The United States has a still more sacred wall than has China. This is the protectivetariff wall. worshipped by the rich. guarded by "standpat " politicians. and upheld for the benefit of a class of our citizens at the expense of the great mass of our people. It has been said that this wall permits .3.000 immigrants a day to pass through it without realizing its existence. that it is impassable to some kinds of goods. a barrier to others. and offers no resistance to others. On the average. economists tell us that it costs more to get goods over or through it than it takes to get them over the highest mountain range or the widest ocean. In fact. calculations have been made which show that clothing. hardware. sugar. and many other necessaries of life can be carried three or four times around the world for less than it costs to get them through this American tariff wall. It is claimed that this wall was built to develop infant American industries. in other words. to make all workers in the United States not manufacturers contribute in higher prices for homemade goods a sufficient amount to establish and maintain a great home manufacturing interest. The device used in the original construction of the wall was the pauperlabor shibboleth. We were told that our home manufacturers could not compete with the pauper labor manufacturing interests of Europe. and that a barrier should be erected to keep out all undue foreign competition. The census of 1900 shows that of our then 76.000.000 population about 29.000.000 were employed for gain. Of these workers about 7.000.000 were found in the manufacturing column. so that we had about 22.000.000 workers contributing in higher prices for manufactured goods to make possible the existence of a home manufacturing interest numbering 7.000.000.
Keywords matched
pauper labor immigrants