The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-02-18
THE STRIKE AND THE TARIFF.

THE STRIKE AND THE TARIFF.
The tariff has always been defended
as being the protection of American
labor as against the cheap labor
of Europe, Of Mexico, and OF the isles
| of the seas. But destructive light is
! being thrown upon that idea by the
great strike al Lawrence. Massachu-
setts. IL is found there that large
proportion of the mill operatives, many
| OF whom work for 81, 50, and S6
week, are foreigners. who cannot even
speak the English language. They have
| introduced into Lawrence standard
| OF living which is described as "the
lowest scale of European working
class existence Aud in every way
it appears that tho wages, the living,
and the employees themselves, are on
the lowest scale OF European opera
| tion.
| But. under the tariff. VIC are given
10 understand that the American work
man is paid wages which enable him
to support his family and TO enjoy
standard of living which is far and
away above that which can be at
tanned 10 by the psuper labor of the
world outside, But we find. as in this
case, which is said TO be duplicated IN
some of the steel mills of Pepnsyl-
vania, that the employees are foreign
ers who cannot speak English, and who
have introduced a style of living
hitherto unknown in America, and
matched only by the lowest scale OF
living in the drees Of Europe. We
then may well pause and ask what is
the benefit Of protection TO American
laborf There appears to be no benefit
whatever. but American labor, as a
matter Of fact, is ousted in favor Of
European labor, which is working in
this country on the same basis and on
the same style of existence that it
works and exists on in Europe.
What, then, becomes of the benefits
Of she tariff to American workmen |?
Undoubtedly these are absorbed by the
manufacturing concerns themselves.
The great combines OF the cotton manu-
facturers, of the woolen manufac-
down labor to the lowest possible notch
oust American laborcrs and employ in
their stead the lowest priced labor Of
Europe What can be said. then. in
! advocacy of a tariff which shows re.
suits like thlsl Surely nothing. The
United States has clearly allowed com
bines and vast corporations to step in
and nulify so far as labor is con
ccrned, the benefits of the protective
tariff. American labor does not get
those benefits in the cases cited, in
fact, American labor is not considered
at all, and does not get employment.
| None uced apply, save those who are
willing TO work on the basis Of the
lowest wage paid in Europe, and none
do apply on thai basis of small wages
except European laborers. for whose
benefit the tariff was never imposed,
and to whom the tariff brings no re-
lief.
On the other hand, the mill owners
who pay. such low wages, receive enor.
nous dividends through the control of
the American markets which the tariff
gives them; they close their mills
whenever they consider the markets
clogged with goods, so that they can
maintain their immensely profita bic
scales of prices; they advance the
prices of fabrics on the artificial
scarcity which they themselves bring
on; they build enormous new factories
| tn Sfun Il 4, a,
means enhance enormously tho value
Of their stocks; the holders of Pacific
Mills stock for example {we quote The
independently. the par value of which
IS $1,000 a share, refusing $500 a
share for it.
1t is surely time. when il is so clearly
seen that the huge combines and cor
poratous arc able TO uullifv the tariff
legislation, that there shall be di.
vision aloug the whole line, 80 that
American labor will indeed be pro
tcctcd. and the protection which the
tariff aims 10 give shall not be utterly
destroyed, as it is IN the cases cited.
L. would he well indeed, To so frame
the tariff law, whore it is found on
investigation {aud investigation should
always he alert and thorough that any
corporation or combine Is grinding
down its rates of employ. as in the
Lawrence casc, that the tariff pro.
yidcd for the benefit ard pro.
lection Of American labor, shall
not apply 10 tho products of
such factories or mills, but should ap.
ply only as .,hc tariff is designed to
apply, where American labor is en-.
ploycd and is paid a fair wage very
largely iu excess of the wages paid TO
pauper labor abroad or at home
California is having the same trouble
IN preventing the destruction of
young salmon in irrigation canals that
Utah has with its trout The laws re-,