The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-04-28
WORKINGMEN AWAKEN.
From the Philadelphia Record.


In regard to the oft-refued protectionis cry that
high wages depend upon the tariff Mr.. Knute Mel
son, the distinguished Republican Representative in
Congress from Minnesota remarks that the United
States did not exist You would have the strongest
kind of argument in favor of free-trade England
rs against the high protective countries OF the Con-
tinent on the question of wages The two facts
that nowhere else in Europe are wages nearly so
high as in free trade England and that the rates OF
in which there is the most protection present per
picking problems which the tariff advocates in the
United States unable to solve to their own salts
faction. Nor can they explain, in accordance with
their theories. the phenomenon of wages in the
fourshing colonies of Australia where the earnings
of labor are much higher than in most portions Of
this country, and where the protective duties are
extremely low. Nevertheless, our tariff mongers
insist that by some occult process this indirect
method of taxation keeps up the wages OF labor IN
the United States though the theory utterly fails to
work anywhere else on the face of the globe.
no lack of proof that the tariff has Just the opposite
efeet-of depressing wages and lessening the means
of employment. The outer wall which the tariff
has drawn around the country by taxing crude ma
terials has shut the products of its manufacturing
industry and skill out of the markets of the world
Within the inner taritfwall which the Trusts have
reared American workingman are put at the mercy
of Monopoly for their supplies of the necessares OF
living. By the former process of taxing raw mate
rails of labor the cost of production is enhanced TO
such degree that the foreign market for the surplus
is cut off, while the home consumption is discour-
aged. Production soon outstrlps demand; ana u
inevitable results the wages Of labor are depressed
and the opportunities of employment diminished
Manufacturers may form Trusts to check supply
or may close their mills and factories for awhile
but the discharged workingmen, whose capital is
their daily labor must suffer the loss of their earn
ings, If not, indeed. starve.
Under the other process of operation, behind the
double wall of Tariff and Trust" the purchasing
power of wages is diminished by the artifcally en-
HANGED of the necessares and comforts OF every
American household. When supplies are limited
by Trusts and Monopolies operating under shelter
OF the tariff, workingmen must pay more for their
clothing blankets glass; earthenware, salt and other
necessAries of living or consume less of these com
modities. They must pay higher rents for houses
in which the cost of nearly all the materials is en-
HANGED by at least 20 per cent, or content them
selves with less comfortable homes At the same
time the TRUSTS" and Monopolies organized under
the tariff to limit production, and thus increase the
cost of commodities to workingmen, diminish the
means and opportunities of labor.
These truths concernicg the practical operation of
the tariff would be disputed as little are the AK
IONS of geometry but for the fact that there is ire
mendous interest in alsifying them. Upon the pre-
tense that protection gives high wages and employ
ment 10 the labor which it plumbers rests the whole
fraudulent fabric of the tariff. When American
workingmen shall have become convinced that the
tariff far from protecting them is their oppressor,
the system will fall TO the ground without blow,