Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-10-18
Fifty Cents q Day.
s. II. NJ Byers Late Consul to Switzer and, and Consr
General to Italy.


notice. was often the homes of tn
working classes, too. for a part of m
official duty was to report the condition
of the working classes in THOSE countrie
where lived 10 our own government II
Washington. | noticed some other thing
in free trade countries that are worthy
the sober consideration of an American
voter, if that voter be a workingman.
seldom or never saw carpets in thu
homes of the working people, or pictures
or cushioned furniture, or even table
cloths at the dinner time. Yet all these
articles are fifty per cent cheaper there
than with US.
Why, then, are they not in use there
Because the wages paid in free trade
countries will not permit 1t. =, q
Fifty cents day is good average
there. and you can't support family and
buy any luXuries with so little monev.
The American voter is told that he can
buy all his clothes, furniture, etc, much
cheaper if he has free trade than with a
tariff. SO he can, that is if he has any
thing to buy them with. Free trade don
make bread and butter and meat cheaper,
and. with 90 cent wages, there is nothing
left after paying for these necessities of
life to buy clothes, furniture, etc, with,
no m tier how cheap they are 1t helped
little that the fox offered the crow some
fine cheese for song. for the crow
couldn't sing. What gain is it to a work
Ing man to get suit of clothes at half
price. and lose two-thirds of his daily
earnings? Clothes we buy occasionally
only. Meat, and bread and butter we
must buy daily, and the 80 cent earnings
are quickly gone.
never saw single working man in
free trade countries ride in a tirst-claSs
carriage. or even in sec nd.Class car
riage. Low wages won't allow it. be-
lieve never saw a wUrkingman's wife
own a sewing machine in free trade
countries. They were very cheap too,
owing to low priced labor there, but
working people could not afford them.
The Singer Sewing Machine Company
has factory in Scotland. where it makes
machines for less than half of what the
same machine costs made by the same
company in New FORK. But the Scotch
wOrkingwoman can't own one, spite Of
its Cheapness.
lneyer saw wOrkingman's wife in
free trade countries wear silk dress or
a silk bonnet, and yet silk is made cheaper
there than anywhere else in the world.
1t is made so cheap. indeed. that were we
to take 20 per cent off from our silk tariff
this country would ell Oded with foreign
silk made hy 50 cent labor. and %, 900
American s. k operatives would be out of
work in a fortnight
Why, have seen 2J,C0O silk wcavers in
Switzerland work for II cents a day.
have seen women spin 81 k in Italy FIR II
GEMS day. The Uui'cd ~tatcs c"u-umc-
on hundred m Lion lars worth # silk
every year. We make less tuau half Of
it. The cheap labor of Europe makes
the rest. Knock off the duty. just few
per cent. and cheap labor abroad will
make it all. In the meantime what be.
comes Of American weavcrs? They mt
know how to farm but they can become
tramps; that's all. 1t is Just 50 with
many other articles of merchandise which
we now manufacture by the millions and
pay good wages for the labor. KNOCK
of the duty, let the "O.Ccnt work in, we
can't compete with that and ouI factories
will close up our people be out of job.
That's all there il to the question.
The cheap laborerS Of Europe never
put yard of the silk on their lacks they
make with their own hands. Ftfty.cent
wages won't permit it. 1t is a matter
reflection. rarely >aw working man
III free trade countries carry watch
Yet, owing t. low priced labor, watches
are so cheap there that were our duty on
imported ones rem we'd they could in six
months break up every watch factory in
the United States. ana tens of thousands
of skilled American workmen would be
out of job. They, too. could commence
trampng. An American watch manu-
faCturer pays his hands one to three. and
even four dollars a day. A Swiss or
French matchmaker pays 81 cents. Who
could stand competition like that?
have attended public meetings abroad
where the universe, prayer was that the
United States might adopt free trade
Why? Simply that they might kill us
with cheap labor.
All the magnificent machinery ever in
vented in the United States cannot com.
pete with the under paid hand.ln Of
the old world. We have been irving it
for twenty years There is scarcely an
article made by machinery in this Coun-
try that j. not made almost as chcaply by
hand in Europe; or. if machinery Is
advantageous. they simply initiate our
inventions, make them for half what we
can, and so Beat us in the end.
There is no puzzle about it. The men
who do good work for the lOwe.t wages
get the job. Europeans can work for 80
cents day and live. in way For an
American such wages would mean starva-
ton.
The workingman in free trade coun.
tries is homeless. 1t was an eXtraortn-
airy case when | saw working man
living in his own house How could
man earning but 80 cents day buy
home? The savings of twenty. five years
would not make it possible. In fact
there are no savings as a rule. Working
men in Europe are not troubled much
with the surplus AND savings bank"
and 'depost|',' and all that They
hardly Know what the words mean
Two hundred dollars a year is a very
big average for mechanics abroad 4
family averages five persons. Support
that family with the bare necessities of
life, and what remains over to buy
home with? Not a red cent. We are
told that free trade would not, in itself |
reduce wages to fifty cents. Why not?
Won't the world buy its goods in the |
cheapest markets? What man will pay
two or three dollars to have an article |
same article made abroad for fittv cents? |
If made abroad where il the employment !
for the man at home? He. too, must |
make that article for fifty cents, or do |
without work. He, too, must work for |
low wage or he must work for nothing, |
We imported last year seven hundred |
million dollars worth Of merchandise |
from abroad IL we did that under high |
tariff, what won d we d. under free |
trade? Answer: We would swamp the !
whole industries Of the United States. |
And then what? Answer: Fifty cents a |
day or nothing. P. Obaj " nothing.
There is great question staring us in |
the face. II is not Republican problem,
nor Dem CT attic problem. 1t is a uues- |
ton of simple business Do we want to |
risk fifty cents day? That's all there is !
to II. Low wages, besides. means low |
living. 1t means poverty and it means
ignorance; and these two things put a |
man at the foot of the ladder. and there |
he will stay. No European working
man, with his free trade and his low
wages, thinks Of getting up in the world.
Who ever saw workingmen in Europe
Milling Office or their wives and daurb