Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-05
TALKS ON THE TARIFF.
Showing How Contemfed PrOtec.
tfOn Makes 4 he Workingman.

=
The whole theory of the Republican
protectionist idea is that it benefit
American labor. The tariff is put on
so as to give your boss, the manufactur
er, a larger price for his product, ane
then he will be able, of course, to pay
higher wages to his men.
| OF course, it must follow that working
men in the protected" industries are
all happy and prosperous, for if the tariff
isn't for high wages and the man who
works, why who in thunder is it for.
Well, let us see about it. Let US see
how much happier or better paid or mo1e G
contented the protected" workingman
is than the great majority of us who are
not blessed with protection.
According to Bradstreet's there were
SS4 strikes and lockouts in the United
States last year, in which the total num-
Der of strikers or locked-out men were
340,S54.
Of these, 24S, ,955 or 73 per cent, were
in the manufacturing States of PennsyI-
vania, New York, Ohio, New Jersey and
Massachusetts. The great protectionist
State of Pennsylvania led them all with
a total of Ill ,317 strikers for the year, or
nearly 33 per cent. of all in the United
States. New York care next, with
62.656 or 18 per cent
High tariff taxes restrict production
and will lessen work while increasing
the cost OF living to the common people.
Free wool, for instance, would immense
ly stimulate the manufacture of various
forms of woolen goods, giving work to
many thousands now out OF employment.
A reduction in the price of clothing
would enable some of us to buy two suits
of clothing where we now buy one, and
would enable all of us to dress better
and more comfortably. This would he
the increased demand for goods which
is an equivalent to an increased demand
for labor.
"But this would spoil the wool-grow-
ers' business" some protectionist may
say to you. Don't you believe it. To
begin with the professional wool-grower
is not very numerous individual and it
is pretty certain that there will always
be good market for his product if our
manufacturers get chance to diversif v
their manufactures by free access to the
wool which is not grown here, but which
by admixture with the home woods can
be made up by superior American pro-
cesses into American woolens that can
then compete on favorable ground for
the markets of the world.
Why shall the average farmer, who
may be incidentally wool-growcr on a
small scale, worry about free wool?
Honest tariff reform may possibly reduce
the selling price of the small quantity of
wool he has to sell; but it would make
cheaper the coats of himself and sons
and the dresses of his wife and daughters.
1t would cheaper the family blanket and
the carpet on the floor. And tariff re-
form in other things would cheaper
the lumber for his house and barn,
the iron that shoes his horse and
makes all his farm tools, the wire fence
around his fields and hundred other
things upon which he must pay tribute
to the protectionist manufacturer and
Rich and favored monopolists have
been debating the tariff legislation OF
this country for two generations. Now
the people who pay the piper have
awakened and pro pose to have something
to say about it themselves.-[N. Y.
News.