Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1912-09-11
NO AID TO WORKER n D X r
TARIFF is NOT. RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE PROSPERITY OF
THE WAGE FARMER.
PROVED BY TWO INSTANCES
Condition Of Worlingmen In Highly
Protected Steel Industry 10 Bad
While Plants Of Moderately Pro
teeted Farm Implement Industry
Are Bright Spots In Labor World.

lie dies hard. There, for. example, 10
the lie that asserts that the sAmeri-
can workingman is dependent upon the
,tarin for whatever he enjoys Of super
1ority to the "pauper workman" Of Eur
iope In wages and standard of living.
Let US look at a couple of great Amer
lean industries, one very highly, the
other very moderately, protected By
'tne theory, the workingmen employed
IN the first ought to be better on
,than those employed in the second.
Take the steel industry and the
agricultural implement industry. both
ldourishing. and each enjoying 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 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 A.
teen years-the period Of most rapid
development OF both industries-the
tar1h on steel has ranged from two
and one-quarter to three times as
much as that on implements.
The condition CT the workingmen
In 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-
Qualntance of the twelve!-hour day
and the seven-day week. ii 1t Is not
necessary to resume familiar facts;
the Plttsburg Survey will supply de
tails to the curious, at any public H.
brary. Since the degree of prosperity
assured to the workingman by As
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. @ s$ ~. III.
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-
ton Is paid to matters OF safety and
factory sanitation. In no industry
employing an equal amount Of un-
skilled labor are conditions more sta
bic. From this, and the thriftiness Of
the workingmen, it results that a
large proportion OF them own their
own homes. It is not uncommon to
find workingmen Of three generations
OF the same family In single organ
ization- One large concern has sue.
cessful pension and insurance scheme
III operation: another. instead OF buy
ing outright inventions of employees.
pays substantial royalties for the use
Of them. Il
The tariff was not designed to help
the sworkingman. 1t is q trick to en-
able the manufacturer to 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 As per cent tariff and
selling annually about $3.50. 900, 900
worth Of its products in the foreign
market. unable to treat its working
men as we'll as the pillow and planter
industry. which has only a Is per
cent. tariff and an export trade OF
about one-twenty-ffth as much? And
how does it 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 II the du-
ties on steel were reduced to a figure
still substantially higher than the I'M
plonent duties?
The answer Is that the tariff philos-
ophy Is a farrago Of lies.