Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1892-11-04
He Does Not Need the High Tariff.

Protectionists say I'VE can't sell our man.
ufactures as low as the foreigner sells his
because We pay higher wages than the for
eigner pays. We must sell higher, and the
high tariff is needed to keep the foreigner
from breaking American prices to the for
eign pauper level" 1t rather shocks the
American citizen, after hearing and believ-
ing this, to find American manufacturers
selling the same goods at two prices-one
for his fellow citizens and the other for the
foreigner. 1t shocks the patriot still more
to find that the American manufacturer
sells at home at prices about as high as the
tariff rate allows, but sells abroad as low as
the foreign manufacturer can. Mr.. G. j.
DAILY, of Philadelphia, whose son lives in
Liverpool, has recently had letter from
said son telling him that he can buy in Liv-
erpool Mccormick reaper made in Chicago
and sent across the Atlantic, at $50, while
the same reaper is sold in Philadelphia at
S135. This fact proves that the protected
manufacturer is not kind to his fellow
citizen; that he really does not need protec-
ton against foreign pauper labor; that if he
pays higher wages than are paid abroad he
can do 1t and still sell at the foreign low
price; that if he makes a profit on his for
eign sales at low prices, he must get an enor-
uhOao eht OASSooiNC PiOhb Ou ulo bdlGo AZ
home at higher prices. From this it follows
that the tariff is, in our protected manutac-
turers' hands, merely tool with which to
gouge his neighbor-to rob him under the
form of law. Mr.. Days instance is not an
isolated one. There are hundreds of arti-
Giles which our protected manufacturers sell
abroad at from 25 10 40 per cent. below
their wholesale prices in this country. Ag
ricultural implements In particular are sold
with large discounts "for export only" An
American made bicycle, sold here at $l35,
is sold in London at 800. So of other
things. The fact is American wages, while
higher per day, are lower per unit of prod
uct than foreign wages. If regard be had
to the quantity OF product per man per day
the foreign laborer fares better The aver
age American workman does much more
work in the same length of time than the
average foreign workman, so that, measured
by product, his labor is cheaper. 1t is not
the tariff that makes days wages higher
here than abroad; 1t is the superior pro-
ductlveness of American labor Lower
prices of goods do not mean lower wages,
else reapers and bicycles could not be prof
itably sold at English prices in England by
American makers who pay American wages.
The whole protectionist argument as to the
connection between prices and wages and
between wages and the tariff is, therefore,
insincere. Ii tariffs make wages high, how
Is it that in Germany, where there is high
tariff, wages are lower than in England
which has no tariff at all on manufactures ?
The "pauper labor" argument is also insin =
cere. Do paupers labor2 If an ill.fed man
almost a pauper, does labor, is his work eff.
cient? Can a factory manned with paupers
and paying wages however low compete
with another factory that pays sturdy work
men four times as much per day. The talk
about foreign "pauper labor" is cheat -
Protection has but one object and result
TO increase the profits OF favored capitalists
at the expense of the rest of the commu-
nitv - R1lfimOIe SIM