The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-04-10
A FEW FACTS FOR LABORING MEN.

Inere is no question DuU WhaU Ia
boring men in this country are better
paid and fewer hours required per day
as every intelligent laborer knows,
and every honest one admits. But this
new Alliance-Democratic trust, COM
posed so largely of those so ignorant
Of truth they can only recognize it by
the British stamp, who are putting
forth every effort in their power to
convince the laboring men that they
are terribly oppressed people and
the only way to escape the pauper's
fate is to endorse and vote for and
with the new combination free trade
trust. They tell you free trade will
raiso y-0ur wages ond thut iao0rcrs
are better paid in the old countries
than in this. They know they lie
when they tell you so. Even their
great leader in Alabama, Mr.. Morgan,
says: "Protection is bad for the farm
ers because it keeps wages too high for
farmers" Some few items in the
FREE PRESS last week from British
authority, showed conclusively that
laborers' wages in the same branches
are much higher in protected Ameri
ca than in free trade England, and
here are some more of the same kind.
The British Board Of Trade reports
the average wages of laborers in the
linen industry of England S121.66
The Massachusetts State statistics
reports average wages S302.29. Our
exports of fax hemp and jute for 1890
was S2,O94, S07. The same British au-
thority gives average daily wages of
brick layers in Is cities as S1.26, and
of masons and stone cutters same as
bricklayers. Average daily wages in
q cities in this country SO to $3.50 per
day. Average daily wages of bod car
riers in cities of England, SO cents.
In cities in the United States bod car
riers' average daily wages are S2.4
per day. Women are employed as
brick and bod carriers in some of the
cities of Europe and get the liberal
compensation of 80 cents a day.
Every honest, intelligent laborer
from the old world knows that Mr..
Morgan speaks truth when he says
''PrOtection keeps labor up" and in
proportion as protection is reduc-
ed, wages must decline; and
they know, too, that in no other
country do laborers live so well, as
many Of them own their own homes,
dress rand educate their families as
well as in this country. Yet this new
combination trust, laboring in the in
terest of British monopolists at home,
and would be in America, don't like
protection because it keeps your wa
ges up, with an impudence that makes
Satan blush, ask you to make grand
exhibition of self sacrifice for Their
special benefit, to unite with them in
striking down the policy that protects
you lin securing fair compensation
and put you in condition where you
are at the mercy of men who declare
your wages too high for their purpose
when they, with your aid, have Grip
pied every industry in which you now
find remunerative employment, in
the interest of their British masters
You are at the mercy of the Alliance
combine and labor will be cheaI
enough for Alabama or Minnesota
farmers; for you must not forget that
the Farmers Alliance like Democracy
is the same in spirit and purpose in
South Carolina as in Minnesota, in
Alabama as in Wisconsin. Tear dowr
what has always been good to build