The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1850-01-10
For the Sentinel.
Tariff Duties and Protection.
No. 3.

mined by the relations of demand and sup
ply, and that heavy demand, compels
high wages, Here then appears an i'm
portant difference between the ways In
which capital and labor are respectfully
protected. Capitalists are protected by
law, and laborers are protected by the
fuctuating contingencies of demand and
supply which are controlled much more
by other circumstances than they are by
tariff laws. And even the advantages that
might arise from an increased demand for
| labor are defeated by the common customs
of the country, of which the law takes no
notice.
Employers in general furnish merchan-
disc and provisions for the use OF their
! laborers, and employ none TO labor. but
those who will agree to take their living
in trade from them. This trade is invari-
ably sold to the laborer at price dictated
by the employer, and this is from 25 10 so
per cent dearer than the currant price of
the articles sold and purchased. Here
again there is but one independent party
to the agreement between them. The
employer has both sides of the bargain In
his own hands and he balances. the wages
of labor and the price of provisions in such
a manner that the one just covers the other
and squares the books at the end of the
month or year. Under these circumstan-
ces the actual wages of the laborer, and
consequently his pecuniary condition, Is
precisely the same, whether his nominal
wages be one dollar per day, or "two dol
lars day and roast beef" In the former
case he must have living for his
dollar per day, and the latter, he swallows
up his roast beef, and the roast beef swal-
lows up the two dollars andleaves nothing
behind. In this mode Of protecting labor
ers the capitalist has a double Interest,"
First, he enrlches himself by taking all the
profits of the poor mans labor, and sec
ondly, he keeps him bound in the fetters
on under the same system of oppression.
Now is this protection, or is it slavery!
1t cannot be slavery, of course because our
white laborers are s.free and independent
citizens" l. must therefore be protection
and let US see what vast advantages 1t has
over real bonaied chattle slavery. In the
first place the protected citizen and the
chattle slave are both bound to give q life
time of hard and incessant labor for the
sake of !iviHg-~s This fss they a. cg,,2l.
In the second place, under the inhrmities
of age and physical debility, the chattle
slave is bound to be kept by his master;
but the protected citizen labore1, if he have
not friends to maintain him, must become
pauper. Here the slave has the advan-
tage. And lastly, in regard to legal fran
chises, the slave cannot vote at all, and
the protected laborer dare not vote as he
pleases.
The tyranny, instead of protection, ex,
ercised in this latter particular is much
more formidable and dangerous than is
generally imagined. hope l Will be per
mitted to give an instance that occurred III
my own experience, to illustrate the mat
ter. In the year 1896 l was engaged ar
laborer in an Iron establishment; in Pa
: The presidential election was then pend
: ing, and there went out decree from
, Nicholas Biddle that the whole natior
D should be starved or yield its support tc
Gen. Harrison, who, il was promised
would sanction i re-charter of the U. S
Bank. A regular system was secretly or
q ganized and employers throughout the couI
o try were duly notified, and enlisted in tn,
n cause. The hands OF every establishment
d were told that without a recharter o
: of the bank, business could not be continued
t and there would no longer be employment
S for laborers.
: But the clerk at the establishment wher
+ [ was engaged, had the imprudence to lie
Il me see his letter of instructions on tn
t subject. ] of course regarded the Who'll
!. thing as species of the most cruel an
lntolerable tyranny, and was bound b.
every feeling of nature and duty to resis
n it at all hazards. | accordingly informe
e the hands belonging TO the establishmer
$ of the means that were to be made use {
e to control their sufrages, and coniure