Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1892-07-15
THE TARIFF AND THE STRIKE

There Is remote sense Ill WIlICii 'no
protective tariff may said to be re-
sponsible for the trouble at Home
stead. It is by way of the fact that
but for the protective tariff the great
steel works and all their troubles
would be in Europe instead Of here.
No tariff law can regulate either
what a manufacturer shall pay to his
employees or what a manufacturer
shall receive for his product. All
that even a prohibitory tariff can
accomplish is to cause the manu-
facture within the United States Of
the goods sold here. Their
manufacture here is subject to the
conditions of the labor market, the
money market, and the competition
which exists here. The idea that
because an industry is protected from
foreign competition it has no COM
petition, no business problems, and
need never have any wage disputes,
is in accord with the Democratic
idea that the amount Of tariff is
always added to the price of the
goods, but not in accord with the
facts. All lines Of competition in the
United States are open to the enter
prise and capital of the whole world.
In all the old and important lines of
manufacture the product Of the
United States alone is now equal to
the product of the whole world not
far back in its history. Every man
who developes good thing now has
neighbors eager to divide it with him.
There is competition everywhere, and
so sharp that none but those who are
thorough masters Of any business in
which they may engage can hope to
succeed.
With this constant pressure every
where to reduce the cost of production
it is not strange that there are
frequent efforts to cut the wages Of
employees. They are only held in
check by the ceaseless efforts o1
workingmen to better their condition
The object and intent Of a protective
tariff is to eliminate European con-
ditions and influences from this strife
and prevent the low wages which
prevail abroad from being a factor in
it. Competition there must and will
be in any business that is open to all
but in excluding competition based
on the foreign wage scale the whole
industrial struggle in this country is
confined to the home field, where the
conditions are most favorable to the
workingman, where he can make q
more hopeful fight for his rights, where
more comforts are counted necessities
where there are more alternatives tc
the employers ultimatrm than
anywhere else in the world
Human nature is the same the
world over. In a general sense it is
unsafe to trust to the generosity OF
sense Of justice Of the individual, III
England or America, when his own
interests are antagonized. Whether
the factory be there or here, the
operator will produce as cheaply and
sell as dearly as possible. The pro.
tective tariff adds nothing to the
opportunity of the employer to
Cypress labor, but puts all employers
supplying this market upon level
so far as labor conditions are con.
cerned. This is the best preparation
society can give to the workman fol
his struggle. He must educate and
equip himself for an intelligent stand
for his rights. And while he does
this the Republican party seeks to
draw a Gordon about the field, tt
prevent so far as possible the low
social condition of labor abroad from
hampering his effects for the elevation
Of labor here Take away the pro.
tective system, and the questions now
at issue at Homestead will disappear
with them will disappear Homestead
and other manufacturing centers, and
in their place will appear condition
before which the resolution and hope
which now inspire the workmen will
die away into Encouragement and
dispair.