THE SPEAKER ON THE WAGE QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3315, 4 October 1873, Page 3

THE SPEAKER ON THE WAGE QUESTION.

During the discussion on the Tariff Bill, Sir Francis Dillon Bell made the following remarks, which are suggestive at the present time in this Province: -

I wish it to bo unde*stood that 1 have not the least sympathy with what is called the poor man’s cry, b< cause, if there is any form of political adulation'that I more strongly condemn than another, it is an attempt to trade in a spurious manner upon the sympathies and passions of the working classes : and I should verymuch regret that any observations I have made could be supposed to be intended in that direction. It is;well known that tie working classes now pay a much larger rate of contribution to the revenue than they used to pay beftn the public works expenditme of the Gov<rnment began to be felt. Be ng myself -to* some extent an employer of labor, I had the curiosity, in the leisure of the recess, to investigate the condition and number of the wage earning classes, their capacity to pay taxation, their willingness to pay it, and the result of their contributions to the public exchequer. It is a cuiious fact that the money which has been pa’d by the employers during the last twelve months to the laboring people as remuneration for their labor, has not been lets than L 400.000 in excess of the sum which they paid in the previous year.— ('No, bo.) Yes, I believe it is demonstrable that tbe employers of labor in this country during the last year have given to those emploj cd L 400.000 more in the shape of wages than they paid during the year before. This amount is, indeed, under-estimated ; my calculations have been carefully made, and I am sure no one will be able to gainsay the statement I make. But of course this increased fund of wages has been accompanied by a proportionate increase of profits made by the employers of labor. And in this lie# the prosperity of the country. We should be wrong if wo faihd to recognise this fact: that high profits to employers give high wages to the employed; .that really increased {irofit to employers gives an increased value to abor, and higher wages. Some honorable members say “No,”'but we cannot everlook the fact .that during the last year the employers were running after the men, while in previous years the men were rnnding after the employers. So I say that if the wageearning classes received an increased rate of wages during the last twelve months, the employers too must have received a very large amount of pr fit. These two things have a very close relation to each other: everywhere they are invariably found to go side by side.—(No, no.) Well, put it in the negative ; it is not possible to have a hij-h rate of wages existing in a country where the profits of the employers are small, I repeat, therefore, that if tbe laboring classes ret oeived a very large amount of additional wages in the coarse of last year, so also the employers of labor received a very large amount of additional p ofit. What I "wish to impress op -n the attention of the Committee is this : that while the action of the Legislature is adding a large amount of wealth to the owners of property and the richer classes, we ought not t<s take thd opportunity of imposing a mw mode of taxation without making some attempt to reach those very classes, who have hitherto been so much exempted from taxation.