The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-10-10


some kinds OF iron and steel manufac
lures have have had a protection Of x
per cent, while other kinds have had
only 20 or 80 per cent. Yet wages
have been at least as high in the latter
kinds as in the former. Some kinds
of cotton goods have had $50 per cent
protection and other kinds only 80. Yet
wages were highest in the least pro
tected goods. So it is in woolens, in
paper, in linen, in all kinds Of metals, in
leather--in fact, in everything.
II protection help wages why do not
wages rise whenever protective duties
are increased on any article? When
duties wero trebled on glass bottles the
rate of wages was not advanced one
cent; indeed the bosses Immediately
tried to cut wages down and all the
hands were turned adrift for several
months with no wages at all, because
they would not accept a reduction OF 20
per cent, when the bosses had just got
an advance in protection of 200 per cent.
Directly after protection was increased
upon iron ore wages Of iron miners were
every where reduced. 1t has been pre-
tended that the recent out in wages at
the Carnegie works was caused by a re-
duotion in the tariff on steel billets.
But the fact is that the protection On
these billets had been increased and
fixed on a basis which insured a steady
increase every year by being made spe-
cific instead of ad valorem. These are
hard words used to conceal from PLAIN
people what is meant. But the plain
fact is that an lad valorem duty" is one
which falls in proportion to the cost of
producing the thing taxed, while a "spe-
clic duty" is one which increases in the
opposite direction.
Protection does not help wages. 1t
does not increase them. That is admit
ted 10 by Mr.. Frick, Mr.. Carnegie and
their Pittsburg friends. They all say
now that "the tariff has nothing to do
with wages" That would be sufficient
to prove that the tariff ought to be abol-
lshed; but even worse han that is true
the tariff makes wages lower. Protec-
ton is the enemy Of wages. Whenever
the tariff is increased in this country
wages have Immediately fallen.
1t was so in 1928, it was so in 1912, it
was so in 1861, it was so in 1867, it was
SO in 1876, it was SO in 1883 and was so
in 1890. 1t is true that after some time,
the evil effects of an increased tariff are
overcome and wages begin to rise again,
but that is because the ingenuity of men
overcome3 the distractions Of tariffs
and devises methods by which trade can
again proceed with something like the
former facility.
The reasons why this is SO are simple.
Every tariff keeps wealth out Of our
country and makes so much less to
divide. AS the income of the country
is divided about equally between capital
and labor, or rather between land and
capital on n side and labor on the
other, every dollars worth OF goods shut
out by a tariff means a dead loss of so
cents to laborers. And, as our present
tariff shuts out about 100000 900 of
good things, there is S250,0O0 900 less
each year to divide among laborers. If
these things were admitted American
laborers would have to be employed to
make other things from the products of
American soil to pay for them; and the
demand for labor would thus be in
creased and the rate of wages raised.
Again. if foreign goods wese admitted
free of duty, the price OF all similar
goods would be reduced to a similar
rate, and thus multitudes of Americans
W no cannot afford to buy at the present
high prices would be able to buy at
cheap prices.
The sales would, therefore, increase
enormously; the manufacturers would
be anxious to sell more, because their
smaller profits on each article would re-
quire larger sales to produce their usual
income. Being thus compelled to in
crease their production, they must of
purse call for more hands. Two masters
would be running after one workman,
and wages must rise. Wages never rise
in consequence of the employers greater
profits; they rise when, and only when,
employers generally increase their pro-
duction at q greater rate than the in
crease Of laborers. Free trade would
reduce the price at which goods are
sold, reduce the cost Of materials to the
manufacturer, increase the demand by
bringing goods within the reach of the
poor, who furnish u market ten times
superior to that afforded by the few rich
folk, and thus immensely increase the