Show HOW IT PROTECTS THE TARIFF EQUALIZES differences IN COST OF production A As a result oar our laborer laborers aro are enabled to aarn higher wage wages at the same time all article articles are made absolutely free of cost in production of manufactures 00 90 per cent represents labor english laborers get only halt half as much wages as americans and consequently it if thero there is no tariff duty to bo be paid the englishman could compel the american to stop manufacturing or redu reduce the L wages of his workmen to the en english g lish level but at this point republicans come forward with a protective tariff and show us that under its beneficent operations the american manufacturer is not obliged to stop work nor to reduce the wages of his employees we protectionists projectionists say to english and other foreign manufacturers through our national government if yon you choose to have your laborers work for sta starvation hagest wages if you prefer to keep the them in such a state of industrial vassalage that in the language of that eminent free trader W L scott of pennsylvania what they eat today they must earn tomorrow if you think it right that the great massof mass of your laborers men and women should spend all their lives simply that they may thereby obtain an insufficient supply of inferior food and clothing and wear out their weary liv lives ea vainly striving bread to win that is your own matter and we cannot prevent it if we would but we say to you distinctly and positively It that our laborers are not paid any more than fair and reasonable wages even though they are getting from two to three times as much as conr laborers get for similar work that we will neither permit our manufacturers to stop work nor the wages of our laborers to be degraded to the english Engli sli level and for these reasons we will levy duties upon all your productions which C it compete with our own so that yon you cannot bring them hero here and put them upon our market at prices less than our own nor undersell our goods of the same classes unless you do it at ta n loss to yourselves but while we are thus severe towa toward d all foreign productions that compete di with our own industries we permit all articles of necessity which we do not and cannot produce here such ns its tea coffee sugar and other things amounting to over CO 50 per cent of all our imports to come in free of duty we tax heavily such articles as are luxuries and not necessities and which only the rich can afford for if the rich will indulge in such things let them pay heavily for the support of the government that grants them the privilege |