New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-18
Shouid Congress Compel Ameri.
can Laborers to Work for ~
t-4ss Lower Wages?

bhould Congress Compel Ameri
@ can Laborers to Work for ,f
Lower Wages?
Extraess from the speech or Hon. wilma,
D. Kelley. Of Penney lvania, I'm che House q
Representatives, March ls, 1874. &c.,,
] met the gentlemal
lMr. KERR, Democrat, of Indiana,J at tn
very threshold of his argument. His funda
mental proposition is that the Government
has no right to impose a duty on goods i'm
ported into the country except for the pur
pose OF revenue. This deny, and say tina
1t is the duty Of the Government of the Unite,
States to maintain the autonomy, the life o
the nation, and the spirit and principle of thai
life; to maintain that system of Government
which, according equal rights to all, exact.
equal and intelligent duties from all. This
sir, involves the maintenance by the Iaborer,
of the country of family and home, and that
at the cost OF SO small a portion of their earn
ings that they shall also be able to send theil
children to the public schools thrown wide
open throughout the country and possibly tC
the free colleges endowed by the States or by
private munificence. To the existence of a
Government resting upon the virtue and in
telligence of the people this is essential. 1t is
no boon to the laborer. 1t is the duty of the
Government to protect the laborers of the
country in the receipt of such wages as will
enable them to do this, as the only means of
keeping firm and mistaken the foundation
upon which our republican institutions rest
intelligent popular opinion. Nothing is more
apparent to me than that the Government and
people Of this country may defend their rights
and institutions by peaceable measures, as
well as by those implied by the maintenance
of a standing Army and Navy. 7a.
The speech of the gentleman as it goes
broadcast through the country will cause
many shudder and many sigh i'm the homes
Of our working people. It adjudges the stand
ard of their wages to be those given in other
lands. 1t holds up England, France, and
Belgium as the exemplars we should follow.
Sir, there are in this country more than a
million tOiling farmers, artisans, and laborers
who have fled from the blessings of Belgium,
the ZOllyerein, and Great Britain; and they
know that system of customs duties equiva-
lent to the difference between American
wages and those paid in the lands from which
they fled is the barrier that defends their
homes and families, and their ability to send
their children to school for the education re-
quired to qualify American citizens for the
intelligent performance of the civic duties.
Mr.. William Hoyle, manufacturer of Man
chester, observing that the annual report was
imperfect and delusivc, went to his own. the
Bury union, and had a report made of the
number of paupers that had been in that
union during the year. The authorities had
reported but a little over four thousand.
They had, sir, reported but eleven Migrants.
But what was the result of Mr.. Hoyle's in
vestigation? During the year of which that
report was made there had been received as
paupers in that union more than fifteen thou
sand people, and though its officers had re-
ported but eleven Migrants, there had been
more than fifteen thousand four hundred re-
ceived. p - jobs
Free trade blessing to the people of Eng
land! Why, all her philanthrOpists deplore
the fact that the small holding of land is dis
appearing, that the small workshop which
might have grown to be factory is being
absorbed by the monopolizing capitalist. The
laborers flee from the blessings free trade con-
fers upon them in England, that they may not
60 down in drunkenness and destitntion to
unhonored graves, leaving no mourner to drop
q tear over their remains when released from
the miseries inflicted upon them by the gov
erning classes, who look only to the interests
of the consumer, and take the very life-blood
from the operative in every department of
productive industry. So - s-E*
That charlatan who aspires to the title of
friend of the working people, Mr.. Mundella,
the member of Parliament who recently came
over here to persuade us into adopting free
trade, is leading manufacturer of knit goods.
Does he pay his constituents even liberal
English wages for producing his goods? No.
sir !; but while the English operatives starve
around him, he goes to Sweden, where wages
are lower, to get his work done. ct.ss..=r-t
Hard as this is upon the oppressed and suf-
fering laborers of Great Britain, it is very well
for US, and will continue to be so as long as
otoI r<fo md NJ tbo1
of our operatives by an adequate tariff. Such
of her wOrking-people as are thus thrown out
of employment as have not been reduced to
a condition Of poverty that precludes the pos
sibility OF their enigrating, come to our cOun-
try to earn good wages guaranteed by pro-.
tective tariff, and to enjoy home and family
and a free church as well as free schools for
their children. s.r -.-... e.
Let me ask, where does England 60 for
much of her paper, her printing, and many Of
her books? Not to London. She was pub
fishing almost as largely as she is this year
when her compositOrs, to the number of five
thousand in London alone, were without
work, and were sustained by private charity.
What were the sufierings of the skilled work
men of England to her capitalists? Did they
not pay pOor-rates to maintain work houses.
and was not this their whole duty? Yes, so
at least they thought, and they went to Bel
gum for their paper, their stereOtypng, their
printing, and their binding. The wages of
Belgium being so much lower than those of
England, she let her own people starve, and
broke up almost the last industry of ireland,
the manufacture of paper, by going to Belgium
for cheap books.
Where are the three hundred and more
copper mines in Cornwall and Devonshire
alone, which in 1866 employed seven thousand
men in mining? The late Sir Roderick MUIR
Gibson is my authority for saying that the inn
portation, duty free, of the cheap surface ores
of Chill and Peru closed more than three hum
dred drifts and turned adrift more than seven
thousand skilled miners. Do you think those
men, bred to copper-mining from early boy
hood in the beautiful counties of Cornwall
and Devon, with their families about them.
living humbly, it is true, but living by their
labor, hailed free trade as a blessing when
they turned from their homes and they and
their girls and boys huddled with the pauper
herd in the wTk-hOuse? The gentleman
from Indiana, (Mr. KERR, j being only a con-
sumner and wanting cheap goods, may say "As
We are not the keepers of our brethren, that
is not our business" but, sir, the laboring
man of this country will regard it as worthy
of his consideration and will declare by his
vote that he does not want any such blessings
as free trade il hpstowinu y,r,nn tho a. OrEinp