Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-06-27
THE PROTECTED CLASS.


and Capitalists.
The statistics of occupations collect
ed for the last census tell the same
| story in effect as statistics previously
collected in regard to the proportion
of our people who have been or can be
benefited by duties on imports
It has long BEN practically admit
ted by the protectionists themselves
that tariff taxes cannot be of any use
to those who produce surplus for ex-
port and who for any reason are not
exposed to foreign competition For
years anthracite coal and raw cotton,
for example, have been free of duty
under republican tariff laws It is true
that the protectionist legislators have
put duties on wheat, oats, dairy prod
nets, animals, etc, of which we pro
duce surplus, but they practically ad-
mitted all the while that they were do
ing this to fool the northern farmers
admitted it by putting cotton and hard
coal on the free list and keeping them
there.
For the same reason that anthracite
coal miners and cotton and wheat
growers cannot be protected by duties.
| nearly all of the 9,013, POI persons CLASH
ned together in the census as engaged
in agriculture, fisheries and mining
cannot be protected. For the most
part they produce surplus which
they must sell in foreign markets in
competition against all the world. and
but very few OF them are exposed to
foreign competition in the home
market.
Fba Il
dering professional services in 1890
We're not protected by the tariff. The
same is true of the 1850. sos persons
rendering domestic and personal serv.
ice and the 1895, 962 persons engaged
in trade and transportation. There is
no foreign competition in the practice
of law and medicine. or in preaching.
or in making newspapers, or in keep
ing boarding houses and restaurants.
or in domestic service. or in operating
railroads, or in any Of the occupations
in the different grand divisions of in
dustry mentioned, with a very few
and numerically unimportant excep-
tons.
We have left, then. only the 5,O91, ego
persons employed in the manufactur-
ing and mechanical industries who can
be tarif-protected to any considera BILE
extent. The most numerous classes
even in this division cannot be pro-
tected, because they render services
which must necessarily be rendered in
the country, or because they produce a
surplus for export The Gil, 400 car
penters and joiners cannot be tariff
protected, because we do not import
houses, barns and other structures
readymade. The same is substantially
true of the 100, 900 other woodwo-ilers,
the $50, 900 brick and stone masons. the
177,0O0 machinists, the $4,000 dress
makers, the EOS, 900 blacksmiths and
the 60, 600 brick and tile makers. The
213. 900 boot and shoe makers either do
custom work which cannot be done
abroad or make a surplus for export.
We have 100000 painters, GLACIERS and
varnishers who are not exposed to COM
petition, and we have smaller numbers
in many other occupations, but very
large number in the aggregate, who
are similarly situated and whom no
tariff laws can benefit in any way.
Upon a careful examination of the
list of employments under the head Of
manufacturing and mechanical it will
be found that not more than ], 2tU, 900
at the outside can be supposed to be
benefited in any way by the tariff.
Great numbers even of these are en-
gagged in the production of articles
which are largely exported and sold
in competition with like articles pro-
49, 900 cotton mill operatives, IA, 500
I'D nj
molders, for example. only a part of
whom can be benefited by the tariff,
because they are as completely indie
pendent of foreign competition as are
the cotton growers of the southern
states. The unprotected in these e..i
Payments far outnumber the protect
ed miners and others in the other in
dustrial divisions, ana we may safely
say that the whole number of those
who can possibly be benefited by tariff
legislation does not exceed ], 100, 900.
As the total number engaged in gain
full occupations was over %. 7o0, 900. the
number of the protected in our indus
trial hive could not have been more
than one out of every twenty.
In the list of classes engaged in gain
ful occupa tons we find manufacture
and officials of manufacturing COM
panies, 103, 265." Chiefly for the benefit
of these and the stockholders in manu-
featuring concerns was the protective
tariff created. Chiefly for the benefit
of these the republicans for thirty
three years prosecuted commerce. art
fcially increased the prices OF neces-
saries and made the conditions of life
harder for all the rest of the people.
And they promise to do the same again
ii the opportunity is given them And
they promise to do it for the benefit of
wage workers. They will not have the
opportunity. The experience of par
tial relief under the democratic tariff,
supported by the census demonstration
that only one in twenty of the indus
trial people can in any way be benefit
ed by protection, will make it hardly
possible for McKinleyism to triumph
again in 1s96.or for very many years to
Chronicle.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
-McKinley's presidential boom is
SO weighted with McKinleyism that it
has no fair chance with the others.
He should unload.-Chicago Chronicle. |
Free silver or bust" is the |
of the western repu blicans. |
The alarm of the party leaders is great |