New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-27
THE CHAMBER OF HUMBUG.

The Tariff Chamber of Horrors in
Union Square, amid whose eXhlOlts
Governor Wilson has thundered against
q protective tariff as an incubus on the
American manufacturer and wage
worker. is run on the old-fasmoned
side-show principle. It's horrors are
horrors only because they are labelled
80. If an investigator looks below the
label the horror turns out to be some
thing entirely different from what II
Is advertised to be.
The rhetoricians Of the chamber are
satisfied If they can demonstrate that
some commodities are higher prlcea
here than they are IN England or Ger
many. But that fact doesn't count
against the protective system II the
correlatiye fact is taken into account
that labor costs more here and wages
are much higher. The cost OF living Is
not as great here as it is in England
if American wage earning capacity Is
taken into consideration. What does II
proft the average Englishman TO nave
lower prices for commodities Wheh he
can earn much less money with winch
IN purchase them? The price COMPARE
sons with which the Chamber OF HOT
rors does business can have little or
no Significance except to the very
small non-working class, with h1ed
incomes from investments, which can
live where it pleases and spend us
money to best advantage in the cheap
est market But the votes Of that class
never elected anybody Governor OF
President
In recent speech to a Chamber Of
Horrors audience Professor Irving
Fisher. Of Yale University, blurted out
fact which most of its frequenters
are accustomed to ignore. He SAID:
"Real wages are not money, but what
money will buy" To find out how
Iaboring man fares anywhere account
must be taken both Of wages and OF
what IL costs to live. Professor Fisher
contrasted England with Germany to
the advantage of England, saying that
the cost Of living is II per cent higher IN
Germany. while wages are II per cent
lower. But nobody will try to demon
strate that while the cost Of living is
higher here than it is in England
wages are lower here than there.
In a report made to the British
Board Of Trade by commission sent
TO the United States several years ago
10 investigate wages and the cost OF
living this judgment was reached:
Thus. according TO this ratio, the
,tOney earnings Of the tCOrkm0n IN the
United States are rather more than ttCo
and QHdrter times as great as IN
FINLAND and Wales, and since there is
no proof that employment is more in
ternittent in the United States than
IN this country. mach greater margin
~ available, even when allowance has
been made for the increased eXpendl-
ture on food and rent. This margin Is
clearly large Gin the United StatesO
making possible a command OF the
necessaries and conveniences and minor
IuyoIries of life that is both nominally
and really greater than that enjoyed by
the corresponding class in this country,
although the effective margin is itself,
I'm practice, curtailed by scale OF eX-
penditure TO some extent necessarily
and to some extent voluntarily adopted
In accordance with different and higher
standard Of material comfort.
In so far as the Tariff Chamber OF
Horrors makes an argument it is that
the American workingman ought to be
glad to exchange his present margin
of advantage between wages and
prices for the smaller margin which
the English and German workingman
enjoys. It's promoters and frequenters
sss merely trying to humbug them
seves.