The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1897-05-26

" tto III Ol)eIallOn were kepI Ill
state OF almost constant rebellion
by the determination of employers
to- reduce wages are still to be de-
ceived by itsapparent plausibility.
They evidently imagine that the
struggles which disturbed the in
community in 1892 and
1893 have passed out of the public
recollection, and that the working
people have forgotten the suffer-
ings they then endured in trying
to keep wages from falling to the
starvation point.
But even if the public memory
were as short as. it is proverbially
supposed to be, and even if the
workers should have learned no
lesson from past experience, lit
tie reflection would still suffice to
expose the folly of assuming that
the wages of labor are regulated
by the amount that protective
tariffs enable employers to add to
the prices of the commodities
which they employ laborers to
make. The laborer has no goods
to sell. He has nothing to offer
but the work of his head Or his
hands; and the price of this, like
the prices of all salable things, is
necessarily regulated by the mex
orable law of supply and demand.
That is to say, prices in the labor
market are governed not by the
demands of those who are employ
ed, nor by the generous instincts
Eof any particular employer or
group of employers, but by the
amount of compensation which
the unemployed may be willing to
accept in preference to letting
themselves and their families
starve. The necessity which drives
idle men to take what they can
get is the determining factor in
the adjustment of wages; for no
employer, however good his inten-
tions, could for any length of time
pay his men more than the rates
thus established. If he should
persist in doing so he would be
driven out of business by his less
soft = hearted competitors, who
would be under no compulsion to
pay more to one than to another
Eequally we'll equipped for the per-
formance of the stipulated duties
The labor unions give recognition
ito this truth every time they en-
; deavor to make a strike effective
by sending out pickets to intercept
idle men and persuade them not
to take the places of the strikers
and when they limit the number
of helpers or apprentices who may
: be employed in the shops
Equally true is it that foreigl
: wage rates have no bearing what
ever on the amount of the wage
paid in this country. Nor woul'
they have any even under condi
Y tions of absolute free trade; for
Il measured by its results, labor i
as cheap here as it is anywhere i
u the civilized world. Mulhall, tn
, English statistician, comparin
" the working power of the peopl
. of the United States with that c
, other countries, says that in 1S0
y he found it to be as follows: /
y the United States, 1910 foot tor
. daily to each inhabitant; in Grea
~ Britain, 147O foot tons ; in France
!, 1o 910 foot tons, and in German,
~ 902 foot tons. From this it wi
= be seem that while the America
y workman receives more none
&c than is paid to men engaged
" like occupations abroad, it is NJ
because his employer is protecte
a against the competition of foreigl
st made goods, but because he
ne capable of earning it by turnil
ne out a larger and, in many lines,
'lr better product.
le- The truth is that the only COZ
&c petitor the American workman b
2" to fear is his own equally capat
zee fellow-countryman out of a io
N and against this competition Di
ne gleyism can afford no protectio
De If it should be adopted as the p'
icy of the United States for t
"n next four years it would add
lge least SO per cent. to the living {
NY penses of the people, and it wot
mt seriously check the exports of
'ne surplus of manufactured stuffs
Is the successful marketing of VIII:
ac- depends the employment of ma
lld thousands of our workmen; but
oe is quite certain that it would
'nd enable any man who works
are wages to add single penny to
sly earnings.
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