The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-05-04
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
THE QUESTION is: WHO GAINS BY
PROTECTION,
Senator Vance shows that the I.aborer
Gets None OF the SpOil>. and that Pro-
lection " orkS Against Labor.

senator Vance shows that the Laborer
Get~ None OF the Spoil>. and that Pro-
lection " orks Against Labor.
To acknowledge that high tariffs are
maintained for the sole benefit OF manu-
facturers would be fatal 10 their existence
II once Their advocates are too smart
for that. They not only do not admit
that such Is the fact, but IN the argument
for protection they ignore and keep out of
sight as much as possible their own inter
ests in tariff taxes They say it is all for
LABOR. They can't endure, they say, that
our laboring people should have only the
wages received by European paupers,
and be compelled to live as they do; there
fore, they say, I'VE must make our goods
high priced by taxation" When remind
ca that the increased price is not paid to
the workman, but to the manufacturer,
they answer: 'Nerv true, but it ENABLES
us to pay our ''workmen higher wages
than are pal to European laborers.' To
this reply. And that is very true ALSO
II does enable you to pay higher wages,
but YOU don't do it." Men do not pay
higher for the same thing than other peo
PIE simply because they have more money.
Rich and poor alike pay Just the market
price-no more and no less-except where
the rich secure a REDUCTION by means of
ready and abundant capital. Otherwise
than by those combinations which wealth
affords, there is not an article of human
want sold in America for which the rich
man is charged less or more than the poor
man | refer, Of course, to articles of the
same quality. Labor, human intelligence
and muscle, being a commodity offered
for sale, is subject to the same economic
laws which govern the sale of other com
modities If there is no legislative inter
ference, these laws will operate fairly and
Justly upon all; but the artificial Increase
Of the prices of products is not and cannot
we'll be applied to the labor which IS ex-
pended on the products. Therefore labor
j. placed under "a disadvantage by tariffs.
The manufacturers interests are protected
BY excluding competitition; the workmans
interest is unprotected and is left open TO
the competition Of all the world, and all
the world is most cordially invited to come
by bounties Of our public lands and i'm
mediate citlz9nship-to compete with our
workIngmen. The advantages are all on
the side of the manufacturer. HIS prices
are secured by law; the laborers wages
are dependent on the tree gift of the man
ufacturer, who admits he is enabled
TO make them higher. In fact, how does
he procure his labora By making calcu-
lation of how much his profits have been
increased by the tariff and increasing
wages in proportion? Not bit of it.
Such Justice would indicate the near APP
proach of the millennium. He goes into
the labor market-an unprotected free
trade market-and buys it at the lowest
market price.
If the American article is too high for
him. he steps over into Canada and buys
pauper labor )" if the price is too high
there, as it sometimes is, he sends his
agent to Europe and buys and ships over
pauper" labor until he is supplied. He
floods our market with cheap" pauper
:. labor" to the great injury Of our own
industrious workers. and then when he has
procured his supplies at rates fixed by the
eager half-Starved competition OF strug-
Cling men ali the world over, he reHds the
air With howls of distressful rage against
the coming in of a foreign blanket, wool
hat. bushel of salt, school book or q
slate pencil, because it Will lnJure the
American" working man A pauper-
made coat or pair of shoes Will rum hlm
forever, but the pauper himself, who sup
plants him, and takes his own and his
cnidren's bread, is the highest economic
blessing and the very gift of Heaven to
The American laborer.
Since the world was made or ever the
hills were brought forth was ever such alb
surd and lying logic spread out for the
acceptance of human sanity Did ever
cat before catch rats with SO thin dis
guise of meal? Verify, instead of the false
cry of protection to American labor they
should have emblazoned on their banners
the words - Protection to the manufac-
turers' capital; free trade in flesh and
blood ~
OF course wages are higher here than IN
Europe perhaps higher than anywhere
else IN the world But the man who as
serts that the tariff has made them so IS
lacking in either intelligence or honesty.
Labor is higher in the United States than
anywhere else because it is more produc-
tive than it is anywhere else, and Is there
fore worth more to its employer. The
statistics abundantly prove this. Men OF
common intelligence no longer compare
the cost of labor in a proUuct by the price
per day paid to the operatives only, but
look at the results of the days work OF
each workman. The excess of the finished
article which the American laborer can
turn out over his foreign rival shows con
clusiyely that his labor is the cheapest tc
tbs employer in the world. This will be
Illustrated by the following table found II
Mr. Schoenhof's Study in Social Pnysio
I0gy,n and which has been approved by
economj jsts in Germany, England and thf
United States.
Tie productive capacity of one opera
tive, taking 100 as the unit, Is as follows