The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-04-17
d.. ia -. For the Express.
Them New BOoks-No, 3. ..-...l


49, there are but two great antagonist interests
in this country. These are money and labor. -
In article No. 2. of Dec. 5th, l attempted to
show what some of the most important products
OF labor are, and then said t'The difference be-
"tween this capital and that produced by bank
s'ers, brokers' and stock jobbers, is this. They
''trade on their money, credit, wits, or knavery,
land draw large sums of money from the labo-
"rlng part ofthe community. By this operation,
property changes hands-it goes from the poor
"to the rich, making the poor poorer and the
erich rlcher,-but nothing is added to the wealth
'ot the nation. On the other hand these pro-
"ducts of the soil, and fruits of labor, 90 to in
"crease the capital, wealth, greatness and happi-
''ness of the nation.''
will now try to demonstrate these PROPOSE
tons
The owners of the cotton and wooen manu-
factories of the Eastern, the iron mongers of
Middle, and few sugar plantations of the Sou
thern States for many years, have been and now
are importuning the General Government for
special privileges over the balance of commu
nifty for the express purpose of enabling them
to make greater profits on the money they have
invested and the labor they employ, than they
now do or otherwise could. The means by
which they propose to have this done is pro-
tective tariff: Such tariff was enacted in lS42
in his Report, and Gen. Taylor in his Message,
have both recommended to Congress to re-en-
act a protective tariff: The obi ject l say of a
protective tariff is to enable those capitalists
who have invested their money in the manufac-
ture of cotton, wool and sugar; and in the min
ing and smelling of iron; to receive greater
profit on the money invested and labor employ
ed. The arguments used to accomplish it are
such as they deem most effectual, whether true
ar false. They tell the people that they are de
sirous of fostering home industry-that they de-
sire to protect American labor. Their PROPOSE
tion is to impose so high duty on iron and su-
gar, and all articles manufactured from wool and
cotton as will make unproitable and thereby
discourage the importation of these articles; and
thus induce other nations to impose so high re-
ciprocal duty on our agricultural articles Of ex-
port as will prohibit their going abroad. They
denounced the tariff of 1876 and called it "Bri-
tlsh tariff because it was reciprocal and pass
ed with the express understanding that there
would be further and corresponding reduction
OF the British corn and provision laws. The re-
snlt ct this protective tariff will be to create
surplus of agricultural products in this country,
and thus so reduce the price of these products
as to make agriculture less profitable; while on
the Other hand by the restriction of imports the
price OF iron, sugar, cotton and wollen manufac-
lures will rise and thus make the business more
profitable. BY this process they propose to di-
vert capital from agricultural and other pursuits,
and invest it in manufacturing to so great an ex-
tent as to make this manufacturing rather than
an agricultural nation. BY this they will divert
so much labor from agriculture to manufactur-
ing as will reduce the products Of agriculture to
so great an extent that it will all be consumed
in this country: That is, they make the shirts
and pants for the farmer and eat up his surplus
breadstnfs to pay for it, This they call protec-
ton to American labor. s.
Now propose to show that this is direct
warfare Of capital upon labor, with the express
purpose of breaking down the price of labor in
stead of protecting it. BY the census Of 1910,
there were l5,203 men employed in mining
1855 were engaged in commerce. The word
commerce here is used in it's most extensive
sense. 1t not only embraces those trading at
sea, but all mercantile business, such as forwar-
ding a commission houses, dry goods and 9TH
er stores, groceries, lumber yards, pork houses
&c; &c. These are not usually reckoned a.
mong laborers. Ocean and inland navigation
employed $1,000. There were 791 ,547 employ
ed in manufactures and trades, and 3,717, ,756
were engaged in agriculture. OF the balance
of the population, 8,343, ,121 were under the age
of twenty years; and of the rest, 1861, ,S45 were
females; making II $3.50, ,956 people who are sup
posed not to be engaged in business. The a
|
population was l7,OS5, ,666, and the remainder
was probably made up of the 65,O 900 learned and
professional men, and of free negroes and slaves.
The labor of the country therefore is performed
by the miners, navigators, manufacturers, trades
men and agricultursts above named; more than
four-ifths of whom are agriculturalists
Now let it be borne in mind, that all other
branches of labor, and agriculture in particular,
are to be taxed and oppressed to benefit, not the
operatives in the factories, but those who employ
them. tits true, they profer to pay well for Ii
Dor when their system gets into operation, but
the fact that they have always been reducing
wages, and that too Immediately after the en-
actment of the protective tariff of AZ, and the
further fact that they are now complaining that
| the price of labor is too high-that they have
reduced the wages of their help to the lowest
possible grade they can, and retain their help:
These. to say nothing of the nature Of capital
lists, give us an earnest that the pay for labor
will never be increased by them till they are
compelled to do so. tia an it &9lir'Issa
Now observe the disparity between the labor
employed in manufacturing and other pursuits,
and particularly that of agriculture There is
not state in the Union which has not more ag
riculturists than manufacturers. Massachusetts
and Rhode Island are the only States in the I'm
ion where the agriculturis,s do not exceed all
other employments together. Rhode Island is
the only State in the Union in Which the other
tradesmen aside from agriculture do not exceed
the manufacturers In the State Of Mass there
are s7,sH employed in agriculture, and 50, ,ls0
tradesmen, making together, l47, ,OO7 while there
are only 25,1S0 employed in the manufacture of
cotton and wool. There are in the United
States, only Ill employed in the manufac-
ture Of cotton and only 1,O62 manufacturing
wool. On the other hand there were $500
house carpenters in the States. These exceed
by 1890 the cotton operatives. Suppose som some E
one should get up great hustle about protect
ing house carpenters under the tom fool theory
| Of protecting American labor. Who weuld not
ridicule the idea?. And yet this class Of rechan-
les are an hundred times more Importance to the
country than all the cotton-bugs in Christendom..
l know that this number of manufacturers must
TO some appear meager, considering the noise
that their employers make. But then we should
remember that these manufactures are confin-
ed almost exclusively to six small states, the
whole Of which are less than the State Of Iowa.
While on the other hand the mechanics are dis
pcrscd through every State in the Union. .----
There were 60,7SS employed in in1Ills- %, ,sO7
were brick and lime masons. .-26, ,O1S were e EN-
ployed on leather in various ways. And there