Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1886-09-02

larger in aggregate value than all the manu-
factures in all the States Of the Union on
the day Mr.. Lincoln was first inauguraied.
And yet another comparison may be made
still more embarrassing TO the Free Trade
doctr'ndires and more difficult for them 10
answer. While the American workmen IN
nine states. working under protective tar
if, have over a thousand millions Of dollars
IN savings banks. the vastly greater mass Of
working men in England. Ireland. Scotland
and Wales, the whole United kingdom, all
working under free trade have less than four
hundred millions Of dollars in the aggre-
gate both in savings banks and postal
banks. These figures and these dollars are
the most persuasive Of arguments and the
conclusion they teach IS so plain that the
running man may read.
THE LABOR QUESTION.
The leading feature in the industrial field
of 1855 and 1856 i. the discomfort among
the men who earn their bread by skilled and
by unskilled labor. Uneasiness and uucer-
tainty are found on all sides there are wise
aims among many and with not few there
IL almles.ness with its inevitable result Of
DISAPPOINTMENT AID encouragement The
man who could by any prescription remove
this discomfort and at once restore harmony
and happiness would be philosopher. patriot
and statesman. The man who processes to
be able to do 1t will generally prove TO be a
compound Of emplnoism and ignorance. But
in the end, perhaps by toiisome paths, With
MANY blunders and some wrongs, no one
need doubt that sound and just and righteous
conclusions Will be reached. Perfect freedom
10 test the virtues and secure the advantage
Of organization. TO exert strong power
through combination, are certainly among
the common rights Of all men under Re
publican Government. Labor associations
have the same sanction and the same rights
that any form OF Incorporation may assume
subject as all must be, TO the condition
,hs, the persons and propert, Of other. shall
be respected. It is we'll for every citizen Of
a free Government TO keep before his eyes
and in his thoughts the honoreG maxim that
1.-The liberty Of one man must always end
where the rights OF another man begin"
have no new nostrums 10 offer for the
cure Of labor troubles. have no qua.k
remedies 10 propose. am free believer IN
the efficacy of the Protective Isrih, and
can look back with serene satisfaction 10 my
record in Congress ns never blotted by sin.
gle vote that was not friendly to the interests
Of American Labor. | never promised any,
thing whe1 | was a candidate for public
office, and now as a private citizen have no
temptation TO tiatter any man or state any.
thing else than the simple truth as see the
truth. II is in this spirit that offer some
suggestions which seem 10 me worthy Of at
'pniion under the existing situation of the
Labor question.
In what may be termed the political creed
Of the various Labor organizations have
observed some singular omissions Of peril
nent and, as | think, controlling facts
facts which in a spirit Of friendship and can
dor beg to point out. read, few days
since, in a creed pu, forth by an association Of
Knights of Labor, in another State. 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 a protective tariff That
might have been accidental; or it might have
implied perfect sense of sa ETY. in regard
TO the continuance of the tariff or il might
have meant that those aho proclaimed the
creed are indifferent to the fate Of protection
In any event it would be well for the La
Dor organizations 10 diligently inquire and
ascertain how the wages of labor in the
United States can be kept above the rate Of
wages in England. Germany and France on
the same articles OF manufacture without the
Intervention Of protective duties ? With the
present cheap modes of interchange and
transportation of all commodities, INQUIRE
Of these gentlemen how. under the rule Of
free trade, can wages in the United States
be kept above the general standard of
European wages? do not stop for the de-
tail of argument, only desire to lodge the
question in the minds of the millions of
American laborers who have it in their pow
er TO maintain protection or TO inaugurate
free trade; who have it in their power to
uphold the party Of protection or the party
Of free trade.
Another portentous fact has been omitted
so far as | have observed-from the con-
sideratlon and Judgment of the Labor or
ganizatlons. 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 expand
ing intellect, increasing intelligence and
growing ambition. While these men were
slaves, working in the corn and cotton fields,
in the rice swamps and on the sugar planta-
tions of the South, the skilled labor of the
Northern States felt no competition from
them. But since they became freemen
there has been great change in the variety
and skill Of the labor performed by colored
men in the South. The great mass are, of
course, still engaged in agricultural work,
but thousands and tens of thousands, and in
fact hundreds of thousands, have entered and
are entering the mechanical and semi-me-
oh Gnt1 Thax- 4
bar iron in Tennessee and Alabama. They
are manufacturing Gotten in Georgia and the
Carolinas. They are brick-layers and
plasteIers everywhere; they are carpenters
and painters; they are blacksmiths they
make wagons and carts they make cigars /;
they tan leather and make harness they are
firemen and pilots on river boats they calk
vessels in southern ports they lay railroad
track they are swtchmen and section men
on the line and fremen on locomotives. In
fact, they are generally entering all the
avenues and channels of skilled labor. OF
course they are underpaid. They receive
far less than has been paid in years past to
Northern mechanics for similar work They
are able to take no part in making laws for
their own protection and they are conse-
quently and inevitably unable to maintain a
fair standard of wages or to receive fair
proportion of their proper earnings.
do not dwell on this subject at length,
though it could easily be presented in sg-
gravating detail. mention it only to place
it before the Labor organizations of the
North, with this question addressed to them
DO you suppose that you can permanently
maintain in the Northern States one scale Of
prices when Just beyond an imaginary line