Mexico Missouri message., 1912-09-05
NO AID TO WORKER
TARIFF is NOT RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE PROSPERITY OF
THE WAGE GARNER.
PROVED BY TWO INSTANCES
Condition OF Worklnemen In Highly
Protected Steel Industry 10 Bad
While Plants OF Moderately Pro.
teeted 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.
can workingman is dependent upon the
tariff for whatever he enjoys Of super
iority to the "pauper workman" of Eur
ope In wages and standard OF living.
Let us look at couple of great Amer
lean industries, one very highly the
other very moderately. protected. BY
the theory, the workingmen employed
in the first ought to be better off
than those employed in the second
Take the steel industry and the
agricultural implement industry both
iiourishing. 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 imple-
ment industry and consider only the.
manufacture of plows and machinery
for planting and cultivating, an I'M
monopolized branch. The SHOEMAKER,
is protected by 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 industries-the
tariff on steel has ranged from two
and one-quarter to three times as
much as that on implements.
The condition of the workingmen
in the highly protected steel industry,
generally speaking. is bad, as the
world knows. A tariff barrier OF 45
per. cent. against the output OF the
'pauper labor of Belgium. Germany,
and England has not kept the Ameri-
can workingman from making the &C.
QuaIntance of the twelve! hour day
| and the seyen-day week. II Is not
necessary TO resume familiar facts;
the Pittsburg Survey will supply de
tails to the curious. at any public H.
bThry. Since the degree of prosperity
assured to the workingman by a 40
per cent. tariff is so low. we SHOULD
! be prepared, according to orthodox
| Republican doctrine, to find the EN-
ployes of pillow, planter and cultiva-
| tor factories the pariahs of the in
/ dustrial world.
The very contrary of this assump-
/ ton is the fact. There are no bright
er spots in the American industrial
system than these very plants. whose
/ tariff protection is relatively so little.
In the pillow towns" of Illinois you
find wages good Scrupulous atten-
tion is paid TO matters of safety and
/ factory sanitation. In no industry
employing an equal amount of un.
/ skilled labor are conditions more sta.
BILE. From this and the thriftiness of
the workingmen, 1t results that
large proportion of them own their
own homes. 1t is not uncommon to
find workngmen Of three generations
Of the same family in a single organ.
ization. One large concern has sue
cessful pension and insurance scheme
in operation; another, instead of buy
ing outright inventions of employees,
pays substantial royalties for the use
Of them.
The tariff was not designed to help
the workingman. II is a trick to en-.
able the manufacturer 10 exploit the
consumer. Nothing could be more
conclusive on this point than the con.
trast between Industrial conditions in
the two industries under discussion.
Why is the Infant" steel Industry,
protected by a As per cent. tariff and
selling annually about $3.50. 600 900
worth OF its products in the foreign
market unable to treat its working.
men as well as the pillow and planter
industry, which has only a Is per
cent. tariff and an export trade of
about one-tWenty-fifth as much? And
how does 1t come that the implement
maker some years since, protested
their willingness to get on without any
tariff at all while the steel industry,
according to no less an authority than
President Taft's veto message, would
be withered and blighted if the du-
ties on steel were reduced to a figure
still substantially higher than the i'm
Element duties?
The answer is that the tariff philos-
ophy is farrago of lies.