Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-10
TIE STRIKES AND THE TARIFF.


TEE STRIKES AND THE TARIFF.
At Free Trade dinner given IN New
York recently, Mr.. David A. Wells ex-
pressed the belief that protection is pre-
pairing for the country crisis in which
Labor will, by it's disaffection, do more
than any agency extant to educate the pub
lie mind on the tariff question. He pointed
out that we are getting into this country
great body of foreign laborers, who are
turning out immense quantities OF goods,
far too much to be consumed at home,
while the tariff prevents them from being
sent abroad These foreign laborers. living
upon low wages, will, when over-produc-
ton paralyzes manufacturing, become tur-
bulent, and may produce serious trouble;
and thus the fallacy Of the protective as
symptoms about Labor will be made mani.
fest to the people, and the way be paved
for change. Already this prediction is
fulfilling ITSELF Already fifty thousand
workmen are on strike for higher wages,
without any prospect of success. Protec-
ton has as usual travelled in circle. A
few days ago the statement was published,
by Government authority, that wages In
America were one hundred per cent. higher
than in Europe. At the very time this
absurd statement was being put forth,
thousands Of American laborers were strik-
ing because their wages were so dispropor-
tionate to the cost of living that they could
not maintain themselves upon them. It
was equally impudent and futile for the
Government at such time to ad-
vance a statement which every econo-
mist knows to be false, and which
was SO fatty contradicted by the
facts. 1t was equally puerile and dis
honest to pretend to believe that the rate
of wages is measured by their nominal
amount merely. 1t is not enough to
know the nominal amount of wages. That
alone tells nothing. We must know what
is the purchase power OF money before we
can say whether wages are higher or lower
than elsewhere.
And in this case we know that the
purchasing power of wages in the United
States is very much less than in England ;
SO much less that the English workman,
though his nominal wages may be twenty
five or even thirty per cent. less, really
earns more than the American, because
his money will go SO much further. The
cost of living In America has advanced
during the last two years more than
twenty-five per cent, while wages have
not advanced st all, and in some trades
have been actually reduced. Protection
has not kept up American wages, as its
advocates claim that it does. The present
strikes are the best refutation of that
pretense. Here is a system the only
excuse for which is that it protects
American labor and under it American
labor is forced to strike, because it cannot
live upon Protection wages. And the Pro-
lection system operates with equal ineon-
gruity upon the manufacturers. How is it
that they are not in condition to grant
the demands of the workmen? How is
it that Protection has failed to protect
them? There is no doubt as to the reality
of the burden it imposes upon all the rest
of the nation. What reason for maintain.
ing it can there be if it does not after all
protect the small minority of manufact.
urers and artisans it was ostensibly estab.
lished to guard? The answer is that the
tariff has itself brought about the present
stagnation. It prevents American goods
from being sent to foreign markets. It
shuts American manufacturers up to the
domestic market. Protection stimulates
production unnaturally, and then OBJ
structs the distribution of the goods 80 pro-
duced. In this way it paralyzes commerce,
and deprives labor of employment.
But as Mr.. Wells points out, we are
constantly importing foreign laborers, and
these swell our production, and then, being
thrown out of work by the natural opera.
ton Of Protection, and being ignorant of
our institutions and inpatient of restraint,
they make trouble, as they did in 1876.
For such turbulence there is NO provis-
ion in our governmental arrangements, and
when it occurs the state machinery either
collapses or sticks fast. But SO long as
Protection is maintained we shall continue
to be exposed to this danger, and it will
grow more serious every year. Even now
it is impossible to tell how far the present
labor troubles may extend. 1t is true that
the strikers have chosen their time very
ill-so i'll that their success is almost i'm.
possible. But it is not less true that they
have genuine sufferings to complain Of,
and that though they have mistaken the
source of their troubles they have very
formidable difficulties to contend with.
The cost of living has risen SO greatly that
they cannot live on the current wages.
The employers cannot afford to pay any
more, for they themselves are obliged to
curtail production. But SO long as the Re
publican party teaches the workmen that
Protection is in their interest, so long will
it be responsible for the Misrepresentation
which leads them to strike for higher wages
upon falling market, and which threatens
the country with extensive labor riots.
Not until the real cause of the troubles is
removed will they vanish, and the real
cause has thus far not been touched.
Strikes are blind and unintelligent efforts
at redress, directed against the wrong
quarters. It is not the employers who
possess the capacity to relieve the distress
of the workingmen. 1t is Congress. Be-
fore there can be a return to prosperity the