St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-21

THE TRUE FRIEND OF LABOR
and OF the lahoring man, proposition when
evoked the first Outburst of general applause.
BY way of proof he cited the enormous taxa
ton imposed by the Republican party during
and after the war, until the income began TO
be beyond the needs of tine government He
then called attention to the fact that when
the Republicans began to reduce the burden
they did not begin to take the taxes
on the poor, but directly on the
rich. The income tax, for instance,
which was one affecting but few OF the
people of the country. and they all well-to-
do, was among the first removed by the Re
publican party in its haste TO favor the rich,
while processing to be the friend OF the TOLL
ing masses. In The same line was their treat
ment of the tax on railroads and other
wealthy corporations. They were all re-
lieved of taxation as he sarcastically said, be-
cause the Republican party was SO deeply
| laboring people. On the other hand.
| the Democrats propose to remove the
! tax from the clothing of the poor, from the
implements of labor wherewith the laborers
earn their subsistence, and from other artl-
| cleS which 90 to make up the enormous TAX
alton OF labor TO gather an unnecessary sur
| plus. This effort met uniform opposition
! from the Republicans and yet Mr.. Blame
would have the people believe that TINS is u
| campaign III which the question Is one OF
! labor, and that the Republicans are the only
| friends of laborers. 1t was indeed a ques-
| ton of labor, but the true friends OF
! labor were found in the Democratic party
/ and III its party. Mr. Mills was emphatic IN
| his declaration that the Democrats did not
| propose to give the nation free whisky, that
ii was understood that if an attempt was
! made to remove the tax on whisky the Demo-
| Gratis were ready TO
FIGHT 1T OUT ON THAT LINE,
! if it took al summer and all this fall. Con-
! tinuing his proof of the proposition with
| which he began, Mr.. Mills denied that the
| Democrats favored free trade, and quoted
nnafl Z giars of l1R
| posed III the Mills bill. Why SAID he,
I'VE propose TO reduce the tariff from AZ per
! cent 10 42l2 per cent That is no more tree
| trade than was the reform of hard drlnker
drains from Il day to 42l2.
Mr.. Mills went Oh with different articles
| enumeratedin his bill i'll which there was
| reduction Of the tariff to show how IN each
case the protection which the Republicans
insist on did not protect the workman, but
did protect the thing made by the workman.
and that in every case the benefit OF the pro-
lection went to the manufacturer-the mas
what sort of bill we have pre-
sented. 1t is very moderate. We
have reduced the average taxation
from AZ. 10 on the 100 to 1880 on the 100;
little less Than 50 on a hundred Oh IN I'M
ported goods. They are going about the
| country and saying this is free trade, that 1t
will ruin the whole country. a So reduction
in taxation on the necessaries OF life, still
leaving the people TO pay over $40 on the
hundred of taXation-is at free trade? II
it is L would like TO. know what
they mean by protection" He then took
up the iron schedule, stating that the
Mills bill made a reduction OF 50. 80 ON the
500 worth of iron and steel. He compared
the labor cost of iron in England and United
States. "Our nigh priced labor only amounts
to Sl.5O ton; suppose theirs IS 70 cents
ton; then if we made duty of 75 cents on
pig iron that would cover the difference be-
tween ENGLAND and fOG pIfp1 States. then
the cost of transportation from LIVERPOOL
would be 81 ton, which would
be an ample margin for profit
We reduce the duty on pig iron
So. That is for labor. Weleft these giron
manufacturers SO Il ton, which they tell us
they want for their laborers, and yet they
only pay their laborers Sl.25 of it.
WHY THE DEVIL DON THEY PAY
the balance of it? There is no statute that
prevents them from paying this money that
is placed in their hands by congress in trust
to pay their laboreTs. Yet from the very
beginning of their mandatory down TO the
present moment they have hired their
labOrers at the lowest cost in the open
markets OF the world. The reason the Ia
borer don't get that is because the tariffs not
for the benefit OF the labOrer. They can fool
them-maybe. They used TO fool them. but
they don't very much now. They are getting
their eyes open. They want the laborers to
take an interest in the tariff because they
nave NOleS ana money mas lOL VOTES. lue
tariff is one thing that labor makes. That
thing belongs to the manufacturer. The la
borer has only the stroke Of his arm and he has
that in open competition with all the mar
kets in the world. BE is free trader. Moth
ing protects him. Congress protects pig iron,
but il doesn't protect the poor fellow that
burns himself at the forge. l will repeat
question that l have asked from Boston
across to Chicago. A duty of S6.T2 is on that
ton OF pig iron, and | say that S6.72 went
right down into the pocket of the iron owner,
and it is there yet. Now letany laboring man,
any friend of Harrison and Morton, any
Republican tell me how | can assist the la
boTer to get that S. II ont of the pockets of
the manufacturer and pat it into his, and
will vote for Harrison and Morton and free
whisky. To say that the Democratic party is
unfriendiy to workingmen is 10 say that il is
unfriendly to his own right arm. II is to say
that man does not love his home best. 1t
is question of labor from the skin to the
core. and the Democratic party is
PROBING THAT QUESTION
to the core. Take pair of fve-pOund blank
cts. costing 50 cents for labor. The tariff on
them is $3.50, which is given for the protec-
ton of American labor against pauper labor.
The manufacturer gets IL and puts II all in
his pocket. The laborer, when ne goes home
at night feels in vain for that Sl.90. 1t is
not there. Let us see what we have put on
the free liSt-woOl, lumber, tin plates, hemp,
jute-and we have put the raw materials on
the free list. One reason for this is
lIidl NlGu AOu put IL raw IldtGIlul OIl lllC
free list you can reduce the duty on the fin
ished product. Take wool TO illustrate.
The duty is forty cents pound, then 30
cents ad valorem in addition, making 81
question ''wny don't you put the tax on
wool for the benefit of our farmers!" We
don't put taxes on an article simply
TO take money out OF one
persons pocket and put it into somebody
else's. We put tax on an article to make
a revenue to support the government We
believe revenues ought to be as little burden
some as possible. So raise your revenues as
to make your tax as low as possible on the
man that has the tax To pay. We had still
another object III putting raw materials on
the free list We find with an import in
each country each year OF about S44,0OO,-
900 OF manufactured afaSu . WOODEN ooog 200
900 pounds of raw wool TO make these
goods. 1t takes something like a hundred
thousand men working in factories TO make
these goods. Where are they made: They
are made in Europe.
FOREIGN LABoRERs MAKE THEM.
Who ought to make them? Our own labor
ers ought to make them. We say that the
manufacturing capacity of this country has
reached that point in its development when
worked at its fullest force eight months in
the year they can make the entire
product that the population will consume
in year. What are you going to do the
other four months? The manufacturer can
take care of himself He shuts up his estab-
lishment when he finds prices going down
and all the manufacturers come together
and make one big establishment aud take
stock and call ii trust and fix the price.
They stick, they stIangle, they kill competi-
ton. They form n monopoly like that in
fernal high-handed cotton bagging trust
Now then our people say we put this wool
and those other raw materials on the
free list and will import them and give that
work to 100000 American working men to
make this raw material. After the immense
increase in our population, having attained
the highest point of consumption, if we
don't find some kind of employment for our
people there is going to be great distress.
We propose to bring all the materials