The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-08-26
SOME TARIFF FACTS.
PROTECTION is A DeLUSlON AND A
SNARE FOR WORklNGMEN.

Of Employees OF Manufacturers. but In
Reality Only the Employers Are Helped
by 1.-THE Facts Of the Case.
The labor troubles at Homestead'hav
started lively discussion between pro-
tectionists and tariff reformers as to
whether the tariff had anything to do
with those disturbances. The protec-
tionists point to the fact that labor trou-
bles and strikes occur in free trade Eng
land as frequently as in protectionist
America, and that therefore 1t cannot
b said that the tariff is their cause and
0ee trade the remedy. This is unques-
tonably correct. But IN one very i'm
cient. One of the main arguments con-
stantly and vociferously urged in favor
Of high protective duties is that they are
not only to aid the manufacturer in
making industrial production profitable,
but that the tariff is especially intended
to ameliorate the condition Of the Ameri-
can workmen beyond anything hitherto
known.
1t is to secure TO him constant en-
paoyment and high and steady wages; it
b to enable him to own his house and
lot, to have the comforts of home and
. considerable amount Of the enjoy
ments Of civilized society; it is to insure
him, unless he be very imprudent,
against want and care in his old age; it
ie, In short, to secure to him conditions
of life with which he would have every
N W ~,
have been and are poured into the airs
Of workingmen, especially at election
times, when the labor vote is wanted
Tor the protectionist party.
A large portion of the labor vote has
actually been won in that way for the
high tariff policy, and it is by no means
surprising that the workingmen should
have taken the representations made to
them seriously. According to what
they have been told, they have reason to
believe that the tariff laws We're made
specially for their benefit; that in the
matter Of employment and wages the
American workingmen are to be much
less dependent upon the state Of the
labor market and upon the vicissitudes
of business than workingmen in free
trade countries are; that they may
claim share in the profits made by the
establishment in which they are en-
ployed with better right and to a
larger extent than can be claimed by
workingmen not protected by tariff:
that they will be taken excellent care Of
somehow, whether by their employers
or by the power that made the tariff
law. 1t is easy to see what notions of
right and what expectations of benefit
may thus be encouraged in the minds
Of the credulous, and how those minds
are thus prepared for the exciting ap-
peals Of the a0itator.
But the tariff laws say nothing about
wages or continuity Of employment.
The ful6llment Of the promises made by
the protectionists In behalf Of the tariff
is not provided for in the statute. That
fulfllment is left to the most immediate
bene6ciaries Of the protective system
the manufacturers. There may be
manufacturers who run their establish.
ments as benevolent institutions, and
who think first of their workingmen and
last Of themselves; but it is not in hu.
man nature that there should be many
Of this kind. Most manufacturers will
manage their business on ordinary bust
ness principles. They will have keen
eye to their own profits. If managers
Of stock companies, they will consider it
matter of justice as we'll as of PRIDE to
secure large dividends to the sharehold-
ers. They viii ordinarily pay to the
workingman not as much as they
might, but as much as they must, or, to
express it less harshly, although their
profits might allow 1t they are not likely
IN the payment Of wages to go much be-
yond the market rate, and whenever
profits are endangered by unfavorable
circumstances they will resort to what
ever may serve to prevent q deficiency
IA reduction OF wages among other
things.
The workingman, who is not an un-
reasonable being, will submit to a re-
duction of his wages when he sees the
necessity Of it. But he will be the more
unwilling to admit such necessity un-
der any circumstances the more reason
he has been given to look upon himself
as at least one of the intended bene-
fciaries of the laws which have done SO
much to make his employer rich. He
will be rather inclined to argue that
under these laws he had hardly had the
full share of the benefit that was prom
ised to him, and that somebody else had
unlawfully made off with large por-
ton of what was the workingman's due.
And if upon this view of the case the
laboring man works out for himself
theory of rights far beyond this, we
must not be altogether astonished to
find that the tariff, with all those prom
ises with which it has been commended
to the favor of the workingman, has be-
come one of the most effective propa-
gators of socialistic ideas.
The workingmen will gradually open
their eyes to the fact that those fair
speeches have most cruelty deceived
them. They have only to look at the
rates of wages in the different countries
of the world to satisfy themselves that
nigh wages are not caused by a high