New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-11-23
PROTECTION AND LIBERTY IN LABOR

III Tur TarBuyr vhsH crl,' o., ioI EQUAL
rights, means shs 'sy' WI Is n, s o -. aa,S or m
lion Of loorsr that dIea r~eHV or aJ monoP''' may
To ne EDITOR Of The Tribune
SIR: cut the above from a copy OF The Ncc- York
Erepiaq Post of the 10th inst, which a friend was
kind enough TO send me- had always supposed
The Post was a truthful, respectable paper, but
when see such willful mIsstatement as IS con
tanned in this paragraph, conclude that the writer
is either entirely ignorant Of the facts in the case or
that he has been subsidized TO publish such trash,
by the manufacturers Of some country which las
ten or fifteen times greater population to the square
mile than we have, and can consequently produce
whatever they make at far less cost than we can.
Tic Post speaks Of "a tariff vhick makes million
Of people poorer that Dozen tlronty or ffty mo-
nopolists may fH their pockets" If this true, II
would certainly be bad for the million" But it is
not true. Take our own neigl borhoOd in Marquette
County as AL example In 1867. we made 5000 tuns
of pig iron. Ninety cents out Of every dollar We
ceived for this iron paid for labor to produce It,
The iron ore it lies in the hills Is Of real value.
The labor expended on il gives it value. The
dozen, twenty, OF fifty monOposts" as The Post is
pleased 10 call u.s., whose capital built our eleven
furnaces and keeps them running, get ten cents and
the hundred thousand" poor laborors get ninety
cents out Of every dollar that received for the iron
iron deserve be well paid and are glad that We
are able TO employ them, for instead Of all going
down to Lower Michigan or Ohio to raise wheat and
corn they make market here for those articles CON
sequently both they and the tanners better
Oh than if they all raising corn.
Some Of us find market for the iron these "hund-
red OF thousand poor laborers make in your City OF
Kew-York, which certainly could not do if the
Posts notions of trade should open your port for the
free introduction of foreign iron which is made by
the serfs of Russia the more degraded than Rus
sian serfs the down-trodden masses OF Wales. who
work for an English shilling day, barely enough 10
furnish food TO keep soul and body togethcr-no
scbools-no churches-no good comfortable houses 10
live ina people who live and die more like dumb
brutes than like human beings.
No. Mr.. Editor. we will never consent that oar la
borors shall live in that way. Weare proud that the
existing tariff of duties foreign iron enables us to
pay our men we'll so that they can buy the best Of
good wholesome food-plenty of warm seryiceable
clothing send their children TO school - build
chuFches--subscribe and pay for one or two news
papers each that when any great question OF po-
litical economy any other question: comes under
discussion they are enabled to examine all sides OF
it, and when election day comes around to decide
such questions. they and do cast their ballots
quite as inteRently, will venture TO say, as the
editor Of The Neie- FORK Evening Post does
This free trade howl that "a protective trih
makes the rich richer and the poor poorer is played