Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1912-02-29

The business man suddenly find.
that the high tarjf-that same high
ta'iff which has helped him control the
home markets. a chain on his leg'
when he wants TO conquer the world
market. Therefore he is willing t'
drop the tariff.
This is thr case with the highly pro
ected iron industry. The leading spir
its in this industry are just about ready
70 drop the high tariff not only for Iron,
hut for everything else.
Thus, the New York Sun sof Thurs.
day. June S, says:
Possibly this country might contin'
ne to keep out of the pOorhouse, gro"
wool, and make clothes, even if they
have not the heaven-born tariff to con-
|~pcrate every sheep and every manu-
facturer.
Considering thai the New York Sun
is supposed to be Plerpont Morgan's
mouthpiece, and the organ of standpat'
tism in industry, this is rather a frank
admission.
Moreover. no lesser authority than
Mr.. Carnegie has declared that We
are ready for a reduction of duties In
the iron industry
am not, however. concerned with
the manufacturers side OF this question,
The manufacturers are we'll able to
take care OF tn, mselves, and they are
exceedingly we'll represented in this
House, Laughter.
What | want to bring out is that it
never was intended that the high tariff
should protect the wOrkingman. That
pretrnse was simply an afterthought,
because the work ingmen have, votes.
Laughter on the Democratic side. On
~ American manufacturers have dared
to tell this falsehood to their employees
Why? Because until very recent years
American workingmen were more lg-
norant on economic and social ques-
tions than their brothers in Germany
or France.
The highly protected manufacturers
of Germany never dared tell their
w~Orkingmen that the tariff was there
to protect the ~workingman. The pro-
tected manufacturers of France never
dared tell their workingmen that the
tariff protected them.
1t was only in this country, after the
infant industries had become giants,
that some of our Pennsylvania poll
Licians conceived the idea of claiming
that the high tariff was here to protect
the workingman.
But this issue shows plainly the para
mount influence of our manufacturers
and traders in political affairs, even
though every working man in America
has a vote. The manufacturers palm
off their private issues as national is
sues.
1t is the manufacturers who want
protection; it is the commercial men,
and mainly the importers who want
free trade
The manufacturers, as | said before,
pretend thai protection benefit the
working classes.
Blu. that this claim is a mere sham
is evident from the fact that they have
never proposed to discourage the immi'
grafton of foreign ~workingmen; that on
the contrary they have always done all
they could to encourage foreign labor
ers to come over; tina they have even
sent agents to Europe to coax laborers
by false ~pretenses.
CAUSES OF GHE WAGES IN AMERICA,
There can be no doubt that wages
are better here tina in European coun-
tries, But the causes of this fact have
little or nothing to do with the tariff.
The workman in highly protected
Germany has somewhat the advantage,
in wages and hours, over the
in highly protected France. The work
man In free-trade England has a shade
the advantage over the workman in
highly protected Germany.
1t can not be shown that the tariff
b las any general effect upon wages.
Higher wages in the United States
are due to number of highly complex
factors.
There is, first, the higher efficiency
th e Amer can workman, as the gem
from New York Mr.. REDFIELDl
poin ted out in his interesting speech
day before yesterday. There is, next.
the more perfected machinery upon
which he works. There Is also the ad-
vanced development of trade unionism.
is, furthermore, the fact that,
until recently, large tracts of public
land served constantly to draw of some
part of the competing laborers OF the
towns and cities to the country.
Finally, there is the fact that the
economic system, as a whole, has new
or settled down in America into the
lard and fast groove in which it runs
in Europe. Indeed, that system in
still retains something of the
elasticity of colonial times.
WAGES IN THE
HIGHLY PROTECTED INDUSTRIES.
Since the great strike in 1892-which
ended with the battle on the Mononga-
nela-the claim that the high tariff
protects the workingman has become
more rare. should not a d wise the
gentleman from Pennsylvania or any
to make such a claim before
an audience of workingm~n of Pitts
Durg, Chicago, or Milwaukee when
is a strike on for living wages in
branch of the iron industry. |
While the products of our factories
are highly protected, sometimes as
az 200 per cent, the producers OF
products are not protected at all.
On the contrary, during the last 20
years Slavonians, Italians, Greeks, |
Russians and Americans have been
brought into this country by the mill |
.ons, Simply because they have a low
sr standard of living they have crowded
out the Americans, Germans, English
men, Irishmen from the workshops, fac |
jories, and mines of our highly protect-
I'D industries.
And in the steel mills of Pittsburg, |
Chicago, Milwaukee, where 80 years ago
the so-called princes of labor used to
get from $40 to SIS a day, the modern
collies get $1.75 for IL hours a
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