The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-07-28
HOW THE TARIFF PROTECTS
LABOR.

Do not the people who made the
protective tariff tell us fiat footed
that the tariff as made to protect the
| Amedican labor and for no other pur-
pose. This is true from the fact that
in every instance the makers of this
tan ~ gave us their solemn word that
| it is SO.
But now what is really amazing for
| us to find is that after all of this as
surance the committee of social
| workers appointed to investigate the
condition of the steel trust report to
us that those employees are working
under conditions of almost unbeliev-
able hardship and degradation, and
that the way they live is disgrace
to civilization
A large majority of these pro
tected American laborers'' work
twelve hours day. Almost half of
them work not only twelve hours a
| day, but seven days a week. More
| than half of them are paid Is cents
an hour. More than third are paid
less than ID cents an hour. In conse-
| quence of these long hours and scant
! wages, says the committee, these men
| live under conditions that are Gin
| tolerable for human beings"
What has become of the millions
| and hundreds of millions that the
protective tariff has taken out of the
pockets of all the people and turned
over to the steel trust, in order to
| protect American labor?'
Labor hasn't got it. That's fiat.
Labor is ground down into the dirt
| by the steel trust. 1t is paid the low
est penny on which it can live 1t is
| worked the longest hours it can keep
| awake. 1t is housed and fed worse
| than Missouri hogs are housed and
| fed. Yet it has an immortal soul. 1t
has inalienable rights. 1t is made up
of ''freemen' and American citizens.
The Declaration of Independence was
made for it, and Old Glory waves
over it.
What a travesty on civilization!
| What mockery in the name of pro
| tection!'
| Andrew Carnegie, though, has got
ten out of that protection so many
hundreds Of millions of the money of
the American people that he can't
even give the interest away as fast
as it comes in. He has planted libra
ries with his name on them at almost
every cross roads, and sprinkled a
lot of them over Europe for good
measure, and still his bottomless cof-
fers are overf1owing. More than that,
| ne boasts that, from his steel works,
he has made three or four score other
mllllonaires-all out of ''protection
to American labor" And they meet
occasionally, these Pittsburg million
aires made rich out of protected
American labor" and hired naked
chorus girls to dance indecent dances
on tables laid at $40 to $50 a plate,
afterwards cooling them off with
shower baths of champagne to testify
their ability to appreciate the good
things an indulgent government has
given them.
In the mills the men are working
twelve hours a day, seven days
week, for a few cents an hour-eyery
year scores Of them are killed and
thousands are injured, for the great
er glory of these Pittsburg tariff mil
| lionaires.
Out through the country, in every
state and every county, an indus
| trious, intelligent, productive people
are working, in office and shop and
field that out of their earnings, and
IN the name of American labor, these
mllllonaires may be still further en-
riched
What CHASTITY, wicked, brazen
fraud it is.