Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-10-28

Laboring men who have SO long
been deceived into believing that the
tariff protects hen by giving them
better wages, are beginning to find
out the fallacy of the cry. All labor
ers must buy manufactured articles the
price of which is enhanced by the tariff
twenty to two or three hundred per
cent.,to clothe themselves, their wives
and children, and to furnish their
houses. Every day they must put
their hands in their pockets aud pay
so cents more for q cotton dress, So
cents more for q hat. a dollar more
for a coat or a pair of pantaloons, all
because of the tariff. All laborers
are similarly effected in this, while if
it we're true that protection increases
the wages of manufacturing opera
tives, these constitute but a small per
centsge of the entire laboring popula-
ton. But it is not true. There Is
nothing in the tariff laws to protect
the werkingman-much to protect
the employer, but not a line to pro-
tect tine employe. The manufactured
article is protected. but the manufac-
turer goes into the open market for
his labor,snd hires it at the very low
est possible penny, welcoming foreign
competition with his Isborers as it
flows from Europe in every steamer,
and, az was proven in the debate in
congress, IN New England even de-
string Chinese competition left free
to aid him in still further reducing
wages. The tariff does not help the
workingman a farthing; 1t takes DOL
lars upon dollars out OF his pocket
every year. 1t is simply q legalized
systeL4 of spoliation of all other classes
by class y robbery of the poor
aud needy to enrich the already
wealthy and strong. 1t builds pal
aces in barren Rhode Island from the
toll aud sweat of the farm laborer of
Missouri. 1t lowers the wages Of the
lsborer by enhancing the price of
everything he must buy. 1t has held
everybody else's los to the grind
stone in order to make millionalres in
the east. 1t has destroyed u mer-
chant marine, once the pride Of the
nation. 1t collects a toll from every
bushel of the farmers wheat as 1t
goes into market over tripply taxed
steal aud iron. 1t taxes his plow,
harrow, wagon, trace chains. hinges.
nails, glass, paint. 1t taxes his wife's
hat, gown, feathers, gloves, shoes,
sewing machine. 1t taxes the baby's
swaddling clothes, the grandfather's
spectacles. the grandmother's bible.
1t x every man. woman and child
from the cradle to the grave. This
would not be so bad If all the money
went into the public treasury. but it
does not. For every dollar which
does, at least four 60 into the insati-
ate maws of the manufacturing lords,
tariff beggars, greater mendicants aud
more to be despised and dreaded
than the worst %lazzsroni of the most
deblsed of European countries, for
the latter are poor and miserable and
hence beg end steal, while the former
are rich-richer than Cresus-and
still beg like paupers and rob their
fellow countrymen more unmerci-
fully than would an army of Cossacks
when marching through the land of
the Crescent. 1t is an insult to
American manhood and Ingenuity to
say that we anuot compete with for
eign countries in the manufacture of
nine-tenths Of the articles which are
to-day protected, al insult as great
as is the injustice Of taxing the salt
which preserves the bacon of the
farmer while admitting duty-free the
salt whloh preserves the cod fish and
red herring of Massachusetts. The
more 1t is analysed, the more it is
studied, the better it is understood,
the more heinous and glaring r the
iniquities of the present odious tariff.
Thank God, it's doom will soon be
sealed