Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-01-20
A POWERFUL CONSERVATION TO CRUSH
PROTECTION

IL. 10 wipe prOtecliou 'iV'" VII
face of the earth.
Now, this combination might be
very powerful and its arguments
very effective did they not start
from false premises and in utter
ignorance of the facts.
The Virgiaian and Ne'cS quotes
the following Act of Local Assem-
bly, $500 Knights of Labor, viz;
"Whereas, the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad Company in the
present difficulties which they have
forced upon their employees, are en-
gaging immigrants to fill the places
thew have caused us to vacate and
whereas the company is protected
from foreign competition by a pro-
tective tariff on coal, which we have
fondly believed for years was in'
tended to benefit American labor ;
and whereas we, as citizens OF this
republic, believe the laws should be
impartial, and that no laws should
be enacted which confer special
privileges upon any class OF citi.
zens: therefore, be 1t resolved, that
IN the coming election for Congress
men we shall support only those
men who are pledged to vote to re-
peal the tariff on COAL"
And comments as follows, viz.
.But Local Assembly $500 could
have gone further. The action OF
the Reading Company in importing
cheap foreign labor when the whole
American people, the poor widow
as we'll as the millionaire, are tax
ed to pay them high price on
every pound of coal in order that
they may hire American workmen
at good wages, is but sample OF
the course pursued by the great
body of manufacturers and monop'
olistlc concerns"
The passage of the resolution In
dicates very plainly the presence OF
Democratic demagogues among the
strikers who are leading them astray
and the Virginian and Neacs either
is no. in possession of the facts or
withholds them for political effect
Before passing such a resolution as
this and before the Virgiaiaa ana
Ne,es endorses it, it would have
seemed desirable to take some
slight trouble to ascertain the facts
Eevry pound of coal mined by
the Reading Company and every
pound mined at every other An
thracite mine in the United States
is open to the competition of the
whole wOrld-nOt one single cent
of duty is imposed upon Anthracite
coal. 1t is, and always has been,
on the free list.
There is a small tariff on btu
minous coal, designed to protect
the mines of Maryland and West
Virginia against those of Nova
Southland this tariff was imposed
at the request of the miners them
selves - but nothing whatever
stands in the way of the freest CON-
petition with the product OF the
Reading mines.
There is a lamentable amount OF
ignorance among the people and
even among journalists concerning
the application now made of the
principle of protection and the
present tariff. Men who have not
in the.r possession, and who never
even saw. a copy of the tariff, at
tempt to discuss it learnedly, only
to be led into the gravest errors
asserting as facts statements that
they know nothing whatever about.
The very day the Reading miners
struck they were being paid from
sixty to ninety per cent. higher
wages than the miners Of any free
trade country on the face of the
earth--theirfood, clothing, and sup.
plies were costing less thai under
the free trade regime of 1860. They
we're working fewer hours and en-
toying comforts and luxuries that
miners in free trade countries new
er even dream of.
They enjoy these blessings not
because the product of their labor
is protected, but because the furn-
aces, foundries, machine shops and
thousands of manufactures who
consume this coal are protected,
enabling them not only to pay their
own employees the highest wages,
Out to pay prices for coal that war
rant mine owners to pay full prices
for mining, and the poor widow
gets her coal twenty per cent. cheap
er than in the free trade days OF
1860. -