The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-10
THE wORKINGMAN's DEADLIEsT FOE

To our mind nothing is palmer than
that the Republican doctrine that pro-
tective tariff should be maintained 10
keen up the rates of wages is perfectly
ulusory. Protection does no. keep up
wages. on the contrary. IL necessarily
reduces them. in time, To minimum
The first effect of high protective tar
if is very greatly TO add TO the prices of
manufactured articles by combining the
supply of them TO ire manufactures Of
tie protected country. But these nigh
prices of the manufactured articles at
once attract capital to manufacturing.
and the business Is soon overdone. In
the early period of protective tariff,
while manufacturing was confined 10 a
few establishments. wages might have
been better. But high prices for the
manufactured articles will cause more
capital 10 go into manufacturing as GER
tainly as the earth goes around the sun,
and this necessarily causes too much
production of the manufactured articles,
the market being confined TO the home
consumption. Prices then begin TO come
down, and wages must necessarily fol-
low. The operation of the law is as GER
tain as of that of gravitation. So that
the inevitable effect OF protective tarift
H. TO reduce wages as soon as the pro-
tective tariff law has been in operation
long enough to produce its natural and
legitimate result.
Wa baya hpfnra ne two ctrikinp in
stances of the truth of what We say.
The Northwestern Miller has been max
ing comparison of the cost of turning
wheat into -four in America and in free
trade England II quotes from the Eng
lish journal, Milling. an itemized state
ment of the cost of making -four and IT
amounts to 10 shillings per ton of wheat,
or l shilling pence per sack of -four
and the English journal says that Eng
lish millers are doing business at a fair
margin at the rate Of shillings pence
per sack. The Northwestern Miller quotes
a Minneapolis miller as saying that !
shilling 6 pence Is quite satisfactory TO
him. Here is the price OF the manufac-
turcd article 10 a protected
manufacturer only little more
free trade manufacturer Our superior in
yentlon and skill helps us, of course, 10
reduce the cost OF manufacturing very
greatly. but there is not much in these
prices of the manufactured article TO
make the laborer look with favor upon
protection as a method of raising his
wages.
We take another Illustration from the
Nation
MIR. William Garrett, the weil-known
inventor. of Joliet. H.. in recent lee
ture stated that wire nails are SO cheap
that IL Is estimated that II a carpenter
drops a nail. II is cheaper TO let II lie
than TO take time 10 pick II up, and this
might suggest the inquiry whether cheap
nails make cheap carpenter. Mr.. Gar
retts statement has led the Iron Age to
do some figuring. with interesting re-
suits. Assuming that 1t takes carpen-
ter ten seconds to pick up nail which
he has dropped. and that his time is
worth 80 cents per hour. the recovery OF
the dropped nall would cost e0S3 cent.
There are 300 sixpenny nails in pound.
and they are worth ON an average 1855
cents per pound, making the value OF one
nail 0o077 cent. In other words, it would
not pay TO pick up ten nails at the as
sumed loss OF time and rate OF pay OF
the carpenter. There could not be a more
striking illustration of the results of our
industrial conditions; the extreme cheap
ness OF manufactured articles per unit
and az measured In terms OF labor pay
ments per hour or per day.
When nails are as cheap as this. and the
market Is limited. the tendency OF the
wages of nail makers must be downward.
The inyentiveness OF our people. stimu-
lated by our free institutions, is going to
give us monopoly of cheap manufacture
ing sooner or later, whether the protec-
tive tsriR laws remain In force or
whether they Do not Their only eject