Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-09-05
A workman who Hasn't Yet Seen
Through that Wages Fallacy.

been made Tor tdelr prOtoctlOn were nov
faithfully carried out. Their rights were
withheld from them. Must we break
the jug because we did not get water
from it at that time? Oh, no! Yours,
"OwEN P. CAvANAGH."
"The higher the tariff is on cut and
rough marble the better it is for all
American stone-cutters and quarrymen,
too" says our friend. He means by that,
of course, that the higher the tariff is the
higher the employers profits will be, and
the hihger his profits are the higher he
will make the wages Of his men. Well
even if high tariff did that, it would
simply be compelling the many people in
every trade and business, who had to
buy and use the cut stone, pay bonus
in high prices to the comparatively few
engaged in quarrying and cutting the
stone. And, be it remembered, that it
is literal fact that the people engaged
in unprotected industries iu this country
outnumber those engaged in protected in
dustries by 20 to l. That is, that for
every five persons who are supposed to
be protected by the tariff, there are 50
persons whose trade or calling is such
that they are not at all subject to foreign
competition.
But protection doesn't protect the peo-
pie it is supposed to protect. We believe
our correspondent to be an intelligent
man and we ask him or any other intelli-
gent man if it is the rule OF employers to
raise wages in proportion to the increase
of profits? Doesn't the employer get his
labor as cheaply as he can get it, whether
he is in the stone cutting business or any
other business-whether his profits are
or any other man know OF single case
where q tariff.protected manufacturer has
come forward at the end of a years busi-
ness and said to his employees: "Well,
my men, on account of the tariff my
profits have been increased by $50, 900
Now, as the tariff is kept on simply for.
the workingmen, I am going to divide
with you. / will increase your wages
Immediately?
Now that is what the protected manu-
facturer is supposed to do around election
time when he wants the votes of the
workingmen to sustain the system that
has made him rich. But every working
man in New York knows that the en-
ployer does nothing of tho kind. Pro.
lection has simply nothing to do with
wages. The employer, as a rule, pays as
much in wages as he is obliged to pay
and no more. The condition of the SUR
plus labor market is what chiefly governs
wages. If the surplus labor market is
large wages will have tendency to go
down to the lowest notch, and nothing but
combinations among working men, such
as trade unions, can keep them up. Any
thing that tends to restrict production
and hinder exchanges of commodities
between people tends to restrict work
and increase the surplus labor market.
And thus does high tariff newt ably
tend toward low wages.
A Voice, as If From the Grave,
Speaking Some Great Truths.
When Daniel Manning died the inde-
pendent press and public sentiment OF
the country, irrespective of party. spoke
of him as great statesman. The states
man part of his reputation had all been
earned during the few years he held the
office of Secretary of the Treasury in Mr..
Cleveland's cabinet. He had shown a
grasp Of great public questions, an under
standing of public needs and care for
the peoples welfare not surpassed by
any great public man who lived before
him.
This was shown by his quick apprecia-
\tion of the injustice OF our tariff system
and the courageous denunciation OF it
contained in the annual reports OF his
department. He attacked the system
more boldly and more uncompromisingly
than any great man in his party. Here
are few of the things he, in his last re-
port, said:
Protection is misnomer. 1t i'm
plies superiority elsewhere. That supe-
riority over any great industry OF ours
does not exist upon the globe. 1t implies
infants here and adults elsewhere. Such
is not our reputation. 1t implies that
amid competition universal, where the
fittest must survive, we shall perish. But
it is everywhere else believed that when
ever We shall release ourselves from bad
laws and enter that competition unman-
acled, rivals will be distanced, and our
primacy established in the markets and
commerce Of the world"
"We pay to labor the highest wages in
the world. Highly paid labor signifies
the most efficient labor-signifies that
high wages are the most profitable
wages-signifes that the high rate is
earned. While debate has been going OIL
whether our high wages we're because Of
taxation or despite taxation, economists
have discovered and demonstrated the
correlative facts that labor cost in oul
products is the least in the world"
"Were trade as free with and within
all the un-united States of Europe as It'll
among the United States of America, thu
great surplus products of our industry
including the manufactured, would hav'
the pick of foreign markets, for the rea
son that our labor, being the most highl,
paid, and insuring lowest percentage O
labor cost, would everywhere surpass ri
valry."
"High wages to labor and cheaper pro
ducts are correlative terms. Low wage
to labor and costlier product are CORE
lative terms. The 'pauper-labor-of-E Eu
rope cry is bugaboo."
"The taxes to be first remitted are tn
duties on raw materials and the mos
widely injurious of them is the tax upo
wool. ."-[New York News.
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