St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-30
The Brilliant Kentuckian Dis.
sects the Body and Limbs
Of Protection.
Protected Industrialists of
the Land Suffer Losses
in Wages,
While Unprotected Workers
Are Realizing a Steady
Increase.

proceedings To-Day: but III Its place the
Hale resolution as to the relative merits
OF the Republican policy of "protec-
tion" and the Democratic policy of
tariff for revenue only" was taken up
and debated the whole day. The first
senator to enter the lists and to take up
the gauntlet thrown down by Mr.. Aid
rlch soine days ago was his colleague in
the subcommittee on finance, Mr.. Car
Isle.
After some difficulty IN obtaining a
quorum and a brief silver speech by
MI. Stewart, Mr.. Carlisle addressed the
senate on MIR. Hale's resolution as to
the relative merits of ''protection'' and
tariff for revenue only" and in re-
sponse to the speeches of Messrs. Hale
and Aldrich.
If. said Mr.. Carlisle. higher price
were injurious to the community at
large, and ii low prices were beneficial,
then everything which interfered with
and arrested the natural tendency to-
ward decline in the price of commod-
lties and rise in the wages Of labor,
/ anything that tended to make it harder
ana more expensive for the masses of
the people to live (whether it were war,
peStiience. famine or q Mckinley act)
was
A Public Calamity
to be depiOred by every man who loved
his country. His purpose was (he said)
to show that the tariff act of 1890 had
intcrfered with the natural tendency to
decline in the prices of commodities
and to rise in the rates of wages, and
that it had made it harder and more eX-
pensive for the masses of the people of
the United States TO live.
He said that the fifteen general occu-
pat!ons in unprotected industries were:
Bakers, blacksmiths, bricklavers, cabl-
net,nakers, carpenters, common labor
ers. farm laborers, machinsts, masOns,
iron moulders. painters, plumbers, stone
cutters, taiiors and tinsmiths. The av-
erage increase of wages in these occu-
patiuns during the, period covered by
the investigation of the finance commit
tee'had been 75-100 of per cent. The
fifteen highly protected occupations
were: Bar iron, boots and shoes. cot
ton goods, cotton and wO3len goods,
crucible steel, flint glass. green glass,
lumber, machinery, pig. iron, steel in
gots, steel blooms, steel rails. window
glass and woolen goods.
The Wages Lowered.
In these occupations the rates of
wages had fallen (Since the Mckinley
acD an average of S9l00 of per cent,
as against rise of 75-1Oo per cent in the
fifteen unprotected industries.
MI. Carlisle then went into detailed
statement as TO the cost of lmpor te d
goods and as to tin plate. On the latter
oiut he said that the Mckinley act had
paid, not to the importer. not to the
government. not to the dealers. but
directly to the Welsh tin plate manu-
facturers, $4,629. $50, or more than half
the value of the plant of the sos tin plate
works OF Wales. The Mckinley act. as
to Tin plate, had proved to be not for the
benefit of the American consumers, but
of the Welsh manufacturers.
Every Shackle placed upon commerce
and every interference with the COM
merce of the world increased prices and
deprived the people of advantages they
would otherwise enjoy. But it was not
necessary, he said. TO pursue this line of
argument any farther, because it now
seemed to be admitted by the friends of
protection that
Cheap Commodities
were beneficial, and the senator from
Rhode Island (Aldrich), speaking as the
champion of that policy, based his argu-
nirtlt almost exclusively on the ground
that protection reduced prices and in
creased the commerce of the country.
This was not the purpose for which the
Mn
into the house of representatives, and
he read an extract from the report
accompanying the bill to establish this
statement. The people by popular ma
jority (i,060. .000) had swept the authors of
this bill out OF congress. As result of
that verdict we had now the senator
from Rhode Island contending that high
prices were not beneficial to the people
iii other words, that the Mckinley bill
had been a success because it had failed
to bring about the object it had been de-
signed TO accomplish.
2 1 desire to say further, said Mr.. Car
Isle, that Notwithstanding the state
meat of the senator from Rhode Island
thir Aldrich) that the cost of living i'll
England had increased during that pc
Rod, the committee made no inyestiga-
.tion on that subject. 1t caused the
prices of number of articles to be
taken, but made no inquiry as to the
proportion in which they had entered
into consumption.
Cost of Living.
Mr. Carlisle further SAID that he had
learned for the first time from the
presentation of the report that an in
Yestlgation had been made into the cost
of living so as to show decline of
prizes in the three cities of Fall River,
Chicago and Dubuque 0he home of
Seliator Allison). No knowledge of
such investigation had come to him as
member of the committee. He proposed
to show that the prices, both retail and
wholesale. had been greatly increased
by the Mckinley bill, and that the cost
of living i'll the United States, giving to
each one of these articles its proper i'm
pOrtance, had been increased during
the period covered by the investigation
and during the period of agitation
which had preceded the adoption of the
Mckinley bill more than $685., 1000, 900.
This money was gone out of their p0ck-
cts forever.
In his closing remarks Mr.. Carlisle
exhibited two samples of woolen goods
exactly alike except as to color. manu-
faetured in Canada. Canada, he said,
was a protected country but admitted
Woolnfree of duty. These specimens
sold in Canada for 2211a cents pound,
but could not be made in the United
StAtes for less than 40 cents. This
lShoEed what our manufacturers could