St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-02
BECAUSE IT COULD NOT.
Why the Tribune Did Not Answer
the Question.
To the Editor of the Globe.

To the Editor of the Globe.
In its issue last Thursday the Mime
apOlis Tribune published, under the
head of Campaign Notes" the follow
ing extract, which was called "a Fact
About Protection"
fact about protection, that speaks for
itself, is that about the Goats. the thread
makers. They have factory in Rhode Is
land and one in Scotland. They pay 126 per
cent higher wages in Rhode Island than IN
Scotland, and sell the Rhode Island thread as
cheap as they do the Scotland thread.
Not exactly perceiYing how such an
argument was a fact about protection
that speaks for itself, and thinking that
the erudite editor OF the Tribune might
enlighten me further, asked him to
show how such statements were an
argument for his cause. He has not
seen fit to reply. | called to his atten-
ton the alleged fact that the Coats pay
126 per cent higher wages in Rhode ISL
and tnan in Scotland. and yet do not
have to get higher prices for their
product in order to do so, as they sell the
Rhode Island thread at the same price
as the Scotland thread. l asked II the
Coats could not pay still higher wages
II they could get their machinery and
raw materials which enter into the
goods produced as cheap as they do in
Scotland? Furthermore, | limited that
perhaps the reason they did not pay as
high wages in Scotland was because
they did not have to. for there are more
labOrers there and the struggle for eX-
istence between these wOrkmen is
keener. No reply was forthcoming.
1t may seem at the first glance that the
Coats must make enormous profits out
of their Scotland factory, but l do not
think this is so. The cheap labor i'll this
instance, as in nearly all others, is the
American labor. The cheapest labor is
the best paid labor always, and VEN
ture to say that while they pay the
Rhode Island labOrers wages 126 per
cent higher, these same labOrerS pro-
duce fully 200 per cent more goods. A
German expert recently startled Ger
many by showing that at Pittsburgh,
forty men working the same time, pro-
duced $50 per cent more material than
IN Germany, or the forty men did as
much work as 100 Germans. They only
got 100 per cent more pay for it, and
the manufacturer had the odd 80 per
cent above that for himself. This is be-
cause we have in America the most in
telligent and proficient labor in the
world. Judge Kelley. of Pennsylvania,
the champion of the Pennsylvania idea
known as protection, once told Mr..
Mills that he met while in Europe an
old woman making nails at 37A cents
per day. She turned out six pounds a
day. His own WOrkmen at PittSburg
turned out by aid of machinery thirty
kegs a day OF 100 pounds a key, at cost
of One-siXth of a cent pound. Now
which is the cheap labor in this case? We
do not want to measure labor by the rate
of wages that is paid. 1t is the thing
which labor makes that fixes the cheap
ness or DEAFNESS OF labor. We have al
ways paid higher wages in this country
than in Europe, and we always will as
long as our institutions keep in sight
and in practice-freedom. 1t is freedom
that labor wants, not protection. Free
men will not work for starvation wages
if they have a free chance TO employ
themselves. 1t is only when protection
or restriction is enforced IN land. labor
or trade that men are compelled to work
for 80 cents a day. No labOTing man
ought to be afraid of free trade, free
land and free men. But when encrOach-
ments take place on any of these, let
him beware. &. l.. RYDER.