The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-18

change to s.free trade wages have in.
creased and bread and clothing are
comparatively cheap.
Many articles of common consump-
ton are much cheaper in England
than in the United States, SO that a
person can live in that country on a
much lower amount than in this coun-
try The wages are higher here, and
there are some things that can be OBJ
tanned more cheaply in the United
States than in England. The advant-
ages to labor here are great. They
are very much greater when compared
with German wages and the condi-
ton of workers there. although the
cost of living in Germany is small in
comparison. But of course working
people, as a rule, live better in this
country than in Europe and their gen
eral condition is vastly in advance of
the condition on the other side Of the
sea.
But when these advantages are at
tributed to the kind of protection which
reached its climax in the Mckinley
bill, it is evident there is a great mis-
take in the powers of reasoning from
effect to cause. And mark this. work
ing people, you cannot find that when
the rates of duty have been put up
higher, the protected manufacturers
and employers have raised the wages
of their workmen. However, as soon
as proposition is made to reduce the
tariff and bring them into fair compe-
tition with other manufacturers, al
though they are to be supplied with
raw materials free of Quay, they at
once raise the scare that they will
have to reduce wages.
On this question Mr.. johnson, of
Ohio, who is a manufacturer of steel
rails and is in favor of a more sweep
ing reform of the tariff than is pro-
posed, made a very striking speech in
the House of Representatives a few
days ago. Here are few extracts
from his remarks:
''Of all the nonsense talked against
the reduction Of tariff taxes, the claim
that they benefit the working man is
most transparent. The effect Of these
taxes is to increase the price of every
thing that the working man sells his
labor for, since the money he gets is
the only medium with which he OBJ
tains what is the real object Of his
labor. Granted, which is only true in
a comparatively few cases, that such
taxes increase the profits of his en-
when they get larger profits? / do not
Qaughter) and even philanthropists do
not
ment to his hands. Mr.. Johnson said:
In Johnstown where our mill is To-
Gated, we have been paying 80 or 40
cents a day more than our neighbors.
do not say this with the view Of
arousing any sympathy or claiming
any credit. We did it not because we
loved our men better than others loved
theirs but for the plain business rea-
son that it paid us to do this. We had
the pick of the men. Today we are
paying for common labor $3.50 a day,
while our neighbor, the Cambria Iron
company member of the steel rail pool
is paying So cents a day. We do this
because we believe we get a better re-
turn than we would if we paid IS
cents"
Mr.. Johnson, speaking further in re-
gard to the workings of protection on
wages, alluded to Mr.. Carnegie in this
way:
Before he started forJerusalem a
few days ago he utilized the tariff to
re-establish the steel rail pool and pay
other manufacturers to shut up their
works and throw their men out of en-
ployment; then a general cut in wages
was made in all his greatest estab-
lishments; and then he announced him
u day to feed the unemployed in Pitts
burg-a place that if there were any
truth in the theory that protection is
good for labor ought to be a very par
adise for workingmen."
The prices paid for labor in Penn
sylvania and Ohio are not anything
to boast of in support of the theory
that the purpose of protection is to
raise wages. Facts contradict the as
sumption. Much of the prosperity that
has come from manufactures in this
country is due to inventive genius, and
has come in spite of the high tariff.
The purpose of tariff reform is not
to cut down the wages of working
people, neither will it operate to that
effect. When it has come into opera
ton and it's general beneficial effects
are produced there will be no desire
among the masses of the American
people to return to the days of high
tariff protection.
COCHRAN ON ''THE SCARE"
The speech made by Bourke Coch-