The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-07-05
THE SUN TALKS To NEW YORK
WORKINGmEN,

There is only one country in Europe
IN which the wages of labor are within
half OF what they are in this country.
That is Great Britain.
Wages in Germany, France, Belgium,
and Switzerland are not one-third of
what they are here. Those of Italy are
not one quarter.
One duty of government is to protect
the labor of its citizens. Last year cheap
foreign labor was imported into the
United States in the shape of manufac-
tured goods to the value Of $685., ,5l9, 768.
Ihls was great wrong TO American la
Tor. In that immense amount OF i'm
ports, permitted by our insufficient and
detective tariff, the labor of women ems
ployed ia the Manchester, England, cot
ton mills, whose wages do not average
$50 year, came into competition with
the higher priced labor of our Southern
and Northern cotton spinners. In that
mass of imports was the labor of Ger
man factory workmen averaging less
than $ll5 year. and that of women
averaging lrss than $50 year.
Munich is a gallery and centre of art.
German women with as many as six
children saw wood in its streets for 10
cents day. May merciful God sink
the United States ten thousand feet un-
der the sea before the hideous spectacle
shall become an incident of our civiliza.
ton
Nearly seven hundred million dollars
worth of the starvation labor of Europe
in the form of manufactured goods i'm
ported into this country last yearl That
which came from Belgium in bales and
boxes represented the wages of 90 cents
day for women and 43 cents for men;
and the highest priced labor in loose car
goes OF Belgia steel and iron represented
wages less than so cents a day. Com
pared with these the wages OF Carnegie's
men at Braddock are the incomes of
princes.
Italian labor in Italian merchandise
was imported into this country last year
in competition with American labor, at
prices that should fill sensitive souls
with horror. and alarm the thoughtful
for the future of the human race. The
pay in the cotton factories of Naples is
20 cents day; Of the Neapolitan marble
and granite cutters, from 40 to 80 cents
day, according to skill; of coachmen,
30 cents; of women in lace factories, 10
cents, and girls 7 cents; of soldiers in
WIG al - a lllOllbiis vi all ltl6 WOIh-
men in the glass works of Italy only the
skilled blowers receive as high as dol
lar day, and laborers on farms, hooing
or making hay, from Is to IS cents a
day, working from sun to sun. God
save America from such wages
In the Swiss silk goods which came
into our half-protected country last year
in those seven hundred millions Of i'm
ports, was the skilled labor of men at Al
cents day, and of women at 90 cents,
both competing with the silk wea7ers of
Paterson, New York, Philadelphia, and
Cheney. Glasgow, in Scotland, is the
steamship factory of the world, and its
blast furnace owners and iron rollers
howl for free trade day and night. OF
the families in that manufacturing Sod.
ON Al, 900 out of 100, 900 live in one room
and half of the men and women in the
city are out of work. That one room
for family of father, mother, daugh-
ters, and sons tells what wages are in
Scotland and how they drag humanity
down into bestiality and misery.
Brothers! the Mills bill to reduce the
tariff is the first step to that one room
for an American family. Fight it with
out delay, and fight it to its death; and
then make your tariff so protective as to
shut out cheap foIeign labor in the form
OF manufactured goods.