Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-07
To the American as to his British ancestor


Che idea Of liberty regulated by law is sacred.
The sacredness OF the law is the very pillar of
our system Without the safeguards of law
there is no security, and without security there
Is no liberty. Thus runs the circle-one eternal
purpose, one ever-recurring basis Of society and
government 1t may be said with literal truth
that the laboring man more than all others de-
pends on this security afforded by the law.
Otherwise he would be the prey of the stronger,
the victim caught in the tolls of the more cum
ming. The laboring man as organized now is
better able than formerly to maintain himself
against exsctions from any quarter, but he is
more liable to run into excuses and excite
prejudices. The organization that comes not
Of calmness and judgment is rather harmful
than helpful so far as its momensary results are
concerned Yet every attempt to do thing Is
apt to have educative force. The men who fail
today If actuated by right motives succeed to-
morrow. In the deplorable affair at Homestead
the action Of the locked-out men up to a GER
tain point Ineligible If not strictly de-
feasible, while the course Of the employing
company so far as can be ascertained was to
say the least injudicious. It will hardly be seri
ously disputed that the Carnegies have rights of
property and resulting rights, and the only
point to be determined this is not q
political question at all-is as to The means
employed by the owners to secure their rights
I'm the premises. This limits the discussion to
mere matters cognizable by law and does not
undertake to decide the matter OF wages. If
the company had persisted in relying on the
civil authorities for any necessary protection
after e1hausting arbitration in the other
80. l.
to the scene, it would have acted with sound
discretion and deserved at least a suspension Of
public Judgment. 1t was the failure to do this
with the bloody results that easued that has in
clined the people to eensure their conduct.
In view Of the tariff campaign soon formally
to open, Commissioner Carroll d. wright's fig
ures giving the incomes of the laboring people
engaged in various industries in different coun-
tries and comparative tables showing the pro-
portionate expenditure of the families will be
Interesting reading. The commissioner of
labor, unlike the superintendent Of the census.
is tariff reformer" While Mr.. Porter's fig
ures have sometimes been assailed as doctored
in the interest of protection, Mr. Wright has
been similarly attacked because he is on the
other side of the great economic question. The
value Of statistics is in proportion to their
curacy, and while facts are facts indie
pendent of the political opinion held by the
statisticians. tfe public will take the motives Of
the latter into consideration and be governed
By Its preiudices to q great extent in accepting
the statistical results. Free-trader Wright is a
reputable officer with genius for the sort Of
work he does for the United States, and The
STAR is not impugning his accuracy on any
ground 1t merely presents his canvass among
5,2s4 families Of $40 persons each, chiefly en-
ployed in the textile and iron industries. He
finds the average income per family in this
country 1914 The corresponding income per
family in Great Britain Is $50; in France, s41s;
In Germany, s2s7. How immeasurably superior
10 the American hborer's wage over the Euro
peanl But the matter is not clear until it is
seen what the relative expenditure is of these
families. The data is not complete, but Mr.
Wright discovers what the food expenditure,
the largest and most necessary item, is, and the
comparison between the four principal indus
trial nations stands:
Tn..sd st.sssa d se74; expended for food.
Greet sritain.sIncome. s512; expended for food,
Ffance.Iasonas. e41s; expanded for food. IS per
cent. or e143.
Mr.. wrishts elaborate data, soon to be fur
nished, it is understood, will deal with other
items Of expenditure. His statements will. II
they show or seem to show the greater purchas-
ing power Of wages abroad, not be accepted
by American protectionists. So far Is his COM
parison stands it is specifically favorable to
protection. But there is an intimation in the
Boston Globe, from which the above figures are
taken. that the full official data to be presented
BY the commissioner viii make a showing on
the other side of the question.
The STAR yesterday placed the ems of