Free Trade Workers

The Hon. Joaeph B. Sargent, mayor of New Haven, Conn., whose recent inaugural address attracted wide discussion throughout the country, is the largest manufacturer of hardware in America. Mr. Sargent holdsthe curious distinction among or.r great manufacturera of being an absolute free trader. His views on the subject oí r;-.i.;ing revenues may be seen from the following extract from his inaugural message: "But whatever may be the future methods of taxation or sources of revenue for the support of local, state 01 national governments, let us hope that there may be no more collected than is absolutely necessary for the proper and economical administration of government affairs, and that there may be no direct or indirect imposition of unnatural and therefore unjust burdens upon the whole for the benefit of any favorecí or grasping few." A free trade manufacturer of th prominence of Mr. Sargent is such au oddity that it is of special interest to know something about hún and how ha arrived at hia present views. Mr. Sargent is no theorist on the tariff. He views it from a manufacturer' a standpoint. For thirty years he hae made hardware, establishing a business which beyond dispute is the largest in the world in locks, bolts, builders' and furnitnre hardware, and in certain linee of carpenters' tools. He employs from 1,500 to 2,000 men, varying wifch the season. His faetones cover four solid blocks, equivalent to sixteen blocks ol city houses. They f urniah a roof f o nearly twelve acres of ground. Th splendid establishment that he now has became what it is through his energy. He thinks he does only f airly well in a light season if his daily output of goodg is fifty tons. It would be at least fooi times that qnantity, he is confident, il he could get his raw material free oi duty. Mr. Sargent was once a protectionist; bat the experience gsined in bis daüj business as a mannfactnrer and in selling his wares in foreign coun tries firsi begaan to waken doabts in bis mind ai to the wisdom of the proteeti ve gysteni. He had been taught that the highet wageso-f labor with us as compared witb wagee in other coontries made protection a necessity; bnt h obeerved in bil business that the fmer grades of hú wares found frequent oatiet abroad, and th.it tbis was especially the case with artit-ies in which the labor cost was greatest. Tbis began to shake Mr. Sargent'a faith in the assertion that we need protection by reason of higher wages. Mr. Sargent is an enterprising man and has an inquiring mimi. He waa curious to find an explanation of the remarkable fact first noted, and in ordei to study the labor question to best advantage he made trips to Europe, and later to China, Japan and Australia. The result of Mr. Sargent's investigations was that he became an absolute free trader. He states in the following language the result of his observations: "My trips abroad were made to investígate the competition that might f ollow provided the farmers should insist, as I presumed they would, on buying their supplies on a, free trade basis in order to meet the competition of eastern countries in wheat, cotton and othei farm producís. I fonnd among the manufacturing districts in England that as a general rule, although the workmen there get much lower wages than ours when counted by the day or week, y el when counted by the piece or by the results of their labor thêir employers pay them higher wages than we pay in America. I fonnd on investigaüng the cheap labor of Japan, China and India that on account of the very small product per man labor in those Asiatic countries is generally dearer than in America, although the common laborer geta in those countries only from ten to twenty cents a day. As a manufactureí I would not fear, under free trade, the competition of foreign cheap labor, se long as cheap labor stays where it is- foreign." Mr. Sargent found, as he says, tha1 "American labor is the best in the world. It will carry everything before it. " Why American labor is more effective than that of Europe may be seen from what Mr. Sargent found in Germany. He says: "Let me teil you how men work in Germany. They begin at 5 in the morning. At 8 they quit for an hour foi breakfast. Then they fill their pipes and saunter back to their benches. About IC they knock off for beer aDd sausages. By the time their pipes are filled again an hour has passed. At 1 o'clock they 50 home to dinner. That takes another hoor. They must have more beer at 3. Along about 5 or 6 they go home to supper for an hour and come back and wort until 8. That is the way they have always done and always will. They cal) it fifteen hours' wort a dax"Now here ia aorable spi+ng tiuijgi It has been riveted and íinished. W pay for the labor on it fifteen cents & jross. In a Germán shop the labor coste ifteen cents a dozen. Our product ia quite as good a piece of work as theirs Dur men who do it make $2 a day against 'orty cents mado ia Germany. We work n hou-;s ;i day, but we don't stop for aeer and .musage or pipes, and we have improved machmery to ald. tha handiwork. 'The springs in that hinge," said Mr. Sargenr,. "are made by a littie machine that ciwts $800. A Germán manufacturer woald think it wonderful extravagance. Nothing of the kind is used there. They turn their springs on a handporrer apparatns." What Mr. bargent ünds necessary In onder te enable oor manttfacturera te eommand the markets of the world is timsstated? "My observation has taught me tliat Öae grestest obstacle to Americaa competition ia foreign markets to nearly every class of .goods is the high price of our raw materials. Take ofiE the doty and we will.sead onr goods everywhere. Wagea wonld increase here -nnder snch a system rather"than become lower . The cost of freight betweeniiQglaiid-aiid this country would amplyirotect the American workingmen against Enropean labor, even if there were-cnrjrtiting to be feared on that score, which I do not believe."