The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-05-10
Labor and Wages.
BY James Fleming.

The mouth pieces of monopoly finding that
the cry of free trade is getting stale, and that
the war tariff can bear a large reduction, and
still Example protection, to satisfy all reason
able men, are now instituting comparisons
betwixt wages in England and America.
The modus operandi of getting up these tables
is to take the highest wages known to be OBJ
tanned at shat particular trade, viz: if a car
penter earns fifteen dollars a week, for a
few weeks, although he should go the rest of
the year idle, or only earningenough o keep
body and soul together, call these few weeks
high wages the average for the year. In one
of my recent articles, l showed the differ
ence betwixt theoretic and actual wages,
from high protectionist authorities. Work
ers in Eastern cotton factories have testified
before a committee of the United States SEN
ate, that they earned a $3.50 per day but
were idle half the time, and some more, and
had to gather clans and pick up drift wood
from the beach, the clans to eat and tho
Au0l w al oC1hS uudOAS " pay " SOdA,
owing to so much of their time being unem-
ployed. What is the cause Of this misery?
1t is lot so much insuf6ciency of wages as
insuticiency of work, which is caused by
our absurd tariff, and trust combinations
atoms limiting production. The condition
of the working people in our most highly
protected industries is deplorable. The re-
ports of special newspaper correspondents,
and the sworn statement Of intelligent oper-
atives simply corroborate the numerous re-
ports which have been almost daily publish.
ed during the last ten years; and the fact
that such cases of restitution and misery are
never heard of among the unprotected farm
ers, and but few among the other laborers
employed in unprotected trades and occu'
p~ations, must convince every rejecting
Is the curse of American labor.
Moreover these damaging facts to the
claims of protectionists have never been de"
MED, and indeed cannot be denied. These
people are the living monuments Of the heart.
l~essness and cupidity of a privileged class.
Suppose their assertions were admitted
that the workers in England are in a worse
condition than ours, is there not a world
wide difference between the natural condi.
ton of the two countries to account for it!
England is a small over populated island
with iron and coal as her only natural re,
sources. America is q land immense in ex.
tent, sparesly settled, endowed with natural
wealth and advantages unsurpassed by any
other country. In making invidious com.
parsons between the conditions of the work.
ers in both, the protectionists are adding in.
suit to injury. Such pictures of human
misery and wretchedness should not be
among the possibilities in America. There
are many reasons why afluence and comfort
should be the exceptions among the working
classes of England, while there is absolutely
no excuse why in the United States plenty
should not be the rule. In their unreason.
able clamor, about "free trade" and paupe,
labor. The m%onopolists and their deluded
followers resemble those Ephesians who fol-
hours kept up the cry Of "Great is Diana o.
the Ephesians''.- 1t was not Diana they
cared for, but that their means of max.
ing money was in danger. In like
manner our monopolists while robbing tn,
farmer and mechanic, clamor about "paupel
labor and the blessings of protection" 1
protection is such q good thing, let the strug
Cling pioneer farmer have some of it. S.
far the farmer has been the great pay-all.