The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-05-17

the p '.t3cs OF tn
tttude, it is made
in trade, and isrelsa> - II| -
other prop is knocked from under
their feet.
In my last article | endeavored to
show that under no circumstances
could protection benefit even that por-
ton of our labor which was employed
in the protected industries, but placed
it at a positive disadvantage; whilst,
as to the remainder, constituting six
sevenths ofall American laborers, it
was an unmitigated evil A further
elaboration of that subject will not be
amiss here. The only possible way
by which protection could increase
wages, if at all, is by raising or main
tanning the prices of manufactured
articles. This last it does rrtifcially,
in defiance of the law of supply and
demand. The law says that the sup
ply shall not be increased from with
out nnless by the payment of heavy
tax, and that is protection to the pro-
ducts. Common sense teaches that
labor can only be protected in the
same way in providing that the sup
ply shall not be increased from with
out also.
To say that this purpose can be as
well accomplished by giving the in
creased price of products to the manu-
flcturers on their promise that if we
will thus enable them to do so they
will voluntarily pay the workman
higher wages has neither reason nor
truth in it. We kroaU that he will
and does buy his labor at the cheapest
figure in the market, and that in our
county the supply is constantly and
freely increased from without. With
quite as much reason we might as we'll
impose a heavy tax on every foreign
Iaborer who comes to our shores, in
order to raise wages in the home mar
ket, and tell the manufacturer with
equal truth that it was all for his
benefit; that the laborer would be
enabled "to pay him higher prices"
for his goods. In short, we could
turn the whole argument around and
apply it all to the manufacturer just
as it is now applied to the laborer. 1t
is true, as every man who is acquaint-
ed with human nature knows, that so
soon as he got the money the work
man would naturally buy his supplies
where he could get them cheapest, if
permitted to do so, and the manufac-
turer might whistle for his share of
the protection. Well, that is precise
ly what the manufacturer does now
with his products protected and his
labor free.
Now, the "slave-traders" claim
that protection not onl y raises directly
the prices of manufactured products,
but Indirectly the prices of all other
products as we'll. OF course this is
absurd, but it is necessary to say
something in answer to. the charge
that if protection does not go all
round it is the taxing of one man to
support another, and is, therefore, un
equal aDd unjust. Its the old di-
lemma of the falsifier; the telling of
one falsehood forces the telling of 9th
ers to cover it up. So, having started
out with the untrue assertion that pro-
lection raises the wages of the factory
hands by reason of the increase in pri
ces of the goods they make, they ad
vance without blush to the support
ing absurdity that it also advances
the wages of all other labor whatso
ever for the same reason. If it doe.
not do this, there is not trader
in America but will admit it is no
Just or fair.
A moments consideration will show
that protection does not help even thu
factory hand. IF his wages are in
= creased, as they say, because prices o
products are incfeased, then the pric
of labor is dependent on the price o
products, and the amount of the on
must be in proportion to the other
It follows, then, as clear as day, tha
the increased price of everything Oh
which the laborer lives will precisel,
keep pace with the increase of hi
wages, and his condition is not whi
improved. There is no escape fron
this on the. theory that protection j
just and raises aU prices in the sam
proportion.
In this case it would be no protec
tion at all, for tax levied equally OF
CfCI I4l<tA LII tAO SdPEOlt Va OtCI
man would do no man any good, an
would be simply nuisance. The on
ly conceivable way in which protectiv
taxation can benefit anybody is t
levy it on and collect it from one sc
of men and pay it over to another
This is precisely what protection doe
and that is why the manufacture
clamors for it and the consumer doe
not. Again, if wages were regulate
by the prices of products, it woul
follow inevitably that the norma
ratio between them would be rreser
we'd under similar conditions Yet, Q
I have before said, for many year
past, with more or less fuctuation
prices have steadily fallen and wage
have risen with equal steadiness. 81
Lyon Playfair estimates that eve
during the depression of the last e
teen years the average wages of Gres