Wichita eagle., 1888-08-23

TO increase the price of articles which we
buy, and which are manufactured here,
| where is the protection to American man
ufacturers and how, If the price is not
| raised, can they pay better wages to the
laborer? But there is one class of laborers,
my friends, that want to call your atten-
ton to especially. There is one class of Ia
| DOrers i'll this country who have been, &C
cording to the claims of the abolitionists
in the country and of the Republicans.
| their especial wards, especially under their
| guardianship and for those whose inter
ests may feel the most peculiar and earn
est solicitude, and those are the negroes.
| Now the result OF the war was to free
| about 4, 600, 900 negroes, and am very glad
| they were freed and they have increased
now to about &, 1000. COO or 1000, 900, for the
| negro is prolific animal. Great laugh
ter and applause.l Now, how do these
negroes make their living? Why, a great
many of them go to town and pursue any
| kind Of handieraft that they can, becOm-
ing domestic servants, backing shoes,
| shaving faces, or doing things of that kind.
| But in the country the negro makes what
! he gets by cultivating the earth through
out the whole south. How does he Guilt
yate it? Why, he either has bought some
| land, and some of them have bought a
good deal, or he rents the land. Whether
! he cultivates his own land or wheth-
er he rents it, the crops. that
receives for his toll. Now that crop in the
| main consists of cotton, some corn and
some little wheat, but mainly all cotton.
| Now, how can the high protective tariff
| benefit that negro who raises cotton and
| has for his share of the crop three or four
or five bales of cotton each year? The
price of cotton. therefore, is not raised as
| they say, or lessened by this tariff tax. and
yet here is all that the negro has for his
iabar. He can't get cent more for his
cotton by reason of any high protective
| tariff, and he don't get, perhaps, cent
less. lie has to sell his cotton and to sell
it at the price that is made by the foreign
London to which cotton is
exported from the United States.
1t is there that the price of MS cotton is
fixed and for that price he has to sell 1t
tariff or no tariff. But how is it on the
other hand? The negro, although he is
living in pretty warm climate IN some
places, still wants to be decent, and wants
to be comfortable. and wants his wife and
children to be comfortable, and they do
need clothing as well as other people, but
upon every single thing that he buys to
clothe himself. to clothe his family, TO
clothe his little picaninnies, TO get hat,
to get blanket, to get tool or nipple
ment of any kind, he is taxed by this high
protective tariff, and he is compelled to
pay higher price than he otherwise would,
SO that, SO far as he is concerned, there Is
no pretense, whatever, that the tariff is
anything but an unmitigated injustice to
him. Now, | DO think that our abolition
friends, especially, ought 60 take this
under their consideration. They say that
they freed the negro from slavery. |
am willing to grant them all they claim
in that regard, although our Democratic
soldiers in the army had something to do
with it. [Applause.l After giving them
all they claim, do they mean, after having
given him his freedom, TO make him
slave by compelling him to pay higher
taxes upon everything that is a necessity
to use, not for 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
enough. [Applause.l Must they also
take all his little earnings By compelling
him to pay for everything he wears and
everything that his wife and children
wear more than he ought to be required TO
pay? Renewed APPLAUSE
Now let me speak of American labor as
compared with labor i'll other countries. 1t
is true that in America laboring men gen.
orally 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 following facts:
According to the last census Great Bri-
tain had population of 401 to the square
mild, and the average wages were 9l2$
ceuts per day. That is in Great Britain.
New England has population of 2l015
to the square mile and the average wages
were 51.02 per day-about 4 cents more
than in England.
Ohio has population of eighty to the
c0rora nlilp and WAGES aVpPaUp 81 OS
day.
Colorado has two to the square mile and
wages out in Colorado average Si.45 a day.
The entire United States, not including
the territories and the district OF Column
bia, has tWenty-four to the square mile,
and the average wages are SLIP. What
fact does this establish? 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 propositlon-the less the
competition among wage-earners the
higher the wages. No man can deny that
who has any regard for the truth. Now,
deal said about the pauper
labor Of England, especially because
our chief imports are from Great
acknowledgement, Ireland and Scotland.
And yet you see that in that most prosper
Gus state of Massachusetts-the greatest
the average wages are only about cents
more than they are in England. But if
You take the purchasing power of money,
as YOU must do the wages are as high in
England as they are in Massachusetts,. \
voice: Higher" Judge Thurman
Higher? l do not know but what they are;
they are as high certainly in England as
they are in Massachusetts, 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 him to live,
and If It costs 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 general rule, American labor is paid
higher wages in America than it is in
other countries. But what are the reasons
for it? In the first place, it is more effec-
tive in this country. An American laborer
makes more in the same time: all authori-
ties admit that. All of them agree that
his superior industry, his superior skill
and his superior diligence enables him to
produce more in the same time than does
the laborer in any other country in the
world. 1t is, therefore, more elfec-
tive here than anywhere else and con-
sequently can be better paid for. Again
American laborers are better educated
more intelligent than the laborers else
where, and therefore / can better take care
Of their own interests. That is a principal
reason why they are better paid in this
country than elsewhere. Now, | am not
going to say whether labor unions and
knights OF Labor and all that are a bene-
fit or not. That Is a large question upon
which it is not necessary for me 70 speak
today, but this | do say, that the labor