The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-09-21
Ii WEATHER..
WAGES AND THE TARIFF.

WAGES AND THE TARIFF.
"In my Judgment, there is no weake;
argument in the whole catalogue of the
pro.ectionist argument than this which
maintains that free trade or lower rates
OF duty would ~equalize the rates o.
wages in this and other countries
We hear this argument over and over
again, notwithstanding the industrial
history of the whole civilized world re.
flutes it. England is a free trade coun-
try and France is a protectionist coun'
try. They are divided only by a narrow
channel which can be crossed in two
hours. Their people are engaged in
substantially the same occupations, and
there is an immense volume Of trade
between them, and yet the wages are
not the same in free trade England as
they are in protective France.
England is a free trade country and
Germany is a high protective country.
Their people are engaged. to a large ex-
tent, as the French and English people
are, in the same occupations, and there
is great trade between them. They
interchange their products to the
amount OF millions of dollars annually;
and yet their rates OF wages have not
been equalized. Moreover. they are all
densely populated countries with old
civilizations and great armies of labor
ers, while in this country we have a new
civilization with immense tracts of fer
tile land open to settlement of the peo-
pie and thousands of avocations IN
which they can engage; and yet we are
constantly having the rates of wages in
this new and sparsely settled country
compared with the rates of wages in
these old and densely populated coun-
tries instead OF comparing the rates of
wages existing in these various old
countries where substantially the same
conditions of affairs exists.
Moreover, the trainers Of the Consti-
tuition of the United States more than
n hundred years ago wisely provided
for absolute free trade between all the
states that then composed or should
thereafter compose the American Union.
The Union now consistsof forty-four great
states inhabited by $4,000, 600 Industrious
and enterprising people engaged in every
occupation to which the human hand
can be put or machinery can be applied.
The trade between these states is larger
by thousands of millions of dollars than
could ever exist between this and all the
other countries of the world if we had
absolute free trade.
"1hese interchanges Of products are
made between the people of these forty
four states with absolute freedom. The
products OF Ohio go into PENNSYLVANIA
and New York, and are sold without
any duty Or any obstruction whatever.
The products Of Pennsylvania and New
go into Ohio and Kentucky and
Missouri and are sold without any duties
whatever; and yet this absolute free
trade between %forty-four states and g.
industrious people have not
aqualized the rates of wages in this
IF free trade in England and protec-
ton in France, just across the channel.
have not equalized the rates of wages
there, and it absolute free trade in forty
four states OF the American Union has
not equalized the rates of wages here.
upon what foundation does the senator
his proposition that FREQ trade or
|ower rates of duty between the United
and England, or GERMANY or
France, 5000 miles across tho ocaan
will equalize the rates of wages here and
"Let any man who doubts the facts in
to this matter take up the ~report
Of the Commissioner of Labor for 1856 !
which the accomplished head OF that
examines the rates of waqes in
every state OF the union in a large mum
Der of protected occupations, and shows
difference in the rates in the v~arious
states ranging from 90 to 100 per cent.
The rates OF wages in a wooden factory,
Tor instance, in a certain part Of the
Iabor carried on in the establishment, !
ire not the same in New Jersey that
are in New York, an adjoining
nor the amt in New Hampshire
they are in Connecticut or in Yer
mont.
I repeat the proposition with which