West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-06-22
TO WORKINGMEN.
Henry George in Balford's Magazine for
June.

Henry George in Balford's Magazine for
June.
The impudent pretence, that what
is called protection to labor, is a
peculiar pretence. never heard out
side of the United States, and it is
an afterthought here. When this
utterly un-American system OF rob-
bling the many for the benefit of the
few was first introduced into this
country it was not pretended that it
was to protect labor or to compen-
safe for high wages. 1t was asked
for the protection of capitalize give
capitalists bonus-so that here,
where interest was high, they could
engage in the same sort of manufac
turing businesses as in Europe, where
interest was low. 1t was asked for
the protection of infant industries"
Ito give them artificial support for
few years, when, it was then claim
ed, they could stand alone without
any more protection.
But men who once secure the en-
actment of laws to enable them to
take the earnings of others never
lack an excuse for demanding the
continuance of the privilege. Now
that United States three per cent.
bonds are at premium, and the
great protected industries have be-
come very industrial giants,it would
be ridiculous to talk of protecting
capital or protecting Infant indus
tries" So we are now told that pro-
lection is protection for labor" and
is made necessary by our higher
wages. In fact, we are told that it
is because of protection that wages
are so high and the country so pros
porous.
The pretencc is as hollow and in
sulting as the pretence of the slave
owners that slavery was for the pro-
lection Of the slave. Special privil-
eye needs protection, and monopoly
needs protection, and all legalized
systems of robbery that enable men
who do no labor to grow rich by
appropriating the earnings of those
who do labor need protection. But
what is labor. that IL should need
protection? What is labor, that
votes should have to be bought and
coerced, and lobbyists maintained,
and Congressman interested, and
newspapers subsidized, and our
coasts and borders lined with sellers
and searchers and spies and inform
ers and taX-gatherers, to keep at
from falling to pauperism? Is not
labor the producer of all wealth? Is
it not labor that feeds all, Clothes
all, shelters all, and pays for all?
Is not labor the one thing that can
take care of itself; that requires but
access to the raw materials of ma
ture to bring forth all that man s
needs require? What benevolent
capitalist drew a tariff wall around
Adam to enable him to get q living
and bring up family? Whatever
else may need protection, labor needs
no protection. What labor needs is
freedom! Not the keeping Up of re-
strictions and the perpetuation OF
monopolies, but the tearing of them
down.
Who are these benevolent individ-
uals, so anxious to protect the poor,
helpless worklngman, so fearful lest
American labor may fall to the level
of "the pauper labor of Europe?"
The coal barons and the factory
lords, the iron and steel combina.
tions, the lumber ring, and the thou
sand trusts that, having secured the
imposition of duties to keep out for
eign productions, band themselves
together to limit home production
and to screw down the wages of
their workingmen. And are not
these men who are so anxious, as
they say, to protect you from the
competition of foreign pauper la
Dor" the very men who are most
ready to avail themselves of foreign
labor?
Do you know of any protected
employer, no matter how many mil
lions he may have made out of the
tariff, who pays any higher wages to
labor than he is obliged to? Is it
not true that in all the protected in-
dustries wages are, if anything, low
er than in the unprotected indus
tries? Is it not true that in all the
protected industries workingmen
have been compelled to band them
selves together; and that these pro-
tected industries are the industries