The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-10-16

The Protection of Labor.

| Gus COHSlueTuUlOn OH tne purU vi
those who insist that protection
makes high wages: that without
the tariff "grass would grow in our
streets and our workingmen be sent
to the poorhouse," and that the
slightest reduction on any tax save
that on whisky would bring upon
the country the most horrid calam-
tiles.
The miners have employment
about half the time, and everything
that ingenuity can devise is done
to make coal dear and labor cheap.
AS Il writer puts it: "The market is
starved to sustain prices" and the
employees are kept on half time $50
that the demand" for work shall
push down the rates of wages,
etc. In this connection the In
dianapolis Freeman says: And
this is the ring for whose ben
eft we tax coal, thus playingyright
into their hands. We wish some
one would tell us how this tax on
coal benefits anybody except the
monopolists who starve both the
market and their hands in order to
swell their own profits. If there is
any debt which we owe these gen.
tlemen we are decidedly in favor of
making an appropriation directly
out of the Treasury to pay it, rath-
er than to keep on levying toll for
their benefit upon every man who
is compelled to buy coal.
"Cheap labor and dear coal"-
that's the way protection works
every time. That's the way it is
meant to work. All the talk that
we hear about the necessity of
maintaining the "dignity, etc, of the
American labor" is the sheerest hy-
pocrisy. Three or four hundred dol
lars year won't go very far when
it comes to maintaining dignity
it's a close shave to maintain life
But that is not what is meant. It's
the monopoly of the American
manufacturer and mine-owner that
is to be maintained, and here
protection is successful.
We had thought that the protec.
tion of American labor by tariff
levies on certain manufactures and
products, was but a passing dream
of some of the Republican STUMP
orators, and was only intended t.
gull the laboring man into giving
their support to the Republican
candidates. But when John Sher
man makes the protection of Amer
lean labor and protective tarif
synonymous terms in his Ports
mouth speech that fact impresses
us with the conviction that they
believe it.
While we are not ready to say
that free trade is the best thing fol
the country yet we do maintain
that of all classes the laborers ar,
the least benefited by tariff protec
ton. Let us give two or three
plain illustrations.
A is engaged in manufacturing
! and his manufactures are protected
; by a duty of 20 per cent.
This so regulates competition
that the article he formerly SOLE
, for S3 cents now commands 81, ant
to that extent A. is benefited.
, b. is a laborer, and must depend
on the sale of his labor for his sup
port. If he labors for A. his wage
are not regulated by the sellin.
! price Of AS goods but by the sell
ing price of labor in the communi
ty in which they live and operate
If laborers are scarce the pric,
will be higher than if laborers arr
numerous. A. as u manufacture
recognizes this and when labor be
comes scarce and dear, he import
labor free Of all tariF duties to per
form the work he has to do.
. B. is forced to work at the pric
of the cheap hand and at the SAM
time pay the increased price for al
the articles he uses, by reason o
the protection.
For twenty-five years we hav'
been carrying out the theory o
protection. During part of thi
period the wages Of labor was YER,
high, but this arose from cause
entirely foreign to the theory o
protection.
The war removed great numbe
of laborers from the productive in