Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-05-03
Cheapest in the World.
GATH" AND BOOKWALTER.

Our Distinguished Tow nsman the Labor
Trouble~-The PitIable Disadvantage of
the Wage Worker Under the Fiscal sy-
tenn.
Our distinguished frllOw-tOwnsman. Hon.
John w. BO0kwalter. was interviewed by
George Alfred Townsend at New York yes
terday on the now pertinent questions of
labor and strikes. Gath" teIegraph> a
three-cUlumn interview 10 the Enquirer to-
day. Briefly presented. Mr. BOokwalter
thought that the present labor troubles are
due entirely To a demuraliZed and demOral-
iLing fiscal system. which creates 80 many
antagOniStic industries instead of preServ-
ing and balancing them i'll a beneficial way.
! Tariff, the worlds problem, contains a
remedy, if it could only be found. Labor
is unconsclouSly striving to equalize the dis
propOrtiOnate profits made by industries
under the protection laws.
Mr.. BookwaIter thinks that the laws of
our land have for the past twenty-five
years had the effect to increase on the one
hand far beyond the worlds value, most
OF them lift! per cent. and many double,
the products of that which the few produce
and the many buy. while the price of that
which the many sell is not So Influenced,
but is governed and determined by in
tluences and values in the world at large.
That is to say, in the United States there
are. perhaps not to exceed one million of
persons the price of whose products is
I'LL l,-
the operation of our protective tariff
system, while there are fifty-fOur mill
ions of people whose products receive no
such artificial enhancementS in value but
are wholly fixed by unreStrained competi-
ton and influence in the world at large. OF
these tifty-four millions Of people a very
large bulk of them are what Is called wage
workers, who have only to offer in the COM
mercial market their labor for sale. The
prices at which they are enabled tc sell
their labor in the United States market is
not fixed by the laws of 0ur country as is
the price at which the manufacturer sells
his products, but it is tiNed by the competi
ton in the worlds market.
Mr.. BOOkwalter used as a familiar illus
tratiun hypothetical case. If a railroad
proprietor wishes to purchase 10, 900 tons Of
rails for the use of his road and goes to
Europe Ia buy them. he is met at the port
of entry in the United States by proper Off
cialS armed with laws of our land which
forbid the introduction of rails that would
tend 10 lower the price below that point at
which the home manufacturer can produce
at living profit But should wage-wOrkerS
ask tor an advance in the price Of labor by |
which they might also have reasonable |
share of the profit, the proprietor is at per |
feet liberty 10 import HungarianS, Poles, !
Italians and labOrers from other nations,
and he is not met at the ports of entry. as
in the former instance, by an official to in
form him that he must not import his cheap
labor. because there are thousands of men
working in the Steel-mills of this country
who would thereby be prevented by this
cheaper labor from securing what was to
them fairly profitable wages"
Mr.. BoOkwalter thinks that the "diSadyan
tage at which the mass of the people of the
states. especially the agriculturiSt and wage
are thus placed, is manifest, and
ii is in direct violation of every principle of
commercial equity. For, in the very nature
Of things, a just, reasonable and natural
condition would require that the price of
what the great masses buy should be fixed
in the same market and under the same in
tluences that fixed the price OF what they
sell; being fixed in the natural, or worlds,
market may not equal their expenses"