The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-07-17

$1.00 now sells for 90 per cent This makes
. decrease in this country of s per cent
against decrease abroad of 81 per cent.
Therefore the tariff has kept up the price
here Notwithstanding window glass is
higher abroad than here the materials tor
making it are cheaper here than there.
VINO Is benefitted, then. Not the laboring
man, Tor the laborer in this industry is paid
no better here than abroad, especially
when we consider that abroad laborers
work the whole year and here only about
thirty-six weeks. Protected as this
industry is by tariff Of 140 per cent it
pays its workmen less than any other
industry In the whole country that requires
skilled labor. 1t is PLAIN that this differ
ence in price goes directly to the manufaci
turer, and the poor woman who saves q
little money to buy window glass has the
satisfaction Of knowing she pays 92 cents
Tor 10 cents worth of glass, and she is
giving powerful capitalist the difference
is 1t TO the interest of this favored class
TO say that the tariff has reduced the
prices on commodities during the last fifty
years and that we have the tariff to thank
That We are buying cotton yarn to- day for
10 cents ttfteen) per pound instead of 15
cents as our fathers did. But some of
these persons who have such tenacious
memories as TO prices decades ago seem TO
overlook the vast improvements in ma
chinery whereby the cost of production is
lowered. They could remem Der that when
cotton yarn sold for - cents, a spin
ner produced but three pounds
week and received in pay for
his services So, whereas to-day by
the aid of machinery one man can
spin 5000 pounds, worth $780, and receive
for his labor 80 week. His wages are 200
per cent higher, his produce per week
worth 10000 per cent. more and his yarn
- Foil
pound But the tariff did not lower the
price. 1t was because the cost of produc-
ton was Oh 5apened. In six industries in
this country 5l2, 900 persons.by the aid of
do the work that by hand would
take Il, 500.0 900 persons.
Consular reports show that factories in
the United States sell goods in foreign
countries from 10 to 20 per cent. cheaper
than they do in their own country. When
we consider that establishments in the
United States will sell abroad at retail
horse rake for sl7 that costs the American
farmer S35 is il not about time the protec-
ton wall was lowered and the people as
whole receive some of the benefits
The tariff does not go to the workingmen,
for the laborer is not protected but his pro-
duct is. The trouble is the product belongs
TO the manufacturer and not to the laborer.
Twenty thousand Italian workingmen came
to America during four months but they
were not confronted by tariff to protect
the American workingmen. On gallon of
linseed oil the tariff is % cents: the laborer
receives cents and the manufacturer re-
ceives the benefit The tariff on hay feeders
that cost $40 is $40, out the laborer
receives but 1920. And what recourse has
the American workingman if he strikes for
higher wages and sees Italians come in and
take his place!
They can do nothing but submit to the
dictates of their powerful employers. Thus
it was that when the Mckinley bill passed
the House giving the cloak manufacturers
the advantage of 80 per cent. increase in
the tariff, and when a few days later the
hard hearted employers reduced the wages
Of their already poorly paid employees %
per cent. more, that the men, women and
children working in these factories could
do nothing else but submit to the cruel in
justice.
Is 1t not time that the voice of Democracy
was listened to! Is it not time that the
majority of the people who declare against
the system of benehtting the few at the
expense of the many, that this vast major
ity should be recognized and that their de-
mands for tariff reform be heeded.