Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-11-02

The sAldrich tariff law has been in
operation a little more than month.
Such limited time does not afford a
thorough test of the law, but thor
ough test Is not necessary TO convince
most people of its ultimate results, so
far as they are concerned Since the
law went into effect, some things have
happened that are readily appreciated.
Attention is called to some Of them.
The iron and steel trade Is regard
ed as the index of business. Pig iron
has advanced 81 a ton, and steel is
now quoted at SIS. Neither at the
mines nor in the mills have wages adj
vanced cent. Under impetus of the
cotton schedule, New England manu-
facturers are enlarging old mills, and
building new, but fatty refuse to re-
store the 10 per cent cut in wages
made in March, 1908. The wooden in
dustry is again active but wages ie-
main where they have been for the
last ten years, while clothing has ad-
vanced 10 to 20 per cent already.
Hides are free, but shoe factories COM
promise with their employees. while
shoes are higher than they ever have
been. The beef trust finds occasion
for advancing cents a pound, while
dairy products and eggs are higher
than ever
There is not now and never has
been denial of the fact that the
Aldrich law was framed by trusts and
combinations. The charge was openly
made on the floor of the Senate that
certain schedules were drafted by the
interests they affected. These charges
were answered equivocably or evaded
completely. The paid agents of spe-
cial interests had easy access to the
finance committee room, and constant
ly thronged the Senate corridors; the
desires of the people expressed
munications to the press, got no far
Their than the waste basket, unless
forced upon the Senate by ''insurgent'
members The enactment of the law
was celebrated only by its favored
beneficiaries; the people were uncon-
WINGED, and are less so now.
OF course, the favored interests pre-
dicted resumption of industry. They
had to do so, to be consistent. They
had got what they asked for, and what
enabled them again to operate their
mills, factories and plants profitably
to themselves. Secure in their posi-
lions, some of them became frank with
the public, brutally frank, among them
a prominent WOODEN manufacturer who
said: Protection? Why protection
is wholly converted to profit before
it reaches the employee" That state
ment supplied the key to the Aldrich
law, opening wide the fact that from
it the wage Garner and the consumer
have little to expect.
The only deduction permissible is
that the Aldrich law favors the trusts,
combinations and capital generally at
the expense of the consumer. Rail-
roads may order millions of dollars
of rails and rolling stock; steel mills
may work overtime to fill orders; cot
ton mills and shoe factories may hum;
and wooden mills may run to full ca
pacity, but If labor does not receive
increased wage, or have the cost of
living lowered, of what advantage to
him is the Aldrich brand OF protec-
ton? A tariff law that makes only
few men prosperous, cannot bring
prosperity to all the people. When a
few men prosper at the expense of the
many the law which enables them to
do so stands in need of amendment
From the Atlantic to the Pacific
come expressions of dissatisfaction
and discomfort. At New Bedford 25,-
900 cotton operators threaten to strike
for their promised 10 per cent restora-
ton; in the great Western mines thou
sands more want to divide profits un-
der the metal schedule. The demand is
for better wages TO meet the higher cost
of living, or lowering of prices. The
people hold the Aldrich law response
BILE, and the Republican party will yet
have to grant revision downward or
permit the Democratic party to COM
plete is unfinished Williams
port (Pa.) Grit.