The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1897-05-26
The Influence of Protection Upon Wages.
Philadelphia Record,


could add anything to the price
of similar commodities of domestic
production. Their contention was
that by making foreign goods dear
to the home consumer-although |
how a tariff could accomplish this
if the foreigner paid the tax"
they have never been able to ex-
plain-so many of our own people
would be encouraged to embark
their labor and capital in manu-
featuring enterprises that the COM
petition thus established would
lprevent the amount of the tariff
exactions being added to the prices
of domestic productions, and that
the consumer would be obliged to-
pay no more for the necessaries or
even the luxuries of life than he
could buy them for if the markets
of the whole world should be
thrown open to him without let or
hindrance. This contention, al
though it seemed plausible for
time, has, like a great many other
protectionist plausibilities, fallen
into discredit. During the past
six years the consumer has had
some experience concerning the
rise and fall of prices in conformity
with the changes in tariff exac-
tions, and he is we'll aware of the
fact that high prices do follow the
enactment of laws imposing high
duties on foreign imports. He
knows, for example, that the tar
iff law of 1890, instead Of promo
ting the. competition which it was
: promised woulsb keep prices down,
: called into existence an aggrega-
r tion of trusts and combines the
: express purpose of which was to
S monopolize the production of al
most every imaginable thing in
s order that prices might be ad-
Ivanced in accordance with theil
$ rapacious desires; and he also
o knows that since 1894, when the
a present tariff, with its free OF
e nearly free raw materials and it'
n lighter duties on finished products
a became operative, he has been able
to buy better goods and more O
:. them for less money than he coult
when Mr.. McKinley's pet measur
was depicting his purse. This is
indeed, a fact which those children
= of protection, the trusts, do no
e deny. On the contrary, they cit
N it rs one of the strongest reason
why the demands with which the
lluNc lOI ulOlltHS Dccll DOHlpdlNlll
the Republican lawmakers shoul
be granted. Impelled by gree
and their own conflicting interest
's' in the distribution of the antici
pated plunder, these expectan
- benefciaries of protection hay
thrown their former discretlo
aside, and with audacious candc
d. disclosed the true inwardness {
/, their designs, thus giving the fiji
ishing stroke to a pretense whic
the experiences of the consume
had already rendered too transpa
ent for further defense. In fac
Tor with the exception of a few obtu
,n n organs which seem incapable
liberating themselves from Il
- yoke of habit, the advocates of t
'D' bill now pending in the Sena
openly admit that if it shall b
come law it will add enormous
to the cost of living, and that
schedules have been construct
I. with that object in view.
The cost of living, however, is
matter of some Importance to me
people. A vast majority of t
purchasers who constitute t
home market depend for th'
livelihood on the income they {
rive from their labor; and sir
rn the avowed purpose of this n
wv protective measure is to redr
the purchasing power of their mo
ey by increasing the cost of t
necessaries of life, they cannot
expected to joyfully accept it a
\ blessing unless it can be sho
Z that some compensatory advantt
will accompany it. The necess
of conciliating this preponders
element in the voting power of
nation is apparent; and as it
equally obvious that the most
ceptable advantage which CO
be offered to workers would
more pay, the tariff doctors 1
0 their echoes all over the land
now insisting more strenuou
: than ever that high prices I
/. higher wages go hand in ha
They do not offer the small
CIR. particle of evidence that this
tulate rests on any other foun
H., +hon fhn complocent 0ssul