Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1894-01-26
MORE TOM JoHNsONs NEEDED.
His Answer to the CIoakmakers' Plea For
Protection.

CLEVELAND, Dec. 80.
To Joseph Lachnect, Emil Weise1s, Jo-
seph Frankel and Others, Tailors and
Tailoresses In the Employ of Messrs.
Landesman, Hirscheimer & Co., Cloak
Manufacturers:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-I have re-
ceived your communication and that
from Messrs. Landesman, Hirscheimer
& Co., to which you refer, asking me
to vote against the Wilson tariff bill
unless it is amended by adding to the
duty of 10 per cent ad valorem, which
it proposes, an additional duty of 49I
cents per pound.
shall do nothing of the kind. My
objection to the Wilson bill is not that
its duties are too low, but that they are
too high. will do all can to cut its
duties down, but l will strenuously OPP
pose putting them up. You ask me to
vote to make cloaks artifcially dear.
How can l do that without making it
harder for those who need cloaks to get
cloaks? Even if this would benefit you
would it not injure others? There are
many cloakmakers in Cleveland, it is
true, but they are few as compared with
the cloak users. Would you consider
me an honest representative if [ would
thus consent to injure the many for the
benefit of the few, even though the few
in this case were yourselves?
IL / 4
ton to a monstrous ad valorem duty of
45 per cent still more monstrous
weight duty of 49l5 cents pound-a
weight duty that will make the poorest
sewing girl pay as much tax on her
cheap shoddy cloak as Mrs. Astor or
Mrs. Vanderbilt would be called on to
pay on a cloak of the finest velvets and
embroideries! Do you really want me
to vote to thus put the burden Of taxa
ton on the poor, while letting the rich
escape? Whether you want me to OF
not, | will not do it.
That, as your employers say, serv
iceable cloak can be bought in Berlin for
$1.20 affords no reason in my mind for
keeping up the tariff. On the contrary,
it is the strongest reason for abolishing
it altogether. There are lots of women
in this country who would be rejoiced
to get cloaks SO cheaply-lots of women
who must now pinch and strain to get
a cloak, lots of women who cannot now
afford to buy cloaks and must wear
old or castoff garments or shiver with
cold. Is it not common justice that we
should abolish every tax that makes 1t
harder for them to clothe themselves?
No; l will do nothing to keep up
duties. l will do everything | can to
cut them down. l do not believe in
taxing one citizen for the purpose of en-
riching another citizen. You elected
me on my declaration that l was OPP
posed to protection, believing it but a
scheme for enabling the few to rob the
many, and that | was opposed even to a
tariff for revenue, believing that the
only just way Of raising revenues is by
the single tax upon land values. So
long as l continue to represent you in
congress | shall act on the principle of
equal rights to all and special privileges
to none, and wherever [ can abolish
any OF the taxes that are now levied on
labor or the products OF labor | will do
it, and where | cannot abolish | Will do
my best to reduce. When you get
tired of that, you can elect some one in
my place who suits you better. Ii you
want duties kept up, you may get an
honest protectiOnist that will serve you.
you cannot get an honest free trader.
But | believe that you have only to
think of the matter to see that in adher-
ing to principle | will he acting for the
best interests of all working men and
women, yourselves among the number.
This demand for protective duties for
the benefit OF the American working
man is the veriest sham. You cannot
protect labor by putting import duties
on goods. Protection makes it harder for
the masses of our people to live. 1t
may increase the profits of favored cap
italists, it may build up trusts and
create great fortunes, but it cannot
raise wages. You know for yourselves
that what your employers pay you in
wages does not depend on what any tar
if may enable them to make, but on
what they can get others to take your
places for. You have to stand the COM
petition of the labor market. Why then
should you try to shut yourselves out
from the advantages that the competi
ton Of the goods market should give to
you? 1t is not protection that makes
wages higher here than in Germany.
They were higher here before we had
any protection, and in the saturnalia of
protection that has reigned here for
some years past you have seen wages go
down until the country is now crowded
with tramps, and hundreds Of thousands
of men are now supported by charity.
What made wages higher than in Ger
many is the freer access to land, the
natural means of all production, and as
that is closed up and monopoly sets in
wages must decline. What labor needs
is not protection, but justice; not legal
lied restrictions which permit one set Of
men to tax their fellows. but free OPP
portunity to all for the exertion Of their
own powers. The real struggle for the
rights of labor and for those fair wages
which constitute the full earnings of the
labor is the struggle for freedom and
against monopolies and restrictions, and
in the effort to cut down protection it
is timidly beginning. I shall support
the Wilson bill with all my ability and
all my strength. Yours very respect
fully, Tom L. JOHNSON.
If all this seems apologize, it is be-
cause l believe that, if the proposed
:. b