The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-09-08
LABOR DAY AND ITS LESSONS.

| Every laborlng man should learn a
new chapter in life's lesson on Labor
Day.
1t should mean something more than
day of rest and recreation.
We have had q Labor Day celebration
in Canton and some laboring men we
know of have learned new and use.
full lesson.
They saw parade, made up exclu-
siyely of laboring men, with, not ban
ner, not streamer, not devise of any
kind mentioning in the smallest letters
the socalled Protection policy now in
vogue in the United States.
Instead of banners (that we used to
see) reading in bold letters,
| "Protection to American Labor"
"Protection and Better Wages"
mo Free Trade for U.s.
we saw on Labor Day in Canton no
endorsement of the Robber tariff, no
| denunciation of free trade.
What has worked this wonderful
change?
Itmust be the Mckinley bill is doing
its own talking now, as Gov. Mckinley
said it was doing, in his opening speech
in August in Nebraska.
The men who paraded the streets of
Canton Labor Day were largely labor
Ing men, who are employed in highly
protected industries.
Did they look any better kept, any
sieeker, or better clothed than our own
carpenters and printers and brick ma
sons (sll unprotected)
No, hey did not look as well.
OLe prominent Republican remarked
They are vicious looking lot of men"
How can it be possible that a tariff,
built especially to help men in the pro-
tected industries should make meu
vicious? These were the men, too, who
bore banners cursing Carnegie in big
black letters.
Here is an education feature Of the
day. What's the matter with labor in
this great circle of our protected indus
tries?
Has it failed to iud its
betterment in the Mckinley law, that
Carnegie helped to make,
Let us answer that question here and
now as we find it answered in a popu-
lar American magazine for September"
So far as the matter Of wages is con-
Cerned, with an average of ten cuts TO
one advance, recorded under the Nc
Kinley bill, it will hardly be insisted
that the wage-earner is gamer. Now,
with the exclusion of foreign-made
goods from our markets-for that is the
intended effect OF prOtectionist tariff
it seems reasonable to infer that do
nestle fabrics would increase, and with
them the labor of production. But
generalization in this matter will be
found to be subject to several import.
ant qualifying conditions. That con-
ditions OF interests and operations by
pro lcers in the same lines is one of
the natural results of protective sys-
TEN, cannot be successfully contro-
verted. The hundred and odd "trusts"
among American manufacturers that
are flourishing under the 80 yis of the
Mckinley act, is ample evidence on this
point. With foreign competition eli.
minated, there is no reason why we
should not have trusts and trusts.
American manufacturers would be
foolish not to take to them. But how
do trusts-that is, combinations among
manufacturers-affect the volume OF
labor? We answer, that the first eff
feet is its contraction The reason is
obvious. The very first thing that is
done, and which we believe in every
such case has been done, is the shutting
down of certain factories, the object
being the limiting of production to the
lowest level required by the market.
That means the discharge Of labor"
What next happens. This discharged
labor must either find work in other
fields or starve. Hence increased COM
petition among laborers and lower
prices.
1t is the true logic Of the situation.
Projection has cut the price of labor
everywhere. All intelligent laboring
men now see it.
Hence one banner that was carried
through the streets of Canton on Labor
Day read as response to the rifles of
Carnegie's hired Pinkerton's.
"We VIII Shoot with our Ballots
Election Day"