The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1897-06-22
rERFEcr1NG PROTECTION.
Two Slight Changes suggested in
the Interest of Farmers and La

the Interest of Farmers and La
bOrers.
The senate is now engaged in RENE
dying the small imperfectionS of the
Dingley bill, which, as all good prOtec
tiOniSts assert, is one of the best tariff
bills ever drafted. 1t distributes its
blessings to all-farmer, labOrer and
manufacturer. Without DOUBLING the
good intentions of the makers, we wish
to suggest one or two minor details
which might possibly help the bill to
fulfill the expectations Of its authors:
First-Lubin'S export bounty scheme
might enable the farmer to get q small
slice of the benefits of protection. OF
course, the farmer doesn't eXpect-es-
pecially at firSt-to get as much of the
benefits as the manufacturers have
been getting for thirty years. A pro-
lection Of about 20 per cent-that is,
10 cents per bushel on wheat, cents
on corn, etc.-would satisfy him, while
it takes four times as much to satisfy
the ordinary tariff infants.
This small export duty would not
make good the farmers loss because
of import duties on manufactured
products, saying nothing about past
losses; but, in course of time, after his
fects of real protection what pro-
tects," the farmer might muster up
courage enough to follow the example
of Oliver TWist-Which example has
grown into a custom with protected
interests-and ask for more" Posi-
bly,, also, he might form political
trusts or combines to demand more"
and raise millions of dollars to send
Hobbies to Washington to bride con-
gress. While protection is in order eX-
port duties are the farmers only hope.
With them he may hope not only to
change his losses to profits, but also
to regain that power and position
which were once his, but which have
long since passed into the hands OF the
manufacturers.
SecOnd-It is also fitting to recognize
the labOrer in the distribution of tariff
profits. Like the farmer, he now puts
his hand into his pocket to help swell
the profits of protection, practically
none of which comes his way. 1t is
not an easy matter to eQualize the ben
efitS of protection so that the working
man shall get his full share. A pro-
hibitive duty on imported labor might,
in the course of time, afford some pro-
lection by restricting the supply of Ia
Dor, so that manufacturers could car
ry out their good intentions expressed
when asking for higher duties) and
pay "American wages to American
WOIkingmen.'
At present the condition of working
men in the protected industries is pit
liable in the extreme The Philadel-
phia Ledger, a good Republican paper,
told us about May 1, that in the pro-
s.l1y .4p,iO <f
Pennsylvania the wage rate has been
reduced so low that it is scarcel ysuf-
ficient to provide the necessities of de-
cent sanitary living" 1t says the
lowest classes of alien cheap labor
swarm in the iron and coal districts Of
the state" and the competition for
work is so fierce, that they contend,
not against the employers for the high
est wages but among each other for
the loWeSt!' "As appears by the tes-
timony presented to the Legislative
committee, * they herd in
suualor, SUBJECTS Of abject penury, and
are beset by disease, dirt and hunger"
The Ledger thinks our immigra ton
laws are reflective and imprOvident,"
and suggests that ito properly protect
American WOrkmen, congress should
pass an immigration bill as well as
tariff bill" This is a good idea, and
should be acted upon at once. The
only wonder is that some of the good
manufacturers, in their anxiety to
protect and raise the wages of their
wOrkingmen, did not think of this plan
before. Then if they should have a
law passed which would make it com
pulsory for them to give at least one
half of their protection and monopoly
profits to their employees, protection
would begin to be an all-arOund bless
ing. The manufacturers might still be
getting the lions share, but they would
not get all.
When these changes are made in the
bill, it will undoubtedly be what the
New York Tribune declared its proto-
type, the Mckinley bill, to be-'the
bravest and best tariff bill ever
passed. Will they be made?-Byron
w Holt.
Pushing Along Good Thing.