The daily gazette., 1883-01-30

WAGES AND THE TARIFF.
How Heavily Protected Industries Profit
at the Expense OF the Laborers.


At Gnp E2ABGnbS oh tho A<UboEBT9s
New York Heraid.l
Some of our contemporaries are making q
great deal OF noise over the drivel of GER
tain Mr.. Porter, who is endeavoring to find
In British shipyards new reasons why the
Stars and Stripes should not be seen upon
the sea. This is the same Mr.. Porter who
was on the Tariff Commission, and the dis
closures made as to how his tariff conclu-
sions were reached should be enough to dis
credit in this country his opinions upon any
subject. But as 1t seems they are not we
will recapitulate our recent exposition of the
relation of the tariff to wages. 1t was
shown In the Herald In December that the
general annual average per capita of wages
in all the manufacturing establishments In
the United States Is $346.08, and that the
most heavily protected industrles-viz. /,
wool, Gotten and silk-pay an average Of
"a per cent. less annual wages than
even this pitiful sum, to wit: Wool,
S293.05; silk, S264.45, and cotton, S240.l7
In these three great industries there are
367, ,9S2 operatives employed at net annual
average wage per capita of S265.S9. When
we consider also, as has been already shown
in the Herald, that there has been a decline
In wages since 1870 of nearly nine per cent
this being during the halcyon days of protec-
tion, one might suppose we had discovered
enough to raise the voice of every working
man in the land in eXeerati0n of such legis-
lation.
But there Is much worse behind. Even
the pittance of $275.S9, which is the aver
age annual wage of the cotton, wool and silk
operatiYes-nearly 100000 of them-even
this amount is of far less worth than its
face, because of the very protection" legis-
lation that has reduced wages to that figure.
The average duty on % articles In common
use, including cotton, wool, salt, leather,
glass, linen, iron and steel, paper and
books, rice, sugar, ETC., is 81 per cent. This
means not alone that the laboring man has
to pay this amount of duty If he uses i'm
ported articles, but that, excepting articles
not produced In this country, he must pay
| 3S per cent. enhanced price on every Amer
can article he purchases for the use of his
family; this In order that manufacturers in
this country shall be protected out OF the
| pockets Of the half starved laboring class.
1t will be readily seen, therefore, that to just
the amount of IS per cent. Is the current
money of the realm debased in Its purchas-
Ing power by the protection" laws OF the
country.
Thirty-elght per cent. is Of course larger
/ percentage than the average loss of the labor
| ing man by this means, but twenty-five per
cent. Is not. Aud we have no hesitation In
making the assertion that the operatives In
/ the manufacturing industries In this cOun-
| try pay ap average of twenty-five per cent.
| of their wages TO sustain the protection"
| of the very manufacturers who hire them
and who pay them less than dollar day
| for their services. In their case, therefore,
/ the American dollar is debased to the amount
! of twenty-five cents, and for every dollar
| they spend in the support of their families
they receive but seyenty-hVe cents In value