The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-09-16
AN uNTRIED Pulley.
President Harrison's Sop for Amerlcsn
WOrkingmen. S

| Workingmen.
The presidents disposition not to
talk politics on his Bennington trip
was not proof against the temptation
offered by On audience of workingme
at Troy, N. Y. 81 am sure,'' said he,
"that you realize here in large de-
gree the benefit of policy that keeps
the American market for the American
workmen." This elected applause, but
whether it came from the officeholders
In the crowd or from the workingmen
| themselves is not stated.
| Ii the workmen from the Troy shops
applauded the presidents remark they
did so because they had been misled by
interested parties. There is no policy
that keeps the American market for the
American worlzmen. There never has
been such a policy in this country, and
the president should have been aware
| of the fact.
A market is place where men buy
and sell. Worlmen, like other people,
desire both to buy and sell, and, unlike
some other people, their sales and pur-
chases usually balance, or nearly so.
They are as much interested in having
4 favorable market to buy in as to soil
in. Under the policy advocated by
Mr.. Harrison and his associates neither
is SO favorable to the workmen as it
would be under system less restricted
and artificial. What the workmen has
to sell is his labor. This he sells in
free-trade market, in competition with
all the world. There is no tariff on
the importation Of labor. There is no
legislation to check imports of foreign
laborers. The contract labor law may
be mentioned as an exception, but it is
well known that the law is constantly
violated or evaded by the pampered
minions of protection. It is clear
from the statistics of immigration that
it has not had the effect of checking
imports of cheap labor from abroad.
The republican party seeks to extend
protection to the domestic manufac.
turer by shutting out foreign competi-
ton, in whole or in part, and there is
a constant tendency toward prohibit
ory rates. In fact the benefciaries of
the tariff are never satisfied with any,
thing less than prohibitory rates, and
numerous instances may be cited where
the Mckinley bill increased rates that
were already virtually prohibitory, no
doubt for the purpose of offering pre-
miums for the formation of trusts.
The republican party is very fond of
tariff-fed trusts, because com blnatious
of that kind are obliged to contribute
literally to the campaign fund in order
to maintain their privileges If the re-
publicans were sincere in their declara-
tions that they have framed high tariffs
for the benefit of workingmen, they
would apply the same policy to for
cign labor that they do to foreign prod
ucts. They would seek to shut it out
from competition with the American
worlingmen; to diminish the supply of
labor, and SO to augment the price.
That they do not do SO shows
that they are seeking to benefit the en-
ployer and not the employe.
We do not wish to be understood as
advocating the exclusion Of foreign la
borers. 1t is no part of tlR democratic
policy to do this; b,ft it is logically
part Of the republican policy, if that
policy were really what they say it is
when they address themselves to the
workingman. They advocate policy
of restriction, of exclusion of the
products of foreign labor. They re-
strict foreign competition in products,
but they leave competition in labor un-
trammeled This shows the insincer.
ity of the claim that their policy is die
tated by regard for the laborer.
There is no effort to keep the Ameri.
can market for American workmeu to
sell their labor in: Our worhmen sell
their labor in competition with cheap
labor from all parts of the world, ex-
cept China. Go to tho factories and
the mines owned by the men that are
allowed to write the monopoly sections
Of our tariff laws and you will find
them filed with Hungarians, Italians
and other foreigners, few Of whom can
speak our language, and vast numb bers
of whom have no intention Of bccom-
ing American citizens These men
were employed because their services
could be had at lower rates than those
of American laborers, and their pres
ence shows how baseless is the claim
that the American market is kept for
American workmen.
Now let us look at the other side of
the American market. namely, the mar
ket in which the American worlsmen
buy their supplies Is this regulated
for their benefit? Quite the contrary.
They must expend their wages, earned
in free trade market for labor, in the
purchase of merchandise rendered arti-
fcially scarce and high by tarifflevied
for the benefit of their employers and
others engaged in protected industries.
On all dutiable articles they find an
average protection of about 60 per cent
When they expend $3.50 of their wages
for dutiable articles they get only what
500 would buy abroad; the difference
of $50 goes either into the treasury or
into the pockets OF some monopolist.
That is the sort of market that is pro.
vided for the American workmen in
which to expend the wages which they
earn in competition with the labor of
the world.
The claim that protection is for the
benefit of American labor has nothing
to rest on except the difference of
wages here and abroad. That differ
ence existed before the revolution,
when the American colonies were a
part of Great Britain. The price Of
labor is regulated by its productiveness