Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-02

crease in the demand for luxuries would /
seem to mean that the rich are getting |
richer. Strikes for higher wages, and a
rising market for the necessares OF life show |
that at the same time the poor are becom'
ing poorer. The action Of the employers
in the cotton and iron trades proves that
manufacturing industries are langulshlng. |
And all these things together make 1t ap-
parent that there has been sad blunderiDg |
in many directions, and that with all our
boosted freedom we do not as people |
know enough to avoid errors which intiict
almost as much harm upon us as any des-
potism could.
We have adopted fiscal system which
processes to shield American Labor from
competition with that of Europe, and
which is supposed to diversity commerce
and render us independent. Yet at the
end of half centurys trial of this system
we find that it has fulfilled none OF Its
promises that American Labor is not
protected that we are not rendered indie
pendent; that we have not extended our
foreign commerce; tdat in fact all our ten
denotes are dangerous and menaciug. In
the present year. with surplus revenue
of $3.50, OO0, 600, and tariff on 5000 arti-
Giles, we have lost our merchant marine and
our foreign trade almost entirely we have
managed so to increase the cost OF living
that the wages of two years ago are not
suffi cient at the same time we have con-
trived to let our domestic trade languish
SO that manufacturers cannot afford to pay
even as high wages as formerly. While in
this way the workingmen are being ground
to the WALL our non. producing classes are
becoming more extravagant than ever. We
are told that the manufacturers who can
produce the more costly line of goods
have all the orders they can fill, while
." the demand is for the higher grades OF
fabrics" But as American workmen
have not the skill to produce such goods
as France and England manufacture, and
as very few skilled workmen are import
ed, the high priced goods have to come
from abroad. Last year S22, 600, 600 went
to Europe for this class Of dry goods alone.
But this cannot last. The extravaganza
which already contrasts SO painfully with
the pinching poverty creeping over the
working classes at the East, IS not
healthy symptom. Indeed the whole sit
uation is as morbid as possible, and reminds
one more of the disturbed state of affairs
which preceded the great revolution in
France, than the normal progress OF pros
porous and free people. 1t is quite clear,
in short, that the present condition is not
natural; that something interferes with
the free action OF commerce and labor
and that III some way the profits of labor
are diverted from their proper recipients,
and go to prop upa non-producing, para
site class, which is prohigate and lavish.
And this is a correct diagnosis. There are
blunders on all sides. The Tariff shuts
American manufactures out from foreign
markets, and exposes them to the
wild fluctuations OF demand which
must always attend a circumscribed
market. Thus the productive capacity
of our mills and FORCES is checked, and
the country continually suffers from over
production, every fresh access of which
requires a period of stagnation, which
| represents pauperism and suffering to the
working classes. Again, the latter are by
means of their uuintelligent organized &C.
ton, their own worst enemies For in
| stance, the Trades Unions will not allow
m 1re than a nominal apprentice system,
lest the trade be overstocked. The con.
sequence is that skilled labor, which
means educated labor, is harder to get
| every year. and when its products are
| needed it is found easier to import them
than to send to Europe for the labor and
make the goods here.
The American workingman is in this
way committing suicide, for he is prevent
ing the improvement and even the perpetual
ton of his class. But in his politics he
hurts himself still more by voting to sus.
tain that mischievous, unphilosophic, dis
honest and inequitable system misnamed
the Protective system. For it raises the
cost of living, does not keep wages up,
restricts trade, and thus cuts at the work.
| ingman from three different directions,
and in three equally deadly ways. The
blessings Protection confers upon him to.
| dav are these. He is less sure Of being
employed at all he gets less wages when
he is employed and the wages he gets
will buy less provisions and clothing and
everything else, than ever before. These
are the results of Protection as practically
experienced by the American workingman,
| and yet In Pennsylvania and Massachu-
sets and New England generally he steps
up to the polls year after year and votes
for the maintenance OF the machinery
which is bringing him nearer to the poor
house every day of his life. This cannot
90 on however. The strikes of this summer
mean mischief. Before the Fourth OF July
there will be quarter of million men
and women out of employment, according
to the present prospect. This will increase
the stringency in the industrial market,
and the great money centers will begin to
nut OH the screws. The danger signals are
up, and a panic is once more announcing its
advent by the sure signs which everybody
recalls when it is too late, but nobody
profits by while it is yet time to avoid the
catastrophe.