Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-27

very hesrt of the manufacturing industries
| in New England, and devoted to the manu.
featuring interests of the United States" has
no patience with the humbug that protection
| increases the wages of the laborer, and
vigorously attacks it in late number. We
have room for only one extract:
| 1t may OF course be said that no clear thinking
man can be imposed upon by such representa-
tons. The reply is, that the rePIesentstlons are
| meant to impose upon the ignorant ana unthink-
ing. Men trained in business affairs know per-
fecuy well that prices OF LABEL NE al 0tneT
and supply Wages are higher in the United States
sources, population Is not yet so dense, ana the
competition for employment not 60 sharp, as in
higher in the Western States than in the Eastern !;
tariff accounts for the difference the larger re-
sources and greater scarcity OF LABOR al the west
DO account for IT, In Ike manner, wages are lar
higher in free-trade England than IN pro
industrial and c3mmerciaI development the
demand for labor is greater, But these con-
Of workingmen- Theya readily deceived by the
simple fact that wages are higher here than
abroad, coupled with an alleged cause, which
though not the actual cause at all, they are un-
able 70 follow in its complex workings. The ques-
01 must assume E IN tnei d miHds 10 eeren
siderations, facts simple enough TO be easily IN
derstood are brought out which OF themselves
that high tariff makes high wages.
The article from which this extract Is
taken shows that the amount of wages paid
for labor in every trade and branch Of bust
ness is not increased by a protective tariff,
and would not be by prohibitory tariff, as
the price of labor is regulated by the demand
and not by the amount of profit made by the
protected m onopolies. There is another as
pect of the wage question, which Senator
Beck discussed last spring, when he showed
that it m ade little difference if an American
operative received IS a day and the same
grade of English laborers s., provided that
it could be shown that the Englishman's So
would procure him as many Of the .ecessa-
ries Of life as the Americans s.. 1t is very
strange that those most interested obstinately
persist in disregardiDg the obvious princi-
pie that a mans wsges are not to be meas
ured by the number of dollars they contain,
but by their purch asing power in the only
market accessible to him. Probably work
ingmen as a class would enthusiastically
support any measure which promised them
an increase of fifty per cent. in wages,
although it might be demonstrable that II
would raise the price OF every necessary, in
equal or even greater proportion. And fol-
lowing the same logic, eongressmen who
ought TO know better will earnestly defend a
tariff, on the sole ground OF the protection it
affords to labor, while they consider any in
quiries to its effect upon the articles
which the laborer must eat and wear, as ir-
relevant and impairment Clearly no sem
sible conclusion as to the final effect of pro-
lection on labor can be reached without in
vestigation in both these directions. The
popular idea engrafted in the minds of the
ignorant and minimizing by the arguments
of the protectionists that protection increases
wages has been exploded. The whole tariff
system makes indiscriminations that are OPP
pressive and unjust. Even if protective
tariff increased the wages of 100000 or
8 100000 of workingmen employed in man
ufacturing, we take the broad ground that il
is unequal, discriminating and unjust 10 tax
AZ 100000 or 100000, the great con-
Stunning masses, TO benefit at their expense
the factory operatives. Before closing this
article we wish 10 PROFOUND to our corre-
spondent a conundrum. If high tariffs
secures high wages, what IN the name OF
common sense causes 30 many strikes for
higher wages? prohibitory tariff on every
article imported would not increase the
wages of the working classes. The nlonopo-
lies would still grind the poor. They would |
make minute calculation as 10 the amount |
1t would take to purchase subsistence for |
each day, and they would pay that much
and no more, and finally would starve the
aborers into an acceptance OF their terms.
A tariff increases the profits of the monopo-
les. Wages are not regulated either by
high tariff or free trade, but the natural
avs of trade-the supply and the demand.
Free trade would increase the demand and
wages, because everything would be manu-
actured at home, and we would become ex-
,orters instead of importers.