Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1884 — SOME LABOR THAT IS NOT PROTECTED. [ARTICLE]

SOME LABOR THAT IS NOT PROTECTED.

Tidlanupolis Sentinel. It is an interesting inquiry to know how many, or rather how few of the laboring classes are emplo. ed in the naijls, factories and shops of thft industries that are specially protected by virtue of acts of Congress restraining commercial freedom that revenue may come in small amounts to the Government and in large sums to the few owners of these mills, factories and shops. We shall take no account of the farming classes, whose name are legion, but confine ourselves to a portion of the other unprotected class to show the contrast in numbers. According to the figures contained in the last census, there were in 1880 more than 878,000 carpenters and joiners in the country, and this figure is more than two and a half times as much as the number of men employed in the iron and steel industry, while in the cotton', the metal and the woolen industry altogether, there are not many more persons employed than there are carpenters in the country. And yet the average protection given to the cotton industry is about 50 per cent., to the metal industry. 30 per cent., and to the woolen industry 60 per cent. If these workers have received a protection, which ranges from 30 to 60 per cent., why are not carpenters entitled to at least 30 per cent, or more. The carpenter is not a visitor at Washington, does not lobby a Committee or button-hole in fluential Congressmen. He is deriving no interest fr m the protective policy, and, therefore, has nothing to ask at the hands of Congress. And it is because he has never been able to fully realize what he pays under the tariff for the protection of others that he has not resented the unnecessary taxation imposed upon him by interested legislation. He is taxed upon the lumber, nails and tools he uses, on the clothing he wears, and on the salt he eats. He has n > protection to offset these drains on his pocket, and was never asked for any. Again, there are 3,837,112 persons m the United States en &aged in manufacturing, mechanical and mining occupations, according to census returns. It is claimed that this number of persons receive j employment only by reason of i the protective tariff; that if

duties are reduced shops will , he closed, manufacturing and i mining operations will cease, and there will exist no demand or market for labor. The New York Herald, commenting on this claim, says: ■‘Let us seA Bakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, butchers, clerks and bookkeepers, contractors, painters, brickmakers, tailors and milliners are among those who will be found m almost any town, and to say that they would be de prived of labor is to say that man will not eat and clothe and shelter himself. These persons derive no advantage from protection. On the con- 1 trary, they are injured because everything they use is taxed and this tax comes out of their earnings. Fully one-half of the three million eight hundred thousand persons in this class called manufacturing re ceive no benefit directly or indirectly from protection. On the contrary, they are injured