Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-02-06
EXP0SESFALLACY.
OF PROTECTION
Aberdeen World breaches
Sense, and Good Demo-
cratic Doctrine
TARIFF EFFECT ONWACES
Explodes Old Theory That
Frightened Workingmen
For a Generation

For sound sense and good old dem
ocratic doctrine, the following editor
ial from the Aberdeen World of Mon.
day evening is the best the Her
aid has seen outside of the Democrat
ic Campaign Book on the worn out
myth that high protective tariff
was maintained to assist the work
man to obtain higher wages. 1t is Sc
good, we reprint it in full below:
Some days ago, The World com
mented on the fact that American
made shoes were sold in England for
the same price as in the United States
Taking this, no doubt, for his text
Joseph Jacob, of this city, discussed
the protective tariff as applied to
shoes, in yesterday mornings issue OF
the Grays Harbor Washingtonian
Mr.. Jacob employs the old protec
tive tariff argument that with pro-
lection removed, the American con.
sumer would probably buy his shoes
for less, but that the American wage
Garner would work for less, where
he would not be altogether out of a
job. He deduces the conclusion that
for the maintenance of the Ameri-
can wage standard a protective tar
iff is necessary.
The Old Argument
This is the argument by which the
protective tariff system has been
maintained and sustained for years.
1t would be a good argument today
if the wage Garner received the
wages he was supposed to receive
and which it was designed he should
receive under the protective tariff
system. But the argument has been
antedated these twenty years. While
protected in his product, the big man.
ufacturer of America has had free
trade in labor, with the result that
government statistics show that to-
day three-ffths of all labor employed
at day work or in the industries of
the United States are Southern Eu-
ropeans. They have not been eni-
ployed because they are better work
men than the American or the emf
grant that came from the British Isles
or Northern Europe-came once, but
they work cheaper. They work cheap
er because they live cheaper. They
live cheaper because they do not
adopt the American standard of liv-
ing, having never known it.
This class of labor has been brought
into this country by the shipload
American manufacturer and big ship
owners. Towns like Lawrence, Mass.
and Coatesville, Pa, typical Ameri-
can industrial centers, are now chief
ly foreign, where twenty years, and
even as recent as seven to ten years
ago the foreigner was rarity. South
ern Europeans dominate the steel
plants, and in fact, every industrial
plant in America. We are not in
formed regarding their presence IN
shoe factories, but we haven't the
slightest doubt but that they can be
found there in dominating proper
tions. Only one-fifth of the entire
working class of America is compos-
ed of native Americans, and all re-
cent tariff hearings have shown that
the cost of labor in America is but
slightly higher in the majority of the
industries than in other countries.
Labor costs on newsprint paper,
for eXampe, are but eight cents q
ton more in America than in Canada.
Yet paper consumers in the United
States pay four millions annually for
protection to the paper manufacturer
OF this amount, but $4,000 goes to
the laborer; the remainder is a pure
gratuity to the manufacturer for his
condescension in locating his factory
in the United States. We take this
as a sample because we are more
familiar with it. What is applicable
to the paper industry is probably ap-
plicable to every other industry in
America, including the shoe factor
les.
Is Sham and Mockery
The truth is that for the past
twenty years, the protective tariff
system has been hollow sham anG
mockery so far as the protection 'o1
the wages of the American worker
is concerned. The protection goes
into the pockets of the big manufac
turers. There is mighty little strict
ly American labor to protect.
Mr.. Jacob tells us thet>the "pres
ent tariff keeps English shoes out o.
the country" It is a well-knowI