Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-08-30

upon everything that be purchases for bis
consumption, he has to pay an increased
price and Is thereby injured.
"Npw, do think that our Abolition
friends, especially, ought to take this under
their most serious copsideration. They say
that they freed the negro from slavery. l
am willing TO grant them all they claim in
that regard, although there might be sone-
thing said about who did it. Perhaps
two millions of Democratic soldiers in the
army had something to do with it. Zap
plause.l
"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 neces.
sity to use, not for his own benefit, but for
the benefit of somebody elsel Is it not
enough that they make him slave by re-
quiring him to vote for them and swear not
to vote for a Democrats Is that enoughi
[Applause.l Must they also take all his little
earnings by compelling him to pay for every
thing that he wears, and every thing his
wife and children wear, more than they
ought to be required to pay. [Rsnewed ap-
plause]
"Now, my friends, while am on this sub
Ject OF the laboring man, let me speak of
American labor as compared with labor in
other countries. 1t is true that in America
laboring men generally receive more wages
in money than they do in foreign lands but
not by any manner of means to the extent
that you may suppose from hearing so
much talk about it.
For instance, let me give you the follow.
ing facts: According to the last census,
Great Britain had population of 401 to the
square mile, and the average wages paid
were 81 2-3 cents per day-that is in Great
Britain. New England has a population Of
2lO IL to the square mile, and the average
wages paid were Sl.02 per day-about four
cents more than in England. Ohio has
population of eighty to the square mile, and
wages average a S1.0S day Colorado has
two to the square mile, and wages out in
Colorado average S1.45 day. The entire
United States, not including the territories
and the District Of Columbia, has twenty
four to the square mile, and the average
wages are Sl.12 What fact does this estab-
lishs Does it not prove that the more dense
the population the greater the competition
among wage earners, and the lower the
wages, and the reverse of the proposition,
the less the competition among wage-earners
the higher the wagesa No man can deny
that who has any regard for the truth.
NOW, my friends, you hear a 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 see that in that most
prosperous state of Massachusetts,, the great
est tmanufacturingstate in the United States,
the average wages are only about four cents
more than they are in England. But il you
take the purchasing power of money, as
You must do, the wages are as high in Eng
land as they are in Massachusetts, IA voice:
"Higher."]
Judge Thurman-"Higher? do not know
but what they are; they are as high cer-
tainly in England as they are in Massachu-
setts, because in order to ascertain how
much a 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 for him to live;
and If it costs q man more to live in one
place than it does in another, although he
may get more 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 gen.
eral rule, labor is paid higher wages in
America than it is in any other countries.
But what are the reasons for itl 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 industry, his
skill, his superior diligence enable
him to produce moro in the same time than
does the laborer in any other country in the
world. 1t is, therefore, more effective here
than anywhere else, and consequently can
be better paid for. Again, American labor
ers are better educated, more intelligent
than the laborers elsewhere, and, therefore,
can better take care of their own interests.
That is principal reason why they are bet
ter paid in this country than elsewhere.
"Now, am not going to say whether la
Dor unions and Knights of Labor, and all
that, are a benefit or not That is large
question, upon which it is not necessary for
me to speak to-day; but this 1 do say, that
the labor unions and Knights of Labor have
done more to secure reasonable wages for
the laboring men than all the tariff laws that
ever were passed in the world. prolonged
cheering.
"There is another reason why American
laborers receive more wages, and that is the
immense area of uncultivated 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 manufacture
ing class. In this country a man can get
land to labor Upon to support himself and
family by simply asking for it from the gem
eral government, and settling upon it and
settled upon it given length of
time. The consequence is that with these
advantages no man need he dependent upon
the good will of any monopolist in the world,
and that gives our laboring man an inde-
pendence which is not seen elsewhere upon
the globe; enables him, therefore, to demand
and he does receive, somewhat higher wages
than they receive elsewhere.
"Then there is the effect of our free institu.
lions; there is the effect of the pride that
every man in this country, be he laboring
man or not, feels in the consciousness that
he is an American citizen [applause1; that
he helps to govern this country and that he
makes people govern it as far as possible for
mis- benefit. [Renewed applause.1 But, gen
tlemen, there is another thing that is con.
elusive on this point, and that is this, to show
that high protective tariff does not in
CREASE the wages of the laboring man. 1t is
shown by the fact that laborers
in unprotected industries are as well paid rs
those in the 81 called protected industries.
'Now, how many laborers are there in
what are called the protected industriesi
That is to say, who are engaged in manu-
articles which. when they are