The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-26
CAmertcan Magazine for Mayo

1 The city of Pfttsburg is the greatest monument in this country to the prac- l tice of High Protection. For fifty years it has been the stronghold of the | doctrine. For fifty years it has eaped, as no other center in the Uni- ! ted States the benefits of prohibitive duties. i The town lies at the heart of dis ! trict in which is produced from one quarter to one-half of all the various i kinds of American iron and steel as well as a goodly proportion of all our i tin, plate-glass. and machine shop pro- ducts. All of these articles have for years had the American market prac- tically to themselves. All of these ar ticles have for years been exported and sold at less prices than the America n consumer can buy them. All these industries have produced enormous fortunes. So many so conspicuous are they that a, recognized American type in Europe and the United States is the "Pittsburg millionaire Now it is l certain the tariff produced the Pitts burg millionaire, but that was not what the tariff was fixed for by the Congress of the United States. The Pittsburg workman. According to the protectiOniSt argument Pittsburg. as the bulwark and center of protected in dustries. should produce the happiest. most prosperous and best conditioned workmen in the United States. How
 is it?
 There has just been published in
 Charities and The Commons (now The
 Survey) one of the most significant
 pieces of investigation the country has
 seen. It is the result of a year or
 more of work on the part of a. band
 of trained investigators commissioned
 by the Charities Publication Commit
 tee. It gives a. blue print of Pitts
 burg:-the place itself, the people, and
 their work. What does this blue print
 show of the workingman under protec-
 ton?
 It shows him working twelve hours
 a. day for seven days in the week, and
 once in two weeks filling a Hong
 turn or a twenty-four-hour shift. It
 is not simply the exceptional man who
 overworks in this cruel fashion. The
 twelve-hOur day is the extreme of an
 altogether incredible amount of over
 work by everybody so The Survey declares. Gan you make a man by
 these hours? Is it any wonder that these men preparing this Survey re- port their saying ''Too tired to read too tired to thnk-I work and eat and sleep" Any wonder that they report the God-fearing women crying out for the Old Country We might not have been able to live so well there, but oh man, we could have brought up the children in the fear O God and in land where men reverence the Sab- bath Any wonder that those men who have not the restraining influ- ence of a family drown fatigue at night in saloons and brothels?
 And what do they earn for their toil :? In the tariff protected industries steel and iron, the greatest number receive a wage, says the report, 'so low as to be inadequate to the maintenance of a normal American standard of liv- ing. Wages adjusted to the single man in the lodging house, not to the responsible head of a family And this in industries where ito protect the workingman" this country has for years taxed itself millions upon mill lions of dollars. The estimated tariff profit in the steel trust alone in 1907 was s8O,O0O, coo. Who got the money? Go look at the steel palaces and chat eaux in New York and Paris. Go ask the Pittsburg millionaires who fill the glittering places of pleasure in the great cities of Europe and this coun try, who figure in divorce and murder trials. who are writing their names on and bequests and institu- tiOnS.
 How does this protected" working | man live? What kind of households | are these -sbuilded on stee1?" The re- porter of the situation summarizes them: Evil conditions were found to exist in every section of the city. Over the omnfpresent vaults, graceless pr1vy sheds flouted ones sense of decency. Eyrie rookerfeS perched on the hill- sides were swarming with men. wo- men and children-entire families llv- ng in one room and accommodating ooarders in a corner thereof. Cellar 'ooms were the abiding places of other antilles. In many houses water was luxury. to be obtained only through much effort of toi1ing steps and strain ng muscles. Courts and alleys fou1ed ,y bad drainage and piles of rubbish were playing grounds for rickety, pale aced, grimy children. An enveloping loud of smoke and dust through which light and air must filter made travesty in many and every phase of the
 situation was intensified by the evil of ding-of houses upon lots. of antilles into houses, of people. into ooms.''
 Among the worst illustrations of hese typical conditions are certain
 roperties owned by the very corpora ions who are reaDing wealth from the ariff protected products. These bene- iciaries of the generosity of the Amer can people. these gentlemen who when hey see the taxation in the interest threatened hold up the laborer and his ood reason for continuing it. rhat do they say when these condi-