Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-10-18

lance Dy benjamin HARRISON, our CdIluI
, date for President, in which he neitheI
withhOlds nor exaggerates, nor sets dowI
aught in malice, but vindicates with pc
culisr power and peculiar directness the
position which the Republican party
has uniformly held on the whole sub
ject, and l commend you as l close to {
new reading of the documents, to Mr.
Cleveland's free trade message and tC
Gen. HarrisOn's letter of acceptance.
HOW WAGES ARE RAISED.
New York Tribune.
An old sophism, which has been log
ically smashed a hundred times, is al
most the only weapon left the Democrats
in the argument about wages this year
In some protected countries, they say,
wages are lower than in free-trade
country; in some protected States twice
as high as in other protected States;
therefore, the tariff does not raise wages
at all. Even shallow mind ought to
perceive that the assumed facts in no
way support this conclusion.
| Down the deep gorge of the New
and Kanawha rivers there rusheS a vol
ume of water which is at times swelled
by floods to a great height. In ordinary
stages of water the narrow channel is
half filed, but even then the level of the
stream is higher by hundreds Of feet
away near the breezy mountains than in
! the lowlands near the Ohio. When a
flood comes, and the volume of water is
| increased two or three fold, the stream
rises at many points twenty or thirty
feet in day or two, but is everywhere
higher than before. Only an idiot would
claim that the flood makes no difference
with the height of the stream, because it
! is still several hundred feet higher near
the mountain than in the lowlands. On
ly an idiot would argue that the flood
does not swell the stream at all, because
the rise is greater IN narrow places than
where the channel is broader.
This stream represents the course of
wages, higher by hundreds of feet away
near the mountain where settlers are
few and labor scarce than among the
crowded populations along the sea coast.
| Protection is flood, swelling two or
three times the amount of wages to be
disbursed. The result is higher level
of wages than before at all points, and
+ yet the level In the mountains remains
higher than the level nearer the coast.
1t raises the level everywhere, and yet
it lifts wages far more in places or occu-
pations where the supply Of labor Is
small than where it is large. Then comes
Democratic blunderer and reasons that
the flood cannot raise wages anywhere,
because it does not lift them everywhere
alike, and does not hoist the water in
lowland to the level of the water In the
mountains.
Prior to protection in Germany and
France wages were much higher In Great
Britain than in either of those countries,
and had been for many years. That was
partly the result of many generations of
careful protection in Great Britain. But
since 1880 Germany and France have
been protecting their industries, and the
level of wages in both countries has
been rising, though it has not yet reach
ed the British level. Eight years of pro-
lection have not yet overcome the effect
of many years of free trade. Yet Dem
ocrat thinks he has argued when he has
said that "wages in protected Germany
are lower than in free trade England"
Prior to protection wages in Northern
States were higher than in Southern
States, where the Democratic party up
held slavery-that is robbery of labor
Wages In Indiana were higher than in
Massachusetts, and wages in Min
nesota were higher than in Indi-
ana, and wages in mining settle
ments along the Rocky Mountains were
higher than in Minnesota. Twenty-sev-
en- years of protection have raised the
rate at the North, and yet Southern wa
ges are lower than Northern. Protection
has raised the rate in Massachusetts, in
Indiana, in Minnesota and in Colorado,
and yet wages are higher than in Massa-
chusetts. So some ignorant Democrat
cries out: "Proteetion has done nothing
for wages, because behold, they are high
er in one protected State than in anOth-
er"
Against such ignorance it is hard to
contend. Because such ignorance exists,
the Democratic party exists. But this
is campaign of thinking and educa-
ton, and tens Of thousands of working
men are learning this year that protec-
ton lifts wages more than any other
power because it vastly increases the
number Of establishments which have to
pay wages, and the amount which each
establishment can afford to pay.