Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-09-27

strikes of the laborers because they demand
more wages and say that they cannot live on
what they receive. Again and again we hear
of what are called lockouts, that is where the
mills because they say they cannot afford to pay
any more wages than they did pay. Why are
to secure better wages, Why is there such an IN
institution as the Knights of Labor? To pre-
vent the laboring men from being imposed upon
there necessity for all these things and all
these extensive and worthy organizations
IL a High Tariff Gives High Wages to the
Laborers
No man can answer that question satisfactorily,
even to himself. If what these men say is true
about high tariff and their effect upon wages,
why, then, gentlemen, all these labor unions,
all these Knights of Labor, and everybody else
who is engaged in that kind of business, are
solves the question for them. Laughter and
cheering.l Yes, it does solve the problem for
them, bnt not in the way they like. [Renewed
way that they feel as If they were benefited, and
therefore they have to resort to other means to
get those wages which the employers are not
But while i am on this subject of the laboring
man let me add: They say that the tariff does
not raise the prices. If It doesn't raise prices
would like to know why the manufacturers or
SO many of them, are in favor of it?
Do They Want a High Tariff in Order To
Cover the Prices?
Not many of them, 1 think. There are instan
ces in which high tariff has lowered prices
for especial and particular reasons, but as a
rule, as have already shown you by what
read from Mr.. Adams report and from other
authorities, and also from reason, the tariff in
creases the price.
If it doesn't increase the price, you may be
sure that the manufacturers and capitalists
would not want it, and il it doesn't increase
the Dricn mr. w ia the Orotaotinn- yyhnra
does that come in? They are afraid of our
getting things cheaper in this country than
by reason of the pauper labor as they call it, of
Europe. WE'LL now, if the tariff is not to in
which are manufactured here, where is the
protection to American manufacturers, and
how, If the price is not raised. can they pay
better wages to the laborer?
But there is one class of laborers, my friends,
that want to call your attention to especially
There is one class of laborers in this country
abolitionists i'll the country and of the republi-
cans, their especial wards especially under their
guardianship, and for whose interests they feel
the most peculiar and earnest solicitude, and
those are the negroes Now the result of the
war was to free about 100000 of negroes, and I
am
Very Glad They We're Freed,
And they have increased now to about six or
seven Millions for the negro is prolific ami
NAL. [Great laughter and applause.l Now,
how do these negroes make their living. Why,
any y handfcraft that they C can, T becoming com do.
mestic servants, backing shoes, shaving faces
or doing things of that kind. But in the coun-
try the negro makes what he gets by cultivating
the earth throughout the whole south. How
does he cultivate iti Why, he either has bought
some land, and some of them has bought good
his own land, or whether he rents it, the crops
that he gets from 1t are the remuneratio he
receives for his toll. Now that crop in the
main consists of cotton, some corn and some
little wheat, but mainly all cotton. Now how
can the high protective tariff benefit that negro
crops three or four or five bales Of cotton each
yearr Why, gentlemen,
There Is No Tariff at All ON Cotton.
It comes as free as the air. 1 believe am
quite right In saying that amt I Cunning to
Mr. Outhwaite-"Yes, SIR"
Judge ThurmRn-"It comes in free as the air.
the price OF eotson ne t is not ased vas as
here is all that the negro has for his labor. He
cannot get cent more for his cotton by reason
of any high protective tariff and he doesn't get,
perhaps, cent less. He has to sell his Hotton
and to sell 1t at the price that Is made by the
foreign market-the price in Liverpool or in
London to which cotton is exported from the
United States. 1t is there that the price of his
cotton is fixed and for that price he has to sell
II tariff or or no tariff But how is It on the other
pretty warm climate in some places, still wants
to be decent and wants to be comfortable and
and they need clothing as well as other people,
but every single thing that he buys to clothe
self, to clothe his family, to clothe his little
picaninies to get bed, to get blanket to get
a tool or implement of any kind, he is taxed by
this high protective tariff, and he is compelled
to pay higher price than ne osnerwise tSnse would 6
no pretense whatever that the tariff is anything
but
An Unmitigated Injury to Him.
He has nothing to sell which is benefited by
It; he performs no labor that by any kind of
argument can be said to be benefited by it. He
sells at price fixed by foreign market be.
upon everything that he consumes, upon every
thing that he purchases for his consumption, he
to n so nE than
friends especially ought to take this &onder
their most serious consideration. They say that
to grant them all they claim in that regard, al.
though there might be something said about
who did 1t. Perhaps two million OF democratic
soldiers in the army had something to do with
It. [Great applause.] After giving them all
they claim, do they mean, after having given
him freedom. to make him slave by compel
ing him to pay higher taxes upon everything
that is a necessity to use, not for his own bene.
fit, but for the benefit of somebody elsef Is il
not enough that they make him slave by re-
quffing him to vote for them and swear not to
vote for democrat? Isn't that enough? Zap.
plause.l Must they also take all his little earn
ings by compelling him to pay for everything
that he wears and everything his wife and his
children wear, more than they ought to be re-
quired to payf LRenewed applause ,oo,
Of the laboring man, let me speak of
American Labor
As compared with labor in other countries. 1t
is true that In America laboring men generally
receive more wages in money than they do in
foreign lands, but not by any manner of means
to the extent that you may suppose from hear
ing so much talk about it.
facts: % According m I to s the last census Great
Britain had a population OF 401 to the square
mile. and the average wages paid were g72z
CENTS per day. That is, in Great Britain. New
England has a population of 210h to the square
mile, and the average were 81 02 per day, about
four cents more than in England, Ohio has a
average 81 08 a day. Colorado has two to the
square mile, and wages out In Colorado aver.
age - day & The entire a gn5ee .S 9ale snct nof Of
Columbia, has "a to the square mile and the
average wages are 81 12. What fact does this
dense the population the greater the competi-
ton among wage-earners, and the lower the
wages, and the reverse of the proposition the
less the competition among wage-earneIs the
has any regard for the truth.
Now, my friends You hear a great deal said
about the pauper labor of England especially,
because our chief imports are from Great Brit
ain, England, Ireland and Scotland. And yet
you see that in that most prosperous state OF
Massach usetts, the greatest manufacturing state
about
-Four Cents More Than They Are In Eng
land.
But If you take the purchasing power Of
money, as you must do, the wages are as high
in England as they are in Massachusetts,.
voice-"Highern
Judge Thurman-Higher? do not know but
what they are. They are as high certainly in
England as they are in Massachusetts, because,
in order to ascertain how much a man is OBJ
tanning by hisslab and to ascertain how mueh
his earnings tend to support him and his fami-
ly, you must take into account what 1t costs for
him to live: and If 1t costs a man more to live
in one place than it does in another, although
he may get more wages in the first named place
than he does in the second, he may not lay up
one single cent more of money.
Now am willing. however, to admit that.
as q general rule, American labor is
paid higher in America than 1t is in
other countries. But what are the 'rea-
sons for it? In the first place, 1t is more
effective in this country. All American labor
ers makes more in the same time; all authori-
ties admit that. All of them agree that his su-
perior skill, his superior diligence
Enables Him to Produce More in the
Same Time