The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-05-27
AMERICAN AND BRITISH WAGES.

become nlgh protective tarlif advocate, un
dcrtakes to controvert a statement of the FREI
l TRADER, that the wages Of labor in the large
manufacturing establishments Of this country
are very little if any higher than m similar
establishments in Great Britain. We quoted
no figures in proof, dcemlng it unnecessary
rs the tact, from the nature of things, must be
so-the facility and trlfling expense at which
British laborers can come to this country being
such, that if wages here were steadily higher
than there by any considerable percentage
labor from there would flow this way as natur'
ally as water seeks its level
| However, the editor of the Republican val
orously butts his head against an immovable
and Interchangeable law Of nature by quoting
| figures to show that away up towards the
north pole, in the old, sleepy, finished town OF
Dundee, Scotland, certain classes of workmen
get less wages than the same classes get in tins
country. Thus in that old, playedout town
wood carpenters and millwrlghts get but 81
per week, smiths $3.50, wood carveS $l2 and
foremen or overseers $3.50. He gets his
figures from the Reports of our consuls pub
lished in the interest OF the high tariff mono.
polists by the State Department at Washington.
From the same high authority he quotes fig
ures to show that IN the south of Ireland brick
layers get but 81 per week, moulders $775,
blackSmiths 81, plumbers $3.50, &c. We have
no doubt plenty of sleepy, played,out old
towns in the United States could be picked out
where wages are no higher. We have serious
doubts, for instance whether wood carvers,
who get $12 week IN Dundee, could get the
same wages in Ottawa or cotton spinpers from
$l20 to 81 per day in Ottawa, as they do at
Blackburn, England, for the simple reason
that there is no employment for SUCH here,
But we remember when the great strike &C.
Cured few months ago at the Lawrence
Mills in Massachusetts, the weavers, attending
4 looms, got but 9G cts. per day 6 looms $1,30
to 8 40 per day; and SO on; while we find on
referring to the SAME consular Reports" for
January that at Manchester loom weavers
got 80 to SO cts per day; 6 looms $1.20 to $1.44,
and so on-the wages being all through about
the same as were paid at the Massachusetts
mills.
The turning point of this whole discussion,
Involving the wickedness and bold lie OF the
pretense that protection of American manu-
tactOrers Is in the interest of American labor,
lies in the incontrovertible FACT, that materl-
ally higher wages in this country than in
Great Britain are impossible with the present
facilities and cheapness of intercourse between
this country and Europe. Only last week, the
New York papers tell US, the exact number of
immigrants arriving at Castle Garden was 49,
545 saying nothing of some 5000 at other
ports, the highest number OF arrivals In one
week on record, and tins enormous mass OF
humanity included the best skilled labor in
every department of industry. "The trades
union people," the same papers tell US, "are in
dismay about 1t. In these masses every i'm.
aginable trade and handcraft Is represented,
and they are men who as a rule are thorough
masters OF their trades, having served appren-
tccships of from to years"
What these worklngmen come here to sell
is exactly what our own work people have to
sell-their labor, their skill, their intelligence
and muscle. When our own laborers, then,
otter these to our manufacturers, they must do
it In competition with the whole world The
manufacturer has obtained a law taxing con
sumers an average of fifty per cent for his
protection, but at the door of his factory
stands competing labor from every country In
Europe-from every country in America =
from Asia, Africa Australia and the islands of
the sea- From the hands upllfted for bread
I'VE are now quoting from a speech IN con
gress) "the manufacturer makes his choice
on the strlctest principles of tree trade. A
law of political economy-the law of supply
and demand-regulates the supply Of that la
Dor; but the moment the finished article from
that laborer's hands Is offered for sale the law
of supply and demand is abolished, and the
shall buy at my price, for | am protected
against the intrusion of competing products. "
Il The man who pretends that the manutactHr.
er will pay higher prices to his laborers be
, cause the tariff enables him to do 1t Is tool
He buys his labor in open market as he buys
his potatoes, at the lowest figure. At the same
, time that man is also a fool who imagines he
Is benefited by having 80 per cent added TO
the price of everything he buys
u OF course the FREE TRADER is not ready
to maintain that tariff protection under any
and all circumstances is unjust and vicious.
u There are infant industries that are often fos
tered by II to the general good, and in other
j cases, where large sums have been invested IN
manufacturing establishments on the assump.
ton that certain measure of tariff protection
then extenced would be continued, the sudden
removal of such protection would he bad faith
on the part of the government and wicked
II But that protection is In any sense in the in.