Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-05-14

lican tariffs are designed for the pro-
lection of American Industries, while
Democratic tariffs are drafted for the
protection Of Democratic senators.
The Republican tariff is meant to Sc
cure happy homes to millions OF
American workmen; the Demo craft
ic tariff to save the seats of half a
dozen Democrats. The wisdom of the
Republican policies is vindicated by
the returns of the census. The wis
dom of the Democratic policies will
be tested when the election returns
come in.
The bill is the contrivance of Sec
tionalism. 1t is the product Of hat
red. 1t violates every sound method
of legislative proceedings. No COM
mittee of the senate has approved it.
No committee of the senate will ever
approve it, No committee of the
senate will ever be permitted to dis
cuss it. No committee will ever be
permitted to vote according to it's
convictions on any one of its import
ant provisions. 1t will pass, if it pass
at all, by the votes of the men who
disbelieve in it. 1t will pass, if it pass
at all, after the country has put the
stamp of it's disapprobation upon it.
1t will pass, if>it pass at all, by the
votes of the men whose States repud-
ate their action. 1t will pass, if it
at all, by the votes of men, who, ac-
! To
promise important principles and vi
olate, in SO doing, not only their judg-
ment, but their own construction of
the Constitution itself.
The lower the standard of wages, the
| lower the standard of citizenship. In
other countries good wages mean
contentment, comfort, happy homes,
well-clad children and wives. In
republic it means all this and Infinite
ly more. In America the wage of
the workman is the Kings salary.
Low wages degrade labor. Here Wag-
es degrade labor. Here the degrada
ton of labor is crime because it de-
grades the citizenship of nation Of
workingmen.
Some of our economists would have
US believe that protection has nothing
to do with wages. They ask us to
listen to their subtle logic and to dis
regard all the lessons of experience
and the teachidgs of history. Ameri-
can labor under protection certainly
has received the highest wages which
ever compensated the labor of hand
or brain. To say that protection does
not affect wages is to say that prices
do not affect wages. To say that pro-
lection does not affect wages is to say
that the profitable business can not
afford to pay more than an unprofita
BILE business.
Now, to say that protection does
not increase wages is to say that busy
factories do not increase wages; that
lighted furnaces do not increase wag-
esr that open mines do not increase
wages; that manufacturing cities do
not III crease wages; that having
the market close to the farm and the
farm close to the workshop does not
increase wages. Protection exchanges
the wool for the coat, and the leather
for the shoes, and the beef and pork
and flour for the shirt and stockings
and hat and the woman's dress, close
by, in our own country, paying moth
ing to England for making the ex-
change Or keeping the account, and
paying nothing to England for the
freight. Free trade keeps the farmer
and the manufacturer apart by the
whole breadth of an ocean and half
the breadth of continent, and makes
each pay a large percentage of the
product for the cost of carrying it to
the other. To say that protection
does not increase wages is to say that |
wages are not better where the prod |
uct has secure and steady market |
than where the product is certain of
no market at all.
Protection keeps the man who is
getting high wages and who lives
generously from having his job got
away from him by the man who is
willing to take lower wages and who
lives close to the starvation limit.
Free trade brings in the pauper for a
competitor. Protection causes two
jobs to seek one man. Free trade sets
many men to seeking one job. Now.
to say that protection does not in
crease wages is to say that ten starry
ing men seeking one job the bid will
not be downward, and that two jobs
seeking one man the bid will not be
upward.
This bill, which means murder to
some parts of the country, means