Speech #500046032

Their original capital stock was $300.000. the dividends declared ha d been $5.355.000. and the value of the plant in 1883 was $1.500.000. So. out of an original investment of $300.000 the stockholders had taken out over $5.000.000 in profits. and they still had a plant left valued at $1.500.000. which alone was 500 per cent. more than they had originally invested. making a total of 2.300 per cent. profit in twenty years. or an average of 215 per cent. a year. But still these men now say they can not compete against the pauper labor of Europe. and demand that the duty of 75 cents a ton on iron ore be left unmolested. Take the copper mines. The Quincy Copper Mining Company of Michigan. in the ten years ending with 1881. paid an average dividend of 50 per cent. per year.