Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-04-27

price-lists in proof that it has been so
in this case.
Mr. HEwITT-But machinery has
come in and changed the cost of pro-
lduction.
| Mr.. UPDEGRAFF-Yes but that which,
more than ali else, has given us improv
ed machinery and new inventions and
/ better processes, is protection, which
has aroused the inventive genius of
American mechanics and manufactur-
ers, stimulated by that wise policy
which thus secures to them the result
and benefit Of their own better work.
\ Applause on Republican side. Now, ]
| know it is quite true that sometimes,
tand temporarily, many articles of for
eign production would be cheaper with
out any revenue laws. when they would
follow, as they often have, the advice OF
Lord BrOugham, given more than sixty
years ago in Parliament. He said.
England can afford to incur some loss
on the export of English goods for the
purpose of destroying foreign manufac-
lures in their cradle
\ Mr.. TURNER, of Kentucky-What do
you want with tariff, if it does not
protect you?
| Mr.. UPDEGRAFF-It does. Ii the gem
tleman had given attention he would
4 not, think. have asked the quesi ion.
/ have just been showing how our own
competition brings prices to a just level.
and at the same time our protective
1 system preserves our industries by shut
ting out ruinous competition with
/ no lah nd oil Mt Enn-
land from destroying our manufactures
as Lord Brougham advised, and then
putting up the prices as always had
been done. Now, hasten on to another
lproof of what l have said. realizing that
have already occupied much more
time than | had intended but l have
| yielded to every Interruption, and still
Invite questions, believing that protec-
tion can bear the most rigid scrutiny.
I hold in my hand a volume of Parlia-
mentary Reports for 1880. 1t is free
trade English authority. Mr.. Archbold,
the English consul-general at New
York, in 1880 made this report to his
government, which was thought of SUI
tcient Importance to be published by
Iorder of Parliament He speaks at
Length of "the effect of the protective
tariff in stimulating wool-growing and
the production of CLOTH" and states that
"the prices of carpets in the United
States in 1879 are II per cent. cheaper
than they were in 1850, while in dress
goods prices had fallen about a5 per
cent in the same period"
LABOR AND WAGES.
In every country labor is the wealth creator.
/ If ia ha lorUoaf of p1nital If Is the
productive force of al development. High
wages are measure of the real prosperity OF
a country. ANY ecouomic system that does
not base itself on full wages for labor in this
country is at war with both interests and its
institutions. How grandly did Lincoln, the
great American commoner, recognize this IN
his first message to Congress. He said, ia
Dor is prior to capital Capital is the fruit of
labor and could not exist unless labor had first
existed. Labor, therefore, deserves much the
higher consideration" Garfield said, 1T is
our glory that the American laborer is more
intelligent and better paid than his foreign
competitor" In contrast with that truly
American doctrine, set the English theory,
openly proclaimed ia Parliament by Huskis>
son, when a member of the Cabinet He said,
''To enable capital to obtain fair remunera
ton, labor must be kept doson." In England
| it has been kept down. 1t is down. 1t is
hopeless to rise, for on it are piled, tier above
tier, ,castes and ranks and costly establishments
and primogenitures and princely pregogatives
and an idle aristocracy. And it is to-day just
as when Huskisson avowed it the brutal doc
trine of English power, that the laboring class
is to be kept down. The London Times OF
July 10, 1880, says editorially. In speaking OF
the chances of free trade in this country:
The United states do not approach the quss-
fNf vic
fSfc tIisieet t21ettS q
the largest amount of wealth Tor the country
generally, but 10 keep up. by whatever means.
the standard of comfort among the iaboring
classes.
Yes, that is the object of all true American
statesmen, for the laborer is the citizen-the
American. And for that reason protection
would refuse pauper LABOR competition with
free American labor. The object and the eff
feet of that protection is to make possible bet>
ter wages and thereby better conditions for
all our useful classes, for in this country eve
ry useful citizen is worker in some manner.
A distinguished foreigner travelling in this
country lately, said: "Where are. your labor
ing classes? have not seen them yet" In
the United States wages are better and the
necessaries of life are lower than tn England
or on the Continent.
This higher wages represent the comfort
and happiness Of American homes. This bet>
ter wages, better living, better conditions, the
possibility of schools, the ownership of homes, |
the chance for the laborer of now TO be the
capitalist in few years, are all made possible |
by protection. l have come to hate the very !
name ''cheap labor" know what it means
in England. Some years ago l spent months
in learning something of the condition of the
working and other classes in England and on
the Continent. No statistics, no words can
fully describe what cheap labor there means
in the destitution and hopelessness of its con-
dition. A single illustration may hint at it.
In vast cutlery mandatory in Sheffield, |
England, an old man said to me in reply to
questions: 81 have stood thirty-four years in
this corner of this room and wrought daily, |
and when this lad now by me. who has never
been day in school, can make One>third time
we have meat at our table once in q week"
said, s'can you not hope for something bet |
teri" The tears started down his soot>grimed
face as he said: "No, sir; no, sir; not unless /
may some day be so happy as to get to Amer
ica." never was so proud of my country as
then, realizing that in no other country on
earth conld honest labor claim such reward
or command such dignity and comfort.
The gentleman from New York, [Mr.Hew-
lit, vino plead for free trade or worse the |
other day, in 1876 was one of our commis>
sioners to the Paris Universal Exposition. In |
his admirable report made then he bears tes> |
timony to the abject condition of the laboring |
classes in England, and to the vast difference |
both of their wages and situation compared, |
or rather cOntrGsted, with the workmen of this
cocntry. He says, page Sc of that report:
The cost OF making iron in England, Belgi. |
um and Fraace. at the present time. varies |
from f6 les. 10 fS per ton, and Fl additional |
suffices to nav Its cost of TRANSPORTATION to the
seaboard OF the Unitei States At these ports |
American iron canot possibly be delivered at |
a less cost than $50 in gold against $40 in gold |
for the foreign article. and the entire differ.
ence consists in the higher wages, and not
larger quantity of labor required for its pro,
ductio1 in the United States, where the phys
lcal, mental and moral condition of the work
ing classes occupy a totally different standard |
from their European cOnfreres, and where