The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-10-23
The Tariff and Pauperism.
written for the democratic Advocated

Written for the Democratic Advocated
One of the standing appeals addressed, by
certain political demagogues, to the working
classes, is that they must support the party IN
favor of protective tariff in order to save them
selves for competition with the ''pauper labor
of foreign lands In the old world, it is said (,
the laboring classes are kept in abject poverty.
They are paid starvation wages; and hence
foreign manufacturers can transport their
goods beyond the seas, and sell them cheaper
in American markets that American manu-
facturers can afford to sell. Let us examine
this idea.
There is no doubt that labor in some foreign
lands is cheaper than it is in America. But,
then, the price of living is lower too. The
same amount of money will secure more COM
forts in England, France, and Germany than
in the United States. The price of living
there is not arti6cially enhanced by the I'M
position of protective duties, which serve
to enrich the few at the expense of the many,
as is the case here. Though from this it does
not follow that the condition of the laborer
there is better than here. 1t is worse-a
great deal worse. The cause of this, however,
is not to be sought in the fact of free trade,
but in other circumstances-in the terrible
cost to the people of the absolute governments
which they support, in the vast standing
armies, in the idle aristocracies which, like
parasites, fasten upon the social organism and
suck out its life, and in other similar condi-
tons. The foreign ''pauper laborer'' simply
pays the cost of the luxury of a 'strong gov
ernment," such as some in this country pro-
fess to be longing Tor; and that is what keeps
his nose on the grindstone.
But now what is the effect of protective
tariff upon the American laborer in relation
to the ''pauper labor of other countries
We have already seen that the tariff increases
the price of living in far greater proportion
than the increase which it effects in the price
of labor. We have also seen that the effect OF
the unnatural competition, the overproduc-
ton, the frequent suspensions, the disengage-
ments and fluctuations of trade produced by
the tariff, falls with special weight upon the
laborer. Under the pressure of competition
The employer, in order to save his profits, cuts
/ down the wages of employees to the lowest
cent at which they can subsist; and then,
when suspension comes they are beggars,
no better than those ''foreign paupers" about
whom the political orators in campaign times
have so much to say.
But suppose the laborer resists this reduc-
ton of wages and refuses to work. Suppose
the employees of mill or factory strike for
higher wages, before they are quite reduced
to the level of European or Asiatic paupers.
What in such case is the course of the en-
ployer? Why, he imports foreign ta6orers.
He sends his agents to Canada, to Germany,
Italy, Hungary or China, and imports those
foreign paupers, of whose cheap labor the
politicians have so much to say, to take the
place of the respectable and civilized Ameri-
can workmen who can no longer live on the
wages which are offered them. Thus in the
last few years 100000 Canadian Frenchmen
have been introduced into the manufacturing
towns of the single state of Massachusetts
alone, and these, of course, have displaced a
like number of American operatives. These
''foreign paupers," in consequence OF their
lower stage of civilization and simple habits
of life, can live and WORK cheaper than the
American laborer; and, as there is no tariff
on the importation of them, the American
capitalist has an advantage here over the la
borer, which he never fails to turn TO good
account.
We see thus that the American labor is COM
PEELED to meet the competition of the pau
per labor of other lands on his own soil.
No protective tariff can save him from this
necessity; and, indeed, the higher the tariff,
and the more rigid the exclusion of foreign
goods, the more fierce does this competition
become This is fact which the tariff orators
understand very well. When Mr.. Blaine and
others of that kind, pirate to the laborers about
the 'pauper laborer" of other countries, they
know very well that they are merely throwing
dust into the eyes of their hearers.
So far as the laborer is concerned it would
be better to admit, free of duty, the products
of the labor of foreign paupers, than to admit
these paupers themselves. And it would be
better for the country and the community at
large. 1t is these foreign paupers, brought
into this country largely through the agency
of American capitalists, that threaten danger
to our institutions. 1t is from the ranks OF
these paupers, who are here in consequence
of the greed Of American capitalists, that the
anarchists come, of whom these same capt.
talists are now in such mortal dread.
Let the laborer, then, understand that a
protective tariff does not save him from COM
petition with the laborers of other lands, but
that it rather tends to bring these foreign
-laborers to his own door, and to compel him
to compete with them there. In fact it bene-
fits the aborer as little as the consumer, but
is in the interest only of the rich manufacturer.
If the half.starved operative in a Massachu-
sets cotton mill were to go to Canada to buy
a coat, the government would prosecute him
as smuggler; but if the rich capitalists goes
there to import thousand half civilized work
men to take the place of intelligent American
laborers, the government has not word to
say. That is the way protection works.