Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-04-22

or N Europe. OGr shoemaker gets two
and three times as much as the shoe
maker otother countries, and it is but
natural that, even allowing perhaps for
his greater skill, the prouuct of his la
Dor should be dearer.
shoes made by the wonderful machines
which can be found in any one of our
great factories, which cut the leather,
sew the shoes and finish them, almost
entirely without the intervention OF
human hands, ono machine turning out
hundreds of pairs of shoes daily. Can it
be for a moment supposed that the mere
fact that the wages Of the workingman
who tends 10 such q machine are low
cred would make any appreciable differ
ence in the price of one of those
hundred pairs of shoes which that ma
chine turns out? Certainly not. And
yet it is just the laboring classes who
buy this kind of shoes.
That this is SO everyone knows.
Many u tree-trader has unwlttingly adj
mitted it, and even that rabid reform
or" ex-Consul Schanhof, has gwen in
valuable testimony on this point, when
he said that all substantial articles of
are cheaper here than in free-trade
England, but that things made entirely
by hand are dearer in the United States.
So We see that while lower wages would
undoubtedly mean lower prices for the
splendid raiments and luxuries of the
rich, it would not make much differ
once in the prices of machine-made ar
ticles purchased by our workingmen;
and thus lower wages could only mean
diminished purchasing power, fewer
comforts and a lower standard of living.
But this is not all. Cannot the work
ingman see that wages have not the
slightest connection with the cost of the
hundred and one things which go to
make up his expenses? Win the thou
sand dollar mortgage on his home be-
come less than a thousand dollars be-
cause he earns lower wages? Will the
debt he owes be smaller because his in
come is less? Will the 5-cent a fare
per, or the admission fee to the lecture
or entertainment? No, these things
will cost just as much as before, so that
lower wages simply mean more labor to
purchase q smaller amount of them.
The intelligent w%orkingman cannot
but see that higher wages, not lower
prices, must be the %watchword in the
battle to better his condition. As Wen
dell Phillips used to say
The maiE spring of our progress is high
w-agas-wages at such a level that the
workingmen can spare his wife to preside
over q home. can command leisure, go to
lectures. take a newspaper, and lift him
self from the %deadening level of mere toll.
That dollar lett after the bills are paid on
Saturday night means education, indie
pendence, Self-respect, manhoOd; it in
creases the value of every acre near by,
fills the town with dwellings. opens public
libraries and crowds them, dots the conti-
nent with cities and cobwebs it with rail
ways. The one remaining dollar insures
progress n guarantees millions to its
owner, better than a score of statutes. 1t
is worth more than q thousand colleges,
and makes armies and police supertiuOus.
Question No. 10. 1'h American Economist
says that If the tariff on agricultural machin-
err were abolished to. morrow. none of it would
or could be imported. Why then keep a duty
on IL?
This will be recognized as a question
answered in these columns before.
method of the free trader when con-
fronted with the fact that American
products are actually cheaper and bet
ter IN many lines than similar products
in any other country under the sun,
rather than to admit that the wind has
been let out of his tariff tax bubble, at
least so far as the products in question
are concerned, to try to avoid the ami
hilating conclusion by f%allaciOuslv rails
ing the entirely distinct and indepen-
dent question, Why then is tariff neces-
sary. Before answering this second
question, the first, which is one of fact,
should be disposed Of and the signii-
canoe of its answer clearly grasped.
Do agricultural implements sell more
c!heaply here. quality considered, than
in any other county? No free trader,
if he be self-respecting and at all con-
versant with the facts, will deny that
they do. What follows? That farm
single cent; that the keystone of the
these admissions are wrenched from
the free trader we are in q position to
take up the other question, Why is q
tariff kept on these things?
AS q matter of fact, the tariff law does
not say q word about agricultural ma
chinery from beginning to end. It does
say that
Manufactures. articles or wares not emu
merated or provided for in this act, com
posed wholly or in part Of iron, steel, lead,
copper, Nickel. pewter, zinc, gold, silver,
platinum, aluminium, or any other metal,
and whether partly or wholly manufact.
ured-
shall pay a duty of IS per cent. ad valo.
rem. Farm i'm plements fall under this
classification. or rather they would il
imported. About as many free trad.
ers as protectionists can be found
among manufacturers of farm i'm.
plements, conclusive proofthatthe tariff
has nothing to do with fixing prices.
If they are mentioned at all, it Is doubt.
full If they would bear any duty. But
no one thought 1t worth while to ask
for the removal of the duty on them,
since it Injuries no ne. So it remainf
45 per cent, as it stood in the old law,
The Mills bill placed it at 40 per cent
1t rests with the free trader to show
cause why plows and moving machines
should be picked out from . thousand
other things and made free. Is he will.
ing to base his warfare against. protec.
ton on the existence of an imperative
tariff rate which has no more TODD with
the prices of farm tools than with regu-
lating the phases of the moon?
Question No. II. Why IL the Democratic party
30 opposed toba protective Tariff?
All men and even animals fear and
hate whatever they do not understand.
A horse not broken to the presence of q
grist mill, . buzz-saw, q threshing ma,
| chine or locomotive fears and hatef