Wichita eagle., 1886-08-26

/ have no new nOstrumS to offer for the
cure of labor troubles / have no quack
remedies to propose am firm believer
in the efficacy of protective tariff, and
can look back with serence satisfaction to
my record in congress as never blotted by
single vote that was not friendly to the in
terests of American labor. | never promis
ed anything when was candidate for
public office, and now as a private citizen |
have no temptation to flatter any man or
state anything else than simple truth as see
the truth. 1t is in this spirit that | offer
some suggestions which seem to me worthy
of attention under the existing situa. ion Of
the labor question.
In what may be termed the political
creed of the various labor organizations l
have observed some singular omissions of
pertinent, and, as think, controlling facts
facts. which in a spirit of friendship and
candor l beg to point out. read, Il few
days since, in a creed put forth by an asso
citation of Knights of Labor, in another
state, a recital of eighteen distinct ends
which they desired to have secured or
maintained by national legislation. Among
these there was not the slightest mention of
protective tariff That might have been
accidental; or it might have implied per
feet sense of safety in regard to the contin-
uance Of the tariff; or it might have meant
that those who proclaimed the creed are
indifferent to the fate of protection.
In any event it would be well for the la
Dor organizations to diligently inquire and
ascertain how the wages of labor in the
United States can be kept above the rates
of wages in England Germany and France
on the same articles of manufacture with
out the Intervention Of protective duties?
With the present cheap modes Of inter
change and transportation Of all
commodities, | inquire of these gen
tlemen how, under the rule of free
trade, can wages in the United States be
kept above the general standard of Euro
pean wages? ! do not stop for the detail
of argument; only desire to lodge the
question in the minds of the millions of
American laborers who have it in their
power to maintain peotection or to inaugu-
rate free trade; who have it in their power
to uphold the party of protection or the
party Of free trade
Another portentious fact has been omit
ted, so far as | have observed from the
consideration and judgment of the labor
organizations. They seem to have taken
little or no heed of the existence Of more
than a million and half of able bodied
laborers in the south with dark skins, but
with expanding intellect, increasing intelli
gence and growing ambition. While these
men were slaves, working in the corn and
cotton fields, in the rice swamps and on the
sugar plantations Of the south, the skilled
labor of the northern states felt no competi-
ton from them But since they became
freemen there has been great change in
the variety and skill of the labor performed
by the colored men in the south. The great
mass are, of course, still engaged in ag
ricultural work, but thousands and tens
of thousands, and in fact hundreds Of thou
sand, have entered and are entering the
mechanical and semi mechanical field. They
are making pig and bar iron in Tennessee
and Alabama. They are manufacturing
cotton in Georgia and the Carolinas They
are bricklayers and plasterers everywhere:
they are carpenters and painters; they are
they make wagons and carts; |
they make cigars; they tan leather and
make harness; they are tircmen and pilots |
on river boats; they cauk vessels in south |
ern ports; they lay railroad track; they are
switchmen and section men on the line, |
and iiremen on locomotives. In fact they |
are generally entering all the avenues and |
of skilled labor. OF course they |
are underpaid They receive far less than
has been paid in years past TO northern me-
chanics for similar work They are able |
10 take no part in making laws for their .
own protection and they are consequently !
and inevitably unable to maintain a fair
standard of wages or to receive a fair pro
portion of their proper earnings
al do not dwell on this subject at length, |
though it could easily be presented in
aggravating detail. | mention it only to
place before the labor organizations Of the |
north, with this question addressed to them
DO you suppose that you can permanent
" maintain in the northern states one scale
IF prices when just beyond an imaginary
inc on the south of us far different scale |
IF prices is paid for labor? The colored
of the south is not SO skillful a
nor so intelligent as you are, but
f he will lay brick in Z new cotton factory
n South Carolina at half the price you are
paid; If he will paint and plaster it at the
ame low rate, he is inevitably erecting an
industry which. if the same rate of wages
DC maintained throughout, will drive you
,ut of business or lead you to the gates of
lis own poverty.
The situation is therefore plainly discern
bic and demonstrable, viz: First-If the
Democratic party shall succeed, as they
AYE been annually attempting for twelve
ears past, in destroying the protective
arif, the artisans of the United
states will be thrown into direct competi-
ion with the highly skilled and miseraby
,aid labor of Europe Second-If the
Democratic party shall be able to hold CON
rol of the national government. the colored
aborer in the southern states will remain
where the southern Democrats have
placed him politically, subject to the will
# the white man, and unable to fix the
rice or command the value of his labor
The colored man will, therefore, under
hose conditions and influences, remain
onstant quantity in the labor market, re-
ewing inadequate compensation for his
wn toll, and steadily crowding down the
Of white labor, if not to his
wn level, yet far below its just and ade
Iuate standard.
AT every turn, therefore, whether it be {
4 exposing the white American laborer to
he danger of European competition by de-
troying the protective tariff, or whether it
e in reducing the wages of the W hite man
y unfairly making the colored laborer his
atal competitor in all the fields of toll, the
Democratic party north and south it APP
ears rs the enemy OF every interest of the
american workman With that party
laced in full mower and with all lis meas | |