The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-08-27
Our Imports Under the New Tariff
LaM-Sionifican figures.

If some enthusiastic tariff refOrmer
should erect in our midst a factory
to manufacture silk, wooden or other
goods, and should make his ds6ut by
paying to his employees only half the
rate of wages now paid in this coun-
try for like services. what would be
its first effect upon our workers? A
burst of popular indignation, not on
ly from workers, but from all their
friends as we'll.
The second effect would be to
bring all wages down to the rate
fixed by this one employer, if he
were to continue business. This IS
Every laborer is direct
ly interested in what his competitor
is doing; not only his competitor in
labor, but he must go back of this
and see what the employer of that
competing labor is doing. If that
employer, after paying only half or
less wages to his workers, sells his
products in competition with the
products of our labor, it is only a
question of time when he will force
our laborers out of work or down to
the level of his workers.
And it makes no kind of differ
ence that oceans intervene to sepa-
rate the parties. Modern inventions
have practically annihilated both
time and distance as to the product
of almost every kind of labor. So
far as these two elements are con-
cerned they afford but little more
protection to our laborers than if the
German, French or Bohemian fac
tory were located just across the
street from our own.
To guard our workers from the
low-priced labor of other lands has
been the anxiety of every loyal
friend to the American toiler. Yet
last year we imported as the product
Of this foreign labor, in goods, con-
sisting of glass, silk, wool, flax,
hemp and jute, iron and steel, cot
ton, tobacco, liquors, paper, earthen,
stone and china ware, and the manu-
features thereof, alone to the amount
of more than 5000, 900, 900.
Every dollars worth of these could
have been produced here. Had
they been, does any one believe that
our laborers would have suffered the
same anxiety as to whether their
wages were in danger of reduction?
Yet to the extent of these importa-
tons our laborers have come in di-
rect competition with the foreign
laborer. It has been found almost
if not quite impossible for our wages
to be advanced so long as these
heavy imports continue. Time and
again during the last ten years have
friends of our laborers sought to sc
adjust duties on these and other i'm.
ports as to protect them against the
low wages of other lands.
The Mckinley bill has proven q
master stroke in that direction anC
its authors are entitled to the graft
tude of every friend Of the 1aborer.
The Treasury Department has is
sued a statement showing the
amount of our foreign commerce fol-
the year ending June 80, 1891
which is full of encouragement tc
the laborer and demonstrates the
wisdom of the Mckinley act
This statement shows that the
value Of imports of merchandise pay.
ing duty for the nine months ending
June 80, 18o1-this being since the
said act went into force-was 1884,
242.34o, while for the same period
ending June 50, 1890, the value OF
imports paying duty was $389,786,-
o32. This shows a reduction of i'm.
ports paying duty in favor of the
Mckinley law of $55,543,692.
Every labor organization, every
laborer and every laborer's friend
will read these figures with delight
Has modern times revealed so effect
i've a way to relieve our laborers
from the evil effects of competition
with the low wages of other lands?
What labor has supplied this vast
amount of over ffty-6ve million dol
lars worth TO our people? The
American laborer has supplied every
dollars worth of it. No wonder
there is a feeling of confidence grow
ing stronger every day that this
much maligned Mckinley act is to
prove the best friend Of this gener-
alton to the laborer. 1t is a second
Emancipation act.
And who is worse off because of
it? Parenthetically, let US suggest
that you pass by the importer, his
agents or employees in answering this
question. Has any one paid more
for what he has had to buy? No.
Let US pass over the few months
when falsehood ran riot in the early
footsteps of the act and put the
question this way: Is any one pay
ing more for his goods to-day? Truth