The record-union., 1894-04-28
new POLITICAL ISSUE.
Plan to EquaIize the Burdens and
Benefits of Protection.
For Protection to Agriculture and for
the Amelloration of the Con-
dition of Labor.

California;
Among the nations of modern times
the United States shows the highest gen.
eral average wage rate paid to wage earn
ers. Because of this fact, there is a higher
general average skill. This skill is not,
however, sufficient to counteract the
lesser skill and much lower wage rate of
other nations. The high wage rate and
resultant skill are due to protectlon-to
the protective tariff. Those who deny
this offer insufficient proof to demon
strate the contrary, or else have not given
the subject proper consideration. But
those who are benefited by protection do
not pay for the cost of protection in the
United States; neither does the foreign
manufacturer pay for it. They alone pay
for it who live and produce under it. and
who are compelled to sell their products
at free trade prices.
What has been said above is fact. and
not imagination. fiction nor falsehood.
Workingmen seem to pay for protection.
but they do not; neither do manufactur-
ers, professional men, nor capitalists.
Those who pay for protection IN the
United States are the producers of staple
agricultural products-that is, products
surplus OF which is exported. They pay
every penny of it; not merely the bare
amount of the duty, but more, in two
directions: it costs considerable to collect
the duty, and the producer of staple agri-
cultural products pays this consider
able;" profits are charged on the duty, in
addition to the profit on the cost OF the
article itself, by the middlemen, and the
producer OF staple agricultural products
pays for this profit.
TO illustrate: A case of foreign goods
valued at 500 enters the port and on
which there is duty of say $40. Now
let us follow this duty and see what be-
comes OF it by the time the cotton-planter
down South or the wheat-grower in the
West has done with it. First of all, the
commission merchant at New York will
add 10 per cent. profit on the $40 tariff
duty, which will now make this duty
$46: the commission merchant makes
sale of these goods to the New York,
Chicago, st. Louis. New Orleans or San
Francisco 'jobber''; the jobber's profit
is 20 per cent, and the $40 duty has now
swelled to S55 20; the jobber having sold
his goods to the retailer, the retailer now
adds % per cent, and the former $40
duty has now swelled to $50. This S69 is
pure unadulterated and absolute fiat"
having no existence whatever as a value
when judged by the worlds standard,
because it never was part of the cost OF
greenbacks or hin-plasters ever were;
the green backs and shin-plasters had at
least some worlds value at some time,
but this $50 has absolutely no worlds
value at all-not to the extent of a penny.
And yet the law is clear and explicit;
the cotton planter and wheat-grower
must pay it; and, as a result, we have
fat suspenders, fiat coats, fiat dresses
fat shoes, fiat matches, fiat laceS, fiat
kniYes-in fact, fiat manufactures.
Now, it is this 500 which serves as a
bulwark and dam against the European
wage rate. Without it wages would be
no higher in New York than in Vienna;
no higher in Chicago than in Berlin; no
higher in San Francisco than in Paris.
Quite number of political economists
admit this, but say: "What of it? Why
create an artificial value for labor? Re-
move the protective tariff and labor will
be as we'll Off" We may answer: Yes;
labor will be as well off; It will be better
off-in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and Lon
don, but not in New York, Boston, Chi
cago or San Francisco" And why not?
Because labor does not pay for protec-
ton; it seems to pay. but does not, in the
United States. Staple agriculture pays
for it; pays for the difference between
what labor would receive under free
trade and what it does receive under pro-
ection.
This statement may seem to some who
have not studied this question properly
to be mere assertion. 1t is, neyerthe-
less, absolutely true. Again: The politi-
cal economists who belong to the 'laissez
faire" school frankly come out with their
true colors and say: "Why create an ar
titicial value for labor? Why create an
artificial value at all Let labor take
it's chances in the worlds market price
the same commodities. Well,
suppose that the 20,000,000 workingmen
and women of the United States object to
this; object to the cabbage soup of Aus
tria, to the wooden shoes of France, to
the coarse black bread of Germany,
to the sheepskin coat of Bohemia and
Hungary. Let the workingmen of this
country say whether they want their
wives to carry the hod and work with
pick and shovel; their children to be
known as "lumpen," or brats, and the
entire class to be branded with the terms
horde" 'tscum," ''servile class"
''dregs'' and "paupers." If protection is
a mistake-the greatest mistake has been
in inaugurating it; for years Of prOtec-
tionism has been equal to great attract
ing power, attracting to our shores the
millions of other nations who are here
and who are now Americans, and who
We're substantially promised the highest
wage rate in the world, i'll addition to
greater measure of political liberty than
any other section of the world could offer.
To abolish protection would be to remove
the advantage which was the great at
tracing power. remove the great at
tracing power and it VIII attract no more
that is true. But now what are we to
do with those who are here, not merely
the newly arrived European but the
millions of American natiVes-Americans
from the beginning of American history?
Will these pe satisfied with the worlds
wage rate? Will the European wage rate
h~iT1 q rounl1finn9 IS If M liL< civ
to end in seating a king on a throne?
"What of it?" say the LGiSSez fdire, po
litical economists. What of it? Well,
there is no use in losing time over the
JaSsSez fare man-there isn't enough of
him to amount to anything anyway.
THE ILLUSTRATION CONTINUED.
Now let us return to the case of the i'm
ported goods. We have seen how the tiat
of law can create 500 value having no ex-
istence as a world value. Let US now fol-
low the fortunes of this same case of
goods, the original price of which was
500, with $40 duty. The freight from
Europe to America is So, the case enter
ing the importers house in New York at
$I45, to which he adds 10 per cent for his
profit, making $l66 rs. The importer
having sold these goods to the Chicago,
St Louis, New Orleans or San Francisco
jobber, the iobber adds 81 for the cost OF
freight and 20 per cent profit. The selling
price is now $202 80. The jobber now
makes sale of these goods to the Shreve-
port, Los Angeles or Tacoma retailer.
who, in turn, adds 81 for freight and %
per cent for his profit, making S255 623.
And the cotton-planter and wheat-grower
pay S255 621 for case of goods the worlds
price of which is 500. This is protection
as we have it.
Let us follow similar operation with a
free-trade commodity that is, a COM
modify portion of which is exported),
irar Ir, "a