The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-02-10
LAnoRERs AT scHooL.
OVsrPrOduetion, "PauPSr Pay" and NO
Pay,

OVsrPrOduotiOn, "PRuPSr Pay and NO
Pay.
Surely, wOrkingmen in this country
have been attending school of late years
under the Republican monopoly -protee-
tive rObber system of tariff taxation.
The panic'and bankruptcy years. 1878
-lS7s, when tramplsm fiOurished, and
WOfEsrS were dying with pAuper pay" 'N.
are not forgotten.
A good question for debating society
would be: Are wages regulated by the
law Of supply and demand, or by Pro-
tective Tariff? If the tariff regulates
wages, why bring negroes from the
South, or import European labor to take
the places of American mechanicsp
Labor now again is beginning to pro-
test against oyerproduction and stop
ping of works in the dreary winter sea-
son, all caused by protection" or exag-
gerated by it. An Intelligent operative
in Mr.. POtter's Chicago mills says of the
pauper pay of Europe, that it is at least
better than nothing. New Hampshire
labor can not see where protection ben
efits them, when it leads to the impOrta-
tiOn of cheap Canadian labor. The Me-
rlden, Conn.,, labor knows that 1t is poor
on low wages, and it sees the British
operative brought in to compete at low
wages, while protection talks of British
gold for free trade leagues. None of
these are able to see that the fat divi-
dends provided for capital. provide fat
wages for labor. While wages are high
er than in Europe, prices are also higher,
and bring high prices for products more
rapidly succeeded by over glut of mar
kets and stoppage of work.
Protection nowhere proposes to pro-
tect labor against this Over-production
and continual cessation of employment
which at the most but cuts off the lux
uries of capital and strikes at the very
living of labor. 1t nowhere proposes to
protect labor against the importation Of
paupeT labor. Against labor 1t leaves
all the world to compete, while it only
insists that capital be protected in its
dividen6R AIt provides no dividends or
surplus for labor out of which to lay up
little for rainy day"
1T is time all this hypocrisy had an
airing, and that labor learned where its
true interests lie. These are not against
capital, NOR with destructive, sense
less reform. They lie in close accord
with the true interests Of every class
and Of all kinds of industry, in the
legitimate profits Of production. These
demand a wholesome revision of the
bounty system of protection, cautious
getting down from the war system of
high protection. toward a revenue
standard"
"Pretermitting the question whether
protection created OF largely contri-
buted to create our industries, it dOes
not require high protection to maintain
them. They are full grown and no
longer infants. An ulcer often contri-
butes to health, and boils are very
wholesome sometimes; but nobody
wants to endure continual ulcers and
boils, and to be told that this Is health.
Swaddling bands and stays may be neces-
sary sometimes, but one would Just as
soon not go at all as to go always swad-
died and stayed"
''High protection on steel rails did not
prevent large impOrtatiOns, a tremend-
Gus spasm Of production at home, glut-
ted market, shutting down, and a
throwing labor out Of employment in
the bitter season. 1t is hard to see in
this where labor, enterprise, or capital
was benefited. What labor needs ia a
steady, unfluctuating system, and this
will not be obtained by radical change
in the Industrial system wrought by a
reckless reform, and certainly not by
to the war system OF high pro-
lection, or by any law the Republican
Congress will pass at the dictatiOn of
the protected lobby"