Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
i6
believers in the philosophy of Protection and the home
market, and will, therefore, strain every nerve to sell
the goods you make against any imported article.
At this point Mr. Dolge referred in feeling terms to
the death of two of their co-workers. After which fol-
lowed a tabulated statement of the pension account, life
insurance account, endowment account and aid society
to which was appended a summary of the earning shar-
ing, the whole showing a grand total of two hundred
and twelve thousand dollars, which has been distribut-
ed since the establishment of his world renowned sys-
tem.
Our statistics show that during the year 1886, when
the effects of the low tariff of 18S3 were felt to the full
extent the wages in our felt factory averaged $303.00
per capita. In i8gi, after the enactment of the Mc-
Kinley bill, we paid $454.00 per capita, while in 1893
the average dropped again to $401.00. This includes
men, boys, women and girls.
By the way, these statistics are open for inspection
to all those who use the power of the press to belittle,
insult, malign and ruin if they can, any American who
has the courage to manufacture goods in this country.
I defy Free Traders to point to any woolen mill in
Europe where for the same number of hours per day
anything like the wages which we paid during 1891
and 1892, "the McKinley years," can be earned.
Many of my friends wondered why the Free Trade
press denounced me in such unmeasured terms for
closing our factories the fifteenth of December.
The reasons why they singled me out for their most
vicious attacks are many.
Here Mr. Dolge made a magnificent argument show-
ing the bare-faced misrepresentations of the believers
in free trade, one part of which we would especially de-
sire to emphasize, that is regarding the change for
which the people voted:
The change came and we find as Mr. Cleveland's
Christmas present to the American people over forty
per cent, of our-railroads bankrupt and in the hands of
receivers; a shrinkage of value unknown in history;
stoppages of mills, factories and mines everywhere ;
bankruptcy staring the young manufacturer in the face,
who ventured to start in business believing that Pro.
tection would prevail ; starvation the fate of the work-
man and his family ; wreckage, ruin and destruction
wherever we turn and no hope for relief, because the
Government is in the hands of men who are controlled
by the Free Trade element.
After making elaborate reference to the situation of
manufacturing to-day, Mr. Dolge refers to the lowering
of incomes in the following words :
But why must or should manufacturers and wage-
earners be satisfied with a reduced income? "For the
benefit of the many" your hypocritical Free Trader an-
swers, "Who are the many"? You have an illustration
right here in Dolgeville. During 1893 we paid out
fully twenty-five per cent, less for wages than we
paid in 1892, although the rate of wages has not been
reduced, excepting those who received the larger sala-
ries. Who were the losers I The wage earners only ?
Certainly not ! Every man, woman and child in Dolge-
THE FREE TRADE ANIMUS.
I am the first American manufacturer who succeeded
in producing in this country the finest grade of piano
felt ever made in the world. This alone is a great crime
in the eyes of Free Traders, Previous to establishing
this industry here, American consumers depended en-
tirely upon importers. I further had the audacity to
introduce the felt shoe industry into America, and,
thanks to protection and ingenuity, succeeded in giv-
ing the American people better shoes for less money
than could be obtained from abroad. The importation
of felt shoes has almost ceased, and this industry is
now so firmly established in our country that thousands
of wage-earners are supported by it. Because of these
successes Dolgeville sprung up around these factories,
and is now one of the most prosperous villages in
Central New York. Hence Dolgeville is an eye-sore
to our Free Trade friends.
If I had built all these factories in New York or Chi-
cago the Free Trade press would never have noticed
me ; but here is Dolgeville, a prosperous village,
built up entirely under the healthful influences of Pro-
tection, with the greatest promises for the future, al-
most within the Adirondack wilderness. Ever since I
harnessed the beautiful falls of our stream and made
them drive labor saving machines, enabling me to pay
you good wages, and to supply our customers with bet-
ter goods at lower prices than they ever bought from
importers, these Free Traders have hated me, hated
Dolgeville and everything connected with Dolgeville
most cordially. The arguments of Free Traders were
of no avail against this living example and indisputable
demonstration of the beneficent results of Protection,
hence they resort to vituperation.
Thousands of mills had to shut down and not much
was said about it. Our neighbors in the Mohawk Val-
ley had closed their mills for months, throwing thou-
sands out of employment, and nothing was said, but
what a howl from Seattle to Providence when it be-
came known that we had closed.
The most ridiculous stories were invented, and re-
ligiously copied from paper to paper. A country pa-
per printed that I had sent a trusted agent to Europe
to look about for a factory. That editor knew of the
return of my agent, with plans for this imaginary
factory, which this editor located in Germany, and he
knew further that the plans had been approved by our
experts and the machinery would soon be removed,
and Dolgeville was to be left to its fate and the tender
mercy of Mr. Cleveland and his Free Trade associates.
This story was again telegraphed to the Free Trade
papers throughout the country, but none of them
found it worth while to inquire what I knew about all
this.
