The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-04-29
STRIKES AND THE TARIFF.

makers, the New YORK carpenters and hOrs
shoers, various Ohio and Pennsylvania miners
&C., SC, are on a strike. Flour, meat, butter
leggs-all the necessarles of llfe-are golnl
lup while industrial activity Is declining, ant
labor, punched to exc out u scant living, ii
driven to the desperate expedient Of striking
for higher wages when the demand for labol
is on decline.
Il In casting about to account for this deplor
able condition of things have the workingmer
lever taken the trouble to investigate to wha
extent our present vicious tariff is responsible
for 1t? Under 1t prices are so raised that we
can only manufacture what we consume
Against our manufactures the markets of the
world are closed. We can only export raw
4 materials, such as food products, cotton and
tobacco, while we tax food wool, bltuminous
coal, iron ore and scrap iron, hemp, chemicals,
&c, thus raising the price OF raw materials to
our own manufacturers. Under this artificial
system we find 1t impossible to compete with
England, France and Germany, whose indus
tries stand upon the broad basis of free raw
material. The result is, that by "boom"
like that Of the last year and which has about
run Its course, our markets are surfeited with
the excess of products. In addition, there
happens to be good crop abroad, our exports
OF breadstuffs have ceased, and prices all
around must fall, those OF wages among the
first. The reduction Of wages brings strikes
and lockouts, the. prosperity of the country Is
checked, our 6bps are beginning to lack work,
there is a growing dearth OF employment, and
gaunt want and distress threaten again to be-
come familiar apparitions.
That we are not speaking at random in
attributing aVtstate of things to unwlse tar
1T imposition, we are enabled TO demonstrate
by some pertinent statistics, which we find
very ably collated in long article in the New
York Truth, from which we borrow few of
the more striking figures. The statistics, for
example, show that under the high tariff of
1845 wages In the Eastern States averaged
$3.50 per week; under the low tariff of 1S49
wages rose to 80 per week. Ia the Middle
States the average oaily wages In 1916 were
81, advancing under low tariff In 1849 to
$l.35. In 1889 dow tariff men in the New
England wooden mills received 81 per day In
1S45 (high tariff) the wooden mills paid men
rs cts. and women 40 cts. per day. in 1S49
dow tariff men received $7.S2 per week; In
1916 (high tariff they averaged IS per week.
In the iron manufactures in 1915 (high tariff
the hands made on an average $3.50 per week,
but In 1860 dow tariff they we're paid $1O.7O,
Farm hands In 1912, under protection, receiv.
ed $40, under free trade In 1860 they received
$15 per month, an increase of nearly so per
cent.
AT the same time high tariffs are always at
tended with high rates of living. The effect
is illustrated IN the single article of sugar. I'm.
der the high tariff of 1928, the consumption
of sugar averaged $4s4 to every person in the
United States. In 1888, when the duty was
partially repealed, the consumption Of sugar
jumped from $4S4 per capita to 1921, nearly
double Under the next high tariff of 1882 3
the consumption was $13 per capita; under
the low tariff of 1916 1t rose to $50 per capita,
and in 1851 it reached $50 per capita. Under
our present high tariff on sugar its cost is said
to average about $25 per capita, showing that
the consumption has fallen of at least 40 per
cent. since 1851.
Thus the tariff, as against the laborer, cuts
two ways. 1t both reduces wages and in
creases the cost of living.
AS Mr. Hewitt pointed out in recent speech
in congress-, there Is a short ROAD out of the
squeeze into which our vicious tariff is just
now threatening to crush our Industries. That
road Can be opened by congress In a day, by
the passage of bill couched in not over a
hundred words; or even by a joint resolution
and all 1t need do Is to knock off the tariff on
raw materials. A remission of the duty on the
single article of soda ash would lmpart new
life to our glass factories; like remission on
dyes and chemicals would immensely stimu-
late and revive our cotton factories; and a
draw back on iron and hemp to our ship
builders would put 100000 men now idle to
work within Six months in our ship yards
"WHIsKY DEMOCRATS. because the demo