Show IS NEARLY ALL LABOR i tho subject of raw materials and labor coat is graphically gently treated by alio new york press is follows the freo trade journals are fond of insisting that the cost of labor in manufacturing fac turing processes is usually far less than is claimed by tho manufacturers their method of trying to sustain this assertion is to count only the cost of labor expended in bringing to perfection a product already partly finished the cost of weaving a piece of cloth is declared to bo tho cost of the labor applied by tho manufacturer who owns the loom but obviously no correct estimate of labor cost in any case can be made unless account shall bo taken of every instance in which labor is employed in promoting the work of fabrication when a manufacturer buys yarn which he shall put upon the loom to be woven the price lie pays for the yarn is chiefly labor cos L when a manufacturer of boilers purchases boiler plates the labor cost of the completed boiler includes the cost of alio labor expended in all the operations required for the production of the plates which are his raw material take a single example if sheep should herd if they shed their wool without aid from man as the domestic ben lays an egg and if the wool could bale itself automatically and roll to market wool would be a much cheaper commodity than it is but tho price of wool represents herding feeding shearing baling hauling and transportation all of which require human efforts and must bo paid tor the mill to which it is taken costs money to build and this expenditure actually enters into the labor cost of manufacture the machinery stands for money paid to labor and this outlay reaches back to the ore bank and abo forest which supplied Bup plied the wood and the iron the soap with which the wool is scoured cepres ants labor every subsequent operation adds to the value at the wool solely because labor is expended upon it when the raw wool comes out of the scouring liquor nothing Is added to it but labor until the cloth is ready for the dye vat and the value of the dyes tufia then aeed is value given by labor this is true practically of all the ses in all tho industries so that it may be laid down as a broad general rule that almost the whole of any value a manufactured article is imposed upon it by the wages that leave been paid from first to lad from the production of the raw material to the final sale of tho article to tho consumer it is probably not an unfair estimate that from 00 to 03 per cent of all such values aro produced by labor cost insurance su bareg and a for the manufacturing owner which profet indeed may be regarded as pay tor ins labor are really tho only costs which isa aro not created by the demand for compensation pensa tion by human effort now all labor is paid for in this country at higher prices than obtain in europe it is clear that it this practice is to continue protection must be given in measure to cover tho difference all along the line it ia useless that american workmen acet higher jaees because they are more efficient than european workmen the european that comes here and enters a mill at once gets higher wages than he would earn at home obviously valte re a european operates the same kind of loom that an american operates both looms being run by steam at tho same speed one cannot produce larger results than the oilier the cheaper labor will make the lower price besides it is not true that the highest skill necessarily commands the highest price the brench artisan is the moat dexterous workman in the world but the american earns more money and lives belter he does so because that is the rule in this country and the protective system has made the rule reduce the measure of protection and the wages must go down the process of reduction lias already begun the democrats in congress promise that it shall continue but it may be hoped that the victims of their effort will make themselves heard at the polls next year in such a manner that alie system which makes wages high will bo fully restored |