New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1892-08-10
THE TARIFF J AND LABOR.
HOW FREE TRADE WOULD Az
Feet THE STEEL WORKERS.
e Home Competitions Lower
Wages, How Much Would For
eign Competitions Do So?
--Some Interesting Facts
for Intelligent Vot-
ers to Think
Over.

over.
Steel billets have been selling at s22-
5Oper ton. That is equivalent to a
cent and tenth a pound. The duty
on imported steel costing more
than cent pound is half
q cent apound or SO on a ton.
That is quite sufficient to protect the
American against the competition
OF the foreign manufacturer.
Being well aware OF these facts, Mr..
Carnegies workmen say: "You have
a protection of SO q ton and you
also have the protection of ocean
and railroad freights. Being thus eff
1ectually sheltered from English,
French, German, and Belgian compe-
tltlon you can afford to pay us ithe
old wages. 1t is not fair to charge
the customer SO and pocket the pro-
ceeds yourselves, as our Democratic
statesmen tell US you are doing. We
want our share"
The reply of the company is: eve
admit that we are not troubled by
our foreign rivals, but you loose sight
OF the fact that domestic competition
AAoS NAAf vi oOh II pllCCS SO tlldU
the consumer is not charged nearly
all OF that ten dollars extra you
speak of. The American steel he BUYS
does not cost him foreign price with
ten dollars ton added, but only
three Or four dollars a ton above the
foreign price. More steel is being
made in this country than there are
purchasers for Many establishments.
beng IN immediate need Of money,
put their product on the market at
cut rates and have forced down prices.
There will be no change for the better
till some of these competing concerns
60 to smash or shut down and the in
creased demand clears the market OF
surplus stocks. Then prices will
advance and wages can 60 up. Or
improvements and economies may be
introduced IN the manufacture which
Will enable better wages to be paid
though the price of the product does
not advance" This, in effect, is the
reply OF the employer to his men.
There is no question that domestic
competition has forced prices down
till steel sells for six dollars ton be-
low the protection OF the tariff rate,
~ ASi O11iy CtOobO Ioul uOlldIS l1lOIG
than 1t does III Europe. But assum-
ing that at a price OF S22.5O per ton
the steel manufacturers could afford
to continue paying the old wages, and
that the Workmen are justified in
Hghting against q cut, who is ready to
assert that the former could continue
to pay the old wages ii the protective
duties were repealed, and steel cost
Ing SIS ton IN England were sent
here by the shipload to compete with
Pennsylvania ste Ell? If the American
manufacturers had to ask 25 percent.
less than they do now in order to
meet foreign competition, how long
could they keep on paying present
wages. -
1t is clear that domestic competition
has gone SO far thatit does not Justify
cut In wages it is on the verge OF
doing so, Evidently the result OF
foreign competition, ifit were given
free scope, would be. a heavy reduc-
ton in wages. And in view OF the
stubbornness with which steel manu-
facturers refuse to keep on paying old
wages when they get but 800. ton
for their steel, it is easy to see how
W
not to pay the present wages if they
got but about SIS tom
If the present fight over compare
lively small reduction is SO serious in
its nature imagine the gravity OF the
. situation when the removal OF protec
ton demanded by a Democratic plat
form called imperatively for a much
heavier reduction. And if a small re-
duction in theWages of few thousand
men in one trade causes so great a
commotion, imagine the effect OF great
cut first in the pay of millions OF men
engaged in all the protected industries
IN the United States, and second in
that OF the multitudes of men EN-
ployed in building trades, transporter
tion and other business. The Home
stead mill trouble would be as a mole
hill to Mount Nesuviusin an eruption.