The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-06-06
, DEMOCRACY AND INDUSTRY.

Which, leldleS " wages. ~ ulS TAR
if We are told, operates to keep
prices up in the home market. This
makes it possible to pay high wages
to American labor. If the tariff is
removed prices will fall and wages
must come down.
This sounds self-evident To the
republican of the rank and file it
seems as Interchangeable as that two
subtracted from four leaves two.
And he steps up to vote the ticket.
This doctrine not only takes hold
of the wageworker. So far as it is
believed, it takes hold of every
friend of the wage-worker There
are in that party to-day thousands
of sincere men who have no direct
interest in protection who uphold it
because they believe that tariff re-
form policy would mean either the
closing of American shops or the
lowering of the wages of American
Workingmen. 1t may be remarked
in passing, that these men, properly
enlightened, would make the best
kind of democrats
The moment this wages doctrine
is examined we see that it is subject
to certain exceptions. In those in
NuoClICS lOSc plOuuClS We export IN
quantity it is impossible that the
level of American wages should be
affected by the tariff Of manufac-
lures Of iron and steel, for example,
the United States is now selling in
the world market about nine times
as much as she imports. We are
selling automobiles to ten times the
value of those we import, and agri-
o111fO1,o1 nj
of ten millions annually with prac-
tically no importation at all The
American manufacturer no more
needs a tariff on these goods than
the American farmer needs a tariff
on wheat
But the citadel of protection is the
theory that if prices come down
wages must be cut This is the
proposition upon which the whole
protectionist system, so far as it
makes an appeal to the vast majority
OF American citizens, stands or falls
Pry this out of mans mind, and
unless he is tariff baron himself he
ceases to be a protectionist.
Must the manufacturer who finds
himself confronted with a falling
market reduce the wages of labor?
PId\ClNdl III any
highly competitive line will smile at
the question. few years since, a
new superintendent took charge of
a large factory in western state
At the end of his first year he had
! considerably reduced the labor cost
of the article manufactured, increas-
ed the capacity of the factory 80 per
cent and increased the wages of the
wi In oil Iii I,ro
per cent. He had redesigned the
machine the factory was making, in
stalled special machinery and rear
ranged the entire plant.
Any man of tenacious memory for
prices who was of age thirty years
ago can at his leisure make out a
list of manufactured articles which
have been reduced in price more
than SO per cent in the past quarter
century; yet the workmen who pro-
duce them are getting higher wages
to-day than ever before. What has
done it? The application of brains
to industrial problems.
Thirty years ago lumber was cut
by rotary saws. The invention Of
the band saw, with its narrower cut,
saved at a stroke, out of the saw
uuSL, Ouc DOdIu III every elSl l..
Thirty years ago agricultural imple-
ments were painted by hand. To-
day they are immersed whole in
tanks of paint. Thirty years ago
wagon tongues were shaped by hand
Today the rough stick is run through
special planer and comes out a
properly tapered tongue.
Thirty years ago heavy castings
were handled on trucks in the shop,
which ran on tracks that must be
kept clear Today an electric crane,
operated by a boy, takes casting
from any point and drops it just where
needed. Thirty years ago engines
wasted much power twisting away at
long lines of shafting. Today every
machine in a modern plant has it's
own motor, and when it is not run
ming there is no waste of power on
it's account And all this while wages
have been coming up and labor costs
going down. There is today on the
market gasoline engine of five
horse power the labor of which,
through the large amount of auto
matte machinery used in producing
it, is less than 81.
This great revolution would have
been impossible if it had not been for
the fact that American workingmen
are the most broad-minded and in
telligent in the world. They have
not resisted the introduction of i'm
proved machinery; they take it as a
matter of course. More than that,
they help invent it. In England the
workmen is conservative; he fights
improvement.
Z The American workman, on the
other hand, remembers that he is a
consumer as we'll as producer. He
wants piano in his parlor. porce-
lain-lined tub in his bathroom, gas
range in his kitchen, bicycle for
4 his boy. And his splendid adaptable
ity to new conditions lies at the very
foundation of series of industrial
changes that have put wages up and
labor costs down, made us the best
housed, best fed and best clothed
nation under heaven and enabled us
to sell in the markets of the world
more than one thousand million dol
- e. ~~sks IL ~