The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-11-27
PAUPER LABOR HUMBUG.

The Streator Free Press, skillfully man
| ipulating with its scissors the elaborate
comments of the Inter-Ocean and such like
papers, eliminates the following utterance
AT the lroquois banquet in Chicago
Wednesday evening, Carlisle Beck and
other prominent democrats gave utterance
to the most ultra free trade ideas Among
other claims made by Mr.. Beck was tnat il
| protection was removed American manu-
facturers could extend their markets unto
all parts of the globe. This is unquestion
ably true, With the lowering of wages
one. half or more In this country the manu-
factories of the United States could com.
pete In all open markets with the pauper
labor of Europe. Give American manu-
facturers labor as cheap as that of Europe
and with their natural advantages and in
domltable enterprise they would be formid
able competitors.
Is 1t not strange that 1t has never oc.
Cured to the ultra prOtectionist advocates
that this constant harping on the "Pauper
Labor of Europe" is arrant humbug :
Where are these pauper laborers of Eu.
roper In England, in France, in Belgium,
Holland or Germanys In the way of or.
ganization for protection it is notorious
that the labor of England, France, Belgium
and great portion of Germany is largely
in advance of labor in the United States.
Indeed the best ideas of the labor organiza.
tions of this country have been borrowed
from those of England, France and Bel.
GUM. Either among the iron workers,
cotton spinners, wooden manufacturers
miners, glass blowers, DC, &c. the organi,
cation of the operatives of these countries
has attained a perfection which has us vet
been but distantly initiated here. The
wages in every case are not only definitely
fixed by the operatives, but that the scale
may not be violently interfered with by
operatives or employees, the governments of
the countries named have instituted sys.
TENS of arbitration by which disputes that
may arise are generally promptly and equit-
ably settled.
Nor are these wages, as thus fixed, so
much lower than they are supposed to be
in the United States. Indeed, taking cost
of living, permanence of employment, &c,
into account, 1t is doubtful if in most cases
they are any lower. AT all events, should
the iron workers Of Sheffield, the cotton
spinners of Manchester, the glass blowers
of Belgium, and SO on through the whole
range of employments, find that they are
earning but half, or two-thirds as much as
their brethren In the United States, how
long would they hesitate to quit their stu
ations abroad and come hither? With en-
igrant fares on fast steamers from Glas-
cow, Liverpool, Bremen and Queenstown
to New York, Boston and Philadelphia of
ten as low as eight dollars, and two more to
Chicago, Milwaukee or st. Paul, how long
will a skilled iron worker remain In Shelf
field at so week when he can get SIS
at Pittsburgh: The truth is that the intel
ligence which organization has dissemmi-
mated among the working classes through
out Europe and America, and the facility
of intercourse between the two hemis-
pheres, has so largely equalized the wages
of labor between both that this talk about