Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1883-04-19


ination was made in violation Of the
rlainest usages Of his party.
ANOTHER UPHILL JoB.-The mp
hill job Of the EnfezPrise to establish
the proposition. that it il to the in
tersst of the people Of st. Mary's conn
~ TO pay a 20 perct. tariff tax on what
they eat, wear or use in the line of
the protected industries instead Of a
20 per cent. tariff tax on the same ar
ticles, having been prndently aban-
doned, or adjourned over for the pre-
sent. our nsighbor now undertakes
another uphill job. equally difEicnlt Of
accomplishment, namely. the job of
proving, that whoever else the present
tariff may Cypress, it does not Cypress,
but protects and benefits the Ameri-
can laborer. If this were trne. it
would be saving clanse, but unhap-
PLY it is not true. and cannot be shown
hy the Enterprise or by anybody else.
The very reverse is the fact, and this
il easy Of establishment. In the first
place, what is meant by Ameri-
can laborers =" II it means anything
worth noticing. il means not frac-
ton of American laborers, but the
whole, or at least a majority. Now,
cOncedinE for the present. that the la
bOrors working at New England spin
dies, or in Pennsylvania iron FORCES.
or at cotton or WOODEN looms, are work.
ingat increased wages because ofa high
protective tariff, what is the proportion
between these and the vast majority
OF laborers in the country who are not
thus engaged ? The statistics saw
about to IA or in the ratio Of 8 mil
lions TO 40. Therefore. the masons.
carpenters, joinerE. railroad hands,
canal diggers. miners. fellers of the
forest. toilers in the cotton, tobacco.
wheat and corn fields Of the country.
teamsters, herders. shoemakers, tin
ners. tanners, ditchers, smiths, hod.
carriers, personal servants, school
masters, printers, painters. plasterers,
wheelwrights, carriers and draymen,
these and all other workers who Ell
our land with prosperity and furnish
seven-eighths Of our trade with the
world-these. not only receive no pro-
lection from the tariff, >bnt are taxed
heavily on nearly everything they eat
and wear to su2Port the manufacturing
laborer in the North aud East. TO
simplify and bring the matter down
home to our own people, how are
Henry Hayden AMI Meridack Clarke
benefited by paving 40 per cent. ia
riff tax on everything they use them
selves or in their families within the
lines of the protected industries to ad-
vance the wages of the laborer at the
New England spindle ? We refer
them to the Enterprise for an answer.
John Randolph was once asked by a
lady to help the suffering Greeks with
a contribution. "D-n the suffering
Greeks said Randolph, 'ihe suffer
ing Greeks are at our own doors r.
We commend the moral Of this little
retort to the serious consideration of
our contemporary. But does protec-
ton protect even the manufacturing
laborer BY the tariff of '6l, duties
on imports were more than doubled,
and yet the ratio of the cost of wages
to the total cost Of production was II
per cent. less than under the revenue
tariff Of '46. and since 81 the slight
increase that has been made in facto-
ry wages does not keep pace with the
increase fthe tariff. Who has receiv-
ed the increased price paid for man
ufactures under the high tariff since
81? Ace Drding to the census, that
increase did not 60 into the pockets of
the factory laborers. Where then did
it go? We are unable to answer this
last question with certainty. but we
re-assert that it did not go into the
pockelsOf the laborers. or. lift did. that
the census lies. Besides, the factory
ltborer il also a consumer, and even
il his wages were raised by the tariff.
every item that he consumes was also
raised by the tariff to the extent Of
the average duty. so that the laborer
who lived within protected factory
was Left BY the tariff just where he
was found-his increased wages were
consumed BY the increase in price be
had to pay for all the neeessaries of