Such performances, however, are thoroughly in
keeping with their high-handed methods. It is on a
par with their " dinner pail" argument. These unscru-
pulous people will print anything at any time, at any-
one's expense, if it furthers their object.
Interregnum
is an expressive word. Many
firms know its meaning. In
our factory we make and ship
pianos every day—almost.
That's what we like. Still,
it doesn't surprise us, for we
have the best low-priced pianos
in the field. Consult for prices.
ClaJ Iin Pi&no Co.
517— 523 W. 45th St.
New York.
A POINTS OF SUPERIORITY
OF THE
Celebrated
"Conover"
Pianos.
AND SWEETNESS of TONE.
^ S C I E N T I F I C CONSTRUCTION.
(THE ONLY STRICTLY
^DURABILITY.
HIGH GRADE PIANO
MANUFACTURED
IN CHICAGO.)
CHICHGO COTTAGE ORGAN COMPANY,
SOLE FACTORS.
(The Largest Dealers in Pianos and Organs in the World,)
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL WAREROOMS,
(SECOND FLOOR.)
2I5 WABASH AVE.,
CHICAGO.
ville lost their share of it. The storekeeper, the land-
lord, the real-estate owner, the doctor, the lawyer, the
liveiyman, the tailor, in short every one who lives in
Dolgeville, and even beyond ; the people of Little
Falls and other towns where we get our supplies from
lost a part of it.
Indeed, Free Traders generally concede now that
wage earners must accept lower wages if the Wilson
bill becomes law.
It is also estimated by more reliable authorities than
those quoted that this reduction will amount to about
thirty per cent, on an average from the wages paid at
present.
Who will be benefitted by this general reduction of
income, this terrible curtailment of the purchasing
power of the masses? Answer of the Free Trader,
" The Masses," whom they have taken under their par-
ticular protection and parental care.
After paying a magnificent tribute to the nation's
growth and progress during the past thirty years, Mr.
Dolge, referring to the manufacturing interests, said :
It was the growth of our industries ; our manufact-
urers who daily created wealth by turning ore into iron
and steel for useful purposes ; our manufacturers who
set the spinning jenny and loom going to weave cloth,
thereby stimulating wool growing in the far west ; it
was our manufacturers who went into the forests and
turned the trees into furniture and thousands of other
articles of necessity, comfort and luxury. It is also
the manufacturer who creates work for the thousands
of able hands who cannot possibly be employed on the
farm. The manufacturer calls upon the inventive
genius to construct labor saving machines for the bene-
fit of mankind.
AIMED AT MANUFACTURERS.
It is the manufacturer who makes banking profitable
and safe, for there is none so good, so safe, so profit-
able a customer to our banks as the hard working
manufacturer.
To injure, to ruin, if possible, this most useful mem-
ber of our body politic, has been the constant aim of
Free Traders who are on the road to complete suc-
cess, with Mr. Cleveland handling the party whip. The
Free Trade papers are daily maligning the manufact-
urer who declares that the Wilson bill compels him to
reduce wages in order to compete with the products of
cheap foreign labor, and the question is most imper-
tinently asked, why the manufacturer did not increase
wages after the McKinley bill became a law.
They know better ; every Free Trader knows that
not a single manufacturer received an iota more for
his goods after the passage of the McKinley bill, be-
cause the European manufacturer was only too willing
to pay the increased duty, he has paid it and is paying
it to this day thereby lessening the burden of the Amer-
can taxpayer.
Regarding felts he said :
On felts the duty was raised forty per cent, and yet
felt is sold for less than ever before, which is true of
nearly all protected articles. Consequently American
manufacturers could not raise wages, but they could
keep up the old standard of wages and give their men
steady employment. You know that in our factories
the increased business enabled us to raise wages in
1891 about eleven per cent., and in 1892 over twelve
per cent., and reduce the hours of labor from ten to
nine and half per day.
After using logical argument in showing the fallacy
of the Wilson bill, the lowering of wages, the annihila-
tion of values, Mr. Dolge said :
Am I overdrawing the picture ? Do I use too som-
ber colors ? If you think so read history and observe
the consequences of the former Free Trade regimes,
which resulted in the panics of 1837 and 1857. Ask
those who suffered in those days, and then remember
that soup houses for the benefit of the workingmen
were not known since 1857 until the first year of the
second Cleveland reign, 1893.
He then showed the former prosperity of Dolgeville
and closed with the following :
But let us not borrow trouble ; we have all that we
can fight now ; and let us not lose faith in the good,
hard, common sense of the American people. They
have been fooled, but as Lincoln said " All the people
cannot be fooled all the time."
Truth will prevail, and when opportunity offers, the
people of the United States will demonstrate that they
mean to proceed in their onward march to higher pur-
poses, higher culture, and greater freedom in spite of
the men who now, as autocratic rulers, attempt to turn
backward the wheel of progress.