The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-26
UkMASKING THE
 TARIFF DELUSI0N
Franklin Pierce Shows That La Dor Is Not Benefited by
 Unjust Tax
MANUFACTURER KEEPS PROFIT
~kroof of Democratic Platform's Sound- ness Cited In Reports of Wage ln- westigations.
By FRANKLIN PIERCE.

9y FB6aS&a
 For a hundred years of our history the manufacturers. believing that they received benefit from the protective tariffs. have ingeniously devised plausi bic pretexts for imposing increased prices upon the necessaries of life. Al first they said that industry in oul country was in it's infancy and needed protection. When those industries had become strong and needed no aid the manufacturers invented the theory that the foreigner paid the duty. This theory was exploded, and they declar- ed that cheap clothing meant cheap men and was not a blessing.
 Driven from every one of these inde- feasible positions, their final and only argument left today is that the tariff is imposed upon foreign imports to en- able the manufacturer to increase his proats and pay higher wages.
 The Democratic platform declares that:
 '-In the most highly protected indus tries. such as cotton and wool. steel and iron, the wages of the laborers are fhe lowest paid in any of our indus tries.''
 Wages Tn Cotton Industry.
 Under the existing Payne-Aldrich farfn law actual imports of cotton cloth paid in 1910 average duties of 66.z per cent
 < In 1905, when work and wage condi- lions in the cotton industry were ex- ceptionally good, the wages of 2o2,211 cotton mill operatives in the United Statesmen, women and children-av- eraged only SCAT week. The average wage for men was but $7.71 a week, for women $6.3O and for children, $8.2l.
 As to the profits, seventeen leading cotton mills, with total capitalization of $25, ,11O,OOO and total surplus of $21,- .5O1, paid in nine years dividends averaging 22 per cent.
 The cotton manufacturers turned out In 1905 $442. .451. .21S worth of goods and paid in wages therefor $94, ,337 ,695, or 21 per cent of the value of the finished product
 Extertion of Wool Tariff. 5 Outside Of the duties on two or three commodities of comparatively little i'm portance, the duties on woolen cloth are the highest of any in the tarifr schedules. According to Senator Reed Sm0Ot. owner of a woolen mill at Pre- vost, Utah, and chairman of the finance committee in charge of tariff legisla-
 
 ned at 30 cents a pound now pays 2D6 2-3 per cent duty.
 This and other correspondingly high duties on the manufactures of wool are made to enable the manufacturer ho pay his labor an increased wage over those of foreign countries. But the duty on woolen goods is nearly five times the entire labor cost, while the American manufacturers in 1905 paid in wages only IS per cent of the total value of their production.
 At Lawrence in this most highly pro tected industry the laborers were oblig- ed to strike even for a living wage. Thousands of adult males were receiv. Inly only from $6 to $9 week and many only $5 to $6 a week. As a re- suit of the strike the American Woolen company gave it's employees slight in- creases in wages
 The wool tarin bill vetoed by Presi- dent Taft reduced the duties on raw wool from APO to 2o per cent and on manufactures of wool from S7.65 to 4S-36 per cent MT. Taft said he ve- toed 1t because the proposed rates did not comply with the findings of the tariff board Senator La Toilette con- tradicted the president, saying that the l lower to 11.6 higher than the tariff boards findings justified
 Low Wages In Steel. Manufacturers of iron and steel in 1905 paid in wages only 15 per cent of the total value of their production, while the duty then would average g bout 45 to AT per cent, and on all metals it now averages 34-51 per cent Amerfcan t0o0es are really the cheapest scdges in the soorld 10ben yoas tGhce into Gc- count the amount of production per man. An illustration of this appears in the Stanley report. Investigating the steel trust. as follows: .sThe ia bor cost of producing pig iron l ln Pennsylvania fell from S1.25 ton In 1902 to 82 cents ton in 1909, yet l the realized value of the pig iron out l put was $15.64 in 1902. whereas it was ! s17-44 in 1909 In other words, wage | workers in 1902 got $1-25 for producing | 0nly $I5.64 worth of pig iron and in | 1909 only S2 cents for producing $1744 i syortfl g
 While thus treating labor the fndus- rial combinations that have grown up | 1nder the protection of the tariff have | ixed the prices of commodities at the highest point the home market would | .tand
 When will the Iaboring men of the 1 ,ccnt-.v east nff this delusion that the .arin is for their benefit and with their l sotes strike down this monstrous injus- dee?
 RHEUMATISM
 QUICKLY REsIIEEsA ED
 Morton l.. Hill of Lebanon, Ind, says: My wife had Inf1ammatory tisIn in every muscle and oint- her sIIffering was terrible and