Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-09-05
NO AID TO WORKER
TARIFF IS NOT RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE PROSPERITY OF
4 THE WAGE GARNER.
PROVED BY TWO INSTANCES
Condition Of Workinamen In Highly
Protected Steel Industry Is Bad
While Plants Of Moderately Pro-
tected Farm implement Industry
Are Bright Spots In Labor World.

BY agreement of all observers. q
lie dies hard. There, for example, is
the lie that asserts that the Ameri-
cal w~orkingman is dependent upon the
tarin for whatever he enjoys of super
lority to the "pauper workman" of Eur
'ope IN wages and standard of living.
Let us look at a couple of great Amer
lean industries. one very highly, the
otner very moderately, protected. By
the theory, the workingmen employed
In the first ought to be better off
ina those employed In the second.
Take the steel industry and the
agricultural implement industry, both
nourlshing, and each enjoying a good
export trade. And in order not to
complicate the tariff problem with
the trust problem, suppose we leave
out the harvesting end of the nipple
ment industry and consider only the
manufacture of plows and machinery
Tor planting and %cultivating, an un-
monopolized branch. The steelmaker
Is protected by a As per cent. tariff;
the tariff on agricultural implements
Is Just Is per cent. For the past If
teen years-the period Of most rapid
development of both ipdustries-the
tarlfr on steel has ranged from two
n o~ne-quarter to three times as
much as that on implements.
The condition of the workingmen
the highly protected steel industry,
generally speaking. is bad, as the
world knows. A tariff barrier Of As
per. cent. against the output OF the
'pauper labor" of Belgium, Germany
and England has not kept the Ameri-
can workingman from making the ac-
quaintance of the twelve!-h hour day
and the ~seven-day week. 1t is not
necessary to resume familiar facts:
Tho Pittsburg Survey will supply de
tails to the curious, at any public IL
brary. Since the degree of prosperity
assured to the workingman by a As
per cent, tariff is so low, we should
be prepared, according to orthodox
doctrine, to find the en-
ployes of plow, planter and cultiva-
factories the pariahs Of the in
dustrial world.
Inc very contrary of this assump-
Ion is the fact. There are no bright
spots in the American industrial
than these very plants, whose
Tariff protection is relatively SO little.
the pillow towns" of Illinois YOU
Ind wages good. Scrupulous atten-
Ion is paid to matters Of safety and
factory sanitation. In no Industry
employing an equal amount of un-
skilled labor are conditions more sta
Die. From this, and the thriftiness of
ne Workingmen, it results that a
arge proportion of them own their
,wn homes, 1t is not to
IND w~orkingmen of three generations
u the same family in a single organ
zation. One large concern has a sue
'essful pension and insurance scheme
a operation; another, instead of buy
ng outright inventions Of employees.
'ays substantial royalties for the use
II them.
The tariff was not designed to help
he workingman. It is a trick to en-.
BILE the manufacturer to exploit the
consumer. Nothing could be more
conclusive on this point than the con.
rast between industrial conditions in
he two industries under discussion.
Why Is the infant" steel industry.
'rotected by a As per cent. tariff and
annually about $3.50, 600, 900
1orth OF its products in the foreign
unable to treat its working.
men as well as the pillow and planter
Industry, which has only a 16 per
ent. tariff and an export trade of
bout one-twenty-fifth as much? And
ow does 1t come that the implement
1aker some years since, protested
heir willingness to get on without any }
arif at all while the steel industry,
ccording to nc less an authority than
resident Taft's veto message, would
Q withered and blighted If the du- ,
les on steel were reduced to a figure /.
till substantially higher than the i'm
lement duties?
The answer is that the tariff philos-
ply is a farrago Of lies. +,
1M@N&4 E &