Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-08-08
Studythe tariff-it concerns you all.

Studythe tariff-it concerns you all.
y We have tried in late articles on the Tai
+ iff. to make it plain to our readers, as ia
!, as circuuscribed limits would permit. th
/ difference between Tariff for Revenue, an,
Tariff for Protection. We think we hay
made it sufficiently clear that under Pro
, tectiye Tariff, the cost of all commoditie
ia greatly enhanced to the consumer by des
troying foreign competition and permitting
combinations of home manufacturers; 81
that. of every dollar expended, a large pei
cent. of it goes from the pocket of the con
SINNER into that of the American manufact
urer without revenue to the Government
Il We are now living under Protective Tar
4 iff averaging Al per cent, en- over 1000 artl
cles of common use. We are collecting
under this Tariff each year, partly patd by
every man, woman and child in the U. s.,
over 800, 900, 900 more money than the
Governm mt needs for its expenses, $780,
OOO. 900 are now lying idle in the treasury
and no disposition can be made of it except
to buy up our bonds, not due, at a great
premium, or sauander the money in reckless
appropriations Though the U. s. Govern
ment is offering to pay for these bonds
$1.27 for the $1.00 it owes, yet even at this
premium, holders are loath to sell, and the
millions are still accumulating. Why do
the people of this great country submit to
such imposition, patriotic though they be
in desire to supply the Government with
all it needs for its expenses? Mr.. Cleveland
| tells the people to withhold their taxes,
that their liberality is in excess of his needs,
and he appeals to Congress to remove the
burden of taxation from the necessaries of
life, that falls so heavily upon the laboring
man and farmers. He tells US that "a con-
ditaon confronts US not theory" and in
harmony with his suggestions, the Demo-
cratic party in Congress has framed bill
to reduce taxes, and have passed it through
the House to be antagonized by a Repub'
lican Senate, aud why? Because they say
in their great love for the laboring man of
America, ''they wish to protect him against
the pauper labor of Europe" That they
want the manufacturers of the U. 5. to
grow rich from the hard earnings of the
farmer, the farm laborer, the mechanic, the
merchant and the professional man, that
they may have the greater ability to pay
their factory hands high wages; assuming
as a fact, that the liberality of the employer
to his wage Garner is guaged by his ability
to pay, and not that his labor, like has rdU
material is purchased in the cheapest market.
These, kind readers, will be the reasons as
signed by the Republican party from every
stump this Fall, for opposing reduction of
your taxes. Are they sincere in their pro-
fessed regard for tue interests of labor? Let
US examine their recood, for the Past is the
light to guide to the Future, and it will dis.
robe of its hypocrisy, this party that seems
now, only to exist for regret, of the things
left undone, and of all things that it has
done. This Republican Party, in its great
love for American labor; with Republican
President, and two thirds majority in both
Houses of Congress, passed law to permit
the manufacturers of tbs U. s. to import
this same pauper under contract to compete
with our labor on American soil. This is
the same Republican party, so friendly to
labor now, when they need votes, that with
in the years of the youngest babbler of his
A. B. C.,s almost unanimously resisted
Democratic effort to prohibit the Chinese
the most degraded pauper labor of the world,
from coming to this country. The party,
that protesting to befriend the working
man, stole his confidence to betray him,
and now, covering before his resentment,
presents platform opposing Chinese emil
grafton, and yet at the same time rejects
the ouly candidate of those prominent be-
fore its convention for the Presidency. who
had not voted to admit them. This is the
same Republican party whose campaigns
with 'soap" are rendered possible through
Protective Tariff, and an alliance with the
millionaire manufacturers, whose greed not
yet satisfied by the robbery of the masses,
are calling for ''more protection" and are
promised by the Chicago platform greater
opportunity to plunder, while their laborers
submit to greater reduction of wages, or,
are supplanted by this pauper labor Of Eu-
rope, supplied them by the votes of this
same Republican party, silent partner in
the appropriation Of their ill-gotten gains
The laborer OF America is becoming aware
that supply and demand, regulate the price
of his wages; that when ten workmen only
can be had and twenty are wanted. wages
are high; when only ten are needed, and
twenty are to be had, wages are low.
Knowing this, they are quick to detect the
hypocrisy of Republican professions
which, while demanding protection for the
products of labor, are insisting upon free
trade in labor itself, by admitting all the
degraded paupers of not only Europe, but
of Asia also. The last census shows 2, 600,-
600 people engaged in manufacturing in this
country goods protected by Tariff. Grant
ing that labor employed in these industries
is benefited by a protective tariff (though
the contrary is susceptible of proof, are
the remainder of our 60, 900, 600 of people to
be taxed to pay high wages to a special
class of laborers? No ope is a laborer as
viewed by Protectionist, but this minority
of our people, who working from eight to
ten hours per day. and realizing from S45
to 500 per month, are class for special
consideration. The farm hand working
fourteen hours a day in a scorching Sum-
mer sun, earning his $40. .OO per month, is,
as viewed by this special class, not labor
er of consideration as such, oh no! Evan
though At per cent, or S4.7O of what he
earns goes from his pocket as a tax to help
make another mans wages higher.-The
blacksmith who wields his heavy sledge
from sun to sun, mid Summers heat, rein
forced by his forre's flame, is asked to con-
tribute his AZ cents on every dollar he earns
that some other man may be made richer,
and vet there is no protection for him, oh
no! he is not laborer, he doesn't work in
protected industry. The carpenter who
looks down from the steeple's dizzy height
that his saw and hammer have reared above
the house of God, beholds on every side his
handy work, sheltering those who are lab
orers of the favored class, for whose benefit
.I.:x,ol Az ,tc ~, aaob dolIa, Of oorn