Bisbee daily review., 1904-03-01
ANXIOUS WORKING MEN.
The Cost of Living Does Noi
 Go Down With Wages.
HEAVY BURDEN OF TARIFF TAXEs

Oncc-RoosevcIts message silent on
 the subject-workers Must Suffer
 Four Years Longer.
 The Journal of the Knights of Labor for November says: That most excellent and carefully edited labor paper. the National Labor Tribune of Pittsburg in its last issue gives this pointer:
 "Wages are expected to come down at the first of the year in all directions Many crafts. iron and steel workers not ably, have been reduced already. Jus tice requires that other things should come down in proportion. Let rent and taxes both be lowered if the working man is not to be ground between the upper and the neither millstones."
 Apparently a new idea has occurred to these labor papers. If it can be made to work, the wage earners will not in future have to carry the heavier end of the burden of industrial depreG sions They can unload on somebody else, just as the manufacturer now un- loads on them. When the demand for goods falls off and the manufacturers profits begin to diminish the manufac- turer reduces his working force or re duces wages. or both. When the de mand for labor slackens and iabor's earnings grow less, why cannot he have his rent. taxes and other costs of living reduced accordingly? How nice 1t would be if he could pass this trou- ble along.
 But we fear that the workers will not get relief in these directions. Land lords refuse to reduce rents much be cause they know that there are just as many houses and so many people who have to live somewhere-that is, until they starve or freeze. State. county and local taxes could not be reduced without reducing the salaries of the of ficeholders, and it is absurd to suppose that our political friends are going to vote lower taxes and lower salaries tc themselves.
 The other kind of taxes are internal revenue and tariff taxes. The internal revenue taxes are mostly on liquors and tobacco. It would hardly be advis- able to reduce these much until the tariff duties on the necessities Of life are greatly reduced. These tariff taxes, which but few people know anything about, really constitute more than two thirds of all taxes paid by the average family. The total taxes of the average family are about S125 year. of which S10 goes for state and local taxes, S25 for internal revenue and 800 for tariff taxes. Of the tariff taxes only about s15 goes to the government, the re- maining S75 going to the tariff trusts and other protected interests.
 There is no good reason why this S75 | a year of tariff taxes which goes to the protected trusts should not be taken off, even when times are good and when wages are high. When wages are low and men are out of work every unnecessary burden should certainly be lifted from labOr's weak back. This burden can be frightened only by act of congress, and, unfortunately for the workingmen, they have elected the wrong set of men to congress. The stand patters" are now on deck in Washington, and they would see the workiDgmen of this country sweat
  ing relief that could be given only by stopping the graft of the trusts. So little do the Republicans at Wash ington care about the sufferings of the l people because of high tariff taxes for l the benefit of trusts that President Roosevelt in his message to congress l did not even mention the word tariff He last year joined the stand patters" on the tariff, and the whole Republican outfit now says that the tariff should | not be disturbed until after the next | presidential election. Of course the | real reason for this decision is that the 1 protected manufacturers have paid for the privilege of tariff taxing the people i and will not consent to let go of this l privilege. The Republicans might be
 willing to break faith with the trusts if they could next year look elsewhere 1 than to these same trusts for big campaign fund. The Republicans have never revised the tariff downward and | probably never will do so while grass
 grows
 The outlook for workingmen is not
 rosy. There are two hard winters ahead and the cost of living is about the highest ever known, thanks to the
 trusts. which charge us all the tariff
 will allow. but sell their goods to for eigners at very low prices. Possibly the voters may find out by next year
 how 10 reduce their taxes in the only way worth considering. but it is i'm probable that their burdens can be frightened before 1907. for a Republican
 senate stands between Hhe people and lower tariff taxes.
 It looks as if the workingman would
 have to be ground between those mill. stones four years longer. Sorry, but 1t
 Is their own fault