Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1886 — The Prolection Pretense. [ARTICLE]

The Prolection Pretense.

The tariff, we are told by Republican leaders and orators, increases the wages of the workingman. It is imposed for that purpose. As they deny that the tariff increases the price of the home product, it is not very clear from their point of view how the wages can be increased. If the- prices are enhanced—as the opponents of a tariff claim—the manufacturers can well afford to pay higher wages. But if they are not enhanced, the m nufacturers can not afford the higher wages. To be consistent, therefore, the Republican protectionist orator must either abandon his theory that protection does not raise the prices, or his pretense that it does raise wages. As a matter of fact, without reference to consistency, he must abandon both theory and pretense. The theory is unsound, because protection does not raise prices by enabling the manufacturer to put a higher price on his product without risk of competition with the foreign maker. And the pretense is false, because, while the manufacturer can afford to raise wages, he does not raise them. If there were any donbt on this point the recent history of steel-rail making in this country would set it at rest. By reason of the tariff, with its duty of sl7 per ton on steel rails manufactured abroad, the steel-rail makers here were able to combine in raising the price of their product from $25 to $35 a ton. Assuming that the former was at the very least a living price—as to which there is no doubt whatever—they could well afford when they raised the price to raise the wages of their employes. Did they? There is no record of it. The fact, if it were a fact, of a voluntary ra se under such circumstances would be invaluable in its aid to the protection cause. It would be heralded from Maine to California, and dinned into the ear of every son of toil in the Union who has a vote. Has anybody heard of it? Not a soul. There has been no increase in wages. The manufacturers have added 40 per cent, to their profits. They have been enabled to do it by a device, the chief purpose of which is claimed to be the benefiting of the workingman. And the workingman has not benefited a penny. How much longer will he be humbugged and cheated by this protection pretense?— Detroit Free Press.