The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-08-16

Those who claim that high tariff
makes wages high falsely assume that it
is the profits of employers which deter
mine wages. But the truth is that
wages are regulated by the demand for
work to be done than workmen to do it,
there will be a rise in wages If the
number of workmen is increased with
out increasing the demand for labor,
wages will, of course, go down.
Labor organizations may do some
thing, indeed much, to prevent wages
being reduced, because they determine,
to some extent, labor's share of the prof
its of production. But the protective
tariff does not regulate wages. 1t does
not diminish immigration. and does not,
therefore, lessen the supply of labor,
while it operates against the interests of
workingmen by making clothing, food,
and all the necessaries of life dear.
The tariff limits production by max
ing raw materials SO expensive that
American manufacturers are unable to
compete in foreign markets with Euro
pean manufacturers. With cheap ma
terials we could produce a great variety
OF goods in vast quantities and sell them
at a profit in every country More
manufactures would be built, more
workmen would be employed, and the
increased demand for labor would make
wages higher.
A high protective tariff enables manu-
facturers to make large profits with but
little exertion, for it exempts them from
the necessity of competing with foreign
manufacturers, enables them to fix high
prices for their products, and to make
large profits from the work of a conn
paratively small number of hands. If
competition in this country becomes too
keen, they can form combinations and
trusts, and regulate the amounts of pro-
duction and the prices of products to
suit themselves. But how are the work
ingmen benefited by this interference
with commerce and Industry Andrew
Carnegie in one year made out of pro-
tected steel rails 81 800, 900. How were
the men employed by him helped by the
duty on steel rails?
The protection of American Idborr'
That is the very thing that is not pro-
tected-that never has been protected.
The tariff does not make the labor sup
ply less; it is the demand for labor
which the tariff reduces. If manufac-
turer cuts down wages to increase his
profits, and his workmen refuse to ac-
cept the reduced wages, there are others
out of employment waiting to take their
places, or if there is any trouble in get
ting workmen on the employers terms.
"pauper laborers" can be quickly
brought from protection-cu cursed coun-
tries. There is no tariff on them.
New England manufacturers have, by
importing from the province of Quebec
cheap laborers, compelled thousands of
intelligent, independent. self-respecting
Americans to abandon factory work. In
some of the New England villages the
Canadian French of the inferior class
form large part of the population. The
operatives will not compare ID intelli-
gence and character with those of q
quarter OF century ago. In many of
the communities the deterioration ia
very marked. Under protection" dur
ing the last quarter of a century multi
tudes of men brought up to work in the
cotton and wooden factories have been
forced to give up their occupation and
to seek work and homes in the great
west, while their places have been taken
by those willing to work for such wages
as the miil-owner chose to offer and to
submit to such rule as they chose to
make.
The manufacturers have grown rich,
but their operatives have remained poor,
and, indeed, the conditions imposed up
on the operatives have continually low
cred the character of this class. The in
tellectual and moral tone of many of the
has been perceptibly low
cred. The percentage of illiteracy has
increased, the public library and the
literary society have disappeared, and
saloons have multiplied. These state
ments are true of many New England
villages in which the manufactures,
made rich by the protective system, are
now disturbed lest slight reduction of
the tariff shall diminish the profits of
their business.
The protective tariff is burden to the
here, as it was once in
as it now is in Germany,
France, and Italy, and it is the greatest
foe of American industry