Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-10-31
UNMASK|NG THE
TARIFF DELUSION
Franklin Pierce Shows That La.
Dor Is Not Benefited by
Unjust Tax.
MANUFACTURERS KEEPS PROFIT
Proof of Democratic Platforms Sound
ness Cited in Reports Of Wage In.
vestigations.
BY PIERCE.

BY FRANKLIN PIERCE.
For u hundred years of u history
the manufacturers, believing that they
received a benefit from the protective
tariffs, have ingeniously devised plaus-
ible pretexts for imposing increased
prices upon the ~necessaries of life. At
first they said that industry in our
country was in It's infancy and needed
protection. When those industries had!
become strong and needed no aid the
manufacturers invented the theory
that the foreigner paid the duty. This
theory was exploded, and they declar-
ed that cheap clothing meant cheap
men and was not a blessing.
Driven from every one Of these indie
feasible positions, their final and only
argument left today is that the tariff
Is imposed upon foreign imports to en-
able the manufacturer to increase his
profits and pay higher wages.
The Democratic platform declares
that:
IN the most highly protected indus
tries, such as cotton and wool, steel
and iron, the wages of the laborers are
the lowest paid in any Of our indus
tries"
Proof of this statement is found in
reports Of many recent official investi-
cations of wages in the United States.
Wages In Cotton Industry.
Under the existing Payne-Aldrich
tariff law actual imports of cotton
cloth paid in 1910 average duties of
b6.4 per cent.
In 1895, when work and wage condi-
lions In the cotton industry were ex-
c~eptionally good, the wages of 202,211
cotton mill operatives in the United
Statesmen, women and children-av-
eraged only $6.47 a week. The average
wage for men was but $7.71 a week,
for women $3.50 and for children, 1921,
AS to the profits, seventeen leading
cotton mills, with total capitalization
of $25,110,0O0 and total surplus of S21,-
363.50l, paid in nine years dividends
averaging % per cent.
The cotton manufacturers turned out
In 1905 ~S442,451,21S worth of goods and
paid in wages therefore s94, 1877 ,G95, or
- pNA SSAI. III IAS III VI ~ >
product.
Extortion of Wool Tariff.
Outside Of the duties on two or three
commodities Of comparatively little i'm
portance, the duties on wooden cloth
are the highest of any in the tariff
schedules. According to Senator Reed
SmoOt, owner of a wooden mill at
Provost, Utah, and chairman Of the
finance committee in charge of tariff
legislation in the senate, wearing ap-
parel valued at 80 cents a pound O
pays 206 2-3 per cent. duty.
This and other correspondingly high
duties on the manufactures Of wool
are made to enable the manufacturer
to pay his labor an Increased wage
over those Of foreign countries. But
the duty on wooden goods is nearly five
times the entire labor cost, while the
American manufacturers in 1905 paid
In wages only 10 per cent. Of the total
value Of their production.
At Lawrence In this most highly pro-
tected industry the laborers were
obliged to strike even for a living
wage. Thousands of adult males were
receiving only from Sc to SO a week
and many only SIS to Sc a week. AS a
result Of the strike the American
Wooden company gave It's employees
slight increases in wages.
The wool tariff bill vetoed by Presi-
dent Taft reduced the duties on raw
wool from 1920 to 20 per cent. and on
manufactures Of wool from S7.65 to
4S.36 per cent. Mr.. Taft said he We
toed it because the proposed rates did
not comply with the findings of the
tariff board. Senator La Toilette con.
tradicted the president, saying that
the proposed rates varied from / per
cent. lower to 11.6 higher than the
tariff boards findings justified.
Low WAGES in Steel.
Manufacturers Of iron and staei IN
1905 paid in wages only Is per <rn,.
OF the total value Of their protection.
while the duty th:n would &H,rare
about As to II Fer ccut. L OF ail
metals it now aver2 res 34.5! per cor
Arcerican wages are realty the
cheapest wages in TIE world when vou
take into account the mount of pro.
duction per man.
An illustration Of this appear. IT.
the Stanley report. investigatin~ the
steel trust. as follows:
The labor cost OF prodncinc ~.
!ron in Pennsylvania fell from :, . !.
ton in 1902 to 50 cents a ton in 1909
yG' the realized value Of the pig iron
oH.put was $15.64 in 1902. vherea~ It
vas S17.44 in 1909 In ether words.
wageworkers in 1902 got SIPS tcr Fro.
oucing only $15.64 worth Of pis iron
and in 1909 only 50 cents FOR produs.
ing $17.44 worth.
While thus treating labor the indus
trial combinations that have grown I'D
under the protection of the tariff have
fixed the prices Of commodities at the
highest point the home market would
stand. For twelve years they have
been unjustly transferring through the
protection tariff billions of dollars from
the earnings of labor into their own
pockets.
When will the laboring men of the