The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-25

formed IN foreign countries, We may defend the
wages o. tne Ameroan meenanic agalns. SomPsus 60
into this country duties equal TO the difference be-
tween our wages and the lowest rates paid in COM
An sdecusteIy protective tariff is the Amsricsn
workmans sole defence against ruinous competi-
tries. But II French. Belgian, German, Austrian,
or English mechanics could work for three, Eve or
how ,S could the wages Of the American workman be
defended against the destructive competition? 4
Freely admit ina. csnnot 80 see now !. s oe uons one
No tariff or other law can protect wages against
home competition, and am, therefore, opposed to
racted 10 work in midst for term of years at
such wages are paid in China, Austria, Belgium,
system would, az your resolutions assert "greatly
reduce the pay for skilled labor, and thereby lessen
the family family comforts of the great body Of the Amer-
"Buy where you can buy cheapest" is a cardinal
maxim Of free @ traders and TeyenIe % fe,ormers 10 sh
would bring Chinese workmen to us by the million.
Yet the free trade sgitstors, both in and out of
the tariff which protects his wages and his chance
for steady work, Injuries the workingmsn by in
creasng the price of the commodities he consumes.
They aiso say that in addition TO chespenug what
he consumes, the laborer's market worll be IN.
Sy oa ans aS o goods to
foreign countries in competslo with European
s s ali yer 51e B sRa wts
experience and observation, you must perceive
that to reduce the price of our goods low enough to
accomplish this would require us to reduce our
wages below the English standard, as the cheaper
labor of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany
and Austria are restricting her exports and driving
the productions of England out of common mar
kets. "Buy where you can buy the cheapest" the
labor in this country can be justified, is not only
running the working people of England, but up
roofing many of her industries which were be-
lieved to be established on impregnable founda-7
tions, and is thus involving the laborer and capital
ist in a common ruin. To attain cheapness she
11nf
those which protected her labor against the COM
petition of the lower wages of the continent. She
free trade and has persisted in it for about quar-
ter of a century, What has been the result OF this
race for cheap labor and cheap goods? Its c. oonse
long escape. British exports not only sta
tionary, but declining, and poverty and paupersm
Britain no longer able to consume their own
productions as freely as they formerly could, and
the demand for labor falls Off under the double in
fuence of declining export trade and home con-
sumption.
In his recent work, entitled "Home Politics. or
the Growth of Trade Considered in its Relation to
Labor, Pauperism and Emigration,' Mr.. Daniel
Grant demonstrates the correctness of these asser-
tions by presenting from the highest official sources
the number of Engand's paupers, and the value
OF her exports for the three latest years for which
the figures had been compiled. They are as fol-
lows
,o.. PaTPers. dSnP Psa e Exports; oppe IS:
1858, 1,OO4,s23 1f9,46s,6ii
After commenting upon the fact that more than
one thousand panpers are each week added to the
"Even this large increase does not Indicate the
o Of a sssses To1 o%
which pauperism is fed. Let any one think what
is the state of desttution through which a man
passes before he is willingi to accept relief and
allow himself to be branded as pauper. Those
who know the working classes best know the pro-
Any privation, any sorrow, any destitution rather
than that; and the natural inference is that the
TO Nas
articles of clothing as we'll as all household goods,
Thus deplorable has been the effect on the labor
ing classes of England of the termination of her
people to accept the gitering falaces of the free
trade school OF economists, and buy labor and its
products where they can buy them cheapest. Let
glance for a moment at the effect it has had
upon capital invested in special industries. 1t was
discovered that the surface of the copper
mines of Peru, which are dug by peons-another
deep mines of Cornwall and Devonshire. These,
with all their machinery, have consequently been
abandoned, and such of the miners employed in
them as had saved sufficient to pay their passage
have emigr8ted, and the balance with their fami-
lies have gone to the workhouse.
The manufacture of silk had made prosperous
towns of Coventry and Macclesfeld but Lyons and
Rouen could undersell them, and regardessiof the
and of Engand ooES9 ony to the neS
ests of the consumer, bought where they could buy
cheapest, and the silk mills of Coventry and Mac
clesfeld, with their expensive machinery, became
worthless, and many of the people who had found
employment in them went to the workhouse also
could refer to scores of such instances, but they
will occur to your own mind, and will proceed to
an illustration of more general character.
;sh cNttn1s had. within few veers falen off thirty
tive per cent, wrote to friend who has resided in
England for some years to learn whether this abate
ment was based on mere estimate OF was an as
certained fact. l could not credit the assertion.
My correspondent, however, sent me copies of elab
Helms, and read before the Manchester Statistical
Society, and which was printed by the society. By
comparing the home consumption of British cottons
during the years 18667-8 with that during 1859-60-
81, Mr. Helms shows that the decrease in that brief
period had been equal to 21 1888 900 pounds of
cotton, thirty five per cent. have also before
me an able pamphlet, by a cotton manufacturer,
entitled can Inquiry into the Causes of the long
was published in London and Manchester in the
latter part of last year. in which the fact is again
proven. After spreading before his readers large
"The stands as follows: Our entire exports of
cotton goods to all countries have increased six per
cent; 10 India they have decreased thirteen per
cent; to the four principal continental counties
they have increased forty-hve per cent? whilst the
imports from these four countries have fallen off
two and half per cent. At the same time our
home trade which should haze been principal sup
port, has fallen off thirty-fve per cent?
The facts have thus hastily thrown together ad-
dress themselves not only to the artisan and aborer
| but to the farmer and to him whose ample capital
is employed in any branch of productive industry.
Whateach wants is steady and remuneratiye mar
ket for that which he has TO sell, and this cannot
be had when that great mass OF consumers who
countries TO labor for the least amount of compen-
! sation that will serve to keep soul and body to-
gether without an aspiration hope that is to be
! realize this side OF the grave. No amount of
| foreign commerce would compensate the farmers
! curtailment of their home market that would in
evitably follow the reduction of wages even to
the English standard.
To whose industry, enterprise, or capital can the
more than one million English paupers give profit
able employment Or who can sell his goods to
that more numerous class from which Mr.. Grant
says "pauperism is fed" and who are selling "all