The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-09-01
Weekly gntellieeater.
Official County Paper.
Continued from first paqe.1

poilou 10 pay u nlgnc price tnan no
otherwise would, so that, so far as he
is concerned, there can be no pretense
whatsoever that the tariff is anything
but unmititigated injustice 10 him. He
has nothing TO sell which he is benefit
ed by; he performs no labor that by
any kind of argument can be said to be
benefited by it. He sells at q price
fixed by a foreign market because he
can't sell for any other price and upon
everything that he consumes, upon
everything that he purchases for his
consumption he has to pay an increased
price and is thereby injured. Now, l
do think that our abolition friends
especially ought to take this under their
serious consideration. They say that
they freed the negro from slavery.
am willing to grant them all they claim
in that regard, although there might be
something said about who did 1t. Per-
haps 1000, 900 of democratic soldiers in
the army had something to do with it.
[Applause. After giving them all
they claim, do they mean. after having
given him freedom to make him a slave
by compelling him to pay higher taxes
upon everything that is a necessity to
use, not Tor his own benefit, but for the
benefit of somebody else? Is it not
enough that they make him a slave by
requiring him to vote for them and
swear not to vote for a democrat? Is
that not enough2 GApplause. Must
they also take all his little earnings by
compelling him to pay for everything
that he wears and everything that his
wife and children wear o than he
ought to be required to pay2 CRenewed
applause.
"Now, my friends, while | am on
this subject of the laboring man let me
speak of American labor as compared
with labor in other countries. 1t is
true that in America lsboring men
generally receive more wages in money
than they do In foreign lands, but not
by5any manner of means to the extent
that you may suppose from hearing so
much talk about it. For instance let
me give you the following facts:
According to the last census Great
Britain had a population of 4Ol to the
quare mile and the average wages paid
were 973 cents per d%ay--that is in
Great Britain. New England has a
population of 2104 10 the square mile
and the average wages were $l OF per
day, about 1 cents more than in Eng
land. Ohio has a population of eighty
to the square mile and wages average
81 OF a day. Colorado has two to the
square mile and wages out there aver
age$1 40 day. The entireU nitedStates,
not including the territories and the
District OF Columbia, has twenty-four
to the square mile and the average
1870 go III 10 IUhnN fnnf dnnO fhtn
establish? Does it not prove that the
mor dense the population the greater
the competition among wage earners
and the lower the wages, and the re-
verse of the proposition, the less the
competition among wage earners the
higher the wnges2 No man can deny
that who has any regard for the truth
Now, my friends, you hear q great
deal said about the pauper labor OF
England, especially because our chief
imports are from Great Britain
England, Ireland and Scotland. And
yet you sec that in that most prosper
GUS state of Massachusetts, the greatest
manufacturing state in the United
States, the wages are only about four
cents more than they arc In England
But,ik youstakc the purchasing power
of Inoney-as. you must ,doT-the wages
are as high in England as they L in
New England. IA voice, "Higher."1
Higher2 lido not know but what they
are; they are as high certainly in Eng
land as they are in Massachusetts, be-
cause in order to ascertain how much
q man is obtaining by his labor and to
ascertain how much his earnings tend
to support him and his family, you
must take into account what it costs
him to live, and il il costs q man
to live in one place than it does il
another, although he may get nor
wages in the first named place than he
does in the second he may not lay up
one single cent more OF money Now
/ am willing, however, to admit that as
general rule American labor Is paid
higher wages in America than 1t is i'll
other countries. But what are the
reasons for It? In the first place it is
more effective in this country. An
American laborer makes more in the
same time ; all authorities admit that.
All of them agree that his superior i'll.
dustry, his superior skill, his superior
diligence enable him to produce
ii the same time than does the laborer
10 any other. country in the world. IL
ia therefore more effective here thai
anywhere else and consequently can be
better paid for. Again, American
laborers are better educated, more in
t~elligent than the labOrers elsewhere
and therefore can better take care OF
their own interests. That is a princi-
pal reason why they are better paid In
This country than elsewhere. Now, |
am not going TO say whether labor
nnions and knights OF Labor and all
that are q benefit OF not. That is a
large question upon which it is moi
necessary for inc to speak to-day, but
This l do say, that the labor unions and
knights of Labor have done more to
secure reasonable wages for the labor
ing men than all the tariff laws that
oyer were passed in the world. GPro
longed cheering.l
"Tbere is another reason why
American laborers receive more wages
and that is the immense area of nncul-
tivated territory in the United States,
the effect of which is to free laborers
from that dependence that may exist in
other countries where land is very dear
that dependence upon the manufac
turing class. In this country q man cal
get land TO labor upon, to support him
self and family by simply asking for il
from the general government and set
thing upon il and remaining settled
upon II a given length of time. The
consequence is that with these advan
tages no man need be dependent upon
the good will of any m~onopOlist in the
world, and that gives our laboring man
an Independence which is not seen
elsewhere upon the globe; enables him
therefore TO demand, and he does re-
ceive somewhat higher wages than they
receive elsewhere. Then there Is the
effect of our free institutions; there is
the effect of the pride that every man
In this country, be he laboring mar OF
not, feels in the consciousness that be
is an American citiZen-[applausel-
that he helps to govern this country, land
that he makes people governit as far a.
possible for his benefit. [Applause.]
but, gentlemen, there Is another
thing that is conclusive on this point,
and that is this, to show that a high
protective tariff does not increase the
wages of the laboring man. 1t is con
clusively shown by the fact that labor
ers in unprotected industries are AZ
we'll paid as those in the sO-called pro-
tected industries. That is to say, who
are engaged in manufacturing articles
which, when they are brought from
abroad are charged with a tariff tax.
and how many labOrers are there in the
country engaged in industries which
are in no wise protected by such tariff
tax and cannot in the nature of things
be protected by any such thing3 Why,