Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-19

Inc laDOrlnG man must WOrk naF4eEsNeaE
poorer clothes, eat poorer food, deny him
self and family a hundred comforts so en-
joyed by American working men. This
is no idle assertion, but stern, sober fact.
When we throw down the bars we must
expect to meet these cheap labor boards
On equal terms.
FIFTH. Free trade produces equili6riUn-
or tends powerfully in that direction
Open the ports on both sides, and the
wages of labor will begin at once to ap-
prorinate to the same level. Which will
change most? VIII the wages of the
twenty European mechanics flor they
have twenty to our one come up to the
American standard? Or, will the one
American mechanic have to come down
to the twenty Suppose two ponds full
of Y er. One contains twenty acres, the
othe oneacre. The small pond is located
much higher than the other. An opening
is made between them, and they flow into
each other until they come TO a common
level. What is the result ? The small
pond is lowered nineteen feet and the
large pond is raised one foot.
So exactly will it be when we adept
free trade with Europe. The price of
labor in this country will sink to meet the
level of European labor, and it viii sink
from its present height to that of Euro
pean labor. Bodies attract each other in
proportion to their quantity of matter.
The thirty millions of American labOrers
pitted against the three hundred millions
of Europeans, will be sucked down ten
degrees for each degree they can lift the
latter up. Until the standard of compen-
a. Ill = I'll aa.-vfraaH
no matter how large the area OF the ter
ritory over which the same commercial
laws prevail, the wages of labor will ar
rive almost at a common level-the diff
ference being caused by the cost of rams
portation from one section to another.
The Atlantic is now crossed in a few
days by numerous lines of steamers, and
in a few weeks by whole fleets of cheap
sailing ships of great tonnage. The pro-
lection afforded by the transportation of
most manufactured goods Is not much.
A ton of broadeloths, silks, muslins, laces,
linens, carpets, cutlery, jewelry, brsndies,
wines, toys, cosmetics, and French GIN
cracks, may contain the value of fifty or IA
hundred, or even five hundred tons of
0 ffour, corn or meats shipped to Europe.
Hence the American manufacturer has
vastly less 'protection" from the cost of
transportation than the European farmer
has from the cost of conveying our crops
to bis market. 1t costs less to transport
goods from Liverpool to New York than
from Chicago to the Mississippi river I'M
der the present freight charges of the rail
road combinations.
The American farmers would have to
pay at least twenty times as much to mid
die men to deliver their products in Eu-
would pay on an equal value of goods to
deliver them in this country. If this
would be u profitable sort of trade, I con
fess I don't see it.
SIXTH. Open our ports to all the work
shops of Europe, and their first business
would be to undersell and close up every
American furnace, mill, forge, factory,
machine shop, and workshop in the
United States for the purpose of obtain
ing a monopoly of our markets. After
which they could charge pretty much
what they pleased, and soon make this
country repay what it cost them TO des-
troy American manufactures. The con-
troll of our markets once in their hands,
they would retain it forever, and these
States would sink into the condition of
colonies of the aristoeracies and nabobs of
Europe.
After our manufacturing industry had
been utterly ruined, one portion of the
discharged mechanics would scatter into
the country, squat on public lands, and
become farmers, TO compete with the pre-
sent farmers. The remainder would take
what wages they could get and try and
exc out a miserable living in competing
with foreign free" goods. The farmers
home market would be destroyed, and he
would be obliged to look to Europe ior a
market for pretty much all he raised for
sale-paying the enormous cost of trans
portation thither.
Free trade with Europe, with its con-
sequent cheap labor in this country, would
put stop to immigration TO the United
States. The quarter of a million of sturdy
European bone and muscle that
annually seek our shores, would
incontinently stay away. The attrac-
ton of high wages and abund-
dnce of employment would no longer eX-
list to draw them hither, like an i~rresisti-
bic magnet. the golden chain would be
broken, and America would lose its great
charms in the eyes Of the SONS of toll.
What profits it a man to separate himself
from the endearments of home and the
fellowship of kindred to seek his fortune
in a far-of country, where the laborer is
paid the European scale of wages Bet
ter remain at home and work for a shilling
a day than to toll for a shilling in a strange
land. Thus would reason the working
classes of Europe. And many an immi-
grant among US would sell out and return
70 the Fatherland. A cheap labor country
that exports its food to buy manufactures
abroad, which should be made at home,
soon begins to export men as well as
bread.