CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



193 



teries, 244 kilns, 26 decorating kilns, with a capi- 

 tal invested of $5,076,000 ; and the value of the 

 product was $5,299,140. 



" The wages paid in the potteries in 1882 were 

 $2,387,000 and the number of employes engaged 

 therein 7,000 ; the ratio of wages to sales in 1882 

 was 45 per cent. In 1889 there were 80 potteries, 

 401 kilns, and decorating kilns had increased 

 from 26, in 1882, to 188 in 1889. The capital in- 

 vested in the latter year was $10,597,357, the 

 value of the product was $10,389,910; amount 

 paid in wages $6,265,224, and the number of 

 employes engaged, 16,900. The ratio of wages 

 to sales was 60 per cent, of decorated ware and 

 50 per cent, of white ware. 



" The per cent, of wages to value of product, it 

 will be observed, has advanced from 45 per cent, 

 in 1882 to 60 per cent, in 1889. This increase 

 is not due, as might be supposed, to an advance 

 in wages, but results in a reduction of the selling 

 price of the product and the immense increase 

 in sales of decorated ware in which labor enters 

 in greater proportion to materials. 



"In 1882 an assorted crate of ware sold for 

 $57.89, and the same, only a better ware, is 

 now sold for $46.30. In 1864 we paid for the 

 same crate of ware $210.75. On decorated ware 

 the immense benefit to the consumer is even 

 more apparent. The selling price of all deco- 

 rated ware was from 50 to 100 per cent, higher 

 in 1882 than in 1890. 



" In 1852, with the low revenue-tariff duty of 

 24 per cent, and no domestic manufactures, an 

 assorted crate of white ware sold at $95.30 ; in 

 1890, with the 55-per-cent. duty and domestic 

 competition, with large potteries, which are the 

 pride of the country, employing labor and capi- 

 tal at home, buying our own raw material, the 

 same assorted crate is selling for $46.30. 



" We have recommended an increase of duties 

 upon glassware. Since the tariff act of 1883, by 

 which duties were reduced, importations from 

 the other side have been constantly increasing, 

 and our own workmen have not been employed 

 at full time as a result. Our sharpest competi- 

 tion comes from Belgium, where the labor, skilled 

 and unskilled, is much lower than in the United 

 States. There they work seven days in every 

 week. 



" It will appear that the cost of labor in Ger- 

 many may be set down at one third of the cost 

 in the United States; that of Great Britain at 

 five eighths, and that of France at a medium be- 

 tween Germany and Great Britain. The Ameri- 

 can Flint-Glass Workers' Union, through their 

 president, stated before the committee that this 

 large difference in the cost of labor between for- 

 eign countries and the United States makes it 

 impossible for the home product to compete with 

 the foreign-made goods in the market of the 

 United States under the present duty, and that 

 to maintain the present rates of wages an. in- 

 crease of duty is demanded. 



"The agricultural condition of the country 

 has received the careful attention of the commit- 

 tee, and every remedy which was believed to be 

 within the power of tariff legislation to give has 

 been granted by this bill. The depression in 

 agriculture is not confined to the United States. 

 The reports of the Agricultural Department in- 

 dicate that this distress is general, that Great 

 VOL. xxx. 13 A 



Britain, France, and Germany are suffering in a 

 larger degree than the fanners of the United 

 States. Mr. Dodge statistician of the depart- 

 mentsays, in his report of March, 1890, that the 

 depression in agriculture in Great Britain has 

 been probably more severe than that of any other 

 nation, which would indicate that it is greater 

 even in a country whose economic system differs 

 from ours, and that this condition is inseparable 

 from any fiscal system, and less under the pro- 

 tective than the revenue-tariff system. 



" It has been asserted in the views of the mi- 

 nority that the duty put upon wheat and other 

 agricultural products would be of no value to 

 the agriculturists of the United States. The com- 

 mittee, believing differently, have advanced the 

 duty upon these products. As we are the great- 

 est wheat-producing country of the world, it is 

 habitually asserted and believed by many that 

 this product is safe from foreign competition. 

 We do not appreciate that while the United 

 States last year raised 490,000,000 bushels of 

 wheat, France raised 316,000,000 bushels ; Italy 

 raised 103,000,000 bushels; Russia, 189,000,000 

 bushels ; and India, 243,000,000 bushels ; and that 

 the total production of Asia, including Asia Mi- 

 nor, Persia, and Syria, amounted to over 315,- 

 000,000 bushels. Our sharpest competition comes 

 from Russia and India, and the increased prod- 

 uct of other nations only serves to increase the 

 world's supply and diminish proportionately the 

 demand for ours ; and if we will only reflect on 

 the difference between the cost of labor in pro- 

 ducing wheat in the United States and in com- 

 peting countries we will readily perceive how 

 near we are, if we have not quite reached the 

 danger-line, so far even as our own markets are 

 concerned. 



" The cost of farm labor in Great Britain, esti- 

 mated by the statistician of the Agricultural De- 

 partment, is $150 per annum ; in France, $125 ; 

 in Holland and Austria, $100 ; in Germany, $90 ; 

 in Russia, $60 ; in Italy, $50 ; and in India, $30; 

 while the same labor costs in this country $220. 

 The farmers of the United States have therefore 

 come to appreciate that with the wonderful wheat 

 development in India and Russia, with the vast 

 sums of money which have been expended on irri- 

 gation and in railroads for transporting this 

 wheat, taken in connection with their cheap la- 

 bor, the time is already here when the American 

 farmer must sell his product in the markets of 

 the world in competition with the wheat pro- 

 duced by the lowest-priced labor of other coun- 

 tries, and that his care and concern must in the 

 future be to preserve his home market, for he 

 must, of necessity, be driven from the foreign 

 one, unless by diminishing the cost of his pro- 

 duction he can successfully compete with the 

 unequal conditions I have described. Now as to 

 other products of agriculture. 



" During the last year Canada exported to the 

 United States eggs to the value of $2,159,725 ; 

 horses, $2,113,782; sheep, $918,334; poultry, 

 $110,793: wool, $216.918; barley. $6,454,603; 

 beans, $435,534 : hay, $822,381 ; malt. $105,183 ; 

 potatoes, $192,576 ; 'planks and boards, $7,187,- 

 101. There were exported of fish of various 

 kinds, lumber, and other commodities to the 

 amount of at least $20,000,000 more. 



" The increase of importations in agricultural 



