Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-08-10
SOME QUESTIONS FOR THE
WORKINGMEN.

manufacturing, IN proportion to its popu-
lation, than any State of the Union if we
except Rhode Island. In that State the
working people are getting their eyes
pretty we'll opened on the workings of the
High Tariff, which has been concealed
under the pretence of Protection. In
almost every workingman's home there
may be found pamphlet called Twenty
Questions 1t is we'll worth realms by
the workingmen Of every State of the
Union, and jsrbeing printed and circulated
mainly With their own money,in OPPOSITE on
to the publications of the High Tariff HON Q
Market Club. We copy, as far as our
space permits, some of the questions, and
hope they will be carefully pondered:
Why, under the benign influence of our
war tariff, are one-third of our wage earners
out of work one-third of the time? MASS.
Labor Rep, 1887, p. 294.)
Why did wages in Great Britain go up be-
tween 1872 and 1883 per cent, while they
went down in Massachusetts, during the same
period per cent. !? (Mass. Labor Rep, 1885,
p. 143.)
Why did the cost of living here increase
143 per cent. between 1860 and 1878, notwith-
standing the tremendous Improvements made
in cheapening the cost of production (Mass.
Labor Rep, 1886, p 1879
Why does China, which has nurtured her
people under prohibitory tariff for several
hundred years, pay her common laborers 20
cents day and her skilled mechanics 80 cents
day? u. S. Consular Labor Rep; vol. iii,
p. 343.)
Why did the wealth of this country increase
in the low-tarif period, 1S5O-1S60, 1875 per
cent: and in the high-tarif period, 1S7O-1880,
only so per cent, even after reducing the GEN.
sus values of 1870 to gold basis? (Tenth
U. S. Census, vol. vii, PIP. 8, 4, 49,
Why did the value of farms in this country
increase from 1850 to 1860 103 per cent, and
from 1870 to 1880 only 81 per cent? Census
vol. Agriculture.
Why was the average annual increase in
Massachusetts savings-bank deposits from
1850 to 1860 IL per cent, and from 1870 to
1880 only per cent? MASS. Savings Bank
Rep, 1887, p. 616.)
Why did Congress, after living eleven years
under low tariff, vote in 1857 to make it still
lower, and why did all the Massachusetts
members support this reduction? Was Henry
Wilson, the shoemaker, an enemy of labor ?
(Cong. Globe, 81 ses., 34th Congress, PIP.
971, 1oe2.)
Why did wages in Massachusetts advance
from the high tariff decade ending with 1880
to the low tariff decade ending with 1860 SO
per cent, while they advanced from 1860 to
1883 only % per cent? MASS Labor Rep,
1885, PIP. 142, 1867
Why should not the Protectionist Tariff
Commission of 1882, John L. Hayes Chair
man. who recommended tariff reduction of
20 per cent. and declared that such reduction
was demanded "not by mere indiscriminate
popular clamor, but by the best conservative
opinion of the country" be denounced under
the new dispensation as arrant free-traders !?
(Rep. of Tariff Com, 1882, p. So
Why, in spite of the fact that land and food
are cheaper here, does it cost a family spend
ing $500 year sos year more to live in this
country than in England on precisely the
same scale Mass. Labor Rep, 1885, p. 1877. }
Why is not $6s moderate estimate of the
tax paid by every family in this country in
order that Andrew Carnegie and others of his
kind may grow immensely rich and lock out
their employees at pleasure
With Poles Bohemians, and Italians swarm
ing into this country free of duty, how much
are our wage-earners benefited by the protec-
tive tax on lumber, coal, clothing, salt, and
almost everything they have to buy? How
much higher ought the tax to be in order to
make us all supremacy happy?
In view of the public assertions of protec
tionists that the prime object of the tariff is to
help the poor workingmen, what does James
P Foster, President of the Republican
League, mean by saying, in his confidential
circular of May 25, that the manufacturers
get practically the sole benefit" from our
tariff laws, and that it would be good thing
to s'fry the fat" out of the Pennsylvania man.
ufacturers, ''who are more highly protected
than anybody else and who make large for
tunes every year when times are prosperous ?"
Has Mr. Foster given the whole thing away
How do Pennsylvania manufacturers accu-
mulate their ''fat," except by preying upon