Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-10-03
HOW TAXES DO ACT ON WAGES.
Professor ". G. Sumner, in The Million.

Professor w. u. Sumner, IN The Million
If taxes are to raise wages they must be
laid not on goods but on men. Let the
goods be abundant and the men scarce.
Then the average wages will be high, for
the supply of labor will be small and the
demand great. If we tax goods and not
men the supply of labor will be great, the
demand will be limited and the wages will
be low. Here we see why employers of
labor want tariff For it is an obvious in
consistency and most grotesque satire that
the same men should tell the workmen at
home that the tariff makes wages high, and
should 90 to Washington and tell Congress
that they want tariff because the wages
are too high. We have found that the high
wages of American aborers have indepen-
dent causes and guarantees outside of legis.
lation. They are provided and maintained
by the economic circumstances of the coun-
try. This is against the interest of those
who want to hire the laborers. No device
can serve their interest unless it lowers
wages. From this standpoint of an en-
ployer the fortunate circumstances Of the
laborer become an obstacle to be overcome.
The laborer is too we'll off. Nothing can
do any good which does not make him less
well off. The competition which troubles
the employer is not the 'pauper labor" of
Europe.
'Pauper labor" had q meaning III the first
half of this century in England, when the
overseers of the poor turned over the
younger portion Of the occupants of the
poor houses to the owners of the new cotton
factories, under contracts TO teach them the
trade and pay them pittance. Of course
the arrangement had shocking evils con-
nected with it, but it was transition ar
rangement. The ''pauper laborers' " child
ren, after q generation, became independent
laborers the system expired of itself, and
s'pauper aborn is now senseless jingle.
The competition which the employers fear
is the competition Of those Industries in
America which can pay the highest wages,
and which keep the wages high because
they do pay them These draw the labor
away. These offer him another chance. If
he had no other way of earning more than
he is earning, it would be idle for him to
demand more. The reason why he demands
more and gets it is because he knows where
he can get'it, if he cannot get it where he
s Ifthen he is to be brought down, the
only way to do it is to destroy or lessen the
value of his other chance. This is just what
the tariff does.
The doctrine that manufactures give
value to land was issued from the Agricul-
tural Bureau. 1t has been thought grand
development Of the protectiouist argument.
1t is n simple logical fallacy, based on some
misconstrued statistics The value of land
depends upon the supply and demand. The
demand for land is population. Hence
where the population is dense the value Of
land is great. Manufactures can be carried
on only where there is supply Of labor,
that is, where the population is dense.
Hence nigh value OF land and manufacLur-
ing industry are common results Of dense
population. The statistician of the Agri
cultural Bureau connected them with each
other as cause and effect, and the New York
Tribune said it was the grandest contribu
tion TO political economy since "the fingers
of Horace Greeley stiffened in death, (Which
was true If manufactures spring up spon-
taneously out of original strength and by
independent development Of course they
"add value to land;" that is to say, the
district has new industrial power, and every
interest in il is benefited; but, if the manu-
factures have to be protected, paid for and
supported, they do not do any good as man
ufsctures, but only as device for drawing
capital from elsewhere as a tribute. 10 this
way protective taxes do alter the compare
tive value of land in different districts. This
effect can be seen under some astonishing
phases in Connecticut aud other manufac.
turing States. The farmers are taxed TO
hire some people to 60 and live in manufac.
turing villages and carry on manufacturing
there. This displacement of population,
brought about at the expense of the rural
population, diminishes the value of agricul-
tural land and raises that of city land right
here within the same State. The hillside
population is being impoverished and the
hillside farms are being abandoned on ac-
count of the tribute levied on them to swell
the value of mill sites aud adjoining land in
the manufacturing towns.
s. ..D ---er--e'--
THE SEVERN Tunnel, in England, four miles