Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-01-17
DOes.as Protective Tariff increase
Wages
by william q. Brownlec.)

Wages are paid out of the pro-
ducts of labor. The employer could
not long continue to pay wages to
the laborer unless the laborer pro-
duced enough to pay himself and
something over for the employer
who advances the wages. Wages in
all countries depend, first, on the
productiveness of labor; second, up
on the amount of capital which is
available for the employment of labor
and, thirdly, upon the number of
laborers competing for employment.
If protection raises wages it must
do it by making labor more produc-
tive, increasing the capital of the
nation, or reducing the number of
workingmen competing for employ
ment.
Protection does not, and can not,
make labor more productive; but on
the contrary, makes it less productive
by diverting labor and capital from
profitable into Improbable trades.
Under free trade none but profitable
industries could permanently exist.
Capital would increase faster under
free trade, and the increase of CAPT
tai would make and increase demand
for labor, and consequently raise
wages. The labor and capital en-.
ployed in the protected-that is, the
Observation-Disclosures, must be
taken from the trades that are profit
able, and, of course, the aggregate
production of a nation is less than
before, and corresponding reduc-
ton of wages must inevitably follow.
A protective tariff can not create
capital; it can only change it from
ono trade to another, and only
changes it from profitable into un-
profitable trades; consequently, pro-
lection must lower wages by reduc-
ing the amount Of capital available
for the employment of labor. Pro-
lection does not reduce the number
of laborers competing for labor; and
as supply and demand regulate all
prices, the tariff can not raise wages,
AS it neither increases the demand
for labor nor reduce the supply Of
laborers. If protection creates
new demand for labor In the protect
ed trades, it reduces the demand in
the unprotected trades, by making
them less profitable. As protection
can not make labor more productive,
can not increase the capital of the
nation, and does not reduce the num-
Der of laborers competing in the Ia
Dor market, it cannot increase wages.
The first protee,iyo tariff asked
Tor in this couHtry was asked for be-
cause wages were already high and
the tariff was asked for to counteract
high wagos-that is, to. reduce them
by reducing their purchasing power.
The protectiopists of our own day
say that protective tariff is ne,es-
sary becau,e wages are higher in
this country than in Europe. Thus
the protectionists themselves admit
that protection neutralizcs the effect
of high wages, AMI il can only do
that by making wages lower, either
by reducing the amount paid the la
borer or reducing its purchasing
power, which exactly the same 10 the
laborer.
Wages are higher in this country
than in Europe; but wages arc not
higher because of the protective
tariff, but because labor is more pro-
ductive here than in Europe. The
competition.in the labor market is
not as great, owing to our sparse
population and the abundance Of
cheap land. The evil effects of pro-
lection in this country are counter