The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1894-05-29

rar.rs 30 Sot Regulate the Price of Ls.oor
An Irtmpe

rar.ns 40 Not Regulate the Price % Ls.Dor
An Irtmpie.
senator Smith speaks OF 'the neces-
sitv OF maintaining American wages"
implying that tariff doe, that is
the senator then SO ignorant? lie need
nnl look at our own country, whore
absolute free trade over an immense
area of the earth's surface exists, TO see
the absurdity OF the cain that high
ware country must have its wages main
tainel by tariff against low wage
country.
In our own country do the high wages
of the north necessitale tariff against
the south on account of the lower
wages OF the latter section? Does the
west with its higher wages need pro-
lection from the east TO maintain that
ware ratc9 Absolute free trade exists
between ca tern and western Pennsyl
vauia. ytt in the latter section pudders
get 81 - per ton, while in the former
locality they only get S2.5) upr ton
VIII the senator kindly cSblain how
western Pennsylvania can una ntain its
wage rate in free competition with the
cheap pauper labor of eastern Pennsyl.
vauia2 ENGLAND pays 40 per cent
higher wages than Germany. yet al
lows German goods 90 come in free OF
duty, and yet without any reduction in
wages TO the Germln level. How is
this. senator" Or again, senator. how
do you explain the fact that American
farmers ply twice the wages that
European farmers pay and four or five
times the wages that Indian farmers
pay, and yet sell their Grain in Liver
pool in competition with the world?
is il the tariff?
The fact Is Senator Smith doesn't
know what he is talking about. Wages
do not depend upon tariffs. They de.
pend upon the natural resources of a
country. on the skill and energy of the
laborers and upon the density ot tho
population. In an almost desert coun'
trv wages would be low either under
free trade or under protection, while
in country rich in agricultural and
mineral resources, possessing "A climate
conducive to human energy and pop
ulation pressing but lightly upon these
natural resourc IS, wages wDull be high
under either policy, and the reason the
high-wage country can produce as
cheaply as the low-wlgc country is be-
cause of the very natural advantages
that make the high wages possible.
Pittsburgh, for instance, can pay 50 -
per ton for pudding and compete with
eastern Pennsylvania, where only -. -
Il paid, because Pittsburgh has natural
advantages proximity to raw material,
etc. ) over eastern Pennsylvania. just
so eastern Pennsylvania with free trade
can compete with Europe.
The 5000 miles of ocean which the
foreigner must traverse with his goo Is
is great natural advantage To- the
American manufacturer-so great an
advantage that If the foreign manu-
facturers got their labor for absolutely
nothing, and in addition to this got
each laborer to pay them 80 cents Il
day for the privilege of working for
them, still--in most brpuches of IRON
for instanceIt foreign
manufacturers could not overcome this
natural disadvantage to them of 5000
miles of ocean freight and insurance
and land their goods in this country as
eheaply as we can produce them (pay-
ing existing rates of wages) with raw
materials free of duty here.
Senator Smith should hold his
tongue and leave tariff blundering to
the republicans s-Peuusylvania Demo
crat, in n. y. World.