The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-05-23
WAGES AND TARIFF REDUCTION.

If one thing was made clearer
than another by protectionist orators
during the presidential campaign, it
was that the election of Mr.. Cleve-
land meant lower wages, while the
election of his opponent would not
only preserve the existing rates of
wages, but would probably make
them higher.
Yet ever since November wages
have been going down in the pro-
tected industries, and never so rapid
ly as in the two months that have
elapsed since President Harrison has
has occupied the White House. The
certainty that the next Congress will
be prctcctionist in both branches,
and that its most ultra tariff legisla-
ton will receive the Presidents APP
proval, fails to arrest the downward
movement. Advices from Pittsburg,
according to the New York Times,
| point to a concerted movement on
| the part of the manufacturers of iron
and steel for a reduction of wages
about 10 per cent, the excuse being
the present depressed condition of
their business.
OF course such an excuse cannot
be valid if the chief motive of the
iron and steel men in the conduct of
their business is the maintenance of
high wages. Before touching wages
they ought to cut down other ex-
penses and even do without dividends
awhile. Only thus could they make
good the declarations of intense
interest in the workingmen of which
we heard so much when the Mills
bill was under discussion. That
measure proposed to keep wages high
by stimulating production, and to
stimulate production by reducing
the tariff tax on imported raw mater
ials.
Thus, it was contended, products
would be cheaper, and we should
secure the foreign as we'll as the
home market. But the Mills bill
was defeated, and the manufacturers,
having with their trusts and arti-
ficially enhanced prices exhausted
the purchasing capacity of the coun-
try, are beginning to suffer from
stagnation in their restricted home
market. The position of the Pennsyl-
vania iron and steel men is particu-
larry bad. Having the cost of their
raw material made high by the tariff,
they cannot enter the foreign market
with their finished products.
At the same time the Southern
furnaces are cutting under their
prices and forcing their profits down
to reasonable figure in the home
market. Having reached this point,
they should be content to make
fair rate with their employees, but
they forget their campaign promises
and seek to put the whole decline of
profits upon their employees wages.
Their workingmen cannot but be
disguised with this business use of
politics. They are likely to open
their minds to broader economic
views when they see how their trust
in local protectionist wisdom has
been abused. They will be the more
likely to do SO when they compare
their condition with that of the pro-
tected German workmen, and the
condition of the iron business in this
country and Germany with its condi
ton in England. German IRON
makers have high tariff, for the al
legged benefit, of course, of German
labor, bit the tariff has so put up
the price of materials that German
pig-iron cannot be sold at profit
outside Of Germany, and in Ger.
many, by reason of a glut in the
market for pig, the profit is but
small.
There is combination of manu-
facturers to keep up prices, but the
better the combination succeeds the
less is the quantity of iron exported.
In England, on the other hand,
where raw materials are free Of tax.
there is the greatest activity in the
production Of iron, and the English