Anyone desiring to obtain accurate knowledge on this important branch of the subject can easily do so. It is seen. therefore. that the advocates of high protection are willing and even desirous of imposing tax burdens on nearly 95 per cent of the people for the purpose of benefiting 5 per centeven granting. for the sake of the argument. that the laborer in the factory and not the manufacturer himself receives the benefits of protection. But. sir. the argument of protectionists speedily disappears and is shown to be unsound and entirely selfish when we remember that the owners of the factories not only enter into pools. trusts. and combinations by which a large number of the wage earners are thrown out of employment and made strong competitors for the positions of those retained. and thus the price of wages is driven down. and when we also remember that cheap contract labor from different parts of Europe is annually brought to our country and thrown in direct competition with native and naturalized American laborers. in whose interest. it is said. a high tariff is levied. These contract laborers. amounting to thousand are annually brought to this country by the importers for the specific purpose of being placed in deadly competition with our American laborers. and thus drive down the wages of the latterthe very persons whom it is said receive protection through a protective tariff. Mr. President. the proposition is unsound from a philosophical standpoint.
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naturalized contract labor contract laborers