New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-05
TARJFTS or TRADES UNIONS.

Ii pleaSeS some or the pOltlcai "oihhS wv"
who have been testifying before the Senate
Committee on Labor to state that the work
ing people generally care nothing aDout the
Tariff or believe that it does not help them.
T. would suit some Democratic candidates
exceeding well if this were true General
Hancock and Mr.. Randall thought 1t was III
1850. hut discovered too late that the work
ing people did care great deal ABOUT the
preservation of the barriers raised by the
Republicans against foreign competition, ana
were not inclined TO vote for candidate
''who saw in the tariff only local issue that
came I'D once in his native town.
Men who get living by agitating In tine
cause of labor" whatever their political lean
incs are quite apt to represent that nothing
else IS so important as the organization OF
labor for strikes. Their method OF bctterlng
the condition of labor is to extort more from
the emplover. If he has large contract on
hand. and can better afford to pay an e1tor-
tomato price than to have the work stop, that
is their choice opportunity. This is the high
wayman's mode of helping labor, and, like
the old industry of the fOotpads, it does not pay
well in the end. Often the employer sees that
he cannot pay what is demanded, and closes
idleness lose more than they had hoped tc
| gain. Often he submits to the extortion'
| charges enough to cover it in fixing prices 1or
| future contracts, loses many for that reason,
| and has 10 run only half-time, much to the
| disgust of the men, who Will not see thaC IL Is
their own doing, and that it pays better to
earn SO per day 800 days in the year than to
earn 81 per day $50 days.
| The better system aims to benefit both en-
blowers and employed. 1t seeks the harmony
of American industries, and not savage and
suicidal warfare between capital and labor.
| Shallow agitators DO not understand It, 10
| them it seems simpler and easier to cry
"Stand and deliver" aud so to take money
ont of an employers pocket But the great
| majority of American wOTkingmen know much
more than their pro essed champions and self
chosen leaders. 1t is a very significant TACT
| that the so-called Knights of Labor, or Fed
| Grafton of Trades Unions. never yet has even
| pretended to have enlisted one twenty-iiith part
| of those who live by earning wages ID this
country. The actual anu active membership
of the unions is but fraction OF their noml-
nal membership, and their nominal member
shin is but a fraction OF the whole number OF
workers. But the demagogues and agltat0Is
GROSSLY msrepresent even the small number
of active members when they undertake tc
speak for the laboring people OF the United
States
The working people OF this country care q
great deal more for an efficient tariff than
thev do for all the trades unions ever formed
And well they may. They have seen and re-
| allied the inestmable blessings which tue
| tariff has conferred, and that without any
weekl7 tax, any assessment to maintain strikes
any blacklis,ing or bitterness or wranSllng
with employers But they have not seen what
GOOD trades unions and strikes have done; II
tbey had the number of members would not
he so small. Nearly the whole body OF work
mgmen in this country believes heartily IL
the system of protection for home INDUSTRY
and cares for it so much that, in States where
the workers are numerous and Intelligent
neither party dares to put up ticket that Is
hostile to that system. No such proof OF th'
attachment of the working people to trade
unions ever has been or can be given. WINE
the more noisy and less intelligent minority
rave about the tyranny of capital, and vast
themselves in senseless warfare against EN-
ployers, the great majority OF sober, Thought
| ful and industrious American workingnei
, Iejoice in the system which benefits both cap
: ital and labor, and makes them allies agans
: all the world.
d Whatever contributes to the general pros
u perity of the country benefits labor, not wit
n fictitious and teeting gifts, Dead Sea apple
G that turn to ashes OH the lips, but with soli(
@ and lasting improvement. Workingmen o
8 intelligence know this, and they have seel
=, | that strikes do not contribute to the genera
y prosperity. But they know that the countr
$ has never attained such prosperity at an
!, other time, such growth in industries, sue
e development of resources, such improvement
o IN the employment and the wages of labor, a
a it has attained since Democratic tariff 10