Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-07-18
CONCERNING WAGES.
Baneful Workings Of . Tariff for tho Ben.
aft of Mon OpOlists.

Baneful Workings Of Tariff for the Benz
eft of MonOpolists.
In their campaigns the favorite
argument of the friends of q high
tariff has been the statement that pro-
lection increases the wages OF work.
men. and its absence acted with the
opposite effect. Such theories they
have preached from one end of the
land to the other, and they have often
found it effective with people who do
not care to investigate for themselves
and discover the falsity of such con-
clusion.
England is the highest type Of q low
tariff country. and it has not yet be-
come generally known In the United
States that wages are advancing
greatly there. accompanying the
steady improvement of trade In all
parts of the United Kingdom. This
has been accomplished so quietly that
little public attention has been at
tracted to the matter, even in Great
Britain herself During the latter
part of last year the coal miners Of
Lancashire. Yorkshire and the mid
land counties OF England obtained an
advance in wages of ten per cent Some
time ago they asked for another adj
vance of the same proportion, and.
after little delay, it was conceded
them that they should have an in
crease of five per cent. the first of this
month, followed by FIVE per cent on
top of that at the first Of October.
These satisfactory conditions are
not confined to the coal miners of
Great Britain. but lron-workers, ship
builders and employees in all kinds of
manufactures are rejoicing in an in
crease of wages. These pleasant re-
suits have been brought about without
recourse to strikes. and are the natural
consequence of Great Britain's i'm
mense trade monopoly, secured by adj
laws.
In the meanwhile. things are not
going so well in the highly protected
United States. Thousands of work.
men in the iron region of Pennsylvania
are on a strike; the $500 employees of
Carnegie must take great reduction
in wages; at Brazil, Ind. the coal
miners will have to make a choice be-
tween starving on scanty pay or
starving without it; at Braidwood,
ILL.,. they are in the same condition;
throughout the Union it is story of
strikes and restitution, all under the
sheltering and benefcent wing of the
high tariff. Great strikes are of such
common occurrence here that they
have ceased to be news. In England
there has lately been only one-that
of the seamen at Liverpool and Glas-
gov. AS wages go up with the En-
lish, they go down corresponding
distance with us.
These baneful workings of the tariff
are becoming SO plain that the people
can not much longer remain blind to
the facts which are every day forced
upon their notice. Here are two ma
tons of the same Anglo-Saxon races one
enjoys over the other immense ad-
vantages in the way of extent and free
government; they employ precisely OPP
posite commercial systems; in the
small. overcrowded country the masses
are daily improving their condition
and increasing their earnings; in
the other, where, under the same con-
ditions, it is much easier to prosper.
their wages grow smaller every year.
How can we ignore these things?-
Louisville Courier-Journal.