The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-11-03

workingmen i'm the country, through the
competition OF those made idle, will finally
be cut down proportionately, and lower
scale of wages in all trades and branches
Of work brought into force.
Strikes and Lock-outs.
OF the effect on the relations between
ourselves and our employers have hardly
space to speak here. After years OF agita-
tion and effort these relations became, to
q large extent, settled; the rights OF both
sides recognized and acknowledged; the
shares of each generally worked out; wages
in each trade mostly fixed, and the rates
for the different trades and occupations ad-
justed to each other,s so as to form general
standard for all. The basis upon which
this was accomplished was the selling
price of our manufactures and products,
determined by onlyAmerican competition,
By means of this law you have upset all
the work we have done to advance our in
terest In the past, by adding to our own
the competition OF many things produced
by half priced workingmen abroad. The
effect of such action must be, as intended,
to lower the selling price of the same things
made or produced here. We have done too
much figuring heretofore, in our efforts to
get our share of the proceeds of labor, not
to know that almost th he whole OF any re-
duction in price must be borne by and
come from the pay OF the workingmen
employed. Employers producing things
on which the tariff has been reduced by
your bill, therefore, must finally cut
down wages; workingmen so served,
naturally disliking q reduction, will OBJ
ject to receiving less than before, or than
men employed in other industries re-
quiring no more skill or labor. Employers
in industries where the duties have not
been changed, finding lower wages paid
for the same grade of labor in the re-
duced industries, and being applied to
for work by numbers of idle men, will
naturally be led to correspondingly reduce
the pay OF their help also, a movement
their employees will object to and be likely
to oppose. Differences and disputes will
thus arise and prevail; mills, factories,
workshops and other industries will be
thrown into turmoil; confusion will
reign everywhere; the old antagonism
which has been so long encouraged and
advanced by politicians, will be re-
vived and increased; strikes by the men
and lock-outs by the employers, with all
the attendant injury to both sides and
frequent breaches of law and public peace
will follow, and state of affairs created
which will take years to become arranged
and settled. And, as you and your party
have declared and insisted that this bill is
only a beginning, to be followed by fur
ther reductions hereafter, we will no
sooner get down to working basis under
it than another will be sprung upon us,
and the same troubles again set in motion,
bidding fair to keep US at swords points,
and in strife for many years to come.
This effect is already visible and rapidly
growing, owing to the necessity of early
arranging business to suit the changed
tariff, and it is only a question OF time
when it will be in full force and operation.
The Sugar Tax.
One OF the worst features of the new law
Is the action shown therein in regard TO
sugar. Under the Mckinley Law all the
sugar that came from out of the country
(about 9 lbs. out of every used) waa free
of duty and bounty OF 2 cents pound
was paid on what was grown and made
here. This bounty amounting TO about 81
cent on each pound we used, was paid by
the government out of the money recsiv d
from the tariff duty ON things imported
but not used by the poor. Under the new
law the bounty has been done away with,
and a tariff duty, amounting to at least
IL cents pound, put on all sugar an we
buy 1t, making an increase OF / 1-5 cents a
pound, which the poor as well as the rich
must pay on what they use. About
the bounty being a tax on the user
there is much doubt; you claim it was so,
while others say that the money
from which il was paid came, through the
l. A. a l..
pockets of foreigners, for the right to sell
their goods here, and the remainder from
the pockets of the rich, who are able, and
ought to pay fine In that way, for buy
ing goods made by foreign workmen,
when thay can be made by our
own. That the tariff duty which you have
now placed on ii is revenue tax,
you and all acknowledge. The result il
that you have taken away claimed but
doubtful tax for bounties, going to Amer
ican sugar workers, of cents and put in
its place a certain tariff tax of 10 cents on
every ten pounds of that article we use
which goes entirely to the Government
and, no man can avoid paying. This
is 4 jackass way OF reforming the
tariff and reducing the cost
of the necessaries OF llle--but
of doing so bad job To be sure you have
since passed bill to make sugar free
through one branch OF Congress and claim
you intend TO make it law. As this bill
was passed, however, within an
hour after the final passage OF the
new law in the same body, and
as your managers had publicly announced
beforehand their intention to pass
both-first, the new law putting on the
tax and afterwa-d this bill, taking of the
tax the moment before put on, and leav-
ing IL free-as at first, bill which you
and they knew lad no chance In the
Senate do not believe you have any
idea or wish to make IL law. I'm reality
this free sugar bill Is to my mird a kind
OF baby rattle intended TO keep us Ameri
can infants from crying while putting
down our throsts dose OF strong-smell-
ing Sugar Trust, sugar tax medicine.
A WoRRINGMAN.
October 2s, 1894.