The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-09-13
A FEW PRUTECTION FAoTs

| 80 my years, Mel
who struggled as workmen and employ
ers before the adoption of protcctiy,
'ar'it have prospered and become ricl
under II. Wages have increased and
comforts TO workmen been cheapenec
by it.
We hear but one story from manu-
facturers, both by letter and verbally
that the dullness in trade is largely du,
to the uncertainty and anxiety occa
stoned by the agitation of the supporter,
OF the Mills bill, and the Free-Trad,
proclivi'ies Of the present administra
tion.
The admission of cheap labor products
IN any one branch affects all others, for
II men are thrown out of one branch of
trade the naturally seek employment
and crowd into others, compete and re
duce wages.
A very large portion Of theI English
people are against the Free-Trade policy
OF that country. In Manchester, where
operatives are working in the cotton
mills Tor 10 or 80 cents a day, the manu-
tacturers are talking of decrease so
that they can compete with Belgium
and Germany.
The highest price paid English labor
ers is 90 cents day. England's silk
industry is virtually dead. The great
docks Of London and Liverpool in that
happy Free-Trade country are besegei
by haf-starved men begging for work
at any price, England to-day supports
million paupers. How is this for a
country that invites us to follow her
example and abolish the tariff that pro-
tects the workingmen in America.
The decision of the average workman
here is that American industries will be
protected, and our ports shall not be
opened freely to the products of the
cheap foreign labor of all countries in
competition with our own.
What about the wages of the men who
plough and SOW, and water and reap
year after year on the plains of India?
The tale is soon told; the average wages
of an Indian laborer is cents day!
On these wages he is able to live and is
willing to rear family. Such man is
a formidable competitor. OF course, no
one claims that an Indian coolie work
ing for cents day and living in the
style which such a wage necessitates is
the equal, say, Of an English laborer
who gets about 50 cents a day. But the
whole question is whether the English
Iaborer is worth 70 Indian coolies, and
the answer is, intIinsically, certainly
not.
Let us compare the English and
Indian manufacturing industry. The
two races are then working with exactly
the same appliances, and it is found
that three Indians are about equal to one
But, as has been already
mentioned, their combined pay will
only be about three tenths of the Eng
lishman's, and hence arrises a question
which is Of every bit as much impor-
lance to America as to England.
The Importance of this question is
only now becoming dimIy apparent, for
II is only within the last 80 years that
European appliances have begun to be
introduced into India. In 1868 there
were 20 miles Of railway open in the
whole of the peninsula; in 1888 there
are close on $1,000 miles open. In 1854
The first cotton mill was opened in Bonn
bay; there are considerable more than
100 mills in India for spinning and
weaving cotton and jute; and paper
mills, cloth mile, -four mills, ironworks,
are fast springing up.
The rate of progress does not perhaps
'eem great to a citizen of the United
states, who Is accustomed to move and
% see everybody else move at headlong
pace, but among the people of India
'apid motion Is an unexpected phenom-
,nOn.
Moreover, We must note that the pace
n India is growing greater, for it is
especially within the last few years that
India trade has received so striking a
development. The average export of
wheat during the ten years ending 1885
vas 9,5O0,0O0 cwt. in 1886 it was 21,-
10000; in 1887, 90 500, 900. Again, in
1888 the export of flower was only $685.
100 pounds; in 1887 it was 1874, 900
pounds.
Ten years ago the exports of cotton
yarn were Is 100000 pounds; now they
IRE 81 ,sO4,0O pounds. Similarly the
igures for piece goods are: in 1878, H.
IA 900 yards: in 1887, SO, 4O5, 900 yards.
What these figures mean is this: That
nda is rapidly taking up position as
. considerable exporting country in the
wo principal articles of food and
But her activity is not likely to end
lere. Industry breeds industry. Each
lew manufacture established makes the
of the rest easier; me.
:hanical appliances, needed by all in
lustries, become more attalnable, skilled
yorkmen become commoner, and
pirit of enterprise ID generated which
makes people cast about for fresh appli-
ations of the tools now placed in reach
# their hands.
The advantages which the inhabitants
# the colder climates of the world have
possessed for so long, owing to their
,ersonal energy aud strength, are pass
ng away, before the equalrzing agency of
team machinery, and the inhabitants
f the tropics are beginning to turn to
ccount the advantages which they
POSSESS in their climate and soil.
What the upshot Of this struggle be.
ween the temperate zone and tropical
one will be we cannot yet tell, but
Without the spirit of prophecy we can
urely say that the whole world will, as
he years roll on, feel the effect of the
ilent revolution now in progress on the
lains of India Tariff League Bulle-
IN.
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