The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-02-26
PROTECTION KEEPS UP WAGES.


why Duties on Raw Materials Restrict Ex-
ports-1he Principal Element in the Cost
of Producing These Materials Is Labor
Hence the Cost Is Greater on Account of
the Higher Wages Paid to Our Working
men.
SIT is not the duties that Brazil and
other South American countries impose
on the products of the United States en-
tering their ports" says free trade
paper" it is the duties imposed in the
United States upon materials of manu-
facture and of industry generally, and
upon the necessaries of life, that are the
chief obstacles"
The American workinGman has only
to carefully analyze these two sentences
to get at the real animus of the free
trade reform" doctrine. Suppose the
''reformer'' himself is present to explain
and answer questions, and something
like the following dialogue would prob
ably ensue:
Worxingman-How do the duties on
materials restrict our exports?
Reformer-By preventing the manu-
facturer from getting cheap materials
from abroad at prices paid by foreign
manufacturers. Obliged to use high
priced domestic materials, he cannot
sell his product as cheaply as the for
eign manufacturer can, and hence can
not compete with the products of the
foreign factory.
Workingman-Are not iron, steel,
cotton and wooden cloth, chemicals,
paints, cordage, yarns, ribbons, laces,
metals, and numberless similar prod
ucts, used as materials in nanufac-
turing?
Reformer-Certainly. These things
cost more in this country, and the
things made from them must cost more.
Hence they can not compete with for
eign products in the markets of the
world
Workingman-YOus speak of the du-
ties upon the materials "of industry
generally" Define more clearly,
please?
Reformer-By that l mean the in
creased cost of machinery, higher rents
and such incidental items in the cost of
production, which are due to tariff en-
hanced prices of machinists supplies,
building materials and the like.
bout the necessaries
of life?
Acknowledgement cost of clothing,
salt, tinware, boots and shoes, and of
similar worllingmen's supplies necessi-
tates a relatively higher rate of wages.
Thus, the tariff on these things enters
into the cost of production, and oper-
ates to keep us out of the markets of
the world
Workingman-Itm means then that be-
ginning at the finished product and
tracing the materials to their sources,
the tariff affects them at every stage?
Reformer-That is the idea exactly.
The American manufacturer is COM
pelled by protective duties to use high
priced American materials. from ore
and wool to watch springs and worsted
cloth.
Workingpan-You speak of ''high-
priced American materials" / can un
derstand that the product of high-priced
materials must itself be high priced, but
you have not as yet explained the origin
of the high price. Why, for instance,
should American iron ore be more
''high priced than English ore. Are
the iron mines more accessible or the
ore richer abroad than in America?
Reformer-We have some of the rich
est iron mines in the world, and the ore
is more easily taken from them.
Workingman-Whata are the elements
in the cost of iron ore?
Reformer-Labor is almost the only
element.
Workingman-AhI Then the reason
why American ore costs more is because
the labor which brings it to the door of
the furnace costs more. 1t seems now
that we have reached something tangi-
bic in our pursuit of the tariff. When
you demand free ore you mean that
thousands of American miners and Ia
borers shall either be thrown out of
employment or that their wages, which
cause the high price of the ore. be re-
duced to the level of foreign labor. ]
think / shall have no more difficulty in
following your argument now that /
have begun at the end opposite to the
finished, product with which you started
The ore costs more because American
labor costs more, and that additional Ia
Dor cost cliugs to it through all its forms
till it ends in the higher priced machine
to which you object Salt, that neces-
sary of life, costs more because the labor
of producing it costs more. My coat
costs more because the wool grown by
high priced American farm labor cost
more Your demand for cheaper ma
terials, then, is simply asking for lower
wages or no employment for the labor
producing them. When we come to
consider the higher forms OF materials,
like cloths, chemicals and so on, your
doctrine assumes 4 more virulent mode
of attack on American labor. High
wages in their production are what
make the 'high prices" will know
in the future what is covered up under
your sophistical references to the clogs
imposed on commerce by our tariff. l
think that do not care for any of your
reform" thauk you.
Only American Cotton Ties.
Many are the pages of the Congress
sional record devoted to descriptions of
the woes inflicted upon the poor cotton
planters by the duty on cotton ties. Mr..
Mills found tba axfauf Of fheir- aI1anad