The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-02-20
WAGES AND TARIFF.
How British Free Trade Effects
British Workingmen.
THE COMPETITION IN ENGLAND
ofForcign Manufacturcrs-.-To Meet
1t Free Trade Britain Which Per.
mIts Them to Come In Must Reduce
the Wages of the Workers...It is
INDUSTRIOUS. that n Party In this Conn.
try Advocates Such Policy.

american Iron and Std Bulletin.
We alluded last week to tho burden
OF foreign competition in British home
markets, which is bearing so heavily
upon British iron and steel manufacture.
ers. This competition results from the
FREQ Trade policy which these and
other manufacturers have helped to
establish in tho vain hope that other
nations might also DO induced to estab-
lish FREQ Trade and thus give 10 Eng
lfshmen, with their cheap cost OF pro-
duction, an advantage in supplying
other peoples markets. But other ma
tions have not adopted Free Trade. This
policy to-day results III nothing bcno-
fetal to the British iron and steel manu-
facturer except to give him free iron
ore, and this advantage is more than
Countcrbalancod by large sales OF Con-
tinental iron and steel in British
markets. We quoted last week the
statistics OF British imports OF iron and
steel in 1891 to show how very serious
this Continental competition now is.
And We also quoted from the London
Iron and Steel Trades Journal to show that
it is not at all rclished by those who are
hurt BY it. Now comes another English
journal, the London Coliiery Guardian,
Tor January Goth, which echoes the dis
satisfaction expressed by its cotem-
porary. 1t says:
"The opening OF tho new year has not
thus far seen a realization OF the hopes
OF improvement in trade which were
fondly INDUCED in by the iron masters
OF South Stailordshire and East Wor-
for crude and finished iron, has been
fairly run on the standard re-declarcd at
the quarterly meeting held a fortnight
ago in Birmingham, but the current
demand for most sorts OF iron certainly
lacks anything like strength and vital
ity. \ striking example OF this slow
ness OF demand are sheets for galvaniz-
ing. OF these all the principal works in
the district have curtailed their produc-
ton, and at the noted establishment not
more than one-fourth OF tho twenty-five
pudding furnaces there are in opera
ton. The disturbances in the Argcn-
tine, Brazil and other South American
markets-which are usually such
great customers for this sort OF
iron-may partially explain the de-
preston, but there can be no doubt
that some OF it is due to the stealthily-
nearing Belgian competitor. Since the
new year came in Staftordshire makers
have had to confront the fact OF sam
Piles OF Belgian sheets offered in London
at rs I'd to los per ton lower than the
current rate ior Staffordshire, sheets OF
corresponding quality. OF course it re-
mains to be proved whether in the
event Of, business the bulk will equal
the sample, and there is, moreover, the
important consideration that, while
StatTordshire sheets cost l2s Cd per ton
to deliver in London, the freight for
Belgian sheets from Antwerp is only is
Cd, and the railway transit from the
works to the port would not raise the
total cost to more than IS per ton. The
real reason Of The sererity Of The competition
as, of course, the longer hours and lolrcr pay
OF The Belgian compared avith The English
ironWorkrr, and ii is high time that the adj
locates IN this country Of q social and indus
trial millennium began 10 recognise lphitier
they are drifting"
Will the reader consider the full sig
niiicance OF the lines we have italicized?
To meet and overcome Continental
competition in British markets it is
seriously suggested that the British
workingman shall work longer hours
and be paid lower wages. He must be
made more OF slave than he is to-day.
No other remedy is proposed, although
to 4 practical statesman unpledged to Il
decaying dogma, especially if he be n
humane man, the natural remedy would
at once be found in Protective tariff,
which would shield the British working
man against foreign competition.
How very English are the italicized
lines from our contemporary Sixty
seven years ago William Huskisson, the
pioneer IN the British free trade move.
ment, said in a parliamentary speech
that, ito enable capital to obtain fair
remuneration, The price OF labor mus! be
kept dorm" The free trade refrain is
the same in England in 1882 that it was
in 1925. The British workingman
must BIO kept down." He must not be
permitted to make any advance toward
q Social and industrial millennium"
which would lit him out OF his present
hard conditions and give him the COM
forts, tho courage and the ambition
which his American brother possesses.
The wonder is that there should be q
political party in this country which
proposes TO place American working
men on level with European working
men! 1t is 4 monstrous proposition.