Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-19
WAGES AND TAXATION.
Now One-Sided Protection Robs G
Farmer and the Mechanic.

Now One-Sided Protection Robs the
Farmer and the Mechanic.
The Philadelphia Press suggests as
another name for the Mckinley bill:
AN Act to Prevent the Reduction of
The Wages of American Labor to an
European Basis"
Wages are used to buy necessary sup
plies for the family.
Now, wages are to be protected" by
compelling wage-earners to pay more
for all they buy.
Whether a man works in the factory
Or in the field is determined by the price
of farm labor. The American manufact-
urer bids not against the European
manufacturer, but against the American
farmer.
Why is it that to-day, after thirty
years of a protective tariff. it is neces-
sary to go to Congress to get a law
passed to prevent the Reduction of
the Wages of American Labor?''
What influences are at work reducing
wages in America?
Plainly the depression of agriculture.
When, in America, agriculture pros
pers, wages advance; when it is de-
pressed, wages in every factory in the
land decline.
In 1877. 1878 and 1879 farm products
commanded profitable prices and every
section had ''boom."
But in recent years the tendency has
been otherwise; the chief agriculture
crop has been the crop of mortgages.
with the result that wages have declined
in all industrial centers, and strikes
have multiplied.
Now. we are to have tsbil1 to pre-
vent the reduction of wages of American
labor to an European basis" How is it
proposed to do this? Simply by increas-
ing taxation
Here is an illustration: A farmer
sends some early strawberries to his
city merchant and tells him to send in
exchange twelve dozen tin cans for
peaches, tomatoes, ETC., etc. Heretofore
the Government would take for revenue
thirty-three per cent; the farmer would
get nine cans instead of dozen. He
finds that this tax has been increased to
five, leaving only seven cans in dozen.
or seven dozen in gross.
1t docs not matter what the farmer
asks in exchange for his products. the
effect of the Mckinley bill is the same.
If he wants suit of clothes, a carpet
household utensils, farming nipple.
ments, knives, guns, fertilizer, any
thing or every thing, he finds that in
exchange for his fruits and vegetables,
for, wheat or corn, for cotton or for cat
tie, by an increase of taxation he must
accept less or he must send more.
This is the way farm wages are Sin
creased" Under the influence of the
tariff, agriculture has declined, and
wages in the factories and mills have
followed. Labor has been imported
and is to-day imported free of any tax,
and SO between the poorly-paid immi-
grant and the poorly-paid farmer, the
laborer in the cities finds that his wages
and the wages of the English 1aborers
approach every year nearer and nearer
to a level
Wages come not from capital; they
come from the products of labor. They
are highest when and where production
is highest per hand.
Any natural or artificial impediment
to the highest production; any friction,
any taxation, any tariff. lessons the pro-
ductive power of labor and reduces its
rewards. Taxation is always an evil;
it is tolerable only when imposed to
meet the requirements of the Govern
ment When imposed to enrich the
rich, to add to the accumulations of
the Forty Thieves, it is an outrage to
every person, and an especial burden
upon American labor in the field or the
factory.
Deny it as our Republican friends
may. the tariff is a tax. - Louisville
COurier-Journa1