"Free trade and State rights," was the motto of disunion, the excuse for secession, and although crushed out by Jackson in 1832, it sprang anew into disgraceful life in 1860, to be driven to the wall at untold cost of blood and treasure. -Senator S. M. Cullom, Illinois. KENTUCKY. (Continued.) 1st. Population, 170,500. 2d. Population, 178,808. 3d. Population, 176,471. 4th. Population, 192,055. 5th. Population, 188,598. 6th. Population, 160,649. 7th. Population, 141,461. 8th. Population, 142,671. 9th. Population, 176,212. 10th. Population, 149,058. 11th. Population, 187,481. Vote 1892: Dem., 15,295; Rep., 8,438. 200 The new tariff is bad in construction, bad in purpose, and bad in its assaults upon the onward march of the industrial energy and prosperity of this mighty Republic. -Senator Jacob Gallinger, New Hampshire. L LABOR BILLS, WHO PASSED THEM? Mr. McMillin, a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, has been pleased to claim that because a Democratic House not long ago passed two measures in the interest of labor (one of them known as the contract bill), which were signed by the President of the United States, therefore his party alone is entitled to be considered to be the friend of the laboring men of this country. If there be no other basis for this claim, we feel that the title of his party to that distinguished honor is unassailable. If there be any other foundation for this claim except the shallow pretense that a low tariff makes high wages, we would like to know it. Every Republican in the House voted for both those measures, and they never could have gone to the hand of a Democratic President for signature except through the intervention of a Republican Senate. It will be a very difficult matter for the Democrats to convince the people that the legislative department of this Government consists solely of the House of Representatives. There was another labor bill passed in a Democratic House. It was known as the "arbitration or O'Neill bill;" and the Democrats are entitled to a monopoly of all the glory of the achievement. When that measure came up for debate upon its merits a distinguished Democratic member of the Labor Committee rose in his place and denounced it as a piece of unblushing demagogery, and characterized its author as "a good constitutional lawyer among baseball players and a good baseball player among constitutional lawyers." LABOR LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. WHO ENACTED THEM?-THE CONSTITUTION-THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT. - SLAVERY, ETC., PROHIBITED. This great revolution by which labor was exalted and the country freed from the curse of slavery, was accomplished by the Republican party against the fiercest opposition possible by the combined forces of the Democrats and their allies. THE COOLY TRADE PROHIBITED. This law was passed February 19, 1862; amended February 9, 1869; and further amended March 3, 1875. President Grant, in his message of December 7, 1874, laid before Congress a recommendation for the enforcement of the law. The legislation on these several acts was accomplished by the Republicans in 1862, in the Thirty-seventh Congress, and in 1869, in the Fortieth Congress. When the Canadian farmers and millers have thus secured free access to our markets for all they can produce, our own farmers and millers must look for a market for those of their products that have been displaced by Canadian products. -Senator H. C. Hansbrough, North Dakota. PEONAGE ABOLISHED. This act was passed in the Thirty-ninth Congress, when both Houses were Republican by a large majority, March 2, 1867. INSPECTION OF STEAM VESSELS. Passed during the Fortieth Congress when the Republicans were lin power in both Houses. SEAMEN, PROTECTION OF. Passed during the 42nd Congress when both Houses were under the control of the Republicans. It was amended during the 43rd Congress when the Republicans were in control of both Houses. INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE OF FOREIGNERS, ABROGATED. Passed during the 43d Congress when both Houses were under the control of the Repulicans. ALIEN CONTRACT LABOR. Contract Labor Law passed the House March 9, 1886. All the votes against the bill were Democratic. INCORPORATION OF NATIONAL TRADES UNIONS. Passed the Senate June 9, 1886, without division. Passed the House June 11, 1886, without division. PAYMENT OF PER DIEM EMPLOYES FOR HOLIDAYS. Passed without division in the 49th Congress, 2nd Session. LABOR OF UNITED STATES CONVICTS. PROHIBITED. CONTRACT SYSTEM Passed the House March 9, 1886. Passed the Senate Feb. 28, 1887. All the votes against the bill were Democratic. BOARDS OF ARBITRATION. Passed the House on April 3, 1886, with thirty votes against the bill, all being Democratic. HOURS OF LABOR, LETTER CARRIERS. Law limiting letter-carriers to eight hours a day. Passed in the Senate without division. