St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-04
A FALSE PREMISE.

lit is a trick OF the advocate OF pro-
tective tariff. when the airy structure of
his theories threatens to tumble down
upon his own devoted head, to give it a
last prop with the assertion, destroy
the tariff and American labor will be
Frustrated"
1t is becoming more apparent each
day that the relation of the tariff to labor
is that of an Oppressor, and that this
premise of the protectionist is a subter-
fuge-a bugaboo-with which one last
desperate effort is to be made to avert
the coming reforms.
If American labor is in need of pro-
lection, observation would suggest that
iron-clad immigration laws should be
Immediately passed excluding from this
country all but the capitalist of other
nations.
The Chinese have been barred, and
why may not the hordes now pouring in
from Europe be treated likewise? There
is scarcely regulation of this govern
ment that keeps the pauper labor of
Europe out. The high tariff is designed,
it is said, to protect American labor
from competition with the cheap labor
of Europe. But this same labor enters
America without let or hindrance, and
completes at his own hearthstone with
the high-priced and skilled native.
There is not railroad contract in
this country, not a contract for public
works, scarcely manufacturing estab-
lishment but where cheap foreign labor
is to be found crowding out and enter
ing into destructive competition with
home labor.
has not yet come into direct competition
with skilled labor, but the latter repre-.
sents only about % per cent of all the
labor in the country.
The remaining rs per cent may raise
their hands to high heaven and the pro-
tectiye tariff and wait until the crack of
doom for relief.
Nor as question affecting wages can
the tariff be said to be blessing.
StaticianS will continue to demonstrate
as long as the brisk demand for labor
continues in the United States that our
labor receives wages ranging from %
to 100 per cent higher than the European
hireling does.
This is most certainly not due to pro-
lection. If the tariff were dOubled-nay.
trebled-and there existed no demand
for labor Ga state of things partially ex-
perienced in this country, OF there was
a greater number to perform than there
was work to be done, wages would go
down, down to the last turn of the cap
italstic screw. If JOHN STILES, of
Dale, has certain piece of work to be
performed and can only secure one man
to do it, he will pay that individual all
that his work is worth.
If JOHN STILES, of Dale, though,
has twenty applicants to perform that
work, he will take the cheapest, skill
and hardness all being considered.
THAI is the fundamental point of the
rise and fall of wages. Much work to
| be done. labor scarce, high wages. A
scarcity of work, an overplus of labor
or competition with imported foreign
labor, low wages.
The quicker the mechanic, the mason.
the carpenter, grasps this idea, that
much sooner will he appreciate that the
tariff system is not the chief and only
regulator of his wages.
He can then turn his attention to the
anomaly that labor in the protected
states of the Union is paid less than I'M
protected labor in Minnesota, Wiscon-
sin, Iowa and other agricultural states.
Carpenters in the agricultural states
average over SIS per week; in the pro-
tected states, S12.
A bricklayer earning SIS per week in
Minnesota does well at SIP in New
| York.
The fourteen-year-old operators in
the worsted mills of Rhode Island,
working at S13 a month, earn less than
a newsboy does on the streets of ST..
Paul. The men and girls over twenty
years of age in these mills receive less
than does the much-sighed-over lady
clerk or seamstress or bookkeeper of
| the West.
The miners and skilled coal operators
Of Pennsylvania draw less pay per
month than does the luggage porter of
any of our large hotels.
If protection is the right arm of Amer
lean labor, why should these things exist
in the nine protected states of tine