The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-29
sTARvINe UNDER FREE TRADE.

The theories Of the opponents of tariff pro-
lection are manifestly worthless if they will
not bear the application of practical test.
Such test is furnished in the operations OF
free trade, or a tariff for revenue exclusively
in England. That country is constantly
pointed out as an example Of the riches, and
greatness, and power that may be attained
through the policy of tariff which is not
protective; and the workingmen Of this coun-
try are urged to sustain this policy on ac-
count of its example. LIE US see if they can
afford to do so.
The free trade of England is based largely
upon its cheap labor, and the facts show that
this cheap labor is based largely upon con
dition Of servility, starvation and suffering
One of the sad facts in the condition of the
English workingman is his meager allowance
of food
Thomas Williams, of Youngstown, Ohio
stated to the committee on ways and means
of the House of Congress, last winter, that he
was an iron puddler who had worked at that
business in England five years, earning about
$1.25 per day. His daily food, the best he
could afford, he said, was about as follows:
For breakfast, cup of tea and piece of but
tered bread; for dinner he would have meat
three or four times week, but never at any
other meal; for supper, tea and bread and
butter Once in while be would have
piece of pie or cake, but very rarely. In this
country, he said, he found the workingmen
eating meat at least twice day, and pie and
cake whenever they wanted that kind of food.
I'm the old country we never got any fruit.
If we bought shilling worth Of apples every
three or four months, and got an occasional
pie out of them, we thought it frst-class"
1t should be bornein mind in considering
this statement, that Mr.. Williams was receiy-
ing LIS day, which was very high wages
in England. In this country he gets So. Is to
$3.50 day. If he lived SO poorly upon his
$125 a day, what could the poor laborer live
upon who earned only eighteen cents dayY
Women, he tells us, worked at the iron mills
for nine pence day, and few common labor
ers Of either sex received more than fifty cents
day. When asked if these laborers did not
have fresh vegetables, Mr.. Williams replied:
ooh, my! We never thought Of anything of
that kind, gentlemen of the committee"
The laboring man who earns from ST. to
slips day in this country, if he has family,
would find his living considerably pinched at
such English prices as % cents pound for
beef roast, 20 cents per pound for corned beef,
20 to 38 cents per pound for butter, % to so
cents per pound for coffee, Is cents per pound
for lard, 16 cents per pound for fresh pork or
bacon, 68 cents to So a bushel for potatoes,
and Is cents per pound for sausage, with still
higher prices for fruits and fresh vegetables;
but when he reflects that the wages Of COM
mon labor, whore these prices prevail, must
average fifty cents a day, he can easily realize
that semi-starvation and suffering are the lot
of the great mass of English laborers.
Free trade grinds its profit out of cheap la
Dor, and the labor thus cheapened by the
competition Of poverty fixes the same low
standard for all labor.
Tariff protection ins this country counts
wages at from double to quadruple the wages
paid in free-trade England, and 50 fixes high
standard for all labor, while our abundance of
food production insures the laborer good liv-
ing at low prices.
Do the workingmen of the United States de-
sire "a change in this respectg
Are they hankering after the poor fare of
free trade2
Do they favor policy that grinds its profit
out Of their starved stomachs and their bloodf
Are they ready to be SO emasculated Of their
manhood BY poverty that they will cheerfully
become the serfs of lordly free-trade task
masters9
To the laborers Of this country these are the
burning questions of the day.
Free trade, under the thin disguise Of
tariff reform, " threatens the wage workers of
this land with its blight and curse Of low
wages, poverty and suffering.
Will they permit its advances, or viii they
cling to the tariff protection that has SO long
and 50 completely proved itself their friend
and benefactorf
THE brutal and cowardlv instincts Of tha