The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-24

that will do substantial justice to all interests concerned aid not rob the many for the benefit of the few by saddling all the burdens of govern ment on the poor mans back. The selfishness of the beneflciaries of pro- lection and the arrogance of the men
 who have waxed fat during the past quarter of century through these unjust discriminations of Republican tariff policies were never better illus trated than in the Payne-Aldrich law. When we demand an equitable re- vision of unjust tariff discriminations the Republican standpatters contend that they are all in the interest of labor; that this exorbitant protection is for the benefit of the wage earner;
 try knows the absurdity of the propo- sition. Protection for the sake of protection does not materially bene- fit labor. Labor comes in free from
 every country on earth except China and Japan, and successfully competes world. Labor receives no protection. Tariff taxation as nothing to do with the price of labor. Capital is not charitable. Capital buys labor. like everything else, as cheaply as it can. Wages are regulated by the 1nexor- able law of supply and demand.
 Whenever you find two employers looking for one workman, wages will be high, and whenever you find two Workmen looking for one employer wages will be low. When the demand is greater than the supply wages go than the demand wages go down. Tariff taxes have little or nothing to do with the price of labor. In all prosperous communities labor IS sought and not turned aside,
 I am now, always have been, and always will be. the friend of the workingman; my record for IS years in this House testifies to the fact. The American wage iearner is the greatest producer of real wealth in all our country. He is the best artisan and the best mechanic on earth. Of course, he gets more wages than the foreign workman. And he should, because he can do more work and better work and in less time than the foreigner, and it costs the American workman at least twice as much to live here as it does the foreign work man to live in other countries On an average during the past 10 years the cost of living in the United States has increased 49 per cent. and wa ges have remained, with few excep- tions, about the same. The Ameri- can wage earner pays twice as much for the necessaries of life as the for eign wage earner. In the end he can not save much. If the Ameri- can workman is a little better off than the foreign workman, he has no one to Aank but himself, no agency to praise for his improved condition
 but his loyal brothers in the trades unions of the country, which have done more than all other things com bined to promote his progress, protect his interests and benefit his welfare.
 For more than 10 years the 1ncreas- ing cost of living, mounting higher and higher each succeeding year, has been the most immediate, the most pressing, and the most universally ob- served fact about economic conditions in this country. During all this pe- riod, while wages have remained practically the same and the cost of more and more oppressive, the prom ise has been held out by the Republi- cans that when they got around to tariff revision something would be done to remedy these :nequita b1e con- Gitions. But what was the result? The mockery of the Payne-ldrich law making matters worse instead of better.
 Ever since 1896 the average man i1as been gradually losing his hold on the means of physical existence. The political party in power all this tirne can not escape responsibility for these conditions. The people no longer trust Republican promises. They no longer bIindly believe in the efficacy of Republican policies. They have lost confidence in the willingness of invested capital to divide up on an equitable basis with productive labor. Sad experience has taught them bet ter. The tremendous development of the trusts; the annual multiplication of multi n1illionaires; the heaping up of what has been so aptly called swollen fortunes;'' the systematic overcapitalization of all kinds of en- terprises; the consolidation of man. agement and the centraliZation of ownership; the stationary fxity of the wage of toll; the advancing of prices. in too many cases out of all reason, of the necessaries of iife-all these things have caused widespread dis trust of Republican doctrines and the philanthropic assertations of the greedy heneficiaries of Republican protection. A continuance of these evils is a menace to our civilization. It is the duty of Democracy to rem edy them and the Dem ocratic Party welcomes the opportunity.
 The Republican Party has failed to meet the just expectations of the people, and in the coming campaign