Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-31
THE DISTURBANCES IN PRODUCTION
AND LABOR

or by working only half time. The men
do not reflect upon the causes of this con.
dition of things, nor do the Unions in
quire soberly into it as it is clearly their
duty and interest to do. They simply
order strikes, regardless of the prospects,
and as result they are plunging the fool
ish men who allow themselves to be thus
coerced into greater difficulties than ever.
trade unions have missed the one really
beneficent purpose to which their organiza-
ton could have been applied. They have
the power of organization, but whenever
they employ it they iDJure themselves, be-
cause their movements are not directed by
intelligence. 1t ought to be perfectly clear
to every workingman that if he wishes to
secure an increase of wages he must time
his demands judiciously. Instead Of shut.
ting his eyes and butting blindly at his
employer, he must find out whether trade
is prosperous or the reverse. II then he
discovers that it is not prosperous that
more goods have already been produced
than there is market for and that the
employer consequently can better afford to
stop producing than to pay more for labor
all thought Of strike will be abandoned
until the conditions are altered for the
better.
The trades unions have, however, always
neglected the duties which lay directly
before them, not only in this but in many
other regards. II they were led by clear
intelligences they never would have re-
manned satisfied with the fiscal system of
the country, for example. Take the pres
ent situation in illustration of the incred-
ible gullibility of the working classes.
They are told that Protection benefits
them that the high duties imposed on
foreign goods are intended to raise and
maintain wages. Yet in the teeth OF these
assertions they see that wages do not go
up, but down. They see that American
production is subject to constant huctua-
tions and spasms. They see that, however
high the duties are, no part of the profit
thus given to the manufacturers is Elected
in their own wages. They see that under
Protection the prices of necessaries are
constantly rising, while wages tend down.
wards. They see that Protection does not
enable the protected employers to keep up
their production, but that despite the
! enormous bouuties paid to them they are
at short intervals compelled to shut down
their works, or to run on half time. In
all these matters they see also that Labor
is made to bear the brunt. The manu-
facturers pocket all the profits, but the
| workingmen are made to bear the heaviest
burden of the Losses. There is never any
thought of sharing the profits OF prosper
GUS seasons with them, but the moment
stagnant season comes their wages are cut
down.
The workingmen have dimly realized
that they are being wronged, but they
juries, and they have adopted remedies
which cannot help them at all. Instead
of committing the economic mistake of
striking for higher wages when the mar
ket is falling, and when consequently
they have no hold on employers, they
would, if they were wise, turn their or
CARNATIONS to practical account by oppos-
ing the monster Protection, which is re-
sponsible for three-fourths of their miseries.
| For why is it that the manufacturers, in
spite of bounties, are compelled to stop
work, It is because Protection, by ex-
Guiding them from foreign markets, and
circumscribing the field of their enterprise,
makes them liable to be affected by every
passing depression in domestic trade, and
so Injuries instead of helping, both them
and the labor that depends upon them. If
the barrier of the Tariff was thrown down
we should never hear any more of mills
working half time, or closing altogether
for want of business. With the whole
world for market, American manufact-
urers would find their hands full contin.
ually. They would be Independent of the
domestic market, they would cease to be
sensitive to every temporary depression
in home trade, and they would be able to
pay good wages all the year round.
This is what the workingmen would be
striving for if they eomprehended their own
interests. Free Trade is the greatest friend
Labor has in the world. Protection leads
to the present ominous situation decreased
wages, increased cost of living, and uncer-
tainty of employment. This is what has
been gained by plundering nine-tenths of
the nation for the alleged benefit of the other
tenth. This is all that can be shown in re-
turn for the six hundred millions of yearly
confiscation submitted to by the patriotic
but stupid American producers. This is
the result of the system which was to lift
the American workingman far above the
level of the pauper labor of Europe"
This summer probably fifty thousand
American workingmen will be out of EN-.
ployment because of the Tariff, and yet the
Protectionists, who can show nothing bet
ter than these dismal results of their sys-
tenn, cling to it with desperation, and will
not consent even to its revision. Labor
and Production are to-day disturbed most
seriously, and this disturbance is the direct
outgrowth of Protection which does not
protect. Presently there may be labor
riots, and then the Communists will de-
nounce Capital and demand Anarchy. But
throughout these difficulties SO far the
American workingman has failed to distin-
guish his real foe, and in wasting his
energies upon opposition to imaginary enc
mics he has actually rendered stronger the
letters which bind him in the midst of
his fancied freedom. Strikes are poor
modes of redress at the best of times, and
they are ruinous at such times as the pres
ent. But they would never be resorted to
if the voting laborer took the trouble to
ascertain the situation for himself, and
attacked the protective abuse through poll
tics. persistently.
A CURIOUS NEGOTIATION.