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. Passed the House April 19, 1888. Passed the Senate May 23, 1888. All votes cast against the bill were Democratic. ALIEN CONTRACT LABOR. Fifty-first Congress. Passed the House without division, Aug. 30, 1890. Passed the Senate with verbal amendments Sept. 27, 1890. When the Government, in the first year of its life, by the patriotic hands of Washington, Madıson, and the other representatives of the people, declared and enacted a law establishing a system of protective duties, it did no more than was its bounden duty to do. -Senator S. M. Cullom, Illinois. LABOR, LOSS TO. Bradstreet, in a recent publication after a careful enumeration of the unemployed throughout the country, states that there are "in New England 65,200 unemployed and 154,000 dependent; New York and New Jersey, 223,250 unemployed and 563,750 dependent; Pennsylvania, 151,500 unemployed and 449,200 dependent; Central Western States, 227,340 unemployed and 443,310 dependent; Northwestern States, 64,900 unemployed and 175,800 dependent; Pacific Coast, 25,800 unemployed and 47,300 dependent; Southern States, 43,065 unemployed and 122,650 dependent; making a frightful aggregate of 801,885 people unemployed and 1,956,710 dependent." LABOR, THE LABORER AND HIS HIRE. The following figures, compiled by a Democratic free trader, the Honorable Caroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor, are taken from his article in the Forum of October, 1893, entitled "Cheaper Living and the Rise of Wages." It is thought that they speak for themselves and for protection, and against free trade. "The pay of laborers is quite indicative of general conditions. In 1840 a laborer in a large brewery in the city of New York received 62.5 cents a day; in 1860, 84 cents a day; in 1866, $1.30 a day; in 1891, from $1.90 to $2 a day. Compositors who worked by the day received, in 1840, $1.50; in 1860, $2; in 1866, from $2.50 to $3, and the same in 1891. These quotations are for a well-known establishment in the State of Connecticut. A building firm in Connecticut paid journeymen carpenters, in 1840, from $1.25 to $1.62 a day; in 1860, from 1.25 to $1.75 a day; in 1891, from $3 to $3.25 a day. A firm of builders in New York paid, in 1840, $1.50 a day; in 1860, $2; in 1866, $3.50; in 1891, $3.50. Painters received the same. Similar quotations could be made for carpenters and painters in different parts of the Eastern States. The rates of wages paid to wheelwrights were in 1840, $1.25; in 1860, 1.25; in 1866, $2; in 1891, $2.50. Cotton weavers (women) in Massachusetts earned, in 1840, on the average, about 62 cents a day; in 1860, 54.5 cents; in 1866, from 85 to 90 cents; in 1891, $1.05. Women frame spinners were paid about the same, earning a little more in the later years. Wool spinners, both jack and mule, earned less than $1.00 a day in 1840, while in 1860 they earned $1.05 a day; in 1866, from $1.80 to $1.90 a day; in 1891, from $1.38 to $1.75 a day. "The average earnings of puddlers have been subject to great variations. An average must be used here because puddlers are paid largely by the ton. In 1840, at Etna, Pennsylvania, puddlers earned $3.69 a day ; in 1860, $2.67 a day; in 1866, from $5.37 to $6.04 a day; in 1891, $3.67. In another iron works at Duncannon, Pennsylvania, the rates were $2.30, $2.01, $4.83, and $2.91 for the years named. The rates of wages a day, successively for the years named, for blasters and drillers in the New Jersey ore district, were 75 cents, $1, $1.65, and $1.50; and for unskilled laborers in mining ore at Cornwall, Pennsylvania, 50 cents, 75 cents, $1.45, and $1.55." Under these higher duties American labor employed in these mills has earned more money and had more constant occupation than it had before the higher duties went into operation. -Senator Matthew S. Quay, Pennsylvania. LABORING MEN, DO YOU OWN A HOUSE? Go to Leeds, England, and see the condition of the working people there, and then tell us if you want the laboring men of the United States reduced to their level. A few years ago the inspector of police in Leeds was asked if he knew a single instance in that great industrial city of 320,000 souls where a workingman-a skilled artisan, mechanic, engineer, carpenter, or mason-owned the house in which he lived and the ground on which it stood, and the reply was: "If I was on my oath in court I should be obliged to answer no.” Now go to any New England town or city and see the homes of the mechanics and laboring men, homes of thrift and comfort and neatness, and then insist, if you will, that the laboring men in Europe are as well paid and as prosperous as they are in this country; but you must not expect to deceive intelligent workingmen by such false and misleading statements. LEATHER, TANNED AND CURRIED, 1890. Wages per capita $518.97 Imported during 1893, $15,303,243, on which duty was collected $5,228,264; average rate of duty ad valorem 34.16 per cent. Rate of duty under the new law 17 per cent. Legal Tender Money of the U. S. LEGAL-TENDER MONEY, GOLD COINS. The gold coins of the United States shall be a legal tender in all payments at their nominal value, when not below the standard weight and limit of tolerance provided by law for the single piece, and, when reduced in weight below such standard and tolerance, shall be a legal tender at a valuation in proportion to their actual weight.-R. S. Sec. 3585; Stat. vol. 17, p. 426. LEGAL-TENDER MONEY, SILVER COIN. ACT FEB. 28, 1878. Silver dollars of the weight of 412 grains Troy, of standard silver * * * which coins together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. R. S. Secs. 3009, 3473, 3474, 3513, 3586; Stat. vol. 20, p. 25. |