Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-02-23

this is done we shall have strikes, oft repeat
ed, even on this great continent. From 1873
| to 1873 this land was full tramps. We all
Know the circumstances that brought them
to that condition. / saw many of those
| homeless laborers in their wanderings. /
have been to the Northwest many time
| since.
"What was then apparently great calam- :
| Ify turned out to be blessing in disguise.
They settled upon the wheat lands of Dakota
and Minnesota, Montana and elsewhere, and
driven as they We're from employment be-
cause the shops were shut up, and they
were apparently on the verge of starvation,
they took advantage of the bounty of the
government through the homestead and
pre- -emption laws, and many of the men who
lied from closed factories, as well as those
who came from Ireland, Germany, and else
where, settled on these lands, and became
rich and prosperous in spite of protection: :
they became rich because of the adversely
that cur protection to slaves in form of ma
chimes had brought upon them.
"If protection is so beneficial, why are so
many thousands of men idle in this country
to-day? Ii protection protects on a great
continent like this, why are our laboring
people now so discontented? In little
country like England, Scotland, or Ireland,
when men are driven out of employment
there is no great free Northwest with 100
acres of good free land offered as home
stead, and pre-emption to go and get for the
taking. They have to stay where they are.
There is no outlet, therefore they are oblig-
ed to suffer. One thing mitigates their suf-
fering. however; the money those men get
for their wages, though less than what our
workmen receive, will buy twice as much
''If man works for 81 in one place and
gets - in another, where he has to pay his
- for a blanket, while the man who works
for ST can buy the same blanket for 81, he
who gets 81 for his wages is just as well off
as the other Is with $2.''
This view of the case disposes effctu-
ally, [ think, of the pretence that the
American operative owes anything of
his improved condition over the Euro
pean operative to the tariff. At the
same time it clearly illustrates the way
our great centres of population are
drained of their surplus laborers when
the results OF oyer-production, inseper-
able from protected machinery and re-
stricted markets, have eliminated in
the inevitable lock-outs which such
processes compel.
But, as shall be clearly shown, the
wages of labor in the United States are
fixed by the wages of the unprotected
farm hand, not of the protected factory
operative. 1t is cheap land, not pro-
ttctive duties, that produces high
wages, completely refuting the old
prOtectionisL theory that "high prices
make high wages, and that low prices
make low wages" High prices have
often coeXisted with low wages, and
low prices have often coexisted and
now coeixst with high wages. This is
true even with respect to nominal
wages, .. e., to wages reckoned in
money. 1t is still truer with respect to
rea! wages, 1. e., to wages estimated in
the food or other things which the
workman buys with his money wages.
ITO be continued.)