Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-06
LABOR AND THE TARIFF.
From the Standpoint of the workingman
Words OF q Hosiery Manu- acturer

WORDS OF d hosiery Manu- aCturer
Philadelphia Record.
I am in favor Of revision OF the tariff
Too much protection has stimulated the
hosiery industry so that home competi
ton Is worse than foreign, besides shut
ting US out from any foreign market
Give us free raw materials, and we will
hold our own against the world with such
goods as we make.
The foregoing are the words OF Mr.
Walter Aiken, hosiery manufacturer CT
Franklin Falls, n. Il. The second sen
tence opens up what is esteemed by many
IS the most serious OF all the Influences
Of oyerproteCtion. l know working
mSn who has an ingenious and conVinc-
ing method of explaining the
i'll effects aud the successive
steps by which they are evolved, and
who has made manY converts TO revenue
reform thereby. His explanation is
briefly ss follows: "Suppose," he says,
'tfor the sake Of example. the soil IN end
around Philadelphia should be of such 3
character that potatoes could not be
grown in 1t az less CO than
81 per bushel. Suppose that in Cam
den and in Montgomery, Delaware and
other adjoining counties the soil in this
particular regard should be Of so superior
Character that it would cost but 80
cenis to grow bushel Of potatoes in it.
The consequence would be that the Jer-
seY City and Pennsylvania counties named
would have monopoly OF the Pniis-
delphia potatoe market. The 'neckers'
and land owners in the other Phile-
delphia suburbs would not be pleased,
but would have to grin and bear
it, and give their soil to the growing Of
articles to which it would De better
adapted ,lunless-. And here we must SUD-
pose agsin. Suppose it should be consti-
tutionally possible for the councils CT
Philadelphia to levy special taxes on ar
ticles brought to its markets from sd-
Joining counties aud statee. Then the
'neckers' and their fellow landowners
could go to the councils snd
have them levy tsX or
duty O. 90 cents a bushel on ell po-
tatoes brought across the Delaware or
down any of the roads leading into the
city from the interior OF the state. be-
lleye il would be a bsd principle-the
trainers Of the constitution believed so,
and prohibited it--snd l believe 1t would
oe Dad policy, but 1t would give the Phil
adelphla potato men an even chance
for their own market; and since
the others, when without such
competition, would be likely to keep
pr ce5 up as high. as possible, no great
oarm would be done. Well, the 'neckers'
ct al. proceed to grow potatoes and do
well, and by and by it occurs to them
that the special tax scheme is good
thing, and as most people think there
can never be too much OF good
thing, they would go to the Coun-
ellis again and say: Put up
the tax to 40 cents and We'll
divvy, either by giving you some cold
cash or by sending you to the Legislature
or Congress-" They do it, and then tie
great wrong to the people begins; but it
is not the most grievous wrong by good
deal. For time the thing runs along
smoothly. The po.ato-growing business
prospers in Philadelphia as 1t never pros
pered before. A few make big money at it.
This fact becomes apparent 90 the many;
and the many, thinking it but right that
hey should have q share Of the bon.nZa,
go in. Then speedily comes time when
the Philadelphis potato product is in ex-
cess CT the Philadelphia potato demand,
and Philadelphia potatoes, of course,
cannot be marketed anywhere else.
WHAT follows? First, trust. Then g
reduction OF wages. Then more reduction
OF wages. Then collapse Of the trust
and a merry fight for supremacy, with
still further reductions OF wages, for the
WoIkingmen mass always furnish the
for such conflicts. Finally
ths weaker growers go The wall, ruined,
and worse yet, the men they have en-
ployed, and who have given years to
learning how to cultivate p0tstoes, and
whose knowledge Of that sub
i CT is their only and sole CAPT
fal, ere totally robbed of that capital,
and driven elsewhere and into
some other employment III they can fad
any, which does not always hsppeD) TO
earn g livelihood. This is the supreme
curse of oVerprotection,t 1.-THE test By which
it should be measured By every citizen,
and which should utterly damn, politi-
csllY speaking, any and every man who
has anything 10 do with bringing Ii
shnut - II.