The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-08-28
FREE TRADE WAGES.

From the Chicago T.mes-Herald.
In general characterization OF free
traders, uttered during n presidential
campaign, General Harrison declared
them to be students of maxims instead
OF markets" MIR. Harrison never gave
expression to a greater truism. The
American people have had occasion to
ponder over its truthfulness during an era
OF smokeless factory chimneys and fire.
less forses. They have also found oppor-
tunity during period OF unprecedented
Industrial depression to ruminate over the
proposition that a few cold facts viii kick
to death the finest theory ever spun by
college professors or dreamy writers upon
political distractions. Some OF the facts
that threaten to kick to death the vapid
sophistries of the free traders are Just
now coming from the Orient. There are
no beautiful theories or fdnciful abstrac-
tions about these facts. They come
clothed in the commercial raiment OF
cold figures that ought to send chill
down the spinal column of every Amer.-
can workngman and put to shame the
campaign howlers who have tried year
after year to fi;m-fiam the artisans and
mechanics Of this country into the belief
that their condition would be improved
by allowing our markets to be deluged
with the products of cheap foreign labor.
IL European labor Is cheap, Asatlc labor
Is cheaper Recent investigations OF the
Industrial conditions that obtain In China
and Japan have resulted In revelations
that may well excite the apprehension of
every friend Of American labor. 1t Is
authoritatively stated as a result of per-
sonal acquaintance with the facts that
the operatives in Chinese cotton mills are
paid from to 10 cents day. Should the
ports of this country be thrown open free
to the oriental manufacturers the COM
petition would not only be ruinOus to
American manufacturers but the prcduc-
ers of raw materials would also suffer
heavily. A glance at the wonderful
growth Of China and Japan In the indus
trial arts must convince any falr-mlnded
man that the United States has more to
fear from the Orient than from all the
countries In the old world. To exclude
Chinese laborers from the country and
throw open the ports to the products Of
Chinese labor would be a piece of monu-
mental folly unworthy of a republic that
has always prided itself upon its match
less opportunities for securing a just re-
ward for skill and and industry. For
American manufacturers to be compelled
to pay a scale of wages adjusted TO the
Chinese or Japanese standard would mean
n degradation Of American labor to the
Chinese level, which we all know Is un-
speakably low and vile.
The reason that China and Japan are to-
day buying large quantities of English
and American piece goods Is because these
countries only recently learned to manu-
facture these goods and have not suiil-
cient spindle capacity as yet to supply the
home demand. But their rapid acquisi-
tiOn of the secrets of these industries has
been phenomenal. Shanghai, China, VIII
soon become a manufacturing metropolis
rivaltrg Lowell. Mass, and Mancheste
England. II must also be borne in mind
that China's capacity for producing raw
materials Is practically inexhaustibe Its
A.Asx .I..Na Ia obi Nx.
Of its people to subsist upon what can be
prospect of Industrial competition with
such country most disastrous to con-
template. The completion of the Siberian
railway to Vladivostock will also open up
possibilities Of competition that will be
fraught with serious menace to European
as we'll as American manufacturers.
-:ll:-
The lndissoluble industrial brotherhood
OF man, which is n cardinal tenet OF free
trade eXpounders. Is a beautiful theory,
but the racial differences that separate
the Americans and Chinese are so pro-
nounced and so ineradicable that any
prospect Of degrading American labor and
American ideas OF living to the Chinese
level. which would ultimately follow free
and open competition with the products
of their mills, fills the mind of patriotic
man with deep concern. Happily the
American people, regardless of past party
ssrvitude, are gradually awakening to
the fact that il Is better to pay a little
more for the goods we wear than to de-
base and impoverish American labor.