Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-05-02
TARIFFS AND WAGES
Protection Of No Benefit to the
American Worker
FALLACIOUS IDEA EXPLODED.

Vt4O VPov0Ct0OO 0UO Low Wa90S VT0.
vail In the Cotton industry-Manv-
faeturers Make Is Per Cent and Pay
Employees $3.50 . Week.
Many good people think that It is
the protectionist policy that keeps
American wages high. The workman
himself generally thinks 50. He votes
for a high tariff to enable his employ
er to make high profits SO that his
employer can pay him high wages
He knows as a consumer he will have
to pay high prices. but he thinks his
high wages will more than Offset that
He should do a little thinking. 1t IL
not the tariff that keeps the American
wages high. assuming that they are
high. 1t Is Americas bOundless nat
ural opportunities that have kept them
high. and this was true when there
was no tariff or only a low tariff
Where there are most natural re-
sources Of potential wealth and where
men are relatively scarce wages will
go up. Supply and demand settle that.
lean wages high. 1t Is the American
standard of wages fixed by natural
conditions that compels the tariff pro-
tected industries to pay high wages.
The protected industries have to COM
pete with the unprotected industries.
and the latter employ many times
more men than the former. so that 1t
is the wages paid in the larger group
that determines the wages paid in the
smaller group. Wide and farreaching
as Is our tariff system. 1t will be found
that the number OF people employed in
our protected industries after all
bears small proportion to those EN-
protected. Professor j. Laurence
I.aughlin many years ago put the ra-
ito as not more than one to sixteen.
and 1t Is not likely to be more today.
In La FOllptte's Weekly. true
friend of the workers. though some
times misguided. we recently read the
statement that the tariff "is tax to
which the people have consented In
order to maintain In this country high
wages and high standard of living"
Another statement was that the tar
iff-enhanced prices charged by the
manufacturer were "a trust fund for
the benefit Of American labor" Else
where in the paper It Is forcibly
shown how shamefully the trustees
have abused this trust" For in
stance. according to the census of
manufactures for 1905. 31O,45S cot
ton mill operatives were paid $94.377.-
COG in wages. an average Of 1904 for
each employee. or less than Sc per
week. Bulletin GO of the census Of
fee shows that at the census for 1907
the wages OF 202.21l cotton mill OPERA
tives averaged only S7.7l rcr week for
men. $6O3 for women. "ln the great
cotton mills Of New England" says
In Follette's. 1.-The average earnings Of
all operatives was less than $3.50 per
week.
Now. before going any further let us
ask this question: Is 1t the 80 per cent
protection which cotton goods enjoy
that enables the cotton manufacturers
to pay these magnificent wages? Let
the reader think of the wages paid in
industries that have no protection at
all and compare them with these
wages and then ask himself il 1t can
be true that 1t is the high tariff that
keeps mp the rate of wages In this
country. He will see that it Is not
true. 1t Is Il monstrous delusion. The
tu fo ofv mn
wages which competition determines.
and this competition comes from the
unprotected Industries. which. after
all. are the great majority. The man
ufacturers pay no more than they can
help, tariff or no tariff. OF course.
there is no doubt Of the ability OF the
cotton spinners to pay much higher
wages than they do. La Folette's
states on excellent authority that
1.-THE average annual dividend paid by
the mills Of this group (of eighteen New
England cotton mills) for the previous
eight years. through good times and
bad times. was nearly 16 per cent -"
Thirty mills Of Fall River. Mass. paid
for fourteen years dividends that aver
aged 500 per cent annually and In adj
dition accumulated a surplus equal to
% per cent Of their total capital"
If there were no tariff at all or only
a low tariff the cotton manufacturers
would be forced by competition to pay
about the same wages they are pay
ing now. The tariff on goods Is no
protection to labor. A tariff on i'm
ported labor might be. How the
workman can still think that he is
protected by admitting foreign labor
free and keeping out foreign goods is
a mystery. THOMAS SCANLON.