And it is a noticeable ihct that in all this debate no one has at any time essayed to show by any data or facts going to show that tha rates proposed in this bill. whi*i are not greatly variant from those existing under present laws. bear any such relation to or that they are in any degree based upon such difference. and I do not understand that it is pretended that they are so based. I know. sir. the high rate of wages in the United States as compared with wages elsewhere has been often urged as a sufficient reason for high rates and for particular rates. but nowhere has any effort been made by the advocates of this bill to show or demonstrate that the rates proposed bear any relation to the difference in the price of wages here and elsewhere. We have been told over and over again that the wages in this country were 25. 30. 50. and 100 per cent. higher than the pauper labor of Europe. and in some instances it is said that the wages paid here are three or four times as high as the same class of labor can be had for in some of the European countries. If this is true--and I do not care to question its correctness. but accept it as a fair and correct statement of the caseand conceding this to be as stated. what follows as respects the arrangement of a schedule of tariff duties to meet these conditions as they are here given and vouched for. so that those of our countrymen who may be engaged in manufacturing industries may be placed upon a level with their foreign competitors. who have the benefit and advantage of this cheaper labor? In the solution of this question will be found the answer and refutation of the oftrepeated declaration that the high rates of duty proposed in this bill are made necessary by the high wages in the United States as compared with other countries. and it will uncover and expose the exactions and robberies which have always existed under our protective laws. which exactions and robberies it is intended shall be perpetuated by the passage of this bill.
Keywords matched
pauper labor