Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-23


tive tariff. He has to sell it at the price
made by the foreign market. But on the
other hand everything he buys is taxed
by the high protective tariff and there
can be no pretense whatever, that the
tariff is anything but an unmitigated
injustice to him. Our Republican friends
should take this under serious considera-
ton. They say they freed the negro
from slavery, but perhaps two million
Democratic soldiers in the army would
have something to say about it. The
Republican party, after claiming to have
freed the negroes, would make them
slaves again by compelling them to pay
high taxes on everything they use, which
goes to benefit someone else. Isn't it
enough that they make him a slave by
him tovote for them and swear
NOT TO VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATS.
While 1 am on the subject of labor let
pared with the laborer in other coun-
tries. In America laboring men generally
receive more wages in money than they
do in foreign lands, but not by any means
to the extent you may suppose.
The speaker then quoted statistics,
showing that the average wages per day
in Great Britain is 971a cents in New
England, $1.O2; in Ohio, $1.OS, Colorado,
$1.45, and in the whole United States,
$1.12, and that the wages varied accord
ing to the density of the population and
competition among the wage-earners.
Continuing, he said:
You hear great deal about the pau
per laborer of England, because our
chief imports are from Great Britain, and
vet In the prosperous manufacturing
State of Massachusetts wages are only
about four cents more than in England;
but if you take the purchasing power Of
the money, the wages are as high in
England as in Massachusetts. 1 am
willing to admit that as general rule,
wages are higher here than in other
countries, but labor is more effective
here on account OF superior skill and can
be better paid for. l am not going to
say whether
LABOR UNIONS
And the Knights of Labor are benefit
or not, butt do say they have done more
to secure reasonable wages to laboring
men than all the tariff laws that have
ever been passed in the world. That
high protective tariff does not increase
the wages of the laboring men is shown
in the fact that the laborers in unpro-
tected industries are as we'll paid as those
in the protected industries. 1t has been
estimated that the laborers in the pro-
tected industries number about one mil
lion. There are eight times as many
other laborers whose industries and oc-
cupations are in nowise protected, and
therefore if protection is benefit to the
laboring men the wages of this
million men engaged in the
protected industries ought to be
higher than the wages OF the men en-
ployed in the unprotected industries, but
such is not the fact. In round numbers
the laborers in the unprotected industries
receive as high wages as those in the
protected industries. If you take the
comforts and cost of living into account,
the agricultural hand in the State OF
Ohio receives quite as good wages for his
labor as in the protected industries OF the
country. Nothing is more common than
to hear protectionist orators say the
tariff is a benefit to
THE FARMER.
How it can benefit the farmer I can't
nor have ever been able to see We had
a low tariff from 1916 up to the
breaking out of the war. I was in the
House of Representatives at the time
and voted for it. From 1850 to 1850
while that tariff was in force farm lands
in the United States, according to the
census report, increased in value 1O3 per
cent. Then came the high tariff of 1862,
and from 1860 to 1870 the increase in
value of farming land in the United
States was only 40 per cent. Under the
low tariff there was an increase OF value
OF 103 per cent. in ten years. Under
this high tariff it was only 40
per cent, but it may be said that
it includes the period of the war and
does not make fair comparison. L
grant the force of that to some extent,
but the war ended in 1865, and we can
compare the next ten years, from 1870 to
1880, and by these same census reports,
it appears that in these ten years OF pro-
found peace, from 1870 to 1880, the value
OF the farming lands of the whole United
States increased but nine per CENT.
Under the highest protective tariff that
ever was inflicted upon this country
they have increased but nine per cent,
while under the low tariff of 1S46, in the
ten years from 1850 to 1860, period Of
profound peace, they increased in value
l03 per cent. Before conclude, I want
to ask your attention to the
CHINESE QUESTION.
What think upon this subject cannot
be better expressed than by reading
what said to my constituents in Gin
cinnati in 1870, five years before the
Legislature of California memorialized
Congress on this subject of Chinese i'm
migration.
An extract from Judge Thurman's
speech delivered September 10, 1870,
was then read as follows:
l do not think that large Chinese
immigration is desired. On the contrary
think it would be seriously disturbing
element in race, civilization, habits,
education and religion. The Chinese
are widely different from our people. So
different as to form a striking contrast,
European immigrants are of the same
race, religion and civilization as ours and
therefore benefit the country and deserve
encouragement. Not so with the .
Chinese. They never become one
people with us. Were they to dwell
here for centuries, they would probably
be as distinct from the white race as are
the !gypsies in Spain from the pure
blooded Spanish. We are destined to
have great commerce with Asia, and
the natural result will be the voluntary
immigration from that continent of a
limited number of business men. I see