The examiner., 1882-04-01
Cheap Labor! Cheap Labor!!
From the Report to the Stote Department

HFOHC GGo 1LCpOFC tO UCo OCCSto DCpUTtUGSTSG
 of One of our CosasuLs in Germany.
 I am fully convinced that the most im- portant method of increasing American trade, especially in regard to such articles as form the chief exports from this part of of Germany to the United States, is to cheapen the price at which they are placed on the market. The great question is, How can this be done? answer, first, by diminishing the cost of production; sec- ondly by diminishing the cost of transpor- tation-two things that enter into the price of any article. First, then, the cost of production mnst be diminished. This csn be done by cheapesafng labor. One reason why German articles are made so cheaply is, labor is so plentiful and so cheap here.
 If Iaborers cannot be found in the United States, Jet our nsonufacturers import them for there are thousands here living on mere pittances who would be only too glad to find employment in the United States. The lo6orers already employed there could be induced to soorE more cheopty lf the German habits of lSving could be adopted 6y them. Here as for their means they husband them SO we'll they go far with little" While articles of diet are dearer here than in America, the laborers manage to live on less. They eat meat but once a day, living chiefly on veg etables; their staple diet being rye bread and sometimes twelve and even fourteen hours. Secondly, the cost of production can be diminished by lessening the cost of materials. Another reason why German articles are so cheap arises from the fact that all materials employed here except. perhaps, wools and cottons, are much cheaper than in America. If our manu- lecturers cannot buy materials sufficiently cheap at home let them buy them here in bulk and import them and this course will obvate the difficulty and soon result in the reduction of the price of materials in thear osOra tG,ad.
 can compete with the European as to the original price of the articles the question of the enlargement of trade will be in 8 great measure settled.
 M. B. WHARTON. Consul. UNITED STATES CONSULATE. Sonneburg,
 Jan. 6, 1882.
 We do not desire to insult the intelli- gence of our readers by commenting on this, but, we do wish to remind them, many of them at least, that this is what is in store for them if they do not stop and reflect ere 'tis too late.
 Americans we ask you, was it for the purpose of demonstrating how near the grave's edge one might bear his burden without falling in, that the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, with seven long years of strife and carnage to sustain it. Was it for this that the Emancipation edict of the martyred Lincoln struck of the shackles from four millions of human beings; and hundreds of thousands of brave men yielded up their lives, on the battlefield?
 And we ask you men of Germany, was it for the purpose of establishing just such condition of affairs here as that from which you fled, that you tore yourselves away from home and friends, undergoing the expense, hardships and privations, in- cident to 8 voyage across the broad and stormy Atlantic.
 If not, then hold this picture close before you when you are again called upon to give your sufrages, to place men in power into whose hands you commit your desti- nies. Stop and reflect, asking yourselves where does this man,-and this man stand is he for CHEAP LABOR, or is he not2
 Does he believe that labor which creates ALL is entitled to but a mere animal sub- sistence, while idleness that creates noth- ing is entitled to roll in the proud lap of luxury, with labor as its cringing slave.