The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-08-25
THE TARIFF AND WAGES.

meuced their appeals to the workingmen
of the country to persuade them that the
tariff secures them high wages. This is no
more than was expected. 1t has opened a
discussion though which will not be snlrk-
ed by those who are opposed to monopo-
lies and if the mass OF voters are not al
ready convinced that the alleged benefit of
pro lection to the wages class is not hum
bug pure and simple, before the November
elections come around they will be. A
great many manufacturers have formed an
ill-concealed dread that the arguments of
the high tariff men that protection secures
high wages may at any moment prove
double edged, cutting serious gashes each
way.
The Manufacturer and Industrial Ga
zette, published in Holyoke, Mass, the
very heart of the manufacturing industries
in New England, and devoted to the
manufacturing interests of the United
States, F" has no patience with the humbug,
and vigorously attacks it in late number,
The article is a remarkable one coming
from such source. and if anyone has any
doubt about the falsity of this protection
CLAIM there ought to be none after the fol
lowing is carefully read:
1t may of course be said that no clear
thinking man can be imposed upon by
such representations. The reply is, that
the representations are meant 10 impose
upon the unthinking and the ignorant.
Men trained in business affairs known per
fectly well that prices of labor, like all
other prices, are determined by the re
lations of demand and supply. Wages are
higher in the United States than in Eng
land because, with unlimited resources,
population is not yet so dense, and the
competition for employment not so sharp,
as In the old world. Everyone knows that
wages are higher in the western states than
in the eastern; no tariff accounts for the
difference; the larger resources and greater
scarcity of labor at the west do account
for it. In like manner, wages are far
higher in free-trade England than in pro-
tectionist Germany, because with higher
industrial and commercial development,
the demand for labor is greater. But these
considerations are not readily Igrasped by
the masses of workmen. They are 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 unable to
follow in its eomplex workings. The
question must assume in their minds a
different aspect, however, when, in adj
dition to these considerations, facts simple
enough to be easily understood are brought
out which of themselves completely over
throw the presumptuous claim that high
tariff makes high wages. Fsr-s Il
Three distinct exposures of the unten-
ableness of this favorite claim have been
made within few months, and in each
case the exposure has come. unwittingly,
of course, from distinguished high tariff
advocates. Let us glance first at the rela-
ton of wages to duties in the silk indus
try.
The New York Tribune, an uncompro
missing high tariff organ, the other day
published some figures going to demon
strate the rapid growth of silk manu-
featuring in this country, and to show
that 81 800 wage earners were protected
in pleasant and profitable industry by
the heavy duties which gave them chance
to live" As the duties paid during the
past year are put at $21 600, 900 on lmpor-
tations valued at $36 200, 900, it is plain
that the protection aneunts TO 1926 year
for every operative engaged in the indus
try. AS wages go, this would be a very
good return fora years labor in 'tpleas
ant and profitable employment, but unfor-
tunatelv for the operatives they enjoyed no
such nlunificence. The wages actually |
paid to these 81, 500 pleasantly occupied |
silkmakersr amount, it seems, to about |
$13, 900 900 or 1915 year for each en-
ploye. A little over Q dollar a day. the |
wages of unskilled labor, of ''unpreteeted7 !
ditch diggers and farm help, is what an
I'D oalorem duty of go per cent. secures to /
American silkmakersi If there is any rela-
ton between a high tariff and high wages,
these operatives are entitled to know what /
becomes of the $3.50 of protection"
per operative which they do not receive.