Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-05

? money, as you must do, the wages are a.
8 high in England as they are in Massachu
setts. la voice-Higher.'J
QUICK REToRT.
Judge Thurman exclaimed: sHicher.
do not know but what they are; they ara
as high certainly in England as they are in
Massachusetts,, because in order to ascer-
tain how much a man is obtaining by his
labor, and to ascertain how much his earn
ings 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
frst-named place than he does in the Sec
ond, he may not lay up one single cent
more of money. Now l am willing, how
ever, to admit that as general rule Amer
ican 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 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
superior skill, his superior diligence, en-
| ables him to produce more in the same time
than does the laboror in any other country
| in tho world. 1t is therefose more effective
here than anywhere else, and consequently
can be better paid for. Again, American
laborers are better educated, more intel
ligent than the laborers elsewhere, and
therefore can better take care of their own
interests That is principal reason why
they are better paid in this country than
elsewhere.
ABOUT LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.
''Now, am not going to say whether
labor unions and Knights of Labor andsRlI
that are benefit or not. That is a large
question, upon which it is not necessary
for me to speak today; but this / do say,
that the labor unions and Knights of Labor
have done more to secure reasonable wages
to the laboring man than all the tariff laws
that ever were passed in the world. [pro-
longed cheering. There is another reason
why American laborers receive more wages,
and that is the immense area of uncultivat-
ed territory in the United States, the effect
of which is to free laborers from that de-
pendence that may exist in other countries
where land is very dear, that dependence
upon the manufacturing class. In this
country man can get land to labor upon,
to support himself and family, by simply
asking for it from the general government
and settling upon it, aud remaining settled
upon it given length of time. The con-
sequence is that with these advantages no
man need be dependent upon the goodwill
of any monopolist in the world, and that
gives our laboring man an independence
which is not seen elsewhere upon the globe,
and enables him therefore to demand, and
he does receive, somewhat higher wages
than they receive elsewhere.
HIGH TARIFF DON'T INCREASE WAGES.
"Then there is the effect of our free insti-
| tutions-there is the effect of the pride that
every man in this country, be he laboring
man of not, feels in the consciousness that
he is an American citizen, [applause.] taat
he helps to govern this country, and that he
makes people govern it as far as possible
for his benefit, [Renewed applause.1 But,
| gentlemen, there is another thing that is
conclusive on this point, and that is this; to
show high protective tariff does not in
crease the wages of the laboring man. 1t
| is conclusively shown by the fact that labor
ers in unprotected industries are as we'll
paid as those in the so-called protected
Industries. Now how many laborers are
there i'll what are called the protected iu-
dustries-that is say, who are engaged in
manufacturing articles which, when they
are brought from abroad, are charged with
tariff tax-and how many l&borers are
there in the country engaged In industries
which are in uowise protected by such tariff
tax, and cannot, in the nature of things, be
protected by any such things? Why, my
| friends, it has been estimated some place.
think the highest estimate / have seen
placed upon the laborers in these protected
industries is at between eight and nine
hundred thousand men, women and child
rem. But will put it at a million, and say
that there are a million of them, while
there are eight times as many other laborers
whose industries and occupations are in no
wise protected by the tariff, and, therefore,
| if protection is for the benefit of the labor
ing men, the wages of this million of mon
engaged in the protected industries ought
to be higher than the wages Of men employ
ed in unprotected industries, and yet such
is not the fact. In round numbers the Ia
borers in unprotected industries receive as
high wages as those in the protected indus.
tries. do not know what the wages of
farm hands are here in Michigan. In my
own State they are about dollar day for
farm hands, and you see that in the State
of Massachusetts, according to the returns
of our own board, they are 81 04 in these
manufacturing industries. So that there is
practically no difference whatever worth
talking about between the wages that one
receives and the wages that the other re-
ceiyes they are both substantially the
same. If you take comfort and cost of
living and all that into account, the agricul-
tural hand in the State of Ohio receives
quite as good wages as the laborers in the
protected industries of the country.
THE APPEAL TO EVERYBODY.
"My friends, nothing is more common
for these men appeal to everybody-than to
hear tho protectionist orator say that the
tariff is benefit to the farmer. How it
can benefit the farmer / have never yet
been able to find out. Let US consider the
subject in the light of experience. We had
low tariff from 1916 mp to the breaking
out of the war. 1t was called the Walker
, tariff, or the tariff of '46. l remember it
! very well, for I was in the House of Re-
presentatives at the time and voted for it..
Now, from 1901 take this from the GEN.
sus, and therefore I have to take these
years-from 1850 to 1860, while that tariff
was in force, farm lands in the United
States, according to the census reports, in
creased in value 103 per cent. Then came
the high tariff of 1861 or 1862, whichever
it was. And from 1860 to 1870, another
period of ten years, the increase in the value
of farming land in the United Stated was
only forty per cent. Under the low tariff
it had been 103 per cent. of increase in
value in ten years. Under this high tariff
it was only forty per cent. But it may be
said that it includes the period of the war
and don't make fair comparison.
A COMPARISON.
~ grant the force of that to some evtent,
but the war ended in 1865, and we can
compare the next ten years, from 1870 to
1880, and by these same census reports it
appears that in these ten years of profound
peace, from 1870 to 1880, the value of the
farming lands of the whole United States
increased but per cent.
"Under the highest protective tariff that
ever was inflicted upon this country they
have increased but nine per cent, while
under the low tariff of 1916, in ten years,
from 1850 to 1860, q period of profound
peace, they increased in value 103 per cent,
applause. more than ten times as fast
as they have increased now. have some-
where here a statement of how it was in
this goodly State of Michigan. Yes, here
it is, (producing memorandum From
1850 to 1860. under the low-tariff period,
the value of farming land in Michigan iu-
creased 211 per cent. From 1860 to 1870,
under high protective tariff, they have
increased 14S per cent, but that includes
the time of the war. But from 1870 to 1880,