St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-23
An Attempt Being Made to
Delude Workingmen Into
False Beliefs.
The Cry Of "Pauper Labor"
False to the Facts in the
Case.
If Tariff Reduction Will Lower
Wages Why Don't Manu-
faetupers Vote for It?
But a High Tariff Does Not
Make High Wages in
America.

The defenders of our Al per cent war
tariff are making desperate efforts to
delude workingmen into the belief that
any reduction of taxes on imports would
reduce them to the level of the 'spauper
labor" of Europe. Indeed, the efforts
of these peculiar philanthropists are
directed almost extensively to that end.
They get themselves badly tangled in
stating their position with respect to
wages and the tariff. One moment they
say that high tariff makes high wages;
therefore every man who works for
wages should insist upon having high
tariff. The next moment they forget
themselves and say that because wages
are higher here than elsewhere we must
have high tariff here or the makers of
goods abroad who pay low wages will
underSell our makers in our own market
and force them to close their shops and
turn their workmen out on the COM
mons to starve. And the third moment,
when they come to consider the case of
the consumer, they forget all about the
man who works for wages, and assure
us that the tariff gives US home cOmpe-
tition and brings down prices as low as
they are anywhere, or lower, forgetting
that if such is the case the tariff must,
according to what they have just been
saying, make wages as low here as any
where, or lower. Having thus covered
the three sides of their argumentative
triangle they start out to traverse the
first side again, and so on in endless
round.
Now, put the three propositions side
by side and see how they look:
One-High tariff makes high wages.
Two-We have high wages, there
fore we must have high tariff to keep
out foreign cheap goods and make our
own goods dear.
Three-High tariff reduces competi-
ton and makes our own goods cheap.
If proposition three is true it obviously
follows that so much of proposition
two as assumes that high tariff makes
goods dear is false. 1t obviously follows
also that the whole of proposition one is
false; that high tariff does not make
high wages.
Is there workingman in all America
so dull as not to see that there must be
something wrong about such chop logic
as that? If there is he is to be pitied.
The men who dish up this very chop
logic day after day in the high-tariff
press assume that there are thousands
of American voters who are stupid
enough to take it all in and never see
thatit must necessarily be fallaciOuS.
Our dealers in chop logic try to make
workmen believe that high tariff makes
high wages by telling them that in this
country, which has high tariff for pro-
lection, wages are twice as high as III
England, which has no tariff for protec-
ton. 1t is not true that wages are twice
as high here as in England. There is
undoubtedly some difference-pOsSibly
20 per cent-in favor of the American
workman. But how do our acrObatic
IogIcians know that our high tariff is
the cause of it? That they never tell.
They never attempt to show that there's
any relation of cause and effect.
Their reasoning is precisely like this:
Wages are higher here than in England;
we produce Indian corn and England
does not: therefore Indian corn makes
our wages higher. Or, we produce pc
troleum and Europe does not; therefore
petroleum makes our wages higher.
Or, we produce tobacco and England
does not; therefore tobacco makes
our wages higher. Or, we have Colo
RADIO beetles and cyclones and England
has not; therefore Colorado beetles and
cyclones make our wages higher. There
is just as much sense in any one of these
propositions as there is in the propo-
siti0n that our high tariff makes our
wages higher.
II high tariff makes high wages in this
country it ought to do the same in other
countries. Mexico has higher tariff
than this country has. Therefore. ac-
cording to our thimble-rig lOgicians,
wages should be higher in Mexico than
here. But the fact is that wages are not
half as high in Mexico as here. Ger
many has a tariff for protection and
England has not. Therefore, according
to these logicians, wages should be higher
in Germany than in England. But
what is the fact? Let us learn from a
high-taritf authority. The commits
sioner of labor statistics for the state of
Maine, which is the state of Blaine, is
Jealous defender of the 47-per cent war
tariff. In his last report this official
gives the following tabulated statement
of wages in certain trades in England
and Germany:
WAGES PER WEEK.
England Germany
Brlcklayers. ......'.....-....SI % % Il