Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-07-06
SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON.
row.. JsrrnRsos COUNTY, W. Va.
TUESDAY MORNING. JULY 6. 1897.
PERFEcTINe PRoTECTloN.
Two Slight Changes Suggested In the In
terest of Farmers and Laborers.

| Two Slight Changes Suggested In the In
terest of Farmers and Laborers.
The senate is now engaged in remedy
| ing the small imperfections of the Ding
ley bill, which, as all good protection
lists assert, is one of the best tariff bills
ever drafted. It distributes its blessings
to all-farmer, laborer and manufac-
turer. Without doubling the good inten-
tions of the makers, we wish to suggest
one or two minor details which might
possibly help the bill to fulfill the ex-
pectations of its authors:
First.-Lubin's export bounty scheme
might enable the farmer to get small
slice of the benefits of protection. OF
course the farmer doesn't expect-espe-
cialIy at first-to get as much of the
benefits as the manufacturers have been
getting for 80 years. A protection of
about 20 per cent-that is 10 cents per
bushel ON wheat, o cents on corn, etc.
would satisfy him, while it takes four
times as much to satisfy ordinary tariff
infants.
This small export duty would not
make good the farmers loss because of
import duties on manufactured prod
ucts, saying nothing about past losses,
but in course of time, after his industry
had felt tho stimulating effects of real
protection "what protects" the farmer
might muster up courage enough to fol-
low the example of Oliver Twist
which example has grown into a Gus
tom with protected interests-end ask
for "more Possibly also he might
form political trusts or combines to de-
mand "more" and raise millions of dol
lars to send lobbies to Washington to
bribe congress. While protection is in
order export duties are the farmers on
ly hope. With them he may hope not
only to change his losses to profits, but
also to regain that power and position
which We're once his, but which have
long since passed into the hands of the
manufacturers.
Second. 1t is also fitting to recognize
the laborer i'll 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 benefits |
of protection so that the workingman |
shall get his full share. A prohibitive |
duty on imported labor might i'll the |
course of time afford some protection !
by restricting the supply of labor, SO |
that manufacturers could carry out |
their good intentions depressed when |
asking for higher duties) and pay |
American wages to American work
ingmen."
At present the condition of working |
men III the protected industries is pitia.
BILE in the extreme. The Philadelphia
Ledger, good Republican paper, told
us about May 1 that in the protected
iron and coal industries Of Pennsylvania
the wage rate has been reduced so low
''that it is scarcely sufficient to provide
the necessaries of decent, sanitary iv-
ing" 1t says "the lowest classes of
alien cheap labor swarm in the iron and
coal districts of the state, and the com
petition for work is so fierce THAT they
contend, not against the employers for
the highest wages, but among each
other for the lowest?" ''As appears by
the testimony presented to the legisla-
tive committee, they herd in squa.
lor, subjects of abject penury, and are
beset by disease, dirt and hunger" " The
Ledger thinks our immigration laws
are defective and improvident" and
suggests that "to properly protect
American workmen congress should
pass an immigration as we'll as tariff
bill.' This is 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 law passed which should
make it compulsory for them to give at
least one-half of their protection and
profits to their employees,
protection would begin to be an all
around blessing. 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
brayest and best tariff bill ever passed"
Will they be made?-Byron w. Holt.