The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-10-12
rrp psoro.s,, of tho .pciant states-

alton In this country has failed to
that low and unremuner- t
tive wages is an incident of revenue c
ariff, or that protection insures the 1
j0rking man remunerative wages" The
,oasted prosperity of which the a. 8.
peaks under the tariffs Of "a and % is
Ill in his eye, and he jumps at a con-
fusion when he attributes any finan-
,ial disasters succeeding the adoption
# the compromise tariff of 1888, which
was proposed by that eminent free
raider" (?) Henry Clay, to the adoption
of that measure. That was /immedi-
ately succeeding the veto of the United
States Bank bill by General Jackson,
whom the reaeable historian of the
Leader asserts was the first Democratic
President (D, and at a time when all
the efforts Of tnat institution and the
Whig party were exerted to beget |
the Executive to re-charter that in
and recognize it as the fiscal
agent of the Government. With as
much reason might the terrible distress
that came upon the country in 1873,
and all the labor troubles and financial
disasters which haye succeeded and
which are unprecedented in the annals
of the country, be attributed to the
present unjust, oppressive robber tariff.
The Leader statesman asserts that
ain 1910 the Whig party elected their
President on the tariff ISSUE" That 10
q sample of the reliability of the
Leaders historical data. Now, there
is not man who had anything to do
with politics in 1s40 but knows that
the Wings went into the Presidential
fight that year without a platform and
without making any issue upon any
political question that they made a
regular guerrilla fight, and that the
campaign was a mere drunken revel
from beginning to end, in which every
important political issue was ignored,
and no tariff question was in any way
involved.
AS evidence of the truth of our
proposition which 80 riled the equa-
| nimity of the O.. g. of the Leader, we
copy the following extracts from ex-
| changes:
The Twelfth Annual Report of the
| Massachusetts, Bureau Of Statistics of
Labor is issued. In the mills Of Maine
men are paid $3.50 week, women but
$3.50, children $225 to $5. 40; this in
the woolen mills, which pay the larg-
est wages. One paper mill pays men
$l0.50 and women $3.50, for seventy
| two hours work q week. In New
Hampshire the wages are much lower,
| the operatives working sixty-six hours.
In Rhode Island they are little high
er. In Connecticut they work ninety
hours a week, fifteen hours day for
six days. The wages are: men 50,
women $3.50, children $3.50 to $5. 10.
The highest spinners' wages are $6.
| In Massachusetts sixty-three hours are
exacted. Spinners get $1.0S per day,
| the highest class of labor in the mills
not exceeding $40 to $l2 for men. In
the cotton mills two-thirds to five
sixths of the laborers are women and
children. The Canadian French are
described as the Chinese Of the East
ern States they work for low wages
when they accumulate a little money
they 60 back to where they came from.
The real obstacle to general ten hours
system is said to be the inertia of tke
men, the great number of women and
children employed, and the presence
of the Canadian French.
That don't look much as though the
present high tariff tended in the least
degree to enhance the wages of labor
ers in that department of industry.
| Again:
The greatest obstacle to q revision o
our tariff system Is the demand of the
iron manufacturers for protection tt
their interests. The census of 1885,
gives an idea of their profits and how
little Of 1t their laborers get. In 1885,
there were 805 companies producing 2,
97l ,703- tons of ore and employing 81,
36S persons, to whom they paid a.
wages So, ,53S, III, or q fraction over ont
, dollar a day, on an average, counting
800 working days in a year.
The census for 1880 shows that ther,
, was produced In that year 1926, ,557 ,68
worth of iron and steel-for which
work 190.975 laborers were required
Their entire wages amounted to $55,
476, 7S5, or an average of about $l.3
= per day to each n. The average
per day for each class of workmen wa
SIPS. This is the "high wages
working men get through "protec
tiOn." Aud Of that S1.25 per day they
get, 433 per cent. Is demanded of then
by the other protected interests. Tn
farmer gets NO protection and yet tn
| fo I.ah tS hat
, than the men employed by these pro
, tected industries. Now what did th
iron manufacturers realize as a prof
in 1880. One hund1ed and fourteen
million dollars, or more than doubl
the amount paid to the laborers il
wages during the year. For ever!
dollar the laborer earned the manu-
: facturer got two dollars profit. 1t is II
wonder he wants the high tariff con
tinued, for it pays him enormou
profit. But why should the laborinI
f man want it continued
In his great tariff speech at Fremon
Hon. Frank III. Hurd shows the effec
OF low and high tariffs in the great ag
ricuItural industry of the country. II
said:
In speech made by the Presiden
of the recent Republican convention
in this district, it was said that fre
trade would reduce the price of tn
D farmers products. In addition to tn
r answers to this absurd statementwhicl
1 have already suggested, I desire t
; call attention to the price of the farm
er's products in what may be calle,
> the low tariff era of American liberty
: A low tariff was enacted in 1916, am
the rates were still further reduced il
1857, SO that from that time until tn
breaking out of the war we had tarit
for revenue only, with close approach
to free trade. According to the theor,
of the protectionists the farmers price
should have been low in that perio
and high when the present tariff wa
enacted. 1 have made a comparison
of the prices of the principal agricul
tural products for the four years pre-
ceding 1859, under low tariff, will
the price of the same products for tn
four years preceding 1879, under higl
il