The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1893-12-22

~ blO5t ol us VINO DelltNc III pTOieCllOu
1t seems beyond dispute that the acknowl-
edged rise in wages in this country has
been caused by protection as the great
stimulator Of invention and progress. The
committee, however, probably believe the
contrary. That higher wages exist, how
ever, or did exist before this bill threat
ened the country, can not he disputed.
That these wages are maintained by pro-
lection against lower wages of foreign
countries can hardly be successfully ques-
toned
If i'm the United States there are higher
wages and a higher cost of capital there
must be such barriers against goods from
abroad as will equalize these higher costs,
or the products of the United States can
not be sold except at a loss. Sales at
loss cannot long continue. There is also
a constant demand for lower prices, which
demand has to be listened to i'm a country
always striving toward a higher plane Of
civilization. We have, therefore before
rs always three problems-wage to be
maintained, hours of labor to be lessened
and prices TO be lowered. Not one, but all.
It is true that invention at once keeps
pace with and regulates the demand for
higher wages and lower prices and fewer
hours, which are the conditions Of our
higher plane Of civilization. but it can
not do more II can not meet, naddition,
the lower prices of a lower level of civiliz-
alton. Our inventions are too quickly abb
sorbed by foreign countries to permit this.
Hence the result of refusal to protect
our labor at its present rates must result
in lower wages.
The New Bll VIII Lower Wages.
Our goods are now met by foreign goods
on our own shores at a price made up of
raw materials plus labor and plus the
present rate Of tariff, on very nearly equal
terms If the tariff element be lowered
| then something must be lowered on our
side, and in the last analysis it will be
labor and capital, and in the long run the
loss of capital is also a loss of labor, for
capital employs labor, and lost capital
sets no machinery in motion. We must
then meet the reduction Of price of for
| eign goods, which are our competitors, by
reduction of the price of labor
Time was when lower prices and higher
wages were secuted as incompatible and
absurd, and as things that could not exist
| together. but today both are recognized as
reasonable demands when reasonably linn
| tied. Lower prices will take care of them
selves, and so will higher wages if they
are not interfered with by competition
| from regions where the different social
status causes laborers to be. content with
| lesser results.
The consumer will take care of himself
| il you look after the producer, for he is
one aud the same individual.
But while this bill in its principle, if it
has any, is not uuprOtective, it will be alb
solutely so in practice, not only in its
direct reductions hut also in its indirect
reductions. sure to come from the change
| from specific duties to ad valorem, which
is marked feature of the bill. An ad
valorem duty, as the name implies, is one
| which varies according to the price If
prices could be exactly determined moth
| ing would seem TO be fairer than an ad
valorem duty. But, unfortunately, prices
are very much matters Of opini on ON which
honest men may differ much and rogues
much more.
A Blow at the Wool Industry.
| In discussing the wooden question the
minority say this schedule, as proposed in
the committee bill, is in some respects the
most reprehensihle. 1t proposes to de
stroy at a blow the great industry Of wool
growing, which now ranks as seventh, in
| the value of its products, among the sew
eral branches of American agriculture
| and which has heretofore been recognized
as an agricultural product deserving and
! requiring protection, under every admin
istration and by every tariff act since that
of May %, 1924. Nothing short of the
{ total destruction of this important indus
try can be counted upon as the conse-
quence of placing both wool and mutton
on the free list The depreciation in the
value of this species of agricultural prop
erty from the two sources may be con
Bervatively stated at &0,O0OO0O