Cost of Living and Wages
July 25, 1888One of the statements that the democrats in congress, and the democratic press throughout the country, never cease to make when they discuss the tariff and wages is that the cost of your food, your clothing, your boots, your necessities of all kinds is increased by precisely the amount of the tariff. There was not a democratic speech made in congress during the debate on the Mills bill that did not contain a statement of this sort.
Another statement which the democrats are fond of making very frequently is that the workingmen of this country are no better off than are the workingmen of England, that the cost of living is much cheaper there than here, and that there is not much difference in the price of wage. Leono Levi, the well known English statistician, is authority for the statement that the average weekly earnings of 5,000,000 families in England (this includes earnings of all members of the respective families able to work) are $7.08 Of course the average earnings of the head of the household would be much less than this, probably from $5 to $6 per week. The $7.08, therefore includes the average aggregate weekly earnings of all members of the 5,600,000 families in England who work for a living. The statement of Levi seems to be taken as authoritative, for Miss Hall, an English writer, in the current number of Nineteenth Century exclaims:
“I thank God that England counts among her children so many who know how to live simply and yet nobly on thirty-shillings ($7.50) per week.
The Gazette is indebted to our fellow townsmen, Mr. H. S. Woodruff, for a copy of the Yorkshire Post, of a late date. The prices of provisions have been examined as quoted in the Post, as they do not differ materially from the prices given below, and which have been compiled by Mr. Price, of New York. The latest prices both of the London and the New York market, are given, the former prices being reduced to American money:
| Articles | London prices. | N.Y. prices |
| Meat | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| Bread (ten loaves) | 57 | 50 |
| Flour (7 lbs.) | 25 | 20 |
| Vegetables, potatoes, (18 lbs.) | 20 | 20 1/2 |
| Other Vegetables | 8 | 10 1/2 |
| Butter | 23 | 25 |
| Fruit | 37 | 35 |
| Milk | 21 | 35 |
| Tea (1/2 lb.) | 25 | 10 |
| Coffee (1/2 lb.) | __ | 9 |
| Sugar (1 lb) | 20 | 24 |
| Soap (1 1/2 lbs.) | 12 | 1 1/2 |
| Candles | 2 | 2 |
| Kerosene 1/2 gal. fortnight | 5 | 3 |
| Coal (1 cwt.) | 31 | 41 |
It was shown during the debates on the tariff in congress, that clothing, in the line of working or business suits, or even dress suits ready made, is just as cheap in this country as in England of late years, and has purchased clothing there will testify to this. A table of the comparative prices of clothing in New York and London, was published in a New York paper for weeks, in its editorial columns, with the request that the free traders might examine it, and if not true to prove that fact. but there was not a democratic free trader in New York or elsewhere who appeared to change the comparative prices incorrect.
As to wages the Gazette presents a comparative table. compiled, not by American statisticians, but by the London board of trade. It is an extremely useful table and is worth preserving, as it is reliable and showing to the weekly earnings in both countries:
| Occupation | England | United States |
| Bookbinders | 16.00 | $15.00@$18.00 |
| Bolier-makers | 7.75 | 16.00 |
| Brick-makers | 8.54 | 11.86 |
| Brick-layers | 8.00 | 21.00 |
| Blacksmiths | 6.00 | 13.00 |
| Butchers | 6.00 | 12.00 |
| Bakers | 6.25 | 12.75 |
| Blast-Furnace Makers | 10.00 | 18.00 |
| Coal-Miners | 5.58 | 13.00 |
| Cotton-mill hands | 4.60 | 6.72 |
| Carpenters | 7.50 | 15.00 |
| Coopers | 6.00 | 13.20 |
| Carriage-Makers | 6.75 | 13.00@25.00 |
| Cutlery | 6.00 | 12.00@20.00 |
| Clock-makers | 6.75 | 18.00 |
| Cabinet-makers | 7.00 | 18.00 |
| Farmhands | 8.00 | 7.50@9.00 |
| Glass-blowers | 6.00@2.00 | 25.00@30.00 |
| Glass(unskilled) | 2.00@1.00 | 7.00@19.50 |
| Glove-makers(girls) | 2.00 | 6.00@9.60 |
| Glove-makers(men) | 4.36 | 10.00@30.00 |
| Hatters | 6.00 | 12.00@24.00 |
| Iron ore mineral | 5.50 | 12.00 |
| Iron molders | 7.50 | 15.00 |
| Iron per ton (finished) | 2.00@300 | 5.31@8.71 |
| Instrument makers | 7.00 | 18.00@20.00 |
| Laborers | 4.10 | 8.00 |
| Longshoremen | 8.00 | 15.00 |
| Linen thread (men) | 5.00 | 7.50 |
| Linen thread (women) | 2.35 | 5.22 |
| Machinists | 8.30 | 18.00 |
| Masons | 8.00 | 21.00 |
| Printers (1,000ems) | 20 | 40 |
| Printers week brands | 6.85 | 13.10 |
| Pattern-makers | 5.00 | 12.00@21.00 |
| Painters | 7.50 | 13.00 |
| Plasterers | 7.30 | 21.00 |
| Potters | 5.67 | 18.30 |
| Polishers | 7.00 | 18.00 |
| Paper-makers | 5.20 | 12.00@24.00 |
| Pedlers, per week | 8.00@10.00 | 18.00@20.10 |
| Rope -makers | 5.25 | 9.00@12.00 |
| Railway engineers | 10.00 | 20.00 |
| Railway firemen | 5.00 | 12.00 |
| Shipbuilding-Boilermaker | 7.00 | 14.00 |
| Shipbuilding-Machinist | 7.00 | 14.50 |
| Shipvuliding-coppersmith | 6.50 | 16.15 |
| Shibuilding-platers | 8.00 | 18.00 |
| Shipbuilding-Drilling | 6.00 | 12.00 |
| Shipbuilding-Riveters | 8.00 | 17.40 |
| Shipbuilding-Riggers | 5.50 | 11.00 |
| Shipbuilding-Pattern-makers | 8.00 | 24.00 |
| Salt-makers | 1.50@2.25 | 5.00@8.00 |
| Servants(month) | 5.00 | 10.00 |
| Shoe-makers | 6.00 | 12.00 |
| Stationary engineers | 7.50 | 15@18.00 |
| Soap-makers | 5.00 | 10.50 |
These facts should be remembered when the free traders are trying to cry down protrection. Every workingman in America, if he is industrious, sober, and economical, is a hundred per cent better off than a woeking man in like condition is in England. The men and women who come here from England and build their homes and become thrifty, attest to teh wonderfil difference between free trade and protection. Here they own their beautiful homes and their farms. If they had stayed there they would not have had either.
source: The Janesville Daily Gazette.
location: Janesville, Wisconsin