, 1896-09-30


In the conflict against cheap money,
let US not forget cheap labor.
Cheap money and reputation would
bring national dishonOr. Cheap labor
would bring national disgrace.
before the present silver agitation,
men, women and children throughout
the country were II of labor and hun
CRY: cheap or dear money will not help
,hese to help themselves unless they
can be afforded IN opportunity to
work.
What's the matter? Al the close of
the last republican administration, la
Dor was more fully employed and at a
better wage than at any time in the
history Of this or any other nation.
What caused the change? The present
democratic administration. with its
free trade policy. is the cause. II is be
caus" the industrial life Of the nation
is strickcn down. as well as because its
financial integrity is assailcd. that we
urge voters and women everywhere to
stand by the republican party ana the
man, William Mckinley. who will re-
store and uphold that bulwark of
American prosperity, protection to
American labor and industry.
If protection were the only issue i n
fhis campaign, it would be enough to
stir the heart and the energies of ev-
cry good citizen for the success of the
republican ticket, which means labor
and: bread for thousands of people,
men II women, who are out of IN
ploFment by reason of vicious eco
nomic laws, passed at the behest of
democratic free traders.
The woes of the w~age-earning nan
reduced pay, short hours. out of work,
empty dinner pail, hungry children,
weary wife-with these we are famil-
lar; they are with us continually. But
1t may not be known or remembered
that there are over 1900, 900 women
wage-earnCrs in these United States.
Not n of these Woodworking, intelli-
gent and self-respecting women has
escaped the effects of the blight which
has come to the industrial life of the
nation. Some have accepted reduced
wages; Others are out Of work and liv-
ing on savings made under the McKin-
ley tariff bill. Other Door unfortunate
have fought against adversely as long
as they could and have finally gone to
the wall. The blight continues and
will continue until protection to our
industries is restored.
If women could only see and know
the change that has come to wage
carriers since the repeal of the McKin-
ley bill, they would see hat this ques-
ton of dry economies has a human
side, a home side. a heart side.
Poverty always exists: dis ressing
scenes could have been Witnessed any
day during the past 20 years: but these
conditions were produced by acciden-
tai causes and personal conditions
wholly Independent of economic laws.
The pOverty to which we now call at
t~ention is not of this sort. II is the
poverty produced by business depres-
sion, directly caused by the overthrow
of protection. And such poverty,
Mothers with babes in their arms,
starving because husband and father
has no work. Young girls. hungry and
defenseless, with nothing to do and
nothing to eat. Those who are we'll
fed do not know what it is to be hun
CRY. Oh, the shame of 1t: that hun
dreds of men and women and children,
white and black, native and foreign,
shout ro~.a and jostle each other and
itSnt for a chance at the counter where
charity dispenses soup and bread!
These scenes have been enacted in all
OF our great cities since protection was
stricken down. Such scenes will con
tinue and intensity until protection is
restored. The whole industrial system
has been affected; no one interest is in
dependent Of others. If one is weaken
ed, all suffer. When the factory shuts
down. the woman operative has no
payday envelope" from which to take
money for holiday or everyday clothes
and to pay her board, or. if she be a
~home-keeper, her rent and grocery
bills.
When the shopkeeper's receipts are
thus depleted, he cuts down the wages
Of the girl who stands behind the coun-
ter, or tells her he needs her no longer;
the butcher and the baker do the same:
the dressmaker, the milliner. the plain
sewer, the sewing-machine operative,
women bookkeepers. stenographers
and typewriters, all are in less demand
and reduce their expenses to the limit
of actual necessity. Farm women
must sell their butter and eggs and
other produce, if at all. at lower price.
Girls, boys, men and women are thus
daily added to the army OF the unem-
ployed, to be supported by these who
still exist on lowered wages from the
paralyzed industries which were for
merly in healthy and happy activity,
or the furnishing host must be humili-
ated and fed by charity.
Believing that all wage-earners, es-