The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-08-30

strikes of the laborers because they demand
more wages and say that they cannot live on
what they receive. Again and again we hear
of what are called lockouts, that is where the
employers suspend operations and lock up their
any more wages than they did pay. Why arc
there such institutions as labor unions? So as
to secure better wages Why is there such an
institution as the Knights of Laborf To pre-
vent the laboring men from being imposed upon
and to increase their compensation. Why is
these extensive and worthy organizations
If High Tariff Gives High Wages to the
Laborers
No man can answer that question satisfactorily,
even to himself If what these men say is true
about high tariff and their effect upon wages
all these Knights of Labor, and everybody else
who is engaged in that kind of business, are
simply wasting their time, for the tariff nicely
solves the question for them. Laughter and
cheering.l Yes, it does solve the problem for
et thf tMRe a S
way that they feel as if they were benefited and
get those wages which the employers are not
willing to pay.
But while am on this subject of the laboring
not raise the prices If it doesn't raise prices
would like to know why the manufacturers, or
so many of them, are in favor of it?
Cover the Prices?
Not many of them, / think There are instan-
ces in which high tariff has lowered prices
for especial and particular reasons, but as a
read from Mr.. Adams report, and from other
authorities, and also from reason, the tariff in
creaseS the price.
If it doesn't increase the price, you may be
sure that the manufacturers and capitalists
would not want it. and if it doesn't increase
the price, pray where is the protection, where
does that come in? They are afraid of our
getting things cheaper in this country than
they can be manufactured here, as they say,
by reason of the pauper labor, they call it. of
Europe. Well, now, if the tariff is not to in
create the price of articles which we buy, and
protection to American manufacturers and
how, II the price is not raised, can they pay
better wages to the laborer?
But there is one class of laborers my friends,
that want to call your attention to especially.
There is one class of laborers in this country
who have been, according to the claims of the
abolitionists i'll the country and of the republi-
cans, their especial wards especially under their
guardianship, and for whose interests they feel
the most peculiar and earnest solicitude, and
those are the negroes. Now the result of the
war was to free about 100000 of negroes, and
am
Very Glad They Were freed,
And they have increased now to about six or
seven millions, for the negro is prolific ami
NAL. lGreat laughter and applause Now,
how do these negroes make their living. Why,
great many of them go to town and pursue
any handicraft that they can, becoming do
mestic servants blacking shoes, shaving faces
or doing things of that kind. But in the coun
try the negro makes what he gets by cultivating
the earth throughout the whole south. How
does he cultivate it? Why, he either has bought
some land, and some of them has bought good
deal, or he rents land. Whether he cutivates
his own land, or whether he rents it, the crops
that he gets from it the remuneratio n he
receives for his toll. Now that crop in the
main consists of cotton, some corn and some
can the high protective tariff benefit that negro
who raises cotton and has for his share of the
crops three or four or five bales of cotton each
Year, Why, gentlemen,
There Is No Tariff at All on Cotton,
1t comes free as the air. I believe I am
quite right in saying that amt Cturning to
Mr.. Outhwaite)y
Mr.. Outhwaite-''Yes, sir.''
Judge Thurman-''It comes in free the air.
The price of cotton, therefore, is not raised, as
they say, or lessened by this tariff tax, and yet
here is all that the negro has for his labor. He
cannot get cent more for his cotton by reason
of any high protective tariff and he doesn't get,
perhaps, cent less He has to sell his cotton
and to sell it at the price that is made by the
foreign market-the price in Liverpool or in
United States. 1t is there that the price of his
cotton is fixed, and for that price he has to sell
it, tariff or tariff. But how is it on the other
hand? The negro, although he is living in
pretty warm climate in some places, still wants
10 De oecent nj al ana Nv wants nus 70 De con1orIaoIe ana
and they need clothing as well as other people,
but every single thing that he buys to clothe
self, to clothe his family, to clothe his little
picaninies to get bed, to get blanket to get
a tool or imp lement of any kind, he is taxed by
this high protective tariff, and he is compelled
to pay higher price than he otherwise would
SO that so tar as he is concerned, there can be
no pretense whatever that the tariff is anything
but
An Unmitigated Injury to Him.
He has nothing to sell which is benefited by
it; he performs no labor that by any kind of
argument can be said to be benefited by it. He
sells at price fixed by foreign market be-
cause he cannot sell for any other price, and
upon every thing that he consumes upon every
iT1c har he q fnr n0
has to pay an increased price and is thereby in
jured. Now, l do think that our abolition
their most serious consideration. They say that
they freed the negro from slavery l am willing
though there might be something said about
who did it. Perhaps two million of democratic
soldiers in the army had something to do with
it. lGreat appieuse.] After giving them all
they claim, DO they mean, after having given
him freedom, to make him slave by compel
ing him TO pay higher taxes upon everything
that is a necessity to use, not for his own bene
fiji. but for the benefit of somebody else? Is it
not enough that they make him slave by re-
quiring him to vote for them and swear not to
vote for a democrat? Isn't that enough? Zap
plause-l Must they also take all his little earn
that he wears and everything his wife and his
children wear, more than they ought to be re-
quired to pay? LRenewed applause.
Now my frienGs, while am on this subject
of the laboring pan, let me speak of
American Labor
As compared with labor in other countries It
is true that in America, labOring men generally
receive more wages in money than they do in
foreign lands, but not by any manner of means
to the extent thatyou may suppose from hear
ing so much talk about it.
For instance, let me give you the following
facts: According to the last census Great
Britain had population of 4OI to the square
mile, and the average wages paid were 97s5
CENTS per day. That is, in Great Britain. New
England has population of 21015 to the square
mile, and the average were 81 " per day, about !
four cents more than in England. Ohio has
population of 50 TO the square mile and wages
average 81 0S day. Colorado has two to the |
square mile, and wages out in Colorado aver
age 81 Is a day. The entire United States not |
including the territories and the District of
average wages are 81 II. What fact does this |
establish? Does it not prove that the more |
dense the population the greater the competi- |
ton among wage-earners and the lower the |
wages and the reverse of the proposition, the |
less the competition among wage-earneIs the |
higher the wages No man can deny that who |
has any regard for the truth.
Now, my friends, you hear great deal said |
about the pauper labor of England especially, |
because our chief imports are from Great Brit |
ain, England, Ireland and Scotland. And yet |
you see that in that most prosperous state of |
Massachusetts, the greatest manufacturing state |
i'll the United States, the average wages are only |
about
Four Cents More Than They Are in Eng
land.
But if you take the purchasing power Of
in England as they are in Massachusetts.
A Voice-"Highern
Judge Thurman--HiSher? do not know but |
what ther are. They are as high certainly in |
England as they are in Massachusetts, because, |
in order to ascertain how much a man is OBJ
tanning by his labor and to ascertain how much |
his earnings tend to support him and his fami-
ly, you must take into account what it costs for |
him to live; and if it costs man more to live
in one place than it does in another although
he may get more wages in the first named place
than he does in the second, he may not lay up
one single cent more OF money.
Now am willing, however, to admit that
as general rule, American labor is
paid higher in America than it is in
other Countries But what are the rea-
sons for it. IN the first place it is more
effective in this country. All American labor
ers makes more in the same time; all authoIi-
ties admit that, All of them agree that his su-
perior skill, his superior diligence
Enables Him to Produce More in the
Same Time
th1an does the la hnrnr n nthnr In,