Page:Alexander Jonas - Reporter and Socialist (1885).djvu/38

 I think I can do that easily, and if you will listen attentively, you will soon find out what we want; and I hope that you will then likewise admit that ‘"what we want," will be beneficial to mankind if it be carried out, and that it is rational, just, practical and feasible.

Proceed, I am ready to listen.

For facts and figures I must recur to the United States Census of 1880, and, as I did before, I take the very first item mentioned: "agricultural implements.’" According to the Census there were 1943 establishments in which such implements were manufactured, and the capital invested amounted to 62 millions of dollars. The number of workers employed in these establishments was 38,313 men, 73 women, and 1194 children under 16 years of age. The amount of wages paid during the year was $15,359,160, and the cost of the raw matterial is given at $31,531,170, while the aggregate value of the implements produced is figured at $63,640,486. From these figures we see—and every schoolboy can make the example—that every one of the workers employed in this branch of industry received during that year $388.25 in wages, while the bosses, after paying the workmen, and after deducting the cost of the material and five per Cent. interest for the capital invested, put just $18,640,706 of the values produced into their pockets. In other words,—out of the labor of every worker whose wages in the average amount to $388.25 per year, they make $470.00. This is a proportion somewhat more unfavorable than that mentioned by the Census as the average proportion prevailing upon the field of our industrial manufactures; for, on an average the Census shows that the capitalists "make" $1.08 for every $1.00 they pay out in the form of wages.

And do you believe these figures to be correct?

They appear to agree with the statistics gathered by the different States and municipalities. But, if they are incorrect, they favor the capitalistic side; for, when they were gathered the capitalists, and not the workmen, were called upon to give them, and it is but natural that the capitalists should make themselves appear in the best light possible. You