Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-18

0o tuIA6u OuL OL 6mplOymenL Anu tue Idtcn of wages would be reduced. Nothing of the sort would happen. We would import the things which We could not produce-the things that could be produced cheaper in other countries than at home. We would import more tea and coffee and more of everything that the people required. The manufacturers would go on with increased prosperity; their wheels would fly faster and their people would receive higher wages. We could now produce at least ninety per cent. of all manufactures consumed in this eoun- try cheaper at homs than they could be pro- dueed anywhere else and transported here. The American manufacturer found home market for ninety-eight per cent. of his goods. If he would consent to let the agri- cultural products find foreign market he would discover that the ninety-eight per cent. of his own goods which he had to market at home would find market that was prosperous. It was said that high tariff made high wages for labor; it was said that if the tariff were reduced wages must be re- duced. It was said that if the value of the domestic product was increased the manufac- turer was able to pay higher wages. Un- occasionally. But did he do it? No. Jay Gould was able to pay his bootblack $500; but did he do it? No: he paid his nickel like little man. Vanderbilt, from his in- come arising from the immense amount of United States bonds he owned, could afford to pay his hostler $10,000 year; but did he do its Oh, no; he went out into the market and employed his labor at the market value and paid the. .same as the humblest man in New York paid. High tariff did not regulate wages; wages were regulated by demand and supply and the capacity of the laborer to do his work. If high tariff regulated wages how was it that wages in different parts of the country were different? How was it that wages in differ ent localities in the same State were differ ent? The rate of wages in the cotton indus try was lower in Rhode Island than in Penn- sylvania, but in the iron industry the wages were higher in Rhode Island than in Penn- sy1vania. It was admitted by all that the rate of wages in this country was higher than in France or Germany, and yet Ger many and France had protective tariffs to guard against the free labor of England. What made this high rate of wages in this country: It was coal and steam and ma- chinery. It was these great agencies made labor more valuable.
 MT. Mills proceeded with citations from economic authors and from the tabulated statements to elucidate his arguments that the high rate of wages in this country was not the result of the protective system. MT. Mills showed that high tariff helped the capitalist, but not the laborer. He spoke for an hour and three-quarters.
 MT. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, then took the floor in opposition to the bill. He said the enactment of the bill would instantly par alize the enterprise and energy of the people. Under the baneful influence of such law our manufacturing supremacy would be overthrown and our command ing commercial position reduced to that of colonial dependency It was confessedly partisan measure. and was framed in the interest of party whose leaders appeared to be oblivious to the over- whelming social and economic changes xryrO inv tho ohn1itiop nf s1a Tho gentlemen who framed this bill, and would brook neither modification nor discussion ot it's provisions by their associates in the com mittee to which the preparation of revenue bills was con6ded, were with but two excep tions representatives of what was achronisn; it had no relation to this era; it belonged to the saddest epoch in our national history, the period between 1924 and 1861. During that period slavery dominated our national coun- cils and guided the administration of our national affairs in hostility to national inter ests and in the interest of free trade twice threatened war. It was in the interest of free trade that war was threatened in support of the doctrine of nullifcation, and it was in the interest of free trade that the country was involved for more than four years in a factional war, the proportions of which were more gigantic sthan ever character 1ZeQ CIVIL war. The entire SoQtn knew that free trade was essential to the perpetuity of slavery in the republic, and it should also know that the logic that could defend free trade in 0 country endowed with the boundless diversity of the clements of manufacture and the immense supply of the forces for their conversion which we enjoy vanished when slavery was abolished. MT. Kelley said he would so legislate on the ques tion of the surplus and it's sources as to in- crease the wealth, power and dignity of the country by promoting the development of it's natural resources and diversified. tion of it's industries, and thus diminish it's dependence upon foreign i'm portations upon which duties are collected. He would derive the revenues from customs duties 50 adjusted to remuneratiye prices for commodities as to stimulate and defend home productions, preventing combinations, trusts and monopolies from plundering consumers by demanding fictitious prices.