operatives aro are but a very small per cent of the total number of workingmen and women in the united states but to end this controversy with final and cott convincing dilling argument the fact remains that nearly all the competitive goods made in ili europe no matter whal their cost of production may be are offered for eale sale by those who make them at much below those asked for similar goods made in this country why not because the foreign manufacturers rs aro 0 satisfied with much lower profits not net because they get their raw materials much more cheaply or because beuse ca use transportation costs them lees less but because they cayless per yard or pound to their labor for the products turned out and that is just why they can cal undersell american manufacturers if the protective duties ore are taken off and ruin their business busi nem close them up and d drive rive them from the field unless american can workmen will consent to reduce their wages about to tho the ier per cent of tho the protection which democratic free trad 1 ere ers would repeal chicago tribune |