The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-22

nue.. 1t pretendS TO give protection, but
destroys 1T in every direct way. II saws
TO the manufacturer, for you we have fur
nfShed free coal. free iron ore. free wool
and the markets OF the world; Instead OF
nishes In the future new crop
of enemieS-the men who dig i'm
the mines and the farmers who raise
the sheep-for il really creates what its
enemies have charged against Republican
protection-a privileged class. against which
the mines and the fields will both array
themselves; and the privileged class does
not care to be thus privileged. All il asks
or has ever asked Is to be protected, not
alone, but with all other citizens. from the
destructive competition with lower grade
of social life. OF course. this idea Of pro-
lection against a lower grade or social life
is preposterous TO man who sees in
tariff only a tax of $50 or $40 on each 500
imposed on $4,000. 600 for the benefit of "a
few hundred thousands" but whoever
thinks this question concerns the weanh
only of a nation and does not involve its
moral and social we'll being is legislating
for a very fleeing time.
WHAT THE TARIFF HAS DONE.
The moral and social we'll being Of a
nation does not depend so much upon its
absolute wealth as upon the yearly dstri-
button of the yearly gain Whatever can
be said of the people of the United States.
nothing can be more truly said than that
the distribution OF the proceeds of united
labor and capital has been among them
more even and fair than anywhere else
on earth. There have been great accumula-
tons of capital necessary for the world
development all over the universe, but IN
the United States all this has been accom-
panied by the nearest approach TO general
distribution that the world has ever seen.
This has not been all owing to the tarln,
but the tariff has been the foundation or
it. Labor organizations have played a
great and useful part in this distribution.
Men in general who employ labor are no
more naturally disposed to pay high wages
under tariff than those who exploit me
tariff, by giving steady employment, unoer
the influence of a sure market. by estSD-
fishing the organisation OF INDUSTRY u iiosd
labor the material TO work upon, the 1und
of which Ii has demanded distributions
fund so great that 1t never could nave ave
comparatively isolated life which the un,
protected industries, taken alone, would
have given us as people.
Protection has established the clusters OF
great manufacturing and working centers.
which have given railroads the possipliity OF
existence which no scattered popuIallon
could ever have created. The railroads
which these great manufacturing towns ana
their need of transportation OF freight nave
built are sources of ENJOYABLE wealth Wnich
but are spread through all the business OF
the United States and inure 10 the COM
fort and happiness Oh an Ihe Peopie arx, by.
Bituminous coal is one or the great indus-
tries which is developing the state OF west
Virginia, upon which the welfare OF thal
State largely depends, so its Democratic
Governor testifies and many or its most re-
spectacle citizens, including an ex-senator
of honored name. Is that development con-
fined to that State alone? BY no means
With the addition of the coal fields OF OLD
Virginia the Norfolk & Western, the Ches-
apeake & Ohio obtain from these mines I;
very valuable freight in transporting. coal
TO the seaboard. From other bitunlinous
coal fields the Baltimore & Ohio and even
the great Pennsylvania road obtain no IN
considerable part of their freight. Ii the
coal be made free there will be fierce COM
petition with the coal of Nova Scotia, and
not only will the mines OF West virginia,
of old Virginia and Pennsylvania suffer,
but the great railroads will suffer severely
also. To be sure, these are corporations
without souls. but the stocks and bonds
modern political infidelity should determine
otherwise. Free raw materials to these peo-
pie would be sweet boon, indeed.
EFFECT ON WAGES.
What exact effect the proposed change
of duties would have on the general rate
OF wages in the country can only be de-
termined by actual test but 1t is not diff
cult to see that 1t will be very depressing.
Upon persons engaged in the industries di-
rectly affected the result to be anticipated
seems to be very clear. To those. of US
who believe in protection IL seems beyond
dispute that the acknowledged rise In wages
in this country has been caused by protec-
ton as the great stimulator of invention
and progress. The committee, however,
probably believe the contrary. That hlgher
wages exist, however, or did exist before
this bill threatened the country, cannot be
disputed. That these wages are maintained
by protection against lower wages or Tor
eign countries can hardly be successfully
questioned. No doubt other causes, like the
low grade of civilization, checking enter
prise and substituting the content which
prevails in the East from daily increasing
demand for new luxuries, soon to become
necessities, may contribute TO prevent the
full effect of foreign wages upon our mar
kets; yet, as against foreign factories,
which have all our capacity for obtaining
new machinery and which have accumu-
lations of capital far greater than our own,
the tariff is the greater maintainer OF
wages.
Without being guilty of that attempt to
press the question into nutshell, which is
the bane of economic discussion, II may be
briefly said that every product which goes
to market must meet every other like prod
uct on equal terms. If. in the United States
there are higher wages and higher cost
of capital.> there must be such barriers
against goods from abroad as Will equalize
these higher costs, or the products or the
United States cannot be sold. except at
loss. Sales at a loss cannot last long. There
is also a constant demand for lower prices
which demand has to be listened to in
country always striving toward higher
plane of civilization. We have. therefore.
before always three problems-wages to
be maintained, hours of labor to be les
sened, and prices to be lowered. Not one
but all.
J.. is true that invention at once keeps
Pc &c with and regulates the demand for
III cher wages and lower prices, and few
h urs, which are the conditions of our high
81 plane of civilization, but 1t cannot do
more. 1t cannot meet, in addition, the lower
prices OF a lower level of civilization. Our
inventions are too quickly absorbed by for
eign countries TO permit this. Hence the
result of refusal to protect our labor at
it's present rates must result in lower
wages. This seems capable of rough DEM
onstration. Our goods now met by for
eign goods on our own shores at price
made up of raw materials, plus labor and
plus the present rate OF tarin, in very near
ly equal terms If the tariff element be
lowered, then something must be lowered
on our side, and in the last analysis il will
be labor and capital, and in the long run,
the loss of capital is also a loss of labor,
sets no machinery In motion. We must,
then, meet the reduction of price of foreign
goods, which are our competitors, by re-
duction of the price Of labor.
Time when lower prices and higher
wages were secuted as incompatible and
together. but to-day 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 less re-
suits The consumer will take care of him.
self If you look after the producer, for he
is one and the same individual.
THE VICIOUS AID VALOREM SYSTEM.
But while this bill, in its principle. IL il
has any, is not unprotective It will be alb
solutely so in practice, not only in its direct
reductions hut aIco I'm ire indiract raducfions