New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-03
PREGNANT ADMISSIONS.

.Uiph tariff makes low wages" The Herald
| afiirms But in trying to establish this propo-
sinon it comedies so much as virtually to
abandon its case. "There was tlme," says
| The herald, "when our manu- actnres were
neither numerous nor skiitully conducted,
"when a high tariff artifcialy increased the
"wages of factory operatives" This was be-
cause the manufacturers were unable 10
"supply the home dem md" so that the tariif
encouraged employment of capita ana
"labor in manufacturing enterprises. Under
"this state of thir ga it is probable that the
workmen's wages were increased by lne
operation of a high tariff" According to
this reasoning, protective duties are oenehciai
to labor whenever the home manufacture Is
unable to supply the home demand" ana
that happens to be precisely the case with the
industries which the present tariff aims TO en-
courage.
The fatal mistake of The Herald is that
it considers all manufactures In lump
as if adequate protection for any or
ADEQUATE development of any, meant ade-
ouate protection and development for ALL
But the fact il that many hundred dis-
tipct industries are embraced under the vague
term "the manufactures" Some are no longer
undeyeloped nor unskilfully conducted, as 1t
is admitted they were when protective duties
" increased the wages of operatives in such
industries. But Others are now just where
these were twenty years ago, in their infancy,
and in great need of legislation to encour-
cage the employment of capital and labor III
manufacturing enterprises" Ii. as Ihe Her
aid admits the tariff did encourage ana de-
velop industries, and secure better wages lot
labor therein, why should it not have the same
effect in other industries that still partially
or wholly undeveiopeIf Very many forms OF
mapui acture have not yet been protected at
all, in tie proper sense and Others nave oeeh
inadequatey pro ecied, owing to mistakes IN
legislation or construction, so that the desired
announcement has not been given nor has
the desired development been realized. Upon
The HernITs reasoning. can it be denied that
ADEQUATE protection mi ;ht benefit these just
as il has already benefited other indus
tries
But that journal goes on to claim that /" in
maIv of the principal branches" of manu-
facture there is now over-production the
announcement" has been so effective that
more CAPITAL and labor have been ens ed
than can as Yet Dt lulig tllDiOlth' hHb thio
is true. Ii is also true that in such branches
home competition has pushed down prices FAR
below their level when the country was de-
pendent upon foreign manufactures. Here the
public as CONSUMERS have begun to reap the
benefit OF developing home industries. If
there are some establishments more than ale
at present needed, that occurs also under
every form of tariff or under no tariff, and
development a little ahead of the times is not
the worst thing conceivable. But it such de-
velopment has been attained in some indus
tries, with exceptionally low prices for con-
sumers, is there not reason To expect that
SINH ar adequate duties will produce similar
DEVELOPMENT in other industriesf Certainly
it would be difficult to give r1Ison why
wages for labor should not be improved, ana
greater encouragement Tor capital given, in
other branches of manufacture, until these
also can fully supply the home demand and
are enabled to supply products to consumers
at less than the cost of imported goods He
who adm is that lese results have followed
effective protection in many branches of man
ufaclure rs they have, cannot well deny that
they would also follow adequate protection in
other branches which are still "unaDle TO
supply the home demand"