Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-08-21
The Republican Policy Tested.

| There are about l2,OOO,O0O male adults
in this country engaged in gainful occu-
pations, and the census shows that this
lis about the number of males of the vot
ing age. Substantially the whole male
population that can vote is at work, and
about half of the whole number is en-
gagged in farming, nearly one-QuaIter in
manufactures and mining, over one sixth
in personal aud professional services
and about one-twelfth in trade and trans.
portation. How can the Government
promote the welfare of these workers?
LET them alone" say the British free
trade theorists; "do not meddle with
them at all; help no one, make taxes as
light as possible, and leave everybody to
find his level" The results of the "let
alone policy can be seeD in England
! Whoever wishes to ascertain what sort
of level the great body of workers reach
under such a. system can examine Mr..
Porter's letters. the official reports of the
Bureau of Statistics, or any other accu-
rate and trustworthy statement of the
condition of labor abroad.
The Republican party, on the contrary,
holds that Government ought to do all it
can to elevate, dignity and protect labor.
It began by enacting homestead law.
| This Offers farm to every industrious
citizen who is willing to cultivate it,
and the effect has ben to fix a level
below which the wages of agricultural
labor can never be depressed so long as
available public lands remain. By this
great measure, fully half of all the work.
ers in the country were directly and per-
manently benefited, for the owners of
farms themselves have secured home
steads in great number for their children,
or for themselves when tempted to move
to new States. But this act, in some re-
spects the most important and benifcent
that has been passed for quarter of a
century, was carried by Republicans
against persistent Democratic Opposi~
tion.
The protective tariff was enacted, also,
as soon as the Republican party gained
power to make any law whatever. Under
its operation, the wages of millions of
workers in the manufactures and in
mining have been sustained, The enor
nous development of those industries
has secured a home market for farmers,
and greatly increased demand for labor
in all the mechanic arts, and the farmers
have moreover been directly benefited
in many ways, particularly near the Can
adian border, and in the growth of wool
in all parts of the country. But this
measure, also, though it directly bene-
fitted more than quarter of the wage
earners in the country, and indirectly
but powerfully helped them all, was
resisted at the outset, and has ever since
been assailed most savagely, by the Dem
ocratic party.
The effect of these great Republican
port of the Massachusetts, Labor Bureau,
recently published. In this elaborate
| report the wages of persons in ninety
industries in Massachusetts are compar-
ed for 1888, for 1860, and for intermediate
years. with the wages of persons in SIM
liar occupations in Great Britain. On
page 424 we find a single sentence which
the laborers of this country may well
remember:
The result of the comparative wages
investigation is that the general average
weekly wage of the employees, in the in
dustries considered, was 77.49 PER CENT
HIGHER IN MASSACHUSETTS THAN IN
GREAT BRITAIN.
In another sentence, on the same page
it is stated that "in Massachusetts, from
1860 to 1888, the advance was 2S36 per
cent" Here we have data which fairly
illustrate the practical benefits conferred
by the Republican policy. 1t has enabled
the workers of the ninety industries in
this country to secure wages TX per
cent. higher than workers in similar in
dustries get in Great Britain. And it
has enabled the workers of these ninety
industries in this country to secure wages
2S15 per cent. higher than they enjoyed
in 1860, at the close of a long period of
Democratic taxation for public pur.
poses exclusively" Do the workers see
in these facts any reason for supporting
the candidate of the British free traders
N. Y. Tribune.