Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-01
SOME TARIFF FACTS.
PROTECTION IS A DELusIoN AND A
SNARE FOR woRNNeMeN.

OF Employees OF mnnufnoturerss but In
Reality Only the Employers Arc Helped
by 1.-THE Facts of the Case.
The labor troubles at Homestead have
started lively discussion between pro
tectionists and tariff reformers as to
whether the tariff had anything to do
with those disturbances. The protec-
honists point to the fact that labor trou-
bles and strikes occur in free trade Eng
land as frequently as in protectonist
America, and that therefore It cannot
be said that the tariff is their cause and
free trade the remedy. This is unques-
tionably correct. But in one very i'm
portant respect the answer Is not sufh-
cient. One of the main arguments con-
stantly and vociferously urged in favor
of high protective duties is that they are
not only to aid the manufacturer in
making industrial production profitable,
but that the tariff is especially intended
to ameliorate the condition Of the Ameri-
can workmen beyond anything hitherto
known.
It is to secure to him constant en-
ployment and high and steady wages; it
is to enable him to own his house and
lot, to have the comforts Of g. home and
considerable amount of the enjoy
ments of civilized society; it is to insure
him, unless he be very imprudent,
against want and care in his old age; it
is, in short, to secure to him conditions
of life with which he would have every
reason to be content. Such promises
have been and are poured into the airs
of workingmen, especially at election
times, when the labor vote is wanted
for the protectionist party.
A large portion of the labor vote has
actually been won in that way for the
high tariff policy, and it is by no means
surprising that the workingmen should
have taken the representations made to
them seriously. According to what
they have been told, they have reason to
believe that the tariff laws were made
specially for their benefit; that in the
matter of employment and wages the
American workingnen are to be much
less dependent upon the state of the
labor market and upon the vicissitude:
of business than workingmen in fret
trade countries are; that they may
claim share in the profits made by tht
establishment in which they are EN-
ployed with q better right and to {
larger extent than can be claimed BY
workingmen not protected by tariff
that they will be taken excellent care O
somehow, whether by their employer
or by the power that made the tarif
law. It Is easy to see what notions O
right and what expectations of benef
may thus be encouraged in the mind
of the credulous, and how those mind
are thus prepared for the exciting ap
peals Of the agitator.
But the tariff laws say nothing abou
wages or continuity of employment
The fulfllment Of the promises made b.
the protectionists in behalf of the tarii
, Is not provided for in the statute. Tha
ful6nment is left to the most immediat
, benehciaries of the protective system
the manufacturers. There may b
manufacturers who run their establish
I ments as benevolent institutions, an
; who think first of their workingmen an
!, last of themselves; but it is not in hi
, man nature that there should be man
, Of this kind. Most manufacturers wi
manage their business on ordinary bus
: ness principles. They will have kee
. eye to their own profits. If manager
Of stock companies, they will consider
matter of justice as well as of PRIDE I
: secure large dividends to the shareholt
: ers. They will ordinarily pay to th
: workingman not as much as the
{ might, but as much as they must, or, t
Q express it less harshly, although the
a profits might allow it they are not likel
j. in the payment Of wages to go much b.
/. yond the market rate, and whenevt
y profits are endangered by unfavorab
circumstances they will resort to wha
: ever may serve to prevent a de6cienc
d "a reduction Of wages among otht
j. things.
n The workingman, who is not an u
v reasonable being, will submit to a r
g dnction of his wages when he sees IL
!. necessity of it. But he will be the mo-
Q unwilling to admit such necessity u
l. der any circumstances the more reGssee
It he has been given to look upon himse
o as at least one of the intended ben
) ficiaries of the laws which have done
n much to make his employer rich. f
will be rather inclined to argue th
10 under these laws he had hardly had Il
o full share Of the benefit that was pror
n ised to him, and that somebody else hi
n unlawfully made off with a large pc
10 ton Of what was the workingman's du
G. And if upon this view Of the case Il
\ laboring man works out for himself
" theory of rights far beyond this, V
must not be altogether astonished
find that the tariff, with all those prol
ises with which it has been commend
If to the favor Of the workingman, has /
II come one of the most effective pror
is gators Of soeialistic ideas.
10 The workingmen will gradually op
ct their eyes to the fact that those f;
,e speeches have most cruelty deceiy
O. them. They have only to look at t
IN rates Of wages in the different countr
Of the world to satisfy themselves tt
high wages are not caused by a hi
protective tariff, and that low wages {
Ps not caused by the absence of hi
80 tariff. We are constantly told, wh
n comparing American wages with Eli
y lish wages, that wages in the Unit
III States are much higher than wages
y England because we are blessed with
y. protective system, while England is n
But it is notorious fact that wages
free trade England range much higl
than wages in Germany and In otl
L European countries blessed with p
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