Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-09-10
THE PRESIDENTS
ERROR.
Mr.. Blaine'S Magazine Article
on CleVeland'S Message.
A Sharp and Vigorous Expose Of the
Presidents PallaCieS.
Solid Facts and Figures that Cannot be
Refuted

| The September number of the American
Magazine is not yet out, but proof copy of
Mr.. Blaine's widely advertised article en-
! titled "The Presidents Error" has been
furnished the press. 1t is as follows:
'ln speaking of the effect produced by a
Protective tariff on the wages of labor,
President Cleveland makes some remarka-
Bile statements in his now historic message
of December last. Among the most curl
GUS assertions are those contained in the two
following paragraphs, which are quoted with
out abridgement:
| BY the last census it is made to appear
that of the Il 1872 ,099 of our population en-
gagged in all kinds of industries, 1910, ,493
are employ ed in agriculture, 4,074,23S in
| professional and personal service (2,93f,o16
of whom are domestic servants and laborers)
while l,SlU,2 256 are employed in trade and
transportation, and 3,S37,ll2 are classed as
employed in manuia turing and mining
For present purposes, however, the last num-
ber given should be considerably reduced.
Without attempting to epumerate all, it will
be conceded that there should be deducted
from those which it includes 375, ,l43 carpen-
tiers and joiners, 2s5 ,4Ol milllners, dress
makers and seamstresses, l72,726 black
smiths, 1873, 1856 tailors and tailoresses, 1922
| 473 masons, 76,242 butchers, 4 300 bakers,
| q, ,083 plasterers and 4 ,o9l sed in mau-
utacturing agricultural implements, amount
| ing in the aggreg gate to l,2l4 ,023, leaving
2 ,623 ,0S9 persons employed in such manu-
featuring industries as are claimed to be
benefited by high tariff
The argument of the President plainly,
though indirectly, expressed is that those
not employed in what may be termed pro-
tected industries have no interest in main
| tanning Protective tariff. very slight
ANALYSIS will serve to show that in this
deduction the President is in error
THE FIRST OF THE BLUNDERs.
Take for instance, the 375,l ,l43 carpenters
and joiners Where does the President sup
pose that this large host of intelligent me-
chanics-with perhaps, nearly 100000 of
persons dependent Oh their earnings-will
| find work If the destruction or serious i'm
palrment of the Protective system shall
arrest the building of great factories and
storehouses with the thousands of dwellings,
required for workmen and the enlarged aud
widening demand for all kinds of structures
| for the inhabitants of the village which al
! ways springs up around the factory?
| The inquiry in regard to the 375, l43 car
penters and joiners is equally pertinent and
equally strong when applied TO the 1O2, 413
masons and the 22OS3 plasters, who the
! President assumes have no interest in a Pro-
/ tective tariff. If the whole number of ma
! sons aud plasterers could be interrogated as
to the amount of work which they have done
/ in the last twenty years in connection with
buildings for manufacturing ventures and in
vestments directly and indirectly encouraged
and sustained by Protective duties, their an
swer would probably surprise the President.
1 Indeed, the President might well be as
founded by the proportion of total earnings
which these masons--with half million of
people dependent on them-have derived
from enterprises which would never have
come into existence but for the beneficen,
influence of a Protective tariff.
QUESTION OF CLOTHES.
According to the Presidents theory the
2s5 ,4Ol milliners, dressmakers and seam
stresses and the 1873, $50 tailors and tailoress-
es are not to be affected by reductions in
the tariff That statement is really equiva-
lent to saving that the earnings of tailors
and dressmakers are not at all dependent
upon the ability of the communities wherein
they reside to pay for good clothes, and the
further deduction is involved from the Pres.
idents statement that even if the thrift and
wealth of these communities are dependent
upon Protection the removal of the cause OF
the thrift and wealth will not affect the for
tunes of the dressmakers and the tailors.S
Before the President concluded that The
I72, ,726 blacksmiths were not to be affected
in their work and wages by the impairmen
of the Protective system, it might have beer
well to inquire how largely they were con
nected in their daily employment with th'
growth and spread of that system. Th'
blacksmith is not employed merely in shoe
ing horses but he is the most widely AM
variously engaged of all mechanics, and i
as largely paid any other skilled worker
The arrest of manufacturing enterprises il
the country by unwise reductions of tn
tariff would undoubtedly reduce the aggre
gate earnings of the l72 ,126 blacksmiths b.
; several millions of dollars annually and to
, great extent affect the comfort of the 500, 90
, persons dependent upon them for support.
Are the 76,24l butchers whom the Presi
{ dent adduces as not at all dependent upo
! the Protective tariff just as certain to nm
! good market for porterhouse steaks an
: sirloin roasts if any injurious reductions i
{ tariff duties. shall cripple the resources an
reduce the wages of many thousands of me
) engaged in the protected indusirlesf
e ranchmen largely interested in the growth Q
, cattle on the Western plains said to me Ia;
week that a serious and prolonged strike {
the laboring men IN but one Large city atfec
, ! ed the selling price of cattle in Chicago, b.
/ cause the inability TO buy and consume bee
2 was one of the first effects of the strike