Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-10
HOW 1T RUINS LABOR.

A War Tariff That Grinds the Working
Glasses and CompeIs Them to Pay High
Taxes for the Benefit of the Rich.
See how important the A. 10 per cent pro-
tective tariff is to the labor population:
In the last census year there were 3,SS7,-
III people set down in the list as employed
in manufacturing and mining" /" but of that
number there were only ,29l 1885 employed
in industries with tariff protection, and
something less than 100000 engaged as
laborers on commodities directly liable to
active foreign competition.
In the category of persons employed in
manufactures and mining the following
classes and numbers were included: 1913, 143
carpenters and joiners; 1T22, 726 blacksmiths; I;
234,22S miners; 1876 seamstresses and
tallors; 12s,5J6 painters and varnlshers; !;
1850 sawrain hands; ~, ,726 printers, ETC. |;
9,62o engineers and firemen; 6,241 butch
ers; 5O,654 cabinet-makers; 49,SSI wagon
and carriage-makers; fl 1852 oyster-men and
fishermen; 30,651 lumbermen and RATS
men; 44,0l9 manufacturers" which
is capital instead of labor; 102,473 brick and
stone-masons; 20, ,446 tobacco factory hands;
$40 grist-mill hands, etc.
Now thie ist, which might be literally
extended ~ drawing from the general
category without compromising the candor
and truth G. the analysis, foots up 2.5i5. 726
wholly unprotected mechanics and arti-
sans, and leaves 1921, ,726 more or less pro-
tected, directly and indirectly.
More than half the protected category of
1,29l,126 are engaged in industries which
require protection only from the operation
OF our own vile laws in increasing the cost
OF manufacturing plants. This is best IL
lustrated by the cotton interest, in which,
while we use sotton and food at IL to IA per
cent. less cost than in Europe, and while
100 American mill operatives consume as
much cotton for their wages as 154 En-
gllsh, yet the cost of a manufacturing
plant is so vastly increased over that of an
English plant, that instead of exporting
the largest amounts of cotton goods of all
nations, as we ought, we have to protect
our own market from the cheaper produc-
tion of Europe. This artificially created
necessity for protection in this line, which
Is only an example of many, adds l69, III
operatives to the protected list, and we, of
course, include it, though with a wry face,
in the category of 1,29l,726.
Then, here were 2,545, 726 artisans and me-
chanlcs wholly unprotected, but, on the con-
trary, heavily and wickedly burdened with
heavy debts which they pay every year to
help capital pay premiums on the wages of
the 1,291, ,726 employed in protected indus
tries
So here are 2,545, 726 mechanical and arti-
san workers in interests in no way involved
in the tariff except as sufferers; 1910, ,493
farm workers, and 4,074, ,23S people working
for living in divers services to the public
"a total of Il, ,29O, ,457 workers not protected,
but robbed by the tariff to help pay a pre-
mum on the labor of about 100000
These Il, ,29O, ,457 people involved injurious
" hx-f hn hf.rhfn ,,sfF L
workers. There were besides 500, GIG other
workers burdened instead of protected by
the tariff, and then comes the great cate
CORY OF the unemployed not protected, but
burdened by the tariff, numbering 81, 763, ,6S4
people, including gentlemen, vagrants,
children and idle women. So here were
100000 people in 1880 burdened, and 1,OOO,-
600, more or less, aided or expedited in
something by the tariff.
This being the way the bighest-tariff ma
ton of the world serves It's population. TAX
ing money from every seventeen workers
to help employers pay premium on the
wages of one, let US see, says the Louisville
COtuTerJOurndl, how they work it on the
basis of an antipodal of Industrial economy
in England-which is even higher up as a
rree-trade nation than we are IS an ultra
protectionist.
In England and Wales in 1880 there were
D. l4O,2O2 persons employed in the same
lines OF mechanical industry embraced in
our above discussed census category in the
list of 1881, liz persons engaged in "manu-
featuring and mining" This English cate
CORY of 6,140,202 workers does not include
farmers, the professional classes, domestic
servants or the commercial and banking
classes. There were also 10, ,450,635 workers
besides the unprofessional classes not at
work
The population of England and Wales then
was 35,OO0O 900, and that of the United
States $4,000, 900. By "simple rule of
three" calculation you will find that if we
had had England's proportion of our popu-
lation engaged in mechanical industries the
number so engaged would have been S,77O,-
600 people. 1t was 8, ,S37, 112 people, of whom
2,SOO,OO0 were not interested in the tariff
except as sufferers. What an unspeakable
and fatal botch is this we are making, men
and brethren. There is no language strong
enough to give it a name.
See how it unbalances and dislocates
every thing. If the ratio were adjusted on
the English basis we would withdraw 5,0O0,-
600 Of our workers from agriculture, where
every thing is overproduced, and under the
most excessive price depression of all COM
mercial commodities, and we would set
100000 more home workers consuming in
stead of producing farm produce, but max
ing also four to five times the profits on
merchandise exports that they make now
on farm produce. Take an illustration:
England imports an average of $3.50, ,00O, 900
worth Of cotton year, mostly American.
and sells its product for 1885. .0Oo O00l
Which scheme is best for the mechanic.
this or that which would employ five or SIX
times as many of his class! Which is best
for the farmer, this system or that which
would convert 100000 workers from COM
petitive production on the farm into buyers
and consumers of farm producei But
what makes the differencel This. Free
trade sells to all nations and high tariff to