The daily gazette., 1876-02-15
The Tariff and Employment Of Labor,
From the Chiclgo Tribune.

FROM Inc CnlclBO tribune.
The tariff bill proposed in Congress
to distress the organs of the
Protection Ring. They have made the
most frantic appeals and have pub.
lished the most extravagant state
mcnts of the facts and theories.
The United States have all the ele-
ments of agrand manufacturing coun.
try. They embrace every variety OF
soil and climate; have the most abun-
dant supply of metals, including gold
and silver. They have iron, and cop.
per, and lead, and nickel; they have
cheapest coal in nexhaustible quanti-
ties deposited in all parts of the coun-
try; they have perfect system of in
ternal transportation by water and
rail, rendering the movement of raw
materials and manufactured goods
easy and cheap. They have, as no
other manufacturing country has,
cheap food and in abundance; they
have the advantage of all rivals to the
extent that they furnish food to other
nations. In regard to the great staple
commodity, cotton, we have almost a
monopoly. We produce it of the best
quality, and, having but little use for
it, export it, and the men and wemen
who labor in the cotton fields are
C othed with goods manufactured of
American cotton in Great Britain
Thus, with the cheapest of raw materi-
al of all kinds in unprecedented abun.
dance, with cheap fuel in inexhausti-
Bile quantities, with breadstuffs and
meats produced at the very doors of
the mills and factories, with hunequalcd
water power, and, as asserted by the
Protection organs, 1000. 900 of unem-
ployed laborers, many of them depen-
dent upon charity, and some of them,
according to Pig Iron Kelley, forced
to be Cramps" we refuse to maHufac.
ture goods for export! We have the
factories, the furnaces, the mines, the
mills, and the workshops, with the
means and appliances 10 produce iron,
steel, leather, wooden, cotton, wo0llen,
6 I'd otl er goods in quantities and
qualities not only equal to the supply
Of all the people of the United States,
but to supply the wants of other coun.
tries with as much American made
&c DDS as are now sent to them from
6 eat Britain. Why is not this done?
Why do we work cotton mills,
and woollen mills, and iron furnrces,
three months at time, ana then close
them. to resume after a while for a
brief period and close again? 1t is be-
cause we have an inadequate market!
Our factories produce more goods in
three months than can be sold in six,
and nave TO close until the surplus pro
duct is disposed of in some way.
In the meantime, the labor, being
employed but short time instead of
continuously, is engaged in chronic
strike for wages higher than employ
can give. These laborers and their
families, out of their scant and irregu-
lar wages, have to pay an enormous
tariff tax on all they consume. The
! man has to pay on his boots tax of
35 per cent; on his coat, vest, and PAN
ia oons, go per cent; on his cotton
hosiery, 80 per cent; on his under
clothing, IS per cent. on his hat or
cap, 80 per cent; on every article of
furniture and bedding, from 40 to 1876
per cent. For the clothing Of his wife
and children he has to pay tax equal
and in some respects exceeding that
paid on his own garments. If the wife
ventures to purchase yard of ribbon,
piece Of edglng, or worsted buttons
or fringes, she has has first to satisfy
tax thereon of rs per cent. If she
ventures to purchase a common wool
len shawl or cloth coat, the tax is 100
per cent. That is the way labor is
taxed-taxed out of so per cent. of its
scant earnings.
Now, how is the manufacturer tariff
taxed? He is taxed in like manner on
the cost of his machinery, and on near
ly everything he uses in his business.
Two or three years ago, the woollen
manufacturers of Rhode Island memoir
ialized Congress, praying for relief,
and in their memorial they set forth in
detail some of the taxes imposed by
the tariff on their business, and the
list is as follows:-