The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-09-07
THE COLUMBIAN AND DEMOCRAT. BIOOMsBURG COLUMBIA
tory even to himself.

tory even to himself.
"But while am on the subject of
the laboring men let me add they say
that the tariff does not raise the price.
II IL don't raise the price would like
to know why the manufacturers, or 90
many of them are in favor of III Do
they want high tariff to lower the
prices7 Not many OF them, / think.
They are afraid Of our get ting things
cheaper in this country than they can
be manufactured here, as they say by
reason of the pauper labor, as they call
it, of Europe. Well, now il the tariff
is not TO ncreasee the price of articles
which we buy and which are manufac-
tured here, whore is the protection to
American manufacturers, and how, il
the price is not raised, can they pay
better wages to the laborerf"
From this point the speaker pro-
ceeded to show that the Republican
policy of protection works injury rath-
er than good to the negroe, Of the
South.
LABOR AND WAGES
Judge Thurman next took up the
question of wages in America az COM
pared with other countries, and said
that the fact of wages being higher
here than in England, taken In connec.
ton with the fact that they are higher
in the newer portions of the United
States than in the older, proves that
the more dense the population the
greater the competition among wage
earners and the lower the wages, and
the reverse of the proposition, the less
the competition among wage earners
the higher the wages. He was willing
to admit that, as general rule, labor
is paid higher wages in America than
it is in other countries, but what are
the reasons for it7 In the first place it
is more efi ective in this country. An
American laborer makes more in the
same time; all authorities admit that.
All of them agree that his superior in
dustry, his superior skill, his superior
diligence, enables him to produce more
in the same time than does the laborer
in any other country in the world. 1t
is therefore, more effective here than
anywhere else, and consequently can
be better paid for. Again, American
laborers are better educated, more in
telligent than the laborers elsewhere
and therefore can better take care of
their own interests. That is a princl-
pal reason why they are better paid in
this country than elsewhere.
In regard to the wages earned in
protected and unprotected industries
the speaker said 81 think the highest
estimate I have seen placed upon the
laborers in these protected industries
is at between eight and nine thousand
men, women ard children. But l will
put it at a million and say there are a
million of them, while there are eight
times as many other laborers whose in
dustres and occupations are in no
wise protected by the tariff, and there
fore if protection is for the benefit OF
the laboring men the wages of this
million of men engaged in the protect
ed industries ought to be higher than
the wages of men employed in the un-
protected industries, and yet such is
not the fact. In round numbers the
laborers in unprotected industries re-
ceive as high wages as those in the
protected industi les. l do not know
what the wages of farm hands are
here in Michigan. In my own state
they are about dollar day for farm
hands, and in the State Of Massachu
setts, according to the returns of our
own board, they are $l.O4 in manufac-
turing industries. So that there is
practically no difference whatever
worth talking about between the wages
he receives and the wages that the
other receives. They are both sub
stantially the same"
DEPRECIATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL
WEALTH.
The depreciation of the agricultural
wealth of the country under the tariff
system was next referred to at length
"You can't sell unless you buy-that is,
for what you give you must take some
thing in exchange the speaker said.
mo nation ever sold for cash. A pol
icy of non-lntercourse with other ma
tions would destroy the great agrioul-
tural interests of the country, which is
paramount to all restrictions put upon
it by the present tariff laws, which
we'll nigh paralyzed it by destroying
commerce and cutting off our export
trade. During the low tariff period
from 1850 to 1860 agriculture increas-
ed with great strides. During these
ten years farm values rose from $3,-
27l, ,55O,426 to over $6,OOO,OOO,OOO or
103 per cent. During the next ten
years the values rose 40 per cent.
During the next ten years more tariff
was added and the values rose only 9
per cent. Here in Michigan in 1850
The farm values were $51, 100000. In
1860 it was $l60,000,000, or 21l per
cent. In the next ten years it rose las
per cent. and in the ten years ending
with 1880 farm values rose twenty-five
per cent Commerce tends topreserve
peace in the world. China and Japan
sought to exclude commerce, but their
hearts were opened by the commerce
of England and America.
| On the question of Chinese immi.
grafton the speaker referred to q
speech he had made in the Senate in
favor of restricting it and wound up
by commanding the Democratic party
and its principles to his hearers.