The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-06-22

het scr quOLeQ carnegie as being in
favor of reduction OF duties in tn,
iron industries.
| Leaving the subject of the tariff
from the manufacturers point OF
view on the ground that they care
We'll able to take care of themselves
and are exceedingly we'll represented
IN the House," Berger denied that
the tariff was meant to protect the
workingman.
| That pretense was simply an af-
terthought because the workingman
| have votes. Only American manu-
facturers have dared to tell this
falsehood to their workingmen.
Why? Because until very recent
years American workingmen We're
more ignorant on economic and So
cial questions than their brothers in
Germany and France"
Berger advised the Representatives
who assert that the tariff has ben
| etitted labor, mot to make such a
claim before an audience of working
men of Pittsburg. Chicago of Mil
| waukee just where there is "A strike
on for living wages in an iron in
dustry."
Declaring that while manufacture
ers have enjoyed protective tariff,
the American workers in the last 80
years have had to compete with i'm
ported labor with a lower standard
of living, Berger aid:
In the steel mills of Pittsburg,
Chicago and Milwaukee, where thirty
years ago. the so-called princes of
labor used to get from $40 to SIS
day. the modern white coolies get
$1.75 for 2 hours a day, seven days
in the week-having no time to
praise the Lord and no reason
either"
LAS for the manufacture of wool
en- goods. Bulletin 81 of the Census
Bureau, which gives figures on man
ufactures for 1905, shows that a.
402 youths and men, 24,552 girls
and women and 3,743 children un-
der 16 employed in the manufacture
of woolen goods receive yearly
average of 1895 and weekly wage
of S7.61.
THE same bulletin shows that
29,SS3 youths and men, 32,13O girls
and women and 7.23S children under
16 employed in themanufacture of
worsted goods receive a yearly aver
age of S379 and a weekly average Of
$3.50.
AcCOfulnS 10 social workers VINO
have made a study of family bud
gets. the minimum requirement in
the United States for decent living
for a family consisting of father,
mother and three small children is
$3.50 a year. l believe that estimate
is much too low and that none of
the gentlemen of this House want to
live on it. However, the average
a in hifyh iy-
dustries are but little more than
half this sum-
While being opposed to all tariffs,
high or low, Berger declared that
he did mot believe free trade would
be a panacea. Free trade, said Ber-
ger, would mean that a great deal
of our manufacturing would be done
across the sea.
Labor noes not need the SOCIAL
ed protection of tariffs" he said
1t has protected itself by strikes and
boycotts. which have been declared
| by the United States Supreme Court
| to be illegal. But illegal or not. l
| hope labor will continue to use them
| to resist the forcing down of the
| standard of the bulk of our popula-
ton to a Chinese level. For we have
been coming down continually.
Pointing out the fact that slaves
| because of their property value were
| given good care by their masters
prior to the abolition of chattel slav-
| cry, Berger said:
The case is entirely different with
the white workingmen. the so-called
| free workingman. When the white
| man is sick or when he dies the en-
ployer usually loses nothing.
And high tariff, or tariff for rev.
| enue only, or free trade-like the
| flowers that bloom in the Spring
have nothing to do with the case
| The fact is that the capitalist,
| the average employer today, is more
| concerned about a valuable horse
| about a fine dog-about a good au-
| tom obile-than he is about his en-
ploye or about his employees family
Showing that the keen competition
| in the ranks of labor often destroys
the workers home. converts him in
| to A tramp, and sends his wife and
children to the factory, the Socialis,
Representative declared:
| Women and children do not &C
into the factory for the fun of it;
they are brought there by dire neces
sity-by competition. In the cotton
| factories of the South. where my
| Democratic free-trade friends come
| from women and children compose
two-thirds of the working force
Rerrer here traced the induStria