Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1890 — A Word to Workingmen. [ARTICLE]

A Word to Workingmen.

Iris to the interest of nil who have to work for their living to have a steady demand for workmen in all p.irts >f the coni'try. This Protection aids to bring about by keepiug out of the country such articles as can well be made here. There is labor in every pound of irou, every yard of cloth, every bal- of hemp, flax mid wool imported from abroad, and to the extent of such importation is the demand sos home labor reduced. Without a tariff the inevitable result will be that the standard of wages paid in this-country must be lowered to somewhere near the level of wages paid abroad. This j it must- be, or no work at all upon such articles as foreigners are willing to make cheaper than we are now making them. Owners of factories, whose products are undersold by cheaper-made foreign products, will go out of business unless wages come down so as to enable them to successfully compete. In the event that they are forced to close, workmen now in their employ will have to look elsewhere for work, and, in getting it. will crowd all the harder the l» ii * IUR.V TIIOHn Ili t I UOil Miwt ***“j f tic- . il-A rjfclWvVß. ‘-c.. MI..J

This view has both experience? and common sense for its support. No matter what free trade theorists may preach, there never lias been, there never can be, found adequate j compensation in cheaper prices j for the demoralization of wages, and difficulty to get work on any -tenrs, that have invariably accompanied experiments at reducing the tariff to a so-called revenue basis. The promised cheapness is a delusion, in that it only comes when the people are unable to buy.