The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-05-03
From the Baltimore Sun.

Capital; Free Trade In Flesn ano
BIood.o
From the Baltimore Sun.
To acknowledge that high tariff
are maintained for the sole benefit OF
manufacturers would be fatal to their
existence at once. Their advocates
are 100 smart for that. They not only
do not admit that such is the fact,
but in the argument for protection
they ignore and keep out cf sight as
much as possible their own interests
in tariff taxes. They say it is all for
labor. They can't endure, they say,
that our laboring people should have
only the wages received by European
paupers," and be compelled to live as
they do, therefore, they say, eve must
make our goods high priced by taxa
ton" When reminded that the in
creased price is not paid to the work
man, but to the manufacturer, they
answer: every true, but it enables
us to pay our "workmen higher wages
than are paid to European laborers.
To this I reply, "And that is very
rue also: it does enable you, to pay
higher wages, but you don't do
it." Men do not pay higher for
the same thing than other people sim
ply because they have more money.
Rich and poor alike pay just the mar
ket price-no more and no less-ex-
cept where TIE rich secure a reduction
by means of ready aud abundant cap
ital. Otherwise than by those combi-
nations which wealth affords, there is
not an article of human want sold in
America for which the rich man IS
charged less or more than the poor
man. / refer, of course, to articles of
the same quality. Labor, human in
telligence and muscle, being commo-
dity offered for sale, is subject to the
same economic laws which govern the
the sale of other commodities. If there
is no legislative interferences, these
laws will operate fairly and justly
upon all but the artificial increase Of
the prices of products is not and can
not be applied to the labor which is
expended on the products. Therefore
labor is placed under disadvantage
by tariffs. The manufacturers in
terests are protected by excluding
competition; the workman's interest
is un protected and is left open to the
competition of all the world, and all
the world is most cordially invited to
come-by bounties of our public
lands and immediate citizenship-to
compete with our workingmen. The
advantages are all on the side of the
manufacturer His prices are secur.
ed by law; the laborers' wages are
dependent-on the free gift of the man.
ufacturer, who admits he is enabled"
to make them higher. In fact, how
does he procure his labor By max
ing a calculation of how much his
profits have been increased by the
tariff and increasing wages in proper
ton? Not bit of it. Such justice
would indicate the near approach of
the millennium He goes into the
labor market-an unprotected free
trade market-and buys it at the low
est market price.
IF the American article is too high
for him, he steps over into Canada
and buys "pauper lal or" if the price
is too high for him there, as it some
times is, he sends his agent to Europe
and buys and ships over "pauper"
labor until he is supplied. He floods
our market with cheap" pauper 'la-
ibor," to the great injury of our own
industrious workers, and then when
he has procured his supplies at rates
fixed BY the eager, half starved conf
petition of struggling men all over the
world, he rends the air with howls of
distressful rage against the coming in
of foreign blanket, a wool hat, a
bushel of salt, school book or slate
pencil because it will lnjure the
"American" workingman! A pau
per-made coat or pair of shoes would
ruin him forever, but the pauper him
self, who supplants him, and takes his
own and his children's bread, is the
the highest economic blessing and the
very gift of Heaven to the American
R@ooref ~
Since the world was made or ever
the hills were brought forth was ever
such absurd and lying logic spread
tyr Did ever cat before catch rats
with so thin disguise of meal ? Yer
lily. instead of the false cry of protec-
ton to American labor they should
have emblazoned on their banners the
words: Protection to the manufac-
turers' capital; free trade in flesh and
blood T"
OF course wages are higher here
than in Europe perhaps higher than
anywhere else in the world. But the
man who asserts that the tariff has
made them SO is lacking either intel
ifgence or honesty Labor is higher
In the United States than anywhere
else, because it is more productive
than it is anywhere else, and ii Is
therefore worth more to its employer.
The statistics abundanlly prove this.
Men of common intelligence no longer
compare the cost of LABOR IN a product
by the price per day paid to the oper-
atives only, but look at the results Of
the days work of each workman The
excess OF the finished article which
the American laborer can turn out
over his foreign rival shows conclu-
sively that his labor is the cheapest
to his employer in the world. This
will be illustrated by the following
table, found in Mr. Schoenhofs "Stu-
dy 10 Social Physiology, and which
has been approved by economists IN