Higher Duties And Lower Wages

The city of Troy, N. Y., is the greatest manuf acturing center in this country f or shirts, collars and cuffs. The following dispatch from that city has recently appeared in the papers: "About 350 girla employed in the J. K. P. Pine factory of the United Shirt and Collar company have quit work owing to dissatisfaction with a new schedule of rates. The other factories of the company are not affected by the strike." So far as the published reports show, the manufacturera of shirts, collars and cuffs did not appear bef ore McKinley' 3 committee to ask f or higher protection, but in the general scheme "to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on importa and for other purposes" these rnanufacturers carne in for theirshare of increased protection. Did the shirt and collar trust "see a man" privately and get what it wanted without a public hearing, which might have subjected its representatives to awkward and embarrasaing questions? Here are the duties which the shirt and collar trust got. Cotton shirts wera raised from 40 per cent. ad valorem to $1.25 per doaen and 40 per cent.; linen shirt froots and shirts wholly or partly Unen were raised from 40 per cent. to 55 per cent. Embroidered shirt fronts of (inen were raised from 30 per cent. to 60 per cent. Oollars and cuffa made of cotton bore a duty of 35 per cent. under the old law; under the McKinley law the duty is 15 cents a dozen and 35 per cent. ad valorem. Collars and cuffs made of Unen were taxed 40 per cent. under the old law; the duty is now 30 cents a dozen and 40 per cent. These duties were of course given in order to "protect labor." The McKinley law has now been in operation more than three months, and it would seem to be about time for the girls employed by the shirt and collar trust to feel some of the benefits of "increased protection to laboT." Instead of this the trust's new schedule of wages is 80 unsatisfactory that the girls go on a strike. Does thia look like helping American labor bygiving the manufacturera higher protectionï