The Alaska citizen., 1911-09-25


 The urN year and a half G.aueh- "B,g Business" Ready for Tariff
 Reduction.
 TI, w-lu.-s man suddenly finds mat -lo higu tariu The same high tHf which has helped him To con .~ '.. bonn" markor-i~ a chain on lis legs when he wants ro conquer a, world market Therefore. he is .tlI.n- drop The larih
 This i- the case with inc highly ,~e'r,f.4 irau industry. The leading rir.s ir that industry are just a.a. r.aay to drop The high tariff. rnt .at Tor iron hu for everything ,.-,
 Thus ,f, New York SEn of Thurs aay. JGus > sayss
 Possibly .hl- mtry might con HiEu. 'o keep our ot the poprhouse. g,rN wool. and make clothes. even f ie,. aHE. nof the Heaven-horn tar5s To puu-,rra'c every sheep and ,E,rE manufacturer.
 C0U-it,rius that the New York ~au s supposed .p he Pi rp mt Nor- -tu'- muullioDo. and tine rgan oi H',l 4TIt' fIa It. ..t|tH +|t4 Iti i'' ank aImi~-ioa
 Nnro1rr. ut lesser aur .ority than Mr. Camrgle la, declared thaJ We ar, I aIy Tor reduction of duties in tl' iron industry.
 am Ipr. how, yer. concerned with 'hc manufacturers side ct this qucs- lion TH. manufacturers are well able r. take .,1rc rf themselves. and tH,E arc ,Nc,,dingly we'll rspresent- "d Iu this house U.aughterl.
 What | Nan ro bring .ut k that if hrNta aa- n'erIeI that the high ,arG should pror.cr tine working man Taa. prereuse was simply an at,rtHnIeHr. h.eausr Inc working mer have votes G-aughrtr on the Democratic -idcp only American manufacturers have dared 10 tell this fal-tUood To rHeir Workiugmen. Why" Because uL'l Nely recent years American N,rhjEGmcu We're m.re fig norau1 economic and social ques- tiuus than their brothers in Germany or France.
 The highly protected mauufacrur- els of Gc,mauy never dared tell Il. Jr HorkugmeH that the tarifr pro t,cred them.
 + Was only in this country. after The infant industries had become giaur-. rnaI some of our Pennsyl- taMia p Iiliri4n~ conceived the idea of claiming that tho high tarif was here [. protect rhe worgingman.
 Bus tlis i-su shows plainly the paramount influence of our manufac- turer- and traders in political af- fairs. eEvr though every Wurkingman in Amcri.H has a vote. The manu- facuGcrs palm off their private is sues as national issues.
 II is inc manufactures who want protection; ii i- th" commercial men. and mainly the importers, Wh1 want free trade.
 fhe manufacturers. as said be. fore. pretend that protection bene- tirs the working classes.
 Bu1 that DhiS claim is a mere sham is evident from the fact that they have never proposed to discourage the immigration of foreign working men; that on the contrary. they have always done all they could to encourage foreign laborers 1o come over; that they have sent agents iil I-N' bttt It i'GN ltiDI tl lS bH IdlSt preteuSoS.
 Causes of Higher Wages in America
 There can be no doubt that wages are b.Iter here than in European countries. Bul the causes of this fact have little or nothing 10 do with the tarim.
 The workman in highly protected Germany has somewhat the advan- Jage, ill wages and hCuls. over the workman in highly protected France The workman in free trade England has q shade tho advantage over the workman in highly protected Ger many
 IL cannot he shown that the tariff has any general effect upon wages.
 Higher wages in the United States are due to a number of highly com pleN factors.
 There is first. the higher efficiency of the American workman. as the gentleman from New York (Mr. RedtieldD pointed out in his inter esting speech day before yesterday, There is next. the more perfected ma chineIy upon which he W .rks There is also the advanced development of u dut Nl4OI4HII. IHtIt lH. tul lItl more. the fact that, until recently, large tracts of public land served constantly 10 draw off some part of the competing labo:ers gf the towns and cities to the country.
 Finally, there is the fact that the economic system, as a whole. has never settled down in America into the hard and fast groove in which it runs in Europe.
 Indeed, that system in America still retains something of the elas- ticity of colonial times.
 Starvation Wages in the Highly Pro-
 tected industries.
 Since the great s!ike in Pittsburg in 1892 which ended with the l battle Cn the Monongahela - the claim that the high tarilt protects rare l should not advise the gen i tleman from Pennsylvania or any other gentleman to make such a claim before an audience of work | ingmen of Pittsburg. Chicago or Mil ! waukee, when there is a strike on for living wages in some branch of 1 the iron industry.
 i While the products of our factor ies are highly protected, sometimes as highly as 200 per cent, the pro ducers of these products are not protected at all. On the contrary, during the last twenty years Slavon- ians, Italians, Greeks, Russians and Armenians have been brought into