The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-10-13

We had to. There was no chance for us.
Grab, Get, Hold Il Co. were the employers
in your case, and you were the employees?
Certainly
And all this time we had the highest kind
of high protection?
That is true.
Whom did this protection protect?
The workingmen. You may be sure.
Let US see about that. Grab put in $780,
900 in cash and $4,000 credit?
Yes.
And the other three partners the same
each?
Yes.
Your skill and muscle you regarded as the
equivalent of S20,00
Yes.
And the other employees in proportion to
their skill and ability?
Just so.
To.d day you tell me that Grab is worth over
$50, 600, 900, Get S., 000, 900, Hold S10,00O,-
600 and Snatch $1,000, 00O-or over $780,
600, 900 in all as their profits. Now, what
have you made out of your skill and labor
while they have grown into milionaires under
a high tariff?
Well, was only an employee you know?
Certainly; that is true enough, but if the
tariff is for the benefit of the workingmen
and not the millowners, the former ought to
get rich more rapidly than the latter. Your
skill and labor, at fair estimate, was equal
to $4,000 of capital at 6 per cent, was it
not?
OF course it was.
Now show me what return the tariff has
brought you, good artisan.
| don't understand you.
Why, Grabs $4,000 cash has grown into
millions, thanks to the tariff-but the impor-
tant thing is, what has been the income on
your SIG, 900 worth of skill and labor? Has
tariff taxation multiplied it by 500, or 800, or
100, or even by 10, in the last twenty years
Well, I'm just about as well off now as l
was in 1870, except as to the mortgage and
the fact that am not as capable of working
as | was then.
Your capital has been impaired all around,
and your income is invisible?
I'm afraid that such is the case.
1t has taken all your earnings to decently
feed, clothe and educate your family and pay
the taxes?
Just about.
And on every dollars worth of the neces.
saries of life you have been purchasing all
this time you have been paying an average Of
AZ per cent. of the tariff tax. This enriches
not the consumer, but the privileged class
who pocket the increased proht. They tell
me Mr.. Grab, of your firm, has an income
of So, 900 day?
That is a fact, no doubt.
That's nearly 81, 200, 900 net profit year.
OF his employees how many of them do not
receive over 1866 year?
A good many thousand, but they are moi
skilled laborers.
And yet Mr.. Grabs profits for year are
equal to the total earnings of five thousand
of his employees. That is where protection
counts. How much tariff did your employers
pay on the laborers they imported to take
your places when you were unwilling to stand
a reduction?
Nothing. There is no tariff on labor. II
is admitted free.
Exactly, and therein lies the advantage Of
the protected manufacturers. Whatever they
manufacture is protected by tariff taxation.
But labor is admitted free. There is no tariff
duty-no tax on it. The laboring man must
face the widest competition to sell his labor
in the market, and then pay the tariff taxation
on all the necessaries he purchases. And YET
the tariff barons try to make him believe that
he is being protected while he is being taxed
in the direction of the poorhouse. Since we
have free trade in labor, we ought to have
lower taxes on life's necessities. Don't you
think so?
Well, yes do.
You ought to understand your own expe-
rience.