New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-14
~ ENGTTSH TON

Mr. Blaine tells American working people
that they can have free trade if they are will
ing themselves to make the sacrifices which
the impairment or destruction of home indus
tries will entail. Their votes will be decisive
in this canvass If they are ready to live in
as poor houses to eat as poor food and to re-
ceive as low wages as the operatives abroad
then let them swell the ranks of Democracy
and bring in free trade. This is a practical
argument that cannot be repeated too often
during the next three months. No Democratic
orator will venture to refute Mr.. Blaine's as
sertion that the condition of American wage
earners under protection is incomparably bet
ter in every respect than that Of working peo-
pie in any quarter Of Europe. Matthew Ar
mold, in his Last Word" about America, has
fully confirmed it when he declared that work
ingmen here earn more money live in better
houses, have more Of the comforts and even
the Injuries Of life, and have better chances
of getting on in the world than the correspond
ing classes in England
The competition Of foreign labor is felt in
many branches of manufacture in England.
letter of Sir Edward Sullivan in "Thc Lon
don Post" is before us, in which reference is
made to foreign price-list. Offering seventy
articles of hardware at rates below those at
which the domestic manufactures can be sold
there. The Free Traders comment is that
English workers in those trades must not ask
to be protected in any degree from foreign
competition and cheaper labor. hut they must
he willing to take . o per cent less wages, keep
out of the ae-houses and be more thrifty. This
exctes Sir Edward Sulliyan's indignation, and
he writes
only things as they are. not As they
ought to be- The fact Is enough for and the fact
that they will work for 90 per cent less wages,
and probably cannot. When their rulers tell them
they ought to take lower wages, and work longer
hours they may turn upon them and say: Thank
yon for nothing; don't want yOur advice, we want
your help. Instead Of telling we ought 10 take
less wages you ought TO have protected MS from the
unfair competition that compels to take lower
wages. You ought TO have provided for our necessi-
ties before giving scope to your vain theories.
You ought to have assisted us 10 keep up wages,
instead of assisting the foreigners to force them down.
Yon have been trying experiments al orr expense,
and now when II Is evident all the world thai Your
experiments have resulted in runous failure you ask
TO allow you to carry them On to the bitter end
at our expense"
Thus we find in London journal the prac-
Working people there have free trade, as they
may have here if they are blind to their own
interests and rally TO the support Of the De
mocracy. They are not protected against the
competition Of inferior classes of foreign labor
who earn less and live in greater wretchednesS
than themselves. When it becomes necessary
to reduce the prices Of the manufactures in
order to compete with those that are brought
in from foreign swarms of cheap labor, the
wages of the English operatives must be sealed |
down. This must happen also in America if
competition be maintained under free trade
with foreign centres of cheaper labor. Then |
shall we find American wage-earners turning |
upon their free-trade legislators with the same
complaint which Sir Edward Sullivan puts in |
the mouths of their English brethren to-day |
q You have been trying experiments at our ex-
pense." " You ought to have assisted us to |
keep up our wages instead of assisting the for |
eigners to force them down.