Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-08-25


or b, rents land Whether he cultivates
h. ava land or whether he rents il, the
rr"uP HIT he gets from it are The remuner
ati6n be receives for his toll. Now that
crop IN the main consists of cotton, some
cora and some little wheat, but mainly all
cotton. Now how can the high protective
tariff benefit that negro who raises cotton
and has for his share of the crop three or
four or five bales Of cotton each year?
Why, gentlemen, there is no tariff at all
on cotton. II comes in free as the air.
believe an quite right iu saying that,
STINT /? Turning to Mr.. Outhwaite.
Mr.. O-Yes, sir.
Judge Thurman 1T comes in free as the
air. The price of cotton, therefore, is not
raised, as they say, or lessened by the
tariff tax, aud here is all that the negro
has for bis labor. He can't get cent more
for his cotton by reason of any high pro-
tec;ive tariff, and he don't get, perhaps, q
cent less. He has to sell his cotton and
to sell it at the price that is made by the
foreign msrket-the price in Liverpool or
in. Loudon 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 it, tariff or no tariff.
OPPRESSED BY TAXES.
But how is it on the other hand? The
negro, although he is living in pretty
warm climate in some places, still wants
to be decent and wants TO be comfortable,
and wants his wife aud children to be
comfortable, and they do need clothing as
well as other people, but upon every sin
gle thing that he buys to clothe himself,
TO clothe his family, to clothe his little
pickaninnies, to get bed, get blanket,
TO get tool or implement of any kind,
he is taxed by this high protective
tariff and he is compelled to pay a
higher price than he otherwise would,
so that as far as he is concerned, there
can be no pretense whatsoever that the
tariff is anything but an uumitigated in
jury to him. He has nothing to sell which
ne Is benefited by; he performs no labor
that BY any kind of argument he can be
said to b benefited by. esells his cotton
at price fixed by foreign market because
he can't sell for any other price, and upon
everything that he consumes, upon every
thing that he purchases for his cQnsump-
tion, he has TO pay an increased price and
is thereby injured. Now do think that
our Abolition friends especially ought to
take this under their most serious consider
alton. They say that they freed the negro
from slavery. lam willing to grant them all
they claim in that regard, although there
might be something said about who did 1T
Perhaps two millions of Democratic SOL
diers 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 a slave
by compelling him to pay higher taxes
upon everything that it is necessity to
use, not for his own benefit, but for the
benefit of somebody else? Isit not enough
that they make him a slave by requiring
him 70 vote for them and swear not 10 vote
for Democrat? Is that not enough
Applause Must they also take all his
little earnings by compelling him to pay
for everything that he wears, and every
thing his wife and children wear, more
than they ought to be required to pay :?
Renewed applause.
Now, my friends while I am on this
subject OF the laboring man let me speak
of American labor as compared with labor
in other countries 1t is true that in
America laboripg men generally receive
more wages in money than they do in for
eign lands, but not by any manner Of
means to the extent that you may suppose
from hearing 80 much talk about it. For
instance, let me give you the following
facts: According to the last census taken,
Great Britain had population of 40l to
the square mile, and the
AVERAGE WAGES PAID
were 97S cents per day-that is in Great
Britain. New England has "a population
of 210l to the square mile, and the average
wages were 81 02 per day, about A cents
more than in England. Ohio has popu-
lation of so to the square mile, and wages
average 81 OS a day. Colorado has two to
the square mile, and wages out in Colorado
average 81 a day. The entire United
States, not including the Territories and
square mile, and the average wages are
81 II.
What fact does this establish? Does il
not prove that the more dense the popnla-
ton 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 No man can deny that
who has any regard for the truth.
Now, my friends, you hear great deal
said about the paupsr labor Of England,
especially because our chief imports are
from Great Northumberland, Ireland and
Scotland. And You see that in that most
prosperous State of Massachusetts,, the
greatest manufacturing State in the United
States, the average wages are only about
cents more than they are in England.
But if you take the purchasing power OF
money, as you must do, the wages are as
high in England "a they are in Massachu-
sets. A voice Higher"
Judge Thurmsp-Higher? / do not
know but what they are; they are as high
certainly in Eoglsnd as they are in Massa-
chusetts, because in order to ascertain how
much man is obtaining by his labor and
to ascertain how much his earnings tend
to support him and his family, you must
take into account what it cost him to live,
and if il costs a man more to live in one
place than il 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 of money.
Now, l am willing, however, 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 it? In the first place it is more effect,
i've in this country. An American laborel
makes more in the same time; all authori.
ties admit that. All of them agree that
his superior industry, his superior skill,
his superior diligence enable him to pro-
duce more in the same time than does the
laborer in any other country in the world
1t il, therefore, more effective here than
anywhere else, and consequently can bt
better paid for. Again, American labor
ers are better educated, more intelligent
than the lsborers elsewere; and therefore
can take better care Of their own interests
That is a principal reason why they art
better paid in this country than elsewere
| BENEFIT OF LABOR UNIONS.
Now, l am not going to say whether
labor unions and Knights of Labor and al
that are benefit or not. That is large
L e