The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1886-12-16
WHOLE NO. 14l

allowance for those misleading forms
ofspeech which we seem obliged to
use, but which state industrial inter.
course in terms of military strife.
1t is mistake to conceive it so. In
warlike encounters one may gain
what another loses, but on the whole.
in industrial intercourse, every desir.
ed exchange is profitable to both par.
ties, and in this relation of things ex.
hibits the nature of property and is
cornerstone Of society.
The secretary declares that we paw
the highest wages in the world, but
the labor cost of our products is the
least in the world. Says he; High
wages to labor and cheaper product
are correlative terms. Low wages to
labor and costlier product are correl-
ative terms. The one implies the 9TH
er wherever labor competes with labor
upon otherwise equal grounds. What
pauper stands any chance competing
with the intelligent artisanY The
"pauper-labor-of-Europe" cry is a bug.
aboo, except that, in truth, our war
tariff taxes favor "pauper labor" at the
expense of American labor. Its pro-
ducts are not fenced out by our tariff
laws They come in because we our.
selves destroy our own easy power OF
successful competition, even in our
home market. By tariff taxes on raw
materials we fence in our own surplus
products, making them cost too much
to compete at home, and, Of course.
too much to compete abroad, with man.
utacturers from uutaxed raw material.
In Mexico, Central and South Amer.
lea we can, of course, make no better
headway against European competi.
ton than at home. Diplomacy is not
an acceptable substitute for trade and
its laws. Our highly-paid labor in
sures the lowest percentage oflabor cost
in the product, but our tariff taxes up.
on raw materials handicap American
manufacturers with the percentage of
cost OF material in the product. The
result is that capital and labor united
in our American industrial products,
despite our advantage in the most
highly-paid and efficient labor, are put
into hopeless competition with the
industrial products of other nations,
none OF which taxes raw materials.
The advantage We possess in the most
efficient and highly-paid labor in the
world is.nulliied by the self-imposed
disadvantage Of tariff taxed raw ma
terial, with which our labor is un-
wrought.
The secretary makes an argument
against the present protective tariff,
and says The taxes to be first remit.
ted are those which prevent or hinder
the sale of our surplus products in
foreign market. Their remoyyl will
set capital in motion by the promises
OF better returns, enlarge the steady
employment and increase the annual
income OF many thousand wage-earn-
ers, whose prosperity will diffuse prog
perity. These taxes are the duties on
raw materials, and the most widely
, injurious Of them is the tax upon raw
wool. But the income of all the wage
earners in the United States can be at
once enlarged effectively, certainly,
permanently, by reducing the cost to
, them of the great necessities OF life.
: Our war-tariff taxes increase needless
f. ly the cost of clothing, shelter, food, to
> every family. Every wsge-earner's
: expense, every taxpayers expense, for
the clothing OF himself and his family
/ is nearly doubled, at least in the north
ern, middle and western states, by
E taxation which can now be remitted,
E yet leave the treasury sufficient rev.
4 enue.
: He urges that the clothing Of co.
r 100000 people be untaxed, and rec
r ommends the passage Of an act plac-
J. ing wool simply and solely on the free
6 list. He closes by saying there are H.
}, 1S2 articles which should be placed on
v the free list.