St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-01
LABOR AND THE TARIFF.

LABOR AND THE TARIFF.
In discussing the tariff in its relations
to labor, Mr.. BLAINE, and the Repub-
lican press generally, put forward three
assumptions. These are: First, that
the condition of labor in this country Is
now entirely satisfactory; second, that
it is much more satisfactory under the
present high tariff than it was under a
low one; third, that the general pros
perity of the country is therefore due to
the high tariff.
These assumptions are so frequently
and audaciously advanced in argument
that a great many people have ceased
altogether to question them, and permit
them to stand as though they were
demOnstrable truths. But they are not
truths on the contrary. they are in every
respect false. The present condition of
labor, as all intelligent men know, is
not satisfactory. 1t is not true that
wages are higher under the present
high tariff than under low tariff;
and it is equally false that such
prosperity as we enjoy is due
to the operation of the subsidy
system, which its beneficiaries miscall
protection to American industry. The
proof of what we maintain has been
abundantly furnished of late in nearly
every branch of trade. The cotton
spinners, who are employed in highly
protected industry, are earning less
than they earned before the war, and in
some departments of the business less
than is paid for the same labor in En-
gland. In nearly every branch Of the
iron trade wages are, and for some time
have been, tending downward, until
they have reached a point where they
meet the necessities of mere subsistence.
The same is true of wooden manufact-
ureS. The sharpest and most imme-
date illustration of the utter falsity OF
the three assumptions is to be found in
the condition of the coal miners Of
Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia
during the last four years. Among
them wages have been upon an inces-
sanity descending scale. Witness the
Reading railroad and coal strike, and
the experience of the men in the Sloan
and Continental collieries at Scranton
in Pennsylvania. In order to be able
to live and maintain their families those
wretched miners have been forced to
exc out their wages by beggary, by a
system of overtime which Drutalizes
and finally destroys the labOrer, and
worse than all, by the cooperation of the
labor of little children-a resource that
is repugnant to every consideration of
humanity. In the highly protected
state of Pennsylvania the dispatches
tell us that reduction of 10 per cent
has Just been ordered at Scranton in
operating one vein of coal, on the pre-
text that it is more easily mined than
others; but inasmuch as other shafts
must eventually sink to this vein, it is
but question of time when the reduc-
ton becomes general. The average
earnings of a coal miner at this rate
will be S23.S2 a month. To attempt to
support himself and family upon 1925
cents a day is the problem before a
Pennsylvania coal miner, in highly
protected industry.
The protectiOniSts, who are RESPONSE
BILE for this lofty rate of remuneration,
constantly affirm that the advocates of
tariff reform can offer none but theoret-
ical arguments. The above statements
are not theories; they are facts which
are undeniable. There is not a single
department of industry enjoying the
benefits of the subsidy system where
labor is in a fiourishing condition. The
fact is that those industries which are
flOurishing, and upon whose good health
the prosperity of the country is depend
ent, are not within the list of those
which are subsidized. On the contrary,
they are taxed to pay the subsidies given
to the protected industries. 1t is among
the 100000 people who earn scanty
living in the protected industries that
most of the labor troubles are to be
found, not among the 100000 who are
independent of subsidies. The carpen-
ter, who is in no way concerned with
the tariff, except to pay his share of the
blackmail: the bricklayer, who laughs
at political economy and sells his skilled
labor without fear or favor; the
printer, who pays his tax, and yet
manages to prosper; the shoemaker,
who asks no favOrS; and the farmer,
against whom the tariff operates most
cruelty by shutting him out of the
worlds. most profitable markets-all
these men succeed in making living in
spite of the burden imposed on them by
dear necessarieS. The farmer is per-
haps the most abOminaDly swindled of
all victims of the subsidy system. A
matter of a cent a bushel at Liverpool
NAV determine whether the English
people shall be fed on grain of his
raising or upon cereals from Russia,
Hungary and elsewhere. The tariff has
made his products so dear that England
now grows her wheat in India, as well
as in Canada and Australia, so that even
that staple is not to be depended upon.
Nevertheless, he makes living in spite
of the tax which cOnfronts him on every
hand-on his tools, his blankets, his
clothing, the lumber which builds his
barn, the nails which hold it together,
his wagons, plOws and harness, his
wife's sewing machine, her thread, nee
dies and thimble, her pans and crOckery,
the plates from which the family eat,
the sugar and tea they consume, the salt
and pepper with which the dishes are
seasoned. And what ought to arouse his
Indignation more than anything else is,
that the enormous tax levied on the IT,
600, 600 who do not even theoretically
profit by the tariff, Cor the benefit of
of the 700, 900 who nominally do, is not
even paid 10 those 100000. 1t is inter
cepted By the manufacturers before il
reaches them. The wOrkingmen, work
ingwomen and working children among
these 100000 are so shockingly under
paid that they are constantly striking