The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-10-21
wORKINGMEN AND THE TARIFF.

Under this heading,th Chicago Her.
aid has just produced an exhaustive ar
ticle which we regard as the most able
and convincing that has yet appeared on
this phase of the tariff question. 1t is
OF a character to set every man to think
ing, and especially men OF the working
classes who are being appealed to in sea-
son and out of season to support the re
publican party on the pleathat it keeps
up wages by it's protective policy.
The Herald goes to the root of the
matter at once when it says:
A mar who knows that he earns all
tn at he gets. and who also knows that
the ~hypocrites and pharisees of the
monopoly party do not even make a
pretense of being interested in him, ex-
cept at election time, cannot fail to view
with contempt n might almost say
that he cannot fail to regard with anger
the ill disguised scoundrelism Of the
men who on the eve of an election ask
him to believe that their laws, their rob
berries, their privilege, their %monopolies,
are for his benefit, not theirs. Every
w~orklngman who knows enough to aban-
don a poor job and take a good one
knows that the protective tariff never
added a cent to his wages. He knows
that organization has done more than
anything else to improve the condition
OF labor in this country, as well as in
others. lie knows that wages always
were higher in America than in Europe,
and that high tariffs or low tariffs never
made the slightest difference with the
prevailing rate. He knows that the Nc
kinney bill increased no mans wages,
but hat reductions were made in many
lines after its passage. He knows that
what he gets, and all that he gets. he
must earn by honest toll, and that no
man, protected or unprotected, pays him
a cent more than he is compelled to pay
him.
As the tendency of wages is downward
labor has long since discovered that the
only way to maintain them is by APP
pealing to their trade organizations. The
one commodity workingmen have to sell,
their labor. is or the free list. and the
protected barons, who employ most of
the labor in the trades of this country,
are always looking for opportunities to
cut down their bills for wages by en-
ploying the cheapest imported labor
they can find.
The folly, therefore, Of w%orkingmen
giving their aid to keep up the robber
tariff is patent to any reasoning being.
On this point the Herald well says:
Protection insists at all times and in
oil rlurpc nyrnnt flnrinr p,l;t;., ....
paigns. on buying it's labor in the cheap
est market. When it reduces wages or
locks out its employees it calls upon the
military arm of the government for the
protection of any men that it may hire
at less pay. This is a legal right. If
Carnegie can man his works at 81 a day
he will not pay 81 a day. The laws Of
the country will and do protect him in
this purpose. Why, then, should work.
ingmen maintain for his benefit laws
which permit him TO sell his product in
the dearest market known to men: He
buys his labor where it is cheapest. Why
should not they buy their necessaries
where they are cheapest . lie exacts the
pound of flesh from labor. Why should
labor join him in support of unjust laws
that give him a cornered market for his
product: The attitude of p~rotectionism
toward labor is one of degrading conde-
scension and patronage. There is not a
cheap politician or a paltry rogue in
America who will not go before an audi
ence of hard working - men who
dearly earn every dollar that they re-
ceive-and tell them to their faces that
it is the tariff that gives them bread and
clothing. III this is SO why are American
w~orkingmen, with tariffs going higher
all the time, compelled to strike CON
t~inually against reductions of wages: II
this is SO why are unprotected working
men better paid than wo%rkingmen who
are said to be protected: If this is so
why are wages higher in Chicago than
they are in New Iork-higher in San
Francisco than they are in Chicago? If
this is SO why is it that well organized
trades have good wages and trades that
are not organized have low wages and
long hours:
These are arguments which cannot he
answered Off hand. They show the meat
in the cocOanut in d way to make every
body see it. And there is no doubt that
the people understand the subject better
than ever, and that they will vindicate
their good sense in the coming election
by a most telling rebuke to the autocrat-
il power of the protected barons. In the
following strong and forcible language
the Herald ]denounces the lie of the re-
publican party which says the tariff is a
help to American labor:
The intelligent workingman knows all
about this wages lie himself. He owes
nothing to any man or to any party. HIS
own strong arm gains his bread. lie has
no other esource The much Wanted
tariff, prated OF by fools and villains who
never did a stroke of work in their lives,
is of no consequence to him. 1t never
helpedhim TO employment: it never raised
his wages. In dull times it has sneaked
away out OF sight, disclaiming RESPONSE
bility. In prosperous times it has re-
turned pompously to demand the credit.
1t has stood by powerless when his wages
were reduced. 1t has Knocked him when
In ,r,, l,l.1.,, II L.z -.