The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-05-05

..
idea, that the whole world owed the Unlteu
States balance of $50, 900, 600 on that year
trade, which was paid in precious metals, the
same custom house returns show that our eN,
port of precious metals exceeded our lmpos'
by S34, ,0OO, ,O00 1t is contended by the pro
tective theorist that the excess of merchan
disc exports came back through the silent any
unobserved channel of bills of exchange. Al
that be true, it is the heaviest blow the
balance of-trade theory can receive, lor y
proves that the custom house returns 40 ~.
include all or even the most essential lnios,
nation as to the trade of the country win
foreign nations But the custom house re-
turns do exhibit in part the operation OF the
tariff, and show that the 1866, ,000,O 900 worth
of American exports, when exchanged ior
the goods of foreign countries and such goous
are brought back to our shores, they are me'
with an average duty of 40 per cent, whic9'
Notwithstanding S2l2 200, 200 of these goods
were admitted duty free, the remaining Sf1a
900, 900 were increased in cost, but not IN
value, by S18l, 100000 to the consumer. ms
latter sum is the premium exacted by Pre-,
tection," to which must be added the untoiu
millions which duties that are prohibitory
enable the protected classes to fitch from tne
people.
If the protective policy is to be perpetu-
III.
nav them may know how much they pay tae
Government for revenue and how much ior
"protection." Such a method of levyIng
duties would enable the people to set OIL tlle
cost against the benefits of "pfoteetlon. aid
to intelligently decide whether 1t is worth
continuing The sum we are made to pay Tor
it is an unknown one, and hence we are left
without any certain means of ascertalnlng the
wisdom of the outlay. Moreover, it is a
right of free people to know for what pur,,
pose they are taxed, yet this rights abridged
by the manner in which duties are now LEVIED.
But the protectionists will oppose any change
in laying tariff duties whereby the masses may
learn how much of their substance is saeri-
feed to selfish greed, for well they know that
the protective policy could not long survive
the acquisition of such knowledge by the
people.
The impossibility of commercial independ-
ence is shown by experience, the home
market illusion disappears before the fact
that after providing for our people more
bouutifully than any other people on earth
are provided for, we send for sale abroad
more than $500, 100000 of agricultural pro-
ducts, because we can not consume them at
home, and the balance of trade mystihcation
is made plain by the application of the prln-
ciples of trade Though these fallacies may
still cloud discussion, they are sqbordinated
TO the claim that protection guards the
American laborer against competition with
the "pauper labor of other countries.
Let us examine the merits of this claim,
and if it be established, l will never consent
to change a system of taxation which really
improves the condition of the American work
ingman; and l shall have much less regard
for the Constitution Of my country II It be
L Al, II nraO
down the American mechanic to the level Of
the ill-fed, i'll clothed, and oppressed laborers
of Europe.
find in foot note in McMaster's History
of the People Of the United States, an account
of wages in this country in 1900, which states
that
In the great cities unskilled workmen were hired
by the day, bought their own food, and found their
own lodgings. But in the country, on the farms or
wherever hand @ad was S5 dSsd by S the
and given few dollars month ON the PennsyI-
yapia canals the dggers ate the coarest diet were
from May to November, and s. a month from
November to May. HOd-carriers and mortar -mixers,
dggers and ehSRpeTns ThO FS smd S cSt u be
and avenues OF Washington City, received so
year, or if they wished $50 for all the work they
could perform from March to December 20. The
hours of work were invariably from sunrise
to sunset Wages at Albany and New YORK.
were shillings, or as money then Went ~ GEMS u
day; at Lancaster, IS to SO month Elsewhere ia
PENNSYLVANIA workmen were content with 81 IN
summer and s. in winter. At baltimore men were
glad to be hired at Is pence day; None Dy the
price of labor was from IS to 81 In Virginia White
men employed by the year were given sig, curren-
cy; slaves when hired, were clothed and their mas
ters paid f1 month. A pound, Virginia money,
was in Federal money, S3.33. The average rate OF
wages the land over was, therefore, go yeaT with
the workingman must, with his wiies help, main
tain his family
Here we have a starting point, the lowest
in the scale of wages during the present GEN.
tury. From that point the rate of wages has
risen, not only among manufacturing opera
tiyes, but with every class of wage workers.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, in
their sixteenth annual report, shows that from
1880 to 1860 there was steady, gradual rise
in the rate of wages, and that though occa-
sional fluctuations apparently retarded the
advance, yet the ipcrease tor the whole period
was steady and regular. Commercial panlcs,
like those of 1857 and 1875, checked the rise,
but with returning confidence and renewed
business the advance went forward, and that
from 1860 to 1873 the rise in the rate of wages
continued until the panic in the latter year
checked the advance, which yielded to the
general stagnation that pervaded the country
until 1880; and that from 1880 to 1886 the
advance was 2S. SO per cent.
In England the advance in the rate of
wages has likewise been steady and regular;
but there, also, fluctuations were occasional.
Mr.. George Lord, president of the Manchest-
or Board Of Trade, shows that from 1850 to
1888 the advance was SO. Is per cent. fpro-
tective tariffs in the United StateG were the
sole cause, or even q material and important
cause, for an advance of 2S.36 per cent, the
policy of free trade in England must be
credited with the larger advance of 1918 per
cent. But the fact is that to neither protec
ton nor free trade is the advance in the rate
of wages to be credited. The advance came
independently of both policies and from other
causes.
in this country two important factors eqp-
tributed to the increase, Our vast uupeopled
public domain, with our bene6cent homestead
laws, drew a great number of illpaid opera
tiyes from the factories to the fields. That
immense army of tramps, which but n few
wears back were marching over the country
seeking bread by begging, have found on our
public domain a camping ground, and have
almost entirely disappeared from the kitchen
gardens of country houses, and have become
useful members in the ranks of production.
Improved machinery had driven Them from
the factories, and our public domain took
The second cause for the advance of the
rate of wages is to be found in the. fact that
manual labor has been supplanted by machi-
merry. 1t has been roughly estimated that in
some industries one man in 1888 can do the
work that required scores of men to do in
1900, 90 that whilst the improvement in
machinery has reduced the number Of en-
ployes it has multiplied the fruits Of their
labor.
IL will not be questioned that the cost of
labor is an element in the price of manufac-
tured products. But it is almost susceptible
of demonstration that it is not the rate of
wages, but the sum of wages which enters
into the cost of the manufactured article.
This cost is made up Of capital, raw material,
and labor. Whatever reduces the cost of one
of these elements competition will be swift to
seize upon. Improved machinery, by reduc-
ing the number Of employees, lessons the sum
of the cost of labor, and therefore the cost Of
its product also, and at the same time, by its
necessities, increases the rate of wages to
those employed. What, then, becomes of the
protective maxim that slow prices make low
wages" when it is fact that the prices of all
kinds of manufactured products were never
lower and the average rate of wages was never
higher than at present.
The fall in the PRICES Of manufactured
goods wouId have been pfeater than il has