Manchester Democrat., 1909-01-06

on the gRrt Of the workman himself.
What use had he for protection when
his labor-although the. highest paid
was already the cheapest in Europe,
as England's supremacy in the ex:'
port of manufactures showed?
Specific comparisons in several
lines have shown that our lahor.cost
is lower than Englands. But the I'M.
challenged fact that we use machine
i. more largely and more skillfully
than any other country IL conclusive,
Indeed, We sell machinery Of tho
highest labor.saving use in England
itself; and to the world hundred
million dollars worth year of clev-
e. Yankee contrivances for reducing
lsbor-cost-nowers and reapers, elec-
trical apparatus, cash registers, print
ing presses, sewing machines, metal
working appliances, every one Of
| which enables some foreign pauper
labor to heighten it's efficiency, and
so to get little nearer to the real
ly cheap labor basis of the United
States.
High tariff. in fact, ought to be in
Investigated by the Society for Psychi-
cal Research, not by economists. Its
claims are purely miraculous. Mere
reason cannot see how import duties
cun protect labor that is already the
lcheapest In the world. nor how pro-
tecting steel mills that employ 29O,-
900 hands can make high wages for
100000 carpenters, 100000 butchers
ard blacksmiths and ten million work
ers in agriculture. Phe claim that
high duties give increased employ
ment Ito labor looks even more like a
naturalization of Little Bright Eyes.
1t may really be the reembodied spir-
it of An artless Indian maiden; but
whenever the light is turned up all
you can see is an obese trust scambl-
ing back into the cabinet. High tar.
iii makes high prices. Otherwise
what earthly good would it be to any
body? So the argument comes to
this: that If you make prices higher
people will buy lot more, thereby
insuring full employment of industrial
labor; ;the domestic consumption OF
iron and steel increased ten years
threefold, because, thanks to the tar
iff, people had to pay about fifty per
cent. more for the goods than they
were worth.
They say the tariff preserves the
home market for the product Of home
labor. But under forty-and-odd per
cent. tariff our imports of manufac'
lures have steadily increased. Since
the Dingley law went into effect to-
tai imports have risen from six hun
dred million to twelve hundred mil.
lion dollars a year. One-quarter OF
the total is in finished manufactures
ready for consumption. That ratio
has held pretty steadily since the law
was passed and while exports of man
ufactures ready for consumption have
also risen a hundred per cent. In
the shape of manufactures ready
for consumption" and manufactures
for further use in manufacturing" the
product of pauper labor still comes
in to the extent of four hudnred mil
lion or more yearly. 1t becomes un
tainted from the manufacturers point
of view by having to pay very high
duty; but that does not help it from
the point of view of employment Of
American labor The labor-cost IL
| is per cent. The tariff is AZ pei
cent. Where does the benefit tc
lpbor come in? Not, surely, in ar
advance in ten years of 80 per cent
on the wholesale price of mems bro
gans, 80 per cent. in cotton flannel
AZ per cent. in cotton-andwool blank
cts, 43 per cent. in brown drillings
161 per cent. in steel door-knobs, liz
per cent. in common mortise locks
SO per cent. in fence nails, 81 pei
cent. in hemlock lumber, 81 per cent
in white pine boards, 43 per cent. il
kitchen chairs.